The Apocalypse Rebate System: I Became King by Giving

CHAPTER 5 THE DYING GIRL

The monster was coming. Jack's apartment key slipped from his numb fingers and clattered onto the floor.

The metallic sound echoed through the hallway, sounding far louder than it should have in the oppressive silence.

His heart nearly stopped. At the far end of the corridor, the ice wolf froze in place. Its glowing blue eyes narrowed. Then its massive head slowly tilted. The creature was listening, watching, and Hunting.

"Damn it..." Jack dropped to one knee and snatched up the key.

Beside him, the young woman he had dragged up the stairs trembled uncontrollably. Every trace of color had vanished from her face.

The monster took another step forward. A sharp crunch echoed through the corridor as ice spread beneath its claws. The temperature in the hallway seemed to drop instantly.

Jack finally managed to force the key into the lock. "Get inside!"

The woman didn't move. Fear had rooted her to the spot. The monster lunged Jack reacted on instinct.

He grabbed her arm and threw both of them through the doorway. The apartment door slammed shut behind them. A split second later, something crashed into the other side.

The impact shook the entire door. The woman screamed. Jack stumbled backward. Another tremendous blow followed immediately.

The hinges groaned under the strain, and dust drifted from the ceiling. Outside, the ice wolf snarled.

The sound resembled the grinding and cracking of ancient glaciers. It sounded predatory, Ancient.

Jack immediately shoved a bookshelf against the door. Then he pushed a table into place. After that, he dragged every heavy piece of furniture he could move into the growing barricade.

His lungs burned.

His muscles screamed in protest, yet the fear surging through his body drowned out every other sensation. Another crash struck the door. Wood splintered.

The woman pressed herself against the wall as tears streamed down her face. "It's going to get in."

Jack didn't answer.

The truth was that he wasn't sure she was wrong. The creature attacked again, then again, and then again.

Each strike seemed stronger than the last. Then, without warning, everything stopped. A heavy silence settled over the apartment.

Jack frowned.

The monster had stopped attacking. For several long seconds, neither of them moved. Neither dared to speak. Then they heard it.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Crunch.

The creature was moving away slowly, and reluctantly, the hallway eventually grew quiet.

For some reason, the silence felt almost worse than the attack itself. Jack remained standing beside the barricade for nearly a minute before finally stepping back.

The woman collapsed onto the floor. She was still shaking, still crying. "We survived."

The words sounded strange even to him. They felt unreal. The woman let out a weak laugh.

The sound was broken and hollow.  "Did we?"

Jack didn't know how to answer.

Outside, people were still screaming. The apocalypse was still unfolding. The monster remained somewhere inside the building. Neither of them had any idea whether more creatures existed.

Under those circumstances, survived felt like the wrong word. Delayed seemed far more accurate. Jack walked toward the window. Snow covered everything.

The city had transformed into a frozen wasteland. Abandoned vehicles littered the streets. Emergency lights blinked weakly in the distance.

Entire buildings had vanished into darkness. There was no movement. No visible people, no signs of normal life. The world looked dead. His stomach tightened. Only yesterday, he had been worried about losing his job.

Now humanity itself appeared to be collapsing. The scale of the disaster felt impossible to comprehend.

A soft voice interrupted his thoughts. "Thank you."

Jack turned.

The young woman had calmed down slightly. She sat wrapped in a blanket on the floor. Her green eyes met his. "If you hadn't helped me..."

Her voice cracked.

Jack nodded. "You'd have done the same."

The woman looked away. The silence that followed revealed the truth. She probably wouldn't have. Most people wouldn't have. That was part of the problem.

The world often rewards selfishness and punishes kindness. Yet somehow Jack continued choosing the harder path, even when it cost him Especially when it cost him.

"My name's Sarah."

"Jack."

She forced a small smile. "Nice to officially meet you."

Jack returned the smile, though it felt weak and exhausted.

Neither of them voiced the thought hanging over the room. Tomorrow might never come. Hours passed. The temperature inside the apartment continued to fall.

Without electricity, the building offered very little protection from the cold. The blankets barely helped.

Jack checked the remaining supplies. The results were discouraging. There was a small amount of food, very little water, far less than he had hoped.

Most of the supplies he had purchased were still stored in the rental storage room beneath the building. Unfortunately, that storage room was now located near a stairwell occupied by a murderous ice monster.

His jaw tightened. Survival was rapidly becoming a mathematical equation. Every calorie mattered. Every drop of water mattered. Every decision mattered. Outside, the wind howled louder than ever.

The storm continued intensifying. At some point, exhaustion finally overtook Sarah, and she fell asleep. Jack couldn't do the same.

