After cleaning up and sighing out of my computer, my time in the real world was up. I had to get back into the pod after letting my character have a nap. I moved with knowledge of new traps and things to work with. I wanted to work while it was all fresh in my mind. I got into the pod after turning off my computer, and I laid back and let the pod lid close, logging me back into the universe.

Instantly, I noticed that my character's back hurt a little and was a bit stiff, and I was surprised to realize that sleeping on the rock was the reason for it. I did not have enough padding, and I groaned as I realized that some things in this game might be a little too realistic. I crawled out of the sleeping bag that I was using, and I slowly got up. Kimmy, my criminal slave, was sleeping all tied up. Now was the time to get started, and I picked up my rifle and moved toward the crack.

Four hours had passed in the game world, and things had been sped back up to four times the speed, so I had to check if the coast was clear and then get started. Hopefully, while I was out, nothing came in and made camp. That would be very annoying and problematic. Moving to the crack and checking things out was a high priority, and when I lay down and started to crawl forward a bit, I started to slowly sweep the surroundings.

The old camp that I killed in the night was gone, and there was no sign of human habitation as I swept my scope across the clearing. That was a huge relief. At some point in the future, I would not mind someone trying to move in if I was covered and hidden, But not now. I had too much to do, and it was time to get started.

So, slowly, I crawled back out and stood. I moved back to the base camp and thought about if Kimmy would be useful right now. I shook my head as I realized that she would not be. The best she could do was dig a latrine for herself to use, which I would rather do at night. For now, I started to gather my tools to start making some traps. First, I needed to deck out the cave with some traps that would make some noise and kill. So I got my things, and I started to head down with a couple of lights to light up the cave as I worked. The place was dark as I started to head down into the cave once again toward the exit. First came the giant stairs, and I wondered what I could do with these steps. Should I put something up to make people think there was nothing up here? Did I have the dark cloth for that?

My mind spun as I jumped down the giant steps, and I found myself back on the ground floor of this cave. Now was the time to work, and I headed to the front and looked at the moss. The moss would be my cover, and I got to work using a knife to cut up large chunks of moss without letting it break. The first life folded open, and I smiled as I started digging under where I lifted the moss and started to sharpen the tent poll that I took down with me. After a bit, it was nice and sharp, and I stuffed it into the hole and started on another poll and tent peg.

I quickly got to work, and it became a little bit of a pitfall, which I covered back with the moss when done. It was a single trap, and I moved over to another side of the moss and started the same system. My mind was on being a layered defense of the cave. First would be little pitfalls to cut off movement. Take out their feet and slow them down. It wasn't for the kill but for inducing a debuff if I was in another game. The bleeding effect on their feet would act as if they were retreating in, helping me track them later as well.

For now, the moss-covered path would be a path to death where any step would injure or kill you. I made sure to set up at least ten little pitfalls in the moss at the front and moved deeper in. Then I made something much more deadly mid-way in which if you stepped on the moss, it would pull the pin of a grenade with a delay of five seconds. It was for myself and others in case I messed up when running in or if I was running into camp. I could purposefully step on it and run right by if someone was invading, though it would be a distraction or something to kill the back line.

Then, I worked on a gun trap and a shotgun trap using the darkness for the element of surprise. It was a single shot on each, but they would be incredibly useful. The biggest thing was that none of the traps were obvious to walk in, and the moss, although not looking as perfect as before, still looked natural but was much more deadly now.

It took a couple of hours to do all of this, and I could work on it more later. Instead, the rock path was still clear, and I walked it easily with the lantern light, but it would be much harder in the dark. The initial entrance was to walk down the middle of the cave to the best of your ability and a little bit to the left of the pool of water. If I went to the right by the pool of water, it would activate the grenade.

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Then I realized I had some distance and could put a lantern in the cave, and I knew the perfect place and set up a multi-layered trap. This one would be great, and I moved to set it up. It took the longest time to set up, and it was difficult to pull off, but atop the lantern was a grenade to blow up the lantern set up to blow up in five seconds, but that wasn't all. The lantern without weight would release a reverse lever that would pull a flashbang a bit of a distance away with a flashbang that was set to seven seconds. It would allow me to turn off the lights and blow something up behind me quickly, followed by a stun. Whether it would work was something I could not test, unfortunately, because of my general lack of supplies to do that type of experiment, so I just hoped it would work.

With that, my cave was set up for now, and I walked down the rock, barely visible in the dim light provided directly. I would need to check if the light was visible at night, and if it was, then I would disable the trap and take down the lantern. The best defense was no one ever noticed something was here in the first place.

So, with the front defense done, I had to go back up to camp and collect supplies for outside. What I wanted most was to set up a place to hear and notify me where I should be looking. The best thing for that would be guns, and I had a large parameter.

Then I had a thought struck me that was a bit odd. Maybe hunting during the day was not the best idea when I am by myself. I had collected Kimmy and the rest, but when alone, surprise is necessary. Suppose I worked in the dark. That was when most started to go to bed, and people were on watch. People on watch may go to bed and are vulnerable. These were criminals and not military outfits, and from what I heard, even military outfits sometimes had issues with these things.

It would make it harder for people to find me moving in and out of my base camp if I worked that way, too. It was generally a better thing overall moving that way as I thought about it. I could use the daytime to work on things inside the base camp as I brought tools. Before heading out, I could experiment with traps and various other things before dark. I could even take a watch through the crack to see if anyone was incoming.

In fact, now that I was thinking about it, this area was a really great camp area for people to set up in. If I made my traps look old or did not set them up, I could maybe make this area into a trap of its own instead. I had old tents, and the small watering hole could even bring animals or predators for me. It was that good of a location, and I was well hidden.

My mind was spinning faster and faster as I started up the giant staircase, and I thought about it. The place I was at was a criminal area where criminals gathered. I had a hidden spot where I could watch over people coming and going. I could identify them before they could identify me, and I could sneak out to kill them whenever I wanted to. Wait for nighttime and watch them set up camp and all. The entrance to my cave was very hard to see, and I lucked upon it last night.

I could not help but think this was a better setup than going out into the forest on the day where I almost was killed yesterday. I had not reflected that I was almost killed before I knew who was shooting at me yesterday. It was a close battle, and that was with two people. Last night, I killed nine and captured one without them even being able to shoot at me properly.

The change of plans was more and more of a good idea than a bad one when I thought about it. It simply did not make much sense not to go this way in my mind. It was the easier solution, and it made sense with my circumstances. All I needed was something to help me see at night, and things would become amazing for me. That was the major thing stopping me from working at night instead of the day.

The last thing was if it was a good idea to set up traps outside the cave if I went this route.

No, I wouldn't want to. They would look new, and people would look for me.

I slowed my work and looked at Kimmy, who was still tied up lying on a mat, and I realized there was one issue. Kimmy, who was an NPC, needed to use the washroom, whereas I didn't. I did not want it to start smelling like a bathroom in here. That meant I needed to set something up for her.

I put my things down and finally decided what I would do, even though it wasn't my original plan. Plans change, though, and my thoughts are centered. Yes, I would become a night attacker instead of a day attacker. It may be more difficult, but it was a much better plan than getting shot at; it also took advantage of this fantastic base camp. I finally decided what I would do, so I moved to wake up the criminal slave to start making her dig into the wall down the steps a little so we could make her a place to do her business.

“Wakey, Wakey,” I said, nudging her, “Change of plans; you need to get to work,” I told her with a sadistic smile, holding out a tiny shovel for her to work with.

I watched as she shuddered.

I was going to make use of this place so much for the next week or so. I wonder how many bounties I could capture or kill in this canyon?