As for Lin Lan at this moment, he had already walked with Akashi to a seaside area a fair distance away from the store.
Even though it was just past 2 PM, the weather was still sunny, though the sea breeze had already carried a hint of chill.
Indeed, winter was approaching.
"Commander, I was wrong, meow. I promise I won't steal anyone's materials again, meow…"
Because he had been called over by the commander alone, and the commander hadn't spoken a word along the way, the little merchant became increasingly worried, even proactively admitting his mistake once again.
"Well, it's good that you're aware of this. Although I know it's hard for you to change your nature, this promise probably won't last until tomorrow."
Lin Lan chuckled. He had been contemplating how Jian Qian'ou would ask him to clear up things when they arrived in Yunhai City.
Since Akashi had already spoken up, it was better to discuss their money-making plan first.
Lin Lan adjusted the collar of his commander's uniform and turned around, bending down to pick Akashi up from the ground.
Seeing the commander smile, Akashi breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the commander wasn't planning to make a big deal out of the explosion incident.
Just as she thought that, the next second, Lin Lan's words made her heart stop.
"Akashi, I remember you should still have a lot of equipment boxes that you painted with oil, right?"
"Meow… That, that was all Shinonome's doing, I, I was just helping her, meow…"
Seeing the little merchant avert her yellow cat eyes, looking embarrassed while trying to explain, Lin Lan couldn't help but laugh.
"No need to explain, I already know what you two little merchants were up to. I'm not blaming you, why are you so anxious?"
Then, Lin Lan briefly told Akashi about his plan to trick the Navy at the upcoming trading event.
"Ha, Commander, this kind of thing is easy, let me slowly analyze it for you, meow~"
After learning the commander's plan, Akashi's merchant instincts immediately flared up. Waving her green cat ears, she flashed a sly smile.
"Since the commander is the big boss of the trading event, the rules of the event should be set by the commander, meow."
"A simple auction would have too low of a profit, meow. I have even more irresistible rules to entice them, meow~"
Hearing this, Lin Lan held Akashi and sat her on his arm, curious as he asked:
"Oh? Tell me more?"
"First, the commander can offer an extremely desirable piece of equipment, meow."
"Then, we can create a lottery machine and use this piece of equipment as the grand prize, meow, allowing the participants to spend money to buy a chance at winning it, meow."
"Of course, besides the grand prize, we can also place some smaller rewards in the prize pool, such as blue equipment boxes or blue equipment design diagrams, meow~"
Upon hearing Akashi's proposal, Lin Lan immediately understood what she was getting at.
As the president of the West Continent Research Institute, which was the organizer of the event, he naturally had the power to modify the auction mechanisms.
Akashi's idea was essentially to change the original auction into a lottery system, similar to the gacha mechanics in games.
The idea was to offer a rare purple equipment as the grand prize, and then make the participants pay to enter the lottery.
Most of the naval forces in the United States of Orlan were equipped with white items, and blue items were extremely rare.
So, all Lin Lan had to do was present a piece of purple equipment as the grand prize, with some blue equipment boxes in the pool, and the naval officers would go crazy over it.
But what they didn't know was that the blue equipment boxes were actually white boxes that Akashi and Shinonome had painted blue.
Inside, they would likely only contain white equipment.
It had to be said that Akashi's suggestion was quite brilliant. However, Lin Lan suddenly wore a mysterious smile.
"Akashi, I think we can make a few tweaks to your lottery system."
Upon seeing Lin Lan's strange smile, Akashi felt like she was looking at a peer and tilted her head in confusion as she asked:
"Meow? Does the commander have a better idea?"
Lin Lan began to explain:
"Think about it, if we make the purple equipment the grand prize, won't the participants start doubting that we intentionally lowered the odds when they can't seem to win it no matter how many times they try?"
"If the number of attempts exceeds their expectations and they still haven't won the purple equipment, they might choose to stop or come after us, which could be troublesome, right?"
Once Akashi heard this, she too realized the potential issue and nodded in agreement:
"So… Commander, what improvements do you have in mind, meow?"
Lin Lan squinted his eyes and smiled mischievously:
"We could change the lottery to an online system where people draw through their phones, making it easier for us to manipulate the backend."
"Since everyone would suspect us of lowering the odds, why don't we just openly announce the odds?"
"We could state upfront that the odds of winning the purple equipment are 1%, but we would adjust the system."
"For example, the first hundred attempts would have a 1% chance of winning the purple equipment.
After that, for every ten attempts, the odds would increase by 1% until it reaches 99%."
"And to tempt some commanders who think they're unlucky to keep drawing, we could set up a fallback exchange mechanism for the prize pool."
Lin Lan's voice was like that of a greedy demon, each word filled with temptation:
"For instance, we could include an item in the prize pool called the Supreme Gem. With 80 Supreme Gems, one could exchange for the purple equipment."
"But we could secretly adjust the probability of receiving these Supreme Gems in the backend for each individual."
Lin Lan paused for a moment before continuing to explain to the already dazed little merchant:
"For the first 40 gems, the probability of winning would be 20%. From the 41st to the 70th gem, it would drop to 10%."
"This would make those who think they're unlucky believe they can exchange their way to the purple equipment."
"You know, once people invest money and see the end in sight, it's hard to pull them out of the trap."
Hearing this, Akashi was left speechless, but she quickly realized there was a problem:
"Commander, that's only 70 Supreme Gems. Where do the other ten go, meow?"
Lin Lan snickered softly, then said indifferently:
"From the 71st gem onward, the chance of winning a Supreme Gem would drop to 5%, but at this point, a new item would be unlocked in their prize pool, called the Supreme Gem Fragment."
"The chance of getting a Supreme Gem Fragment would be 10%, and five fragments could be exchanged for one Supreme Gem."
"Then, once the person reaches 79 Supreme Gems, the fun begins."
"They won't be able to draw any more Supreme Gems or fragments, and their prize pool will unlock a new item called the Lucky Crystal."
"The chance of drawing the Lucky Crystal would be high, at 50%. Twenty Lucky Crystals can be exchanged for one Supreme Gem Fragment."
"And when they get their fourth Supreme Gem Fragment and are one step away from the last gem…"
"We can unlock a new item in their prize pool with a 90% chance, called the Blade of Unity."
"Ten Blades of Unity can be exchanged for one Lucky Crystal… but that's not important, because by now, they've already reached the 99% probability of winning the purple equipment."
After hearing Lin Lan's explanation, Akashi was left stunned, feeling like her brain couldn't keep up.
Despite having been in the merchant business for many years, she had never seen such a treacherous lottery mechanism.
And the most terrifying part was that, generally speaking, once people had invested enough into a lottery, they would give up.
But this lottery system, proposed by the commander, made it clear that as long as you kept going, you would definitely win the purple equipment.
After calculating how many draws it would take to win the purple equipment, Akashi realized that this would cost an unimaginable amount of money.
The little merchant felt a chill run down her spine.
With a trembling voice, she asked her commander:
"Commander, where did you learn all these tricks, meow… so terrifying, meow…"
Lin Lan just gave her a calm smile in response.
In his eyes, a flash of regret, reluctance, and anger crossed for an instant, as if recalling events from many years ago on Blue Star.
In the end, these emotions were quickly concealed as he let the cold sea breeze strike his face.
Lin Lan looked down at the cute little merchant in his arms and slowly smiled:
"Heh, Akashi, let me tell you, the longest road in the world is the one where your commander once walked through these tricks…"
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Naah which gacha game use that hellish system lmaoo
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50 advanced chapters on p@t re on (.) com/SenatusTheta
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