Chapter 452: Bar

Chapter 452: Chapter 452: Bar

After all that fuss, it was time for lunch again. ’Seriously, it feels like all we do all day is eat.’

But everyone especially loved to eat. With a silent understanding, the group headed for the kitchen and quickly got to work.

Outside the lottery shop, the hail was all absorbed by the Protective Shield, since the area was within its safe zone. Nothing hit the ground.

It was as if a transparent dome covered everyone’s heads. The customers looked up to watch.

They could see the hail smashing against something in midair with a RAT-A-TAT-TAT, then vanishing without a trace.

After observing for a while and seeing that they were in no danger, they finally relaxed and started playing their scratch-off tickets.

Some customers who had won dolls yesterday but hadn’t completed their sets were anxious to get back to the claw machines.

They were afraid that if they were a step too slow, the doll they wanted would be snatched up by someone else.

While the claw machine area was buzzing with activity, the scratch-off tickets were also selling in an orderly fashion.

Still, there weren’t many customers—mostly just survivors who hadn’t entered Central Command to shelter from the cold, or guests who were long-term residents of the hotel.

Suddenly, a girl caught Lily Hart’s eye.

She approached from a distance, her steps light. She was quite tall and stood out from the crowd like a crane among chickens.

As she drew closer, Lily Hart got a clear look at her face and counted at least ten piercings.

There was a lip ring and a stud through her left eyebrow.

And her ears, needless to say, had at least three each to start.

HISS—Lily Hart sucked in a sharp breath, instinctively feeling a phantom pain on the girl’s behalf.

’Getting my own ears pierced hurt a little,’ she thought. ’Does that not hurt her at all? Or is she just used to it?’

But all those shiny studs, combined with the girl’s flirtatious yet bold features, created a unique and very cool look.

She was currently selecting scratch-off tickets with a cold expression on her face. For some reason, she frowned, causing her eyebrow stud to move as well.

Lily Hart automatically supplied a cool voice for her in her head. ’What is all this trash?’

’Mm, what a cool girl.’

She rested her chin in her hand, watching the cool girl select her scratch-offs.

Suddenly, the girl outside looked up, her eyes meeting Lily Hart’s curious, assessing gaze.

The girl raised an eyebrow, whistled, and asked flirtatiously, "What’re you lookin’ at?"

As she spoke, her bright red tongue peeked out, and Lily Hart saw that she also had a tongue stud, glinting silver.

Lily Hart laughed instinctively, smoothly playing along with the "teasing." She mimicked the girl’s flirtatious tone and replied, "Looking at you... because you’re good-looking~"

The girl clearly hadn’t expected that response. When it sank in, her eyes darted away as she tried to act tough. "Oh, a smooth talker, are we?"

"Of course~" Lily Hart said smugly, her lips curling into a grin.

’I actually kind of like this girl,’ she thought. ’She’s so refreshingly direct.’

The girl didn’t respond further. She took the handful of scratch-off tickets she’d selected, paid for them, and started scratching.

Lily Hart rested her chin in her hands and watched from inside as the girl diligently scratched her tickets outside.

Lunch wasn’t ready yet, and Lily Hart was bored. She was always chattier when she met someone she clicked with, so she decided to strike up a conversation.

"When did you get all those piercings? It couldn’t have been before the apocalypse. How old were you back then?"

"How old do you think I am?" the girl asked, not answering the question directly.

Lily Hart considered this. "Hmm..." She scanned the girl from head to toe.

’Bold features, tons of piercings, and she’s probably around five-foot-eleven.’

Her every action and her entire demeanor screamed that she was a mature woman.

’But I can’t just judge by appearances. Anyone would mature after scraping by in the apocalypse for a decade.’

She ventured cautiously, "Around twenty-five?"

The girl kept scratching, not pausing, but let out another whistle—this one loud, clear, and melodic.

Lily Hart’s eyes lit up. ’Did I guess right?’

