“They’re not going to be finishing that sewer anytime soon.” Randall shared his harsh opinion as they traveled to New Haven, though it didn’t surprise anyone particularly much.
“What makes you think that?” Saylee asked, intrigued. She would be involved in discussing labor negotiations eventually. Not immediately of course, The Mall had their own projects going on.
“That Patrick guy was right, it’s not just a simple project.” Randall explained. “If they were building a city from scratch, that actually would be an excellent starting point. It’s a project that’s easiest done early since there’s nothing above ground to particularly worry about, and it would let them get a good understanding of the ground itself. But they aren’t building a sewer in an open field where they eventually plan to build a city. They’re doing it in an existing city, meaning they have to be extremely careful. I’ve passed by a few cities myself while looking for Teresa, not that I interacted with anyone much, but by far Stormwreck has the least human looking architecture I’ve seen. Who knows how those apartments work, are they natural formations carved out or are they actually on sturdy foundations?”
“What about if The Mall tried something like that?” Saylee asked.
“Doable, way more doable, you don’t have to worry too much about buildings collapsing with a bunch of people in them. If you consider your current longhouses as temporary then it’s far more reasonable. It would involve a lot of digging though.”
“A lot of digging you say?” Saylee asked, everyone else in the party also knowing exactly who she was thinking of. “What exactly would we have to do?”
“Well, I don’t know everything about it but I’ve worked with plenty of contractors. Most of my expertise comes from the environmental science aspect rather than public health or sanitization. I guess you’d want something to keep waste from seeping into the ground…”
They kept running as Saylee and Randall discussed building a sewer system for The Mall. Teresa listened passively with some interest, working on a construction project herself wouldn’t be too bad if she got a secondary class for it. Maybe it would have some benefits in the long run, though she had other priorities for now.
They passed by a few groups of people on the trail who gave them weird looks, definitely not because of the piggyback ride or anything, though this was only the second time Teresa had seen a regularly traveled route outside of a city herself. The first was the one between The Mall and Blue Waters, though the number of people were incomparable.
At the very least they had passed by 100 people here, many with pretty low levels. In those cases they were accompanied by at least a level 20, likely serving as bodyguards. Most bodyguards had a tank class archetype it seemed, though there were plenty of exceptions.
It really was a short trip, because New Haven was already in view. The ground suddenly turned into a paved multi-lane highway, definitely pre-System. It looked as though the highway had suddenly been cut off as it transitioned to the dirt path Teresa had been following, with the highway leading to the city itself.
Compared to the highway leading to the front gate, New Haven seemed a lot more cozy. It was made up of several studio apartment sized homes, cabins and cottages forming the majority of the city. There were several barns mixed in with the modular cabins, and a wooden fence surrounding the majority of the city. Outside the fence on the outskirts Teresa even spotted a windmill, and in the distance there were fields of farmland.
Oh, and zombies.
A horde of zombies were running towards a large group engaging with them outside the city away from the people and farms. The zombies were sprinting, literally climbing over each other at speeds that would outpace a pre-System Usain Bolt. Streams of
Teresa immediately was ready to help, but it looked like there was a checkpoint stopping people who seemed incredibly calm about this. A guard approached her as Teresa and her party got ready for a fight.
“Everything’s under control here, please don’t interfere with the zombie horde.” The guard said in a voice that made him sound like he had repeated this hundreds of times. “It’s just another zombie horde, let’s not act like we all haven’t seen them before.”
“You guys don’t want any help?” Teresa asked, though looking at the situation it did seem surprisingly under control. She always thought that sprinting zombies would be the worst kind of zombie if they were real, but they still seemed pretty mindless. They kept running straight towards the defending group, getting blasted by several instances of
“From what I’m told they’re low level, and it should be wrapped up here soon. Give it a few minutes and the gates will open up and you can go on your way after the checkpoint.” The guard explained, looking bored. “If you try to help and die, then we’d have a much bigger issue.”
Teresa used
“That damn Necromancer…” Teresa caught the guard muttering under her breath, catching her attention.
“What about the Necromancer?” Teresa asked.
“I mean it’s pretty obvious isn’t it? Some powerful guy leading a neighboring city is a Necromancer, and it just so happens that there are a bunch of undead around? This is definitely him.” The guard’s theory would make sense, if not for the fact that there was no way Zackery was behind it.
