When Robert finally looked up from the mountain of documents and forms, the sky outside the window had already turned a deep, dark color. He rubbed his sore neck and let out a long sigh, finally having time to experience the new content added in this version update—such as the gacha turntable.
He opened the system interface, and a colorful turntable immediately occupied the center of his vision. The turntable was brightly divided into five sections: a dark gray representing Dilapidated, white representing Common, blue representing Fine, purple representing Epic, and a dazzling gold representing Legendary. Judging by the area of the colored sectors, the five qualities occupied equally sized regions.
This meant that, theoretically, the probability of drawing items of these five qualities was the same. But what the actual probability was like... only heaven knew.
"One thousand merit points per spin," Robert looked at the price marked below the turntable and couldn't help but complain, "Greedy ahh game dev, how dare he set such a price."
That being said, for the current Robert, one thousand merit points was still within his acceptable range; at least one spin wasn't a big problem.
So, Robert's finger lightly tapped the system interface. The motionless turntable seemed to be infused with life, beginning to spin rapidly, with various colored lights intertwining into a blurry mass.
As the turntable gradually slowed down and the pointer began to jump from one segment to another, Robert's mood grew tense—after all, it was a thousand merit points, and he certainly didn't want so many merit points to go to waste.
Finally, under Robert's strained gaze, the turntable's pointer swayed past the blue Fine section and steadily landed on the noble purple area—on Epic.
Robert's heart leaped with joy. Could he be about to have a lucky start?!
Accompanied by a brilliant golden flash, an item appeared out of thin air in his hand, resting quietly in his palm.
Name: Gold Coin at the End of the Rainbow
Type: Other
Quality: Epic
Note: There are indeed gold coins hidden at the end of the rainbow, but 99% of people fall at the last step. Give up, and you'll forever lose to legend; take one more step, and you'll be the miracle spoken of.
"An Epic quality item can actually be something so useless..." Robert squinted, pinching the finely crafted, faintly glowing gold coin between two fingers, complaining weakly, "This turntable is really just a scam for merit points, isn't it? The note is even a motivational quote, is it implying that if I spin again, I'll get something good?"
He sighed, casually putting the gold coin into his pocket: "Forget it, at least it has some collection value."
He didn't continue trying to spin. Ordinary players might get carried away and spend all their merit points, as they only needed to be responsible for themselves. But Robert had to be responsible for the entire Helldivers, and every single merit point he held had to be used effectively, never wasted.
Robert got up and left the office, heading to where Tech-Priest Reddito was. Clearly, he wanted to see how the two players undergoing astartes modification were doing now.
He entered the laboratory without hindrance. As soon as he walked in, he saw that the two original players had already been placed in two opaque black training pods. Although they were called training pods, Robert felt that their square, angular shape really resembled coffins. It seemed Magos Reddito's aesthetic sense in this regard was rather concerning.
"How are things?" Robert asked directly.
"Very smoothly," Reddito turned around, in a very good mood now, "So far, nothing beyond my control has occurred. All abnormal reactions were recorded in previous experiments. Indeed, the people you found are extremely similar."
"Nonsense, they're the same two people from beginning to end, how could the similarity not be high..." Robert grumbled inwardly, but said aloud, "That's good, I also put in a lot of effort."
Robert turned his gaze to the two dark training pods and asked, "Can I touch them?"
"As you wish," Reddito said.
Robert reached out and gently placed his hand on the outer wall of one of the training pods. He stroked it; it felt smooth and had a slightly cool touch.
Good, it looks even more like a coffin now, and a sliding one at that... Robert withdrew his hand and said softly, "Soon, we will have two space marines."
"Believe me, they will display power beyond your imagination," Reddito's voice drifted over. "If the performance of those fallen ones before made you think that space marines were nothing special, still within the realm of being overwhelmed by numbers, then I must tell you, you are greatly mistaken."
Reddito looked at the two training pods, as if his mechanical eyes could see through the thick metal directly into the scene inside.
"Only after I truly performed the modification surgery did I understand what kind of warrior an astartes truly is."
"I can tell you clearly," Reddito's tone became incredibly serious, "if a dozen astartes truly made up their minds to wage guerrilla warfare against you in the Governor's mansion, then even if you suffered ten times more casualties, you wouldn't even touch a single hair on them."
"You misunderstand," his voice was low and steady. "I have never doubted the space marines' lethality. To doubt this would, without question, be disrespectful to the nearly ten thousand Helldivers warriors who sacrificed themselves before."
He paused, as if organizing his thoughts, and only the low hum of the life support system and various instruments remained in the entire laboratory. He turned around, no longer looking at the two black "coffins," but instead began to slowly pace in the empty laboratory.
"I'm just thinking," Robert said, his footsteps echoing faintly on the smooth metal floor, "where exactly should we set up for our battlefield against the orks?"
He stopped and looked at Reddito: "If it's in the hive city, then with our advantage of complex terrain, we can definitely stall for enough time until Imperial reinforcements arrive. But in that case, the hive city would inevitably face large-scale destruction, and post-war reconstruction would undoubtedly be even more difficult."
His gaze shifted to the blank wall, as if he could see the wasteland outside the hive city through it: "If it's outside the hive city, although we wouldn't have to worry about production lines being destroyed and subsequent reconstruction issues, on such an endless desert, can we really stop the ork Waaagh!?"
"Asking me is useless," Reddito's voice was as flat as ever, devoid of any emotional fluctuation. His mechanical bionic eye simply locked onto Robert quietly. "In my capacity as a Tech-Priest, I cannot offer military advice."
"But also in my capacity as a Tech-Priest," Reddito paused, his body leaning slightly forward, "I absolutely oppose leading the enemy into the hive city, threatening my servitors, production lines, and industrial workers."
Robert stopped pacing. He looked at Reddito, first stunned, as if enlightened by this undisguised, purely utilitarian answer. Then, a relieved yet somewhat self-mocking smile appeared on his face.
"You're right," he chuckled. "We just pulled the surviving mortals out of danger, how can we then personally lead danger to them again? I was being foolish."