LOSS System: Last Store Standing

While Jack was upstairs, the store fell quiet.

Cass, Reed, and Vane still stood beside the checkout counter, holding the supplies they had just traded for. For a while, none of them seemed to have fully processed what had just happened.

After a while, the three of them slowly came back to themselves. They looked at the rows of shelves in front of them, but none of them moved first.

Vane suddenly said in a low voice, “He really trusts us.”

Cass and Reed both nodded without thinking.

Cass looked around and could not help saying, “How about… we take a look at what’s here?”

Reed immediately looked at him. “No. Jack trusts us. We can’t betray that trust.”

Cass rolled his eyes at him. “I didn’t say we should take anything. Just look.”

After saying that, he raised his head and called toward the second floor, “Jack, can we look around the store?”

Jack’s casual voice came from upstairs. “Sure. Look around all you want.”

After a pause, he added, “Oh, right. Go to the storage room and bring out the folding table. We’ll need it for lunch later. Grab a few chairs too.”

Cass immediately answered, “Got it!”

With Jack’s permission, the three of them headed toward the shelves.

This time, they looked much more carefully than yesterday.

Cass drifted toward the nearest shelf first.

At first, he had thought Jack’s store only had more bread and bottled water than usual. But up close, he realized the shelves were filled with far more than that—canned food, snacks, drinks, and things he could not even name.

Cass stared for a long moment.

“This is… this is…”

Then he gave up trying to say anything at all.

Reed had stopped near the checkout counter.

Behind it was an entire wall of medicine. He stood there for a long time, unable to look away.

“If Mom were here,” he said quietly, “she wouldn’t want to leave.”

Vane stopped in front of another shelf.

This one was filled with toys and decorations: small cars, building blocks, dolls, and several clear round balls tucked into one corner. His gaze settled on one of them.

Inside the clear ball was a tiny house, with white flakes scattered across the bottom. Vane picked it up and gave it a gentle shake. The white flakes rose slowly inside the ball, drifting around the little house.

It looked almost exactly like the snow the elders used to talk about.

For some reason, he thought of Ava.

Maybe he could let her see what snow looked like.

The thought had barely formed before Vane shook his head and set the snow globe back in place.

Jack had already given them too much.

He could not ask for more just because he wanted something.

He would ask before they left. If Jack was not willing to give it away, then Vane would find something to trade for it.

After the three of them had roughly looked around the store, Cass finally remembered what Jack had told them earlier.

“Come on. Let’s get the table out first.”

Reed nodded and followed him to the storage room. The two of them soon found the folding table and a few chairs, then moved them out and set them up near the checkout counter.

Jack came back down soon after, carrying the plates.

There were three freshly cooked steaks, each with mashed potatoes and a few slices of bread on the side. He also brought three bottles of Coke from the freezer and handed one to each of them.

The coldness against their palms was so unfamiliar that none of them spoke at first.

After a while, Vane finally said quietly, “So this is what real cold feels like.”

The table went quiet after that.

Cass looked at the Coke in his hand, and the smile on his face faded a little.

“I used to hear the elders say the Old World had a lot of cold things. They said snow would fall from the sky, and the whole ground would turn cold,” he said. “Back then, I thought they were exaggerating. I didn’t even know what snow was. I just thought, with weather like this, how could anything possibly be cold?”

For a moment, Jack did not know what to say.

Cass soon shook the Coke in his hand again and smiled.

“But now I believe it. So this is what real cold feels like.”

Jack smiled too.

“Come on. Let’s eat.”

The few of them sat down and began eating.

Halfway through the meal, Cass finally could not hold back anymore and asked, “Jack, that hose outside… why are you letting the water keep running?”

The other two also looked at Jack.

This matter was clearly still stuck in their minds. Cass truly could not understand why Jack would do something so wasteful.

Jack paused.

He could not exactly say it was because of a system mission.

After a beat, he put on his most casual tone. “The ground out there is too dry. What’s wrong with giving it some water?”