“You think one guy managed to make hundreds of zombies like that?” Teresa asked.
“He’s a Completionist, ain’t he? Only the areas around Stormwreck see a lot of undead. I ain’t saying I know how he does it, but I am saying I possess basic pattern recognition. What are the odds a Necromancer just happens to appear along with a bunch of undead, with the two things being completely unrelated?” The guard asked.
Honestly, if Teresa didn’t know Zackery was level 80, it would be almost believable. Cher had managed to make thousands of Avatars, but then again the System had literally given them a quest to stop Cher. Cher also had plenty of System assistance with the process it seemed. Meanwhile Teresa couldn’t imagine someone just 10 levels above her would be able to make hordes of zombies like that, it’d be overpowered as hell.
If one person could make hundreds of zombies, then getting five people with that class together would result in an extremely dangerous force. Not that the zombies themselves seemed dangerous, if they were that mindless Teresa would feel confident against even a horde of level 90s by herself, but it would still be incredibly powerful.
Enough so that Teresa was willing to consider this conspiracy theory extremely unlikely, though she wouldn’t be too surprised if the guy could make a couple zombies. Just not hordes of them. At least not at level 80.
A few minutes passed and the zombie horde was dispatched, several hundred corpses now littering the ground. The guard began waving people forward, as there was a small crowd that had been stopped at the checkpoint. As she passed, she heard the guard mutter about how he was glad he wasn’t working with disposal today.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
They passed into the city with relative ease, the security checkpoint not being very difficult. They just checked for zombie related injuries using healers and let them go on their way. Teresa might have considered it strange that it was so relaxed if not for the fact she knew
The only predicament was that Teresa specifically got taken aside since the guard couldn’t see her level, marking her as a Completionist. She was given a necklace of reeds to wear signifying to others at a glance that she was a Completionist. The guard told her she only had to wear it within the city for security purposes, they couldn’t care less about whether she openly marked herself as a Completionist when outside of New Haven.
“Where to?” Jake asked once they were within the city, turning to Randall. They made physical contact for a moment while Randall focused, and pointed in a direction.
“Somewhere between 100 feet and 6,000- you know what, I’ll just lead the way.” Randall did exactly that, guiding the group as they went through the city with his hand on Jake’s shoulder.
“After this we should meet with the local government again, though of course this comes first.” Saylee said, being responsible. If they were lucky they would be able to teleport to their next destination too, though Teresa would have to spot her party the money this time. She didn’t mind it at all, even if it came out to thousands of dollars. Not much point to having a lot of money if she didn’t use it, especially considering it was for a good cause.
Things seemed pretty developed here too, in a sort of medieval sense. They had actual wagons being pulled by horses, much to Teresa’s surprise. The wagons were just as surprising as the fact they had completely normal horses, though
“They’ve got someone following us.” Sarah said, not turning her head. “Not that surprising, but I’ve seen him behind us a good distance multiple times now even after several turns. Either he’s just going the same way or he’s keeping an eye on us.”
“I don’t blame them, I’d keep an eye on me too.” Teresa admitted.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if he really was just going the same way as us?” Preston asked, trying to lighten the mood a bit. “I always worried about that when driving, you know? Like when you realize you’ve been following the same car for a while and wonder if they think you’re stalking them or something.”
“He should be in this cabin right here.” Randall said as they stopped after a few minutes of walking. Jake had been silent the whole time. He looked at the cabin for a few moments until Preston spoke up.
“You want us to go in with you or do you want space?” He asked. Jake stayed silent for a few more seconds as he thought.
“Sarah, are there multiple people in there?” Jake asked, as his Perception wasn’t that great.
“I hear two people talking right now, so if he’s in there he isn’t alone.” Sarah answered.
“Then I wouldn’t mind the company, at least to start with.” Jake said, everyone else nodding.
Jake led the way and knocked on the door to the cabin, everyone holding their breath as they waited for an answer. Teresa could also hear the conversation inside die down before footsteps made their way to the door.
The door opened, revealing a man who was definitely too young to be Jake’s grandpa.
“Can I help you?” He asked, looking at the group.
