At the Xuanniao Base, Henry Lincoln was the first person to open a claw machine shop. Before him, hardly anyone at Xuanniao Base had played with these things. Samuel Quinn only opened his shop to follow the trend—he had never played before, and when it came to understanding claw machines, Samuel Quinn was far less knowledgeable.

After five tests, Henry Lincoln had already figured out what setting this claw machine was on.

Indeed, the claw here was tighter than the one in Henry Lincoln’s shop. For most people, it was still very difficult to grab anything. Based on the set probability, you could expect to get a gene-mutated egg about once every twenty tries.

But that was only the probability for ordinary people. The reason Henry Lincoln set the claw in his own shop so loose—so loose that sometimes you couldn’t even pick up a gene egg—wasn’t to guard against regular customers, but against those claw machine experts.

Before opening his shop, Henry Lincoln had studied for a while and watched plenty of videos of claw machine pros. He knew that this game wasn’t just about luck. For experts, with this kind of claw tension, grabbing a gene-mutated egg was just too easy.

Although Henry Lincoln himself wasn’t a top-tier expert, he had already been playing before opening his shop. He started the business because he enjoyed it, so he naturally had some skill.

Inside the machine, the claw swayed rhythmically as he moved the joystick. At that moment, the claw was right above the exit, not lined up with any gene-mutated egg.

When the claw swung to a certain angle, Henry Lincoln suddenly pressed the grab button. The claw dropped at a slant and happened to catch a gene-mutated egg nearby.

The gene-mutated egg was lifted, and as it reached the top, before the claw could move, the egg dropped.

But the claw’s position was already above the exit, so the falling gene-mutated egg landed directly in the exit and rolled out.

“Swing release!” Samuel Quinn’s expression changed slightly.

He had opened his shop just to compete with Henry Lincoln, not out of any real interest in claw machines. But he did know a bit about the swing release technique—he just hadn’t expected Henry Lincoln to know it too.

“You can grab eggs like that?” The young guy playing at the next machine stared wide-eyed and couldn’t help exclaiming.

Henry Lincoln put the gene-mutated egg he’d grabbed into his pocket, turned to Samuel Quinn, and smiled, “Xiao Fuzi, I opened a claw machine shop because I like playing this. You’re not interested in any of this stuff. When you play, you rely on luck, but I rely on skill.”

With that, Henry Lincoln inserted four more coins and kept playing.

He repeated the same operation. The claw, swaying rhythmically, dropped at an angle again and picked up another gene-mutated egg.

Same scene, familiar sight—the gene-mutated egg fell into the exit compartment again.

This level of claw tension was no challenge for Henry Lincoln. Although he couldn’t win every time, he could succeed about sixty percent of the time.

In no time, Henry Lincoln had grabbed four gene-mutated eggs, and nearly all the customers in the shop had gathered around to watch.

Every time Henry Lincoln grabbed a gene-mutated egg, the crowd would erupt in amazement.

“So that’s how you play claw machines?”

“I was just wasting my time before—so this is how you’re supposed to grab the eggs?”

“……” Samuel Quinn’s face was as dark as if he’d been splashed with ink. He gritted his teeth but couldn’t say a word in rebuttal.

Chapter 005: Are You Here to Restock?

“Get me a cart.” After switching between several claw machines, Henry Lincoln had grabbed so many gene-mutated eggs that he couldn’t carry them all. He had an employee bring over a cart, and except for the one he put in his own pocket, he put the rest in the cart.

In no time, the gene-mutated eggs of the Hundred-Refined Steel Beast in several nearby claw machines had been almost completely cleared out by Henry Lincoln.

Without hesitation, Henry Lincoln switched to another machine and kept grabbing. The crowd followed him, moving from machine to machine, most of them eager to learn his claw machine skills.

It wasn’t that no one at Xuanniao Base had ever tried to practice claw machine skills and make a quick buck at Henry Lincoln’s shop. The problem was, there were no local manufacturers of claw machines at Xuanniao Base. The machines had to be shipped in from other bases, and the journey was full of dangers. Ordinary people had no chance to get a machine to practice on their own.

In fact, as long as you had the chance to practice enough, learning the swing release technique wasn’t especially hard.

“Damn, are you seriously here to restock from my place?” Watching as the cart was nearly piled full of gene-mutated eggs, Samuel Quinn cursed Henry Lincoln fiercely in his heart, his face darker than the bottom of a pot.

“Boss, this can’t go on. If he keeps grabbing like this, we’ll lose our shirts. How about we adjust the machine Henry Lincoln is playing on?” his trusted employee whispered beside Samuel Quinn.

“Do it. Lower the claw tension by two levels.” Samuel Quinn couldn’t stand Henry Lincoln’s smug face any longer. He squeezed out the words through gritted teeth.

The employee quickly and quietly took out the remote and secretly adjusted the tension.

This time, when Henry Lincoln tried, the claw only lifted the gene-mutated egg a tiny bit before letting go. Even using the swing release technique, he couldn’t get the egg to drop into the exit. Many in the crowd sighed in disappointment.

He tried two more times, but the result was the same—he couldn’t grab the egg high enough to make it fall into the exit.