Having received the dose of inspiration, Sergei started to type down the rules for those who wished to live in his haven. They weren't a lot, but they almost equated poor survivors to the slaves of the Ancient Rome.
He let out a creepy giggle and sent the document to the aforementioned email address, then opened the "Camera" app. The camera recorded everything that happened in his room during the night and a bigger part of the morning.
At almost 2 a.m. the door slowly opened and a teenager with night vision goggles entered the room. He threw a quick glance around the room and panicked! There was no one inside, only a backpack was lying in the corner. After checking the backpack, the teenager quickly left closing the door behind him.
"That's how they treat their guests, huh? So predictable." Sergei giggled, while stroking his long (and quite glorious in his opinion) beard.
After putting on his yellow pants, his pink t-shirt, his leather boots with +2 to strength and a baseball cap, our fashionista appeared in his "apartment" in the Louvre and after picking up his trusty backpack, calmly exited the room.
To say that the officer patrolling that area was shocked would be an understatement. His eyes became huge like two large saucers. Upon seeing that, Sergei had to try his hardest not to laugh.
He waved his hand at the officer and went to the person responsible for the living quarters, where he extended the rental for one more day by giving away his last bullet.
After that Sergei quickly left the building and entered the refugee camp. His sense of smell was instantly assaulted by the sickening stench. It smelled of sweat, excrements and death…
Sergei had plans for this day: he needed to find Professor Curie, some survivors that could be useful to him and his haven and to sell some food for bullets. In the evening he planned to pay a visit to a charming read-head who was flashing some serious "do me" eyes at him…
After what happened during the night, if he kept taking more potatoes out of his backpack he would definitely rise some serious suspicion, thus he needed to temporarily leave the camp.
As soon as he left the building he was attacked by the people begging for some food or offering sex or some other shocking things that were not for the faint hearted…
He didn't give away any food of course, but that reminded him of two potential candidates for the haven. He smiled to himself and headed to where the girl with a son lived. The tent was open and the girl was reading a fairytale book to her son. She was really surprised upon seeing Sergei.
"What brings you here? If it's about yesterday… we already ate all of it…" she said with the panic in her voice and hugged her son to her chest.
"You wanna leave this hellhole?" The weird man with the long beard asked her with a serious expression on his face.
"Leave?… Where?" The girl didn't get it at first, but then her eyes lit up.
In the camp, the refugees were fed with swill just so they wouldn't die, the water for soup was taken from the river and the soup itself was made with so very few ingredients that it looked and tasted like dirty water. Sometimes the ingredients used for the soup would happen to be expired, which would start epidemics of diarrhea.
Every second someone was dying either from hunger or diseases, crimes were being committed all the time as well, but the police didn't give a damn. Staying in that place meant a sure death for the girl and her son.
Sergei was surprised by her reaction, he thought she would be more wary.
"To someplace where those potatoes came from. It's a secret place but you will have to trust me and obey me… and also work a lot," the man said quietly.
"Okay!" Just one mention of the potato was enough to convince her, even if she'd be forced to sell her body, her boy wouldn't die from hunger or something worse. Because children had been going missing lately…
"Grab your things and let's go," Sergei told her after taking a look around. The girl nodded and started packing hastily.
Sergei silently watched as the girl collapsed her tent and packed all of her belongings into a huge backpack. He could've helped, of course, but he would probably have to fight some zombies or bandits and if he would be hindered by such a weight on his back they could all end up dead! Well he could've refused to take it with them, but he was used to getting things done. You offered help? Then make sure to finish the job.
After they were done with packing, all three of them headed to the closest checkpoint. No one asked them any questions, they just calmly left the camp and were on their way.
"Minus two hungry mouths, ha ha," said one of the officers guarding the checkpoint.
"I wonder, what's he gonna do with them?"
"Who cares? They are not our concern anymore. He'll probably just rape the girl or use her as a bait for zombies… Options are many…"
That happened more than once - the system users would bring along some naive survivors and use them to lure zombies. And according to some rumors, the system users weren't the only ones who practiced that. Those monsters in human bodies would take people out by groups under the pretense of leading them to another camp. Some of those poor souls would be sold to the cannibals, others to some sick bastards' harems, while the rest would become just plain zombie meat.
It was oftentimes practiced, when someone was thrown to zombies and as they tried to escape they would unintentionally take all of the surrounding zombies with them. The remaining zombies would be killed and the territory looted. But if the bait survived… No one would bother catching them really: the poor souls would just die on their own or run somewhere far far away. Nowadays human's life wasn't even worth a bullet spent on killing them.
