(fr) "This is our chance!" The General's eyes lit up - he assumed that it would be easier for the army to break through now when the undead were spread out.
"Did something happen?" Annette was already translating the General's conversation with his subordinate, but Sergei still decided to ask for the sake of appearances.
"All zombies that were besieging Paris started moving into the city. We are urgently mobilizing our troops. We can escort you into the city if you want to."
"I think I'll pass - I'll be safer by myself."
"I understand. Then I wish you good luck."
"You too, General."
The men shook hands and Sergei headed towards Paris.
"Why did you decline his offer, boss? It would've been safer to go with the army," Annette inquired.
"I have a bad feeling. It seems to me that they are underestimating all the crap that's happening in that city," Sergei remembered what he saw in the lab - especially those zombie-mutants with tentacles inside their bodies.
QUEST ALERT!
THE PEOPLE OF PARIS WILL BE EXTERMINATED IN THE NEAR FUTURE. SAVE AS MANY AS YOU CAN. YOU HAVE ONE WEEK STARTING FROM NOW. AT THE END OF THE ALLOTTED TIME, THE HAVEN MUST CONTAIN AT LEAST THOUSAND PEOPLE WHO SIGNED THE CONTRACT WITH YOU.
REWARD: NEW ITEMS IN THE STORE AND AN ADDITIONAL REWARD DEPENDING ON YOUR SUCCESS.
(rus) "Fuck! I only just wanted to sell my goods, make some profit and bleed all those camps dry! Hey, system, do the people that are already in the haven count?"
YES.
(rus) "So I need to recruit a little more than three hundred people… It shouldn't be a problem."
The motorbike was rushing towards the city, the roads were free so it didn't take Sergei long to reach his destination. Just as the General said, there were no zombies around the city, instead there were a lot of soldiers: Sergei counted at least four observation posts that were watching the city.
"I'm heading to the Basilica. Annette, guide me."
"Will do, boss," the girl had a city map downloaded on her phone, with built-in GPS navigation that showed the best route from point A to point B.
***
Everything was quiet on the way into the city, but he soon started noticing small scattered groups of zombies. It looked like they fell a bit behind the horde and got lost, aimlessly wandering around the streets. He couldn't just drive past them because there were a lot of such groups - dozens, or even hundreds of them.
"Annette, tell Solomon to have our men ready," the boss ordered, observing the future battle field.
"Boss, he's still cleaning up the shard."
"…Fine. I'll just drive around them," he already forgot about the shard…
Sergei drove back and took another route. Fortunately, there weren't many zombies and he was able to avoid them without a problem. Of course he had to chop a few heads off - but at least he passed the dangerous section, because as he drove further the concentration of lost zombies became significantly lower.
"Boss, there's a huge horde around the corner!"
"Why the fuck all the bad things are always around the corner? Why can't they be somewhere ahead… How many of those fuckers are there?" After cursing to his heart's extent, the boss stopped his bike and looked around - there were zero zombies in the area and it wasn't really a good sign.
"Tens of thousands."
"Too many - where should I go then?"
"A moment, please… If you drive straight, then…" The girl was about to finish her sentence when suddenly there was a deafening roar of monkeys, very familiar to Sergei from his adventures in the lab.
"U-a-a-a-a!!!" Monkeys appeared in the windows of a building that Sergei just stopped by - a whole hell of a lot of monkeys… One of them screeched, then another one followed and it started a "chain reaction" - in just a few seconds almost a hundred primates were screaming at him at the top of their lungs.
"I've got two questions, Annette. First, what in the world these monkeys are doing here, and, second, why the hell there are so many of them?! There used to be only a few dozens of those menaces…"
"I don't know boss, but they have a nest here and I see a lot of baby monkeys, and also some zombie corpses… It looks like the monkeys are eating them…" It seemed like the sight was enough to make the girl sick.
"Tell me where to drive!" The motorbike took off a moment before the spot it was parked was bombarded with stones and pieces of glass.
