LOSS System: Last Store Standing

Nolan was the first to notice Edith, Ruth, and Helen. Realizing they were looking for Jack, he set down what he was carrying and walked over.

“Are you looking for Jack?”

“Yes,” Edith said. “But this concerns your group too. It’s not urgent, though. We can wait until everyone finishes working.”

“It’s fine. A few minutes won’t make a difference.”

Nolan called over to Jack, who was helping move lumber. Jack set down what he was carrying and joined them.

“What is it?”

Edith hesitated before speaking.

“We’ve finished planning the menu and would like to test each dish first. But we don’t have any ingredients yet. Could you provide what we need for now? We’ll settle the cost once the stall opens.”

“You’ve already finished the menu?” Jack asked with interest. “What are you planning to make?”

Edith listed the seven dishes they had decided on: salted boiled potatoes, pan-fried potato cubes, pan-fried bread slices, beef and potato stew, beef and potato patties, jerky and potato stew, and beef burgers.

Jack and Nolan were impressed.

“You’ve already come up with seven dishes?” Jack said. “That’s pretty good.”

“We just worked with the ingredients currently available,” Edith replied. “It’s nothing special.”

“Coming up with seven different dishes from the same few ingredients sounds pretty impressive to me,” Nolan said. “Have you decided on the prices too?”

“We have,” Ruth replied. “That’s why we said this concerns your group as well.”

“What are the prices?” Nolan asked.

Helen listed them for him.

“Salted boiled potatoes will cost three sun-dried bricks per serving. Pan-fried potato cubes and pan-fried bread slices will cost four each. Beef and potato stew will cost five. Beef and potato patties and jerky and potato stew will cost six. A beef burger will cost ten.”

Nolan took a moment to process the prices.

“That’s it? Will you make any profit at those prices?”

“A little,” Helen said with a smile. “Life is already difficult for everyone. There’s no need to charge too much. As long as we earn something for the work we put into cooking, that’s enough.”

Nolan fell silent for a moment.

“Thank you.”

Jack asked, “Are those special prices for Nolan’s group, or will everyone pay the same amount once the stall opens?”

“Everyone will pay the same,” Edith said.

She glanced at Nolan with a smile.

“So don’t think we’re giving your group special treatment.”

Nolan smiled but said nothing.

That was exactly what Jack had hoped to hear. Charging different customers different prices wasn’t necessarily wrong, but the market was only beginning to take shape. Keeping the prices consistent for now would prevent unnecessary disputes later.

“Work out how much of each ingredient you’ll need to make all seven dishes,” Jack told Edith. “Once you have the amounts, let me know and I’ll provide everything.”

Then another idea occurred to him.

“I already promised Nolan’s group that I’d treat everyone to a meal once we finished the trading post. Since you need people to test the dishes anyway, let’s invite everyone and turn it into a tasting event.”

The suggestion caught the three women by surprise.

“That wouldn’t be right,” Edith said quickly. “Feeding that many people would require a lot of ingredients. We only planned to make a small amount of each dish for testing.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s settled,” Jack said, cutting off her refusal. “This way, everyone can taste the food and give you feedback. If anything needs to be changed, you’ll know before the stall officially opens.”

Seeing that Jack had made up his mind, Edith accepted the arrangement.

The three women immediately got to work. Helen went to notify the others, while Edith and Ruth returned to prepare for the tasting.

Jack and Nolan returned to work.

As soon as Nolan rejoined the others, someone asked, “What did Edith and the others want with Jack?”

“They’ve already decided on the menu and prices for their stall.”

Nolan continued working as he told them about the seven dishes and their prices. When he mentioned that salted boiled potatoes would cost only three sun-dried bricks and beef and potato stew only five, several people stopped to listen.

“A dish with beef only costs five bricks?”

“And a beef burger is only ten?”

Before they could discuss the prices any further, Nolan told them that Jack was having Edith and the others prepare all seven dishes for everyone to taste.

The news immediately drew a round of cheers.

“Thank you, Jack!”

