The first thing Sergei did after getting back to his laptop was start building the defenses. There was a wide range of structures in the shop, starting from a stockade to a reinforced concrete wall. First and foremost, Sergei upgraded the current wire fence. The pilings became thicker and stronger, the wire mesh was replaced with a more flexible and durable one. The height increased to three meters.
Behind that fence appeared another one, five meters high with barbed wire on top. The space between two fences was divided into numbered sectors, with durable doors installed between them. Sergei also installed four watchtowers with spotlights and positions for machine guns in the corners of the haven. He hasn't installed the machine guns just yet, he didn't even have that many really - just one from the stolen jeep and another one that miraculously survived after the army's failed attempt to break into the city.
People calmed down a little with the appearance of a new fence, the tension diminished by degrees but didn't disappear completely. The very fact that the undead could invade the haven scared people out of their minds. Solomon didn't sit around and quickly organized round-the-clock surveillance from the watchtowers and two patrols along the fence.
Sylvie was in charge of the armory: she repaired the gear, created arrows and issued equipment and weapons. Also while fixing equipment and creating bullets the girl gained level 4, which was really good.
After having finished giving out the orders and inspecting the defenses, the boss headed home to have some coffee and time to relax a little. On his way he happened to be passing by the lake, aka the former spring/pond.
There wasn't any field work at the moment so people were bored so most of them were spending their free time by the lake: some were swimming, others were sunbathing. There was even one weirdo who decided to fish - there wasn't even any fish in the lake, but it looked like he didn't give a damn. There also were no worms in the haven. And no insects…
"Hm… what if I put fish into the pond? If it starts breeding there will be another source of food…" After coming up with that brilliant idea, Sergei continued on his way. "And what is this?"
There was a huge line in front of the public baths!
(fr) "Calm down, please. We are going to hand out the tickets and then we will let you in by those tickets only. To get the ticket you need to sign up…" Regina stood in front of a huge crowd consisting mostly of women and, by the looks of it, was trying to explain something to them.
"Is there a problem, Regina?"
"Boss!" Regina noticed Sergei and smiled happily. "People want to take a shower, but there are too many of them…"
"Is this why you've organized a waiting list?"
"Yes, boss. I cleared it with Alice and she gave me the go-ahead."
"Well done! Tell people that we are going to start building houses and infrastructure in the near future, so they need not to worry."
"Yes, boss!"
Satisfied with Regina's work, the boss turned around and headed once again towards his house.
"Boss!" Solomon came running up to him. Sergei stopped and looked at the tall man clad in the level 1 gear.
"Boss, another zombie showed up, this time from the east side."
"Then let me give you a task. Gain level 5 and level up your skill." Solomon nodded and ran off.
He needed forty exp points to reach level 5, so this possibly meant that poor Solomon will have to run around a lot and forget about sleep, because he will have to kill any zombie that shows up all by himself, and it looked like they will be showing up more and more…
Boss finally managed to reach his home, closed the door, took off his shoes and collapsed on his soft bed. Being the boss ended up being much harder than he thought… But Sergei didn't regret a thing.
Alice came in an hour and invited him for lunch.
"What day is it, by the way?" The boss asked suddenly, raising his head from his plate.
"Boss… How can you ask that? It's august 5th," Annette answered with a giggle.
"Autumn is coming then. I'm curious if the climate will change in here?" Boss became rather thoughtful, but the system decided to clear his doubts.
CLIMATE AND SEASONS CAN BE SET UP IN THE WEATHER CONTROL SYSTEM, WHICH YOU CAN BUY IN THE STORE. OTHERWISE IT IS AN ENDLESS SUMMER BY DEFAULT.
"That was unexpected, but thank you."
"You're welcome, boss," Annette shrugged.
"I wasn't talking to you. The system gave me a tip. It says that if I build this one thingie then I will be able to control the weather in the haven. But thanks to you too," seeing that Annette became upset, the boss thanked her as well. Girls were such vulnerable beings…
"How's the designing of the city coming along, by the way?" Sergei changed the subject and addressed all those who were present.