"Go straight, then take the next left," Annette quickly pulled herself together and provided directions after checking with the map.
"Roger."
Sergei accelerated and kept driving. The monkeys kept screaming for a while, but upon seeing that their guest was out of their reach, they returned to their lair and became silent.
"The city is more fun these da…" Before boss could finish his sentence, a garbage can came flying out of nowhere and collided with the biker.
The body flew off the motorcycle, fell on the road and rolled over a couple of times, injuring everything that could be injured. The bike, on the other hand, crashed into a parked car at full speed.
"Fuck… that hurt… Annette, what the hell was that?!" Despite the hard landing, boss wasn't seriously injured and only suffered minor cuts and bruises. For the most part, he had to thank the system gear and his sixteen points of durability for that - and let's not forget about his luck as well.
The boss rose from the ground, took out his favorite lvl 3 gun and looked around.
"Boss, it's red zombies!" The girl exclaimed loudly, her voice filled with worry.
"Red? Damn it, they are red indeed… These are the same ones as those from the lab, am I right?"
The boss clarified, eyeing three zombies that were puffed up as if from steroids. Their clothes were ripped by their swollen muscles, their skin was red like after a hot bath, their heads were bald with no sign of eyebrows or eyelashes…
"It looks like it is a more advanced form…" the bruised man muttered under his breath.
"Am I right to assume that those creatures that we saw in the lab somehow broke free and it's all my… our fault?"
There was no response, at least not from humans.
"Sh-h-h-sh!" A red zombie hissed.
"Do not hiss at me!" Sergei exclaimed with a gun in his hand.
Red zombies began making hissing sounds with their mouths closed and slowly started walking towards the human.
Bang! A zombie's head got blown up and its body collapsed, meanwhile the boss received 5 exp points.
"SH-SHH-Sh-h-h!" The rest of the living corpses hissed loudly and suddenly more red zombies started appearing all around the street. It looked like they were lying in wait! Some were hiding underneath the cars, some were hidden behind the doors, but most of them just jumped out of first floor windows. Almost hundred red zombies!
"You're surrounded, boss!" Annette exclaimed in panic.
"You don't say!" The boss growled, firing a bullet after a bullet. However the red ones decided that a slow approach wasn't effective and accelerated like American football players. While Sergei in that game was assigned the role of that poor guy who got the ball - that's why each of a hundred red beasts wanted to cuddle him and get to know him better…
Killing four more red ones, boss disappeared, returning to the haven. The red ones were surprised, really surprised. After searching the surrounding area they decided to stay… Or rather some of them stayed in the spot where the human disappeared from while the rest returned to their hiding places.
"What's the situation?" Sergei asked Annette who was sitting behind the monitor.
"They're waiting for you, boss."
"Crap… I hope it's not for long. Tell me if they decide to leave."
Sergei lamented about it for a while and went in search of Professor, so he could take care of his bruises and scratches. They would eventually heal on their own, of course, however he didn't want to catch some kind of infection or any other similar shit.
"Boss, wait! Take a look at this!" Sergei was already ten meters away when Annette called after him.
Approaching the laptop, Sergei saw something that resembled a corncob, except it was three meters high, two meters in diameter and made out of flesh… A bunch of regular zombies were gathered around the cob, a whole lot of tentacles coming out of it were piercing their bodies, changing and subordinating them to itself. A bunch of tattered clothes and some hair was lying on the ground around them.
"I think we need to hurry and wrap up our business in this city and then get the hell out of there…" the boss commented on what he saw on the screen. "Alright, tell me if you see any changes."
Sergei went to the Professor, who quickly treated and bandaged his wounds. Fortunately, he had no serious injuries, but the bruises were going to hurt for at least half a day.
***
YOU CANNOT EXPAND YOUR HAVEN WHILE YOU ARE CONNECTED TO A HOSTILE TERRITORY.
