Aside from various types of trees, there grew a lot of different herbs in the forest, such as burdock, nettle and other shrubs. He even spotted some mushrooms here and there, but Sergei wasn't sure if they were edible or not…
Soon the forest has ended and he came face to face with a tall wire fence and as far as he could see, everything beyond that was covered by a thick wall of fog. The curious man climbed the fence and touched the wall which turned out to be soft and bouncy. When he leaned against it, Sergei felt like he was lying on a really soft bed. If it wasn't for his legs that started to hurt once again he would have definitely fallen asleep.
After walking around the entire perimeter, Sergei learned that the territory was shaped like a square and surrounded by the wire fence from all sides. And the clearing with the table and laptop was smack in the middle of it.
CURRENT PROGRESS 39%
"You've got to be kidding me!" He went to check on the updating progress, but much to his annoyance it wasn't about to finish anytime soon. So without anything else to do he decided to take an impromptu nap in the hammock.
The sun was radiating warmth and the wind, though a little on the warmer side, was still quite refreshing. Sergei closed his eyes and immediately fell asleep because it's been a long time since he breathed such a clean air. Plus the stroll in the woods wore him down quite a bit since he hasn't fully recovered yet.
*Ding, ding, diiing!* The laptop started emitting an irritating sound, which was loud enough to even wake the dead, let alone the man who was still sensitive to loud noises.
It was around twilight when his eyes flew open. Laptop's updating speed was absolutely horrible. There was a new icon on the desktop labeled "Delivery". He clicked on it and found a list which contained an image of the bag of seeds labeled "a bag of special potato seeds" and an image of a farming land labeled "a small field". A "receive" button could be seen near each icon. He clicked on the one near the seeds and was astonished when a literal bag of seeds appeared on the table right in front of him.
"Wow… it's like magic! Hm… "the time of growth on a special field reduces down to seventy two hours if you water your crops with spring water"… hm." The man thoroughly read the instruction. He was the type to always read the instruction first, if there was one for a calculator he would've read that one as well. As he would always say: "better safe than sorry."
Sergei clicked on the receive button near the "small field" icon and immediately the information about how to handle that particular delivery appeared in his head. He found a place near the pond and activated the field installation mode, which looked like a holographic projection that could be easily moved around. After making sure that he was satisfied with the spot for the future field, Sergei confirmed the installation and a small twenty centimeters tall wooden fence appeared on the chosen spot.
"Hey, where's the field?"
DIG IT UP YOURSELF.
"What?! Are you trolling me?!" The man was furious, however he knew that the food supply would last him only for a few days. Actually, it was the exact amount that should last him till the next harvest…
He took a small folding shovel and started digging up the "small field", luckily it was indeed small, somewhere around forty square meters. However considering Sergei's physical state, it turned out to be quite a torture for him… He managed to finish only by the next morning.
"Friggin farming! Agh, my poor hands! If I knew it would come in handy I would've never slacked off while working in the family garden when I was a kid," he grumbled throwing the shovel aside.
"Easy, Sergei, calm down. Everything's fine, you are alive and it's all that matters." His self-hypnosis helped him to calm down a little, after that he thoroughly massaged all the body parts that were in pain… meaning he ended up doing a full body massage.
"Let's take a look at those "potato seeds", shall we?"
He opened the bag of seeds and found a bunch of little gooseberry sized potatoes inside. They were perfectly round but looked like potatoes.
"Are you for real?!… You call these potatoes? What the fuck is th… Okay, calm down, everything's fine. What did you expect from potatoes that are supposed to fully grow in three days?"
After meditating for some time in search of an internal piece, our newbie farmer started planting potatoes by following the instructions. And there were a lot of those - a detailed explanation of how further apart the holes should be, how deep they should be, even how deep he should dig up the soil… he was informed that if he didn't follow those instructions his harvest would be significantly reduced.
In half an hour all of the "potato seeds" were successfully planted. It turned out that there was exactly the amount of seeds to sow the "small field".
