I activated the condenser from my inventory, and saw it colored green when it was placed too close to the factory. It could be deployed there, but that seemed to be the point of being too close. Slowly, I inched the condenser further and further away, eventually finding a spot about three hundred feet away where it turned to blue again. That wide distance would definitely limit my ability to place condensers, unless I begin a widespread sprawl throughout the local terrain.

When the condenser finished deploying, a hum resonated through the air, vibrating in my skull until it faded into the background. I waited nervously until a system message appeared.

Ergon condenser connected to power grind

Checking for security level….

….

….

….

Security level sufficient

QUEST COMPLETE

Level up!

+10 Perk Points

Foundational Facilities 5->8

Please choose facility to activate:

Store

Cafeteria

Processing Bay

Research Lab

Gym

Pharmacy

Survey Chamber

I really should have asked the librarian about my options before completing the quest. The options all continued to be appealing, but once more information was the greatest tool available. The more I knew, the more effective I could be.

Survey Chamber.

Selection made.

Survey Chamber opened on second floor.

One thing we cannot know is the literal shape of this new world. Being able to expand our sight, to understand more of the space is the first step to being able to move from the abstract and the internal to the concrete and the external. Go forth, seek out the unknown, and learn what the immediate needs of your peers are.

ERROR: Chosen

You have received the following Factory quest:

Power Supply (3/?): Create an ergonic condenser, attach it to the factory supply. and install active defenses to protect it.

Reward: Access to one factory facility of choice.

Active defenses? I’d need to talk with the librarian to know what that meant exactly. In the meanwhile, though, I had other more pressing issues. First, time to access something that had been eluding me from the start.

Path Store!

A surprisingly small menu appeared before me.

PATH STORE Purchase New Path 20 PP Perks Factory Manager

Hm, 20 points for a new path didn’t make sense, then a thought suddenly came to mind. I opened up a side menu with Help Path Store Path Costs.

PATH STORE COSTS - PATHS

Paths cost the following Points:

First = Free

Second = 20

Third = 40

Fourth = 80

Fifth = 160

No user may have more than five paths at any given time. If you desire to change your selection, you must first remove an existing path.

This is how they get you, ya know? First taste of power is free, then higher and higher. They WANT you to climb, to see what you couldn’t see before. They want you to become powerful, and so you have to kill, kill, and kill to reach those heights. Lonely at the top because everyone else trying to get there’s gone got.]

Well, that answered that question. I dismissed that window and then concentrated on Factory Manager in the Path Store window causing yet another to pop open.

FACTORY MANAGER PERKS Perk Pre-Requisites Cost Manufacturing II Manufacturing I, Gathering I 20 Gathering II Gathering I 20 Basic Production Tools Manufacturing I 5 Automation I Manufacturing I, Gathering I 15 Cooking Gathering I 10

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Choices, choices, choices. Cooking looked nice, but without access to a cafeteria or to a food supply, it wouldn’t be too useful yet. Almost everything else was too pricey for me to afford, except for Basic Production Tools. I’m not sure what exactly those were, but they- I interrupted my thoughts then pulled up another help menu.

PERK - BASIC PRODUCTION TOOLS

Allows for the manufacture of tools relating to gathering and processing resources. Synergizes with skills granted by the Gathering and Manufacturing line, opening up new options related to them.

Does not grant any new skills.

I concentrated on that perk and confirmed my selection. A brief surge of information flooded into my mind and I instinctively pulled up my crafting menu.

