Chapter 254: Teddy Bear
Lily Hart turned, glanced at the two of them, and curled her lips into a smile. "What are you two thinking about? So engrossed?"
Frost Shaw was jolted back to reality. The image of her calm and collected demeanor from earlier flashed through his mind. ’It’s like she’ll never panic, no matter what happens.’
Her presence put him at ease without him even realizing it. He shook his head with a light laugh.
Roman Rowe gave a goofy laugh and praised her outright, "Lily Hart, you’re incredible!"
He’d always been a freewheeling guy, but he still got a little intimidated when facing the top brass from Central Command.
He always saw them as high and mighty, completely untouchable, and though everything they said and did was brilliant.
But after following Lily Hart, he realized they were nothing special. They got played like fools, and they were incredibly petty and vindictive.
His impression of them did a complete one-eighty.
With one commotion in the morning and another in the afternoon, Lily Hart was exhausted. Fortunately, the rest of the day passed safely and without incident.
At seven o’clock, it was time for the night market to open for the first time. Lily Hart got there right on the dot.
The three machines were already in place, and the two owners were standing behind them, ready for action.
They didn’t even prepare disposable bowls or utensils. It had been ten years since the apocalypse started; who didn’t have their own set of tableware by now? It was strictly BYO.
Diana Sharp had arrived half an hour early to familiarize herself with the machine and avoid any frantic scrambling later.
Quite a few people were already waiting in front of the three machines, lining up for the food they wanted.
Look at how orderly they were—all trained by Lily Hart.
As soon as it struck seven, Lily Hart stood before the three machines, acting as a supervisor to see if anyone would step out of line.
The first batches were already cooked, just waiting for the official start time to be sold.
Lily Hart stood in the middle, listening to the cacophony of sounds coming from all around her.
"Your roasted sausages, here you go."
"That’s right, one Crystal Core for two sausages! You can go in on it with someone else!"
"Crystal Core, Crystal Core! Hand over the Crystal Core before you take the food, don’t rush!"
"Two Crystal Cores for a bowl of oden, and the price is firm!"
"One Crystal Core for two takoyaki balls. Put the Crystal Core right here!"
It was orderly chaos, but things were going quite smoothly. Everyone was cooperative, figuring it was better to have a steady source of good food than to gorge themselves just once.
Perhaps because Lily Hart was there keeping watch, no one dared to cause trouble or cut in line. Everyone was remarkably well-behaved.
The first night market went off without a hitch, and both vendors felt it was something they could do long-term.
Most importantly, it was incredibly profitable. Just by setting up for a bit, they had already raked in dozens of Crystal Cores.
This was all a blessing from Boss Hart, and they were deeply grateful in their hearts.
They already viewed Lily Hart as their great benefactor! They hoped the night market would grow even bigger and become a permanent fixture.
Because of the night market, dinner was a little later tonight.
Everyone gathered at the lottery shop. Ever since the last zombie horde, Owen Warren had been joining them for this ritual.
Lily Hart would prepare a separate dinner for him, all of it food that zombies liked, purchased from the system’s shop.
Although Owen Warren didn’t actually like it, he always cleaned his plate, leading Lily Hart to believe he loved the stuff.
And so, tonight, he was the proud owner of two massive, heaping basins of food... ’Thanks a lot,’ he thought.
Owen Warren ate with a deadpan expression, listening to Roman Rowe’s passionate boasting. "Chad Yates showed up today! Yeah, that manager guy."
Frost Shaw had seen it all happen, so he had no interest in hearing Roman’s embellished story. He focused on using the serving chopsticks to place food on Lily Hart’s plate.
But no one else was paying attention to him. Only Seth humored him, "Keep going! What happened next?"
So Roman Rowe began gesticulating wildly as he described the scene from the afternoon, of how Lily Hart had completely played Chad Yates.
He told the story in hilarious detail, even describing the frustrated, restrained expression on Chad Yates’s face.
