*sigh* "Crying won't change a thing. Let's look at my rewards." The man mumbled and reread the message about the level up. "The apple tree seeds for level 8 - not bad, of course, vitamins and apple cider are great things. There are no rewards for the ninth level except for a new assortment in the store, which means that new items are more valuable than the reward!" After reading the messages, Sergei opened the "Store" app.
"Aha! New levels of the laptop and the camera are available now! I'm buying them." The level 4 laptop costed 1 800 coins, but an upgrade from level 3 to level 4 costed 1 000 coins. To upgrade the camera to level 4 costed 500 coins. After the upgrade, the laptop became bigger and flatter. With level 4 laptop, the camera finished updating in just five minutes.
"So… The zooming range of the camera went from twenty to forty meters and there's a new mode that allows us to look through the walls, wow! I used to dream about the camera that would allow me to see through clothes when I was a kid, ha ha."
"Next… the dimensional teleporter? That's new."
The dimensional teleporter, level 1
A structure that enhances the haven's teleporting abilities. Does not require electricity or maintenance.
Price: 3 000
"Awesome! Perhaps now I might be able to teleport the heavier objects." He thought about cars and trucks and, well, containers. "Yep, I'm buying it!"
"Now… There are some new seeds and new packagings available - small, medium and large. The fruit-bearing trees - apple tree, pear tree…" After buying a lot of different seeds, Sergei turned to fields. He needed many, many more fields! It was not easy to feed three hundred plus mouths, it required hundreds of kilos of food daily.
Sergei also made a decision to enlarge the haven - he needed some new space for a whole lot of new houses and fields. He ended up spending 40 000 units of biomatter to buy forty hectares of land.
"Annette, tell everyone that everything will start shaking hard pretty soon!" Annette was nearby. While the boss was occupying the laptop she was playing some games on her phone, a solitaire maybe.
"Shaking? Got it!" The girl ran away and returned in five minutes. "Done."
"Now hold on!"
The haven's territory increased by five times, so everything shook pretty violently… and it did not go without some women screams. Sergei, of course, could've divided the expansion into several stages but… It was the same thing as unloading the car while taking one bag into each hand. Most of the people would just grab as many bags as possible so they wouldn't have to walk back and forth too many times…
The earthquake went on for about a minute, the wall of fog receded rapidly opening up some new territories covered in trees and grass. When everything calmed down, the boss started installing new fields.
The fields costed him 32 000 coins, all of the upgrades and the teleporter - 4 500, another 4 000 was spent on seeds (he decided to buy them with a reserve) and at the end Sergei had only 5 724 coins left… In one fell swoop, the haven's budget became ten times poorer. But, as the saying goes, money should be used to make more money, not to be hidden under the pillow.
By lunchtime and after the intense brainstorming session, they decided where to put the fields. It was decided to leave some space for future crops, so one fifth of the haven (ten hectares) was reserved for farming. There were installed ten big potato fields, four fields reserved for other vegetables (cabbages, carrots, salads, etc.), two wheat fields, two corn fields, one was reserved for apple trees and another one for pear trees. It turned out that the trees grew for five days and it took five more days for apples to ripen. So he wasn't expecting the apple cider anytime soon…
"Well… Here's the deal: in order to build new houses for all of you, with hot water and other amenities - money is needed. We can make money only by selling the crops." Sergei gathered people near new fields and outlined the scope of work.
"Work hard and in just a week's time each one of you will have their own house, or a room, if you'll want to share a house with someone else. Orianne will lead all the work in the fields. If any of you don't want to work in the fields - you can talk to Alice." Sergei said pointing at the girl who stood beside him translating his words into French.
