Opening my eyes, I felt a warm breath on the back of my neck and snuggled closer to Winter, I closed my eyes again and enjoyed the limited time of her company like this. We were fully clothed this time, as we had switched shifts last night once and didn’t want the guys to walk in on us while we wore nothing. When we rotated with them, we slept for some time before being awoken, then we swapped with them once more.
From the fact I had awoken naturally, I knew nighttime had likely ended and after about ten minutes I heard a knock from the door. “Daylight, Husks are gone.”
Hearing Sheep’s voice and footsteps as he left, I heard Winter sit behind me and with both of us sitting up, we made sure to get rid of our bed hair before leaving the room. Thankfully the bags had been given to us, they served as a good pillow, though slightly uncomfortable we could at least rest a bit better. Passing the room we had placed all the broken appliances, most of which we had never seen before but could tell what function they had, I saw Sheep sitting there pulling them apart like an expert.
Carefully placing parts down in an organised matter on the table, Sheep turned to us and gave a nod. “Meeting?”
“Mm, breakfast then meeting. Usual room for both.” Leaving Sheep to his devices, Winter and I headed to the meeting room we had been using, collecting some water and canned food on the way. Today I wanted to get Winter her first Husk kill so she can catch up to us, and sitting down in the meeting room, along with Lemon and Ghost who had been waiting, I silently ate while I considered our next course of actions.
Meetings like these wouldn’t happen frequently when we gamed. Even while beta-testing the full dive tech we would have an in-game meeting twice a fortnight then did our own thing. Though I suppose being sent into another world would change things up, getting used to daily meetings like this would take a while.
After Sheep joined us and ate, Winter and I gave our report about the gunshot we heard and telling them the general direction, we wondered what to do about it.
“We can’t trust others with us, not yet. Everyone will be desperate, and with limited food and water emotions will be running high. People may kill for as little as a few cans of food.” Sheep held his chin while staring at the centre of the table.
“Especially a solid place like this. We have to assume sooner or later we’ll be found and may need to defend ourselves. Which would mean…” Speaking while tapping the desk, Ghost brought up the elephant in the room. We had left messages with the intent of seeing if others would want to trade or to find if any others were around here, and now that we faced the likelihood of others being around here we had to consider all options.
“W-what if it’s just one person?” Lemon asked nervously. Glancing at him, I gestured for him to continue his train of thought. “I-if it’s just one person, they wouldn’t be a direct threat, right?”
“They could be a part of a larger group.” Winter spoke in response. I finished her train of thought for her.
“Even if we shake them down and not allow them to carry, they could simply be sent here to scout us out. I don’t want to reject any who may be by themselves here but we need an insurance policy to protect ourselves.”
The room fell into silence as we thought over what we could do to ensure our safety. I found it difficult, mainly because we’d have to either reject everyone or let everyone in. If we made a decision, we couldn’t just be selective on it.
“There will be a threshold.” Looking at Sheep, he looked around. “A threshold of what we can provide that ensures that people would rather join us than harm us. We’d have to provide security and ensure our long term is safe, so that they’d be unwilling to kill us for what we have.”
“Wouldn’t they just kill us?” Ghost looked at Sheep with a bit of confusion.
“Not if they don’t have the right Jobs.” This time I spoke as I pondered. “If we are self-sustaining with the Jobs we have, which is possible, then killing us would only result in short term gain, thus the threshold would mean we could accept people when our capacity increases and we can’t simply be replaced. Desperate people aren’t looking for scraps to live on for another week, they want sustainability and insurance and if we can provide that then they’d be willing to join us.”
“We’d have to make sure they earn their keep.” Agreeing with Winter’s comment, I turned to Ghost as he spoke as well.
“Before we accept anyone, it’ll be best to question them harshly. If it’s a bigger group looking to take what is ours…”
“We’ll deal with it when it comes. This place won’t be good for long, the horde that appears every night already scares me, we’re one object making noise from being overflowed with Husks.” Speaking while leaning back, I shook my head as problems just kept stacking up.
“We need this location for now, at the very least until we can find a bigger and better place or build a functioning vehicle that we can use to leave wherever we are.”
