Apocalypse: System of lotteries

Chapter 186 First Flight

At night, Ming headed to the central city of the region. The bonfire burned on the city walls, illuminating the night sky.

At this moment, pleasant musical instrument sounds echoed within the well city. Ming stopped at the outer city wall and smiled. It must be Mike showing off his skills, even though it sounded a bit off-tune...

Sniff sniff~ It's Hawkins.

"Gutmann, I'm glad you finally come tonight," Hawkins said as he emerged from the shadows. Ever since he became the captain of the Guardian Squad, he had been in charge of patrolling the well city. After all, the whole city was made of gold, and tearing off a corner could make anyone rich.

"Come on in, let's have a few drinks~"

"I don't enjoy noisy gatherings. I'm here for something else."

"Tell me what you need, and I'll get it done," Hawkins didn't insist on his invitation, as he had realized after a few interactions with Gutmann who wasn't a person who enjoyed socializing.

There was no need to be overly courteous, as it would only make a simple person like Gutmann uncomfortable, and besides, Hawkins himself wasn't a hypocrite either.

"Help me find out who in our region has this item. I still need four of them." Ming took out the wing card and handed it to Hawkins as he spoke.

Hawkins took it, examined it, and frowned, "I don't have any here. Let me ask around~"

Five minutes later, Hawkins returned and handed a stack of cards to Ming, "Everyone in the division knows you need these, so they've all rummaged through their warehouses. A total of 34 cards were found, and they brought them all for you."

"That's a lot!" Ming took four cards and returned the rest, "I only need four."

"Just take them all~ Everyone said it's not easy to be able to help you once. Besides, what if you need more later?"

"Enough." Ming casually threw a stack of fine gold plates to Hawkins, "This is my payment."

"I'm not being polite with you, but there's no need for you to pay for these. Everyone in the division understands that without you, we'd be worse off. If I accept your payment today, I'm afraid they'll scold me. You..." Hawkins hadn't finished speaking when he saw the figure before he disappear into the night.

"Wait..." Hawkins hesitated, looking at the fine gold plates on the ground, not knowing what to say.

"Don't worry about it. He just doesn't want to owe anyone favors." David came down from the city wall.

"Uh~" Hawkins nodded, asking, "I still don't quite understand why he tricked me during the day for half a fine gold plate and now throws out so many fine gold plates."

"What's there to be puzzled about?" David looked towards the dark ruins in the distance and said, "Tricking you means he sees you as one of his own, understand?"

"Is that so?" Hawkins, still not quite understanding, pondered, rubbing a leaf off his head. Would Gutmann be happy if I tricked him next time?

Under the cover of darkness, a seemingly wealthy man hesitantly held a pair of green, palm-sized wings. He wore them with uncertainty and discomfort on his back, at the position of his shoulder blades.

He then activated the wings, transferring the spiritual energy from his wristband through his arm to his back and into the small wings. The wings then emitted a bright light, and three pairs of green spiritual energy wings unfolded, stretching to a wingspan of 1.75 meters.

With a leap, he propelled himself into the air with all six wings flapping simultaneously. A childlike smile appeared on his face as he leaned forward, lifting his right arm in front and left arm behind, murmuring, "Fly!"

The spiritual energy wings flapped... moving forward... wavering... and crashing into the ground...

He quickly stood up and looked around. Fortunately, no one saw him. He immediately tried to take off again... sometimes plummeting rapidly... sometimes skimming close to the ground... and crashing into a patch of tall weeds...

"Heh, five-star fodder grass." Ming, lying on the ground, looked at the grass in front of him, dug it up, and collected it. After standing up, the spiritual energy wings on his back disappeared as well.

He had to admit, his first attempt at flying was a bit awkward and required more practice at night.

"Three-star fodder grass." Ming squatted down and continued digging up the grass.

In the night sky, a person with flapping green spiritual energy wings emerged from the bushes. The flight was still not very smooth, but it was much better than the first attempt. After that, every five minutes in the 109th division's night sky, someone would take off from the bushes... land... and take off again.

[Channel-wide broadcast: 08th division, 341st division, and 500th division have not completed shared kills, the divisions automatically upgraded to individual random copies.]

[...]

"Good thing no one saw me." Ming patted the dirt off himself, knowing that it was normal for his first flight to be a bit unstable since he wasn't one of those winged mutants with an innate flying gene.

As the wings' cooldown time passed, Ming activated the skill again to take off while summoning the spiritual energy giant eagle. Although it was a  fake bird, the feeling of flying was no different from a real one. All he needed to do was mimic its movements... Ming stabilized himself... and then realized something was off... Birds are birds, mantises are mantises.

The two couldn't be compared. So he grabbed the claws of the spiritual energy giant eagle and let it carry him to fly. This way, he wouldn't fall anymore. Clever~

[Your foodie is lying on the roof, feeling a bit anxious, as Da Vinci has consumed too much energy today and is almost starving. Yet it's being picky and not eating the bee you killed... Da Vinci asked it to try first... Foodie resisted]

[Your Da Vinci glanced at Foodie... Foodies thought that swallowing it might cause unbearable pain... You taught me not to eat things given by others carelessly...]

[Foodie, you've become bad...]

"This..." Ming stood at the foot of the mountain and activated his wings to fly to the top. He took out a few insects and stuffed them into Da Vinci's mouth. He couldn't let his Da Vinci go hungry. Look, Da Vinci even shed tears of gratitude after being fed. "Don't cry, we're a family, after all, ~"

[Your Da Vinci glares, feeling touched by your care, but wants you to slow down while stuffing the insects, as it's choking...]

[Da Vinci wants to tell you that chasing the opposite gender is really exhausting... Its four legs are still cramping...]

[Foodie squats to one side, jumps behind you and discovers a pair of delicate little wings on your back... Foodie tells Da Vinci that you've become a birdman...]

Plop~ Foodie spirals and flies into the pond.

After feeding Da Vinci and the foodie, Ming watches them sleep on his belly. He doesn't dare move, afraid of waking them up. He closes his eyes and falls asleep as well. Honestly, he's also very tired today, and the falls left his body aching.

Under the starry night sky, the quiet rooftop pond, a little spider on the cobweb twitches its legs and comes back to life. It looks at the bee still entangled in the web, pounces on it, and bites its head off. Then, it injects venom. Soon, the bee becomes a withered empty shell. The spider, satisfied, tap its legs and reinforces its web.

Early the next morning, Ming opens his sleepy eyes and finds himself lying inside a net.

Was it a dream?

Upon closer inspection, countless cobwebs are arranged haphazardly across the entire rooftop pavilion.

Hiss~

Ming gasps and immediately grabs his crossbow, sitting up. Could it be that a mutated giant spider has arrived? It can't be. While he was asleep, he didn't smell any other creatures in his home.

He gets up and looks around the mountaintop. The spike traps he set up haven't been triggered. At that moment, a little spider walks across the cobweb in front of him...

"This little guy... is alive again?"

Ming is taken aback and immediately scans it with [Hawkeye]:

[Five-star Web-weaving Spider]

[Total Attributes: 9]

[Exclusive Talent: Skilled Web-weaver. As long as it eats well, there will be plenty of spider silk. ]

"Wow! This little thing has actually mutated!"