Upon reaching the familiar barricade, Sergei climbed it and looked around. Only three zombies were wandering around the street, unaware that soon they'd finish their non living lives and turn into experience points and loot for him…
"There are a few zombies out there. Wait for me, I'll be right back," he spoke quietly and gestured them to hide behind a huge truck, while he himself crossed over the barricade.
He was armed with the level 2 sword. It weighed only a kilo and a half which was several times lighter than the beginner's bat (the bat weighed about 5 kilos). However due to the sword being sharp, he could easily chop off zombies' heads with less effort.
The undead were scattered around the street, so it didn't take him long to deal with them one after another. After killing the last one, Sergei entered the previously looted building and after making sure that it was still free from zombies, he went to retrieve the girl and her son.
The girl became really nervous when Sergei led her into an abandoned building. She too heard the rumors about the system users who lured people away from the camp…
"Relax, I'm not gonna hurt you," he reassured her, upon noticing her nervous state.
"You need to sigh the contract if you want to enter that place." Sergei thought about inviting two people in front of him into his haven and a text appeared in front of their eyes, but only they could see it.
"What is this?" The girl was at a loss, upon seeing the words appear out of thin air. She'd never dealt with the system before, so she was understandably shocked.
"Read the text and if you agree with the terms, just say "I agree". Your son needs to do the same." He understood her confusion, so he calmly explained her everything without being insistent. He required voluntary slaves because they would never work halfheartedly or rebel against him.
YOU RECEIVED AN OFFER TO BECOME A RESIDENT OF THE DIMENSIONAL HAVEN. PLEASE READ THE RULES OF THE HAVEN. IF YOU AGREE WITH THEM, YOU WILL BE IMMEDIATELY TELEPORTED INTO THE HAVEN UPON SAYING "I AGREE". HOWEVER, DO KEEP IN MIND THAT THE OWNER OF THE HAVEN IS ITS KING AND GOD.
AS THE HAVEN'S RESIDENT YOU ARE ENTITLED TO HAVE:
•A PLACE TO LIVE
•FOOD
•PROTECTION
YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO:
•TOUCH YOUR BOSS' BELONGINGS
•ANTAGONIZE OTHER SURVIVORS
•CAUSE HARM TO THE HAVEN
•CANCEL THIS CONTRACT
YOU ARE REQUIRED TO:
•OBEY YOUR BOSS' COMMANDS
ADDENDUM:
•THIS CONTRACT CAN BE CHANGED ANY MOMENT
•YOU CAN LEAVE THE HAVEN ONLY WITH YOUR BOSS' HELP
•UPON AGREEING WITH THE RULES, YOU'LL BE IMMEDIATELY TELEPORTED TO THE HAVEN.
"Honey, say "I agree"." The girl told her son after reading the contract. They both uttered the key phrase and immediately appeared in the haven near the potato field, with Sergei joining them after a few seconds.
"Where are we?… How did we end up here?" The girl was amazed.
"This place is my special skill. There are no zombies and I have food and water. But there's a lot of work to do." He stopped talking and nodded at the field.
"I'm ready… I'm ready to work! I'll do anything you want if it means that my son wouldn't starve!" She said with absolute certainty.
"Okay okay, but first tell me your name." Sergei laughed at her eagerness.
"I'm Alice Rezon and this is my son Pierre," the girl answered, hugging her son to her side.
"Nice to meet you Alice. My name is Sergei but you can call me Boss. Soon enough this place will become quite busy," the boss said, imagining his fields filled with working sla… survivors.
"Okay, Boss…"
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU COMPLETED THE QUEST "NEW FACES". YOUR HAVEN RECEIVED 10XP AND 100 COINS.
(rus) "Perfect!" Sergei suddenly exclaimed in Russian, scaring the girl a little.
"Never mind. I act or speak weirdly but it's just the effects of a trauma." Sergei didn't feel awkward or anything, he didn't really give a shit about what others may think; when he was dying of diseases and hunger no one even lifted a finger to help him. But he didn't want people to think that he was crazy. It would effect the working capacity of his slav… survivors.
"But first, let's get something to eat," he said with a smile and led the girl to his cellar.
Alice was shocked when she saw a couple hundred kilos of potatoes in special containers for storage. With this amount of food they would never starve!
They took a few kilos of potatoes, washed them in the pond, then boiled them in their jackets and had a filling meal. It was such a long time since the girl and her son ate so much… At first Alice was a little shy and tried to reassure Sergei that one potato would be enough for her, but in just five minutes time she was upon her sixth potato…
"Potatoes grow for three days on this field, next harvest is in two days. Your job is to rip out weeds, to harvest and then plant new crops, following the instructions on this bag. Do you understand?" Sergei asked seeing her confusion. Alice just couldn't believe that it took only three days for the crops to grow… but then she remembered where she was.
