Once Jack finished laying down the rules, the fourteen men finally relaxed a little.
Before long, one of the men cautiously raised a question.
“Where are we supposed to sleep?”
Jack gave him an annoyed look.
“Am I your father or your mother? Do I have to arrange your sleeping quarters too?”
The man had no answer and quietly closed his mouth.
The rest of the group fell silent. Jack had frightened them so badly that none of them had thought about shelter until now. Even if they had, there was nothing nearby they could use to build one.
Just when they assumed Jack had no intention of helping, he let out an exaggerated sigh.
“Fine. I suppose this is what I get for being such a good person.”
Every head immediately lifted, including the man Jack had just silenced.
Jack smiled.
“I’ll allow you to trade with me.”
He pointed toward the tents inside the moat.
“See those? One two-person tent costs two hundred extra qualified brick blanks. Two people share one tent, and how you divide the cost is up to you.”
Before anyone could misunderstand, Jack added,
“The three hundred brick blanks each of you owes every day are your mandatory quota. They don’t count toward any trade. Only qualified brick blanks produced after you finish that quota can be exchanged.”
The group quickly did the math.
If two people split the cost evenly, each of them only needed to make one hundred extra brick blanks. It would mean working longer, but earning a tent still seemed within reach.
The same man spoke again.
“But we can’t produce that many extra brick blanks today.”
“You’re right,” Jack said.
The answer seemed to surprise him.
“That’s why I’m letting you use the tents first. Once you’ve delivered two hundred extra qualified brick blanks, the tent belongs to you.”
Jack looked over the entire group before continuing.
“Until then, it’s only on loan. If anyone deliberately damages a tent or refuses to finish the trade after taking one, I’ll reclaim it immediately. And whoever does that will never be allowed to trade for another tent.”
The man nodded quickly.
“We won’t damage them. We promise.”
The others immediately gave the same assurance.
They knew exactly what their position was. They were prisoners, yet Jack had spared their lives and was allowing them to obtain supplies through additional work. The arrangement was already far better than they had expected.
Once the group quieted down, Jack added,
“Tents aren’t the only things you can trade for.”
That immediately caught their attention.
“Anything you produce beyond your mandatory quota can be traded, as long as the brick blanks meet the quality standard.”
Jack pointed toward the trading post.
“I have food, water, and meat. Make enough qualified brick blanks, and you can choose what you want in return.”
The mention of meat drew an immediate reaction from the group.
Until now, they had assumed that being forced to stay meant a life of endless work with nothing to look forward to. But if extra work allowed them to earn better food and other supplies, then their lives here might not be as hopeless as they had imagined.
The leader, however, had already begun imagining something else entirely.
Making brick blanks was work for his men. If he could force them to hand over whatever they produced beyond their quotas, he could trade for anything he wanted without lifting a finger.
While he was still picturing that comfortable future, one of the others asked,
“What can we trade for? How many brick blanks would it take to get some meat?”
“Don’t worry about the prices yet,” Jack said.
The man looked confused.
“Even if I gave you the price right now, could you afford it?”
The man glanced at his empty hands.
“No…”
“Then finish today’s quota first. Once you actually have qualified brick blanks to trade, you can come and see what’s available.”
Jack turned to Vane.
“You’ll be responsible for watching them from now on. Any problem with that?”
Vane looked over the fourteen men.
“None.”
Jack nodded.
“Then bring seven two-person tents from the storeroom and let them use those for now.”
Vane accepted the assignment and headed toward the convenience store.
With everything settled, Jack left the trading post with Megan. They had barely stepped inside the convenience store when the system’s voice sounded in his mind.
“Human, mission completed.”
“Reward available. Megan has one opportunity to choose one resource currently available in the convenience store and convert it into an unlimited supply.”
Jack paused. He had been so busy frightening the fourteen men that he had nearly forgotten about the emergency mission.
Megan noticed.
“What happened?”
“The mission is complete.” Jack quickly explained the mission and its reward. “LOSS is giving you one chance to choose something in the convenience store and turn it into an unlimited supply.”
Megan looked surprised.
“Why am I the one choosing?”
“Who knows?” Jack shrugged. “The opportunity is yours. Just pick something.”
“Do I have to decide right now?”
