LOSS System: Last Store Standing

“Mission: Against All Odds.”

“Time limit: Sixty days.”

“Success: You may select another existing resource from the convenience store and convert it into an unlimited supply.”

“Failure: One resource currently available in unlimited supply will be revoked at random.”

Jack was caught off guard by the mission.

Again?

He was about to ask the system what exactly he was supposed to do when Cass called from downstairs.

“Jack! Megan! Come down for dinner!”

Jack had no choice but to put his questions aside and call back. Once Megan finished washing up, they went downstairs together.

After dinner, just as everyone was about to leave, Elias came over to Jack.

“Give me one hundred and forty potatoes. The people outside have finished their work for today, so it’s time to give them their food.”

Jack agreed and gathered the potatoes before heading to the trading post with Elias. All fourteen men were already waiting when they arrived, their attention fixed on the bags in their hands.

Without wasting any time, Elias handed out ten potatoes to each person. The men visibly relaxed after receiving their share and prepared to return to their tents.

Jack watched them clutching the potatoes.

“Are you planning to eat them raw?”

One of the men stopped and gave him a helpless look.

“How else are we supposed to eat them?”

Getting potatoes at all was already more than they had expected. They were hardly in a position to be picky about how they ate them.

Jack thought for a moment, then grinned.

“Want me to cook them for you?”

The men were briefly taken aback before they began answering over one another. They could force down raw potatoes if they had no other choice, but who would choose raw potatoes when they could have them cooked?

“Can you really do that?”

“Of course we want them cooked!”

“Anything is fine as long as they’re cooked!”

Jack raised a hand to quiet them down.

“I can cook them, but it won’t be free. I’ll charge each of you one potato as a cooking fee. That’s reasonable, right?”

No one hesitated. Giving up one potato to turn the remaining nine into a hot dinner was a good deal no matter how they looked at it.

“Then wait here.”

Jack returned to the convenience store, planning to bring the electric stove and a pot from the second-floor kitchen to the trading post. With some seasonings, he could make them a large pot of mashed potatoes.

He had barely stepped inside when he ran into Megan.

“What are you planning this time?”

“I’m going to cook their potatoes for them.” Jack briefly explained his idea. “I’ll make a big pot of mashed potatoes and charge each person one potato.”

Megan was speechless.

“You really have too much time on your hands. Mashed potatoes? Fourteen people with nine potatoes each. Do you have any idea how many potatoes that is?”

That stopped Jack short.

“Just peeling and cutting that many potatoes would take forever, and then you’d still have to mash all of them,” Megan continued. “By the time you finished, they’d probably be hungry enough to eat the potatoes raw.”

Jack finally realized how much work he had created for himself.

“I really didn’t think of that. Cooking a few potatoes sounded easy, but I didn’t consider how long it would take to prepare that many.”

He considered the men waiting outside.

“Do you have a better idea?”

Megan let out a helpless sigh.

“Take the electric stove and the pot to the trading post. Leave the potatoes to me.”

With that, Megan went to gather the ingredients. Jack had no idea what she was planning, but he did as she said and went upstairs to carry the electric stove, large pot, and extension cord to the trading post.

By the time he finished setting everything up, Megan had arrived with the ingredients.

“What are you making?”

“Potatoes boiled in salted water.” Megan set the salt on the table. “There’s no need to peel or mash them. Have everyone wash their own potatoes. We’ll cut the larger ones into pieces, put everything in the pot, then add water and salt and boil them.”

Jack immediately gave her a thumbs-up.

“You’re still the best.”

Megan ignored him and told the fourteen men to wash their own potatoes. It was their dinner, after all. They could at least handle that much themselves.

The men quickly got to work. Once the potatoes were clean, they brought them to the table. Megan cut the larger ones into pieces and added them to the pot while Jack helped with the water and salt. Before long, a large pot of potatoes was simmering away.

Elias hadn’t said a word since Jack first offered to cook the potatoes. He watched Jack and Megan bustle around while the fourteen men crowded around the pot waiting for dinner. In the end, he merely smiled to himself and left the trading post.

While the potatoes cooked, Jack realized that he still didn’t know any of the fourteen men’s names.

“We have some time, so introduce yourselves.” He singled out the leader. “You first.”

The leader had been staring at the potatoes in the pot and didn’t expect Jack to suddenly ask his name.

“Derek Vaughn.”

The three men behind him introduced themselves next: Bryce Holt, Curtis Pike, and Wes Harper. The remaining men followed only after those three had finished.

Nolan Reed, Owen Baker, Marcus Dane, Simon Crowe, Aaron Black, Eli Ward, Toby Mills, Grant Cole, Dean Foster, and Lyle Banks.

Jack went over the names in his head and took another look at each man, gradually forming a clearer impression of the group. Derek still carried himself like their leader, with Bryce, Curtis, and Wes staying noticeably close to him. The other ten had also followed Derek in the past, but after everything that had happened over the last two days, they were already beginning to distance themselves from the four men.

By the time the introductions were finished, the potatoes were almost ready. Megan tested the largest pieces to make sure they had softened, then had the men line up again to collect their portions.

Derek immediately pushed his way to the front, with Bryce, Curtis, and Wes right behind him. The others could only line up after them, and several watched the four men with open dissatisfaction.

Jack noticed but said nothing. It wasn’t time to interfere yet.

Megan divided the cooked potatoes into fourteen portions. Once everyone had received their share, the men found places to sit and eagerly began eating.