"We already divided the haven into sectors and began planning the streets," Natasha informed him. Her ideas were rather interesting so she was appointed as the chief architect of the city. Or rather, everyone just dumped all the planning work on her… "The haven was divided into five sections. Our little corner is right in the middle, this gives you, boss, an easier access to other sections. All the city's management will be located in the center as well." The girl took a deep breath and continued.
"In the south-west we have the agricultural sector and military sector. There's plenty of free space, so that's where we are going to place the garage and our armory. Whether to build barracks there or not is up to you, boss. In the south-east there's the lake and the relaxation area. The north-east is the residential zone. The north-west - the industrial area. All the power industry and the warehouses are also to be places in the north-west. The rest of the infrastructure is already dealt with. Boss, you need to update the designing app. Alice said there is an update available in the store, meanwhile we are working on paper. And another thing, is there any way to increase the number of laptops? Because we won't be able to do any work when you get back to the real world, as Annette is going to be using the camera program and doing her job as your eyes and ears."
"Hm, alright, I'll update the program and see if I can buy more laptops with all the features," the boss nodded. He did not think of that before.
"Here - these are our drafts." Natasha handed the notebook to Martha who was sitting beside her, Martha handed it further to the next person and finally the drafts ended up in Sergei's hands.
"You've decided to settle people in two-story eight-room houses?" Sergei asked after looking at the drawings.
"Yes boss, it's the most financially viable option for now."
"Alright, I fully support."
According to Natasha's plan they should build several neighborhoods, each with their own dining area along with public restrooms and baths. For now, the plan was to build two neighborhoods, each designed to house 304 rooms. People with big families were to be given several rooms, combined into an apartment.
After breakfast, Sergei made his way to the laptop but first he decided to check his notifications, they were supposed to be piling up starting from his adventures in the lab.
For the damaged military vehicles the haven received 266 exp points. It was also considering the equipment that went with those vehicles such as the machine gun, grenades, bullets, etc.
Medications, chemicals and medical equipment altogether were valued at whopping 340 points.
"Subject: Report of Receipt.
The haven received "The mobile secure server". Warning: the information in the server contains a lot of research and medical data, the value of the reward has increased. The haven received 1000 exp points."
Boss was pleasantly surprised while reading that message, it turned out that he wasn't risking his life for nothing. Even the system recognized the usefulness of the data on the server. Now the only thing left to be done was to build their own lab, or a hospital…
"Subject: Report of Receipt.
The haven received a male and female of the same species, Galliformes Family, breed Avicolor. The trails of mutation have been detected. The mutation was identified as insignificant, the virus and mutation have been purged.
As soon as they have their first offspring this species will become available for purchase in the store, but it will be adapted. Your haven received 400 exp points in reward."
"Oh, interesting. Wait… System! Why is it that the haven receives 10 exp points for one human and a whopping 400 for two birds?!"
THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF THE EARTH ARE MORE VALUABLE THAN A HUMAN LIFE.
"Two birds are more valuable than forty people?"
ANIMALS CAN PROCREATE AND ARE HIGH VALUE SPECIES. YOU ARE AWARDED EXPERIENCE POINTS ONLY FOR THE FIRST TWO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE SPECIES ONLY.
"So even if I bring another rooster and a hen I won't get any points? Well that sucks… Wait! What do you mean by "animals can procreate"? What about humans?"
THE HIGHER THE CONCENTRATION OF THE VIRUS INSIDE A HUMAN BODY, THE LESS CHANCE OF GETTING PREGNANT. ACCORDING TO PRELIMINARY CALCULATIONS, THE AVERAGE CHANCE OF GETTING PREGNANT IS 0,0001%. IN TWO MONTHS ALL HUMANS ON THE EARTH WILL BECOME STERILE.
"You are kidding, right?" Sergei asked, his face completely pale, but received no answer. "Okay, how about this, if the chickens were purged of the virus, can humans do the same?"
