Apocalypse: I'm Bound to a Mobile Lottery Shop

Chapter 25: Chapter 25: Zombie Tide

Lily Hart snapped back to her senses, annoyed with herself. ’To still be so easily captivated by a handsome face in this day and age... how pathetic.’

She put on a smile and asked perfunctorily, "What can I do for you?"

The man glanced down at the scattered scratch-off tickets on the table. With a wave of his large hand, they vanished.

In their place were several Yellow Crystal Cores. Lily Hart followed his gaze down, and when she looked up again, he was gone too.

The corner of her mouth twitched. "Well, I’ll be," she muttered, speechless.

She pulled down the shutter, casually ordered a bowl of beef noodles, and after hastily finishing her meal, she washed up and flopped into bed.

’After a full day of work, I really don’t feel like doing anything. I just want to lie in bed and watch some variety shows.’

She opened the group chat, where everyone was deep in a heated discussion. The main topic was which scratch-off tickets gave out the most and best prizes.

Someone was even trying to summarize the patterns in the serial numbers, claiming certain numbers were guaranteed to be winners and presenting their case quite convincingly.

While asking her system for confirmation, Lily Hart changed the group chat’s name to: Lily Hart’s Lottery Shop.

The system replied in an indifferent tone, "Impossible. It’s completely random, purely based on luck. There are no patterns to find."

Lily Hart felt relieved. ’If people could figure it out, she might as well shut down the shop and just throw away all the non-winning tickets herself.’

Nowadays, all major bases had signal towers installed. They were used by the Central Command to issue directives and also allowed the general populace to communicate with each other.

In the third year of the apocalypse, the Light Brain was invented. Its functions were similar to a smartphone’s—you could chat and stream shows.

However, its positioning and other functions were much more powerful, and it now came in various forms, such as watches, necklaces, and rings.

As long as you had enough Crystal Cores, you could even get one custom-made.

Lily Hart scrolled through the group chat for a while longer until her eyelids started to feel heavy. She obediently turned off her Light Brain and prepared to sleep.

But just then, Lily suddenly grew agitated, pacing back and forth on the floor, its paws making soft tapping sounds on the ground.

Lily Hart groggily rolled over, leaning over the edge of the bed to look at her. She reached out her hand, beckoning her over. "Lily, what’s wrong?"

With a SWOOSH, Lily leaped over, burying her head in Lily Hart’s palm and nuzzling restlessly, clearly distressed.

"What is it?" Lily Hart asked, picking her up. Suddenly, alarm bells went off in her head. The system chimed in at the perfect moment: "The zombie horde is here."

She was fearless. "What’s there to be afraid of? I’ve got you. They can’t get in."

"Hiss... I forgot to tell you, Host. I require maintenance once every three days. My time is up... I... have... to... go..."

Lily Hart shot up. "You’ve got to be kidding me, System! What are you doing? Don’t go! Love me, don’t go!"

She didn’t waste much time on sentimentality. She scrambled out of bed and padded barefoot to the driver’s seat, activating the autopilot.

Soon, the RV began to move. The system hadn’t said when the zombie horde would arrive, but seeing how agitated Lily was, it had to be soon.

It was definitely too late to outrun it now; her only option was to drive to the closest point near Hope Base.

A large base would surely have its own methods for dealing with a zombie horde, but as Lily Hart approached the main gate, her heart sank.

’The guards are actually dozing off? And there are only two of them on duty?’

’Seriously, a base this huge? You only have two people guarding the gate? A small group could probably break right through.’

The bright headlights of the RV startled the two guards. At first glance, they thought the Base Commander had returned.

One of them instinctively pressed a button on his shoulder, and the heavy gates slowly slid open.

Lily Hart was baffled. ’These guards are really something else...’

But she didn’t have time to overthink it. She gunned the engine, drove the RV into the base, and let out a heavy sigh of relief.

The other guard rubbed his eyes, his mind gradually clearing. "Who was that just now?" he asked.

"It must have been the Base Commander," the first guard said confidently. "Who else can afford to drive an RV?"

The second guard nodded. "True. But why did it look so new?"

Both guards turned in unison to look at the brand-new RV parked inside the base, and their hearts lurched.

Instinctively, one of them slammed a button on the wall. Instantly, alarms blared throughout the entire base.

It was called a base, but it was really a small city, clearly divided into several districts.

The four main districts were the Residential Zone, the Core Zone, the Research Zone, and the Cultivation Zone.

A high, thick wall would later be built to enclose all these zones and defend against zombie attacks.

Sitting in the driver’s seat, Lily Hart heard the sky-piercing alarm and breathed another sigh of relief.

’Looks like these guards aren’t completely useless. At least they realized the zombie horde is coming—’

But in the next moment, she saw a team of people with grim expressions rushing over, completely surrounding her RV.

Lily Hart was bewildered. ’Go fight the zombie horde! Why are you surrounding me?!’

’What in the world...’ Just as Lily Hart got up, there was a knock on the door. ’Oh, how polite of them.’

She opened the door, and a dozen gun barrels were instantly pointed at her, ready to open fire at the slightest wrong move.

Lily Hart instinctively took a step back, and the guns moved forward in unison. The squad leader at the front sized her up.

He was surprised by how clean and tidy she was. Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the RV’s interior behind her; it was very new, and a faint, pleasant scent drifted out.

For a moment, it was as if he saw a phantom of the civilized era in her, and the squad leader was momentarily dazed.

He demanded, "Who are you? What is your purpose for breaking into Hope Base at night?"

Lily Hart was getting anxious. She had a strange feeling that the zombie horde was about to arrive any second now. ’Stop asking these pointless questions!’

She said directly, "Lily Hart. I run the lottery shop by the gate. But that’s not important. The point is, the zombie horde is coming! Get ready to fight!"

Among the fifteen people, someone clearly recognized her and said timidly, "I know her. She’s Boss Hart."

"I know her too. I was on leave during the day and went to buy some scratch-offs. I won a pear."

The squad leader shot them a look and said with disdain, "Boss this, boss that."

Seeing that they were about to start arguing, and that no one was getting the point, Lily Hart felt like the sky was falling.

She jumped up and down, shouting, "The zombie horde is coming! And you’re all still here dilly-dallying!"

She successfully drew everyone’s attention. The squad leader said scornfully, "Zombie horde? How is that possible? We regularly spray Zombies Go Away potion."

Lily Hart found it strange too, but she had 100% faith in her system. She could only say, "If you believe me, you’ll start preparing to fight the horde right now."

She spoke with great seriousness, a starlight twinkle in her eyes that was inexplicably convincing.

The squad leader hesitated for a moment, then opened his Light Brain. After a few operations, his expression changed drastically. "The zombie horde will arrive in half an hour..." he said in a panic.

Lily Hart leaned in for a closer look. It was an officially developed application used to track zombie movement.

On the screen was a circle representing Hope Base, and to the southeast of the circle was a dense cluster of red dots.

Judging by the squad leader’s face, those red dots represented zombies, layered so thickly they were impossible to count.

Just then, the application belatedly sounded an alarm, and a line of large, bold, red text appeared on the screen.

[Zombie horde arriving in 30 minutes. All personnel proceed to the underground shelter.]