LOSS System: Last Store Standing

Megan hurried over shortly after Derek collapsed. Cass had already run back to the convenience store to get her as soon as Nolan was injured.

She helped Nolan sit down, cut open the clothing around the wound, and pressed gauze against the area beneath his arm near his ribs. Once the bleeding was temporarily under control, she watched his breathing.

“Can you breathe normally?”

Nolan carefully drew a breath through the pain.

“Yes.”

“Then don’t move.”

Megan continued treating the wound before looking at Jack.

“Leave Nolan to me. You still need to deal with those people outside.”

Jack checked Nolan one last time. Once he was sure Nolan was in no immediate danger, he tightened his grip on the submachine gun and headed back toward the fence entrance.

Mort was already crouching beside Derek, checking his breathing and pulse. After a moment, he stood and shook his head at Henry and Elias.

Henry slowly lowered the revolver without a word.

Elias glanced at Derek’s body, then turned his attention to the refugees outside the fence.

By the time Jack reached the entrance, the crowd had fallen completely silent. No one dared approach Derek or the man who had been shot in the leg. None of them dared meet Jack’s eyes either.

“Bryce! Curtis! Wes! Get out here!”

Jack’s voice carried across the entrance, but no one answered.

The refugees exchanged uncertain looks. Several instinctively moved aside, opening gaps in the crowded group, but the three men were nowhere to be seen.

Jack waited.

Eventually, one of the refugees spoke in a low voice.

“I think I saw them moving toward the back earlier.”

Another person quickly added, “I saw them too. They kept pushing through the crowd, and then they disappeared.”

Bryce, Curtis, and Wes had clearly used the confusion after Henry’s first warning shot to escape.

The refugees who had insisted that Jack’s group would never dare fire began backing away.

The wounded man still lay on the ground, his muffled cries of pain making the silence even heavier.

“They ran away?”

“They used us!”

Scattered voices rose from the crowd, but their earlier anger and self-righteousness were gone. Some stared at Derek’s body near the entrance. Others looked back in the direction the three men had fled. The rest simply lowered their heads.

Jack stood inside the entrance and stared at them.

Only minutes earlier, they had been shouting about forcing their way into the settlement. Now, not one of them dared take another step forward.

His gaze moved from Derek’s body to the silent crowd.

The anger he had been holding back finally erupted.

“Someone is dead, and two people are injured. Are you satisfied now? Are you happy?”

Jack’s roar rang across the entrance.

The refugees looked up, but no one answered.

“You were all so eager to shout earlier!” His voice grew louder. “Now that things have ended like this, every one of you has suddenly gone mute?”

His grip on the submachine gun trembled slightly.

“What does any of this have to do with me? Did I cause your situation? Why am I responsible for saving you?”

“You couldn’t get what you wanted, so you tried to take it by force. That makes you fucking bandits!”

No one beyond the fence spoke. Those who had shouted the loudest earlier kept their heads down.

“Whether I save you is my decision! Not yours, you bunch of idiots!”

The final words came out as a roar.

Jack stood there breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling. It took several moments before he managed to force his anger back down.

Jack’s gaze settled on the wounded refugee. After a moment, he turned to Megan. “Once Nolan is stable, stop his bleeding too.”

Megan glanced at the man and nodded. “All right.”

When Jack faced the crowd again, his voice had returned to normal. “You want food and water. I can provide them.”

“Jack,” Elias said with a frown.

Jack raised a hand to stop him and kept his attention on the refugees outside. “I did intend to help you, but you destroyed that opportunity yourselves. If you still want supplies, bring something to trade.”

The crowd remained quiet until someone cautiously asked, “You’ll accept anything?”

“Yes.”

“What can we get in return? How much?”

“Enough to keep you from starving or dying of thirst.”

The refugees stared at him in surprise before whispering among themselves.

“How are we supposed to know what our things are worth?”

“What if we bring something and you refuse to take it?”

Someone in the crowd still refused to accept the offer. “You have so many supplies. Giving us a little wouldn’t cost you anything. We’ve already suffered enough. Don’t you have any sympathy?”

The expressions on Elias, Henry, and Mort darkened, but Jack didn’t lose his temper again. He stood there listening as the questions and complaints grew louder.

“All right,” he said at last.

The murmuring gradually died away.

“If the arrangement isn’t good enough for you, then there will be no trade. Please leave.”

With that, Jack turned toward the shelter, giving them no chance to bargain any further. The crowd immediately panicked.

“Wait!”

“We never said we wouldn’t trade!”

“Don’t go! We’ll trade!”

Jack ignored the shouting and kept walking. As he passed Elias, he gestured for him to follow. Elias gave the chaotic crowd outside the fence one last glance before turning away and following Jack toward the shelter.

Only when the refugees realized that Jack truly had no intention of coming back did they seem to understand that they had pushed too far.

