Chapter 209: Long Time No See
Leo Colby stood up and walked over to her. At 178 cm, Rose Rhodes was tall for a woman.
She was only shorter than Leo Colby by about half a head. She looked up at him and said, "Long time no see."
He glanced down at her slightly. She hadn’t changed a bit, still with that fierce-looking expression.
Leo Colby nodded in acknowledgment and led the way toward the stairs. Rose Rhodes followed, half a step behind him.
The atmosphere was quite silent as they went upstairs, thick with a trace of awkwardness.
The hotel now had four floors. Leo Colby arrived at the fourth and casually pushed open an unoccupied room.
They walked in, one after the other. Rose Rhodes glanced around. The furnishings and decor inside were all very new, and there was a faint, pleasant scent.
It was refreshing and invigorating.
"Bed, wardrobe, air conditioner, kitchen, balcony, bathroom," Leo Colby recited like a robot.
He would point to a feature as he passed it, his utterly robotic tone making the whole thing quite comical.
Rose Rhodes’s mind had been a whirlwind of thoughts, but his tone and expression amused her, and the tangled mess in her head instantly vanished.
"And water and electricity?" Rose Rhodes asked.
"Use as much as you want," Leo Colby said flatly.
After a while, you stopped thinking it was such a big deal.
But to someone who didn’t know better, like Rose Rhodes, it seemed incredible—a sign of immense resources and vision.
The room was neither large nor small, so it didn’t take long to look around.
They stood side-by-side on the balcony. Rose Rhodes leaned on the railing with both hands, while Leo Colby crossed his arms.
Both silently gazed toward the lottery shop. After a long while, Rose Rhodes said, "You’ve found a good gig for yourself."
"You too," he replied. His voice sounded a bit resentful, tinged with a hint of bitterness.
Hearing this, Rose Rhodes turned slightly to look at him and said helplessly, "You know I had no choice."
"Mm," Leo Colby replied faintly, not saying anything more.
After a while, Leo Colby turned and left the balcony, tossing a line over his shoulder. "Tour’s over. Are you booking the room or not? If not, hurry up and leave."
Rose Rhodes sighed, also turning away from the balcony and sliding the door shut behind her.
They went downstairs, one after the other. On the way, a customer greeted Leo Colby, but he only responded with a faint "Mm."
’As aloof as ever,’ Rose Rhodes thought.
After leaving the Dawn Hotel, Rose Rhodes returned to Central Command. She’d learned a lot today and needed to sort through it all.
Night fell, but everyone’s enthusiasm remained as high as ever.
Lily Hart felt a bit worried as she watched. She hadn’t expected Central Command to have so many people—hundreds of thousands, she estimated...
Her little lottery shop could only handle so much foot traffic.
At dinnertime, everyone dragged their exhausted bodies upstairs, looking listless, as if they’d been put through the wringer.
As soon as he sat down, Seth announced, "It’s upgraded. Finally upgraded. We can now produce a thousand fast-food meals a day, and a new clothing production line is open."
With that said, he propped his head on one hand, rested his other arm on the table, and looked ready to fall asleep.
He was already a quiet, introverted person. Suddenly having to socialize so intensely with so many people was tiring. Truly tiring.
Lily Hart applauded him. "That’s amazing! Amazing!"
But for the massive population of Central Command, it was still far from enough.
When Roman Rowe heard this, he immediately leaned in, wracking his brain to boast, "We also earned lots and lots of points today! More than ever before!"
"Wow! That’s amazing! Amazing!" Lily Hart applauded him too.
Hehe, she added an extra "Wow!" for him compared to Seth. She was clearly more impressed. Hehe. Roman Rowe was satisfied.
Frost Shaw shot the two a disdainful look. ’So, so childish! Of course, he himself was much more mature and composed.’
Lily Hart always made sure to give everyone equal attention. After praising Seth and Roman Rowe, she couldn’t leave Frost Shaw out, of course.
She happened to be standing while the three of them were sitting, so she went over and patted each of them on the head.
"You did a great job, too~" she said to Frost Shaw, her voice soft, its pitch rising at the end.
Frost Shaw had his head turned away, pretending not to care about their antics. But now, the corners of his mouth slowly curled up, and the tips of his ears quietly turned red.
Everyone was tired today, so they decided not to cook. Time to eat out! They had to eat out!
In reality, that just meant buying food from the system’s mall.
Soon, the table was filled with food again. The five little guys were tired too; they had talked more today than at any of the previous bases.
On the other hand, the people here were more civilized and easier to talk to, and they really did have a lot of Crystal Cores.
Even the system sent a notification: [Host, the points goal for Central Command has been reached~]
"Huh?" Lily Hart was so shocked that the half-eaten chicken wing she was chewing on fell into her bowl with a dull thud.
Frost Shaw looked at her in confusion, pausing in the middle of peeling a shrimp. Roman Rowe also stopped shoveling rice into his mouth.
"What’s wrong?" the two asked in unison.
Leo Colby and Seth looked over as well. Lily Hart was usually pretty composed. Had something major happened?
Lily Hart snapped out of it and quickly waved her hands. "It’s nothing, nothing. Keep eating."
Then, she opened the system interface in her mind and purchased five automatic scratch-off machines. It was like getting a pillow just when you were feeling sleepy.
She had just been worrying about Central Command having too many people and her lottery shop being too small to accommodate them. Now, this was perfect. She could spread out some of the customer traffic.
Roman Rowe said with earnest gravity, "Lily, if something’s wrong, you have to tell us. We can solve it together. It’s not good to keep things bottled up."
Lily Hart looked up, bewildered. She wouldn’t have been surprised to hear those words from anyone else, but coming from Roman Rowe, it was just too funny.
"Pfft... What could be wrong with me?" Lily Hart laughed.
Then she remembered the matter of The Mysterious Clan from earlier today. ’I should probably tell them,’ she thought. ’Otherwise, if we run into them, everyone will be clueless.’
"Do you guys know about The Mysterious Clan?"
Aside from Seth, who shook his head in complete confusion, the other three all looked more or less unnatural.
"Looks like you all know about it?" Lily Hart asked.
A flash of insight struck her. ’Shaw Family... Frost Shaw... According to the usual novel conventions, the surnames of people around the protagonist were generally unique.’
So, was there a connection between the Shaw Family and Frost Shaw? She had to have a serious talk with Frost about this.
The Shaw Family was the one targeting her the most right now. That much was clear from Rose Rhodes’s warning to "be careful of the Shaw Family" and the burly man who had come to cause trouble that afternoon.
"I know a little, but not much," Leo Colby said first.
Lily Hart raised her eyebrows at him. "Then tell us what you know, and we’ll pool our information."
"The Mysterious Clan consists of four families: Shaw, Rivers, White, and O’Malley. The Shaw Family provides water resources to the major bases, the Rivers Family provides food, and the White and O’Malley families jointly provide weapons and medicine."
"And the first major base, Central Command, was established with the help of The Mysterious Clan. Publicly, they don’t manage anything and only provide resources, but behind the scenes, they have infiltrated every department at every level."
Hearing this, Lily Hart couldn’t help but turn and look toward the magnificent gates of Central Command.
It made sense. At the beginning of the apocalypse, humanity was still in a state of panic. Without help, how could they have built such a massive base?
"Later, under Central Command’s leadership, official bases of all sizes were established. In fact, even the exchange system was proposed by The Mysterious Clan."
Lily Hart remembered now. Back at the very beginning, in Rebirth Base, she had heard someone say that the base distributed a fixed quota of water and food every day.