It was autumn on the dimensional shard, the grass was still green but was covered with a carpet of yellow and red leaves.
There was a small forest in the location where they entered the shard, the trees in which were half bare, as if getting ready to welcome winter - all of them, except for a dozen spruces. Those remain the same color whether it's winter or summer. The forest was a small one - the military jeep passed through it in one minute - and right after it was a small settlement, if you could call it that…
The settlement consisted of three-storied cylinder-shaped apartment buildings and a few shops which resembled a hemisphere. The shops were covered in advertising signs filled with unknown symbols and had rectangular trash cans overflowing with garbage in front of their entrances.
The settlement was located in the corner of the shard, thus it was divided by fog from west and north - even some buildings partly disappeared into the fog. It felt like a jigsaw was broken into pieces and one of those pieces was right in front of the expedition team.
The apartment buildings were few - only six, to be exact. They didn't look good, most of the windows were broken, the few remaining ones were covered in old traces of blood, which looked to be two weeks old, if not more.
"I've never seen such architecture and language in my life," Solomon noted in astonishment.
"Well, logically thinking, the dimensional ocean is filled with the shards of destroyed worlds. And since our world is still intact, it would be logical to assume that these shards are not from Earth."
"We should bring Professor here later," the boss concluded and took a few photos on his phone.
"Boss, something just moved in that building," Gai said and pointed at one of the buildings.
The boy took English lessons every day with his teacher, so his English started getting better with each passing day.
"Copy. Kid, you're on the roof, take the bow and provide cover. You've leveled up your archery skill, haven't you?"
"Yes, boss, the skill is on level 2. Now I can enchant my arrows, my accuracy became better, as well as my reflexes," Gai replied and skillfully climbed to the roof of the car.
"Enchant? Interesting, show it to me later. Gautier, you're with me, you're immune to the infection so you'll be my human shield."
"But, boss!…" The guy paled. He's also been taking English classes so he's improved a lot. Though he still couldn't understand everything he was being told.
"Relax, we'll just retreat if things go south," the cruel man reassured the teen with a smile.
The pair headed to the apartment building. The said building had four entrances, one on each side. They chose the closest, south entrance. The steel front door was opened - or rather almost kicked in. It was covered in dents, as if someone used a battering ram to take it down.
"Turn into a "gummy bear" and let's go."
"Into a what?"
"You are making me feel old… Turn into a bear and let's go. And wear this," the boss tossed the human-bear a headlamp.
"Now let's go!" The black sword and the system gun appeared in Sergei's hands. He tried not to show it, but it was a little scary going into a battle without Annette's guidance. Who knows what problems lay ahead?
There were two apartments on the first floor, one on the left and another on the right. Both metal doors were kicked in.
"You know, let's head back. It is a little silly to investigate every building like this," the boss grumbled and went back outside. After staring dumbly at his leaving back, Gautier finally followed him.
"What's in there, boss?" Solomon shouted.
"Pain in the ass, that's what. Let's do this more simply. Gautier, get in the car, just in case."
Once everyone was inside the car, boss rolled down the window, summoned a bullhorn from the storage and set it at maximum volume.
"Attention, attention, is there anyone living or nonliving? Come outside! It's warm and sunny!"
"Why, boss?" Gai asked in bewilderment.
"Remember Gai, it is highly dangerous to fight zombies indoors - they can surround you or just overwhelm you with their numbers and you won't be able to do anything. Let them come outside, it will be safer and much quicker. Ha! And here are the first residents!"
Nine zombies ran out of the building that Sergei was inside just a few minutes ago. There were no mutants, but the zombies themselves looked a bit different.
"Look at what they're wearing. It looks like denim jumpsuits. Funny," Sergei commented, walking in the direction of the approaching "guests". Meanwhile Gai started firing continuously and accurately shot three of them.
"I take the one on the right," said the bear-human, or the human-bear.
"Then I take those on the left," Solomon activated his skill as well and his skin turned into stone - solid and strong.
"Not bad," the boss gave him thumbs up. His chief commander looked very impressive - like a literal stone man. He couldn't even begin to think of what Solomon would turn into on level 10.
A group of zombies was slowly walking towards the source of the noise, but upon seeing humans, the living corpses roared hungrily and accelerated. Boss summoned a few pieces of debris as usual, barricaded his little group and got ready for battle.
What followed was easy - too easy. Gautier beheaded one zombie with his sword, Solomon kicked another's head in with his stone hand, as if it was a sledgehammer, splattering its brains everywhere. It looked impressive, but bloody and cruel at the same time.
Boss on the other hand, easily beheaded those zombies that got stuck in the barricade. The furniture was being damaged of course, but none of his residents wanted to take it anyway. Ugly and uncomfortable, they said.