Then, the girl slowly shook her head. "Wrong." 𝖿𝖗ⅇℴ𝑚

’Tch, then why’d you whistle? And here I was, thinking I was such a good judge of character, getting it right on the first try.’

While Lily Hart was deep in thought, the girl had already finished scratching one of her tickets. It wasn’t a winner.

She looked up and saw Lily Hart propping her head up, a look of intense concentration on her face. The corner of her mouth quirked into a smile.

Suddenly, she didn’t have the heart to make her guess anymore. "I’m seventeen."

Lily Hart’s eyes widened. ’She’s so young! That means when the apocalypse started, she was only... seven?’

To have to go through something so cruel at such a young age... The mere thought of it was unbearable to Lily Hart.

But she hadn’t just survived; she had raised herself well and done the things she wanted to do.

And gotten all the piercings she wanted.

Lily Hart was genuinely impressed and gave the girl a thumbs-up.

When the girl wasn’t smiling, she looked a bit cold and audacious. But when she smiled, she was charming without being the slightest bit tacky.

She was smiling now, and the various studs on her face glinted, momentarily dazzling Lily Hart.

She looked down and continued scratching. Several tickets in a row were losers, but she didn’t seem discouraged in the slightest and just bought more.

Lily Hart continued to make small talk with her. She was a sucker for a pretty face, whether it belonged to a man or a woman...

"What’s your name? Where did you come from? I’ve never seen you around Central Command before."

The girl answered casually, "Linnie Shaw. I’d been living outside, but my place was destroyed in the hailstorm today. So, I’m just out looking for a new home."

The few short sentences were enough for Lily Hart to hear the heartbreak behind them.

She pointed to the hotel. "You could stay there! It’s clean and safe, and the security is top-notch."

Linnie Shaw knew about the hotel but hadn’t considered staying, so she merely nodded.

After a few more losing scratch-off tickets, Linnie Shaw decided to cut her losses and turned to leave.

Lily Hart tried to convince her to stay. "Just one more! All those losses were just building up your good luck. Here, let me pick one for you!"

’As the owner, I can’t play myself, but picking one for a customer isn’t against the rules.’

Linnie Shaw paused, then reluctantly took the ticket. She paid with a Crystal Core and began to scratch.

Lily Hart was getting nervous. This was the kind of situation she hated—when someone had a losing streak of seven or eight tickets.

It could go one of two ways: either their competitive spirit would be ignited and they’d refuse to stop until they won, or they’d get completely disheartened and swear off scratch tickets forever.

Before Linnie Shaw had even finished looking at the fully scratched ticket, Lily Hart declared from experience, "You won!"

Linnie Shaw raised an eyebrow at her, then looked closely at the ticket again. It was, in fact, a winner.

Her furrowed brow relaxed, and she inserted the scratch-off ticket into the Lucky Cat.

It spat out a small card. Lily Hart saw it and thought, ’Perfect. This prize will probably be enough to make her stick around.’

Linnie Shaw picked up the card and read it with a frown. "A bar?"

"That’s it? Just that one word?" Lily Hart grumbled. ’The system is really getting stingy with its words these days!’

"Yeah. Let’s just redeem it," Linnie Shaw said.

Before Lily Hart had time to stop her, she had already thrust the card into the machine with nimble fingers.

A flash of white light, and a bizarrely styled bar appeared before them.

The exterior walls were boldly colored, composed mostly of bright hues, but they weren’t jarring in the least. In fact, they blended together harmoniously.

It wasn’t just the colors that were bold; the shape was also incredibly novel. The building as a whole looked like a giant coin, standing vertically on the ground with a circular hole in its center.

From a distance, it really did look like a giant, multicolored coin.

But Lily Hart was standing so close that she had to crane her neck back just to get a decent look at it.

She was baffled. ’This doesn’t look like a bar. What kind of bar is shaped like a giant coin?!’