Survival Bunker System Developer

Grinding

Helen still hadn’t called so Caleb took the opportunity to continue with his plans to reserve the important parts of New York for his bunker system. After complaining about the ridiculous bug of not being able to withdraw the sacrificed item, the system finally allowed Caleb the function of holding items sacrificed to the system for three days before it merged everything in the Resource Panel. Sadly, he wasn’t able to retrieve the items that had been sacrificed before the update.

Saddened but satisfied that he found the bug early, Caleb planned his itinerary for the day. The plan was simple but Caleb was nervous. Caleb was going to carry the long ladder he bought from Target to the power plant and the university. At the same time, he was going to start taking advantage of the inventory function.

His order for rat traps and oil arrived early this morning and it was time to put the ten hamsters to good use. Caleb gave the hamsters enough food and water to last a day. He would check on them again tomorrow after he placed his traps. If this method of killing rat ghouls worked, Caleb was positive that he could gain passive ghoul kill count while working on his research.

Caleb stored his hamsters, metal ladder, rat traps and oil in the temporary inventory in the name of sacrificing them to the system. With a smirk and a pat on Jeremy’s head, he left with his car keys. Today, he opted for thick jeans and denim jacket just in case the rats decided to attack him when he was in the water pipeline tunnels. His trusty golf club that was severely underutilized was finally going to be put to good use.

After setting the destination, Caleb drove to the university. He arrived within fifteen minutes and wondered if he was also able to gather more information about Dr Rockmiller from the students there.

Gaining entry wasn’t very difficult. The metal ladder trick worked and the guard simply smiled at him before nodding and allowing him to pass. Caleb was glad that he parked the Benz a street away before walking over with the metal ladder. It would have been highly suspicious for a repairman to be driving an expensive car instead of a van.

Once he was inside the university, Caleb walked around to look for a spot without any cameras and students. He found his way to the loading bay and rested for a while. Caleb reserved the entire university campus grounds with the system before making his move and leaving by the back door. Leaving the university was a lot easier than entering it. Caleb wondered how such an important research institute could have such lax security. Project PXE22 was a top-secret project but now, Caleb wondered if this was a project by the institute and not instigated by the government.

Caleb stored the metal ladder away into the temporary system’s inventory and walked back to his Benz before driving off to the power plant.

The power plant was everything Caleb expected it to be. This time, he circled the power plant for a while in his car to look for a good place to enter. The power plant had a more stringent security. Its perimeters were lined with barbed wire fences that would electrocute anyone that touched it. Furthermore, that was only a first layer of security. Behind that electric barb-wired fence was a tall wall lined with infra-red cameras. Caleb frowned. He didn’t know if the metal ladder trick would work but for now, he should test it out since breaking in wasn’t an option.

The Benz was parked at the nearest town a five-minute drive from the power station and Caleb remained in his sedan to observe the people going in and out of the facility. The metal ladder trick wasn’t going to work this time. Every vehicle that went to the security gate would be stopped even if they were heading to the loading and unloading bay. The side gates for working personnel can only be accessed with an employee card. Currently, there wasn’t anyone passing through the gate for Caleb to tailgate in but it was nearing lunch and Caleb was expecting to see some crowd.

When it was almost noon, Caleb started to walk over. It was a good thing the dress code of employees working at the power plant matched his outfit today. When the crowd of people started to flood the side gate, Caleb took the opportunity to squeeze past those employees leaving to grab lunch. He headed into the power plant without difficulty and walked slowly, trying to find a safe place to activate his system. He couldn’t take too long because the crowd was starting to thin.

As Caleb crossed the yard, he took out his phone and pretended to be texting while he shrunk the system’s screen to the size of his phone and started mapping the area. Finishing his task quickly, Caleb turned back to follow a new crowd out of the building.

Once he was safely back in his car, Caleb grinned. He had just about every important place marked out using the system. Although he was currently low on resources to convert them into special bunkers, the system developer knew that it wouldn’t be too much of an issue to upgrade them later remotely. For now, he grabbed a sandwich and a coffee and ate in his car while studying the map of New York along the East River. His next plan included visiting some restricted areas.

It wasn’t easy to find the entrance of the water pipeline tunnels but after searching high and low for it over the last two hours, Caleb found an opening near Williamsburg bridge. He followed the exposed water pipes on foot until he came to a locked facility. The metal gates were rusty so it wasn’t very difficult for Caleb to find a way in after tampering with the lock.

Once he was inside, Caleb heard the squeaking of rats deeper into the tunnel. It was dimly lit and the system developer was glad that he thought ahead to bring a flashlight. Not all the rats in the tunnel were ghouls yet and Caleb found it interesting. Why didn’t the ghoulified rats start attacking their comrades in the tunnel before heading up to the surface? The bodies of the scientists were found in the tunnel further up so Caleb decided to check that spot out first.