"Boss, more are coming!" Gai shouted from the roof.
"I can see that, and I don't like that there're so many of them! Solomon, could you please reduce their numbers? Preferably, in a bullets-saving mode," the boss ordered and observed his surroundings.
Groups of undead came running out of nearby buildings - some jumped out of windows, some walked through the doors. Some zombies were just wandering around aimlessly and some came out of the woods. All of them were in a hurry to reach the source of the sound as fast as possible.
All in all, it was about sixty of them - or more precisely, it was sixty of those who could walk on their own, there were a few dozens of those who jumped out of windows and broke all of their limbs - all they had left to do was groan in frustration.
"Got it, boss!" Solomon deactivated his skill and became "soft-bodied" once more: it was rather hard to handle the turret with stone fingers. The head of security quickly jumped into the car, got behind the turret and opened targeted fire at the targets that were rushing at them from all directions.
The heavy machine gun sowed death, piercing several targets at once: limbs were blown away, ribcages were torn apart and brains turned into mincemeat. He wasn't able to shoot them all, of course: Solomon didn't touch the ones running in small groups. Three of his companions were easily dealing with those.
Gai proved himself to be the best, seating on the roof and relentlessly shooting arrows after arrows. On the second level of his skill his aim and rate of fire increased significantly, as did the boy's arrogance: before a zombie could even reach its target it would drop dead with an arrow stuck in its head.
"Gai, *censor* you piece of shit, what the hell *peep peep peep* are you doing?! You stole all the experience!!!"
"I…" the guy mumbled, he meant it for the best…
"I don't wanna hear it! Your brother needs to reach level 5! Reduce the numbers in big groups until there're two or three of them left, don't touch the loners!"
"I understand, boss…"
"Gautier, stop being a pussy, for God's sake! You are fucking immune! Chop their necks off! Or stab them in the eyes with that fucking sword! Don't be thick!"
The battle was relatively short, but everyone got chewed out. Even Solomon, who overdid it. It turned out that the stronger the non-system weapon, the less experience points were received. The head of security killed more than thirty zombies, when he could've just maimed them instead… For thirty something zombies killed with the turret Solomon received only 11 exp points - about one-third of what he should've received otherwise.
The dead zombies gave them only two rewards, the coins though were dropping regularly and at the end equaled to one coin per zombie. The group decided not to check the apartment buildings. Sergei didn't have time for it, he still needed to get to Beauvais.
***
"And why are you all here?"
Upon arriving through the gates, boss noticed a few dozen people, including Alice and the girls.
"We've been worried, boss…" Alice replied. She was worried sick, so she came to the gates to wait for the news. And upon seeing this, the girls decided to keep her company… But in truth they were all just slacking off, because it was harvesting time. The rest of the haven's residents were worried as well, but mostly about their own fates. What if yesterday's attack was just the beginning? What if boss doesn't come back? What if he comes back but with the horde of zombies hot on his heels?
"While you're being worried potatoes are not going to harvest themselves!" The boss said with a scowl. But soon his frown softened into a small smile, how can he be mad at those who are worried about him?
"Alright, alright. There's just a small settlement there and we killed every zombie we could lure out. Only cripples that are stuck in their own apartments are left to deal with. You can get more details from these… I won't tell you who," the boss grumbled in annoyance, looking at the trio that he's been swearing at for the last half an hour.
"Solomon, rest for half an hour, then take these two dimwits, the support team with machine guns and archers and all beastmen as well. Clean-up the area; if a mutant shows up - take it down with heavy weapons."
"Yes, boss!"
"Alice, as far as I remember, the rabbits should be grown by now - about five hundred of them?"
"Yes, boss, and just over a thousand baby bunnies."
"Tell the butchers to start processing meat and skins. About 20% of adult rabbits a day, for now. It should be about one hundred rabbits. We won't be selling any meat for a while, I want our people to be well fed."
"No-o-o! You're gonna kill fluffies!" Anne bursted into tears but was ignored by the meat-eating majority.
"Got it, boss," Alice nodded and smiled dazzlingly. She was no vegetarian and her son was a big meat lover too.
Boss turned out to be a very caring leader, even though he tried to behave like a tyrant from time to time. Everyone who knew him closely, had a profound respect for him despite his difficult personality.
The boss finished setting his affairs in the haven in order and returned to the real world. He appeared in a small roadside shop. It was obviously already looted, but, unfortunately, not by Sergei…
"It looks like their numbers have increased," the boss noted upon exiting the shop and observing the living corpses that surrounded the capital of France.
After driving around the neighborhood for a while, the boss finally headed to Beauvais. When he finishes the deal, he'll receive a lot of coins, which would be enough to start building their city - and he'll even have some coins left to spare.
