The Apocalypse: Everyone Wants My Bargaining Token

The lights flickered once, twice, and plunged the office building into pitch-black darkness.

Before anyone could panic, emergency broadcasts blared from every smartphone simultaneously.

Piercing sirens echoed off the concrete walls. The host on screen trembled, her voice cracking over the speaker: "Seek immediate shelter! Unidentified violent attacks are occurring across the city..."

Maya Howell sprinted to the window. Outside, absolute chaos had descended upon the streets. Traffic was choked in every direction, bumper to bumper, horns blaring uselessly.

Desperate civilians dragged each other out of vehicles, punching and clawing over half-empty bottles of water and stale convenience store bread.

Then came the screams.

Massive, twisted shadows burst from the alleys. Mutated creatures, hulking abominations with bone-spiked hides and razor-sharp fangs, lunged into the crowd, tearing through ordinary people without mercy. Blood splattered across windshields.

"Run!" someone screamed.

Maya didn't hesitate. She grabbed her bag and bolted down the stairwell alongside her boyfriend, Gregory Wright, and her best friend, Ashley. They hit the pavement just as a monster crushed a sedan nearby.

"Over there! The supermarket!" Gregory shouted, pointing toward a glass storefront down the block.

They dashed inside, ducking behind the glass doors just as dozens of terrified citizens pushed in after them. The doors slammed shut.

Gregory immediately stepped onto a stacked crate of soda cans, raising his hands. "Listen to me, everyone! Don't panic! I am a corporate supervisor, I know how to manage crises. Stay together, follow my lead, and we will survive this!"

His confident tone calmed the frantic crowd. People nodded, treating him as their temporary leader.

While Gregory was busy commanding the room, Maya immediately began inspecting their surroundings. Her stomach sank.

The surrounding roads outside were completely blocked by abandoned cars and burning wreckage; no help was coming. Worse, the supermarket shelves were already stripped bare. The remaining food was barely enough to keep this group alive for two days.

"We need to organize these supplies immediately," Maya urged, approaching Gregory. "If we ration everything strictly, everyone gets a fair share."

"Good idea, babe. You start counting," Gregory said with a reassuring smile, patting her shoulder.

Maya knelt behind the main counter, carefully sorting cans of beans and water bottles. But as she leaned down to reach a lower shelf, she caught a movement in her peripheral vision.

Gregory was crouching by the emergency storage locker in the back corner, the stock room meant for employees. He was stuffing high-calorie protein bars, canned meats, and full water gallons into a large tactical backpack.

Ashley stood beside him, watching nervously.

"Gregory... shouldn't we share this with Maya?" Ashley whispered, her voice trembling slightly.

"Are you crazy?" Gregory snapped in a harsh whisper, shoving a box of medical supplies into the bag. "Look at her. She's too soft. Sharing this with thirty people means we all starve in forty-eight hours. Keep your mouth shut and take this bag."

Ashley hesitated for a fraction of a second, glancing toward Maya. A brief flicker of guilt crossed her face, but she quickly snatched the bag and concealed it behind her coat.

Maya's heart went ice cold. She opened her mouth to confront them, but before she could utter a single word...

BOOM!

The heavy glass front doors shattered inward. A pack of three-meter-tall mutated beasts burst through the entrance, roaring as glass shards rained onto the concrete floor. Screams of agony filled the air as the creatures lunged into the helpless crowd.

"Creatures! They're inside!"

Panicked survivors scattered like ants. Maya was knocked off her feet by a terrified man, her elbow slamming painfully into the floorboards.

"Gregory! Ashley!" Maya yelled, reaching out toward them through the swirling dust. "Help me!"

Gregory turned and looked directly into Maya's eyes. There was no love in his gaze, only cold, brutal calculation. He grabbed Ashley's arm.

"Forget her! She's dead weight!" Gregory yelled.

"Gregory, wait..." Ashley cried, but she didn't stop. She followed him as he sprinted toward the rear emergency exit.

Gregory slapped the push-bar, dragged Ashley through, and slammed the reinforced metal door behind them. The heavy iron latch clicked into place.

He had locked her inside.

"Gregory! Open the door!" Maya slammed her palms against the iron door, but it didn't budge.

Behind her, the shrieks of dying survivors grew louder. A mutated beast slammed an iron shelf down just inches from her head.

Maya pressed her back against the dark back wall, squeezing into a narrow gap behind an overturned vending machine. She held her breath, tears burning her eyes, her pulse hammering in her ears as claws tore through metal and flesh nearby.