HUMANS CAN CLEAR THEIR BODIES FROM THE VIRUS BY CONSUMING FOOD AND WATER FROM THE HAVEN. ACCORDING TO PRELIMINARY CALCULATIONS, IT WILL TAKE 20 YEARS. IF THEY LIVE IN THE HAVEN, UNDER PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES, IT WILL TAKE 10 YEARS.
"Fuck… But surely the cure… Is there any cure?" Sergei suddenly remembered the laboratory that the system mentioned about a month ago.
THERE IS.
"Thank god… Okay, how do I make it?" Sergei waited for a minute, but there was no answer. "And to learn just like that, that humanity is doomed to extinction… Okay, there's still hope… I'll become Noah then."
With a heavy heart, the boss clicked on the store icon and found a section with applications. The camera was already at its maximum level 4, the app for designing, "Planner", could be upgraded to level 3 for 500 coins. There was also a new app called "Staff". Sergei has noticed it long ago but it didn't seem worthwhile because the population of the haven was rather small back then. This time Sergei instantly bought the fourth level of the program for 3 000 coins. There were other programs but they were all locked.
As he was about to close the section with apps, Sergei suddenly changed his mind. There was one program there called "Fishing" - he was already considering breeding of freshwater fish, so he decided that the program would be very useful and wanted to learn what it would take to unlock it.
Program "Fishing".
Enables you to fish in the dimensional ocean. If you are lucky - you'll find something useful. If you're not - you will find nothing. If you are very unlucky - you can catch something terrible…
Warning! During the running of the program, the beacon's energy consumption will increase significantly.
Requirement: The dimensional beacon.
Price: 2000
"What idiot came up with these names! Couldn't they just name it "Dimensional fishing"?"
THIS IS YOUR SKILL. EVERYTHING IS CREATED AND NAMED BASED ON THE ANALYSIS OF YOUR CHARACTER.
"You mean, I'm an idiot?"
YES.
If the system was telling the truth, then there was nothing to argue. Those job titles alone that Sergei gave out… "slave in the field", "slave in the wild"…
The boss hesitated to build the beacon just yet - according to its description, it had a possibility of attracting some big trouble. He wished he had a squad of machine gunners and several tanks…
After thoroughly rummaging through the store, the boss finally found what he was looking for. There really were laptops on sale from level 1 to level 4, but the prices… A level 1 laptop was worth 2 200 coins, level 2 - 2 500 coins, level 3 - 3 000 coins and level 4 costed 4 000 coins. In the end, Sergei reluctantly bought one level 4 laptop.
Warning! You've bought an additional device. Installing the program "Device management".
The program finished installing in just three minutes, and while it was at it, Sergei checked out the new device. The new laptop looked almost completely the same as the previous one, albeit it's case was a bit lighter and there was only a solitaire icon on the desktop.
Upon running the program "Device management" Sergei learned that with its help he could install software on the additional devices. However… it also wasn't for free - thankfully the "Planner" was rather cheap.
"Hm, but what happens if there are two laptops with cameras?" That thought didn't seem to be leaving his mind any time soon, so he had to buy "Camera" app after all, and updated it to level 4.
"Annette, come here!" The girl was nearby as always, playing some game on her smartphone.
"Yes? Oh! A new laptop!" The girl's keen eyes immediately checked out the new device, its color, design and even the contents of the desktop.
"Yes, yes. Now check if you can use the camera," the boss ordered and waved his hand at the nearby chair.
"Yes, boss! I can!"
"Me too, haha."
On two screens were two different views from the camera, two people were looking in the various directions and scanning the surroundings independently of each other.
"Now go get Natasha and Alice."
"Okay, boss!" Annette ran away, Natasha walked up to him only two minutes later, however Annette had to put some work into finding Alice as she was up to her neck in the haven's problems and was busy dealing with one of them at the moment.
(rus) "So there is a way to get a new laptop," Natasha noted as she approached him.
(rus) "Yep, come give it a try."
(rus) "I can't." The miniature beauty sat at the table; the mouse looked huge in her tiny hand, but the girl handled it pretty well. Natasha tried to click on programs "Camera" and "Planner", but it just wasn't working.