There were a few checkpoints leading to the city, but they let the biker through without questions. He was only asked to stop as he entered the city: the officer contacted someone over the radio and had a short conversation. As soon as he received an answer, the soldier politely addressed the guest:
"Please follow me, the General asked to take you to him."
"Okay," Sergei sent the motorbike back to the haven (which shocked the soldiers to no end) and followed the officer to the armored military jeep that was parked near the checkpoint.
The city has revived over the past few days, the streets became busier with a lot of soldiers and military machinery moving in every which way.
"The city is bustling with activity - you are planning something?" The guest asked the driver, but received no response.
The car reached the HQ in silence. It was busy as well, but people were much more organized. The car stopped and the guest was escorted to the General.
"Wait a few moments please, the General is attending the meeting," Sergei nodded and walked to the window. The weather was rather gloomy, however people on the streets looked very excited, some were smiling and laughing.
"Boss, they're discussing the plan to invade Paris," he heard Annette's voice in his earpiece. "In five days time, at 9 am they are going to launch an artillery attack on the outskirts of the city, and break through the blockade."
Boss almost exclaimed in surprise, but was able to stop himself in time - he was being watched after all. The fact that they had the artillery was impressive, especially if they also had experienced artillerymen; if they didn't then the artillery guns were just worthless pieces of metal. However, judging by the general mood, they did have the artillerymen…
The door swung open and more than a dozen officers and a few civilians walked out of the General's office. Each of them threw a look at Sergei who stood by the window - some looked at him aggressively, others were more friendlier.
"The General awaits you," a soldier approached Sergei and invited him into the General's office. The man himself was sitting in his chair, looking rather bedraggled.
"You look like shit," the boss commented after closing the door.
"Ha-ha, it was a long time since I had to solve so many problems in such a short time," the General forced a smile and answered wearily.
"Getting ready to invade Paris?"
"Yes, is it so obvious?"
"Have you even seen the city? It's buzzing with activity like the mall on the weekends. And all those military vehicles that came out of nowhere?"
"Where they came from is not important, the question you should be asking is how," Demarais smiled widely.
"It's not a secret that we retook the military base from the undead two days ago, and obtained the equipment and machinery for a whole division (it's 1-10 thousand soldiers in a division). We also found some surviving soldiers and base personnel in the bunker below the base, and that's a lot of people," the General stated proudly.
"Um, isn't it a confidential information?"
"Confidential… It used to be. But none of it matters now."
"I see. You are just demonstrating your importance and increased capabilities? Well, it is, without a doubt, impressive, but does it mean that now you can sell me some weapons and ammunition?"
"Ha-ha, you are right. To be honest with you, we don't have enough money to buy the amount of provision that we need. So I would like to offer you to exchange some part of products for weapons and ammunition."
"What about that Gustave guy, will he agree to this?" The boss was pleasantly surprised by the General's offer - after the yesterday's invasion the haven almost had no bullets left…
"Gustave? He's already on board and even made a list of things that we can afford to sell," Demarais passed him a piece paper, with the list of equipment and weapons; they also included the bullets to those weapons. Thankfully, it was all in English.
"It's mostly light weaponry - maybe you could add a dozen assault rifles to the list?"
"We have a shortage of those ourselves, comparing to small arms and light weapons which we've got plenty of," the General shrugged.
"Well of course, the guns are not very useful against zombies, especially in a major battle, and don't get me started on sub-machine guns… Shotguns, on the other hand, are much more useful."
"They are, but only for those who are not scared of close combat," the General smiled awkwardly - his soldiers were indeed scared of getting closer to their enemy. And those who weren't, had system weapons and shotguns were of no use to them.
"But your prices though… even the Louvre got nothing on them," the merchant shook his head.
"I understand, but otherwise, Gustave wouldn't have given his approval - he became really angry with you for some reason," Sergei pondered on the reason for such hatred, then remembered how he killed the officer and soldiers who were loyal to him a few days ago…
"…Alright, but twenty kilos of food for a shotgun is an outright theft. The most a can offer is fifteen."
"Deal," the General agreed with a smile, which confused Sergei.
As a result, Sergei got a hundred sub-machine guns "SIG Sauer MPX", a hundred pistols of various models (all of 9mm caliber), one hundred and forty shotguns "Remington Model 870" - oldies but goodies… He took all bullets they had - thirty thousand 9mm bullets and ten thousand cartridges for "Remington" - and a few others. Sub-machine guns costed him twenty kilos of food for one, the pistols were ten kilos each, the shotguns - each costed him fifteen.
The weapons were cheap - there's always plenty of that in times like these; the cartridges on the other hand… They costed him the most. One kilo of food could be exchanged for fifteen 9mm bullets, or for five shotgun rounds. There were a lot of different calibers ranging from 12 to .410, all stashed in one pile.