His thoughts remained trapped in an endless cycle: Food, Water, Shelter, Monsters, The future.

Hours later, another crash echoed somewhere within the building. Then came screams.

Then silence.

The pattern repeated itself throughout the night. The creature was hunting. People were dying. By morning, dozens of residents might already be dead, perhaps even more.

The realization haunted him. Eventually, dawn arrived, or at least something resembling dawn.

The sky remained hidden behind endless storm clouds, and the weak sunlight filtering through them looked sickly and pale. It was almost as though the sun itself were dying.

Sarah woke shortly afterward. Her condition had worsened, much worse.

Jack noticed it immediately.

Her lips had become pale. Her skin had taken on a faint gray tint. Violent shivers shook her body beneath the blankets. Even simple movements appeared painful.

"Sarah?"

She tried to sit up. She failed.

Jack frowned.

Something was wrong. Very wrong. He knelt beside her. When he touched her skin, he immediately felt how cold she was, far colder than she should have been. Dehydration, Exposure, and Exhaustion.

The combination was dangerous.

"How much water have you had?"

Sarah hesitated.

Then she offered a weak smile. "Not much."

"How much?"

"A few sips."

"When?"

The smile disappeared. "Yesterday morning."

Jack's stomach dropped. That had been nearly twenty-four hours ago, possibly longer. Suddenly, her condition made perfect sense.

People always worry about food during disasters. What they forgot was that water killed faster, and without treatment, Sarah might not survive another day.

She might not even survive another few hours. Jack immediately searched through the remaining supplies. The result was exactly what he feared: one bottle. Just one.

A single half-liter bottle of water remained. Nothing else. His chest tightened. The bottle suddenly felt heavier than steel.

Sarah noticed his expression. Her gaze drifted toward the water. Understanding appeared immediately. "No."

Jack looked at her. "No?"

"You should keep it."

The words came surprisingly quickly, as though she had already rehearsed them in her head.

Jack stared.

Sarah offered another weak smile. "You'll need it."

"So will you."

She looked away. "That's different."

"No, it isn't."

Sarah's breathing became uneven. Outside, the storm roared against the building. Inside, a heavy silence settled between them. One bottle, one choice, life or death.

Jack's hand tightened around the plastic. Every instinct screamed at him to keep it. Survival demanded it. Logic demanded it. Human nature demanded it. Nobody knew when more water would become available. It might be tomorrow. It might never be.

Giving it away could be suicide. The realization made the decision almost unbearable. Sarah noticed the conflict in his eyes.

Her smile became sadder. "People are dying everywhere."

Jack closed his eyes. Memories surfaced. The elderly woman on the sidewalk. The stolen project. The mockery, the humiliation. Every moment when helping others had cost him something.

Every moment when the world seemed determined to punish him for being decent, maybe this was what. Maybe kindness really was weakness. Maybe everyone else had been right.

For one brief moment, Jack considered keeping the bottle. The thought horrified him, not because it was evil, but because it felt reasonable. It felt normal. It felt human.

Sarah slowly turned away, as though she had already accepted her fate.

Jack stared at the bottle. Then at Sarah. Then back at the bottle, his heart pounded, his mind screamed, his survival instincts battled everything he believed about himself. Finally, he exhaled slowly, firmly.

The decision was made. "Then you'd die."

Sarah looked up. Shock flashed across her face.

Jack extended the bottle toward her.

She didn't take it immediately. The gesture seemed impossible to comprehend, almost absurd.

"You don't understand." Her voice trembled. "If you give me that—"

"Then you'll live."

"And what about you?"

Jack forced a smile, the same smile that had gotten him into trouble his entire life. "Not if I can stop it."

For a long moment, neither of them moved.

Then Sarah's hands began to shake. Tears filled her eyes, not because of the water, but because someone had chosen her in a world where people were abandoning one another, someone had placed her life above his own comfort and safety. Slowly, she accepted the bottle.

The moment her fingers touched it, everything changed. A sharp ringing exploded inside Jack's head. His vision blurred. The apartment vanished. The world froze.

Sarah froze as well.

Time itself seemed to grind to a halt. Then a mechanical voice echoed through his consciousness. The voice was cold, emotionless, completely inhuman.

DING!

Jack's eyes widened. The voice spoke again.

[Conditions Satisfied.]

[Target Detected.]

[100X REBATE SYSTEM ACTIVATING...]

Jack's heart nearly stopped. "What...?"

The frozen world remained motionless around him.

The voice continued.

[Congratulations, Host.]

[You have been chosen.]

Before Jack could even process those words, a glowing blue screen suddenly materialized in front of his eyes.