"What the?… Is it because of the shard that we crashed into?"
YES.
"If it's not one thing, it's another…" the boss wanted to expand his territory because their new city required an additional space. When they were planning the construction, it was estimated that the haven needed to be expanded at least by a third.
Seeing that there was nothing he could do at the moment, Sergei decided to lay down and rest. It wasn't easy to fall asleep with aching wounds, but the physical and emotional fatigue was catching up with him and ten minutes later Sergei was out like a light.
***
"Boss! Bo-o-oss! Wake up!" Anne cried out. "Boss! Come on, wake up!"
***
(fr) "I came to see what's been taking you so long and… what in the world are you doing?!" Natasha entered the boss's house and saw… Anne, laying in boss's bed, with his hands closed tightly around her.
(fr) "Save me! I tried to pull boss off the bed, but he grabbed me and hugged! And just kept sleeping!" Anne was almost on the verge of tears.
(fr) "…Why the hell did you try to pull him off the bed…? You know what, never mind…" Natasha sighed and repeated Captain Picard's famous facepalm.
(rus) "Boss! The wheat field is on fire! Almost half of our crops are burned!" The petite girl exclaimed emotionally. The acting worthy of an Oscar!
Boss's eyes shot open and the first thing he saw was the girl standing near his bed with an impish smile on her face.
(rus) "Your way of waking up is too cruel, I almost got a heart attack," the boss spoke calmly, however his heart was indeed beating so fast as if about to jump out of his chest.
(rus) "Then explain to me what Anne is doing in your bed?"
(rus) "Huh?… Why are you in my bed?" Sergei turned his head and saw the crying girl lying beside him.
"I tried to wake you up but you grabbed me and hugged me! I couldn't get away!"
"Ha-ha-ha, sorry, sorry," the man laughed and let her go. The girl looked like a scared kitten. After getting her freedom, Anne jumped off the bed as fast as possible. "In compensation for moral damage I'm allowing you to name the chick that is about to hatch."
"Really?!" The girl's eyes lit up - she loved animals, however she's had enough of rabbits and now couldn't wait for the chicks to hatch.
"Really," the boss smiled. "Now, report."
"Solomon and his team are back," Natasha reported calmly.
"Got it, let me get dressed and let's go," lucky for Anne, Sergei didn't sleep naked and was dressed in a tank top and boxer briefs.
***
He found Solomon's squad near the gates, where the temporary military camp was now located. The soldiers looked tired but happy.
"Boss, you came!"
"How'd it go?" Sergei asked after checking the soldiers.
"I report as follows! One hundred and nineteen zombies were killed, two beastmen received minor injuries, but nothing serious. There were no casualties."
"Good job, now... What now?" Boss pondered. "System, all zombies were eliminated. It means that I conquered the shard, right?"
NO.
"What do you mean "no"?! What else should I do to conquer it?"
TO CONQUER THE SHARD YOU NEED TO INSTALL A SPECIFIC ITEM ON ITS TERRITORY.
"Fucking hell! What item?"
LOOK IN THE STORE.
Deciding not to argue, Sergei returned to his laptop and opened the store. After ten minutes of searching, he finally found an item with an inconspicuous name "Connector"...
SMALL CONNECTOR
AN EXPENDABLE ITEM.
DEVICE DESIGNED FOR CONQUERING DIMENSIONAL SHARDS, WHOSE SIZE DOES NOT EXEED "SMALL". INSTALL IT ON THE SHARD AND LAUNCH IT.
WARNING! THE SPEED OF CONNECTION DEPENDS ON HOW FAR THE DEVICE IS INSTALLED FROM THE CENTER OF THE SHARD.
WARNING! DURING OPERATION OF THE DEVICE ALL HOSTILE HABITANTS OF THE SHARD WILL BE HELLBENT ON DESTROYING THE DEVICE.
PRICE: 1000
(rus) "Interesting. If we install this thing and guard it, we can also eliminate any hidden enemies, if we manage to hold our position that is."
