The Louvre looked a bit deserted. Or the refugee camp did, to be precise, there were much less people there - it looked like many people decided to leave the camp in hopes of finding a more secure place. However people still ran to the newcomers, begging for food or offering services of intimate nature.
(fr) "Alice, is that you? You remember me, right? My tent was next to yours!" A skeleton-like skinny girl ran to them and grabbed Alice's hand.
(fr) "Sophie?" Alice barely recognized her - Sophie became skinnier and looked worn out, her hair became tougher from not washing it for a long time, her skin - the color of dirt.
(fr) "Yes, yes, I'm Sophie, please, you do have some food, right? Please, I haven't eaten in such a long time!"
"Do you know her?" Sergei asked shifting his gaze from the begging girl to Alice.
"Yes, Boss. We were close when we lived in the neighboring tents. She's asking for food." The girl replied, she was having an internal battle. She really wanted to help, but she wasn't the one to decide whether to help her or not and she wasn't going to ask for her.
"Does she have a family?"
"She had a husband, but he died while trying to find them some food. She's a good person, she even babysat my son when I found a temporary job…"
"Okay, she can come with us, but tell her not to expect any special treatment."
"Thank you, Boss!" Alice blossomed and gave him a huge smile.
(fr) "Listen to me, Sophie." Alice spoke quietly and looked around. "We can take you to our camp, but you'll have to work there. It won't be easy, but you'll be well fed and given protection. But if you violate the rules… You will be eliminated in order to protect the camp's secrets. If you are not ready to accept those terms then you should remain here, there will be no going back."
(fr) "I…" The girl looked around, despair, hunger, death… and made a decision. "I accept, life here is worse than death…"
"Alright, come with us, but do try to stay quiet until we leave here. We have an important business." Alice then turned to Sergei. "Boss, she agreed to out terms."
"Okay." Boss nodded. "Let's go, but do keep an eye on her, just in case."
(fr) "Me! Take me too!" One man shouted from the crowd, then other people who overheard the girls' conversation joined in. The crowd went crazy.
"You will all be given a chance shortly afterwards, but you can forget about it if you don't shut up and let us through immediately!" Sergei shouted angrily. Thankfully, his words were heeded, and the refugees who spoke English quickly dragged away those who didn't.
After making their way through the refugee camp, the group entered the main building, where they were met and then ushered to the second floor.
"The trader! I'm glad that you're back!" The fat "king", who was also the head of security, stated in a businesslike tone.
"I see your business has improved." "The trader" noted. There were some new old-looking paintings decorating the office's walls, along with few golden decorations.
"The higher-ups praised my actions of repelling the invasion of the horde and eliminating the consequences."
"Yeah, right." Sergei almost laughed in his face, he still remembered the expression of pure panic on the fatty's face when he visited last time.
*cough* *cough* "What brings you by? Is it potatoes? Alright, I'll buy some, how much do you have?"
"Straight to the point, huh? Alright. I have five tons."
"Five? Excellent… Excellent… I will immediately prepare the storage room." He looked like Gollum from "Lord of the Rings." He kept smiling and rubbing his hands. The picture would've been more complete if he said "my precious" instead of "excellent", and if he was skinnier… much much skinnier… The head of security picked up an old wired phone and called someone. The conversation was brief, only ten seconds or so, but the "king" was very pleased.
"I've made an arrangement, the room will be ready soon." He uttered with a pleased smile.
"Okay, but I also have one request."
"Request? Hm, alright, I'm all ears." Upon hearing about the request, the "king" puffed his chest as if to show his importance.
"First of all, I need agricultural tools - the more the better. Second of all, I would like to take a few refugees from you, I have a shortage of workers."
"Hm… the refugees are a valuable resource, you know, but for ten kilos per person… I will be able to give away some people, albeit with a heavy heart…" He tried to portray an internal struggle, as if it wasn't easy for him to make that decision.
"No more than five kilos - there are other camps, after all. And some of them would even gladly give me their refugees for free." Sergei spoke with serious expression, looking at the arrogant fatty's mug.
*cough* *cough* "Well, let's leave it at five then. What about the tools?"
"I'll give a kilo for a shovel and half a kilo for other tools."
"Okay, I will send my people to the storage, but you will have to wait a little."
"No problem. I'll just start recruiting the people I need."