“Thank you, Boss!”

Jack was moving supplies on the other side of the trading post. Hearing the shouts, he looked over, unsure whether to laugh or complain.

“All right, that’s enough. Get back to work. If we don’t finish today, no one gets to eat!”

“No problem!”

Everyone answered together and burst out laughing. The promise of food clearly put more energy into their work.

Before long, Edith gave Jack a list of the ingredients they needed. He provided everything on it, then returned to help with the trading post.

With so many people working together, progress came quickly. Near noon, they secured the final wooden pallet to the roof, completing the trading post at last.

Everyone gathered beneath the finished structure and checked it from one end to the other. Once they were certain nothing had been missed, cheers broke out again.

Edith, Ruth, and Helen finished preparing the food around the same time. As luck would have it, Megan’s group also returned just then.

The Tesla had barely stopped when Megan and the others noticed the completed trading post.

Elias looked up at the finished roof in amazement.

“My God! We were only gone for half a day. How did you finish it already?”

Marlin burst out laughing.

“That’s what happens when you have enough people. With more than ten people working together, of course it went quickly.”

“We have Nolan and the others to thank for that,” Jack said. “If only a few of us had worked on it, who knows how long it would’ve taken?”

Nolan quickly waved away the praise.

“Don’t say that. We didn’t have anything else to do, and you’re treating everyone to a meal. We help with the work, and you provide the food. There’s nothing to thank us for.”

“In that case, could you help us with something else this afternoon?” Warren asked. “We’d like to set up the utility poles and connect the electrical lines.”

“No problem,” Nolan replied without hesitation. “Just tell us what needs to be done.”

“Perfect,” Elias said. “We found suitable lights at the electronics mall. If we can connect the lines today, then tonight, after decades without them, we’ll finally see electric lights again.”

Oscar took in those words for a moment.

“Most of you were born after the disaster, so it may not mean as much to you. But those of us who still remember the old world have been waiting decades for this day.”

“Oscar is right,” Hal called from the crowd. “But if we’re going to see electric lights again, the person we should thank most is Jack. Without him, we’d probably still be worrying about where our next meal would come from.”

The crowd went quiet for a moment.

Then someone thanked Jack. The others quickly joined in.

Caught off guard by the sudden attention, Jack hurriedly waved his hands.

“Stop, stop. I haven’t done that much. And you, Hal, why are you stirring everyone up?”

Hal only smiled, but Elias spoke seriously.

“You deserve their thanks.”

Megan moved closer to Jack and whispered with a teasing smile, “Are you touched? Are you happy?”

Jack gave her a helpless look.

Before he could answer, Edith called everyone over for the tasting.

“You’ve all been working all morning, so you must be hungry,” Edith called out. “Come eat and help us taste the dishes. If you have any suggestions, feel free to tell us.”

“No problem. Let’s see what you made.”

Cass headed toward the food first, with everyone else close behind.

The trading post quickly filled with conversation and activity. Mort had been standing at the edge of the crowd, watching everyone rush to get their food. He let out a quiet laugh before joining them.

Everyone sampled all seven dishes. Compliments rang out around the trading post, and several people took the time to explain which ones they liked best. Edith, Ruth, and Helen continued handing out food while listening carefully to the feedback.

Once everyone had eaten their fill, Warren called them back to work.

Nolan’s group stayed to help. Some continued dismantling wooden pallets, while the others began assembling the utility poles.

Elias finally found a chance to pull Jack aside.

“We took a good look around the electronics mall today. There’s far more inside than we originally thought.”

“What did you find?”

“Multipurpose cooking stations, foldable refrigerated display units, portable water purifiers, air circulation units, and portable lighting towers,” Elias said. “The multipurpose cooking stations would be especially useful. Edith and the others need cookware, and those units would be perfect for their stall.”

“We also found public handwashing and sanitizing terminals, food safety scanners, and merchandise weighing stations. We don’t have much use for the first two yet, but a weighing station would be perfect for weighing jerky.”

“Anything else?”