Sergei took a car, Solomon and a few soldiers and headed to the center of the shard.
The second the car arrived to the enemy territory, the device came alive and a little arrow appeared on its screen.
The "small connector" resembled a cylinder and was forty centimeters high and twenty cm in diameter. It had a screen that showed information and a big red button which was labeled as
"Launch" in Russian.
Upon arriving to the center of the dimensional shard, Sergei put the cylinder on the ground and pressed the red button. The cylinder started emitting a quiet but annoying beeping sound. After some thirty seconds of constant beeping, out of it came three tiny tripod legs. The cylinder rose to one meter off the ground and the beeping stopped. A small opening appeared at the bottom of the device that shone with white light. The light became denser with each passing second until it turned into a white ray which started burning through the ground like a laser.
The connector's screen showed the timer that was set for one hour and five minutes.
WARNING, THE CONQUERING OF THE SHARD HAS BEGUN. TIME BEFORE COMPLETION 1:04:55.
The system announced the start of the seizure of the shard, but it was too early to relax. After some time, three wildly shouting zombies came running out of the woods - they didn't pose any kind of danger of course, but their appearance clearly showed that Solomon's soldiers didn't manage to finish the cleanup completely.
The veins on the security chief's face became more pronounced, showing that he became a "little bit" angry. Activating his skill, the stone man quickly annihilated their three guests, unaliving them for the second time. One punch of a fist made of stone was enough to crack a head or break a ribcage, and zombies could do nothing to attack him back - the stone skin was impossible to scratch or bite. Notably, the stone man didn't even give them the opportunity to prove that.
The hour passed, and there were no other guests aside from those three zombies.
During last seconds the connector pulled the tripod legs back into its body and stopped emitting the ray of light; its color changed from deep blue to white and the device simply turned into liquid and drained off into the hole that the laser beam left in the ground. The hole tightened once the last drop of fluid disappeared and the system announced the end of the seizure. The wall of fog began vibrating, the grass changed its color and the trees became greener. The basic wire fence appeared along the wall of fog.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'VE CONQUERED A "SMALL-SIZE" DIMENSIONAL SHARD. AS A REWARD YOU RECEIVE 2 000 HAVEN'S EXPERIENCE POINTS, 570 000 SQUARE METERS OF LAND ARE NOW SUCCESSFULLY SEIZED WITH ALL THE RESOURCES ON THAT TERRITORY.
WARNING! THE DEPTH OF THE SEIZED SHARD IS 957 METERS, WHICH IS 947 METERS DEEPER THAN THE SET VALUE. FURTHER EXPANSION OF THE HAVEN IS NOT AVAILABLE UNTILL THE DEPTH IS LEVELED. WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEVEL THE DEPTH?
(rus) "Motherf... How much will it cost me?" Sergei didn't think even for a second that the offer would be free.
TO LEVEL THE DEPTH YOU NEED TO SPEND 200 000 POINTS OF BIOMATTER AND 75 000 COINS.
(rus) "You are killing me... Alright bitch, I agree!"
After he gave his agreement the ground started to shake, which went on for longer than a minute this time, but the earthquake wasn't really powerful so it didn't cause any real problems.
THE DEPTH HAS BEEN LEVELED, THE EXPANSION IS AVAILABLE. WARNING! THE DEPTH EXCEEDS 500 METERS, THE EXPANSION PRICE HAS INCREASED. NEW PRICE: 50 SQUARE METERS - 3 COINS OR 15 POINTS OF BIOMATTER.
(rus) "Damn you!!! *censored*!!! Bitch!"
"Boss?" Seeing his boss cursing everything and everyone, Solomon assumed that the system said something that could cause them a lot of problems.
"Its nothing. I'm just being robbed again... Alright, let's head back."
The squad returned to the gates - they stood tall, just the way they left them, along with the additional fence.