Sergei left Orianne to organize the work and walked away. It turned out that they had only one hundred or so work instruments… So after installing the dimensional teleporter near the tent with the laptop (it turned out to be a small monument, a half meter in width and five meters in height, it was pitch black with a few luminous lines along its entire surface - it looked very mysterious and enigmatic), Sergei returned to the real world and started walking towards Hubert's camp. Yes, walking, unfortunately - his motorbike was confiscated by the feminists and it wasn't really possible to get it back… The second level gear that he was wearing was confiscated as well by the way.
***
"Let's test our new abilities!" Sergei approached a car parked on the roadside, which was in a pretty good condition and touched it with his hand. One moment - and the car appeared in the haven!
"Awesome! I wonder, how many XPs I received for that?" He thought out loud, but decided to leave the good stuff for later and just continued his journey, collecting cars in good condition every now and then. But he didn't encounter them much, because most cars had alarm systems. The wandering zombies would often brush against cars with their bodies and when the alarms went off they would just start attacking that car thinking that maybe there was someone alive inside. So, in general, there weren't many intact cars - yet he still met a few exceptions on his way.
"Annette, call the Kid."
"Boss!" Gai answered instantaneously.
"Hey? Were you just standing beside her? What about working in the field?"
"Boss… Orianne divide us into groups, because we don't have much instrument, it not be my turn yet."
"Yeah, and that's why you're hanging around my eyes and ears?"
"Huh?"
"I mean Annette, you dumbass! Do not distract her while I'm outside!"
"Boss, he was just sitting on a chair beside me and wasn't bothering me at all." The girl intervened.
"I see you two lovebirds hit it off already, huh? Alright, I'll pretend I believe you. I have a job for you." Boss then teleported Gai to the real world with just a simple thought. He couldn't do it before - he used to need physical contact, but thanks to the new teleporter his abilities expanded!
"Huh? Boss, how do you…"
"Here, put this on and grab the bow." Because Sergei lost - those bitches stole it! - a set of level 2 armor, he was wearing the last remaining one, so Gai only got the first level gear and the vaccine bracelet, which was full, by the way.
"Let's hunt along the way. Wait a sec. I've got an idea!" Boss sent a mental command and Gai appeared in the haven, another command - and he appeared back in front of Sergei.
"Ha, this is cool. Go ten meters back."
Gai complied and Sergei sent him to haven, then brought him back exactly where he was. Through trial and error, it was discovered that Sergei could move his people to haven and back from a distance up to fifteen meters. There was another interesting thing: while moving Gai into the haven and back, Sergei could change his position!
"Boss, my head be spinning…" Gai was quite pale and a little shaky. He was being teleported here and there without any warning - on the nearby car, on the top of a bus stop and etc….
"Okay, take a breather and let's go."
Thanks to Annette, the hunters would find regular zombies for Gai to kill, and even Boss would periodically chop some heads off. The objective was for Gai to reach the fifth level - then, upon putting his skill point in his Archer skill, he would become a strong fighting unit, not something he was right now…
The hunters walked silently along the streets of the apocalyptic Paris. If not for so many broken vehicles and debris, it would've been hard to believe that the city was almost dead. Some faces could be seen in the windows of nearby buildings - they didn't belong to living people, but still faces! The birds chirped happily, the crows would sometimes be seen pecking some scraps or dead zombies, in short, peace and quiet.
Suddenly a cat ran in front of him - luckily not a black one. The animal was carrying a pretty big mouse in its mouth. It looked really pleased with itself. Two sparrows flew above their heads, chirping to themselves about one thing or another.
"Did you open the egg, by the way?" Boss meant the green egg of reward they received after killing the giant zombie.
"Yes, Boss."
"So…?"
"What? Oh… The chocolate be amazing, right Annette?"
"Yes, Boss, it was the best chocolate I ever had!"
"I don't give a shit about your chocolate, what about the reward? I've been dying from curiosity these last few days." It was a lie, he only just remembered about it.
"The skill book, Boss, it be in the warehouse."
"Yeah? Let's see… Hm! Combat reflexes! If I had this skill before - I never would have been caught…" Sergei decided to glare at him annoyingly.