Listening to him, Lily Hart felt like she was hearing a brand new story. ’If I hadn’t been there myself...’
’...I would’ve thought he was a professional storyteller. He really has a knack for it.’
After dinner, everyone sat around for a while longer. Roman Rowe found himself staring at the scratch-off tickets, his hands suddenly itching to try one.
’Have I never bought one of these? Or did I buy one and just forget?’
So he furtively used his Light Brain to deduct some points and grabbed the most expensive scratch-off ticket available.
Time to scratch!
And... he came up with absolutely nothing.
He’d seen plenty of people go bankrupt over these scratch-offs, and just as he was thinking about cutting his losses...
Seth leaned in, took a look, and felt his own hands getting itchy. "It’s been a while since I’ve done this. Let me give it a shot."
Roman Rowe almost forgot. ’Didn’t he win that factory of his from a scratch-off?’
’Just like Frost Shaw and the others, his luck was just insane. Why couldn’t I have luck like that?’
’No, that’s not right,’ he thought. ’My luck is great, too. I met Lily Hart!’
He cheered up instantly. With a grin, he picked out another scratch-off ticket and started scratching it alongside Seth.
"Sigh..."
"Ah! I got something!"
A tale of two fortunes. Lily Hart looked over. "What is it?"
As she spoke, she went to look at the ticket in Seth’s hands. Roman Rowe, in a tone mixed with resignation and a hint of pride, said, "Boss Hart, it was me!"
"Oh! What did you win?" Lily Hart turned to look at his ticket.
’Hm, can’t make it out,’ she thought. But her expression remained unchanged as she tossed the ticket into the Lucky Cat, awaiting its verdict.
It spat out a small card.
Lily Hart immediately sensed this was no simple prize.
’Usually, when a card comes out, it means it’s a grand prize!’
She picked it up and read: Teddy Bear. The fine print on the back added: *Can grow and shrink. Combat Power: Five Stars. Can protect its beloved owner.*
Lily Hart wanted to laugh. Before Roman Rowe could get a clear look, she tossed the card back into the Lucky Cat’s mouth.
Roman Rowe yelped, "Hey! What was it? I didn’t see!"
"You’ll find out in a second," Lily Hart said, not forgetting to roll her eyes at him. ’Always so loud and excitable.’
After a flash of white light, a palm-sized, brown teddy bear appeared before them.
Its big, round eyes were adorable, and it sat on the tabletop with its short arms and legs, looking endearingly simple.
Roman Rowe’s eyes went wide, rivaling the bear’s in their roundness.
He wailed, "What is this? How come other people get delicious food or fun toys? Can I eat this doll?"
Lily Hart had the urge to punch him in the head. "Try to form a connection with it. See if you can make it grow bigger."
"Huh?" Roman Rowe didn’t understand, but he did as she said.
He picked up the little bear, held it up to eye level, and stared into its eyes.
A strange current of energy shot through his mind and into the little bear.
Roman Rowe clearly heard a BZZT... sound. The next second, it felt as if he had truly become one with the little bear.
He was overjoyed. He tried to control the little bear the same way he controlled his superpower.
He commanded in his mind, ’Grow!’
But... the little bear didn’t change at all. Its big, round eyes just stared back at him innocently.
Roman Rowe instinctively turned to go complain to Lily Hart, putting the little bear back on the table as he did.
The second he turned away, the little bear, which hadn’t been placed securely on the table, tumbled off and fell outside the RV.
"Holy shit!" Seth exclaimed. He had been about to scratch another ticket but looked up to see a shocking scene.
An enormous, lifelike teddy bear stood in front of the RV. It was taller than the two-story vehicle, so massive it seemed to blot out the sky.
From the looks of it, it was still growing. Seth yelled, "Roman Rowe, your prize!"
"Huh?" Roman Rowe, who had just reached Lily Hart’s side, heard the shout and turned back around.