Chapter 333: Prudence Base

Chapter 333: Chapter 333: Prudence Base

These pictures were taken by the lottery shop’s most devoted fans. They captured it from every angle, posted the photos online, and everyone saved and collected them.

Everyone hoped to see it in person at least once in their lives and scratch a ticket for themselves.

"What did you say?! You said that’s the lottery shop!" someone shrieked.

They had been moving fast and were already quite a distance away. Now, they all whipped their heads around to look back.

A strong winter wind howled past, but the three-story RV stood motionless in the gale, like a towering giant.

They looked at the RV, then back at the wallpapers on their Light Brains. The same thought occurred to all of them at once.

The photos didn’t capture a fraction of how awe-inspiring it was in person.

"So... are we still going to kill zombies?" someone on the team asked meekly.

"Kill zombies? What zombies?! There are zombies to kill every day, but a lottery shop is a rare sight! What are you all gawking at? Charge!"

That was all they were waiting for. As if spurred by a command, the group shot back like cannonballs, only to find the RV completely empty.

Lily Hart saw there were no customers and was about to sit down for a break. She planned to post a message for the residents of Prudence Base: ’I’m here!’

Just then, she heard the sound of chattering outside. "Huh? How is no one here?"

"Is Boss Hart not in? And I don’t see any of those scratch-off tickets outside."

"Maybe they’re not open for business yet!"

"That’s possible, but why is the door open? Maybe Boss Hart stepped out?"

"Well, let’s wait for her then."

The crowd chattered with speculation.

"Hey? Is this a convenience store next door? The convenience store from the web!!"

"It has to be! It’s right next to the lottery shop, and the storefront is huge! What else could it be?!"

"Should we check out the convenience store first, then?"

"Let’s go, let’s go! What are you waiting for?!"

The group charged into the convenience store. Frost Shaw, Roman Rowe, and the others were stocking the shelves when they saw a crowd of people come swarming in. Smiles instinctively appeared on their faces.

They said in unison, "Please, take a look around."

Frost Shaw added, "There are shopping baskets over there."

Hearing the noise, Lily Hart, still inside the RV, got up and walked over to the counter. She saw the backs of the crowd as they swarmed into the convenience store. ’Wow, I missed them again!’ she thought.

’Oh well,’ she thought. ’They’ll come out eventually.’

Lily Hart was quite chill about it. She pulled up a stool, sat down, and rested her head on her folded arms on the counter, spacing out aimlessly.

Little did she know, that group had fallen into a sea of delicacies and was happily swimming in it, with no intention of coming out anytime soon.

"AAAAHHH! There are so many flavors of instant noodles!"

An entire wall of shelves, reaching all the way to the ceiling, was packed with cups of instant noodles. They were neatly arranged, their colorful packaging forming a vibrant display.

The group stood before the shelves, their jaws on the floor. Their captain was the first to snap out of it, grabbing a shopping cart and frantically sweeping items into it.

"This one, this one, and that one... I’ll take them all!" the captain muttered.

Their team had twelve members. They filled two entire shopping carts with just instant noodles. The captain sent some of them to check out first while the rest continued to browse.

They also bought ten entire cases of mineral water—the largest size available. If it weren’t for the store’s purchase limit of ten cases per person, they would have cleared the shelves.

In addition to mineral water, other items like instant noodles, self-heating hot pots, cookies, and bread also had purchasing limits.

This was to prevent people from hoarding goods to resell them later.

"AAAAHHH! Spicy strips! I haven’t seen spicy strips in forever! Captain, can I get some?"

"Don’t get too many. They’re not exactly a meal," the captain said, his tone softening now that he was in a good mood. He gave a grand wave of his hand.

"Hehehe," the team member snickered. Without hesitation, he picked out his favorite flavors, grabbed a huge handful of each, and stuffed them into a corner of the cart.

After a full half-hour in the convenience store, the captain reluctantly stopped. He had just remembered his Crystal Core balance in his spatial storage... and it wasn’t very high.

It was all because he’d spent most of his Crystal Cores at the supply exchange yesterday for a single bottle of water and two pieces of bread.

The price of supplies was rising daily, and it was so expensive that he’d been cursing about it ever since he left the exchange.

If he’d known Boss Hart was coming today, he would’ve saved every last Crystal Core to go on a shopping spree here.

Everything was cheap, fresh, plentiful, and there was so much variety.

Where else could you find a deal this good?!

This shopping spree left him with barely any Crystal Cores in his spatial storage, but he had purposely saved some for the scratch-off tickets.

After paying, the captain stored all the supplies in his spatial inventory and called out to his team, "Alright, let’s go get some scratch-offs!"

Outside the lottery shop, a small crowd had already gathered. They were clustered around the RV, each buying scratch-off tickets.

With a wave of the captain’s hand, the team split up, each finding a line to join.

Lily Hart propped her chin on her hand and yawned as she watched everyone scratch their tickets.

Every now and then, cries of wonder, surprise, delight, and shock would erupt from the crowd.

"AAAAHHH, I won a hundred Level 1 Crystal Cores! Can you believe it? I bought this ticket with the last Crystal Core I had!"

"Holy crap! A prize like that exists? That’s insane!!"

"Tell me about it. I’ve seen people win all sorts of things online. It all just comes down to luck."

The prizes were wonderfully weird. For every jaw-dropping win, there was one that made people sigh in dismay.

"I won a keyboard? What’s this for? Am I supposed to bash zombies with it? Or use it to type out insults at them?"

"’Look, it has instructions,’" a customer next to him read aloud. "’Randomly striking the keys has a chance to launch an attack.’"

"That’s way too random! What if I’m mashing keys for ages and no attack comes out? It’s junk, total junk!" the keyboard’s new owner said, frustrated.

Feeling like he’d wasted two Crystal Cores, he irritably mashed the keyboard a few times, not paying attention to which keys he hit.

Suddenly, a bullet materialized out of thin air. It hovered over the keyboard for a second before shooting forward with a ZING!

BANG—! It hit a large rock, which instantly exploded, sending shrapnel flying and nearly injuring a few customers.

His jaw dropped in shock. He turned the keyboard over and over, examining it, while apologizing reflexively, "My bad, my bad."

’Isn’t this just a normal black mechanical keyboard?’

’It’s completely unremarkable—the cheapest kind, like something from an office. And it can actually attack?’

Treating it like a precious treasure, he hugged the keyboard, gave it a couple of kisses, then carefully wrapped it in his shirt and tucked it safely against his chest.

Fearing that someone might get ideas about his new prize, he hurried away without a second glance.

The other customers looked on with envy. Everyone had seen the power of that bullet. It would be a lie to say they weren’t jealous.

"That guy is way too lucky."

"No kidding!"

"Which book of tickets was he scratching from? I want to try that one!"

A customer immediately pointed to one of the ticket books on the counter, which only had a few left. "That’s the one!" he shouted excitedly. "I’ll take the rest! Nobody try to snatch them from me!"

"Hey, kid, that’s not cool! There are still four or five tickets left, right? Don’t be so greedy!"

"Yeah! You’re supposed to share the good stuff! How can you hoard them all for yourself?"

As they argued, their voices grew louder and louder, until it seemed like a fight was about to break out.