Apocalypse: I'm Bound to a Mobile Lottery Shop

Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Frost Shaw

The guy had scratched off a hand grenade but didn’t leave. He just pulled out more Crystal Cores, saying he wanted to keep playing.

Lily Hart loved customers like this. No questions asked, just scratching. Open your eyes and scratch!

Around eight or nine, the crowd started to grow, and a bunch of people quickly gathered in front of her window.

Some of the regulars knew the drill. They lined up, and when it was their turn, they dutifully fed a Crystal Core to the Lucky Cat. After it announced their name and points, they would pick the scratch-offs they wanted.

The whole process was running smoothly. Lily Hart barely had to worry about a thing—except for some of the new customers.

It was one thing for them to ask a million questions, but some would even start cursing up a storm right there if they didn’t get the prize they wanted.

Lily Hart certainly didn’t smile at people like that. It was a testament to her good temper that she didn’t kick them out.

Just as Lily Hart was explaining the rules to a new customer, the noisy crowd suddenly fell silent.

Lily Hart looked up, confused. The somewhat disorderly line had parted down the middle, creating a path as if to welcome someone.

At the end of the path, a person was slowly approaching. He was very tall, dressed in a white shirt and black pants. Despite the scorching heat, he wore a black cloak that reached his ankles.

The hem of the cloak swayed with his steps, sometimes brushing intimately against his calves, other times pulling away, like a living ocean wave.

He didn’t say a word, just walked with a casual gait, but Lily Hart could feel an overwhelming presence from him.

Lily Hart’s mind raced. ’Is this the backer Hayden Donovan found? He looks incredibly powerful...’

She urgently asked the system in her mind, "Can the safe zone hold against this guy?"

The system answered with conviction, "Of course it can. You are the absolute master here. Have some confidence!"

Lily Hart relaxed. The system would never lie to her. With that definite answer, she felt reassured.

She leaned on the counter, her hands flat on its surface, and sized up the newcomer as he walked down the path and stopped in front of her.

The closer he got, the more breathless Lily Hart felt, as if all the air in the vicinity belonged to him.

The man stopped in front of the window. The hood of his cloak was long, completely obscuring the upper half of his face, leaving only his thin lips and a chiseled jawline visible.

Just from that exquisite lower half of his face, Lily Hart could tell he was handsome.

No matter how many lives she lived, one thing about Lily Hart would never change: she had a thing for handsome faces. An absolute, undeniable thing for handsome faces!

Before she could speak, the man held out his empty palm. An instant later, a Yellow Crystal Core materialized there.

The people around him gasped. Lily Hart was confused. ’Does the color mean something special?’

She calmly took it, her fingertips accidentally brushing his palm. It felt like ice.

She couldn’t help but shiver. ’No wonder this guy wears a cloak in this heat,’ she thought. ’He’s his own personal air conditioner.’

But Lily Hart didn’t dwell on it. There were too many weird superpowers in this apocalypse. As always, she stuffed the Crystal Core into the Lucky Cat’s mouth.

A moment later, its cheerful, satisfied announcement rang out, "Frost Shaw, 150 points."

’So even Crystal Cores have different tiers?’ she thought. ’What a class-conscious, bullshit apocalypse!’

The man’s name was Frost Shaw. Beneath his hood, his eyes were gleaming. ’150 points!’

He’d heard people say it was 50 points for one ticket. Didn’t that mean he could get three?

Suppressing his excitement, he casually picked out three scratch-offs and moved to the side to start scraping them.

Although Lily Hart had a thing for handsome faces, she was more of a businesswoman. Seeing that he understood the rules, she immediately turned her attention to the other customers who were too intimidated to step forward.

"Are you going to play or not? There’s plenty of room." Lily Hart’s dimples danced as she smiled, making her look radiant.

Frost Shaw happened to look up and catch her brilliant, pure smile. He froze for a moment. ’A smile like that is too precious in the apocalypse...’

But the scratch-offs were more important. Frost Shaw paused for only a second before lowering his head and continuing to scratch, his eyes filled with anticipation.

The onlookers glanced at Frost Shaw, then at the warmly beckoning Lily Hart, and finally, their gazes landed on the tempting scratch-offs...

One person stepped forward decisively, handed over a Crystal Core. "I’m playing!"

Another person walked away with trembling legs, not even daring to look up. Lily Hart could see it clearly: Frost Shaw was formidable, and not easy to get along with.

How else could he scare away so many people just by showing up? ’Those were my customers!’

Lily Hart shot Frost Shaw a fierce glare. ’If he doesn’t make up for the business he just scared away, I’ll never forgive him!’

Frost Shaw was completely oblivious. His eyes were gleaming, and the hand holding the small golden scraper was trembling slightly.

He quickly finished scratching all three tickets. He stacked them and handed them to Lily Hart, who took one look, raised an eyebrow, and was secretly dumbfounded.

Frost Shaw had played nothing but "Big 7," and without exception, he’d won food with every ticket.

Everyone was dying to know what the big shot had won. Dozens of pairs of eyes were glued to Lily Hart’s hands.

Frost Shaw was staring too, but his attention wasn’t on the scratch-offs. It was on Lily Hart’s hands—so fair they seemed to glow, slender and delicate. Every nail was perfectly trimmed, round as a pearl.

Ever since the apocalypse began, Frost Shaw had never seen such fair, delicate hands. Most were filthy, with dirt caked under the nails, or covered in a thick layer of calluses.

Some people didn’t even have all their fingers. In short, it had been a long, long time since he’d seen such healthy-looking hands.

For a moment, he was in a daze. Seeing her so vibrant and healthy, it felt as if he had been transported back to the time before the apocalypse.

Lily Hart fed the scratch-offs into the Lucky Cat’s mouth. A moment later, it spat out three prizes.

They were: a box of winter jujubes, a container of pre-sliced watermelon, and a can of cola!

To be honest, many people didn’t even recognize these fruits anymore. But that was fine; the Lucky Cat would dutifully announce what they were.

Even if no one had heard of them, it didn’t matter. All they needed to know was that it was fruit.

The box of winter jujubes held about ten pieces, each one a mottled red and green, perfectly sized, and emitting a sweet fragrance.

The pre-sliced watermelon was a brilliant red, without a single black seed in sight.

The canned cola looked like it had just been pulled from a refrigerator, with beads of condensation still clinging to its side.

Frost Shaw swept the three prizes into his cloak, shielding them from the greedy eyes of the crowd, and produced another Yellow Crystal Core.

The crowd gasped again. Lily Hart was speechless. ’Don’t their stomachs hurt from gasping all day?’

She took the Crystal Core with practiced ease and fed it to the cat. Another 150 points. Frost Shaw picked out three more scratch-offs.

There were eight books of scratch-offs on the counter in total—two books for each of the four different games. Each book contained twenty tickets, and every ticket had its own unique number, so people were free to choose whichever they wanted.

Lily Hart noticed that Frost Shaw was choosing his tickets very carefully, unlike the others who either grabbed them randomly or just picked a lucky number.

But he was different. He scanned every single ticket from top to bottom, his gaze so intense it seemed like he could see right through them...

The thought made Lily Hart jolt. ’Could his superpower be X-ray vision?!’

She immediately asked the system, "Can anyone see through the coating on our scratch-offs?"