NOVEL NEXT B3 - Chapter One: Tiger Guard Dog
Ding!
[Countdown: Day 14 of Day 365 before species culling. Only the worthy survive.]
[Current rank: 2 out of 5,701,282,850.]
[You are currently in the 1%.]
Logan disregarded the System message. He'd already gotten up an hour earlier; there was no need for a wake-up call. As expected, the System continued to rank him number two in the world behind the Man in Black. The population kept decreasing, but the decline was less massive. Hell, he remembered at the beginning of the Integration, the population had decreased by half a billion! A few million in the grand scheme of things was nothing.
"Come on," he said to Hunter, doing his best to slow his pace. Now that he'd reached Grade E8, it was easy to underestimate his own power. To someone like Hunter who was level 15, he must seem like a bullet train. "You're almost there."
"This is painful, Uncle Logan! It's already too hot!" said Hunter, panting, her blonde ponytail swinging behind her. Her running shoes pounded against the lush, green grass that he'd grown around the cabin to cover the scorched earth from the green beans, making it an easy running path. Hunter had been a typical rebellious teenager before the apocalypse, acting like someone he didn't recognize, turning her nose up at his dad jokes and going out with her friends rather than spending time with her corny uncle. Since the Integration, she'd transformed into someone the other kids could look up to, taking all his suggestions to heart.
In the past, she would have rolled her eyes if Logan had suggested a fitness regime. Logan hadn't been the fittest man out there, to say the least, with a flabby stomach, but now that the System ranked him number two in the world and it looked as if he'd swallowed a steroid cocktail, everyone paid attention whenever he spoke.
That hero worship was slightly flattering while at the same time inducing a painful awkwardness. Logan had no problem helping his family, but when others followed him around like ducklings and tried to touch his clothes as if they'd level up just by touching him… well, Logan preferred to deploy [Deepwater Explorer] to sink into the middle of the Okanagan Lake and hang out with Ernie.
"You can do it, Hunter," said Lara, her feet pounding next to Sawyer. "Besides, that's why we got up so early. Come on, this heat is nothing." That was being generous. It was already 90 degrees outside. But it was much better than waiting until the afternoon when the temperature would roast everyone at over 100 degrees.
There was a faint campfire smell in the air, and the sky was lit up orange as the sun blasted through the smog. Even with the hints of massive forest fires off in the distance, since Logan had deployed [Life Fabricator] to grow his massive monster carbon sucking trees, the air quality was much better than in Hope's End or at the resort across the lake.
Logan trailed behind them and kept a careful eye on their surroundings. Although he'd leveled up to the point that the daily cheat exercises were useless to him, they were a boom to Lara, the kids and the others. It was just a matter of keeping up the discipline needed to obtain all four attribute bonuses.
Everyone could obtain an endurance point by running non-stop, agility with his agility ladder method, dexterity by throwing a weapon against the side of the cabin or against a tree trunk. Strength was self-explanatory, but for the kids, he'd found it easier to have them lift weights from Jack's home gym.
The only one he hadn't figured out was perception. Back in the Perception Trial, Asthea had suggested that it was a technique that you could only master after years of practice. The problem was that Logan no longer had an incentive to figure it out; in fact, he couldn't even if he wanted to. Suppose that he figured out the technique… well, he would never know, since the System would never give him the notification due to his high attribute score.
Logan had put Lara on the case. Knowing Lara, she would figure it out in no time.
"I've got it, Uncle Logan!" burst out Hunter, coming to a stop, leaning over and resting her hands on her upper thighs as she tried to catch her breath. "One new endurance point!"
"That's what I'm talking about!" said Logan, beaming.
"Not fair," panted Sawyer, her little face blooming with color. Her pink bangs were sweaty and falling into her eyes, and she looked on the brink of tears.
Aww, man. At times like these Logan had to wonder who had programmed the System. What kind of civilization would force children to level up to survive? Anyone who could produce an entity like the glitchy AI minion needed a good kick in the ass.
"Come on, Sawyer!" urged Logan. He put on a burst of speed and overtook Lara and Sawyer, then turned around and ran backwards as he urged them on. "Just a few more laps! You can do it!" Logan made a goofy face, sticking out his tongue for good measure, and Sawyer's mouth twisted into a smile.
"That's it!" said Logan. "You'll be level 100 in no time!"