"Yes-yes. I will send someone to get you as soon as the storage is ready. And one more thing… if you want… We have the elite brothel for system users only, all the girls there are exceptionally beautiful and they don't get tired even after five ours of pleasures!"
"…Maybe, next time…" The temptation was great, but not only Annette was watching him, Sergei didn't come alone either.
As it turned out, after a person became a system user, their libido would considerably increase and it applied to both men and women. People in the Louvre quickly figured that out and created a special brothel, where they gathered the most beautiful women and then turned them into system users. And naturally the prices were very high. But the system users were wealthy people in general, so they could afford premium services.
After wrapping it up with the head of security, Sergei went to find his people. They've been waiting for their boss on the second floor while looking around said floor with great interest. After gathering everyone, Sergei headed to the tent encampment and began instructing Alice on their way there.
"Solomon is responsible for soldiers, you on the other hand, should concentrate on finding useful experts. Manufacturers, steelmakers, engineers, etc. Oh, and do not forget about brewers! Although if you find a winemaker… Anyway, take anyone who could make alcohol!"
"Got it, Boss…"
"And another thing, tell your friend to help you to filter out "trash"." Sergei glanced at Sophie from the corner of his eye.
"Okay, Boss." Alice nodded in understanding, and told her friend what they were about to do.
Soon chaos broke out in the tent encampment: the moment the recruitment was announced, almost all of the camp's populace came running to the call.
"I used to be a hunter and know how to shoot a rifle!"
"I am a city Counter Strike champion!"
"Take me, I've been playing airsoft for many years!"
The crowd shouted, pushed and argued, until Solomon snapped at them. After a good dose of French profanities people have calmed down and stood in two lines. One line was the recruitment of fighters, the other - the recruitment of experts.
Apparently there were a lot of people willing to take up arms, but the Louvre had no shortage of fighters, besides their policy was against arming civilians. All the people who served in the military were admitted to the service, everyone else was turned down. But even so, the crowd that lined up in front of Alice was bigger than the one in front of Solomon… Ten times bigger. There weren't many fighters among the refugees, most of them either already died trying to feed their families or were afraid for their families and didn't take any risks.
The air was filled with a lot of arguments and swearing, but Solomon happened to be a great negotiator and was quick putting people in their places. Broke one's face, cursed the second one, kicked the third. The recruiting process has gotten back on track and went smoothly from that point on.
***
"Are you Sergei? Boss said to escort you to the room that was prepared to store the goods." A soldier, or rather an officer judging by his insignia, approached him and asked Sergei, who was standing on the side and watching his people, to follow him.
"Alright. Let's go, Alice."
(fr) "I have to go, but I'll be right back, I promise." Alice spoke to the crowd and then turned to her boss.
"I'm ready, Boss."
Sergei nodded and soon they entered a spacious room on the second floor of the Louvre. After asking the soldier to leave, Sergei summoned five tons of potatoes.
"You wanna grab a quick bite?" Boss asked and looked at Alice. She smiled and nodded. A wave of a hand - and two chairs appeared in the room, another wave - a tea set with some snacks materialized out of thin air.
Knock-knock-knock - someone suddenly knocked on a door. Sergei shrugged and opened it, only to see the head of security.
"Oh I see you've finished! And… you are having some tea?" The fatty "king" noticed the chairs and cups of tea along with biscuits.
"Yes, and yes, and now I'm waiting for my money."
"Of course, of course! Here, it's all here." The fatty took twenty five coins, one thousand units each, out of his pocket.
"Oh, you know about this little trick as well? Well, it will be much easier to conduct business this time."
"Huh? You know about this???" The fatty's eyes became as large as the coins he was holding in his hands.
"Of course, and for a while now." Sergei told him without thinking. The fatty sighed remembering how he'd been counting the coins to pay for the potatoes last time… It turned out that there was a much easier way and the trader was aware of it!
"What's the situation with the tools?" Sergei asked upon finishing slurping his tea.
"My people are still gathering them." The head of security grumbled with annoyed expression.
"Okay, I'm gonna continue with recruitment, then I'll pay for both."
"Good."
"Oh and by the way." Sergei spoke suddenly once again, forcing the fatty who was about to leave to turn back towards him.
"Yes?"
"A while ago I witnessed a battle between feminists and sectarians. The sectarians were completely destroyed, then there was a rebellion among the feminists, though it was crushed as well."
