The Apocalypse: Everyone Wants My Bargaining Token

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.