Apocalypse: I'm Bound to a Mobile Lottery Shop

Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Expanding the Team

Boss Hart was so clean and smelled so good. ’Will she be disgusted by us?’

And they were some of the lucky ones. Frost Shaw was an Ice Ability User who could create ice, which melted into water, guaranteeing them a daily supply.

Frost Shaw led the two little ones into the RV. Besides the driver’s cab up front, the rest of the interior was rather empty. The only piece of furniture was a single high stool, which was currently beneath Lily Hart.

And so, the three of them stood frozen in place like soldiers at attention.

After slouching for a moment, Lily Hart noticed the silence behind her. She struggled to sit up and glanced back. Whoa, all three of them were staring at her in unison.

She quickly ordered a dining set from the system’s store, one that could accommodate eight people. "Don’t just stand there," she called out. "Come on, sit down."

Frost Shaw put a hand on each of their backs, pushed Easton and Diana Sharp forward, and said with a blank expression, "Speak."

"Hello, Boss Hart. I’m Diana Sharp, and I’m eight years old," Diana Sharp said, looking a little nervous.

"Hello, Boss Hart. I’m Easton, and I’m seven and a half," Easton chimed in, following her lead.

Lily Hart: ... ’Are we doing introductions now?’ She stood up as well. "My name is Lily Hart, and I’m twenty-three."

Frost Shaw: ? He sat down first, pulling the two children down with him.

"This morning was exhausting! I feel like I could eat a whole cow right now!" Lily Hart wailed, opening the system’s store to see what they should have for lunch.

The two children sat stiffly while Frost Shaw reviewed how many points they had earned that morning.

"I’ve made my choice. You two take a look and see what you want," Lily Hart said, turning the light screen toward Easton and Diana Sharp.

’I should be nicer to Frost Shaw,’ she thought. ’After all, he’s responsible for running the business, has to use his own money for inventory, and then I take an eighty percent cut.’

The thought made Lily Hart feel like a cruel exploiter...

Diana Sharp waved her hands in refusal. "You can choose, Boss Hart. Easton and I aren’t picky eaters." ’Before we met Brother Frost, we had eaten... everything.’

Easton shook his head vigorously, too. Lily Hart skipped over Frost Shaw and simply retracted the light screen. ’For four people, five dishes and a soup should be about right,’ she thought.

She quickly placed the order, and the food appeared on the table in an instant. Lily Hart told them not to be shy and to treat this place like home and eat their fill.

With that, she served herself a large bowl of rice, began eating with the dishes, a look of pure satisfaction on her face.

This left Easton and Diana Sharp completely stunned and at a loss. ’Is Boss Hart... being too good to us?’

They had never seen such fresh vegetables, or so much meat. Diana Sharp and Easton were swallowing hard, their mouths watering uncontrollably.

Frost Shaw served each of them a bowl of rice. "Go on, eat," he said. "Stop staring."

That snapped them out of it. They obediently picked up their bowls and began to eat, only taking food from the dishes directly in front of them. They ate so quietly you could barely hear them, behaving impeccably.

Outside the RV, a small group of people had gathered at some point, all of them having come to the convenience store to buy instant noodles.

But then they caught a fragrance so rich it went straight to their heads. Someone sniffed the air hard and declared with certainty, "That’s meat!" His voice trembled.

They followed the aroma and found that it was coming from the RV, which was still open on all four sides. Inside, several people were sitting around a dining table.

"Is that braised meat? It smells so good! I haven’t seen braised meat since the apocalypse started."

"And is that corn? Bright golden yellow... that corn looks amazing. I’m dying just looking at it..."

"It’s Boss Hart and Boss Shaw eating! Heavens, what a feast!"

"Yeah, I’ve seen what the Base Commander eats. It’s only a little better than our food."

"Compared to this, it’s like heaven and earth. Just smelling and looking at Boss Hart’s food makes you think it must be delicious!"

The small group pressed themselves stealthily against the side of the vehicle, peeking their heads out to look. They sniffed with all their might, as if they could get a taste just by inhaling the aroma.

