The tick-tock sound of the digital holographic clock floating in the center of the room felt like a sledgehammer pounding Marsel’s nerves one strike at a time.[BETA WAVE COUNTDOWN: 06:14:22]Six hours left. Just six hours before five hundred organized monsters would flatten Supermarket A-117 into the ground.“Damn,” Marsel muttered, his eyes red and burning from staring at the System’s shopping interface for too long. “Everything’s more expensive right before a war. Does this System use surge pricing like ride-hailing apps when it rains or what?”He stood in front of the virtual display labeled [Fortress Shop]. The XP he’d painstakingly collected from slaughtering Scavengers and Berserkers yesterday totaled 1,250 points. A decent amount under normal circumstances, but it felt like pocket change when facing the apocalypse.“Mas,” Nana called from the medicine aisle. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by alcohol bottles, bandages, and light-blue mana potions she’d br