Picking Up Sophia

Wait... wait a minute.

This couldn't be right?

Lucas took the ticket, examining it carefully, seeing it indeed said grand prize.

"Mom, you weren't scammed, were you? Did they say you won $200,000 but actually want you to buy fridges and TVs?"

This kind of bundled sales tactic was too common.

In his past life, Lucas had been tricked into winning a "first prize" iPad, only to learn he needed to pay $4,000 in phone bills first.

That was basically forced selling.

Sarah pulled out her phone, showing him the message with the bank transfer record, "No, the $200,000 was directly deposited!"

"Isn't Mom amazing!"

She happily pinched her son's smooth cheeks, "Of course, it's thanks to Lucas's luck. If I hadn't chosen Lucas's birthday number, Mom wouldn't have won this grand prize!"

"Lucas is truly Mom's lucky star!"

She stood up, absolutely thrilled, hands on hips.

"Tell Mom what you want, Lucas. Today, the Walker family's spending is on me!"

While happy, Lucas also found it unbelievable.

$200,000 was like a windfall from heaven for an ordinary family.

Could it be his Dragon Emperor's luck at work?

But from his experiments, the luck only worked when the System gave prompts.

Hmm... could this be another System bug...

Meanwhile.

The black Range Rover glided to a stop in front of the Silvermist mansion.

Luna jumped out, waving to her aunt inside, "Auntie, I'll get something, be right back!"

She ran into the mansion on her short legs.

Aria reclined lazily in the back seat, long legs crossed, her voice slightly sultry as she spoke.

"How did it go?"

In the driver's seat, a casually dressed man released the steering wheel, taking out a stack of documents from the armrest box and handing them to Aria.

"I found that Mr. Silvermist and Mrs. Silvermist had already investigated the Walker family."

"The exact purpose isn't clear, but knowing those two, it can't be good."

He paused, glancing at Aria in the rearview mirror, saying, "Additionally, the Walker family's background is clean, no special connections. The father is an executive at a local company, has a master's degree, mother has a bachelor's and was a campus beauty at North Bay University."

Aria frowned slightly, her fox-like eyes narrowing in anger, "Investigating people's backgrounds without permission is very impolite. You shouldn't have done this."

"I know."

The man shrugged, "But with the information right there, I couldn't help looking. Besides, I can't rest easy not knowing about the people Luna's interacting with."

"Scold me if you must."

Aria looked at her brother, finally leaning back in her seat with a sigh, "I really like Lucas. I'm usually very good at judging people, so in the future, don't do these unnecessary things that damage relationships."

Eric pursed his lips, "Got it, sis."

"Has the $200,000 thank-you gift been given to the Walkers?" Aria asked.

At this, Eric became animated, "Sis, I handled it perfectly! I arranged for the money to be part of a supermarket prize draw, and had the owner use Lucas's birthday as the winning number."

"Sarah was absolutely thrilled when she won."

Aria was actually surprised - her brother's unconventional thinking had produced a solution she hadn't considered.

"Well done."

She praised briefly, then looked out the window, her red lips parting, "Our war with Mr. Silvermist has only begun."

Her expression cooled, "Trying to steal my brother's inheritance? Dream on!"

...

That evening.

Mark returned home and, hearing about Sarah's $200,000 win, joined the small celebration, showering Sarah with praise.

And casually brought up the idea of "increasing" his allowance again.

Sarah was happy, but not stupid.

She used her veto power to reject Mark's proposal.

And criticized and punished his opportunistic behavior.

Allowance -$100.

Mark was on the verge of tears.

Lucas was video calling with Sophia.

The silly girl held her round face in her hands before the camera, her big eyes sparkling, "Tomorrow morning Sophia's coming back to Willowbrook! Is Lucas happy?"

Lucas, studying the Ultra Warrior stick, looked up and said, "Oh, that's nice."

According to the System, if he infused it with Dragon Power and shouted "Light Come!", a miracle would happen.

He now had a bit of Dragon Power.

But hadn't dared to try it.

Seeing his reaction, Sophia immediately pouted, "Lucas, Lucas, why don't you seem happy? Is it because when I come back, you can't play with little sister Luna anymore?"

She lay on her bed, kicking her fair little feet, "But I won't stop you from playing with little sister Luna! We're all good friends, we can play together!"

Truthfully, when first learning of Luna's existence, Sophia had been heartbroken for several days.

Her treasure was too big and amazing to hide - she'd barely been gone a few days before a little fox discovered and stole it.

But after days of self-reflection.

Sophia had come to terms with it.

She thought Lucas was right - good friends should share. As the older sister, she should be generous.

Even if... even if they ended up sleeping in the same bed, she'd definitely be the closest to Lucas!

Of course, she only meant napping, nothing else.

As experienced relationship people know.

When your boyfriend suddenly becomes distant, it's not that he doesn't love you anymore.

He might just be distracted by something.

Like "rushing B" with his bros.

Or an Ultra Warrior stick...

Lucas had no idea what this silly girl was thinking, put down the stick, "As a good friend, of course I'm happy you're coming back. Not just me, Luna will be happy too."

Sophia immediately brightened up, giggling silly.

"Then Lucas, what time are you getting up tomorrow?"

Lucas thought for a moment, "Maybe seven or eight."

Sophia continued asking, "Then where will you go after getting up?"

Lucas answered casually, "Go downstairs to exercise, have breakfast, then go home to read."

Sophia blinked her big eyes, her face suddenly turning red as she looked at him expectantly, saying softly:

"Lucas, Lucas, could you maybe, just by coincidence, very coincidentally, exercise to Willowbrook Station at 8:35? There's... there's a really good breakfast place there."

Lucas: ...

He looked at Sophia's obvious ulterior motive, understanding this silly girl's thoughts perfectly, nodding:

"Alright, then tomorrow I'll very coincidentally exercise to Willowbrook Station at 8:35, and then very coincidentally meet you at the station, and then we'll very coincidentally have breakfast together, right?"

Sophia's big eyes immediately froze, her rosy lips pouting as she looked at Lucas with complete admiration, nodding repeatedly.

"Yes, yes! Lucas is so smart! I'm so silly, I didn't think of it at all, that it would be such a coincidence!"

Lucas was amused by her silliness, saying helplessly, "Don't worry, tomorrow I'll go with your sister to pick you up. Go to bed early tonight, goodnight."

Sophia giggled silly, her little head bobbing happily, her pigtails swinging back and forth.

"Mm-hmm, Lucas, goodnight."

...