He thoroughly massaged his sore back and knees then took a metal bucket from under the table and watered his crops using water from the pond.
"Field status," he spoke out awkwardly. It was one thing to talk to himself, but to speak to a wooden fence…
When he received the field he also got the information about "field status" command along with it. Wake him up while drunk in the middle of the night and even then Sergei will give you all of the information on the field.
SMALL FIELD #1
PLANTED CROPS: "SPECIAL POTATO"
SOWING EFFICIENCY: 100%
WATERING EFFICIENCY: 81%
HARVEST TIME: 79 HOURS 56 MINUTES.
"Crap!… I didn't water it properly!" Sergei grabbed the bucket and watered all the places he missed the first time, but only after his third try the watering efficiency reached 100%.
He finally finished with farming and collapsed into his hammock and proceeded to rest there all night. But not before putting his sleeping bag in it, so it would be much more comfortable for his back than sleeping on ropes.
He didn't know how much time he spent in the pod, but it was obvious to him that his condition was far from satisfying. Even small movements caused him pain, while most of the sounds gave him terrible headaches. Sometimes he would experience migraine attacks, which were so painful he would collapse from a sudden assault. Of course he had the medicine, but he didn't know how or in what doses to take it, any mistake could potentially lead to his death.
Three days passed since he sowed his field. He spent that time in rest and sessions after sessions of healing massage in order to bring his muscles back to normal.
"The fresh air and healing massage work miracles!" Sergei stretched and sighed: he was feeling much better than he did three days ago. Like a completely different person.
His stomach grumbled.
"I'm starving… I ran out of spam yesterday at lunch… and I'm almost completely out of water… I hope what I harvest would be enough to eat and for the next planting." The grumpy man approached his field while rubbing his empty stomach.
"Well, I'm not a farmer, but this looks great!" And it did: potato stems were full of leaves and looked healthy. The small field was completely green!
"Wow!!!" The starving man dug up one of the bushes and was flabbergasted upon seeing a bunch of fist sized potatoes hanging from its roots.
"How in the world those microscopic thingies gave such a plentiful harvest?! And they are huge as well!!" He kept digging until he filled the bucket, but there was still so much of them left…
Because of a lack of a cooking pot or any other cutlery for that matter, he filled the bucket with water, washed potatoes in the pond and hung the bucket over the fire as an impromptu cauldron. The campfire was built using a bunch of stones and sticks and ignited with a lighter that he found in his survival kit.
"Yummy!" Sergei cooked simple jacket potatoes. The potatoes were so tasty he could eat them without salt or butter. Their skin was so thin and soft while their flesh tasted like nothing he ever tried before. His hunger was finally sated after consuming half a bucket of potatoes. By the time he finished he was almost bursting from overeating.
"The water is gone," the fully sated man summed up after finishing the last bottle and looked at the pond.
"Can I drink spring water without boiling or filtering it first?" He pondered, he was a city person after all. Actually it was his first time in the forest altogether.
"And it's a pond not a spring… and I washed my potatoes in it… Of course! Hey, System? Is water in the pond drinkable?"
SPRING WATER IN THIS POND IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE OF ALL THAT EXISTS IN THIS DIMENSION, IT CONTAINS MANY HEALTHFUL MINERALS AND VITAL ENERGY. IT ALSO HELPS TO HEAL WOUNDS AND ACCELERATES PLANT GROWTH.
"So what? Is it drinkable or not?" In those three days he learned to communicate with the haven's system - it was some sort of a voice assistant. It usually answered any questions related to haven. Or didn't… It's creator was a big troll.
YES
"What if I washed potatoes in it?"
THE POND HAS A SELF-CLEANING FUNCTION, ANY IMPURITIES WILL BE IMMEDIATELY TERMINATED.
"What if I poop in there?" This time the system remained silent for some reason.
