Chapter 266: Custom Bullets
’Unless I drive my RV out to hunt them down one by one. But as if I have that kind of time!’
’Running this lottery shop is already more than enough work! I can’t just abandon all these desperate customers to go on a personal killing spree.’
She had her own life to live.
Seeing her lost in thought, Elder Shaw continued, "Right now, the White Family, the Shaw Family, and the Rivers Family all have a problem with you. I’m afraid they might team up to deal with you."
’The Rivers Family is mad because I hurt Cheryl Rivers, but why are the White and Shaw Families being so ridiculous? Is it just because I opened a lottery shop? Am I getting in their way?’
"Let them come. It’d be a perfect chance to wipe them all out in one go," Lily Hart said defiantly, unconsciously crossing her legs. ’This is perfect. It saves me the trouble of hunting them down one by one.’
"Oh, you!" Elder Shaw chuckled fondly, pointing a wavering finger at her as if watching his own mischievous granddaughter.
"Hehe," Lily Hart grinned sheepishly. "Right, what brings you here this time?"
Elder Shaw’s smile vanished, and his expression turned serious. "The plan proposed at the last meeting has been officially initiated. It’s called the Elimination Plan. The goal is to reclaim territory that belongs to humanity and eliminate High-level mutated creatures and zombies."
"They had it all figured out, thinking they could just freeload supplies from you, but you refused them time and again..." Elder Shaw paused for a moment. "And good on you for refusing!"
Lily Hart was stunned. It was the first time she had ever seen Elder Shaw speak like that.
"This time, they’ve sent me to procure supplies from you, supposedly in preparation for the Elimination Plan. But the budget they’ve given me is nowhere near enough!" Elder Shaw said, exasperated.
"What’s the budget?" Lily Hart asked curiously.
Elder Shaw held up five fingers. Lily Hart ventured a guess, "Fifty thousand Level 1 Crystal Cores?" She was basing that guess on Central Command’s typical stinginess.
Fifty thousand might sound like a lot, but when it came to procuring supplies, it was a drop in the bucket.
Elder Shaw shook his head and said with disgust, "Five thousand Level 1 Crystal Cores!"
"..." ’So I really did overestimate them.’
Even Elder Shaw found it ridiculous. What could they possibly buy with five thousand Level 1 Crystal Cores? Even though Lily Hart’s prices were very low, the sheer quantity of supplies needed was massive.
Lily Hart mulled it over for a moment, her fingertips tapping on the tabletop. "How many people are they planning to send on this Elimination Plan? How many High-level Superpower Users? And how many logistics personnel?"
"The initial plan is two hundred superpower users of the Fifth Rank and above, including twenty of the Sixth Rank and ten of the Seventh Rank. There will also be fifty logistics personnel," Elder Shaw said.
’That’s not a lot of people. By that math, five thousand Crystal Cores might actually be enough.’
"Send me the procurement list, let me see." Lily Hart raised an eyebrow, casually picking up an orange and starting to peel it. Once she was done, she offered half to Elder Shaw.
"Alright," Elder Shaw replied, naturally accepting the orange half she offered. He then searched for the procurement list on his Light Brain and forwarded it to Lily Hart.
Lily Hart opened it. The very first item was something she didn’t have: firearms.
She’d have to buy them from the system’s store herself, and she rarely purchased such items. At that thought, Lily Hart immediately went to check the prices in the store.
Jeez, they were expensive.
This type of equipment was strictly controlled in any era. A handgun that came with five hundred bullets cost 99,999 points.
A handgun with infinite bullets, on the other hand, cost 999,999 points.
Converting the price of the five-hundred-bullet handgun into Crystal Cores, it came out to one thousand Level 1 Crystal Cores.
With Central Command’s budget, they could only buy five handguns. Still, it was a pretty good deal. That was five hundred bullets, and a single bullet was enough to kill an ordinary person.
In the apocalypse, handguns and bullets were sold separately and were only in the hands of a select few.
They were non-renewable resources; the factories that produced firearms no longer existed. Sometimes, a single bullet could be sold for an astronomical price.
Thinking about it that way, Lily Hart didn’t think it was so expensive anymore. The main problem was that Central Command couldn’t afford it.
She simply showed the Light Brain’s screen to Elder Shaw. "Here. You can buy five of these handguns. Want them? I can place the order right now, and I won’t even take a cut."
So magnanimous.
The moment Elder Shaw saw the long string of numbers, he knew this wasn’t simple. He counted the digits carefully, converted it back into Crystal Cores, and then thought about his budget.
He was instantly rendered speechless.
’Spend the entire budget on five handguns? He could already imagine being torn to shreds for it. He wasn’t about to do something that stupid.’
"Are there any cheaper ones? The kind with a hundred bullets would be fine too." Elder Shaw lowered his expectations.
Lily Hart kept searching and did indeed find one. It was much cheaper than the five-hundred-bullet model, costing only 29,999—just under thirty thousand points. Converted to Crystal Cores... that was three hundred cores.
’So they could buy sixteen of them. Wow, so many. Not even close to enough for one per person.’
Elder Shaw: ’...Still too expensive. No, I should say, the budget is too small!’
He read the handgun’s detailed description. Its power was immense, and it could even be customized. The seller could develop bullets specifically designed to target mutated creatures.
When they both saw the words "Can Be Customized," the same idea popped into their heads simultaneously.
This gave Lily Hart another question. "By the way, Central Command has been around for ten years, right? The research institute must have been running for at least eight or nine years. Don’t they have any research results to show for it?"
"They have no special methods for dealing with mutated creatures? I’ve seen that ’Zombies Go Away’ potion for zombies, but what the hell have they been doing all day?" Lily Hart said bluntly.
From what she understood so far, their achievements amounted to a "Zombies Go Away" potion, a disgustingly bad black jelly, and a not-very-useful Light Brain.
’Is that really all they could accomplish in ten years? Aren’t they slacking off just a little too much?’
Her words made Elder Shaw a bit awkward. The director of the institute had just died a few days ago, his head traded for a small clump of soil, but even then, there was reportedly no progress.
He could only sigh. He didn’t understand R&D, but he knew the research institute had always been well-resourced. They were generally given whatever they asked for.
If they wanted samples of mutated creatures, a dedicated team of superpower users would risk their lives to retrieve them. Yet even after being coddled and provided for like this, they still had no results.
Elder Shaw also found it bizarre. ’What in the world are those people doing with their time?!’
But it had been like this for ten years. If they wanted to change things, they would need a complete overhaul of the staff.
Obviously, that was impossible. The relationships within the research institute were a tangled mess. One researcher might be backed by the White Family, another by the Shaw Family.
Forget an overhaul; it was impossible to even touch the main researchers.
As Elder Shaw thought about it, he sighed again. Not wanting to make him feel awkward, Lily Hart changed the subject. "It’s fine. Everyone’s just part of a makeshift crew, right? These bullets can be customized. Want to give it a try?"
"Alright." Elder Shaw decided to pay for the custom bullets out of his own pocket.
So Lily Hart helped him inquire about the price of custom bullets. And wow, they were outrageously expensive. Plus, they weren’t off-the-shelf items; the seller would have to research the characteristics of the mutated creatures first.
Delivery time... To be determined.
"Forget it, then? Should we just buy the normal ones? At least they’re useful against humans," Lily Hart asked tentatively.
Her words made Elder Shaw feel both heartbroken and amused. They were all one species and should be united, yet in the end, the muzzles of their guns were pointed at their own kind.
"Alright," Elder Shaw agreed. There was nothing else he could do.