"I'm sorry, Boss…"
You've learned the skill "Combat Reflexes", level 1.
Your reflexes during combat are sharpened to the limit, you become sensitive to your surroundings and sounds, and can sense any incoming danger. The effects are heavily reduced in peaceful state.
"Awesome! I don't mind spending my skill point on this!"
You upgraded the skill "Combat Reflexes" to level 2.
During the combat, your reflexes surpass the abilities of a human body: you can see the bullet flying towards you, as well as your enemy's every move. Warning! The combat state will tire you if your dexterity is lower than 25. The effects are heavily reduced in peaceful state.
"Let's test my new skill, shall we? Annette!"
"Already on it. In the nearby building on your left, there's…"
***
"It was dangerous and I spent a lot of energy…" Sergei was sitting on a plastic chair among the corpses of zombies, he was dripping with sweat and blood - a lot of blood, but not his own, just the dark red, almost brown, zombie blood.
"Boss, it be so cool!" Exclaimed Gai who was standing beside him.
"Yes, but dangerous as well. I overestimated this skill…" The man replied, breathing heavily.
Sergei bursted into the mini-cinema and started butchering zombies - there were seventeen of them and all of them were pretty fast. Thanks to his reflexes he could predict enemies' attacks and evade them, but… The physical limitations still remained, and even more so, if you're attacked from six different directions at the same time you can't do much about it… Sergei defeated the undead only thanks to the constant teleporting to the haven and back, but he was pretty darn tired and swore not to risk like that ever again… at least not until he raises his dexterity to 25 and above…
"I'm allowing to conduct a search. Oh, and throw the bodies into the abyss. There's no such thing as excess biomatter. Meanwhile, I'm gonna eat." The man summoned a can of beef meat and a pot with boiled potatoes.
"Okay…" The teen mumbled and started moving corpses into the haven, he didn't forget about rewards as well.
"Boss, I find an egg!" Gai's mood instantly changed from sad to enthusiastic - he hoped to get a useful skill for himself.
"Good job. Open it and let's share the chocolate!"
"Yes, Boss! It's… here be pants with plus 2 to durability."
"First level, not garbage but not super cool thing either. Put them on. And you, Annette, change the angle of the camera, our Gai is too shy."
"Okay, Boss." Annette giggled, but didn't change the angle. Who would ever know?
"While we are in the cinema… Is there anything useful in here?" Sergei decided to take a look around after he finished with his meal.
"I don't think so, it's a private cinema for watching independent films, but I'll take a closer look." Annette informed him.
"You do that. We can take the equipment at the very least, and create our own movie theatre. That, of course, if we find the filmstrips or what are they using nowadays?"
"Boss… Everything had been digitalized ages ago." The girl replied with a giggle.
"Hah, well, I'm old like that. The last time I went to the movies was… I was eighteen and it was a date." Sergei suddenly remembered that day when he went to the movies for the first and the last time.
He was enamored by one girl who showed a mutual interest. He became a man on that beautiful day. And everything would've been perfect, if not for the fact that the girl got close to him for the purpose of obtaining his boss's secrets.
"Right, have you found anything?" Sergei asked after getting rid of unnecessary thoughts.
"I'm still in the process."
Sergei collected all of the soft chairs, the fabric, all the equipment that he found and even had some time to rest for a while.
"Boss, there's nothing of note in the building itself, but I've found an underground casino in the basement."
"Why not - at least there'll be something to do in our free time." The man shrugged and headed to the basement.
The underground casino turned out to be a small place of 30 square meters, with slot machines, gambling tables, cards and a lot more. In general - the classics.
Everything was carefully transported into the haven along with a stack of chips. Nothing else of interest was found, so the hunters exited the building and continued the journey towards the Hubert's camp.
"Boss, there's a group of armed people behind the corner. It looks like they're patrolling the streets." The girl's voice suddenly came from their radios.
