Chapter 93: Jason Lynch’s Dark History
Frost Shaw scoffed and gave him a disdainful look. He lifted himself slightly from his seat, ready to get up and walk out.
Logan Holland grew anxious. He reached across the table and grabbed Frost’s arm. "Hey, don’t be so hasty. Sit down, let’s talk this over."
’I’m just trying to give you room to raise the price. Look at this guy, storming off at the slightest disagreement! Hmph!’
Frost Shaw sat back down and tilted his chin at him, signaling for him to continue. And was Lily Hart actually off to the side, eating sunflower seeds and enjoying the show?!
"Double?" Logan Holland asked cautiously, ready to jump up and pull him back at a moment’s notice while watching his expression.
Frost Shaw fell silent, thinking. ’This price is actually pretty good. Double the money for hardly any extra effort.’
He instinctively glanced at Lily Hart, who gave him an encouraging nod. "It’s your convenience store. You call the shots."
She only took a cut; as long as he didn’t end up losing money, it was fine by her.
"Fine," Frost Shaw said with a faint nod. "But how will you pick up the goods?"
They couldn’t possibly send a helicopter every day. That would be too wasteful. Besides, there weren’t many left in all of Cathaya that were still in one piece.
That was a problem, too. Logan Holland considered it carefully. The distance from here to Central Command was 1,500 kilometers.
A helicopter would take two hours. For an ordinary person traveling on foot, it would take at least 400 hours, and that didn’t even account for the unpredictable difficulties they might encounter along the way.
Even a Speed Superpower User, as fast as they were, wouldn’t be faster than a helicopter. It would still take them two or three days, not including time for rest.
"Transportation is a major issue," Logan Holland said. "I’ll go back and discuss it with my superiors. Please stay in touch."
Lily Hart and Frost Shaw nodded, then stood up and looked at Logan Holland. Their meaning was clear: the conversation was over, and it was time for him to leave.
The three of them left the storage room. Lost in thought, Logan Holland silently returned to the hotel.
The remaining two stood in silence, but an unspoken understanding flowed between them. Lily Hart said, "The demand is probably going to be huge. You should get ready."
Frost Shaw agreed, gave her a deep look, and returned to the convenience store.
Meanwhile, Logan Holland entered the hotel lobby and cozied up to Leo Colby. "Where in the world did you get this hotel?"
"Scratched it off," Leo Colby said.
"You’re saying it was a prize you scratched off one of those scratch-off tickets?" Logan Holland asked, shocked and seeking confirmation.
"Yeah." Leo Colby glanced at him, as if his over-the-top reaction was... embarrassing.
’So you really can scratch off anything and everything. Doesn’t that mean you could get helicopters, atomic bombs, seeds, even soil? But it looks like the odds are extremely low.’
Logan Holland started chatting with Leo Colby again, asking about this and that. All Leo Colby had to do was nod and grunt "Yeah" or "Oh," and Logan would fill in the rest himself.
Heart pounding with excitement, Logan Holland returned to Room 213. First, he organized the report on Jason Lynch’s case. It was brief, almost a footnote.
Then, with great detail and elaborate descriptions, he wrote about Lily Hart’s operations. The lottery shop, the convenience store, the hotel—he reported on everything down to the smallest detail, attaching the pictures he had taken.
From photos of the scratch-off tickets before and after they were scratched, to 360-degree views of the prizes the group had won, to every detail of the hotel’s interior and the main products in the convenience store—he had taken high-definition pictures of it all.
It was all to make anyone reading the report feel like they were right there.
He sent both reports to all the high-level leaders simultaneously. As if by selective blindness, they unanimously skipped the report on Jason Lynch and opened the one about the lottery shop.
They read it from start to finish several times, cursing the fact that a Light Brain with a scent-emitting function hadn’t been invented yet!
They couldn’t help but marvel. ’Has the outside world really developed to this point? A constant, endless supply of clean tap water.’
’Mineral water, instant noodles, ham sausages, bread, and other filling foods at criminally low prices. And scratch-off tickets that could produce anything!’
’So surreal...’ The high-level leaders stared at the high-definition photos in the report and couldn’t help but gulp.
’Under the same sky, but living such different lives. Are we sure she’s living through the apocalypse? Is she even in the same time and space as us?’
The gap was just too immense. After marveling and gulping, they started furiously messaging Logan Holland: ’Win over Lily Hart immediately! Don’t even think about coming back until you’ve secured this partnership!’
Logan Holland, far away outside Nutwood Base: "..."
He had already been planning to head back to Central Command. And now... he was still planning to go back first to discuss the specific details of the cooperation with them—transportation, quantities, and so on...
’Things have come to this... I might as well get some sleep first. I was dealing with Jason Lynch’s affairs all day yesterday and barely slept a wink.’
Logan Holland lay down on the soft, clean bed, inhaling the faint, fresh scent of the covers as he slowly drifted off to sleep. Of his three bodyguards, two rested while one stood watch.
Back at Nutwood Base, Jason Lynch was removed from his post. It was temporarily being managed jointly by its high-level leaders. A new Base Commander would be arriving soon.
「And so, at 4:00 PM, the base gates finally reopened.」
Hundreds of residents swarmed out, instantly surrounding the RV. Lily Hart was once again swamped with work.
When Logan Holland woke up, he stood on the balcony stretching. Looking down, he could see the bustling RV and convenience store. Even the hotel was full of people coming and going.
’She’s really popular,’ Logan Holland mused.
’She could run a booming business anywhere. Why would she need to be tied down to Central Command?’
’If I had that kind of superpower, I’d probably be even more arrogant than her. I’d be dancing on Central Command’s head.’
But she was still just quietly selling her scratch-off tickets, living her own little life. She wasn’t blindly chasing power and status. Or perhaps, what she had right now was already the best there was.
Watching made Logan Holland’s hands itch. He took his three bodyguards and went downstairs to scratch some tickets, squeezing into the surging crowd.
There were too many people, and the previous tables and chairs weren’t enough. So, Lily Hart bought another twenty sets of long tables and benches, each designed for ten people. Squeezed together, they could fit thirteen or fourteen.
Logan Holland found a random empty spot and sat down. Just as he started scratching, he vaguely overheard someone nearby discussing something in a low voice.
"Hey, have you guys heard what happened to Jason Lynch?"
"What happened?"
The moment there was gossip, everyone’s ears perked up, afraid of missing a single juicy detail.
"Twenty years in prison! And I hear he’s going to be a guinea pig for the research institute, forced to cooperate with all sorts of inhumane experiments. They’ll do the sickest things you can imagine to him!"
The person spoke with terrifying exaggeration, but the others believed him. One by one, they hissed and started cursing Jason Lynch for being less than human and turning a perfectly good base into a toxic mess.
This person then began to list all the other disgusting things Jason Lynch had done.
Nearby, Logan Holland silently activated his Light Brain’s audio and video recording functions, his brow furrowing as he listened.
Things like abusing beautiful women, playing twisted games... every few days another beauty would meet a tragic end. He also preyed upon the good women of the base; as long as they were attractive, he had them taken away.
The experiments conducted in the base’s research institute were also all done on living people. At first, they used criminals, but later, they would just knock out any resident they took a fancy to and drag them away.
It was a classic case of "the rot starts at the top." The person even claimed that he used living people to create zombies and had once manufactured a zombie tide to surround Lily Hart, which she fortunately managed to overcome.
Logan Holland’s brow was knitted tightly. He couldn’t even bring himself to scratch the tempting ticket in front of him anymore. He stood up, left, and headed for Nutwood Base.
’It seems there’s a lot more to this story that I don’t know.’