Vane arrived at the trading post to begin his night watch. Jack and Megan packed up the electric stove, large pot, and seasonings, then returned to the convenience store together.

The trading post soon grew quiet after they left.

Derek finished his first potato but made no move to return to his tent. Instead, he signaled to Bryce, Curtis, and Wes. The four men split up and approached the others one by one.

Nolan had just peeled his second potato when Bryce held out a hand.

“One potato from everyone.”

Nolan stared at him.

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why?” Bryce lowered his voice. “Whenever we found supplies before, we handed them over to Derek for distribution. Now you’re being asked for one potato, and you’ve already forgotten the rules?”

Nolan’s face darkened, but he didn’t argue any further. After glancing at Derek nearby, he finally took one potato from his share and tossed it into Bryce’s hand.

The others reacted much the same way. Some were clearly reluctant, but Derek’s old influence hadn’t completely faded, and Bryce, Curtis, and Wes were watching them closely. In the end, no one openly resisted.

Before long, ten potatoes had been collected and delivered to Derek.

Derek looked at the pile of potatoes with satisfaction. He gave one each to Bryce, Curtis, and Wes, then carried the rest back to his tent.

Vane saw everything but made no attempt to stop them. He merely gave a dismissive snort.

Meanwhile, after returning to the second floor with Megan, Jack finally remembered the mission.

“LOSS, can you explain the mission a little more clearly?” Jack asked in his mind. “Every time, you only give me a name and a time limit. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do. How am I supposed to complete it?”

The system didn’t respond.

Jack waited and tried asking several more times, but the system remained silent.

“It’s always like this. You issue some vague mission, then refuse to say a word about how I’m supposed to complete it.” The more Jack thought about it, the angrier he became. “One of these days, this system is going to be the death of me.”

Megan sat nearby and watched his expression change several times. It didn’t take her long to realize he was talking to the system again.

“What did LOSS do to you this time?”

Jack told her the fourth mission’s name, time limit, reward, and penalty, then complained, “It didn’t give me a single hint. I even have to figure out the objective myself. Who issues missions like that?”

“Maybe that’s simply all it can do,” Megan said. “Getting angry at it won’t help. We might as well focus on figuring out how to complete the mission.”

Jack finally gave up trying to get an answer from the system.

“What do you think? Any ideas?”

Megan’s smile faded as she considered the question.

“Against All Odds usually means surviving a situation that seems almost hopeless,” she said. “And with a time limit of sixty days, I suspect we may be facing a crisis that could last for quite a while.”

Jack’s face immediately fell.

“You’ve got to be kidding. That Crag Lynx nearly killed me last time, and now we have to go through something like that again?”

Megan gave him a wry smile.

“With a mission name like that, it’s unlikely there won’t be any danger at all. The question is where the danger will come from.”

Jack could no longer sit still.

“Then let’s figure it out. If we can at least guess what’s most likely to happen, we won’t be completely caught off guard.”

Megan thought back over everything that had recently happened around the convenience store and soon came up with two possible threats.

“There are two likely possibilities. One is the group outside the moat. The other is mutant animals.”

“I understand the thugs,” Jack said. “But why mutant animals? The Dustchucks and Gray-Eared Jump Hares aren’t carnivores. They’re not going to suddenly go crazy and attack us, are they?”

“They aren’t carnivores, but their predators are,” Megan reminded him. “Did you forget the Red Sand Badger that followed the Dustchucks to the convenience store? And the Red Rift Hawk?”

That stopped Jack cold.

“You mean the Gray-Eared Jump Hares might lead one of their predators here?”

“Exactly. And compared with the thugs, I think that’s more likely.”

“Why?”

“Because of the sixty-day time limit,” Megan said. “What if the system gave us that long because even it doesn’t know when the predator will appear?”

Her expression grew more serious.

“If the predator is only after the Gray-Eared Jump Hares and Dustchucks, why would the mission be called ‘Against All Odds’?”

Jack finally understood where she was going with this.

“You mean even the system doesn’t know whether the predator will consider us prey?”

“That’s exactly what I’m worried about.”

This time, Jack was genuinely scared.

“This is only a guess,” Megan quickly reassured him. “Things might not really turn out that way.”

Unfortunately, her words did nothing to comfort him. The more Jack thought about it, the more convinced he became that this was the crisis behind the fourth mission.

“That has to be it. There’s no other explanation.” Jack sank back against the sofa. “Why else would the system issue the mission right after the Gray-Eared Jump Hares followed us home?”

Megan couldn’t think of a good answer.

“If it’s a Red Sand Badger or a Crag Lynx, we can speed up construction on the wall and use the moat to keep it out,” Jack continued, growing more anxious. “But a Red Rift Hawk can fly. How are we supposed to defend against that?”

Megan considered the problem carefully.

“We’re not completely out of options.”

Jack immediately straightened, grasping at the sudden hope.

“What can we do?”

“If the Red Rift Hawk really appears, everyone can take shelter indoors,” Megan said. “No matter how dangerous it is, it can’t fly straight into a building.”

“Speed up construction on the trading post,” Jack blurted out.

“Exactly.”

The more Jack thought about it, the more workable the idea seemed.

“Then that’s what we’ll do.” He finally relaxed. “I’ll talk to Elias tomorrow and make the trading post our top construction priority.”

With their next step decided, Jack finally felt less nervous. He and Megan briefly discussed their plans for the next day, then ended the conversation when they realized how late it had become.

They returned to their rooms to rest.