The Apocalypse Rebate System: I Became King by Giving

CHAPTER 7 FIRST CRITICAL REWARD

The first conflict came from hunger, not monsters, not the cold. Hunger: It was the kind of hunger that made people irrational, dangerous, and desperate.

Jack sat at the kitchen table, staring at the three remaining cans of food lined up in front of him. Three cans. That was all he had left, aside from the mysterious Imperial Glacier Spring Water.

Three cans against an apocalypse. Three cans against starvation. Three cans against an uncertain future. Outside, the snowstorm continued to rage.

The wind battered the apartment building like an angry beast trying to tear its way inside. Somehow, the temperature had fallen even further during the night. Ice completely covered the windows now, and the city beyond had vanished beneath a curtain of white death.

Across from him, Evelyn sat wrapped in several blankets.

Her condition had improved significantly after drinking the special water. Color had returned to her cheeks, and the violent trembling had mostly subsided.

Even so, she still looked exhausted, still fragile like someone who might not survive if conditions worsened.

Jack's gaze drifted toward the floating blue screen that only he could see. The notification remained exactly where it had been for the past hour, waiting, tempting him.

[CRITICAL BONUS AVAILABLE]

Beneath it was a smaller message.

Current Rebate Probability: Unknown

Jack frowned. Unknown? That wasn't exactly useful information. For the last hour, he had been trying to understand the system Experimenting Testing Learning. The results had been absurd.

A single bottle of water had become one hundred rare bottles. One simple act of generosity had produced enough resources to survive for weeks, possibly even longer.

The implications were enormous, but one major problem remained. He still didn't understand the rules, and ignorance had a way of getting people killed, especially in a world like this.

Evelyn noticed his distant expression. "You've been staring at that wall for ten minutes."

Jack blinked. "What?"

"The wall." She pointed toward the space in front of him. "Unless it's secretly fascinating."

For a brief moment, he almost laughed. Instead, he shook his head. "Just thinking."

Her eyes narrowed slightly. She was studying him, observing.

Jack noticed immediately.

Evelyn was smarter than most people. She paid attention. She noticed inconsistencies.

That could become a problem, especially now.

"You keep doing that," she asked.

"Doing what?" he asked in shock.

"Disappearing."

Jack frowned. "I don't know what you mean."

"Yes, you do."

Her gaze remained fixed on him. "Ever since yesterday."

She paused. "Sometimes it feels like you're seeing things nobody else can."

Jack's pulse skipped. That observation was dangerously close to the truth. Very dangerous. He forced himself to remain calm.

"The world ended yesterday."

"Everyone's acting strange."

"Not like you."

Her response came too quickly, too confidently.

Jack changed the subject immediately. "You hungry?"

Evelyn studied him for several more seconds before finally nodding. "A little."

The lie was obvious. They were both hungry, probably starving. Food was becoming one of the most valuable resources left in the world. Every meal mattered. Every calorie mattered.

The central struggle returned once again. Survival Jack picked up one of the cans of chicken soup, so Ordinary and Nothing special, yet, under current circumstances, it might have been worth more than gold.

His fingers tightened around the metal container. The system's words echoed through his mind.

Gift resources to designated female targets.

Reward

Rebate.

Growth.

The opportunity sat directly in front of him, but taking advantage of it required trust, trusting something he didn't understand. Trusting a mysterious system that had appeared inside his head. Trusting the impossible. The logical part of him hated the idea.

The survivor inside him saw opportunity. Finally, he stood.

Evelyn raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

Jack extended the can toward her. "Here."

She blinked in surprise. "For me?"

"Yes."

"You need food too," she said, stretching her hands.

"So do you."

Evelyn stared at the can, then at him, then back at the can. A strange expression crossed her face: confusion, disbelief, maybe even guilt. In the apocalypse, people weren't supposed to share. Not when survival depended on resources. Not when every scrap of food mattered.

Yet Jack kept doing it. First water, now food.

"Why?" she asked in a soft tone.

The question caught him off guard. "What?"

"Why help me?"

Her voice had grown quieter, more vulnerable.

Jack hesitated because he honestly didn't know. Maybe it was because nobody had helped him. Maybe it was because he knew exactly what it felt like to be abandoned.

Maybe it was because he wasn't ready to become the kind of person who stepped over dying strangers, not yet. "Because you're hungry."

Evelyn stared at him for a long moment.

Then she slowly opened the can.

