Gray decided to test out his brand-new [SELL] tab. He clicked the icon mentally, but nothing happened. He looked around the yard, walked over to the turned-over prison bus, and tried to sell it after touching it. Still, nothing happened.
Realizing the system probably didn't recognize random world clutter, Gray pulled out his own Glock-19 from his hip and tried it again. This time, a prompt finally flashed onto the screen.
{Do you want to sell Glock-19 for 300 gold?}[1]
{Yes} {No}
Gray noticed it was exactly one-fourth of the 1,200 Gold he had originally paid for the weapon. It was a steep markdown, but he was just glad he now had a way to liquidize unused gear. Curious about the limits, he decided to check his skills next.
He selected his Advanced Marksmanship skill, since it was completely redundant now that he possessed Deadshot's Marksmanship. To his satisfaction, the system allowed him to sell the skill back as well, putting some extra cash right back into his vault.
Satisfied with his findings, Gray closed the interface and headed back inside his RV. He sat down on the bed with his laptop, he needed to finish watching The Walking Dead series. It was eleven seasons long, and he was barely on season four, episode six. He needed to know what other threats were coming down the line.
With his upgraded body, Gray only needed to sleep about 4 hours a day and still feel as if he had gotten a full 8 hours. He stayed up watching the series. After every episode he finished, he would walk outside and check on the perimeter. He did this 6 times.
Before heading to bed, Gray opened the shop to look for something that he had desperately needed for a while now and had been putting off for no reason. After scrolling for a minute, he found the best option so far.
{System-Integrated Clock} (500 Gold)
He bought it without thinking too much about it. With the new addition, his [Status Info] looked like this.
[Status Info]
Name: Gray Ashwood
Age: 23 years old
Race: Human
Gold: 25,248,134
Gold per hour: 2,717,387 (1,598,463)
Gold Multiplier: 1.70x
Time: 04:22 AM
Satisfied with his upgrade, Gray was about to sleep when he remembered the 10M voucher still sitting in his inventory. Deciding to buy something that could help him out in the long run he started searching the shop.
He found a few good things, like {Eidetic Memory}, {Bullseye's Throwing Skills}, and {Taskmaster Combat Memory}, and finally something better. {Minor Danger Sense}
"That's probably better right now." Gray thought about it for a minute. "Yeah, if someone tried to attack me and I can't see or hear them, danger sense could warn me about it."
Gray bought 'Minor Danger Sense' and felt a tingling sensation inside his brain. After a minute, the sensation subsided, and he finally fell asleep.
The next morning, Gray woke up early to handle the livestock transport. Opening the shop, he bought two Ford F-450 trucks for a total of 44 thousand gold, and two heavy-duty 24' × 6'8" gooseneck livestock trailers for 12 thousand gold each.
Once the vehicles were spawned, Hershel and his family got ready to head back to the farm. This time, Rick, Glenn, and T-Dog went with Gray to help out. Gray didn't forget to put the 40-foot shipping container back into his inventory to finish grabbing the rest of the Greene family's belongings.
Back at the farm, the group split up to maximize their time. While Patricia, Maggie, Beth, and Glenn packed the remaining household items into the massive metal container, the rest of the men headed out to the pastures. They began herding the cattle, managing to fit exactly ten cows into each of the two gooseneck trailers.
Once the trailers were filled to capacity, Rick, Hershel, Otis, and Gray drove the first haul back to the prison. They carefully unloaded the cows into the courtyard and immediately drove right back to the farm for the next batch. It took them three full round trips to move the entire herd, but by noon they had successfully transported every single cow.
With the animals safely inside the perimeter, Hershel looked around the concrete yard and a small amount of grass. He shook his head, looking deeply concerned. "Son, I appreciate what you're doing, but I just don't think there's going to be enough space or grass here to feed all these cows. They'll starve in no time."
"It doesn't matter," Gray replied smoothly. "We only need to keep them alive for a few weeks."
Gray opened his system interface and searched for a classic Minecraft utility item. He scrolled past the blocks and tools until he found it.
{Bone Meal (Stack of 64)} (50,000 Gold)
He purchased the stack and pulled a single handful of the bright white powder out of his inventory. Walking over to a patch of dry, faded dirt by the inner fence, Gray tossed the bone meal across the ground.
To his complete shock and Hershel's utter disbelief, the earth instantly rippled. Deep green, lush grass and vibrant wild sprouts burst from the dirt, growing at a speed completely visible to the naked eye until the patch was thick and healthy.
Gray looked back at the stunned old farmer. "Just point out a space big enough for the cows to move around in. With this bone meal, I can make sure they always have more than enough grass to graze on until we can butcher them all and store the meat safely inside the prison."
Hershel blinked, trying to process the magic powder before Gray's words caught up to him. "Butcher them all? Son, why on earth would we slaughter the whole herd?"
"Because I can get us much better animals later," Gray explained bluntly. "The livestock I plan on getting can breed super fast, and best of all, they can't get sick from any diseases or viruses. They're basically perfect." Gray decided to keep to himself that maybe Minecraft animals didn't need to eat or drink anything, except when they wanted to breed.
Realizing Gray already had a solution, Hershel finally nodded.
They walked outside the main gate. Hershel scanned the terrain and pointed toward a wide, open area just outside the primary walls. "Alright. If you can keep the grass growing like that, that section over there will give them plenty of room to move."