Cass’s expression became complicated.

“The ground is too dry… so you give it water?”

Jack shrugged. “Yeah. What else? Whenever the wind blows, there’s dust everywhere. If the ground is a little wet, at least less sand will fly around, right? You don’t understand something that simple?”

Cass opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he swallowed it back down. Reed and Vane did not look much better.

Clearly, they thought Jack was not only wasteful, but also willful.

Their reactions made Jack relax a little.

Good. They bought it.

Jack moved on before they could keep dwelling on the water.

“Anyway, forget the hose for now. Let’s talk about something serious. If I wanted to hire you, would you be interested?”

The three of them paused.

Cass looked at him. “Hire us?”

Jack nodded. “Yeah. You help me with some work, and I pay you for it.”

Cass frowned slightly. “What kind of work?”

Jack pointed outside. “Defense. After you left yesterday, that pack of Red Sand Badgers came back. Ten of them.”

Cass’s eyes widened. “Ten?”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “I managed to kill one. The rest ran off.”

Cass almost pushed himself out of his chair. “You killed one?”

Vane frowned slightly, as if something had just clicked. “No wonder there was still a smell of blood nearby when we came over.”

Reed looked toward the door. “Where’s the body?”

Then he added, “You didn’t eat it, did you?”

Jack almost choked on his Coke.

“I’m not that hungry.”

He waved a hand. “A huge bird carried it off. It came diving out of the sky and nearly scared me out of my skin.”

Vane thought for a moment, then said, “It should have been a Red Rift Hawk. They hunt Red Sand Badgers.”

Jack opened his mouth and looked at Vane.

“Red Rift Hawk?”

Vane nodded.

Jack could not help saying, “Are all the names in this place that ridiculous?”

Vane actually seemed to think about it.

“Maybe a little,” he said.

Cass burst out laughing, and even Reed let out a quiet laugh.

Jack smiled as well, then steered the conversation back.

“That’s why I want to build up some defenses. You’ve seen the situation here. Glass doors, glass windows. What are those supposed to hold off?”

This time, Cass did not answer right away. Vane also lowered his head and thought.

Reed asked, “How many people do you want?”

“I’m not picky about the number,” Jack said. “Talk it over among yourselves and send whoever you can spare. While you’re at it, help me figure out how to set up some defenses. Nothing fancy. I just need something better than standing at the door and taking every attack head-on.”

They did not agree immediately.

Vane thought for a moment and said, “We can’t agree to this right away. We need to go back and talk to Elias.”

Jack nodded. “No problem. Go back and discuss it. Tell me next time you come.”

The meal lasted longer than the three of them had expected. After they finished eating, they packed up the supplies they had traded for and prepared to leave.

Before leaving, however, Vane suddenly stopped and looked back at Jack.

“Jack.”

“Yeah?”

Vane pointed at the toy shelf from earlier.

“Can I take one of those?”

Jack followed the direction he was pointing and did not understand at first. “Which one?”

Vane walked over and picked up the small clear decoration from the shelf.

Only then did Jack understand.

“A snow globe?”

Vane lowered his head and looked at the snow globe in his hand, then nodded.

“Can I?”

Jack looked at him, then at the snow globe, and waved a hand.

“Take it. It’s not doing anything sitting here anyway.”

Vane held the snow globe and said seriously, “Thank you.”

He paused, then added, “I want to let my daughter see it.”

“What snow looks like.”

Jack wanted to say something, but in the end, he only nodded.

The three of them picked up the supplies and headed for the door.

Near the entrance, Cass stopped.

He looked back at Jack, clearly having held the question in for a while.

“Jack.”

Jack looked up. “Yeah?”

Cass met his eyes. “What exactly are you?”

The store went quiet for a moment.

Jack had no answer ready.

Cass seemed to realize that too. He waved it off, turned around, and followed Reed and Vane.

“Forget it. Next time.”

The glass door closed behind them.

Jack stood there and watched the three of them walk away.

For a while, he still did not know how he should have answered.