28. Limited-Time Lottery

As I stepped out of the Salamus Trading Company, I held a thick stack of ten lottery tickets in my hand.

I had commissioned Salamus to purchase three thousand silver coins’ worth of land surrounding the mansion, leaving all the administrative details completely in his hands. By utilizing my 50% discount shopping coupon, I only had to pay half out of pocket—dropping a net of fifteen hundred silver coins.

Even though I had acquired the items at a 50% discount, the system still calculated the lottery ticket drops based on the original pre-discount total value. It was the absolute best possible outcome among all the operational patterns I had simulated. Previously, every three hundred silver coins netted me one lottery ticket, but with the discount coupon active, I was effectively earning a lottery ticket for every one hundred and fifty silver coins spent.

At this pace, I could accumulate tickets rapidly and pull gacha rewards in massive batches. Rather than wasting any time, I decided to cash them in immediately.

I gripped the ten lottery tickets tightly and pictured the familiar room in my mind. The moment I took a step forward, my surroundings violently shifted, transitioning instantly into the lottery booth.

「Whoa, something’s different.」

For some reason, Eleanor—currently manifested in her little-girl avatar form—commented as she sat perched on my shoulder.

She was entirely right. The interior of the booth had undergone a noticeable transformation. The decor had shifted, and even the staff member’s usual demeanor carried a distinctly festive vibe.

「Welcome, valued customer.」

「What’s going on here? Why does the place look like a festival?」

「A limited-time special lottery event has officially started today.」

「A limited-time event?」

「Yes. For exactly one week starting today, we are featuring a special, exclusive prize lineup. These are items you cannot normally acquire during standard rotations, so please go ahead and draw as many as you can.」

「A limited-time event, huh… what prompted them to run something like that out of nowhere?」

「Are you familiar with a region called the Mercuri Kingdom?」

「Yeah.」

I wasn’t entirely certain about the political boundaries, but the name gave it away instantly. It was the sovereign territory of Princess Helene and Princess Iris.

「They are in the process of issuing a new paper currency system over there. Since it is a rather massive historical event, management decided to capitalize on the public buzz and host a limited-time promotional lottery.」

「That’s the actual reason? What does a currency reform in another world have to do with this dimension’s lottery booth?」

「When a cold wind blows, the bucket makers make a fortune.」

「Sounds like a local ramen shop running a rushed Valentine’s Day marketing campaign just because it’s February.」

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the blatant opportunism. It was extremely typical of corporate logic to invent a convoluted promotional event over something entirely unrelated just to drive volume.

Curious, I scanned the updated prize list posted on the board:

• Participation Prize: Ability Loan (5 minutes, Single Use)
• 3rd Prize: Ability Loan (30 seconds, Reusable)
• 2nd Prize: Ability Loan (3 minutes, Reusable)
• 1st Prize: Ability Loan (1 hour, Reusable)

The entire lineup followed a peculiar theme that immediately revealed how hastily it had been thrown together.

「Let me explain how it functions,」 the staff member offered politely. 「This specific skill allows you to rent out your own personal abilities to any designated target. For instance, if that gentleman who was visiting earlier—the one with the tentacle cheat skill—were to use this, he could temporarily lend his tentacles to someone else.」

「I see.」

「In your specific case, however, the mechanics operate slightly differently. Since you possess the All Abilities ×777 multiplier, you can select any single one of your attributes or skills and loan its multiplier effect to a third party. While the loan is active, your own capacity remains at its original unhindered level.」

「Meaning I’m essentially loaning out a clone of my stat multiplier.」

「Precisely!」

That was actually incredible. For example, if I loaned Io a lightning magic multiplier, she could single-handedly suppress and lock down an Orikuto without breaking a sweat. Granted, my cheat was All Abilities ×777, but I didn’t actively channel every single stat at maximum capacity every second of the day. When I fought with Eleanor, for instance, I was primarily relying on raw physicals while playing around with magic. If I could distribute those multipliers to my girls… yeah, turning my party members into absolute powerhouses was a phenomenal utility.

I looked over the prize list again.

The mechanics were niche, but the underlying system was remarkably powerful.

「No matter how many times I activate the 3rd Prize or higher, they don’t get consumed or disappear, right?」

「That is correct. However, the active duration per use remains relatively brief.」

「And the 1st Prize is seriously top-tier. The active duration is massive, and it doesn’t break upon use.」

「Moreover, if you happen to win multiple copies of the 3rd Prize or higher—say, two separate 3rd Prizes—you can either loan two distinct abilities to a single person, or distribute one ability each to two different people.」

「Guess that means I better grind as many pulls as humanly possible during this event window.」

While the 1st Prize was the undisputed jackpot, stacking up roughly ten copies of the 3rd Prize was also an enticing prospect. Fire, ice, lightning—the more combat magic I mastered, the more versatile my party could become when I distributed multiple elemental multipliers at once.

「What’s the expiration date on the ‘Single Use’ participation prizes?」 I asked, mindful of how gacha items often carried strict time limits.

