“I can’t believe the safe house is also compromised” Jen whispered angrily, as they calmly turned away from the building that was supposed to provide them with safety, and then they started making their way to their “off the books” 2nd safe house.

Sam simply grunted with an “I told you so” look on his face.

This was the first time they had ever needed their back-up safe house, but Sam had always insisted they set one up on every mission. Jen would relentlessly tease him about his conspiracy theories on the very agency he worked for!

They were professionals; they hadn’t spoken much about the Lotto. It went unsaid they would get safe and rested first. In truth, Jen didn’t feel like talking about it right away. She was really mad at Sam for pressuring her to select him as a Lotto companion. There was also another part of her that felt like if they didn’t talk about it, she could pretend it didn’t happen for a little while longer.

It was almost three in the morning, a full day after the drone attack, when they finally arrived at their second safe house. Sam lost the coin toss, so he was on first watch. Jen finally had a little time to think clearly about the Lotto system message she’d received. As crappy as everything was, her inner gamer nerd was excited to see how the system interface worked. She thought, “I wonder what I need to do to bring up the system message? Oh! There it is. Wow! That’s easy, all I have to do is think about what I want to see and there it is.”

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System Message

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Congratulations! You have been randomly selected for transfer to the Seven Decks. Select up to four team members to be transferred with you. 1 of 4 selected: Sam Nguyen You have 30 days to train and prepare for transfer. Abilities and skills will increase 12 times faster for the next 30 days, full implementation in 5 days. System supplied mana for 30 days Current odds of death on Earth: 70% Current odds of death within 24 hours upon arrival in the Seven Decks: 95% Beat the odds by travelling through all Seven Decks, and you can return to Earth! Number of Lottery winners returned to Earth: 0

Character Sheet

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Name: Jennifer Cho

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Level: 0

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Strength: 6

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Agility: 7

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Stamina: 7

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Mana: 7

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Mana Regeneration: 7 per minute

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Stamina Regeneration: 7 per minute

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Luck: 5

====

Jen mentally waved the screen aside; everyone had heard on the news about the stat windows, but it was something amazing to actually experience. Another screen appeared.

Title: Paranoid Survivor

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Your paranoia has kept you alive.

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+1 to Luck

===

Luck: 6

Jen knew that if anyone found out they were Lottos, they would be relentlessly hunted down and turned over to the highest bidder, and no matter what, at the end of 30 days, another rainbow would be appearing to take them away to the Seven Decks where they had a 95% chance of death within the first 24 hours.

While trying to calm down and fall asleep, her mind turned to Sam as she thought, “I wonder what his stats might be?”

She’d been working for the Agency ever since Sam had recruited her back when she was a nineteen-year-old sophomore in college. Sam was forty-one at the time, and as a cover for his Agency work, he was teaching Mandarin with UCLA’s International China Program over the summer, and Jen was just one of the college students in his class.

After helping Sam gather intel in China that summer, Jen discovered she liked the excitement of working with him and spying for the Agency. He was always professional and boring in public, but sort of a goofy old man when they worked together in private. When he asked her if she would like to continue working with him, she had agreed.

He was just over 50 years old now, but Jen figured his stats would be just as good as most people half his age.