Henry remained at the entrance with the revolver in his hand and gave a cold snort. “You idiots really thought we were easy targets you could push around however you pleased?”

No one dared answer.

The moment Jack returned beneath the canopy outside the shelter, he looked toward Nolan. Megan had finished bandaging the wound, and Nolan was sitting nearby with a pale face.

Only after confirming that Nolan’s condition had stabilized did some of the tension leave Jack’s shoulders. He stood there in silence for a moment before speaking to Elias in a tired voice.

“I’ll leave those people outside to you. Help them if you can. I’m exhausted. I’m going back to rest.”

With that, Jack headed toward the convenience store. Elias watched him walk away but ultimately chose not to call after him.

Once Jack was gone, Megan checked Nolan again to make sure his condition remained stable. She then gathered her medical supplies and returned to the fence entrance to stop the bleeding from the refugee’s leg. By the time Elias came back, she had already finished treating the wound.

“He’s not in immediate danger, but the bullet is still inside,” Megan said. “It’ll have to be removed later.”

“Leave it for now,” Elias replied. “We’ll ask Jack what he wants to do afterward.”

As Megan packed away her supplies, she suddenly asked, “Where is Jack?”

“He went back to rest.” Elias saw her glance toward the convenience store and added, “You should head back too. Leave this to us. Check on Jack while you’re there. I don’t think he’s recovered from what happened.”

Megan remained silent for a moment before nodding. She returned to Nolan one last time and confirmed that his condition had not worsened, then carried the medical supplies back toward the convenience store.

After Megan left, Elias faced the refugees again, his expression hardening.

“Leave now, or don’t blame us for what happens next.”

The refugees immediately began pleading.

“We know we were wrong.”

“Can’t you give us one more chance?”

Elias ignored their pleas. “If you want food and water, bring something to trade. If you’ve got nothing, then get the hell out of here. I’m done listening to your bullshit.”

This time, no one dared bargain. After a quiet discussion, the refugees finally accepted the condition. They would leave for now and search for anything they could exchange for supplies.

As the group prepared to return the way they had come, Mort pointed at Derek’s body with undisguised disgust.

“Take his body with you. Don’t leave it here.”

Several refugees hesitated before walking over and lifting Derek’s body. The others made way, and the group slowly began moving into the darkness.

The refugee with the gunshot wound braced his hands against the ground and tried to stand.

“You stay,” Elias said from behind him.

The man stopped and looked back warily. “What else do you want?”

“You brought this injury on yourself, but we’re not going to leave you untreated,” Elias said. “Stay where you are tonight and don’t move around. The doctor will come back tomorrow to deal with the wound.”

The man clearly hadn’t expected them to continue treating him.

Henry stepped up beside Elias, still holding the revolver. “Stay exactly where you are. If you try anything else, I’ll make you wish you were dead.”

The wounded man went pale. He quickly nodded, lowered himself back to the ground, and no longer dared to move.

Jack had already reached the convenience store. He didn’t stop on the first floor and went straight upstairs. Once inside his room, he locked the door behind him, set the submachine gun aside, and dropped onto the bed.

He lay on his back, staring blankly at the ceiling. The room was quiet, with only the faint hum of the equipment downstairs coming through the floor.

Derek’s expression before he fell, Nolan throwing himself in front of Jack, and the gunshot that rang out when Henry pulled the trigger kept replaying in Jack’s mind.

After lying there in silence for a long time, he finally asked, “LOSS, am I weak?”

The system didn’t answer right away. Several quiet moments passed before its familiar voice sounded in the room.

“Human, this system is incapable of understanding your emotions.”

Jack gave a self-mocking laugh. “Right. Why am I even asking you? It’s not like you’d understand.”

The system said nothing more.

Jack continued staring at the ceiling. He knew none of what had happened that night was his fault. Derek had charged at him with a knife. Nolan had thrown himself forward to save him. If Henry hadn’t fired, Derek would have stabbed Nolan again.

He knew all of that, yet his thoughts remained tangled.

If he hadn’t driven Derek away in the first place, would any of this have happened? Derek might still be alive, and Nolan might never have been injured.

Just as those thoughts began circling through his mind again, the system spoke.

“Although this system is incapable of understanding human emotions, this system knows one thing.”

Jack remained silent.

“Not everything will go smoothly, and not every outcome will meet our expectations. What matters is not how the process unfolds, but whether we can continue to grow from what we experience.”

The room fell silent again.

Jack stared at the ceiling and slowly blinked.

“What matters is whether we keep growing...”

The images in his mind hadn’t disappeared, but they no longer weighed on him as heavily as before.

Jack closed his eyes and let out a long breath. When he opened them again, the faintest smile appeared on his face.

He knew the system had been trying to comfort him. With its stubborn personality, however, it would probably never admit it.

After another quiet moment, Jack said softly, “LOSS, thank you.”

The system didn’t respond.