Sawyer bit her lip, her eyes shining with determination as she put on a burst of speed.
It took two more minutes before that determination turned into relief. "I've got it, Uncle Logan!"
"All right! Hart family team for the win!"
Logan came to a stop and sidled up to Lara, lowering his voice into an undertone. "What about you?"
Lara ran the back of her hand across her forehead, wiping away sweat. Glancing down at the storage bracelet on her wrist, she blinked, then willed out a bottle of water before splashing water on her face. "I was done a few minutes ago." She gave him a solemn frown as she twisted the Strength True Grit ring on her finger.
Logan gave it a glance of nostalgia and scanned it with [Idiot's Inspect]:
[Strength Ring of Pure Grit. B Grade. When worn, this ring will grant the wielder double strength. The Strength Ring of Pure Grit is part of an attribute set. Upon ownership of all five rings, the rings will dissolve into your skin and become part of your body. Thereafter, the doubling power will turn into tripling power.]
It was the left-over ring from the Trial Dungeon, the loot he'd taken from the Silverdagger Clan. Without the complete set, the ring remained a removable piece of jewelry, making it vulnerable to stealing. Oh well, there was nothing that he could do about it. There was no way to obtain the other rings unless Lara entered the trial dungeon, and like hell was he subjecting her to that torture.
"Let's go," said Lara, willing the bottle of water into her spatial bracelet. "We're not finished. We still need to complete the agility exercises."
Logan gave her a soft smile, a trickling of unease swirling through his stomach. Lara had a Strength True Grit Ring and the 50% bonus to all her attributes that she received from the Idiot's Vassal title, but Logan worried. Worried that it wouldn't be enough.
Worst of all, there was only a limited amount of things he could do for Sawyer and Hunter. Although Lara had a chance of getting into the 1%, what about the kids? And not just his nieces, but everyone?
The only answer was his Save Humanity Quest. A quest that had turned into a glitchy FUBAR quest all on its own.
Holding his breath and with a sinking sensation of dread, Logan pulled up his quest status:
[Quest: Save Humanity! Save 5.64 billion people in less than one year by catching and storing 930 billion tons of carbon. This is a running Quest, and your progress can fluctuate up and down.]
[Reward for completing the Quest: You will save 5.64 billion people.]
[Penalty for not completing the Quest: You will kill 5.64 billion people.]
[Quest Progress: -10% complete. 342 days remaining.]
How could a quest be negative? It made no sense. He'd erected countless monster carbon sucking trees since he'd returned to the cabin, and yet no matter what he did, the quest status kept getting worse. Unless there was a hidden component to this quest, the progress was wacked. Could you have a glitchy quest status like a glitching thermometer? There was something funky at work, something that reminded him distinctly of the glitchy AI minion.
Logan had used [Threshold Shift] to take a quick side trip to the New York Library before he'd left, throwing the entire book collection into his spatial storage collar. That would help once Lara managed to study the technical books. Not to mention that he'd asked Emily to be on the lookout for users in New York with classes and skills that could help reduce carbon. Emily had taken the task seriously, as if Logan had been her commanding officer giving her a mission that resulted in life or death.
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Well, as her lord, he supposed he was.
But even with Emily working the problem and Lara reviewing his new library collection, he only had a few days before the System pulled him into Pied's shitty Integration Tournament. There was no way to avoid it; he'd promised Pied that he'd be his champion. According to Pied, one week in the tournament was one week here, but Logan couldn't trust it. Hell no, he'd never trust that furry asshole.
The first thing he needed to do was finish shoring up the cabin's defenses.
***
Logan had already deployed the array he'd received from Pied around Jack's cabin. Although there was no way to test the strength of the array unless they were under attack, it protected the two-story building, acting as an invisible forcefield to anyone who he hadn't keyed into the array entrance. Logan didn't know how it worked—DNA, System witchery? But it was a weight off his mind to know that a stray open window wouldn't result in another rabid squirrel death.
It worked well if Lara and the kids were inside the cabin, but it had a serious weakness outside of it. There was nothing protecting Lara and the kids if they were around the property working on their endurance runs or agility exercises. The cabin and the surrounding properties were isolated, far away from Hope's End and other major populations, but that wasn't to say that it didn't have vulnerabilities. Logan had already experienced that when he'd killed the XP harvesters at the neighbouring property.