"They are probably Hubert's people, but let's not get in their way, just in case." Sergei said, and then both of the hunters appeared in the haven and only continued their journey after the patrol left.
"It looks like we're not gonna meet any zombies anytime soon, of course, if we don't go inside the buildings." They would occasionally stumble upon some freshly killed zombie corpses on their way, which were instantly sent to the haven by Gai.
"Keep your guard up, you never know where another mutant or a rabid feminist could come out from. This city is filled with monsters of every shape and form." Sergei grumbled upon seeing how the teen was running up and down the street collecting the corpses without a care in the world.
"I understand, Boss…" The frightened teen mumbled and became scared by every corner and window…
Just as Sergei predicted, they didn't meet any zombies on their way to the camp, but they collected two hundred corpses! Or Gai did, to be more precise, while the boss ordered him around. The camp's guards already knew Sergei, so they quickly let them inside and soon they were greeted by Hubert himself.
"I see things are getting better and better for you, old man. Saw your patrol, they've butchered a lot of zombies. Getting here was like a walk in a park." Sergei shook Hubert's hand. Hubert had recovered a little and looked much better, he also kept smiling all the time.
"Ha-ha-ha, thank you. They're all system users, killing regular zombies is the easiest thing in the world for them. And yes, the camp is expanding, a lot of people are joining us. We have food and the power to protect them." The old soldier stated proudly.
"That's good! More mouths to feed - more food for me to sell." Sergei smiled broadly.
"Ha-ha-ha, I completely agree. Now, when people are not dying from hunger and there's no need to search everywhere for food, we can direct more efforts to the camp's development. But you didn't just come to praise me, huh, old friend?"
"Hey! I'm still young! Don't compare me to yourself, I'm only thirty… two years old." Sergei never got used to the fact that he was thirty two, not thirty. He did spend two years in the pod.
"Ha-ha-ha, alright, alright. Why did you come, "young man"?" Hubert emphasized the words "young man" and started laughing like a horse.
"What do you think about becoming a speculator?"
"Becoming who?"
"A trader, a profiteer, a huckster - name it whatever you want, I don't care. Here's the deal: I will sell you food for 5 coins and you will sell it for 6."
"I'm in!"
"Huh? Are you sure? It's like, dangerous and all that."
"Ha-ha-ha, don't worry. In terms of military power my camp is the strongest. Let's discuss the details."
They soon sat down in Hubert's office. This time was filled with a lot of monitors that showed everything that was happening in the camp and around its perimeter. There was also a bunch of other electronics that Sergei wasn't familiar with.
"Let's talk about volumes." The old soldier offered after passing Sergei a cup of hot coffee.
"In about three-four days time I will have sixty tons of potatoes, twenty tons of other vegetables and seven tons of wheat. There will also be some apples and pears in a couple of weeks time, but do not expect big volumes of those."
"Sixty tons?!" The old man shouted and almost spilled his tea.
"Don't scream like that, you almost deafened me. Of course I will not give you everything at once, I'll just deliver them to you when necessary. Besides, I promised Louvre to sell them more potatoes, Basilica as well."
"Not a problem, I'll start preparing the place, money and people." Hubert started sweating from excitement. If the deal was implemented, he'd become the leader of this city! The caterer! His authority and power would increase many times.
"One more thing. I need agricultural tools, a lot of them, for five hundred people at least. Shovels, scythes, mattocks, rakes and etc."
"Got it. Come back tomorrow morning, I'll prepare everything that I can find!"
"Deal." Sergei shook his hand, then left the camp and returned to his haven. It was too late to head to the Louvre and a lot of effort was spent today anyway.
"Hm? Having fun?" Upon appearing in the center of the haven, Sergei found the girls playing a card game.
"Yep." Replied a very focused Anne: her and four other girls were playing poker. Nearby, another group was doing the same, some other people were gathered around slot machines.
