"Dad is back?"...
Her mother’s face was full of worry and fear, but they were already here.
Suddenly, she saw at least five men of unknown origin opening the door.
She knew she had no time, so she hugged her daughter.
Immediately, they entered with her husband as she held her daughter tightly.
"Honey... honey," her husband’s excited voice was heard as she looked up.
"What did you do... who are they?" she asked unsurely. Her husband’s happiness...
Was he faking it?
She wasn’t sure, but she still went along with it.
"We are free. You guys should follow us. Apparently, there’s a human shelter up ahead, and I’ve been there. We will be safe," her husband spoke hurriedly with a smile plastered on her face
He had seen her wary eyes and knew she was suspicious.
"But..." she started as her husband leaned closer and held her hands.
"But? Honey, we will be fine. Believe me, okay?" her husband said with a smile.
Finally, she sighed and looked at her daughter.
"Well, we should go," her mother said as her daughter stood up excitedly and hugged her father.
"Dad, you were gone for so long," tears fell from her eyes as she said, and her father hugged her tightly.
Finally, they talked a bit and had a little family reunion, and the guards waited. After all, that was what Lucien instructed.
Some felt emotional. Lucien was right. They were all humans. They had an idea of how the past two weeks must have been for this family, and this was the first of many families, many friends, many coalitions they would rescue in the future.
"Double up, we have a lot to do. Can we start moving?" one of them said with a smile as tears fell from his eyes.
Seeing those tears made the mother sad.
"Oh dear... are you okay?" she asked the guard, but he smiled.
"I will be," he replied, and she felt even more drawn to them.
That tear, those crying eyes, these guards were still human. Maybe her husband was right. This shelter was the key.
So she stood up with her husband and her daughter as they followed the guards back to the shelter.
A few minutes later, they arrived, and she stood frozen.
Humans were working and laughing. Some were eating, some drinking water.
The shelter gates were wide open as people went in and out. Cries were heard as families met each other.
"Mom, Dad... Sister!" a familiar male voice was heard as she looked up.
There he was ,her son, fine and healthy.
She ran and hugged him as her husband laughed and carried their daughter toward them.
They weren’t the only ones. Around them, families reunited, friends saw one another, and even lonely ones were patiently introduced to the shelter by the inhabitants.
The official expansion had begun.
"Haul is over!" Just then, a shout was heard as goods were brought back, rice, snacks, beverages, and various supplies.
People broke down. Although they couldn’t swarm it, it brought joy and comfort to them.
That meant the shelter had resources and was strong enough to venture out and retrieve them.
Daemon was the busiest, organizing everyone, commanding them, placing the rescued at rehabilitation centers to calm down, relax, and learn about the shelter.
In a few hours, the area was full as Daemon went to see Lucien.
"Leader, we are full. I have a map of perfect housing nearby, but we need workers and more food. We need an army, men to haul them here, assemble, and build a larger shelter."
Upstairs, in one of the luxurious rooms in the shelter, Daemon spoke to Lucien.
Lucien collected the map and checked it out.
The shelter was clearly mapped, along with the available housing they could merge into it. The path forward was clear, but it needed final adjustments and Lucien’s approval.
"Good, Daemon. You know what, we will use the inner city and the outermost areas for now.
This shelter will eventually turn into the inner city where the elites will be based.
This expansion is indefinite for now, so we will keep building walls.
The blue liquid isn’t much, you understand, so my army will be renamed in the future, we’ll get to that. But we will openly recruit and tell everyone it will be safe, alright? All they have to do is clean up and improve housing in the areas cleared by the enhanced guards," Lucien said as a smile formed on Daemon’s face.
Lucien was brilliant, and this was one of the optimal ways to expand.
They had to kill zombies, clear territory, and map out the shelter gradually. Walls were needed to block out zombies that would attack in the future.
"Yes, Leader. I’ll get to work," Daemon said as Lucien nodded.
Daemon left immediately. He had a lot of work to do, create a scout system with enhanced guards, explore the city further, recover food, recruit more people into the army, and find construction workers. Among the newcomers, they needed people skilled in housing, real estate, construction, and more.
Once Daemon left the building, he felt a huge headache coming on.
They were stuck with an issue. They had enough workers, but they needed talented people to lead. That was his responsibility.
Of course, Daemon wasn’t the only one struggling. Jeff had it just as hard.
As head of the guards, he had to carefully select new guards and determine who and how many would go out to clear zombies, protect the shelter, and guard the workers.
Ninety-three guards were simply not enough.
---
Back in the room...
Lucien looked at the lively shelter.
In just five hours, light was everywhere as the once-dim surroundings brightened. Their numbers soared past a thousand. Engineers and other specialists were found, fed, and put to work.
He was watching humanity rebuild its civilization, and he knew he stood at its head.