"Yes! Leave it to me!" She was happy: she was truly safe and well-fed, and she only had to harvest the crops once in three days from such a small field!
"Hm, don't overestimate yourself. If you don't finish the harvest in one day all the crops will rot. I usually harvest about 400 kilos of potatoes from that field alone."
"Wow!" Alice didn't really know how many potatoes could be harvested from a square meter, but decided to look surprised just in case.
"You can leave potatoes near the field after you finish, I'll move them later myself." Sergei's tone was distant. He was the big Boss now, and he knew from his own experience that it was better to keep your subordinates at an arms length. Besides, Alice was far from a beauty.
"No no no, I can handle it…" Alice was afraid that Boss would value her less if he took moving the crops upon himself, but Sergei interrupted her with a wave of his hand and made a pile of potatoes appear out of thin air. With another wave, it disappeared once again.
"In this haven I'm a king and god. And one more thing… Come on!" He led her to the table with his laptop.
"Try pressing any button." Sergei made her sit at the table but as soon as she touched a keyboard the message appeared on the screen stating that the user had no access to the computer.
"Excellent! Never touch this laptop and do not allow your son to do it either. If you get bored, here's an outlet and somewhere in that pile were a couple of smartphones." He pointed at the big pile of junk that consisted of clothes, furniture, electrics and a lot of other stuff… He was too lazy to deal with that junk - he collected all that just for experience points.
"Okay…"
"Right, make yourself at home, I've got some work to do." With that Sergei returned to the real world.
He left the abandoned building and approached the one next to it, but it turned out to be taken. The residents formed a community and turned their building into a small fortress. The doors and windows were reinforced with iron and the armed people were monitoring the environment from the windows.
Two other closest buildings happened to be looted already, but even then Sergei managed to collect a lot of furniture and some household appliances.
"I'm not gonna find anything here…" Sergei sighed, looking at the ransacked buildings around him and made the decision to move further from the Louvre. However he didn't manage to get far: the further he went - the more zombies he encountered. By some miracle he managed to sneak around three big groups of undead and each of them had one or more mutated zombies in their ranks. It seemed like they were controlling other zombies!
"It is indeed dangerous to proceed without a gun. If there happens to be ten of them at once or that sprinter zombie appears… I'll continue searching for a little while longer then get back to the Louvre. The salesman said I could rent a gun… huh." Sergei kept talking to himself and entered another building. It was a three story brick building with three entrances; a huge sheet with "SOS" written on it was hanging from one of its windows.
"Hm, a trap maybe?" Thanks to having his haven Sergei become a little - or a lot - bolder. That's why he decided to check this building out, but started with a different entrance.
After killing off two girls of easy virtue (well, you know, those who throw themselves at the first comer…) at the entrance, he began inspecting the premises. Up to the fourth floor all the apartments were completely looted, aside from some clothes, a few pieces of furniture and household appliances, but as the saying goes: don't look a gift horse in the mouth. There were two completely intact apartments on the fifth floor, but unfortunately they were overflowing with zombies! Almost as if they were purposefully lured into those apartments.
He decided to go with the well-established pattern, so he put a heavy wooden dresser in front of the apartment and opened the door. Luckily the front door was a push not a pull…
"Hey fellas! Here comes some fresh meat, please get in line!"
"Argh?"
"Rrruuhhh!!!"
After what looked like a quick discussion, they went to attack their "dinner". But narrow hallways and a dresser made their dirty business. A sweep of the sword, a stab, another stab - and all six zombies were dead. 6 XPs and seven coins made our tired hero a little happier.
"What a pity." Sighed the novice zombie hunter looking at the once nice dresser, which was now covered with blood and pieces of flesh. It was made of good quality wood thus was pretty heavy, but it was really beautiful! It was either handmade or antique…
He noticed right from the entrance that the apartment wasn't touched yet. Everything looked neat not counting the mess that the zombies left behind.
During the search, the marauder found some edible products along with a lot of expired food. It was a really bad idea to open the fridge… The contents were rotten and musty and went through a few more interesting transformations, revealing to the world a rich aroma which was "appreciated" by the puking man.
After a little rest and a bottle of spring water, Sergei continued his search. The apartment belonged to an old couple, thus there weren't any suitable clothes, but there was a hell of a lot of various medications. But the descriptions were all in French…
Some of the findings that were worth mentioning were two bicycles - apparently, the two elders led an active lifestyle! The electronics in the apartment were pretty much prehistoric, as well as the clothes and the furniture. However Sergei took a liking to the vintage tea set. After leaving only some bare walls behind, the marauder approached the second apartment.
