The Greatest Mecha-Chapter 41: Spin The Lottery Wheel

Alto’s eyes opened weakly. After finishing his work on The White Blade, he had fallen asleep for a full 24 hours. His body was still a little heavy. He climbed out of his bed to get a drink from one of the bags of food he had procured sometime before. His head ached from the mental exhaustion he had been suffering from for a week.

After quenching his thirst, he decided to check the reward his system had handed to him upon completion. It was a gift box of some type. Alto was a bit intrigued as to what the gift box could be and what he would receive from it. He hoped it would be better than the fifteen creation points he had received from the welcome package.

Alto initiated the Mech Designer Protocol and opened its system menu. He tapped on the package icon to see the image of a white gift box tied with gold ribbons. Alto took the gold ribbons as a sign of good luck. He tensed up before choosing to open the box. When he did, it illuminated the room and blinded him momentarily. Alto wished this feature had a dimming option.

The light slowly dimmed out, and he could see the image of two golden tickets before him. The system responded with a new screen:

[You have received two lottery tickets. The lottery function is now available to the user.]

Alto proceeded to ask the system what the "lottery function" was, to which it responded:

[The lottery function is a place where luck is tested. Each spin can only be activated by a lottery ticket. Rewards given are random.]

Alto did not dwell much on his thoughts before bringing up the lottery function. What looked like a huge golden wheel materialized before him. It looked like a giant pizza cut into eight parts. On each part was a red question mark. If Alto had to guess, those would be his prizes, and they were hidden from him. Alto wondered if it would make any difference if he could see the rewards. Surely it would have no effect on the end result.

He supposed this was done only to increase the tension that came with the lottery wheel. But now that he stopped to think about it, why did the Mech Designer Protocol have a lottery function? Sometimes it felt like he was messing with a game, but personal experience had taught him that this was the real deal.

[Would you like to spin?]

The question popped up before him. There was the option of using one ticket at a time, and there was the option of using five or all at once. Alto chose to use both his lottery tickets at once, as he felt this might affect his luck. As he tapped on the icon that said Use All, for the first time he called on his luck to show for once.

A huge arrow appeared in the center of the lottery wheel and pointed up. It spun around at a fast speed, going over the question marks. Alto did not feel agitated due to the fact that he could not see behind the question marks. That way, if he missed something truly important, he would have no way of knowing.

The arrow started to slow down, and it soon came to a stop on a question mark. In that moment, agitation crept into Alto’s mind as he looked at what would be revealed in a few seconds. The first thing he saw was a golden eyeball. Words appeared underneath it.

[The Designer’s Eye]

Not given enough time to ponder what those words truly meant, the wheel started to spin again. This time, it stopped on another question mark. Another wave of tension filled the room, causing Alto to adjust where he sat. The next reward he received was a license.

[Grade C Mech License]

Alto was more surprised by the second reward. A Grade C Mech License was basically a basic model mech of current mech designs. Compared to the shabby model he had worked on earlier, which was at best a Grade D mech, this one was of much better quality.

"So I really can get a mech license from the Mech Designer Protocol?" Alto said in doubt. The more he used the mech, the more he questioned its existence. Who could have built such a device? And for what purpose? Were there others like it? How did the professor come into contact with it? Would someone come for the device one day? Alto steered his mind away from the questions that overwhelmed him. He felt that the more he obtained benefits from the Mech Designer Protocol, the closer he would eventually get to its origin—whatever it was.

The first thing he had to check was the Designer’s Eye. As weird as it sounded, he knew from experience that the Mech Designer was not one for games. He found the things he had received from the lottery within his inventory.

He selected the Designer’s Eye to find whatever information it would display, and what he saw surprised him.

[The Designer’s Eye]

[Information on the item is restricted]

"What do you mean, restricted? What is this thing?" No matter how many times he looked at it, it was only an eyeball. Alto doubted it was an actual eyeball, but the restriction placed on the item made him skeptical.

"Why is it restricted?" he asked the system.

The response it gave him was even more baffling.

[The user is unqualified to access the restricted information.]

Alto tried to pry further, but the system did not give him any attention. "If it’s restricted, then why did you give it to me? You should at least tell me what it does." But there was no reply from it. "If I don’t know what it is or what it does, how can I use it?" This time the system responded.

[Does the user wish to bond with the Designer’s Eye?]

Alto bit his lower lip and thought to himself. "If you won’t tell me what it does, I can’t use it now, can I?"

He proceeded to check the Grade C Mech License he had received from the system.

[Grade C Mech License]

Authorized license of the Opis Magnum developed by Vax Industries.

Type: Light medium mech.

"A light medium mech?" Alto could not hide his surprise. A light medium mech fell under the category of a medium-weight class mech, only that it was on the lighter side. The advantage of having a paid-for mech license meant it could also be used in real time to build a non-virtual mech. With the license being saved to his gaming account, it would not appear suspicious. Of course, he would have to come up with a reason why he acquired such a license.

Alto wondered how the system acquired the mech license in the first place. Looking up the license on the net, he was surprised to find out that it cost approximately one hundred million game credits. With each use of the Mech Designer Protocol, Alto became more and more frightened by it.

He did not let the surprise get to him this time. He would take advantage of what it gave him to the fullest and forge a path to become one of the greatest mech designers. His mind went back to the Designer’s Eye from earlier. He considered bonding with it. He believed that the system would not send him the eye as a reward if it would not benefit him as a mech designer.

He boldly initiated the command to bond with the Designer’s Eye. The image of the eye appeared before him as the process began. The image of the eye scanned his face before focusing its rays on his right eye. At first, Alto was anxious. He wondered if the system would melt his right eye and replace it with another.

It only took a few minutes before the image of the eyeball rewrote itself into his right eye. It was significantly easier than Alto had expected and not painful in the least. When it was done, Alto experienced no change in his right eye. "Maybe it’s out of charge or something." Alto made up an excuse as he felt his eye for the third time. It still felt like his eye, but he could feel something changing within.

Not long after, the system brought up another screen, and this one happened to be the best news yet.

[A mission has been completed. Congratulations on selling your very first virtual mech. The reward of 5000 creation points has been sent to you.]

Alto jumped up for joy at the thought of his very first mech being sold. He had low expectations of anyone buying his low-tier mech, but it had happened. Now he could call himself a somewhat accomplished mech designer with a sale. That became the happiest he had been in a very long time—to see all his efforts paying off.

His mind could not stop thinking about how he would use his creation points to improve his own talent pool. Truly, the advantages that came with the Mech Designer Protocol were infinite and rewarding.