"Is everything alright, boss?" Alice asked noticing her boss looking rather glum - plus she was worried about the earthquake that happened before.
"Yes, but it didn't go without additional expenses. Okay, I'm gonna go expand the haven and build the city now," the boss grumbled sulkily and went to his laptop. Upon seeing her boss's condition, Annette silently gave him her seat and moved aside.
The total area of the haven was 157 acres. Boss decided to expand it to 300 - he was planning on recruiting more people in the near future so it was better to prepare the space beforehand.
The expansion costed 85 800 coins and there was no earthquake since the area expanded less than twice this time. But there was another problem - the enforced fence didn't expand to the new territory and remained on its previous place. The regular weak fence appeared along the wall of fog. He had to spend extra 16 000 coins to put their defenses in order. The entire fence was enforced, the second row was installed as well, along with new watch towers. He didn't forget about the lighting as well, but it costed him additional 7 000 coins.
As a final touch, a small city appeared in the north-east - the camping site and the people were removed from that area beforehand, of course. Two residential areas were built, each consisted of 38 two-storied wooden buildings, with 8 living rooms, a kitchen and a common room in each building.
Each area housed a dining hall for 400 people, public toilets and public bathrooms.
The industrial area was built in the north-west - or rather he just mapped out the area for the future industrial sector. For now there were just roads and a few buildings. All the buildings in the industrial area were made of brick - it was pricier than wood, but more durable and it didn't burn. Initially, they planned to make them of reinforced concreate, but turned out that the material was much more expensive than wood.
The first building in the industrial district was a small meat processing factory, next there was an industrial refrigerator with the capacity of 50 tons of meat. In the corner of the district was located the energy block - a small building was built there which housed a bioreactor.
As it turned out the bioreactor was a structure the size of an SUV - it consumed a thousand points of biomatter a day, but could provide electricity to up to 1 000 people. The building was designed to house four such bioreactors. They planned to purchase more if necessary - however they weren't cheap, 11 000 coins each. How the reactor received the biomatter was unknown, but the process didn't require any human involvement.
He also moved the warehouse to that district, after it was upgraded to level 3. The upgrade costed 10 000 coins and its capacity increased to 10 000 square meters. Now it was a three-storied reinforced concrete building with a freight elevator, staff rooms and its own small canteen.
In the south-west the agricultural sector was located. The roads were built and lighting was installed, along with six rest houses and a primitive irrigation system to make it easier for people to water planted vegetables.
Here Orianne also suggested to build the tool shed - just a simple wooden structure. So there was no need for the people who were assigned with bringing the tools to the fields and then returning them back.
The military bloc was located in the other corner of the new area. There was a shooting range, barracks, garages and a weapons depot. For the weapons depot a level 2 warehouse was built. Sylvie was in charge of it, so the only way to access the gear was through her.
The recreation area was located in the south-east. Which used to be a small pond with the spring, now turned into a big lake. Now it was surrounded by a small but dense forest, gazebos, a tennis court and a football field. But the most interesting structures in that area were the house of entertainment and the house of pleasure. The first one - a casino, the second - a brothel. The brothel was built at the request of numerous single men, as well as some women who hated labor.
Almost no changes were made to the central district. The warehouses and the energy complex were moved to another district and in the vacant space the headquarters were built. The HQ has been built with the prospect for the haven's further development. For now it had only Alice's office with her personal laptop and the camera room which was supposed to be occupied by Annette and other people in charge of monitoring the real world with the "Camera" app. Only Annette remained in her usual spot - it was simpler and more familiar for her to work from the meadow. Plus they were yet to find more people for the job. The HQ also contained a lot of empty offices, a small canteen and a lounge. The building was made of brick and had three floors and a basement.
The establishment of the haven costed 225 000 coins - two-thirds of their finances vanished in a flash. But Sergei always used to say: "Money should be used to make money". This investment will repay itself more than once - he did believe it at the very least.