Frost Shaw had noticed them a while ago, but he knew they meant no harm. Food was just too scarce in the apocalypse...

It was just like when he had watched Boss Hart eat barbecue before. He hadn’t dared to hope for a bite; just smelling it had been enough to feel satisfied.

Lily Hart took a sip of the corn and pork rib soup and clicked her tongue. "Delicious, just so savory. You all have to have a bowl later."

Putting down her bowl, she thought she saw a few heads peeking out from the left. She focused her eyes and—whoa, it was a few people! And they looked a little familiar.

"What are you guys doing over there?" Lily Hart called out, not too loudly.

The group was crouching on the ground, their backs against the RV. They exchanged glances and whispered, "What do we do?"

"Should we stand up?"

"This is so embarrassing!"

"Forget it! Let’s just confess and hope for mercy!"

As he spoke, the man shot to his feet, then pulled up his companion beside him. Like that, one person pulling up the next as if harvesting radishes, they all stood up.

The group looked mortified. They rubbed their noses, scratched the backs of their heads, and stared at the sky, the ground, their own toes—anywhere but at Lily.

Lily Hart was starting to understand. ’Were they here just for the smell, too?’ Her mind started whirring, and she suddenly spotted a business opportunity.

But she quickly dismissed the thought. They were all fellow survivors. How could she sink so low? Charging people just to smell the food was going too far.

She waved a hand. "It’s fine, it’s fine." Hearing this, the group let out a collective sigh of relief and crouched back down.

Easton, Diana Sharp, and Frost Shaw were still eating, not letting a single chili flake or speck of meat in their bowls go to waste.

Lily Hart glanced at her own bowl and saw a few grains of rice left at the bottom. Suddenly feeling wasteful, she immediately picked up her chopsticks and ate them one by one.

When she put her bowl down again, the other three also finished one after another. Lily Hart glanced at the table.

The five dishes and one soup had been picked clean. Not even a spring onion or a chili pepper was left behind; anything edible had been eaten.

Lily Hart watched the two little ones with a gratified smile. The more she looked at Diana Sharp, the more she appreciated her looks. She had a resilient, poised kind of beauty.

Only eight years old, yet already so mature. She’d heard Diana had even helped watch the convenience store that morning and caught two people who tried to cheat on their recharges.

She thought she should get Diana Sharp to come over and help her run the lottery shop. ’The mornings are just way, way, way too busy!’

Still holding out hope, Lily Hart asked the system, "Don’t we have any kind of robot clerks?"

The system’s reply was firm: [No, Host.]

And so, Lily Hart propped her chin on her hands, her eyes sparkling as she stared at Diana Sharp, which only made the girl even more tense.

"Boss Hart, please, just say what’s on your mind," Diana Sharp said faintly, her hands folded obediently in her lap.

Frost Shaw and Easton also turned to look at Lily in unison, curious about what she was up to.

"How about you come help me this afternoon?" Lily Hart asked, getting straight to the point this time.

"Huh? Okay, okay," Diana Sharp agreed before she had even fully processed the question, her mouth answering on its own.

Frost Shaw watched their interaction, the corners of his eyes softening unconsciously. Easton leaned in close, blinking, and said, "Brother Frost, don’t be sad. I’ll help you!"

"..." Frost Shaw reached out and pushed the boy’s face away. He stood up. "All right, time for a nap. We get up at three to work."

Easton jumped up, intending to clear the table and wash the dishes, but the moment his hand touched a plate, all the tableware vanished.

"Where did the dishes go?" Easton exclaimed in shock. ’Did the table eat them?’ He even bent down to look under it, but the floor was perfectly bare.

Lily Hart tapped him lightly on the head. "Stop looking. I put them away."

Easton clutched his head and stared at her with wide, pleading eyes, only to be dragged off the RV by Frost Shaw, who had him by the scruff of his neck.

"Diana, you should come take a nap with me. Otherwise, you’ll be sleepy this afternoon." Lily Hart was the type of person who got drowsy right after a full meal. She yawned as she headed toward the driver’s cab.