Apocalypse: I'm Bound to a Mobile Lottery Shop

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Harrison Donovan

"Th-th-this... Is this fruit? Boss, take a look!" Kane Ward was so excited he could barely speak, quickly handing it to Lily Hart.

She took it and glanced at it. An apple. ’What’s so exciting about this?’

She expressionlessly stuffed it into the Lucky Cat. Three pairs of eyes stared intently at it. Soon, a glistening apple, streaked with red and green and radiating a sweet aroma, dropped out.

It smelled sweet but not cloying, wonderfully fresh. Kane Ward eagerly took it, cradling it in his palms. He gazed at the apple as if it were the rarest treasure in the world.

It wasn’t just Kane Ward; Chester Carter was the same. They both gulped.

Fruits, vegetables—fresh produce like this was practically unobtainable in the apocalypse.

Central Command had gone to great lengths to cultivate them, but they were sold at exorbitant prices. Without connections and the right channels, you could forget about getting any.

But now, for the gamble of a single Crystal Core, you could get a whole apple!

"I saw the Base Commander eat one of these once. Damn, you could smell it from a mile away, and it was so crisp and sweet!" Chester Carter said, drooling as he stared greedily at the apple.

Kane Ward clutched it to his chest, shielding it from prying, malicious eyes.

Chester Carter wasn’t having it. "What’s the harm in letting me look!"

Kane Ward retorted bluntly, "If you want one, go win it from your own scratch-off. Why are you staring at mine? What if you jinx it just by looking at it!"

Chester Carter felt a pang of frustration. ’If I could win one myself, would I be stuck here drooling over someone else’s apple?’

Unwilling to give up, he prepared to try his luck again.

Meanwhile, Kane Ward was looking for a corner to eat his apple. The base entrance was crowded with prying eyes, and this was a rare treasure. If someone took a fancy to it...

Anyone who came out of the base would spot the RV right away, and most would wander over for a curious glance.

And once they took a look and heard Lily Hart’s brief introduction, anyone with a few Crystal Cores to spare would buy a ticket.

By noon, Lily Hart had made a killing. She watched her points balance climb higher and higher, eventually breaking the two-thousand mark!

Lily Hart silently gave herself a mental thumbs-up. Seeing that Chester Carter was still scratching away, she shook her head. ’Better not to dissuade him.’

When he finished with the ticket in his hand, Lily Hart noted his disappointed expression and, just before he could start on the next one, announced, "Closing for now. Come back this afternoon."

With a look of bitter reluctance, Chester Carter stuffed the three scratch-off tickets he had left into the Lucky Cat’s mouth, his expression numb.

The cat’s mouth spat out three prizes: a pair of chopsticks, an iron basin, and a glass cup.

He had scratched at least ten tickets, and only these three yielded a prize. Among his winnings, only the bullets were remotely useful. But this other stuff? What was he supposed to do with it? What?!

The thought made Chester Carter furious. ’Why does everyone else get the good stuff while I have such rotten luck!’

Still fuming, he collected the prizes from the counter and stomped off.

Lily Hart pulled down the window shutter. The inside of the RV instantly grew dark and quiet.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the window. Lily Hart frowned in annoyance. She grabbed a pen and paper and scribbled a few large words.

She quickly slid the shutter open, slapped the paper onto the exterior, and shut it again. The note stuck to the vehicle’s body, its large letters stark: ON BREAK. DO NOT DISTURB!

Anyone with a bit of sense would have taken the hint and left. But instead, the knocking grew more insistent.

Lily Hart even heard the sound of the paper being ripped away. Her eyes narrowed as she yanked the shutter open.

"I said I’m on break, can’t you read?" she snapped, her lips pursed and her gaze piercing.

It was a tall, brawny man wearing a black baseball cap. His black short-sleeved shirt was dirty.

He sneered, "You’re the one selling scratch-offs? Give me one."

Lily Hart didn’t appreciate his tone. With a mere thought, she sent him flying.

Within the ten-meter safety zone around her lottery RV, her will was absolute. Here, even a dragon would have to bow its head.

"You shameless bitch! I was being nice and you spat in my face!" the man snarled, scrambling up from the ground with a ferocious look.

A dancing flame suddenly erupted in the palm of his left hand. ’So he’s a superpower user.’ This piqued Lily Hart’s interest.

She knew that in this world, some people hadn’t just mutated into zombies—others had evolved superpowers.

Immediately after, a second flame appeared in his right hand. He clapped his hands together, and the two flames merged into a palm-sized fireball.

Lily Hart folded her arms, her expression impassive. She clearly didn’t consider him a threat.

It was nearly noon and the weather was hot, making it the busiest time of day for traffic in and out of the base.

Many onlookers stood at a distance, whispering amongst themselves. They glanced from the man to the fair-skinned Lily Hart and sighed inwardly.

"There goes Harrison Donovan, throwing his weight around again. Sigh, poor girl."

"He only acts so arrogant because his brother is the Base Commander. It’s pathetic, really."

"Yeah, so what if he has a Fire Ability? Big deal. There are plenty of those across Cathaya."

"Sigh... Harrison Donovan went after another young woman not too long ago. I heard he drove her to hang herself..."

No one in Rebirth Base had a good opinion of Harrison Donovan.

He was pure scum. It didn’t matter if they were a man or a woman; if he took a fancy to someone, he’d use his brother’s status as Base Commander and his own bit of power to do whatever he pleased.

And now, he had set his sights on the young woman who just arrived today.

The growing crowd only seemed to excite Harrison Donovan more. Balancing the palm-sized fireball on his upturned palm, he slowly advanced on Lily Hart.

A cruel smile twisted his lips as he walked. "Be a good girl and do as you’re told, and this young master might just spare your life."

Lily Hart made two fists and bounced them lightly in front of her like a boxer. "Ooh, I’m so scared," she deadpanned.

That was clearly a taunt. Harrison Donovan’s smile vanished. He raised the fireball and hurled it at her with all his strength.

The nearby onlookers instinctively covered their eyes, unwilling to witness the brutal outcome.

A moment later, a scream tore through the air, just as expected. It was shrill and agonizing, filled with struggle and rage.

But it didn’t sound like the young woman’s voice.

They looked over and saw a flaming heap rolling on the ground, screaming shrilly.

Looking back at the RV, they saw the young woman still had her arms folded, casually leaning against the vehicle with a faint, amused smile on her face.

It was as if she was enjoying the sight of the burning man.

The human torch spoke. "Somebody, help me! If you save me, I’ll have my brother give you the best resources—AHHH!"

Lured by greed and the promise of resources, one person scurried forward. But when they were about a meter from the burning man, they were stopped by an invisible wall.

He slapped it with his hands and kicked it with his feet, but he couldn’t get through.

The man’s screams grew more frantic. Just as he was about to be burned to a blackened crisp, the fire suddenly went out, gradually extinguishing. A gust of wind blew past...

The onlookers thought they could smell something scorching. They gulped. "Smells... pretty good..."

Harrison Donovan was charred black from head to toe. The disaster had been particularly unkind to his already sparse hair. He looked as if he’d been hit by a cannonball—a complete, disheveled mess.

Fortunately, he was a Fire Ability User himself, so the flames couldn’t kill him. At most, they had inflicted some superficial damage to his appearance.

He lay on his back on the ground, a little confused as to how things had turned out this way.