Apocalypse Gachapon

Due to the excellent harvest from the previous Bright Star, Ye Zhongming assigned Xiao Min to this challenge.

This naturally carried risks, but Ye Zhongming instructed her to submit more equivalent payment to reduce the difficulty by 70%, which should be manageable.

It was normal to let others gain experience when confidence was high—Cloud Peak couldn’t rely solely on Ye Zhongming, Xia Bai, and Red Hair to conquer everything.

When Xiao Min struck the Soaring Crystal onto Gyanendra’s Bright Star, she was genuinely startled. After all, others’ stars couldn’t have their difficulty lowered—only challenged or purchased outright.

She wasn’t afraid of dying if she failed, but she dreaded jeopardizing Ye Zhongming’s grand plan.

Fortunately, the space’s prompt eased her tension:

Choose between a solo challenge or a team challenge. However, team challenges would increase the guardian beast’s strength by one level.

Without hesitation, Xiao Min selected team battle.

The entire Cloud Peak force materialized on the Bright Star.

Gyanendra had raced far ahead, likely nearing the finish line. He hadn’t occupied many stars, yet Cloud Peak had stumbled upon one—whether this was bad luck for Cloud Peak or Gyanendra remained unclear.

Ye Zhongming still couldn’t fathom the West Asian Saint’s strategy. Did he have a method to bypass others’ stars later?

Regardless, now that they’d encountered it, Ye Zhongming saw no reason to hold back.

Facing a lone guardian beast, Cloud Peak scattered and overwhelmed it with sheer numbers.

The two-minute battle ended, leaving Ye Zhongming surprised by the guardian’s weakness.

This was a bottom-tier guardian—the weakest possible—and clearly unupgraded!

This deepened Ye Zhongming’s confusion. Not only had Gyanendra occupied a few stars, but he’d also left the weakest guardians on them without upgrades. What was his game?

Had Cloud Peak not chosen team battle (which boosted the guardian by one level), Ye Zhongming could’ve solo-killed it instantly.

He refused to believe Gyanendra was incompetent—there had to be a reason, one Ye Zhongming couldn’t yet discern.

This only heightened his wariness.

As Cloud Peak advanced, so did others. Factions periodically landed on rival stars, choosing either battle or tolls.

These choices revealed their temperaments:

Mechanical Genius never bowed to others. Whenever they landed on occupied stars—mostly Cloud Peak’s, occasionally Gyanendra’s—they always challenged.

They won every time, snatching five stars from Cloud Peak alone, infuriating Ye Zhongming’s forces.

Yet nothing could be done—rules forbade retaliatory strikes.

Ye Zhongming remained outwardly unfazed.

Women Guard earned Ye Zhongming’s respect.

As an all-female faction, they’d been underestimated entering the wheel space.

Their progress here was initially attributed to luck.

Yet they advanced steadily, always paying tolls without hesitation when crossing Cloud Peak’s stars.

During this phase, the wheel space announced Gyanendra’s arrival at the Mountain King Wheel’s location. As first-place finishers, they received an undisclosed reward.

Thereafter, all factions accelerated—even Great America and Cannibal Chain—likely fearing penalties for last-place finishes rather than chasing rewards.

However, after this surge, progress slowed, including Cloud Peak.

Occupying stars required battles; accidental landings on others’ territories demanded more fights.

Evolved weren’t gods. Stamina, mental energy, and injuries needed recovery time.

If Cloud Peak needed rest, others suffered even more.

By the time Ye Zhongming reached the destination, ten days had passed.

Cloud Peak had occupied 55 stars, though this number would drop as trailing factions seized some. Ye Zhongming would be satisfied retaining 50.

Subsequent arrivals trickled in, but one faction never made it:

Motley Crusaders.

This mysterious, powerful faction paid the price for arrogance.

Initially, like Mechanical Genius, they challenged every star, owned or unclaimed.

But challenges cost lives and drained strength. Pressured by leading factions’ progress, they pushed hard to catch up—until realizing too late their depleted forces couldn’t sustain further challenges.

Attempting to switch to purchases, they found themselves penniless.

Stranded on a star, they scavenged resource points for funds, only to find each guard required sacrifices to defeat.

By the time they scraped together enough to proceed, they’d been overtaken—even by Great America. Subsequent Soaring Crystal strikes landed them on occupied stars repeatedly.

Pay or challenge?

Challenges were impossible now. Forced to pay exorbitant tolls, they bled resources dry after five consecutive occupied landings.

When they finally broke free, they faced an unclaimed star’s full-difficulty challenge—something even Cloud Peak wouldn’t dare attempt.

Defeat meant annihilation. Their stars reverted to neutrality.

When all surviving factions finally gathered at the destination, the changes were stark.

“Now announcing Bright Star challenge results and distributing rewards.”

The wheel space’s simultaneously ominous and tantalizing voice echoed in every ear.