"This water is so delicious!" Sergei finally made up his mind and drank from the pond. A sense of freshness filled his body, even his head began to ache less.
He felt quite tired after a plentiful meal so he took a nap till the late afternoon. Once he woke up he immediately received some "great" news from the System.
WARNING! THE CROPS ON "SMALL FIELD #1" ARE GOING TO ROT IN 12 HOURS.
"What?! Why didn't you tell me earlier that crops can't be left unharvested for a long time?!"
YOU DIDN'T ASK. WHAT GROWS FAST, BECOMES OVERRIPE FAST. USE THE LOGIC.
"You bitch! A-a-aaa! How am I supposed to harvest all of it in such a short time?!" Without wasting time, Sergei started digging potatoes. Forty square meters may not sound like much to others, but to someone with sore muscles and stiff spine…
Late in the night, the naked man with a shovel in his hands was digging potatoes on his last legs. He was sweating profusely, his muscles cried from pain, his back kept cursing its owner and his hands were about to droop like a willy at the sight of a naked granny.
Under the stars and with enviable persistence Sergei wielded the shovel and kept digging into the ground. Who knows if there will be the next harvest? What if the next one will be in a month time or so?
Bam! Sergei finally finished and collapsed on the soft ground.
"I did it…" Indeed: from forty square meters of land (430 square feet) he harvested about 400 kilograms (881 pounds) of potatoes!
"This water is truly magical. Huh… I go bed now…" Sergei closed his eyes and fell asleep right on the ground. He would've gladly slept in his sleeping bag or in his hammock but his body refused to move the moment the last potato left the field.
In the morning our naked farmer could be found boiling jacket potatoes once again. He was in a bad mood because while he was asleep the field became flooded with weeds… Furthermore his entire body was in pain… again. Looking somewhat dejected, the man checked the info about the field.
STATE OF THE FIELD: READY FOR PLOWING.
It did recover quickly and was ready for sowing. Sergei dug up the ground and planted the smallest potatoes he handpicked earlier for this purpose only.
"And where am I supposed to store all this? Hm…" When trying to think of a way to store his harvest, he remembered seeing the buildings section in the "Store".
Sergei turned on his laptop, waited for a few minutes for it to load up and logged into the "Store" app. There was a limited range of goods actually, mostly everything that he already owned and some simple items like bottles, jars, bandages, cutlery and etc. That's why it hadn't piqued his interest before.
In the "buildings" section he found a one-story wooden house, a wooden barn and a simple cellar.
"A cellar… is designed for storing foodstuffs. The foodstuff kept in the cellar will never spoil, even in hundreds of years. That sounds somewhat unreal, but okay. The cellar's maximum capacity is 10 tons (20000 pounds). Price - 200 coins. Coins! Where am I supposed to get those?! Hm… there's a "Sell" section… What?! 1 kilo (2,2 pounds) of potatoes costs just 1 coin?! I will have to sell half of my crops… My medicine costs 5 coins though… No, I can't do that. Okay, I'm selling potatoes… How many kilos? 200 kilos sold out?" The man turned to the mountain of harvested potatoes nearby and found only half a mountain left there…
"…Fine. Buy the cellar." He made the purchase and installed the cellar near the field so he wouldn't have to carry the crops too far. He confirmed the installation and received the information about the use of a purchase right into his brain.
"Crap… I should've installed it here instead…" he grumbled in annoyance as it turned out that the cellar was magical. After his internal request all the potatoes were transferred into the cellar, then back to the meadow and to the cellar once again. Sergei could transfer any foodstuff, no not any, only foodstuff that he grew himself, into the cellar and back with his mind.
"It's quite spacious, but a little cold!" He couldn't resist and went to check out the cellar. It was spacious indeed, as it should be in order to contain 10 tons of foodstuff.
The potatoes were stored in containers, he wasn't sure where those came from. His curiosity sated, Sergei quickly left the cellar as his family jewels were freezing out due to the low temperature.