There he used the same method. This time there were 11 zombies in the apartment and it took him some time to deal with them. He collapsed from exhaustion the second he was done: beheading someone is not as easy as cutting a watermelon! And the blade of his fucking sword started becoming dull! Even though he obtained eight coins it seemed like not much…
"So that's how it is! That's pretty clever, I'm not gonna lie!" said the ruthless son of a bitch, upon seeing some teenager's half eaten body in the apartment.
The body was lying in front of an open window, a rope was tied to the radiator with the rest of it hanging from the window. Sergei immediately understood how the scheme actually worked. One or more people would open apartment doors and the boy would lure zombies to the apartments on the fifth floor. Once all of the zombie were inside, someone would close the door and the boy would rappel down to the floor below. However something must've happened and the boy ended up eaten alive.
Unfortunately, nothing of value was found in the apartment, only some furniture and a few other household items. So Sergei went to the first floor and returned to his haven.
It was getting dark and he wasn't one to take any unnecessary risks. For this foray he obtained 19 XP, 15 coins and also collected some junk which gave him 48 haven experience points. The haven reached level 5 and its "king and god" reached level 4. He put his stat points in stamina and dexterity, bringing them to 13 and 14 respectively.
"Boss! You're back!" Sergei heard a happy voice of his first sla… employee.
"What have you been doing all day?"
"I've been sorting through the things from that pile." Alice pointed her hand at the mountain of furniture, clothes and other loot. Near the mountain were neatly folded clothes, household chemicals and other everyday items.
"Hm, good, you've done a good job." Sergei never thought about it but now realized: how was he supposed to sort through that pile of junk? It kept growing with each time he went on a looting spree. Thankfully, now he had a good sla… employee.
"Thanks, Boss!" Alice exclaimed with a happy smile.
(rus) "I need more slaves…" he concluded observing the pile of junk. Then he headed to his laptop - he was really curious about the reward he got for leveling up!
"Subject: Level up.
Congratulations! Your haven reached level 5. A new range of products is available for purchase in the "Store". Now you can buy more fields."
"Yes! The store, new fields… one hundred coins?! This is robbery! Fuck, okay, I'm buying it. There's no other choice anyway…"
After receiving a new field, our rookie farmer installed it right next to the first one. A small fence appeared in that spot, nothing else really changed.
"Why is it called a field if it's basically just a fence…" Sergei asked no one in particular and as it was expected didn't receive any answer.
"Hey, what are you doing?" He asked upon seeing Alice with a shovel in her hand.
"I was going to dig up this new field." Alice saw how her Boss stood near the field with a thoughtful look on his face and then a new wooden fence appeared out of nowhere near the first field. She realized what it was all about and decided to get to work.
"It's getting late, you can do it in the morning," he told her. He liked her intelligence and diligence.
"Okay, Boss!" She replied smiling sweetly. She was sure he would force her to work 24/7… and was happy that she was proven wrong…
"Wait," Sergei suddenly stopped the leaving girl, making her heart skip a beat. "Go wash yourself in the pond."
"But… it will become dirty," she said, slightly embarrassed. She knew perfectly well that she stank and looked accordingly…
"Don't worry, it will purify itself after you're finished. Consider it magical," the tired man stated in all seriousness.
"Okay," an even more embarrassed girl replied and ran to the pond. Sergei on the other hand returned to his tent and went to sleep. Meanwhile Alice was having a good time. She followed her Boss' advice and washed herself and her son for the first time in months. She didn't hesitate to use shampoo and soap. The water turned out magical indeed: the second the people were out of the water it became crystal clean once again.
————————————————————
"Mmm… mmm!" Sergei was awakened by some weird sounds and a pleasant feeling in the area bellow his waist.
"What are you doing?"
"You have a tough and dangerous job - I'm helping you to relax, Boss," Alice said, after stopping from…
"Hm, good job." Sergei was one of those people who never said no to freebies. Besides, he was really tired lately and it wouldn't hurt to relax a little. Unfortunately, she lacked some experience, so "relaxing" took some time…
When Alice finished, that is to say when Sergei finished - the girl went to get washed in the pond, and was thinking about cooking something for breakfast after that. Sergei left his tent as well. It was a wonderful morning - especially it's beginning. After a little exercise he moved away from the tent and noticed Alice bathing in the pond.
"Was she always that pretty?" he wondered out loud, squinting his eyes and focusing on the young woman. Her appearance changed quite a lot with hearty meals, constant consuming of spring water, even after simply getting washed. Aside from her slightly crooked legs, she had a beautiful figure, especially her D cup breasts.
Her face now looked more pretty, she wasn't a world class beauty of course, but she was cute. She let hair down and it was now beautifully cascading down her delicate shoulders. That scene evoked a certain reaction from his nether regions.