"It all sums to fifty thousand coins. "sigh" I hoped you'll buy more," Demarais complained.
"I would've, if you had better toys. These ones are more suited against bandits, not for the war with the undead. Okay, how much provision do you need?"
"Twice as much as you sold us last time."
"Hm…"
"Boss, I asked Alice, we need an hour to collect the required amount of potatoes and vegetables," he heard Annette's voice, she was a smart girl and figured out to call for Alice beforehand.
"Deal, but first I would like to eat something and take a look at weapons that you're offering me," the boss smiled, intending to buy some time.
"Good! Business must be done on a full stomach. Lunch is scheduled in half an hour - what about visiting one interesting place first?"
"Why not? I'm not in a hurry."
Within five minutes, the General brought Sergei outside the city. There was an abandoned farm there, but it's territory was fenced and guarded by the military. Without any checking at the command post, the General's car easily entered the facility.
"It smells like blood," the boss frowned, eyeing the building in front of him.
"It used to be a small meat-processing plant. When the apocalypse started, zombies ate all the cows. Now the factory is used for its intended purpose, but now instead of cows we've got something much more interesting," Demarais gave his guest a sly smile and led him inside.
"Is that… a boar?" Sergei asked incredulously. A huge boar, larger than a bull, was hanging from two hooks and being gutted by two people. One of them removed its huge organs, another moved them to the nearby table.
"I couldn't believe my eyes either when I saw it for the first time. We've stumbled upon a small herd of these beasts the day before yesterday. Their hide is something else! Light weapons are useless against it!"
"And so you've made a decision to sell it to me?" Sergei asked, looking at the General with an unhappy face.
"Ha-ha, well, that's one of the reasons," the General smiled widely and walked closer to the carcass. "This beast weighs about a ton and a half. The eggheads think that it happened due to the accelerated evolution, they say the animals are adapting to the changes in the world."
"The theory sounds logical," Sergei nodded, he already had a "pleasure" of witnessing rats in the sewers, which managed to grow to the size of an average cat!
"Yes, but this little thing puts an end to that theory," Demarais handed Sergei a green grape-sized orb. "Ask the system to give you its description."
POWER CORE
A CONSUMABLE, CONTAINS ENERGY. CAN BE USED AS A SOURCE OF POWER, RESTORES MANA WHEN CONSUMED.
FORMES IN THE BODIES OF MUTANTS OF LEVEL 2 AND HIGHER.
"Interesting. I wonder if these things can also be found in zombies?" Sergei asked after giving back the orb.
"We haven't found such yet."
"So, you are gonna be eating those?" The boss asked and pointed at the carcass.
"We ran some tests - the meat is consumable and highly nutritious. Also the volunteers happen to be fine."
"It's a really good news then - unless, however, we meet a tank-sized bear who enjoys human flesh…" Sergei added thoughtfully.
"We've already been thinking about it and the eggheads are certain that the mutation should affect everything on this planet."
"Even insects?"
"Probably."
"I think it's time to start putting nets on our windows… made out of steel… Otherwise I think it won't be possible anymore to kill mosquitoes with a simple rolled newspaper like we used to…"
"I should probably tell my people to stay away from swamps," the General became thoughtful upon realizing the correctness of his guest's thought. Mosquitoes the size of a cat… It could be extremely dangerous.
After talking some more, the General drove Sergei back to the HQ, where they already have prepared a meal. Just like the last time, the dinner was amazing: there was plenty of meat, a soup, a salad and some fruits.
After the meal, the guest was escorted to a huge fenced area.
"Unfortunately, we don't have any free warehouses left. Here are your weapons," Demarais pointed at the pile of boxes.
After a brief examination, Sergei nodded and walked to the center of the clearing. The teleporter wasn't powerful enough to transfer everything in one go, so he had to transfer eighty tons of food little by little. He teleported sixty tons of potatoes and twenty tons of vegetables (cabbages, carrots, onions, etc) in four approaches.
"It is encouraging to see so much food. Here's the payment," the General smiled widely and handed Sergei a pouch. The merchant took it and peaked inside - it was filled with a lot of thousand-unit coins.
"I'm assuming, you won't be buying from me in the near future," the merchant asked after sending the money and weapons to the haven.
"I guess so. But I hope we will collect the needed amount in a week or two. Or we will find another method of payment."
"Deal! I'll visit you in a week," the men shook hands and were about to head back to the HQ, when suddenly an officer came running to them.
(fr) "General! We have urgent news! All zombies are headed into the city!"
(fr) "What zombies, into which city? Speak more clearly!" Demarais barked.
(fr) "I'm sorry, General! All zombies that were encircling Paris suddenly started moving towards the city, and I mean all of them!"