Chapter 511: Frederick Shaw’s Blood?

Chapter 511: Chapter 511: Frederick Shaw’s Blood?

With that thought, he reached out and poked the soft seat cushion with a finger.

He focused his will. ’Huh? Why didn’t it go into my storage space? I don’t believe it.’ He tried again. ’Why is it still here? Something’s not right.’

He tried to copy the other man and straddle the scooter, but found he couldn’t even touch the seat.

Instead, an invisible pair of hands held him by the rear, leaving him hovering in mid-air.

’What’s going on? Do I have to scan the code? Does that mean they charge for it?’

’What is this piece of junk? It actually costs money! Can’t it just serve the people for free?!’

His face twisted in a snarl. He kicked the scooter in a fit of anger. There was a sickening CRACK—a suspected broken toe—but the scooter didn’t budge, solid as a rock. He pulled his foot back, his face contorted in pain.

He started yelling, "Everyone, come quick! This scooter bites! I think my toe is broken! Don’t ride them!"

He was completely turning the facts upside down.

A resident who had seen the whole thing sneered. "It was obviously you who was up to no good, and now you’re blaming the scooter. If you don’t want to ride it, then don’t!"

The man’s face turned livid, and for a moment, he was at a loss for words.

The other residents couldn’t be bothered with him; the guy was always up to something shady.

Everyone’s attention was on the electric scooters anyway. Who had the time to watch him all day? It was just pathetic.

The man who first scanned a code had already returned from a ride around the block. He looked refreshed, and when he checked the price, he exclaimed, ’Holy crap, it’s so cheap!’

The others quickly crowded around him, all talking at once as they asked their questions.

"How was it? Is it easy to ride?"

"Is it fast? Is it stable?"

"How many Crystal Cores did you spend riding for that long?"

"It must be expensive, right?"

The man answered a few of the most pressing questions on everyone’s minds. "It’s not expensive at all! If you don’t believe me, look!"

He pointed at the palm-sized screen on the scooter. "I just rode five or six kilometers and it only cost fifty points. That’s about ten points a kilometer. It’s dirt cheap!"

Hearing this, the residents immediately realized what a bargain it was. A single Crystal Core could get you a ten-kilometer ride!

Realizing how affordable it was, more residents surged forward. After a flurry of scanning and unlocking, more than half the electric scooters were gone in less than five minutes.

The man who had been up to no good earlier was starting to get antsy.

He furtively crept up to a shared bicycle, about to scan the code, but was met with sarcastic remarks.

"Oh? Didn’t you break your toe? What are you doing riding a bike? Careful you don’t injure it again~"

"Exactly. If you’re injured, you should be resting. Stop wandering around."

As they spoke, they snatched up the remaining scooters and bikes around him, leaving him with absolutely nothing but a thick cloud of embarrassment.

He clenched his fists. Seeing everyone else riding off made him even more desperate to try one.

But in the brief moment he hesitated, all one hundred and fifty vehicles were taken. He looked around—not a single one was left.

’Are these people a pack of wild dogs? Or have they just never seen anything nice before? Dammit! Like a plague of locusts, they didn’t leave a single one behind!’

At the main gate of the residential area, the electric scooters and bicycles flowed onto the main road one after another, like a school of fish swimming out to sea. A strange sense of harmony prevailed.

No one was cutting anyone off, no one was shouting curses, and no one was jumping the line. Everyone drove forward obediently, even if they didn’t have a destination in mind.

Moving forward just felt right!

Elder Shaw and his group emerged from the core district and saw the scene unfolding across the road.

For a moment, Lily Hart felt as if she had returned to the age of civilization. It was like a rare day when she’d gotten off work early and was waiting at a traffic light.

A huge, smooth-flowing wave of commuters on electric scooters and bikes would pour out from the other side of the road, radiating the simple joy of being done with work for the day.

Some rushed home to collapse on the couch and scroll through their phones, others hurried off to grab a meal, pick up their kids, or meet someone for a date.

Everyone cherished those few hours after work.

"Lily Hart?" Elder Shaw’s voice pulled her back to the present. ’This child,’ he thought, ’how does she manage to space out anytime, anywhere?’

"Huh?" Lily Hart snapped out of it, her vacant eyes slowly coming into focus on Elder Shaw and the others. ’Oh, right. I’m in the apocalypse.’

’But this apocalypse is way more fun than my old life of endless work. I’m surrounded by handsome men and can eat all the delicious food I want.’

’Plus, I can fulfill my deeply buried, chuuni dream of saving the world.’

Elder Shaw said with a gratified smile, "Things are getting better and better~ We’ll get back to the way things were one day, right?" His voice was very soft on the last word.

It was as if he were asking himself, ’You can do it, right?’

Hearing his words, Lily Hart felt an inexplicable pang of sadness. Everyone’s greatest wish was simply to go back to the way things were, to return to the age of civilization.

"We will," Lily Hart said with conviction.

An idea suddenly flashed through her mind, but she was hesitant to act on it. She asked her system, ’Hey, you know how effective my blood is... what if I drew a vial and gave it to the research institute to study?’

Alarms blared in the system’s mind, and it blurted out, ’Absolutely not, Host...’

’Why not?’ Lily Hart retorted. ’Besides, I want to know what’s in my blood, too.’

’Central Command isn’t like it was before, when The Mysterious Clan had it under their thumb. Now Elder Shaw is in charge, and Elliot Chapman runs the research institute.’

’The system has certified both of their characters, so I can trust them completely.’

’That’s why I want to let the institute figure out why my blood has these miraculous effects.’

The system’s processors whirred. ’It’s true that the function of the Host’s blood isn’t a secret to people like Frost Shaw, and there were even rumors about it before.’

’The former head of the research institute even took a sample to study.’

’Of course, I secretly swapped that sample out. It wasn’t Lily Hart’s real blood, which is why nothing ever came of it.’

’It didn’t cause any waves, and The Mysterious Clan, which had been suspicious of her blood, gradually dropped the matter after that.’

’Does this girl really want to go and squander her precious blood again? I won’t allow it!’

’I really don’t recommend it, Host... But you could try using Frederick Shaw’s blood...’ it suggested, trying to change the subject.

’Frederick Shaw?’ Lily Hart was skeptical.

She suddenly remembered how Frederick Shaw had once ignored the system’s rules to snatch someone else’s reward. She had been curious about it back then.

But she’d gotten busy and forgotten all about it. Now that the system brought it up, she remembered. ’Fine. We’ll draw his blood first.’

The group stood on the side of the road for a while longer, watching the huge wave of scooters and bikes disappear around a corner.

Lily Hart’s mind was on Frederick Shaw’s blood. She gave the others a heads-up. "I’m going to go grab a ’bombshell’ and come right back."

’A bombshell?’

Before Elder Shaw could ask her to clarify, Lily Hart had already hurried off.

As she went, she pulled out her own little electric scooter. With a swing of her long leg and a twist of the throttle, she zipped off into the distance.

Since she was going out today, she was dressed warmly. Before getting on her scooter, she had put on a pair of white, fluffy earmuffs and matching gloves, making her look utterly adorable and fuzzy.

It was already two in the afternoon by the time Lily Hart got back to the lottery shop.

Instead of going back to the RV, she headed straight for the convenience store, looking dusty from her trip.