Rubbing the bridge of my nose, I started wishing for a notepad and pen. We really needed to organise a large scale plan for the long-term, at the moment we could only work with the short term.
“Alright, let’s just focus on today. If we do run into anyone, we’ll handle it on the go with what we’ve discussed here. How’d it go with looking for a place to start growing your seeds, Ghost?”
“Just around here? Some patches are good, the problem is ensuring they won’t be trampled and get them watered regularly. So until we have a continuous, safe water supply, we can’t start.”
“This is an old town, right?” Looking up at Lemon, he trembled for a moment before continuing. “T-then maybe there is a water supply? There are sinks, toilets and showers in here after all.”
There were indeed essentials like that, though completely void of any water. “Either the water supply has dried out or the piping has been heavily damaged…” Muttering to myself, I thought over Lemon’s words.
“It could also be that the water supply is contaminated, blocked, the pumps might be out of fun and more.” Looking at Lemon, I nodded as I looked around.
“Finding the water supply is a good idea, but contamination is very likely so we’d need to ensure it’s being cleaned.”
“I can do that.” Lemon spoke with some confidence. Wanting to boost him up a little, I nodded at him.
“I’ll entrust it to you.” Lemon looked shocked for a moment before smiling and nodding back.
As I’m about to bring up the next topic, that being getting Winter her Husk kill, the System popped up with a new quest.
Prime World Survival Basics: II
Form or Join a Clan
0/10 Tasks Completed.
I saw everyone but Winter react and upon seeing the quest myself, I nodded and muttered “About time”. We had expected this quest to happen, the previous Survival Basics had been marked as 1 and this is number 2. Seeing the task this time as Form or Join a Clan, I started to understand that these quests were giving us tasks to work with others and become self-sustaining, which meant we couldn’t rely on these quests to provide for us.
“System Call: Clan”
Do you want to create a Clan?
Yes No
Selecting Yes, it changed to an empty textbox.
Please Enter a Clan Name
|
“A Clan name, hmm.”
“The Dark Reapers?”
“Oh god, please no. I don’t want to go around saying ‘We will reap’”
“How about Midnight and Friends?”
“Do I look like a narcissistic leader?”
“Could always call it Five Guys.”
“Midnight and I don’t fall under that category.”
“Then how abou-”
“Harmony. A Clan that looks to bring Harmony to those that join them?”
“What are we, HeadBook mothers?”
As we erupt in discussion, with us joking and laughing about the name for a Clan, I looked at Lemon. “Any ideas?”
“U-uh…The Blood Knights?”
Sheep and I laugh as Winter shakes her head with a small smile and Ghost slaps the table bent over in laughter. Even Lemon, while looking a bit embarrassed, had a small smile.
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“We’re all anime nerds here, so perhaps a cringy name like that would fit us?”
“Please no. I don’t want to one day look at the Clan name and cringe internally, I did that enough whenever I had to say that damn line!”
“Then…Unity?” Looking at Winter, I nodded thoughtfully and actually liked the name. Looking at the others, they seemed to also think the name wasn’t bad.
“Then, let’s go with Unity?” The others nod and tapping on the System, I said “Unity.”
Clan Unity has been formed. You are the Leader and may invite others.
“System Call: Clan Invite” Looking at Winter, I saw her look down for a moment before pressing on the air.
Entity Winter has accepted your Clan Invite.
Doing the same to everyone else, they also joined and once done, I turned my attention to the quest.
Prime World Survival Basics: II
Form or Join a Clan: Done
Create 2 Machines: 0/2
1/10 Tasks Completed.
“Oh? Two machines?” A bit surprised, I saw Sheep, Ghost and Lemon look either grim or surprised. Sheep had to dismantle two large machines or weapons, Ghost had to harvest two plants with fruit or vegetables and Lemon had to either connect a power source with an operational machine, connect a plumbing system or construct a 5x5 fence.
“So this is more of an advanced survival quest?” Sheep muttered while I tapped my chin in thought. The quest marked it as ‘basics’ but needing to create two machines from the get go seemed a lot more advanced.