All anyone would have to do was grab a canoe or rowboat, and then swing up to the dock, and everyone outside of the array would be vulnerable.
Logan thought he had a solution to that.
Moving to the front of Jack's cabin, Logan nodded at the people who were working on harvesting the tomatoes and squash he'd grown in the garden bed, then made his way to the dock. Off in the distance, Logan could see Ernie waving his tentacles as he directed his minion army in underwater drills. Ducks, undead sturgeons, even hundreds of zigzagging fish were glued to him with worshipful, dedicated attention.
Logan smothered a smile.
Taking out a metal post from his spatial collar, Logan chose an area that was five feet away from the shore, eyeing the distance. With a whack of his fist, he slammed the post into the ground until it had a solid, immovable base. Willing out the System sourced black chains from the Trial Dungeon, he fastened one end to the post, keeping the chain long enough that it would reach the end of the dock and the shoreline around the immediate area.
Now it was time for the tricky part.
Logan had become an expert at killing monsters and people, but when it came to reviving monsters, that was Ernie's territory. For the first time, he was going to attempt the impossible.
Logan rummaged through the contents of his spatial storage collar and then willed out the tiger dog from the endurance trial. A pack rat by nature, he knew that what seemed worthless at the time could turn into gold with the right ingenuity.
With a slam, the weight of the tiger dog displaced the sand on the beach, the metal gleaming in the sun, reminding him of the System sourced metal chains. It was twice the size of a full-grown male lion, with thick, meaty limbs. Patches of black mold covered the metal frame in stripes, a mixture of bare metal limbs and organic, dead material.
Before Logan had overwhelmed it in the Endurance Trial by making its mold overload its circuits, a glowing blue light had represented its power source. The thing was dead, but if [Life Fabricator] gave him the power to grow a star, surely, he could fix a robot?
Logan wrapped the end of the chain around the tiger dog's neck, making sure it was secure, before backing up and running his thumb over his chin as he considered a way forward.
The mold was dead. The System wouldn't have allowed him to throw the tiger dog inside of his spatial storage collar if it were alive. And yet, the System had allowed him to throw in vegetable and pine tree seeds inside of his collar. They were dormant, with the potential for life, but not dead. All seeds had the potential for life, activated if given enough nutrients and sunlight. In a way, couldn't he treat the tiger dog the same?
Logan crouched down in front of the tiger dog, his pants stretching across his upper thighs as he squinted, staring at the remains of the black mold that had exploded out of the thing like a rupturing sewage pipe. Deploying [Life Fabricator], he scanned for signs of an aura, anything that showed a hint of life.
Nothing.
Huh.
Well, he could say the same for seeds. If he scanned for life with [Life Fabricator], nothing would ping on his radar.
Logan got to his feet, cracking his neck, and then dipped his head, taking a deep breath as he tried to center himself. Visualization had always been his ace in the hole, and this time was the same as the last. The mold could be revived if he envisioned it.
If he willed it.
In his mind, he pictured the mold down to its tiny spores; that microscopic life that resembled sludge transforming into tiny, waving fungi tentacles dancing in the breeze. Of happy, happy mold that wanted to commune with its neighbours, and spread and spread, until nothing but mold remained.
Logan opened his eyes.
Deploying [Life Fabricator] again, he scanned for life.
Nothing at first, until something minor pinged, so minor that he would have overlooked it if he hadn't been scrutinizing the tiger dog so closely.
The mold was alive.
The mold was replicating.
With his pulse rising in excitement, Logan paced around the tiger. Although he could sense that the mold was active, it showed no signs of spreading. Everything was still dried sludge clinging to the metal frame of the tiger. No new growth.
Logan needed the thing to start replicating as if he'd injected it with a growth hormone.
Don't you want to grow, don't you want to spread, Logan sent.
No response.
You're so vibrant and independent on your own, but don't you want friends, don't you want family?
There was a nudging back, a drawing awareness.
That's it, send Logan. You want to be a happy, happy mold, a mold that has family. Don't you want to spread, don't you want to replicate.
…We are happy. We are growing.
Logan held back a fist pump, trying to rein in his excitement.
But not enough, not at the rate you need to live symbiotic with your host. Without the host, you'll go dormant; you'll roast in the sun, in the heat. You need protection from the host brain.
The mold sent of pulse of consideration Logan's way.
