Chapter 126
Chapter 126.5: Base Construction
The next morning, Liam woke up from the lightboard bed. It was probably the worst bed he had ever slept on, but in this world, having a bed at all was a luxury.
After eating the compressed rations he had brought from the Plants vs. Zombies World for breakfast, Liam returned to his house to make several rune stones using the gold he had found yesterday and the small pebbles he had collected from the river. By noon, Knight was preparing to set out to investigate Diamond City. Liam stopped him and handed over the rune stones.
"Here are six rune stones. Three are for invisibility, and three are for scouting. Just place them on your forehead for three seconds to activate them. The invisibility rune will make you invisible for five minutes, and the scouting rune will create a map in your mind showing all Lifeforms within a 30-meter radius around you. Good luck."
"Thanks!" Knight hesitated for a moment but then seemed to remember something and took the rune stones. He then said to Liam, "While I'm gone, please look after my wife. She hasn't experienced any of the harsh realities of this world."
Unlike in the game, Knight did not take his wife on this adventure. Instead, he left her in the relatively safe Sanctuary Hills. It made sense; it would be foolish to bring a woman who had been an ordinary office worker before the war on such a dangerous journey. She would be of no help and would only slow them down.
As Knight reached the settlement's gate, Liam heard him shout, "Nora, don't worry, I'll find our son. And Liam, when I return, I'll bring you plenty of samples."
After Knight left, Preston proposed the idea of rebuilding the Militia. The Militia had once been widespread throughout the Commonwealth Wasteland, but when their headquarters was destroyed and the last general fell, the Militia in various settlements turned into a disorganized mess. They fought over leadership, leading to internal strife and a large number of members leaving.
During the Quincy Massacre, only one Militia unit went to support and was almost entirely wiped out. The people Liam and his group had rescued from the Museum were survivors of the Quincy Massacre, including the last surviving Militia member, Preston.
So, once they had settled in, it was natural for the idealist Preston to propose the goal of rebuilding the Militia.
"Um, hold on a moment", Liam said after listening to Preston's passionate speech. "Why do you want to rebuild the Militia instead of settling down and living a good life in Sanctuary Hills?"
"Because I believe that when the Militia existed, people in the Commonwealth lived much better lives. I might be overestimating my abilities, but I still think the Commonwealth needs the Militia."
"I see your point, but I don't think now is the right time. After all, there are fewer than ten of us here, and we are already stretched thin", Liam said, shrugging.
"But can't you summon robots? I think they could provide enough labor", Preston said, puzzled.
Liam couldn't help but laugh. "It's not a free summon. I'm just bringing things from the other world to use here. But that world is also a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and these are all the resources they can spare. The rest is up to us."
"Sorry, I didn't know that", Preston apologized. "But there are still people in danger who need help. If we want to rebuild the Militia, we need to show them that we are reliable."
“I don’t oppose helping others, but I think we should focus on completing the base construction over the next two days. At the very least, we need a clean water source and sufficient food. The supplies we brought from the other world won’t last long. My friends are working hard to develop high-yield seeds that can adapt to this environment, but they need enough time and samples.”
“Samples?” Mother Murphy took out several types of seeds from her waist pouch. “Will these do?”
“Ah, thank you so much.” Liam took a small pinch from each type of seed and then opened a portal. He tossed the seeds inside. “I think with local samples, they should be able to work faster.”
In the end, Preston had to admit that a Militia in survival crisis wouldn’t be able to recruit anyone. To attract people, they needed to resolve their own issues first.
So, the final decision was to build a settlement as quickly as possible. The entire afternoon, everyone was busy. Liam, as usual, built an Altar to soothe the local spirits. Then, using his affinity with nature, he found the most suitable spots for planting and sowed the seeds, adding Sunlight Crystals underneath.
Afterward, everyone in the settlement saw the plants grow at an accelerated pace, like a fast-forwarded video. What would normally take several days or even a month was completed in just half an hour.
Now, the settlement had a farm with enough crops to feed everyone, including mutated fruit trees, corn, melons, and carrots. This earned Liam the nickname "Wizard" in a very short time. Of course, this nickname made him laugh and cry at the same time, as he was already a Wizard.
It also became clear that the people in the wasteland didn’t have too many negative views on magic. After all, surviving in such a harsh world was already hard enough, and no one cared about trivial matters. So, Liam started using his magic openly.
Besides Liam, Sturgis also put his practical skills to use. In one afternoon, he used the remaining steam energy from the robots to build an electric furnace. He then created several wind turbines to power the furnace, and the Power Tower was finally reignited. Although the energy was limited, the steam produced each day could power two robots. This significantly reduced the manual labor required, especially for heavy tasks.
Over the next week, everyone continued to fortify the base. Liam used his Nature Affinity to study local plants and combined his knowledge of plants to research and send the results back to the Plants vs. Zombies world. He also successfully convinced Mother Murphy to overcome her dependence on drugs.
By the weekend, Dave told Liam that he had successfully cultivated a plant adapted to this environment: the Power Bean.
These coffee beans could grow in highly radioactive conditions and gather energy from the surrounding environment into their fruits. The energy contained in these fruits was even greater than that of Sunlight Crystals, though they were too volatile to be used for plant cultivation. However, they could serve as a high-energy fuel for the Power Tower. Additionally, repeated planting would effectively reduce the radiation in the local environment, allowing for the cultivation of other plants.
It seemed that Dave had truly developed something incredible. At least Liam felt that this plant was no different from the legendary Eden Creator. This greatly increased the possibility of establishing a base in this world.
Liam stretched, feeling very apologetic.
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(End of Chapter)
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