"What do you want for that information?" The fat "king's" face immediately became serious.
"Nothing. Those crazy bitches took my favorite bike." Sergei said everything he wanted to say, then turned around and headed to the tent encampment outside.
"Interesting, very interesting…" The fatty muttered, then quickly went back to his office and hurriedly called someone.
Meanwhile, the active recruitment was taking place: there were about thirty future soldiers along with their families standing beside Solomon. The camp was loud and crowded, but it became even louder after Alice joined the recruiting process once again.
They did their best not to prolong the process and managed to finish in about two hours. The remaining people were obviously devastated, but Alice promised them that they would come back in a week or so.
The results of recruitment were fifty soldiers and one hundred and twenty members of their families, along with ninety experts and their seventy six family members. Unfortunately no brewers were among them… But they found two winemakers, or whatever they were called. The ending results were three hundred and thirty six people. Additionally, he also had to pay two tons of potatoes for refugees and tools. The "king" was over the moon - he managed to get rid of parasites and some useless junk while gaining a whole lot of food in return!
***
(fr) "Where are they taking us?"
(fr) "To another camp, they said, but no one knows how long it will take…"
A big group of people was moving away from the Louvre until they were led into an abandoned restaurant. Annette searched the place and didn't find any zombies or spies.
(fr) "Why did you bring us here? Where's the camp?"
(fr) "What are you going to do to us?"
People got afraid that they were deceived and some of them started to panic.
"You need to sign the contract before you can enter my camp - only those who accepted its terms will be able to get there. It's your choice whether to accept or not." Sergei waved his hand and all the newbies saw a standard contract. Of course everyone was shocked, being shocked was a typical reaction of Parisians to their new boss's skill.
"It's my skill. If you violate the terms of that contract then… I'm afraid, something terrible will happen to you."
"What if you violate the terms?" Asked one of the newbies.
"I assume, it's not possible, and you'll understand what I'm saying once you appear in the camp, but if it happens - somehow - you will all be free to leave the camp. I will also provide you with food and equipment."
(fr) "Do you really have food?" Another man asked. Annette translated the man's question to Sergei and he smirked, then with a wave of his hand dozens of sacks of potatoes and corn appeared in front of him. He waved again and it was all gone as if it was never there.
"More questions? No? Then you have five minutes to think about my offer. But I'm warning you, there will be no going back." Sergei sat down at the table at the other end of the restaurant and was quickly joined by Alice and Solomon. They took a quick bite and drank some spring water. And when the time came, returned to the noisy crowd.
"Are you ready? You will appear in the camp, where my people will give you some food and explain everything." Sergei waved his hand and everyone was teleported to the haven - well, almost everyone…
"Boss, two people stayed. They are brothers and both are construction workers." Alice informed her Boss, looking at the two big guys who stood aghast in the middle of the restaurant. Thanks to the dimensional teleporter, boss could teleport anyone within fifteen meters, but it worked only on those who signed the contract!
"I see." Sergei muttered and fired two shots. Two men fell on the ground with holes in their heads.
"Why, Boss?" Asked Solomon, who was flabbergasted, to say the least - to him, as former military, killing a civilian was unacceptable.
"You thought Louvre wouldn't send their spies?" Boss asked, giving the pained man a surprised look.
"Why do you think they were spies?" Solomon asked back after a short pause and a little pondering.
"Because no spy would ever agree to my terms. What use is a spy if he can't pass on information?" Sergei smiled evilly and took out two miniature walkie-talkies from the men's pockets. He showed them to Solomon then sent them to the warehouse and threw the bodies into the pit. The ex soldier didn't have any words to argue. On the contrary, it was a great shame to allow spies into their territory, while his boss identified them so easily that he didn't even hesitate while killing them…
Meanwhile, the haven was bursting with activity: the newcomers were being housed, shown around the haven and fed with food that was prepared in advance.
"Solomon." Sergei called his companion while watching all the commotion in his haven.
"Yes, Boss?"
"I'm putting you in charge of haven's security. The patrolling of the perimeter and the training of newbies are also on you."
"Yes, Boss!" Sergei waved his hand and Solomon saw a system message.
You are assigned to the new position "The warden of the slaves".
As a "warden" you have the authority to transfer those who broke the contract or those who are suspected of breaking the contract. You can also arm yourself directly from the warehouse.