…It is hot. An environment not conductive to growth.
That's right, said Logan. You need the host's protection from the environment. But to do that, you need to grow.
We will grow. We will grow.
As Logan watched, the black fungi began to spread, wiggling to life and racing towards the tiger dog's metal head, crawling into its eardrums and mouth. So much mold that Logan couldn't keep up.
So much that he began to feel alarmed.
That's enough, Logan urged. Not too much, in moderation. Moderation is good.
The mold sent a feeling of acknowledgement Logan's way, and gradually, the rapid replication slowed.
Now the metal frame was saturated in mold, mold that clung to its inactive life force.
But the tiger dog was still dead. It had never been the mold that had powered the thing, it had been the blue life force inside of its metal brain. How the hell was Logan going to activate a System created robot?
There was a splash behind him, a spray of lake water.
Logan turned his head.
Ernie.
He slimed over the sand, his colors fluctuating from the blue of the water to the brown sand around them, his horns jumping up and down in curiosity.
"My drills are completed," he beamed, his black eyes glinting in playfulness. "My army rivals all, so immense that the queen serpent's minions would not dare to pass my underwater barrier of might."
Ernie latched onto Logan's leg and then slimed up his clothes before plopping on top of Logan's shoulder.
He looked down at the tiger dog. "What's this?" he questioned.
"It came from the trial dungeon. System sourced. I thought it could help protect Lara and the kids from XP harvesters that approached from the lake and dock, but although I've activated the mold, I don't know how to revive it." Logan's voice was glum. "It has a power source that's System sourced."
Ernie twitched and then craned his neck, peering into Logan's face. "For such a squishy, strong human, you can be… what is it that the little ones say? It's slang for your idiot name. An airhead? Doofus? Dumbass? Or what about—"
"Hey!" said Logan.
"There there," crooned Ernie, patting Logan's head with a tentacle, his mouth in a teasing grin. "You are still my squishy idiot." Ernie jumped off Logan's shoulder and onto the ground, approaching the tiger dog with a glint of greed in his eyes. "All you needed to do was ask, and you shall have."
Ernie extended a tentacle, pressing it against the top of the tiger dog's metal frame head. By now, Logan was familiar with his undead minion process which involved spreading tiny filaments that seeped into a being's skin. But this was different. Unlike a regular animal, Ernie's filaments couldn't seep into the metal frame and kept crawling until they reached the tiger dog's ear canals, following the same path as the mold.
It was a minute at most before Ernie twitched, his horns jumping as he slimed back over to Logan, bobbing his head in satisfaction.
With a blink, there was a whirling noise, followed by a rush of air like a computer working overtime with its fans at full capacity. In another second, the thing opened its mouth, displaying razor sharp, mold saturated teeth. With another clanking rattle, it rolled over, getting to its feet. Shaking its mold-covered green head and spreading a plume of sand, it perked its metallic mold-covered ears and blinked black, oily-looking eyelids, its metallic skull glowing from within with light.
Unlike in the Endurance Trial, this light was green instead of blue. The monster clawed the ground with thick, sharp looking nine-inch-long talons that dripped with mold, its back end up in the air, its tail swinging back and forth as it looked at Ernie, eyes full of devotion.
Logan examined it with [Idiot's Inspect]:
[Undead Oozing Mold Tiger Mecha: level 70. A System construct that was transformed to an undead minion of Rival All. Designed to slash, stab, and tear victims apart. The Undead Oozing Mold Tiger Mecha can infect its prey with insidious paralytic mold. Against a poor constitution, the mold will leach vitality and transform its victim into a husk.]
[Highest Stat: Endurance/Perception.]
Logan raised his eyebrows. Well, he supposed that was one way to do it.
"Well done, buddy," he said to Ernie. "Can you program it so that it only attacks strangers?"
"Pfft!" said Ernie. Then he ducked his head. "It's a little different than my normal minions! But I'll try."
***
With the tiger dog out front and the array around the cabin, plus Ernie's minions that surrounded the property underwater, Logan's Township was turning into a community that would be attractive to anyone wanting sanctuary.
Not to mention that becoming a member of his Township gave everyone a 10% boost to their attributes and access to his private market.
Come to think of it, his new [Dominion Building] skill should give him access to System Markets on other worlds. It was time to check out his Tree Fridge and review his [Dominion Building] options.