He reached it in the next twenty minutes and studied the change in environment. As he got closer to the spot where the scientists were found, the number of aggressive rats increased. Caleb was having a hard time dealing with the rats so he started placing rat traps along the way and placing the hamsters as a decoy. That was when Caleb realised something interesting.

The more ghoul-like rats that attacked him earlier didn’t automatically attack the hamster. It was as if they gravitated towards any uninfected living thing. On the other hand, the milder rats he saw earlier attacked the hamster aggressively when they were introduced. Those rats that attacked the hamster avoided the rat trap but the ghoulified rats became caught in the traps almost immediately.

With just one hamster, Caleb was able to lure enough ghoul rats to activate a fifth of his rat traps. The oil made it slippery for the rats to get to the hamster. The rats kept trying to climb that well-oiled single-legged table that Caleb greased up to reach the terrified hamster. When they failed, they were sent back to the bottom of the table. The regular rats gave up after a while but the ghoul rats continued to try.

Caleb quickly made his way through the ghoul-infested stretch in the tunnel and set up each hamster ghoul-rat trap about a hundred metres apart. The ghoul rats that attacked him were swiftly smashed with the golf club and Caleb grimaced. He didn’t know how to wash the blood and brain matter from his jeans. He was also thankful that the rat ghouls did not possess enough intelligence to climb up his pants and reach for his exposed skin under the shirt.

Caleb watched as the number of ghoul kills rose drastically by the time he was done with setting up the traps. About thirty percent of his rat traps were activated and Caleb wondered if he should remain in the tunnel for a little longer to reset the traps. At the same time, Caleb ran an experiment. He killed several regular rats and monitored if they contributed to the ghoul kill count. To his surprise, they did and the system developer was left to wonder why they were not interested in attacking him but was aggressive towards the hamster.

After an hour in the tunnel smashing rats and resetting traps, Caleb decided to bring that question to Dr Rockmiller instead of figuring it out himself. He caught two ghoulified rats and two regular rats before transferring some of the hamsters to create two vacant cages. Then, Caleb stored the ghoulified rats in his inventory and left the rest in the tunnel. He would return to check on his trap the next day to see if his plan worked. For now, he would return home and wait for Helen’s call. It should be coming at any moment and Caleb checked the time. It was four in the afternoon.

>>Xxx Destiny Aitsuji xxX<<

When he reached home, Caleb discovered that there wasn’t a need to try and get the bloodstains or brain matter off his clothes. His apartment was now a bunker and his ruined clothes could easily be replaced with new ones with just a command and a button.

Sacrificing his ruined clothes to the system to get a new set, Caleb looked at his overall haul for the day. The rat traps were doing their job and Caleb was still getting some extra ghoul kill counts even after reaching home. The rate of kills was significantly slower and Caleb estimated that he wouldn’t be getting much out of the trap now that he had almost five hundred extra ghoul kill counts ever since he left the tunnel.

If his memory served him right, the news about mysterious deaths will appear during the eight o’clock news. If Helen was keeping tabs like he told her to, he would be hearing from her soon.

After showering and filling his stomach, Caleb took a look at the Control Panel. So far, he was able to unlock most of the features required for the special bunkers. However, the system developer prioritised the features for Helen’s lab and chose to withhold all other options. While he waited for Helen’s call, Caleb started working on his client’s job. For now, the research and development of the automated resource gathering assistant could wait. Caleb was feeling too lazy to do it now. Besides, developing an automated assistant will take a lot of resources and money to develop. In the corporate world, it took a team to put together something like that. Caleb was only a single person and there were already too many things on his plate. He could only progress one thing at a time.

At nine in the evening, Caleb’s phone rang. He quickly saved the file he was working on and checked the caller ID. The number was unfamiliar but he had a feeling he knew who it was.

“Have you decided?” he asked immediately after picking up the call.

On the other end of the line, a red-haired scientist swallowed. “Let’s meet up at my apartment. We need to talk about your vision and make some plans. Does your bunker system work?”

Caleb grinned. “We’re ready to convert your lab into a bunker at any moment. I would suggest you start packing. It’s not safe in Astoria.”

Helen nodded and they agreed to meet at Helen’s apartment tomorrow at nine in the morning. Caleb looked at the time. He still had a few more hours to work on his project before heading to bed. In the background browser, Caleb received a notification prompting a news push feed that he subscribed to. The article reported about the increase in mysterious death cases and missing people in Brownsville just like Caleb had anticipated.

The die was cast and now it was up to Caleb to change history for mankind.