“Is Mitsuki here?” Jake asked in response. Teresa heard someone gasp inside, followed by a chair scraping against the floor.
“Jake?” Another voice asked, an older man making his way to the door as fast as he could. The two locked eyes for a moment as neither person said anything. That ended quickly as the older man moved quickly towards Jake, wrapping him in a hug. “Oh my God, you’re here! How are you here? Oh thank God…”
The two hugged it out as Mitsuki, Jake’s grandpa, broke into tears. Jake didn’t respond quite as emotionally, but it was clear he was still incredibly happy. Just minus the audible gasps.
“I’m glad you’re okay.” Was all Jake said as they hugged it out.
After Mitsuki calmed down a bit, he invited them all inside. The cabin was cozy, with a surprising quality of furniture. Almost everything was carved from wood, and there was plenty of space.
“How did you get here?” Mitsuki asked, sitting down at a table. Mitsuki’s friend who had answered the door pulled out a few more chairs from around the cabin, though there wasn’t enough for everyone. That was fine, a few people could stand.
“
“Is that a System thing? I don’t know how all that works really. A few people have tried explaining it, but I couldn’t even use my phone all too well. Now there’s a computer in my mind I got to use?” Mitsuki said, shaking his head. Teresa thought the System was pretty intuitive and natural to use, though maybe not everyone felt that way. “I’ll just be glad you made it here. What about Shizuko? You find your mom alright?”
Things went silent for a few moments, Jake tensed up and swallowed before answering.
“Mom is uh… I’m sorry.” Jake said, shaking his head. “She didn’t make it.”
“What?” Mitsuki asked, his eyes wide. His face began to crumple, tears streaming out again. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. All I know is she isn’t alive anymore.” Jake answered, his demeanor falling apart.
“My Shizuko’s… Oh. Oh no, please no don’t tell me that.”
The two just looked at each other for a few seconds, Jake reached out to hold his grandpa’s hand. He began to sob, and pulled Jake back into a hug again. Jake began crying too as they held each other. One mourned the loss of a mother, the other the loss of a daughter.
Mitsuki’s friend stood and moved for the door, and after a nod from Jake the others did too to give them their space. They all stepped outside, and Teresa limited her Perception to give them some privacy.
Everyone stayed silent for a few minutes as they stood outside, nobody wanting to speak first. Teresa was glad they got Jake back with his grandpa, but it was still a hard scene to watch.
“Where you guys from?” Mitsuki’s friend eventually asked, breaking the silence.
“The Mall, it’s north of Arconette.” Teresa answered.
“I don’t know about an Arconette. You live in a mall?”
“No it’s a city, or more like a settlement I guess.” Awkward silence returned, and the man broke it once again.
“Name’s Eli.” He introduced, leading to everyone else doing the same. “I’m from Pennsylvania.”
Oh, right. That’s what he meant. Teresa didn’t think to answer with pre-System logic.
“It’s a nice place you got here.” Teresa said, using the good old default dialogue of complimenting the city. Can’t go wrong there. “I’m impressed you guys already got horse drawn carriages and stuff.”
“Ah, many of us had those already.” Eli responded, surprising Teresa a bit.
“You had them? Like, pre-System?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“That’s cool, how did you bring a horse and carriage with you through the Tutorial?” Teresa asked.
“Oh, sorry I think I misspoke. We had them, yes, but these are new ones. We made the ones here.” Eli clarified.
“You guys made a lot of carriages then huh.” Teresa said. The city was roughly the same size as Arconette if she had to guess, but there were quite a few wheelbarrows and such around town that she would imagine were difficult to make in just a month without proper tools.
“Yes ma’am, we all made quite a few things. Most folk around here weren’t from our community of course, but we help out where we can. Personally, all this System stuff is where I get confused.”
Teresa looked at Eli, a little surprised. He seemed to be in his forties or fifties, which was an age group Teresa would expect to work with the System just fine.
“The System stuff can be complicated at first, yeah. What about it don’t you get?” Teresa asked.
“All of it really. Never used anything like it.” Eli responded.
“You never played any RPG’s or anything like that?” Teresa asked,
“No miss, nothing of the sort. Didn’t even have a computer.”
He didn’t have a computer? Who in the 21st century didn’t have a computer of some sort?
Then it dawned on her.
Eli was Amish.