In the future, Lucien would be named one of the pioneers.
"Sigh... everyone is working so hard, but they need me more," Lucien said softly.
All of this happened because of the system and him. If he hadn’t awakened it, he would already be dead.
If he wasn’t at the limit of a Beginner-Level Awakener, he wouldn’t be able to build this shelter or protect the people. For the first time in a long while, he was seeing improvement.
He was seeing the results of his efforts and hard work.
"Mai," Lucien called out.
"Yes, Master," a familiar voice answered as Mai walked forward.
She was wearing an oversized male T-shirt as she looked at Lucien with lust.
"Let’s begin," Lucien said as Mai nodded.
The honest truth was that he could do all this because he had sexual points. Now, he needed more, especially with the rapidly rising number of inhabitants.
They kept finding rescuers. The adaptability of humanity was fully displayed here. People learned to stay quiet, learned not to trust just anyone, and learned that being alone meant death. They formed bonds with those close to them at the beginning of the apocalypse.
As his guards expanded more and more, and as the scouts found more resources and humans, the shelter continued to grow.
Every day, new walls were constructed, broken down, and built again.
The expansion continued until two weeks later.
"Leader, we have serious news," Daemon said. His expression had changed completely. After two weeks of overseeing many things, he himself had changed. The aura of someone in power had begun to surround him.
Opposite him was Jeff, who was also beginning to show the aura that generals once had.
The two were the most well-known figures in the shelter ,one responsible for safety, the other for construction.
Below Jeff and Daemon, the previous temporary council had been dismissed as stronger and more capable leadership took control.
Currently, only Lucien and the two of them were holding a meeting that could potentially determine the life or death of this growing shelter.
"I’m listening. Tell me," Lucien said.
He, too, had changed. He had been working hard with Mai to gain more SP, but more than that, Lucien had been training. Sparring with Jeff and the others even if his strength didn’t increase much his skills had improved.
He didn’t even know basic punching techniques before, so he was learning from scratch, the same as Mai.
The fact was, the two of them were the strongest in the shelter. Even the five awakeners were nowhere close to them.
"I just received news from the scouts under Jeff. They found a terrifying zombie. Leader, it’s twice the size of the elite zombies we have been killing ," Daemon said seriously as Lucien frowned.
"Twice as much?"
That meant it was fourteen feet tall.
That was incredibly tall.
"Not only that, but it had dozens of elite zombies under it, and it was devouring corpses of strange creatures," Jeff reported.
"Also, Leader, the intelligence organization labeled it an evolving one-star zombie. A star is forming on its forehead, but it isn’t fully developed yet, so they named it one star, well potentially anyways.
"According to the data they observed, the star is filling up. In about a month, based on its progression, it will reach halfway thus the name half-step one-star zombie," Daemon added as Lucien absorbed the information.
Yes, many organizations had been created to support the shelter. One of them was the intelligence organization, filled with the smartest people in the shelter. They were good enough to discover that the ground could still support trees and plants, but the seeds had mutated. They didn’t yet know if they were safe for consumption.
However, in three months, the first production would be ready for testing. They had also restored basic electricity to the shelter.
Lucien saw firsthand what thousands of people working constantly could achieve. No one was idle. Everyone had a role.
"I see... good job. Tell them to keep observing it. Jeff, start training the guards more. Separate them into two groups based on the fact that they are Enhanced and Normal. The Enhanced will be the main focus, all in preparation for defeating the zombie. In a month’s time, we will attack it," Lucien instructed as he brought out two potions, each twice as large as the ones he had previously given the guards.
"Distribute these to the guards. More should be given to the Enhanced guards. They will become awakeners immediately. You two should take it as well. As for the unenhanced, they will become semi-awakeners. We’ll discuss it further later. For now, focus on training," Lucien said.
"Yes, Leader," Jeff replied.
"Daemon, mark the location of that zombie as a forbidden zone. Tell everyone to avoid it, but ensure it’s monitored at all times. We will attack in one month. For now, take the remaining territory of the city. Stop advancing afterward and consolidate our control," Lucien said as Daemon nodded.
"Yes, Leader."
"You may leave," Lucien said as both of them stood up and exited.
Once they were gone, Lucien let out a sigh of relief.
"Finally, after two weeks of searching, I found you," Lucien laughed.
He had finally located the half-step one-star zombie.
As for the potions, he had spent the 5,000 SP he saved from his " training " with Mai, leaving him broke once again but everything was fine.
Everything was proceeding smoothly.
The shelter would soon conquer the entire city, except for the zone where the zombie resided. The remaining areas had already been cleared of zombies and were safe. His power had grown, and now he controlled at least four thousand humans, with an army of nearly a thousand.
"Everything is going just as planned," Lucien murmured.