Jack asked LOSS in his mind. The system replied that the opportunity would not expire, and Megan could claim the reward whenever she had made her decision.
After hearing the answer, Megan considered the possibilities for a moment.
“What about my Tesla?”
Jack’s eyes lit up.
Of course. Why hadn’t he thought of that?
The system crushed his excitement before it could go any further.
“Human, stop daydreaming. That is impossible.”
Jack’s smile froze.
“Why?”
Instead of giving him a simple answer, the system replied with unmistakable contempt.
“Human, this system has sufficient reason to suspect that your central auditory pathways exhibit significant neural information-transmission abnormalities during the temporal encoding, frequency discrimination, binaural integration, and semantic mapping of continuous linguistic signals. Consequently, although your peripheral auditory organs remain capable of receiving acoustic stimuli normally, your brain is unable to accurately filter, sequence, interpret, and cognitively classify the complex linguistic information it receives.”
A vein throbbed on Jack’s forehead.
He resisted the urge to curse and spoke through gritted teeth.
“Loser, speak English.”
The system immediately switched back to a simple, direct explanation.
“Do you have an auditory processing disorder? Which part of ‘a resource currently available in the convenience store’ did you fail to understand?”
Jack nearly choked.
“Why doesn’t the Tesla count? Its owner is already one of us!”
“Human, this system now has reason to suspect that your auditory processing disorder is accompanied by a pronounced tendency toward delusion.”
The contempt in the system’s voice deepened.
“When did Megan become part of the convenience store? More importantly, have you ever seen a convenience store that sells Teslas?”
That left Jack with nothing to say.
He searched for an argument, but none came to him. After a long silence, he finally forced out through gritted teeth,
“Loser, you win.”
Megan had watched his expression shift from excitement to confusion, then irritation, and finally complete defeat.
She couldn’t resist asking,
“What happened? It won’t work?”
Jack reluctantly told Megan what the system had said.
Megan burst out laughing.
Jack gave her a resentful look but said nothing.
“Forget it,” Megan said once she had stopped laughing. “We already have the CUEV.”
“I’m not angry because the Tesla can’t be converted,” Jack replied. “I’m angry because Loser could’ve explained it in one sentence, but chose to insult me with an entire paragraph I couldn’t understand first.”
Megan looked at him in confusion.
“Who’s Loser?”
“LOSS,” Jack said as if it were obvious. “I thought the name sounded funny, so I started calling it Loser.”
Megan was silent for a moment before reaching out and tapping him on the forehead.
“This time, I’m on LOSS’s side.”
Jack stared at her.
“Why?”
“You’re the one making fun of its name. How can you blame LOSS for refusing to speak nicely to you?”
The system immediately spoke up in Jack’s mind, sounding unusually pleased with itself.
“Human, listen carefully. That is what a reasonable person sounds like.”
Jack scoffed.
“You’re not human. What are you so proud of?”
The system fell silent.
After a long moment, it replied,
“I may not be human, but you’re definitely a piece of work.”
Jack ignored it and turned back to Megan.
“The Tesla is out. Think of something else. The reward doesn’t have a time limit, so tell me once you’ve decided.”
Megan nodded.
Just then, Elias entered the convenience store.
“What happened?” Jack asked.
“The people outside are putting up the tents. They should be ready to work soon,” Elias said. “But we don’t have enough tools. We can’t expect all fourteen of them to dig with their bare hands.”
Jack had been so busy dealing with the fourteen men that he had completely overlooked the problem.
“Tools…”
The convenience store still had several small gardening shovels and a few other basic tools. They could be used to dig up clay, but the work would be slow and difficult.
As Jack considered what else they could use, an almost forgotten plan suddenly returned to him.
Wait.
He raised his head and burst out laughing, startling both Megan and Elias.
“What’s wrong with you?” Megan asked.
Jack didn’t answer. Grinning as though he had remembered some hidden treasure, he hurried into the storeroom.
Elias looked at Megan, but she appeared just as confused as he was.
Neither of them had any idea what Jack had remembered.
After a while, Jack emerged from the storeroom carrying several packages, his grin wider than ever.
Megan still hadn’t seen what he was holding when Elias noticed the packaging.
He froze.
Then, before either of them could react, Elias rushed straight toward Jack.
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