Minutes felt like agonizing eternities.

Finally, the wet crunching noises stopped. The monsters, lured by the screams outside, stomped out of the destroyed front entrance.

Maya crawled out from the debris, her body bruised, her clothes soaked in dust and cold sweat. She had barely survived.

In the far corner of the ruined store, a heavily bleeding survivor groaned, propped against a crushed cash register. He clutched his bleeding arm with one hand and held a small, sealed box of broad-spectrum antibiotics in the other.

"Water..." the man wheezed, his lips cracked and white. "Please... I'll give you this medicine... just a drop of water..."

Maya reached into her pocket. Her fingers wrapped around her final item: a small, half-filled plastic water bottle she had kept for herself.

She looked at the bleeding man, then at the bottle.

"Deal," Maya said, her voice hoarse.

She stepped forward and handed him the water bottle. The man eagerly grabbed it, shoving the box of antibiotics into her trembling hand.

The moment the exchange was completed, a sudden, blinding sensation coursed through Maya's mind.

[Trade Successful.]

[Contract Ability Awakened.]

[Life Credit +1.]

A strange, ethereal glow flashed before her eyes. A surge of terrifying energy rose from deep within her soul, spreading into every vein and nerve in her body.

The fatigue in her muscles vanished. Maya gasped, staggering back as she looked down at her hands.

The world around her seemed to freeze for a split second.

Something fundamental had changed inside her. She wasn't just a fragile civilian anymore.

Maya slowly walked over to the shattered front window, stepping over the rubble.

Outside, thick plumes of black smoke rose into the blood-red sky. Distant explosions shook the city skyline. Sirens wailed in vain against the unending roars of mutated horrors.

The old world was completely gone.

Maya slipped through the shattered storefront of the supermarket, her lungs burning with every breath. She didn't look back at the chaos or the bodies left in the dark.

Outside, the entire city was deteriorating rapidly. Massive fires spread through several blocks, sending thick columns of black smoke curling into the blood-tinted sky.

Police vehicles sat abandoned on the sidewalks, their tires slashed and lights flickering weakly before going dead.

Zombie-like infected people, their skin gray and eyes vacant, roamed the streets in small packs, hunting down anything that moved. Across the boulevard, desperate mobs broke into looted food stores, fighting viciously over crushed cans and rotten fruit.

Maya kept low, moving quickly through the shadows. She needed shelter immediately. Halfway down an alley, she spotted an abandoned convenience store with its glass front cracked and its display shelves overturned.

She ducked under the half-lowered metal shutter and slid inside. Moving fast, she dragged a heavy wooden display cabinet across the doorway to block the entrance.

Maya collapsed against the wall, catching her breath in the dim light. But before she could rest, movement caught her attention.

Two desperate survivors stepped out from behind a fallen rack. A man clutched an iron spanner, while a young woman held a pair of heavy tactical gloves and a small hand mirror.

Both were pale, dirty, and shaking with fear.

"Do you have food?" the man rasped, staring hungrily at the small pack at Maya's waist. "Please... give us something. We haven't eaten in two days."

"Please help us," the woman begged, taking a step forward. "Just a piece of bread!"

In the past, Maya would have handed over her food without a second thought. But Gregory's cold betrayal was still fresh in her mind. In this ruined world, giving away supplies for free was suicide.

Instead of giving away her remaining food, she proposed trades.

"I won't give anything away for free," Maya said, her voice calm and firm. "If you want food, you have to give me something useful in return."

The man gripped his spanner tighter, his face twisting with frustration. "We don't have money! Money is just paper now!"

"I don't care about money," Maya replied. She pulled out a small energy bar and a pack of crackers. "I'll trade the energy bar for that iron spanner. And I'll trade the crackers for those tactical gloves."

The two survivors looked at each other. Hunger quickly overpowered their reluctance.

"Deal!" the man said hastily, thrusting the heavy iron spanner toward her and snatching the energy bar. The woman quickly handed over the tactical gloves in exchange for the crackers.

The moment the last item swapped hands, a brilliant warm sensation exploded inside Maya's consciousness.

[Trade Successful.]

[Life Credit +1.]

[Trade Successful.]

[Life Credit +1.]

A fresh wave of energy surged through her veins, sweeping away her physical exhaustion and sharpening her senses.

Maya stared at her hands in shock. Her Contract Ability had activated again!