(rus) "What about now?" Sergei waved his hand and the girl saw a system message.
YOU WERE ASSIGNED TO A NEW POSITION "SLAVE BEHIND THE CAMERA".
AS A "SLAVE BEHIND THE CAMERA", YOU ARE BEING GRANTED THE RIGHT TO USE THE "CAMERA" APP, BUT YOU CAN USE IT ONLY WITH YOUR BOSS' PERMISSION.
(rus) "The "Camera" is working, but the "Planner" still isn't. Yeah, that's better," the girl nodded seeing that now a "slave architect" was added to her position.
"What are we whispering about?" Anne spoke out of nowhere after quietly sneaking up on them from behind - however, she didn't get the reaction she expected.
The boss and Natasha were too focused on what was happening on the screen. Level 3 planner allowed them to connect to the store and project the structures from it to a 3D map of the haven. With its help they could start designing, create their own building projects, decorate the area and a lot more. But most importantly, the system automatically determined the price - the only thing the boss was left to do was to give his consent. They gave it a try and a few moments later a small pier for fishing appeared by the lake along with a gravel road leading up to it.
Sergei left his "slave architect" alone with her creative work, then bought another four laptops and downloaded the cameras on them.
"You called for me, boss?" A very tired Alice walked up to them.
"Alice! Boss and Natasha are whispering together in Russian!" Anne exclaimed, she's been silently suffering from being ignored for five whole minutes.
"Well, they are working on the design of our city, besides they are both Russian (Natasha is half Russian half German), what's the big deal?" Alice gave her a confused look. Anne snorted at that and left.
"Don't mind her - she's bored out of her mind. Here, look, it turned out that we can buy more laptops. They are really expensive, but now we can…"
Sergei told her about his idea. He wanted to put together a group of people who'll be seating behind the cameras and then maybe even later give them other programs to monitor, such as the "Dimensional fishing". If they create a group of "fishers" and secure the haven, they could safely start looking for treasures!
The boss' idea was unanimously supported and Natasha began making changes to the project, adding to it a city management office or a city hall, in other words. It was also decided to build barracks and a few other buildings.
****
At four in the afternoon, Sergei finished all his work and returned to the reality. He needed to return to Beauvais the next day, but before that he wanted to check the approaches to Paris.
The boss summoned his modified motorbike "Triumph Rocket 3" from the haven and raced forward down the road leading to the city. The army had cleared the path, so driving was pure joy - he didn't even meet any zombies. However, the closer Sergei got to the city the more he understood why the military were worried. The city was encircled by an innumerable army of zombies.
"It's no wonder there are very few zombies in the suburbs… They are all here…" Sergei drove around the surrounding area and everywhere saw the same picture: an infinite amount of undead standing guard around the city.
There were a lot of mutants among them as well. The huge ones really stood out - but aside from that there weren't any more severe mutations.
It was getting dark. Sergei found a safe spot and returned to his haven, where people were preparing for dinner. Zombies attacked a few more times in the boss's absence, but in small groups of no more than three of them at a time. However, what alarmed them most was not zombies but rather the frequency of their occurrence.
Putting aside disturbing thoughts, Sergei began to eat dinner in the familiar company.
"We finished with the planning of the city, boss. But it requires expansion of the haven," Natasha informed him. It somewhat became their tradition to discuss their plans during meals.
"Okay, I'll take a look at it before bed. Let's leave the expansion for tomorrow, an earthquake this late in the night interferes with sleep," the boss replied after swallowing his food.
A while ago he established the rules for conversations during the meals. Only one person speaks at the time. The person they spoke to has to swallow their food first and only then reply.
His old boss's policy was as such: "I am deaf and mute, when I eat". Sergei fully supported that policy, but when over a dozen young women are gathered behind one table, a simple wish to eat in peace becomes a pipe dream…
"Which one of you is the luckiest, by the way?" The boss asked after swallowing a portion of his food, and looked at everyone sitting at the table.