Chapter 495: First Prize: Vegetable Market

Chapter 495: Chapter 495: First Prize: Vegetable Market

They didn’t have the funds for now, but that didn’t stop the two of them from calling over Director Elliot Chapman. The three men gathered around Lily Hart’s Light Brain, examining it from all angles.

Elliot Chapman was a man of pure focus. His eyes held nothing but a yearning for the research institute, and the more he looked, the more he liked what he saw. He slammed his right fist into his left palm.

"Elder Shaw, I want this!" Elliot Chapman exclaimed passionately, pointing at the Light Brain like a child begging an adult for a new toy.

Given the age gap between them, the comparison was surprisingly apt.

Elder Shaw, of course, wanted it too. But funds were extremely tight—he’d just bought several dozen apartment buildings, after all.

Some people have love life emergencies; Central Command was having a full-blown financial emergency.

Taking advantage of the much warmer weather, Elder Shaw had sent The Powers Corps out that very morning to kill zombies and harvest Crystal Cores in an effort to cover the deficit.

Elliot Chapman noticed Elder Shaw’s predicament and obediently fell silent, but he couldn’t stop his eyes from darting back to the Light Brain.

’I really, really like it. I want it so badly.’

’If we just had this equipment, we wouldn’t have to worry about our research stalling any longer.’

Elliot Chapman asked, "How many Crystal Cores does it cost, Boss Hart?"

"One hundred thousand," Lily Hart replied calmly.

"Huh?" Elliot Chapman’s eyes went wide. Even though he was completely absorbed in his research, he knew that was an astronomical figure. He had no idea when Elder Shaw would ever be able to afford it.

He gave up all hope and offered Elder Shaw a perfunctory word of comfort. "It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I’ll head back and help them move bricks."

And he meant that literally.

The research institute had suffered the worst of the collapse and was now just a pile of rubble. To save money, everyone had decided to salvage and stack whatever bricks were still usable.

They were clearing out the ruins to see if any equipment could be salvaged. Every little bit helped.

After all, they were dirt poor.

Elder Shaw waved him to a stop. "Director Chapman, just give us a little time. I promise we’ll get that research institute for you!"

If they didn’t, they’d have to rebuild using only the handful of bricks and equipment left in the rubble. An institute built like that would be a temporary fix at best.

Buying a new one was the only truly practical solution.

Elliot Chapman nodded earnestly. "Elder Shaw, I believe in you! But if that’s not possible..." His gaze shifted to Lily Hart.

"Boss Hart, could you lend us one hundred thousand Crystal Cores? The moment our base has the money, we’ll pay you back immediately!" Elliot Chapman declared, his voice full of conviction.

Lily Hart fell silent. ’Should I trust them?’

She was about to refuse when she met Elliot Chapman’s ardent, sincere gaze. Glancing to the side, she saw that Logan Holland’s and Elder Shaw’s eyes were also full of supplication.

"That’s too large a sum. I can’t come up with it myself," she said.

’That’s ten million points, after all. There’s no way I could get my hands on that much so quickly, not when I have to spend five hundred thousand every day just to duplicate the shop.’

Disappointment inevitably crept onto Elliot Chapman’s face. "All right. It’s okay."

Lily turned to the system. "Do we have any software or function that’s like a bank? Something that can lend money and collect interest, or let people make deposits."

"Look forward to someone scratching one," the system replied robotically.

Lily cursed under her breath. ’Stupid system, lousy system, damned system.’

The system sneezed silently, quietly accepting all of her insults.

Lily said, "Don’t lose hope. Maybe someone will scratch a ’bank’ from a card. Then you’d have a place to borrow money. But you’d definitely have to pay it back, of course."

Elder Shaw and the others’ moods rode a rollercoaster with Lily’s words. He said, "Of course we’d pay it back. We can only hope someone scratches a bank now."

After a bit more small talk, Lily headed back. She was in a hurry to get to lunch.

Just as Lily returned to the RV, the final dish was being placed on the table. Everyone had timed the cooking perfectly so she could eat a hot meal the moment she got back.

"Huh? It’s this late and you haven’t started eating yet?"

Lily glanced at the time. It was almost one o’clock. They usually started eating at twelve on the dot.

Frost Shaw said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "You said you were finished in the group chat, right? We started cooking then so we could wait and eat with you."

"Oh~" Lily giggled. She had asked why they hadn’t eaten yet, but inwardly, she was deeply content.

’Everyone was thinking about me.’

Roman Rowe had been starving for a while and had already started eating. He quickly shoveled a few mouthfuls of rice into his mouth before asking, "How are things at Central Command?"

"They’re doing okay," Lily Hart reported truthfully. "They bought twenty residential buildings, which is barely enough room for everyone. They also want to buy a research institute, but they don’t have enough Crystal Cores."

What surprised everyone was the idea that you could even *buy* a research institute.

But then they thought, if you could get a high-speed rail station, why not a research institute? And so, they accepted it just as quickly.

"So what are they going to do?" Leo Colby asked.

"I don’t know. Probably send more people out to kill zombies for Crystal Cores? But the base also needs people for cleanup and rebuilding. They’re short-handed everywhere!" Lily lamented.

As she said the words "kill zombies," Lily secretly glanced over at Owen Warren to see how he would react.

The others fell silent. There was nothing they could do to help, so it was best not to get too involved.

The meal was over quickly. As Lily was helping organize the scratch cards, someone outside suddenly called out to her. "What is it?" she asked.

Someone handed her a small card. Emblazoned on it were three large words that instantly chased away her drowsiness. She took it excitedly.

She shouted in excitement, "What? A fresh food market? Am I seeing things? Come, come, Diana Sharp, take a look at this!"

Diana Sharp and Tina Jacobs both crowded around to look. It really was a fresh food market. "Lily, you’re not seeing things!" Diana confirmed.

After a few moments of excitement, Lily finally asked the card’s owner, "Well? Want to redeem your prize now? I have a feeling this one is going to be incredible!"

The owner of the card nodded immediately. "Of course! If not now, when!"

Satisfied, Lily quickly stuffed the small card into the Lucky Cat’s mouth. A beam of white light flashed, and everyone’s eyes followed it.

When the white light vanished, the true form of the fresh food market was revealed.

It was a massive, single-story, bungalow-style market, its interior divided into dozens of sections.

All perfectly neat and orderly.

There were stalls for selling vegetables, seafood, and all kinds of meat.

Lily couldn’t wait to get out of the RV. The market’s new owner hurried after her, both of them eager to see what it was really like inside.

Inside, the market was completely empty.

Viewed from above, each section was a perfect, neatly arranged square.

The stalls each had two small doorways for entry and exit, and the vegetable stalls even had two-tiered shelves for displaying produce.

The seafood stalls, meanwhile, were equipped with water tanks for temporarily keeping fish, shrimp, and the like.

Though it was empty, Lily was still excited as she walked a full circuit of the market.

She walked from the first stall to the last, and then all the way back to the first again. The sheer size of the market was incredible.

It wasn’t hard to imagine the magnificent sight it would be once filled with all sorts of vegetables, meats, and seafood.

She was very satisfied. ’Finally, a fresh food market!’

The market’s owner, trailing behind her, was also thrilled. He’d never expected to scratch such a major prize.

The smile hadn’t left his face since the moment he’d redeemed it.