“System Call: Clan” Wanting to have a look at the Clan, I saw a list appear.
Clan: Unity Member List.
Midnight Leader
Winter Member
Sheep Member
Ghost Member
Lemon Member
Clan Points: 0
Prime Coins: 0
“Clan Points? Prime Coins?” Looking at these two, I wondered what they meant.
“Clans have talents? That’ll be really wild…” Agreeing with Ghost, I decided to worry about it later. The Prime Coins confused me as well, but I put it to the side for the time being.
“Let’s organise what to do today. We need to get Winter’s first Husk kill which will be our first objective. Once that is done, we will start looting the cars we found isolated and dismantle them. We’ll take the backpacks and once they are full we’ll bring them here and empty them before returning back to the place we previously were. Our main focus today is to begin work on getting the generator built and work started towards the water purifier.
“Once we have those two completed and have a source of fuel, we’ll then focus on Lemon’s task. Ghost, we’ll go with the flow for yours and if we find any plantation that you can harvest we’ll stop and wait for you to do so. For Sheep and I, our objectives will come over the course of our main focus. For tomorrow, we will wait to see the results of today, but I do want to find a renewable source of food and a water supply that we can use. I’d kill for a hot shower right now.” Seeing the others chuckle and agree, we started making arrangements.
Winter and I would use the Colt Diamondback and Desert Eagle respectively while Lemon took the Glock G19. Ghost as usual will scout ahead, with Winter and Lemon in front of Sheep and I. This is our standard set up, since I mainly used snipers in games and Sheep acted as my spotter, we would be responsible for passing information down, which isn’t possible at the moment since we had no way other than yelling.
Keeping in mind our limited ammo, we moved quietly down the street while keeping an eye out for Husks. It didn’t take long before we came across a pack of Husks, three in total and after checking the surroundings and clearing an area around us, we set up an ambush as they slowly moved towards us. Communicating mainly with hand signals, I made sure to position everyone so they could see me and avoid cross fire, causing us to be in a half circle with Ghost and Sheep behind us with Winter and Lemon nearby.
As the Husks slowly stumbled down the road, I held a hand up and counted from five and once the countdown finished, we rose from our hiding spots and fired. My shot landed perfectly, blowing the Husk’s head off while Winter achieved the same result. Lemon’s shot however striked his Husk’s neck, blowing a hole in it. Seeing it stumble for a moment, it turned towards Lemon and started to charge. Raising my Deagle, I took a shot and blew its head up. As I held the gun with the most ammo, we found it essential for me to deal with any mistakes.
Seeing Lemon pale, I couldn’t blame him for this mistake, he did after all do well yesterday and this is the first time he’s experienced an ambush like this.
“S-sorry..”
“Don’t be, you’ve actually let us learn some valuable information.” Patting his back, I looked at the corpse of the Husk and pointed at it. “Now we know that even if we were to shoot them in the neck, they will continue with no problem, which is vital to us right now. If instead they had stopped moving or collapsed that would’ve been for the best, but now we know.”
A look of thoughtfulness showed on Lemon’s face mixed with some surprise before he nodded slowly. I had been sincere in that comment, the information is absolutely worth a bullet. I had planned to attack joints as well to slow Husks down, but if we could simply shoot their heads and kill them, that would be the easiest way to deal with them, but the hardest to achieve.
You have killed a Husk!
+1 Class Point.
You have killed a Husk!
+1 Class Point.
I turned to Winter. “Don’t choose a Job right now, we’ll wait till this evening.” Winter gave me a nod before I gestured for everyone to continue. We already knew our plan coming out, so with Ghost leading the way, we headed towards the closest isolated car. Clearing the underneath and inside once again, I positioned everyone so the four of us had cover while Sheep went to work.
The System didn’t provide help for dismantling, it had to be done manually. Sheep started with the engine and very quickly our bags filled with oily and heavy parts, causing us to head back, drop it all off and return. It took roughly four hours to dismantle the engine block including the travel time, during which we had come across two more Husks which we swiftly dealt with. We were dangerously low on ammo now and decided to save the remaining amount, with the exemption being the Deagle for a few more shots.