She realized the truth in an instant: she didn't just get a one-time reward from awakening her power.

She received Life Credits from every successful transaction she completed! Every single trade made her stronger and fueled her ability.

At the same time, miles away across the district, Gregory and Ashley had successfully joined a larger survivor group stationed inside a fortified school building.

Dozens of survivors sat around makeshift campfires inside the gymnasium. The leader of the group, a stern man holding a shotgun, walked over to Gregory.

"You brought a lot of high-calorie emergency stock," the leader said, inspecting the heavy backpack Gregory had carried. "Where did you get all this?"

Gregory puffed out his chest, putting on a brave and weary expression. "We barely escaped the supermarket down the street. I managed to save these supplies for the group so we could survive together."

"Were there only two of you?" a woman nearby asked.

Gregory sighed deeply, looking down at the ground with fake sorrow. "There were three of us. My girlfriend, Maya... she didn't make it. The creatures swarmed us at the entrance. She was caught in the middle. I tried to save her, but she probably died instantly."

He deliberately hid the fact that he had locked the door and abandoned her to die.

Beside him, Ashley opened her mouth, her fingers trembling against her jacket. She remembered Maya's desperate screams from behind the locked iron door.

But Gregory quietly pinched her arm, giving her a sharp, threatening look. Ashley swallowed her words and remained silent, bowing her head.

"You did what you could," the leader said, patting Gregory's shoulder. "Welcome to the group."

Gregory smiled secretly in the shadows. He was confident his lie was seamless.

Back in the convenience store, Maya had no idea where Gregory and Ashley had gone. She didn't know exactly where Gregory was, but she wasn't interested in finding him yet.

Vengeance could wait. Her priority was survival.

"I need more items to trade," Maya said to herself.

She immediately began searching every corner of the abandoned store. She gathered anything that could hold value to other survivors, empty plastic bottles, lighters, rolls of tape, pocket mirrors, and spare batteries.

Soon, another small group of refugees fled past the convenience store, looking for shelter. Seeing Maya inside with trade goods, they cautiously approached.

Maya stood at the entrance, ready. She proposed fair trades to every person who came by.

"A lighter for a metal pipe," Maya offered to a young man.

"Deal!"

[Trade Successful. Life Credit +1.]

"A roll of tape for a box of matches," she said to an elderly woman.

"Deal!"

[Trade Successful. Life Credit +1.]

"A bottle of clean water for a small utility knife."

"Deal!"

[Trade Successful. Life Credit +1.]

Notification after notification flashed in her mind. Maya successfully completed several small trades, one after another.

Standing among the debris, she watched the numeric counter inside her mind tick upward again and again.

She discovered that her Life Credits were accumulating rapidly, building a solid foundation for her survival in this ruined world.

Maya placed five bottled waters, three tins of canned meat, a pack of AA batteries, a box of basic painkillers, and two heavy-duty flashlights onto the glass counter.

Just a few days ago, stacks of hundred-dollar bills bought luxury. Now, paper money was worthless garbage flapping through dirty streets.

Ordinary supplies, clean water, food, batteries, medicine, and flashlights, had suddenly become far more valuable than gold. Maya realized this shift faster than anyone else.

She set up her trading station near the entrance of the convenience store.

A bruised couple approached cautiously. "Do you really have medicine and flashlights?"

"I do," Maya said. "A flashlight for an iron crowbar. Painkillers for a portable solar panel."

"Deal!" the man said eagerly.

As they shook hands and exchanged items, a faint, imperceptible glow washed over them.

Maya's Contract Ability surged into motion.

The moment a contract was established, an absolute rule took effect: cheating became completely impossible.

The buyers felt an undeniable, supernatural assurance that the trade was honest. If someone tried to hand over defective goods or break the terms mid-trade, the contract power would instantly reject the exchange.

Because of this absolute fairness, people immediately trusted Maya's trading post.

Word spread quickly among nearby refugees. Maya traded bottle after bottle of water, tins of food, packs of batteries, medical supplies, and flashlights for useful survival tools and raw materials. Each completed deal sent warm waves through her body.

[Trade Successful. Life Credit +1.]

[Trade Successful. Life Credit +1.]

Her success, however, quickly drew greedy eyes.

A desperate family of three, a fierce-looking middle-aged man, his aggressive wife, and their adult son,.marched into the store. They looked dirty, hungry, and hostile.

"You have all this water and food?" the middle-aged man demanded, staring greedily at Maya's inventory. "Give us four bottles of water, all your canned meat, and those painkillers immediately!"

