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.