Warning! You are not authorized to arm other people.
"Boss! I will not fail you!" Solomon immediately realized how important a position he was assigned. If it wasn't a promotion then what was? He was like a sheriff of a small town now.
"But what is the point of guarding the perimeter?" Solomon asked, throwing a glance towards the wall of fog that surrounded the haven from all sides.
"I'll explain everything at the dinner. For now I have some things to do." Solomon nodded in understanding and walked off towards his new soldiers. Sergei, on the other hand, headed to his laptop.
"How are the spies? How many of them arrived?" Boss asked as he approached Annette and hovered over her shoulder looking at the screen.
"None, Boss…" Annette became a little shy when boss's face appeared right next to hers, but was quickly able to pull herself together. Everyone knew that their boss was not known for his empathy and would sometimes do things that others considered embarrassing, without even knowing about it.
"No tail, no tracking devices… It seems like they had staked everything on those two "moles". Whatever, give me the laptop for a second."
First and foremost, Sergei checked his messages. It turned out that the cars that were intact gave him a lot of experience. Thirty five points for each on average, though he'd only found three of them. The damaged ones gave much less - five to ten experience points, but Sergei tried not to take those because they took up a lot of space and were pretty much useless. Furthermore, he got a whooping amount of 3340 XPs for all the new survivors and the haven reached level 10.
"Subject: Increase of Dimensional Detection.
The population of your haven surpassed 500 people. The level of dimensional detection increased from 1 to 1.3.
Warning! The chance of lost souls invading the haven has increased. We recommend you to set up a proper security of the perimeter."
"Subject: Level Up.
Congratulations! Your haven reached level 10. The assortment of the store has changed considerably, we recommend you to check it out.
Warning! You can assign more authorities to your people.
Warning! New features have been unlocked: "Livestock production", "Fishery". As a reward you get a pair of animals of species "Omnivorous rabbit"."
(rus) "The dimensional detection has increased to 1.3… The more people I have the bigger the chance of getting my ass kicked… The unknown is frightening, what if we get attacked by a Cthulhu…?" Sergei thought out loud.
"System, what are these "lost souls" exactly?"
IT WILL REMAIN A SURPRISE.
"I would've cursed, but I'm tired of dealing with you. New authorities sound interesting, though. But what's even more important is rabbits!"
After clicking on the store icon Sergei found new section called "Livestock production". There was a huge meat locker, an animal enclosure, a forage, a feeder and the rabbits themselves. They were very pricey though - 500 coins for a specimen! The pens costed as much as fields did and the sizes were the same as well. So Sergei promptly bought one big enclosure for 1 600 coins and a small feeder for 200.
The feeder turned out to be quite a tricky thing - it would fill with food all by itself when necessary, but for it to work a silo tower was needed, which, despite its name, could store grain, hay, roots and other wastage and all of that at the same time! The tower costed him 4 000 coins.
When attempting to find some place for future enclosure, it was discovered that they didn't have enough space… So he had to make another expansion - but this time he paid for it with coins instead of biomatter, because Sergei found an interesting building in the store called "Biostation". It used biomatter as fuel and produced electricity.
The haven's territory was 50 hectares at the moment and Sergei decided to increase it to 100, which costed him 10 000 coins.
Warning! Your dimensional haven reached 1 000 000 square meters in size. The haven moved from "Small" rank to "Modest" rank. The store assortment had been updated.
It didn't shake that much and the expansion ended rather quickly. After that, Sergei gathered all the important people: the girls of the first recruitment, both the old men, the brothers, Solomon and Regina - near the fields.
"What are we doing here, Boss?" Anne asked him and yawned - it was almost evening.
"You'll see." Sergei concentrated and the map of the haven appeared in front of him. Some of the haven's functions changed after reaching the tenth level.
It was easier to do construction now - the new function allowed to look at the haven from above while placing the structures. Sergei placed a huge silo tower and a big enclosure (640 square meters) with the feeder inside. The enclosure differed from the field by the more higher fence.
"A new field?"
"No. Ta-da!" Two big rabbits appeared in Sergei's hands out of nowhere - they were really huge with each one weighing more than ten kilos. Their fur was perfectly white and silky to touch, their eyes big and black like those of a toy.
"Wow! So cute!" Anne squealed and snatched one of the rabbits, although she had to string up: ten and a half kilos was no joke.