"What do you have to trade?" Maya asked calmly, her voice devoid of fear.

"Trade?" the wife sneered, stepping forward with her hands on her hips. "We are a desperate family! You're sitting on a mountain of supplies while people are starving! You should give them to us for free!"

"My rules are simple," Maya replied coldly. "No trade, no supplies. Bring items of equal value, or leave."

"You little brat! You think you can talk to us like that?" the adult son barked.

The father gave a dark look to his son. "She's alone. Take it all!"

The three of them lunged forward together. The son tried to shove Maya back, while the father and mother frantically grabbed the bottles of water, canned food, medicine, and flashlights, stuffing them into their heavy coats.

Maya didn't panic. She didn't scream or fight back physically. She simply stood straight, her eyes flashing.

Initiate Contract Enforcement, Maya commanded in her mind.

The moment they snatched her goods, her ability recognized the forcible acquisition as an illegal breach of trade. Maya calmly activated a contract force against them!

An invisible, terrifying weight slammed down onto the family of three.

The father froze mid-step. His legs trembled violently as if pressed down by a mountain. The mother shrieked as her arms involuntarily moved backward against her will. The son fell to his knees, gasping for air, his face turning red.

"What... what is happening?!" the father yelled, horror breaking through his aggressive face. "I can't move my body!"

"My hands! My hands are moving on their own!" the mother screamed in terror.

Under the irresistible force of the Contract Ability, the three of them were forced to turn around.

Step by agonizing step, their bodies moved like marionettes on strings.

The father's trembling hands reached into his coat, pulled out the stolen water bottles, and placed them back on Maya's counter.

The mother, weeping in humiliation, returned every single box of medicine and flashlight. The son's shaking fingers neatly aligned the canned food exactly where it had been before.

A violent shockwave of energetic pressure struck their minds as the contract force completed the forced return, sending all three crashing backward onto the hard floor, groaning in sheer terror.

"Get out," Maya said, her voice dropping to ice-cold temperatures. "Attempt to rob me again, and the penalty won't just be returning the items."

The family scrambled to their feet, pale as ghosts. Trembling uncontrollably, they backed out of the store and ran down the street as fast as their legs could carry them.

Maya wiped a smudge of dust off her counter. This was her first real face-slapping moment in this apocalypse. Nobody could take advantage of her ever again.

Meanwhile, across the district at the fortified school base, a very different situation was unfolding.

Inside the gymnasium, the large survivor group was consuming its food rapidly. Dozens of survivors, panicked and anxious, ate far more than their allocated rations out of fear.

"Where is the food?!" a man shouted, looking into the nearly empty supply crates. "We were promised supplies!"

"We're going to starve by tomorrow!" a woman wailed.

The group leader turned to Gregory, his face dark and demanding. "Wright! The emergency stock you brought is almost completely gone! What are we supposed to feed fifty people?"

Gregory felt a spike of panic, but he quickly puffed out his chest and slapped his hand against his heart, putting on a calm, authoritative facade.

"Don't worry, everyone!" Gregory claimed loudly, his voice full of supreme confidence. "I brought us out of the first disaster, and I know this city like the back of my hand. We will simply find another supermarket! The city is full of stores. I'll lead a team and bring back double the food!"

The crowd cheered, looking at Gregory like a savior once again. Ashley stood behind him, clutching her coat nervously, but saying nothing.

An hour later, Gregory led a group of five armed survivors out into the surrounding streets to scavenge.

"There's a mega-mart two blocks away," Gregory said smugly. "Follow me."

However, when they arrived, Gregory's confident smile instantly froze.

The front glass of the mega-mart was shattered to pieces. The entire interior was stripped completely bare. Not a single grain of rice or drop of water remained.

"Let's try the grocery store on Third Street!" Gregory said hastily, sweat breaking out on his forehead.

They ran to Third Street. It's empty.

They sprinted to a convenience chain on Fifth Avenue. Burned to the ground, its shelves looted down to the metal wire.

They checked a wholesale warehouse nearby. Broken boxes and trash littered the floor, completely ransacked.

They discovered that almost every nearby store had already been completely emptied by desperate mobs and fleeing survivors hours ago.

There was nothing left anywhere.

Gregory stood in the middle of an empty, barren store aisle, his knees shaking. His confident mask shattered completely, replaced by pure, terrifying dread.

He looked at his empty hands, realizing the grim truth:

They were running out of food.