Recipe Materials Facility Refinement T1 Metal Ingot T1 Ore x2 Smelter or IP T1 Planks T1 Lumber x2 Sawmill or IP Farming Seeds [Vegetable] x2 IP Smithing Hammer Metal Ingot x1, Plank x2, Screw Joiner x1 Assembler or IP Joiners Hinge Joiner Metal Ingot x1 Forge or IP Pipe Joiner Metal Ingot x1 Forge or IP Screw Joiner Metal Ingot x1 Forge or IP Foundational Facilities Wall x10 Metal Ingot x1, Screw Joiner x1 Assembler or IP Floor x10 Metal Ingot x1, Pipe Joiner x1 Assembler or IP Farm Plot Plank x1, Seeds x1 IP Lounge Plank x5, Metal Ingot x5, Pipe Joiner x2, Screw Joiner x2, Hinge Joiner x2 Assembler or IP Smelter Metal Ingot x8, Pipe Joiner x6, Screw Joiner x2 Assembler or IP Sawmill Plank x8, Metal Ingot x2, Pipe Joiner x2, Screw Joiner x2, Hinge Joiner x8 Assembler or IP Forge Plank x2, Metal Ingot x8, Pipe Joiner x2, Screw Joiner x6, Hinge Joiner x2 Assembler or IP Assembler Plank x6, Metal Ingot x10, Pipe Joiner x8, Screw Joiner x4, Hinge Joiner x8 Assembler or IP Ergon Condenser Metal Ingot x2, Pipe Joiner x4, Focus Crystal x1 Assembler or IP Mining Pickaxe Mental Ingot x2, Pipe Joiner x1, Screw Joiner x1 Forge or IP Logging Logging Axe Metal Ingot x1, Pipe Joiner x2, Screw Joiner x1 Forge or IP Sustenance Farming Cook Pot Metal Ingot x2, Pipe Joiner x2 Forge or IP Filters Show Only Have Skill Level Y Show Only Have Material N

The perk had only added four new items to the list, but judging from the description, it would continue adding new recipes as I advanced my perks and skills. Of these, the Logging Axe was clearly the highest priority, so I set the joiners forging, and once they were completed, started on the axe. Only half an hour, it would definitely be finished by the time I was done with the other thing I needed to check out.

The next green light on the second floor was directly to the left after entering the central room. From inside, a short hallway led to a small room, this one illuminated in black, with a comfortable looking arm chair sitting in front of what looked like a crystal ball in the center of it. There was no overt guide here, but how the place worked seemed fairly clear.

I sat down in the chair and leaned forward, planting my hands onto the orb. I expected an image to appear within it, but instead a hologram projected upwards onto the ceiling. In order to get a better view, I leaned back and the back of the chair leaned with me until I was supine, staring at those lights above. Slowly, they resolved from points of blue and green on the black into a coherent image.

The image large resembled the map I could pull up on my own, but instead of the unexplored areas coming up in black, they appeared blurred. I could still parse out information from the blurred areas, getting an idea of the geography, but having trouble seeing the finer details. I zoomed out as I had with my map, reaching up and pinching. After a distance that I estimated to be about five miles out, the image blacked out, like my map.

I spotted a rippling at the edge of that darkness though, and zoomed back in to examine the edge more carefully. There, I could see the unknown area slowly being pushed back, more blurred space moving in. The map was slowly expanding, gaining more information by the moment. As I further examined the map, I saw an icon off in the corner, resembling an abstracted human head and shoulders. Curiosity got the best of me and I clicked it.

The map zoomed back out to show the entire mapped area, then a pulse rang out from the center, leaving little glowing dots on the map after the pulse passed by. I zoomed in as close as I could onto those dots, and while I couldn’t make them out exactly, they did seem very similar to how the buried ore deposit had looked to my erg sight. If that’s indeed what they were, this would turn out to be a very useful resource indeed. I made a note to ask the librarian about this as well.

I returned my gaze to the map proper, zooming back out to try to gain an understanding of the space. The area was mostly forest, with the scar of the crater being all the more noticeable. To my surprise, the wall I had built appeared circling the crater, which did raise some concerns about my ability to develop this area. On the other, there probably wasn’t anyone else with a survey chamber keeping an eye on things around here.

The highway cut its way through the forest on its western side, continuing off of the map to the north and the south. The clearing where I found my car was quite a distance from the road, though, a full quarter mile or so, which only raised further questions. To the northeast, a lake was slowly being revealed, seeming quite large from the curvature of it. Rivers branched off from the lake, with a particularly large one heading towards and under the highway.

My vision paused there. A weird mark, one that I couldn’t quite make out, was on a spot near the intersection of that river and the highway. I zoomed in, trying to make some sense of that mark, when I realized it wasn’t a mark at all. Instead, it was a jumble of buildings as seen from very far away. The location was a small town, practically a village from the looks of it, surrounded by clusters of debris.

They had built a wall. There were people there, and they had to be alive. They had to be. Getting there would be a bit of a hike, but with everything settled here, I could make the journey without too much trouble. It would mean putting my quests on a back burner, but that would be worth it if I could find other people that I could be in touch with.

I might even be able to get others to come here to help me, banish this loneliness, if only for a moment.

First, talk to the librarian, then, head out.