The instant her fingers touched the conet, the world froze. Jack's eyes again widened. Time stopped. The snow outside halted in midair. The wind vanished. A heavy stillness consumed everything around him.

The system appeared instantly bright, vivid, and Alive.

[Gift Confirmed.]

Jack's heart began racing. Here we go. The blue screen pulsed once, then twice. Then it suddenly turned gold, Gold, not blue. Gold then. A mechanical voice echoed through his mind.

[CRITICAL EVENT DETECTED.]

Jack sat up straighter. Critical? The words flashed violently.

[1000X CRITICAL REBATE ACTIVATED!]

For a moment, he thought he had misread the message. One thousand? Not one hundred? One thousand?

The screen exploded with light. His apartment disappeared beneath a storm of glowing symbols. Notifications appeared everywhere.

[Reward Multiplication Complete.]

[Calculating Bonus Return...]

[Calculating...]

[Calculating...]

The suspense was nearly unbearable. Then the final notification appeared.

[Reward Acquired.]

A massive golden container materialized in the middle of the apartment. Jack nearly fell out of his chair. One moment, there had been space. Next, a gigantic steel-and-alloy crate occupied nearly half the room.

Frost-covered symbols glowed across its surface. Cold mist escaped through reinforced seams. The entire thing looked military, advanced, and impossible. Jack stared in disbelief.

His mouth slowly opened. "This can't be real."

The words slipped out automatically. The system ignored him. A new notification appeared.

FROSTPROOF SURVIVAL CRATE

Grade: Epic

Contents Available

Jack immediately approached. His pulse thundered. His hands trembled. Slowly, he opened the crate. The lid released a sharp hiss before lifting.

The moment he looked inside, he forgot how to breathe. Food Rows upon rows of food. Premium military rations, protein packs. High-calorie emergency supplies. Nutritional supplements.

There was enough food to sustain multiple people for months. His eyes widened even further. The next section contained medical supplies, bandages, painkillers, antibiotics, and Emergency treatment kits.

Everything was neatly organized and professionally packed. Then he noticed the heating equipment: portable thermal units, fuel cells Advanced insulation materials. Some of the devices looked decades beyond modern technology.

Jack's heart pounded harder.

Then he discovered the final compartment: Rare materials, glowing crystals, Strange metallic ingots, and Unknown resources labeled with names he had never heard before.

Froststeel Alloy, Thermal Core Crystal, Glacier Energy Shard

Jack swallowed hard.

The system wasn't merely providing survival resources. It was providing something beyond Earth, something beyond modern humanity, something connected directly to the apocalypse itself.

The realization sent chills through his entire body. This wasn't luck. This was power, real power, the kind of power capable of changing destinies.

The kind of power capable of changing the world. Then time resumed. The storm returned. The wind howled outside. Reality snapped back into place.

Evelyn immediately frowned. A moment ago, the giant crate hadn't existed.

Now it dominated the room. She stared, then stared harder. A tense silence settled over the apartment.

Jack slowly turned toward her. Their eyes met. Neither spoke. Finally, Evelyn broke the silence. "What is that?"

Jack opened his mouth. No words came out because, honestly, he had no idea how to answer.

Evelyn rose from her seat. She slowly approached the crate. She examined the supplies. Then she examined him. The suspicion in her eyes grew stronger with every passing second. "Jack."

Her voice became very quiet. "Where did all this come from?"

The question hung in the air. Sharp Dangerous, Impossible to answer honestly, Jack knew the truth would sound insane. Unfortunately, any lie would be even harder to explain.

Before he could respond, a loud commotion erupted somewhere outside. Voices Shouting A lot of shouting. Both of them froze.

Then came pounding, heavy pounding, not on their door.

On apartment doors throughout the building, people were moving through the hallways. Lots of people, Jack rushed toward the window. His blood turned cold.

The courtyard below was packed with residents. Dozens of them, far too many, and every single one looked desperate, hungry, starving. Their eyes darted around frantically. Then Jack noticed something.

Smoke.

A thin trail of smoke drifted from one of his apartment vents. The portable heating equipment. Someone had seen it, and in a building full of freezing survivors, heat meant food. Food meant life. Life meant conflict.

A terrified voice echoed from the hallway. "They have supplies!"

More voices joined in. "They've got food!"

The shouting intensified. The apartment door rattled. Once, then again, then much harder.

Jack's heart sank.

Because the residents had discovered something important, and desperate people were often more dangerous than monsters.