“Modular power distribution terminals, automatic load balancers, electrical fire suppression units, and plenty of outdoor motion sensors. But most of those would need to be installed by someone who knows what they’re doing. I’m not sure whether Warren and Oscar can handle them.”

After a brief pause, Elias continued, “There were also televisions, home theater systems, entertainment equipment, decorative lights, and plenty of things even I couldn’t identify. We didn’t have enough time to keep looking, so we came back.”

Only then did Jack realize how large the electronics mall really was. It clearly sold far more than ordinary household appliances.

“What did you bring back this time?”

“No other equipment. We only marked where everything was,” Elias said. “The energy cells and lights were still our main priority. We also brought back a batch of switches. Once we decide what other equipment we need, we can go back for it.”

Jack glanced toward the CUEV parked outside.

“Did you bring back all the energy cells?”

Megan walked over just in time to hear the question.

“No. We brought back twelve, but there are still twenty left. We probably won’t have enough time to move them all today.”

“There are still that many?”

“Yes. We cleared out every unit on display, then went into the storage room and counted the rest. There are exactly twenty left.”

Jack considered the situation.

“Since we can’t finish today anyway, you and Elias don’t need to make another trip this afternoon. Have Gordon and Reed take the CUEV instead. Cass and Harvey can go tomorrow. That way, all four of them will get more experience driving outside.”

Neither Elias nor Megan objected.

“Then that’s the plan,” Megan said. “Gordon and Reed can make one more trip this afternoon and bring back as many as possible. Cass and Harvey can collect whatever remains tomorrow.”

With that settled, Elias went to find the four men and explain the arrangements for that afternoon and the following day.

Jack and Megan stayed at the trading post, watching the others continue assembling the utility poles.

Only then did Megan remember the tasting event.

“Why did you suddenly decide to let everyone sample the food?”

Jack paused, then slapped his forehead.

“I got so busy that I completely forgot to tell you.”

He briefly explained Edith, Ruth, and Helen’s plan to open a food stall, along with the trading rules they had just established.

Megan thought about it for a moment.

“Have you considered one problem?”

“What problem?”

“How are they actually going to trade?”

“With sun-dried bricks,” Jack replied as though the answer were obvious. “We’ve already established that.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Megan said. “I’m not asking what they’ll use as payment. I’m asking how they’re supposed to carry out the transactions.”

Jack still didn’t follow.

“In our world, we could pay with cash, a credit card, or our phones, right?”

“Right.”

“But what about here?” Megan pointed toward Nolan and the others. “Are they supposed to carry bricks around every time they want to buy something? If Nolan wants ten beef burgers, he’ll have to haul a hundred sun-dried bricks over to Edith’s stall. Does that sound reasonable to you?”

Jack finally understood her concern.

“Of course not.”

“So you know it’s unreasonable. How are you planning to solve it?”

“Why do I have to solve it?”

Megan stared at him.

“What do you mean? You’re the one who created the trading rules.”

“I created the rules,” Jack said. “But why should I also be responsible for how they carry their payment around?”

Megan took a moment to process that.

“People in ancient China used copper coins for more than a thousand years,” Jack continued. “Whenever they bought a lot of things, they had to carry a whole pile of coins. Have you ever heard of the government sending someone to carry everyone’s money for them?”

Megan studied him for a moment before realizing what he meant.

“You already thought about this problem, didn’t you?”

“No. Isn’t it just common sense?”

Megan kept staring at him.

“So you’re saying I have no common sense, and you deliberately let me keep talking so you could laugh at me?”

Jack stared at her in disbelief.

“When did I laugh at you?”

“You did. I don’t care what you say.”

Megan glared at him and headed toward the convenience store.

Jack watched her leave.

“You’re the one who made it more complicated than it needed to be. How did this become my fault?”

Megan heard him and looked back.

Jack wisely closed his mouth and turned his attention to everyone working nearby.

Just then, the system’s voice sounded in his mind.

“Human, primate mammals detected approaching...”

“Number of targets: six.”