He felt much better the next day. He practiced transferring to and from the haven a few times and made sure that his exiting point in real world wasn't swarmed by zombies. The fact that he appeared right where he entered his haven from was a huge downside for him. He couldn't even turn in the other direction, he still would appear facing the same direction he's been facing when he entered the haven.
After a hearty meal, Sergei took his trusty bat and transferred to the real world. If it were up to him, he would've never left the haven, but he needed someone who could speak French and English or Russian. Despite its magical properties, the spring water couldn't really cure his bouts of headache…
He quickly glanced left, then right. After making sure that there were no zombies around, he slowly headed towards the stairs. He was on the sixth floor and, based on the lack of lightning and the turned off equipment, there was no electricity in the building. Which meant that the elevator wasn't working and that left him with only one way to leave this place - the stairs.
"I've found you at long last, my dear! The fire escape plan!" He exclaimed quietly upon spotting a floor plan on the nearby wall.
"Let me see… Each floor has two elevators and three sets of stairs… of what use are the elevators if they aren't working…" the naked man grumbled in annoyance.
While descending the stairs, our hero saw a woman that was chained to the railing with handcuffs. Her legs were gnawed off, her chest and face disfigured. Seeing no harm Sergei walked closer. Upon hearing a sound, the woman wheezed out and reached out to grab the human, however the handcuffs denied her such an opportunity. But she still tried.
"Free experience! Nice!" As someone who grew up on the streets, was a street urchin and a part of the gang, he witnessed a lot of mutilations and deaths in his life. He himself wasn't without fault either: the main rule on the streets is "kill or be killed", and he survived in the most criminal and terrifying part of Moscow suburbs.
One sweep attack - and a zombie is dead once again, only permanently this time. During last few days in the haven, Sergei was able to recover and gain some strength. Plus he finally figured out how the system worked. At least he thought so…
YOU KILLED A LEVEL 1 ZOMBIE AND RECEIVE 1 XP.
When he killed his first zombie he received first level and an access to the system itself, plus two stat points that he put into strength. For killing the second one he got only experience.
An average person has stats equal to 10. If a person puts two stat points into their strength that means their strength now equals 12, which is 12% more than that of an average person. However basic stats are calculated from a person's current physical condition (not including the diseases that degrade the stats).
And so Sergei's stats at the moment were as such:
LEVEL: 1
EXP: 1/5
STAMINA POINTS (SP): 7/8
MAGIC POINTS (MP): 10/10
STATS:
STRENGTH: 11 (14)
DEXTERITY: 9 (11)
STAMINA: 8 (10)
DURABILITY: 13
MAGIC: 10
SKILLS:
HAVEN
His stats were a little understated due to his physical condition, but were not so bad - he always put in an effort to maintain good form after all.
"And what is this?" Right after a zombie died, two colorful coins appeared in the air and fell to the ground at his feet.
A SURVIVOR'S COIN, FACE VALUE - 1 UNIT.
"Hm… by killing this zombie I saved 2 kilos of potatoes. Not bad!" He picked up the coins and sent them to his haven. Because he didn't have a barn or a warehouse, all the items he sent to the haven would appear either on the field or on his table. He put them on his table as there was a fat chance of finding them ever again if they appeared on the field…
The next part of his journey went relatively safe and he successfully reached the third floor, but that was where he ran out of his luck. A huge crowd of zombies gathered on the second floor and wasn't about to let him continue his descent.
"I need to find another route… It looks like the road is clear." Sergei quietly opened the door leading to the third floor and checked the hallway and, after making sure that the coast was clear, he slowly went searching for another stairs to the lower floors.
Sergei became much bolder after getting his skill, if push came to shove he could return to his haven and wait for a few days. He has water and food after all, what else would he need?
Making as little noise as possible, our tough guy crept along the hallway on the third floor. The hospital was ransacked for the most part, mainly lower floors. While he still stumbled upon some interesting items on the sixth floor, the third one was almost completely bare.
