Apocalypse: I'm Bound to a Mobile Lottery Shop

Chapter 72: Chapter 72: The Worst That Can Happen Is Death

’Crazy person,’ Lily Hart mumbled. She immediately blocked the account. She wasn’t stupid; there was no way she’d do something that only benefited someone else.

After selectively replying to a few private messages and comments, Lily Hart washed her face and went downstairs.

Outside the base, it was still completely empty and silent. This wasn’t like Bloomfall Base, which had a nearby village full of people.

This whole area was nothing but weeds. Aside from the tall perimeter walls, you couldn’t see a single building or even a shadow of a person.

’If I want customers, I have to rely on the residents from Nutwood Base. But they’re strictly forbidden from leaving today!’

’What rotten luck!’

Lily Hart went to the convenience store to grab some snacks and returned to her RV. She rested her chin on her hand, eating and watching a show on her Light Brain.

And so, the day passed into evening. Night fell, and just as Lily Hart was about to close up shop, a hand gripped the edge of her table.

The hand was not a pretty sight. It was dusty and gray, with yellow mud caked under the fingernails and in every crease.

It looked as if its owner had been buried for three days and nights, only to then dig up a hundred pounds of dirt. Startled, Lily Hart took a step back.

She demanded sharply, "Who’s there?"

A plain, unremarkable face slowly appeared, followed immediately by a sharp-featured one right next to it.

In the dim light, the two faces looked particularly... incongruous and jarring.

Lily Hart breathed a sigh of relief. ’As long as they’re human, it’s fine.’ "Can I help you?" she asked, feeling a surge of excitement.

After all, it had been a whole day, and these were the first strangers she’d seen. You could imagine how she felt!

"We want to buy scratch tickets!" the plain-looking customer said in a hushed voice. Lily Hart couldn’t quite hear him and asked again.

"What? You two should stand up. Isn’t it tiring to squat like that?" Lily Hart had a pretty loud voice; otherwise, she never would have been bound to this system in the first place.

The two customers quickly waved their hands, frantically glancing toward the gate of Nutwood Base with a guilty look.

Still squatting, they cautiously shuffled along the side of the RV until they were facing the base instead of having their backs to it. This seemed to make them feel a little safer.

Lily Hart moved around to face them and asked again, "So you’re here for scratch tickets? Do you really need to be so... cautious?"

’What she really wanted to say was that they looked as guilty as thieves, like they were sneaking out for an affair and terrified of being caught.’

The plain-looking customer nodded repeatedly and said excitedly, "Yes, yes, scratch tickets! Please get us some, Boss."

He was savvy enough to take out a few Crystal Cores at the same time, confirming, "It’s one core per ticket, right?"

"Correct." Lily Hart brought over a few booklets of scratch tickets and let them choose freely, accepting their two Crystal Cores.

The moment the two customers saw the scratch tickets, their eyes lit up. They each grabbed one and began to scratch with trembling excitement.

Since they were going to scratch, squatting was too uncomfortable. They leaned over the table and got to it!

Seeing them immersed in scratching, their guard now down, Lily Hart seized the opportunity to ask, "Are you from Nutwood Base?"

"Yep, yep," the sharp-featured customer replied without thinking.

"What happened at the base today? Why isn’t anyone coming out?" Lily Hart gently probed.

At the mention of this, the plain-looking customer became agitated. He stopped scratching, straightened up, and started ranting.

"This morning, a rumor started going around that you, Boss Hart, were open for business outside Nutwood Base. A few of us were planning to come out, but then—bam! We were locked inside for the entire day!"

The veins on the back of his hand bulged with anger, and it looked like he was about to bend his small golden scraper in half.

Lily Hart quickly tried to calm him. "It’s alright, it’s alright. You made it out, right? Did they lift the lockdown at night?"

The sharp-featured customer picked up the rant. "Lift the lockdown? Hell no! We had to spend half the day digging out a small hole someone left behind! Look at our hands!"