It turned out that Louis and Gautier took the slot machines from the warehouse and installed them. Due to the lack of tools people were working in shifts, so they had nothing to do and then their Boss found and looted a casino…
Sergei didn't know how to play poker, he didn't like card games in general, so he declined a few invitations to play, and especially refused to play strip poker. He didn't really want to strip in front of three hundred women…
The rest of the day was unusually peaceful and calm. Sergei relaxed in a hot tub, read an interesting book and spent his evening in silence.
In the morning, the debriefing session took place during breakfast. Orianne reported on her progress: all the fields were sown, but at the cost of enormous efforts. They had to improvise due to the lack of instruments - Louis fashioned some shovels and handed out everything that could dig the ground better than the bare hands could. The efficiency of labor was pretty low, of course, but three hundred people had managed, though they were all pretty exhausted at the end.
"I've interviewed the newcomers, their age ranges from twenty to thirty seven, they either went to the feminists' camp for safety or were taken from other camps." Alice reported.
"Taken?"
"The feminists attack other groups. If there are women there, they incorporate them into their community, while men are either killed or enslaved."
"Almost none of them have any useful skills… There's one English teacher, a few seamstresses and a chef. Another eleven women have expressed the desire to… not engage in physical activities, but rather to provide sex services…" Gai and Gautier immediately perked up. Upon seeing that, Annette snorted defiantly and continued eating her food, while Gai, who realized what he'd just done, paled immediately.
"Well, whether they want it or not doesn't matter, they don't have other choice, we don't have any clients for them."
"What about me, Boss?" Louis raised his hand with the largest of smiles plastered on his face.
"It will be too much for you, eleven women at that. You'll manage without them. If you want you can go to the brothel next time we visit the Louvre. Look at you, you think you're a sultan or something?" Sergei smirked while the girls looked at the old man with disdain.
"It was just a joke, Boss." Louis laughed awkwardly.
"Boss, can I say something?" Asked Solomon, the ex-military who joined the haven not a while ago. He looked much better, just as his wife and kids did. Though his son still didn't utter a word, but even he didn't look like a little skeleton anymore.
"Speak."
"I've already recovered so you can start taking me with you and I can also start recruiting the soldiers." Sergei looked at him and nodded. Solomon indeed looked much better, potatoes and water worked miracles.
"Alright, I'll take you with me, but you know the conditions for recruitment, right?" Sergei was already thinking about it, so Solomon's offer came in handy.
"Yes, a person should have a family or loved ones, he should be adequate and he shouldn't have any criminal records."
"Good." Sergei nodded contentedly and the breakfast continued. The harvesting of potatoes from the old fields was scheduled soon, and the corn on the middle-sized field was almost ready to reaping as well - it would be just enough for his deal with the Louvre.
After the breakfast and a little brainstorming session, Sergei went to the Hubert's camp where he received the promised tools, then headed to the Louvre. On his way he helped Solomon to become a system user, well, actually Sergei just gave him a sword - and he did it himself.
You don't need to be a master swordsman to pierce a regular zombie's skull. It was enough to have a little courage and not be slack-handed. As a reward Solomon received the "Stone skin" skill, well it wasn't really like stone, after activating the skill his skin became thicker and turned grey in color. It could be still cut or pierced by a bullet, but at the same time it held punches very nicely.
The moment the group reached the Louvre they were joined by Alice, plus they found two small hidden stashes. It was nothing much but it still improved the group's mood.
The Louvre's territory shrank after the attack of the horde. The area wasn't swarmed by the undead yet, but they already started appearing in small groups. It was enough for Solomon to reach second level and for Sergei to gain seven percent of the experience. The rewards from zombies were almost nonexistent though - almost twenty zombies gave them only six coins.
(rus) "Perhaps, the inflow of coins will decrease soon." Sergei mumbled to himself.
"Boss?"
"Never mind. Let's go, Alice."