"Hm… an iPhone… Wait, iPhone 16?!" Sergei picked up the phone and inspected it thoroughly. He hoped it was a knockoff but it turned out legit. The last iPhone that's been released before he went into coma was iPhone 14…
"I spent two years in that pod?! And they couldn't cure me completely even after all those years? The technology of our future my ass!" He was really confused. French scientists claimed that their pods could cure cancer, grow new organs and almost raise the dead!
However they said nothing about duration of the healing process… He sent the phone into his haven and continued his journey while picking up all sorts of rubbish on his way.
"I hope they just released several models of those phones a year," he tried to reassure himself but it wasn't really working.
The hallways were intricate and plenty, but he memorized this floor's evacuation plan beforehand so he knew where he was going.
"Not a single zombie in sight… Let's hope it stays that way." Of course zombies gave him coins and experience points, but he was still trapped inside this building. He wouldn't be able to escape and the thought of spending his remaining days in the haven wasn't appealing.
"This way!"
"They're catching up!"
Sergei heard two voices in the distance, but couldn't understand what they were saying as they were speaking in French. But based on their intonation, they were panicking. The sound of racing feet was becoming louder and louder until two terrified teenagers came running from around the corner.
"Run! The undead are coming!" The older teen shouted upon seeing a weird naked man.
At first the boy confused our hero for a zombie until he saw him holding a bat, so he tried to warn him. Even though Sergei didn't understand shit, he caught the main gist of it: if you stay you die. So he ran as fast as he could in the direction the boys were headed, concluding that they knew the way out of this place.
"There's a zombie up ahead!" The older teen shouted once again. "We need to run past it or else we are dead! There's no other way!"
"I understand," the younger boy replied uncertainly, he was terrified of coming closer to those things. One bite and you become one of them! The boy had witnessed his loved ones turn into those flesh-eating monsters multiple times… One bite, even the tiniest one, guaranteed that you will become a zombie.
The hallway they were running along wasn't wide, only three meters or so. A zombie stood right in the middle and could potentially grab one of the boys while they are running past it. It was certainly a risk, but there was a huge crowd of undead hot on their heels, so they had no other options than to try or else they would meet a very gruesome death. However the naked man that was running beside them had an entirely different idea.
"It's alone, which means easy experience points, haha…" he was thinking out loud as usual, but he was speaking Russian so the boys didn't understand a thing he said. Sergei picked up his pace and ran towards the zombie, that did the same upon seeing the fresh meet running in its direction.
When there was a few meters worth distance left, Sergei suddenly stopped and took a pose of a baseball player waiting for his ball.
Bang! Zombie's head was bashed in with such a force that the pieces of brain mixed with blood went flying everywhere, while it's neck got twisted at an unnatural angle as if all of the bones inside it suddenly vanished. The zombie fell and slid along the floor from the impact. One coin dropped from its body but there was no time to collect it. Despite his inner reluctance, Sergei kept running, besides the boys were already running a bit ahead of him.
"You were awesome, mister! Thank you for saving us!"
"Thank you so much!" The teenagers spoke at the same time feeling grateful towards the weird man, but he ignored their unfamiliar speech.
A few hallways and a bunch of risky situations later, the three of them successfully exited the hospital, leaving the undead behind. All three of them were breathing heavily, they were running long and fast plus they had to maneuver between barricades made of furniture and zombie traps. Besides, both of the teenagers were carrying two heavy backpacks, stuffed with goods from the hospital.
Sergei wished he could drink the water from his haven, but considering his naked state, he wouldn't be able to explain where he got it from. What was he gonna say? "I had it hidden up my ass"? He didn't think so.
"Thank you, mister, and sorry for setting you up like that, we didn't think that there could be other people in the hospital." The older boy took the lead and apologized to the weird man, after catching his breath. Besides, he was a little scared of people like him - people who killed zombies. And he was also scared of naked, bat wielding men, who liked to wander around dangerous places…