As evening slowly rolled around, Sheep had finally dismantled the car completely, including several circuits and wires. While it needed to be done manually, the knowledge he had still came to mind very quickly and let him work efficiently. We looted the car and scored more bottles of water that we placed with the ones we found in the building we were using. It wouldn’t be touched until the water purifier is operational.
Setting into the room we now dubbed as the “mechanical room” Sheep and I worked to sort out the various parts to see if we had enough to get a generator built. The fuel tank in the car had a liquid similar to gasoline within it, though we had no idea if it would be usable we decided to test. By using “System Call: Machinist Blueprints” I could display the blueprints I had learnt, though the knowledge is within my mind already having it displayed helped.
“Engine, voltage regulator, exhaust, alternator, cooling system…I can make most of this with the System, for the parts…” Muttering to myself while looking through the blueprint and Crafting System, I found we had most of the parts to make everything here. The System had a search function for the Crafting System which I had been very thankful for. Most of the parts that came from the car had been familiar to us, with some being strange in design but we knew what it would be used for.
“If only you could turn these back into their basic components.”
“Hm, I haven’t tried to do that.”
Looking at him, I frowned as he realised why. “Ah, let's try then.”
“You should’ve already experimented with it, Sheep. 50 DKP minus!”
“That puts me at -50! I’m in the lead!”
Throwing a bolt at him as he laughed, he turned serious and spoke. “System Call: Dismantle Item.”
The item he held, a hinge, disappeared as we both sat there with widened eyes. It reappeared, the screws placed nearly alongside two metal plates with no flaws or holes.
“T-that’s fucking powerful…” Sheep looks at the screws and plates with disbelief as I do the same.
“C-can you dismantle bigger things?” Sheep grabs an appliance and attempts to do so, but to no avail.
“It says the item is a complete item and can’t dismantle it, meaning I have to actually pull it apart.”
Tapping my finger on the table, I nodded and told him to start dismantling everything. With excitement, we started to do so. With Sheep dismantling and me crafting, we spent most of the evening and a few hours into the night quietly working. Having done a lot and swapping with Winter and Ghost, we woke up Lemon and took over watch.
After waking up by myself, as Winter had taken the last watch with Ghost, I made my way to the meeting room with the usual rations and upon sitting down as others came in, we ate in silence as usual. Putting the empty cans aside, saving them for potential use in the future, I leaned back and looked around. Compared to the first and second day, we were looking a lot better. We still had fear, of course, about this new world, but we were doing a lot better than we had before.
Smiling and leaning forward, I placed my arms on the table, interlocking my fingers and spoke. “We’ll be separating into two teams today. Winter and I will stay here while I work towards building a generator. Sheep, Ghost and Lemon, you’ll be working on dismantling another car but you’re to be careful, we’re separating to get more work done quickly. Sheep, focus less on the engine and more on the electronics in a car first then do the engine. At about midday, we’ll pull our full focus onto dismantling and creating machine parts.
“With Winter’s nearly acquired Job, Weaponsmith, we can now craft bows and arrows, slings and more durable melee weapons, so Winter will work on doing that in the afternoon. Ghost and Lemon will be on watch, taking over from Winter from midday.”
Winter had unlocked her Job and similar to mine she received three blueprints, one for a wooden bow, wooden arrows and a slingshot. Her first talent gave her knowledge on making the weapons more durable. Her second point went into reducing the cost as well, she had a similar talent tree to me. She can create Wooden weapons from the System, but when it came to the blueprints she had to combine them, so she can make the flint, arrow shaft and fletching but it had to be combined by hand.
She had already made a bow and found when she made it she received 1 Job Point for creating it and 1 Job Point for the first time creating it. She mentioned the System noted that she’d be able to earn a total of three Job Points by creating the same weapon, surprising me. She’d focus on weapon crafting as she’d be able to unlock more Job Points and for us we decided to prioritise the generator and water purifier.
“Now, in the evening, we will meet here once again. It’s about time we have the discussion we’ve been waiting for.” Looking around at everyone, I breathed in and said “We’ll discuss the reason we’ve been brought here and the plans for the next week.”