Gray pulled a few spray cans from his inventory to mark the ground. Together, they paced out the boundary lines, spraying bright markers directly onto the dirt until the layout was fully confirmed.
With the plan set, the entire group grabbed their tools and started digging the three-foot-deep trench along the new pasture line.
Once the clock hit 4 PM, Gray opened his upgrade tab and got the next gold upgrade.
[New Upgrade]
(50M Gold) 1,600,000 Gold/Hour ✔
[New Hourly Rate]
5,437,387 (3,198,463) Gold/Hour
Gold: 2,304,004
"Damn," Gray muttered to himself. "I can afford a Batman physique every hour, that's insane! But still nowhere near enough for the things I will need later."
Gray knew he would be able to afford the next massive system upgrade in around 18 hours.
Over the next day, Gray and the rest of the survivors had already settled into a steady, reliable routine. In the morning, they would wake up early, eat a quick breakfast, and spend hours sweating together to dig out the massive trench for the new cattle pasture. In between the heavy digging, they rotated shifts to handle perimeter patrols around the new stone walls, keeping a sharp lookout for any unexpected visitors.
Gray didn't slack off at night, either. He stayed up late inside his RV, working his way through The Walking Dead series on his laptop. He was completely hooked.
Sure enough, at 10 AM the very next morning, he pulled up his interface and purchased the next upgrade, rocketing his passive gold even higher.
[New Upgrade]
(100M Gold) 3,200,000 Gold/Hour ✔
[New Hourly Rate]
10,877,387 (6,398,463) Gold/Hour
Gold: 176,970
Finally, two hours before sundown, the group let out a collective sigh of relief as they finished the last section of the trench. It took them another full hour of synchronized pounding to compact the gravel baseline to maximum density. Once the foundation was solid, Gray stepped up to the line. It took him another hour of continuous placement to finish completely walling in the space.
The new pasture ended up being a perfect, towering stone square stretching right outside the main prison octagon. To secure it properly, Gray put one of the placed stone walls back into his system inventory and swapped it for a stone external gate. Now, the cow pasture was entirely sealed off from the outside world, making it only accessible from the safety of the interior. Gray bought a pair of wire cutters from the shop and cleanly cut down the original prison chain-link fence, opening up a direct path to the new stone gate.
In the main courtyard, Gray bought two large chicken coops for the flock to nest in, while in the massive new pasture, he purchased and set up three large prefabricated barns to give the entire herd of cows a warm, safe shelter.
With the seventy-five-yard square pasture completely finished and the cows settled inside, Gray walked over to Hershel. He pulled out the remaining stack of Minecraft bone meal from his inventory and handed it over to the old farmer.
"Since you'll be in charge of the cattle, Hershel," Gray said. "Just sprinkle a little bit of this whenever the grass starts getting low. It'll grow back instantly. If you run out, don't hesitate and let me know."
Hershel took the magical powder, still looking amazed, and nodded firmly. "You got it, son."
Now that the construction was fully wrapped up, Gray took a moment to check his system balance. Thanks to the massive stacking upgrades he had purchased earlier, his wallet was filling up at an unbelievable speed. He was now pulling in a little over ten million gold every single hour.
[Status Info]
Name: Gray Ashwood
Age: 23 years old
Race: Human
Gold: 85,971,566
Gold per hour: 10,877,387 (6,398,463)
Gold Multiplier: 1.70x
Time: 06:39 PM
Wasting no time, Gray opened the upgrade tab and dumped his newly accumulated wealth straight into the next two available multipliers.
[New Upgrades]
(15M Gold) +0.05x ✔
(30M Gold) +0.05x ✔
[New Hourly Rate]
11,517,233 (6,398,463) Gold/Hour
Gold: 40,971,566
Bringing his total multiplier to 1.80x, his struggling days were over.
A few hours later.
Just outside the thick treeline bordering the prison perimeter, someone was having the absolute shock of his life.
It was the Governor's motorcycle scout. He had waited until the sun went down completely, using the pitch-black cover of the night to lower his chances of getting caught. When he reached about a mile away from the prison, he killed the engine and ditched his motorcycle in the brush. He didn't want to risk alerting them in case they had posted guards on the perimeter.
Slipping silently through the dense woods on foot, he finally crept up to the edge of the clearing. He pulled out his binoculars, peering through the darkness toward the front gates.
He froze, his jaw dropping in sheer disbelief. He lowered the lenses, rubbed his eyes aggressively, and looked a second time.
The chain-link fence he had seen just a few days ago was completely gone. In its place stood a towering, solid stone wall that was easily four meters tall. He crept further along the treeline, his eyes scanning the perimeter, and realized the most surprising part, the entire prison was completely surrounded by it. Sticking out from one side of the main fortress was another massive, towering stone square structure, completely sealed off from the outside world.
The scout couldn't believe his eyes. His mind reeled as a cold sweat broke out across his forehead. Just a few days ago, this tiny group was barely dragging bodies out of the courtyard and trying to survive. Now, in less than a week, they had an impenetrable stone fortress.
Panic seized him. The raw absurdity of how fast this wall had been built terrified him down to his bones. This wasn't a random band of struggling refugees, no, this was something dangerous. Panicked, the spy turned on his heel and started sprinting back through the dark woods toward his hidden motorcycle. The Governor needed to know about this immediately.
Meanwhile, inside the prison, the survivors slept soundly, completely unaware that the spy had returned and was currently racing back to Woodbury to expose their new home.
[1] He can only sell items/skills he bought from the system.