As he spoke, they both thrust out their hands in unison, palms down. Every line and crease was caked with dust and yellow dirt...

’It really was just as she’d thought,’ Lily Hart mused. ’They must have dug through a hundred pounds of dirt to get here...’

But she also felt a sense of accomplishment. To think someone would go to such lengths for her scratch tickets! ’The allure of food really is powerful,’ she thought.

Lily Hart poured each of them a cup of water. The two men were so moved they looked like they were about to burst into tears.

But they didn’t dare take the cups with hands that had been digging in the dirt all afternoon. They went to wipe them on their clothes, but a glance down revealed their clothes were even filthier...

Lily Hart turned and got two straws for them. "Here, go ahead and drink. Don’t worry about it."

The two men were even more touched. Even though their first tickets were both losers, reading "Thanks for playing," it didn’t dampen their enthusiasm one bit.

"Boss, you just wait. The main group is on its way," said the sharp-featured customer.

Lily Hart was about to ask what he meant when she heard someone shout "Boss!" from behind her. She turned to look.

Holy cow. The area was packed with people—about twenty or thirty of them. ’Did they all crawl out of that tiny hole?’ she wondered.

"Coming, coming!" Lily Hart said, walking over with a huge smile.

Tina Jacobs and Diana Sharp got busy as well. They had been about to close the convenience store, but they never expected so many customers to suddenly show up, so they turned the lights back on.

The moment they saw Lily Hart, it was like they were seeing a long-lost family member. They all started greeting her at once.

"Hello, Boss Hart!"

A smile played on Lily Hart’s lips, her dimples showing clearly. She did her best to greet each person in return.

As she listened to them complain about Nutwood Base, she could see the resentment on their faces was genuine.

While serving them and listening to their stories, Lily Hart pieced together what had happened.

At 8:40 this morning, the base had suddenly issued an order: the gates were to be sealed, and no one was allowed to leave.

This instantly trapped all the residents who wanted to go out to kill zombies, complete missions, or buy scratch tickets.

Naturally, this caused an uproar. On what grounds could they lock people in? Who would be responsible for missions timing out?

If they couldn’t kill zombies and get Crystal Cores, who would be responsible when they couldn’t afford to eat? There was no answer.

Only the heavy, sealed gates offered a silent reply.

No matter how angry they got, there was nothing they could do. Inside the base, the Base Commander’s word was law, and everyone had to obey him.

He even increased the patrols of The Guardian Corps, stationing them at all four main gates and giving them strict orders not to let a single person out.

It wasn’t until night fell that the patrols slackened a bit. By then, the small hole they had been digging all afternoon was finally finished.

And so, having dreamed of scratch tickets all day, they had rushed over the second they escaped the base.

After hearing the whole story, Lily Hart was speechless for a long moment. ’So this must be the result of Hunter Lowell’s collaboration with Nutwood Base.’

’Cutting off my customers at the source to stop me from making money. Wow, what a brilliant plan...’

But then Lily Hart looked at the customers surrounding her RV in several deep layers, with more running over in twos and threes from the distance.

The base’s day-long lockdown had completely collapsed by nightfall.

The people were also being extremely careful, keeping their movements and voices as quiet as possible to avoid being spotted by the searchlights from the base, just a hundred meters away.

The time ticked past midnight, and Lily Hart let out her fifth yawn. But the customers were all still scratching away, full of energy.

She didn’t want to spoil their fun. After all, they’d been cooped up all day and had finally gotten this chance; they deserved to scratch to their hearts’ content.

Lily Hart couldn’t help but think of Hunter Lowell. ’How furious and humiliated will he be when he finds out his plan failed?’

Just the thought made Lily Hart laugh out loud. ’So satisfying! Ah, that’s so satisfying!’ The feeling woke her up a bit.

Lily Hart went over to ask the plain-looking and sharp-featured customers from the beginning, "What will happen... if you get caught?"

They didn’t seem to care in the slightest. "Tch. The worst they can do is kill us."