「None whatsoever.」

「This system just keeps getting better.」

「It is a special limited-time event, after all,」 the staff member chuckled.

How could they say that with a straight face while blatantly recycling participation rewards? ……Well, regardless of the marketing spin, the utility was real. If that was the case, I had no reason to hold back.

「Alright. Ten tickets for now, please.」

「Understood. That grants you eleven pulls total.」

「Let’s do it.」

「Very well.」

I lifted Eleanor off my shoulders so she could reach. I let her handle the mechanical crank at the proper height, just like last time.

「Here we go!」

「Yeah, spin it all at once!」

「Ahahahahahahaha!」

Eleanor cackled hysterically as she cranked the wheel with wild abandon. Colored spheres dropped out one after another in rapid succession. In less than ten seconds, an eleven-pull sequence worth fifteen hundred (effectively three thousand pre-discount) silver coins concluded.

This was the true definition of a gacha-pull addiction.

「Congratulations. You drew ten participation prizes…… and one 3rd Prize.」

「Got it.」

「At least you secured a permanent reusable loan item. That’s a relief.」

⸻

Shortly after, I warped out to the rocky mountain range alongside Io.

「Are we mining Orikudite today, Kakeru-san?」

「That’s just a side objective for today. I actually have a few experimental tests I want to run.」

「Experiments?」

「When the next Orikuto spawns, I want you to try holding it down using your own lightning magic.」

「Yes, I can do that.」

「Try firing off as many continuous casts as you possibly can.」

「But with my normal mana pool—」

「Ah, look. Here comes one right now.」

「Eeeeeh?!」 Io shrieked, startled by the sudden emergence of the ore-beast.

「K-Kakeru-san!」

「Just give it a shot. You’ll see what I mean.」

「Y-Yes!」

I pulled out one of my newly acquired participation prizes and activated the single-use Ability Loan. I targeted Io as the recipient for my lightning magic multiplier.

『Loaning Lightning magic attribute multiplier to Io Akos. Remaining duration: four minutes and fifty-nine seconds.』

A synthesized system voice—completely distinct from Eleanor’s telepathy—echoed directly inside my head.

Prompted by my nod, Io raised her staff and cast her spell. A jagged bolt of lightning lanced straight through the air, striking the Orikuto square in the chest.

「Again! Fire immediately!」

「Y-Yes!」

Io followed my instructions, executing a second consecutive cast without pausing to catch her breath. She successfully rattled off a clean, uninterrupted chain of lightning strikes.

「W-Why……? How is this even possible?」 Io stammered, staring at her hands in disbelief.

「Right now, I’m temporarily loaning a portion of my magic output directly to you.」

「You’re loaning me your output? Eh? Eeeeeeehhhh?! Can humans even do that?!」

「Normally, no.…… Is this another unprecedented phenomenon?」

「There’s no magic like that in any text I’ve ever read!…… I’ve heard rumors of forbidden blood arts that sacrifice one’s lifespan to transfer power, but certainly not a safe, temporary rental!」

「Well, there you go. Oh, looks like the monster is starting to shake off the paralysis.」

「Wow! This is incredible…… I can cast endlessly without burning out!」

「Honestly, looking at you right now, aren’t you actually casting faster and stronger than I do?」

(It’s a direct multiplier effect, Eleanor chimed in from my shoulder. Her base magical talent and output pacing are probably interacting differently with your stat scaling, making her output look flashier.)

「Makes sense.」

If I loaned out a raw statistical ability, it mirrored my exact performance, but when paired with an existing mage’s innate talent, the multiplier could effectively exceed my baseline execution. On the flip side, there were undoubtedly cases where loaning a stat to someone with zero aptitude wouldn’t do anything—multiplying zero by 777 still resulted in zero.

Which brought me to my next planned experiment involving Eleanor.

Historically, not a single living soul in this world had ever managed to resist or escape Eleanor’s mental corruption. In statistical terms, that meant the entire local population possessed an effective “zero tolerance” stat toward her curse.

I’m definitely going to test that out tonight, I mused, tucking the thought away for later.

For now, I turned my attention back to the field and summoned Tania out of the blade. I activated another single-use Ability Loan card.

『Loaning Ice magic attribute multiplier to Tania Chitiakis. Remaining duration: four minutes and fifty-nine seconds.』

「Tania, fire your magic at the Orikuto.」

「Un!」

Tania complied instantly. Nearly a hundred needle-sharp ice arrows materialized in the air around her and rained down upon the Orikuto like a localized hailstorm, turning the beast’s rocky exterior into a pincushion.

Of course, due to the Orikuto’s absurd physical density, the ice shards melted almost instantly, and the monster’s superficial wounds knitted back together without missing a beat.

Even so, watching the spectacle unfold was deeply satisfying.

Io—the skilled mage—and Tania—the spectral maid. Two exceptionally lovely girls fighting side by side utilizing the borrowed statistical might I had granted them.

It was an intensely gratifying sight.

Looks like I’m going to have to work myself to the bone collecting as many lottery tickets as I can during this one-week event.