With Heart Network active, Elric could finally hear beyond physical walls and distance—and more importantly, maintain communication even after all conventional networks inevitably failed completely.
It meant one crucial thing:
No matter how catastrophically the world collapsed, his women would always stay connected to him. Always reachable. Always under his protection.
After mentally reviewing all the Thunder-Thunder Fruit's incredible abilities, the system panel smoothly shifted—this time displaying the newly unlocked capabilities of the Mirror-Mirror Fruit.
MIRROR-MIRROR FRUIT — LEVEL 2 (1/20)
Unlocked Skills:
Mirror World
A vast, seemingly infinite dimensional space accessible exclusively through mirrors and reflective surfaces.
Functions as a completely separate reality with its own physics and rules.
Mirror Channel
You can travel freely between base reality and the Mirror World dimension using any reflective surface as an entry/exit point.
Anything or anyone you physically touch during transition temporarily gains Mirror World access.
Mirror Peep (Surveillance Mode)
From inside the Mirror World dimension, you can observe any area currently reflected by any mirror you've previously connected to your network.
Essentially unlimited one-way surveillance through any mirror in your territory.
Elric's eyes absolutely sharpened with strategic excitement.
"Finally. A real, functional portable space."
Unlike his restrictive system inventory—which frustratingly couldn't store any living beings or non-system items—the Mirror World could freely contain:
People
Conventional weapons and ammunition
Food supplies and water
Vehicles and machinery
Literally anything physical
It was simultaneously a mobile vault, emergency safehouse, surveillance hub, interrogation facility, and inescapable prison all rolled into one ability.
This single fruit alone elevated his overall strategic power dramatically.
The possibilities were genuinely endless.
After consuming all three Devil Fruits, evening had already fallen again outside.
Elric didn't bother heading out into the living room yet.
He had something far more important to handle—extensive "in-depth communication" with his newly adopted retainers to maximize their reward generation.
He already had nine official women in his group, but due to severe time constraints over the chaotic last few days, each one had only received a handful of reward-generating "sessions."
That needed to change. Efficiency demanded full utilization of resources.
Tonight, he specifically chose Natasha and Grace.
Both women flushed deep red, exchanged shy but excited glances, and eagerly followed him into the bedroom together.
The door closed firmly behind them.
full days passed in intensive "communication"...
Dawn light filtered through the curtains into the dim bedroom.
Elric exhaled softly with satisfaction—another highly successful extended session completed.
Natasha was just finishing up, wiping her lips delicately, her eyes still watery with that mixture of shy embarrassment and deep satisfaction.
"Okay," Elric said calmly, his voice steady despite the marathon activities. "Go get cleaned up properly. You can head out first."
"Yes, student," she responded obediently.
She'd already gotten completely used to calling him "Dear" like the other women—but he genuinely preferred the unique thrill of hearing her specifically call him "Student" like back in their teaching days.
So that intimate nickname remained exclusive between just the two of them.
At the doorway, she paused and glanced back, asking softly with concern:
"Classmate Elric... who should I send in next to take over for me?"
Elric shook his head firmly.
"No one right now. I need to rest alone for a bit. Give me some space."
"Yes." She nodded with understanding and left quietly, closing the door with barely a sound.
When Natasha was completely gone, Elric sat up in bed, closed his eyes, and mentally entered his system storage space.
Inside the vast dimensional warehouse—
Towering mountains of supplies filled the entire material storage zone as far as his mind's eye could perceive.
These were the accumulated spoils from three straight days of intensive "communication reward" generation with his nine women on rotating schedules.
His current stockpile honestly looked like a doomsday empire's national treasury.
Current Inventory Summary:
300,000 bottles of purified mineral water 800 whole roasted lamb legs1,000 large bags of premium white rice 700 whole roasted chickens50 rugged off-road vehicles (various models) 80 Desert Eagle pistols with ammunition 90 deluxe self-heating gourmet hot pot sets2 complete sets of premium system-grade skincare products 100 Air Base upgrade points
The system's reward generation varied wildly in quantity—sometimes dropping thousands of items, sometimes tens of thousands in a single reward unlock.
Even Elric himself felt genuinely overwhelmed by the sheer excess.
"Not bad... not bad at all," he muttered with satisfaction.
These supplies alone could comfortably support a small city's population for months.
But he had even bigger, more ambitious plans forming.
Elric's luck these past two days had been absolutely excellent. Aside from Rachel's specialized skincare set and Elizabeth's unique Air Base upgrade points, nearly every other woman's exchange reward had scored critical successes—sometimes doubling the base amount, sometimes tripling it, occasionally even more.
This led to that genuinely impressive mountain of supplies that even made him feel a flicker of awe.
Naturally, as the accumulated materials skyrocketed, the remaining available "communication rewards" for each woman steadily decreased toward zero for the month.
Elric honestly no longer remembered exactly how many sessions he'd completed with each individual woman over the past seventy-two hours. It had all blurred together into one long, exhausting marathon.
Now he could only rely on the system panel for accurate tracking.
REMAINING MONTHLY COMMUNICATION REWARDS:
Natasha — 6 Jenna — 8 Grace — 8 Elsa — 7 Lily — 9 Rachel — 9 Sarah — 9 Nina — 11 Elizabeth — 55
Naturally Natasha had the absolute fewest remaining—he'd deliberately chosen her most frequently because of their special teacher-student dynamic.
Elizabeth had by far the most remaining—not because he'd been neglecting her, but simply because her initial reward pool had been so absurdly large to begin with due to her 97-point quality score.
Even after multiple days of intensive "accompanying" him on rotating schedules, she still had a ridiculous 55 rewards left unused.
Adding up Elizabeth's massive remaining pool plus all the others' leftover rewards, Elric quickly calculated:
Over one hundred communication rewards still available this month.
And it was only mid-month—roughly fifteen days into the cycle.
He wasn't worried about exhausting the supply at all.
Ten more days was plenty of time for completely "unlocking" everything that remained.
Looking at those towering digital mountains of materials in his system space, Elric found himself muttering thoughtfully:
"With this much existing stock—and more coming literally every single day—there's absolutely no way my women and I could possibly use even a fraction of it all ourselves."
He paused, an idea crystallizing.
"Should I... build an actual organized shelter? A real base of operations?"
He'd casually considered the concept before in passing.
But encountering those Shelter people the other day on the street had made the idea suddenly solidify into something concrete and actionable.
Not because he had any burning desire to save all of mankind from the apocalypse.
Not because he wanted to build some idealistic utopian society.
No—nothing that noble or selfless.
Elric wanted to establish a shelter for one very specific strategic reason:
To efficiently locate and systematically acquire beautiful women who met his strict adoption criteria.
Finding qualified candidates alone through random encounters was simply too time-consuming and inefficient for his goals.
And sure, he'd already sent out a notice to the survivors in his residential community offering substantial rewards for reporting any beautiful women they encountered...
But a loosely gathered group of desperate apartment residents was basically nothing compared to what a powerful, well-organized institutional structure could accomplish.
What Elric actually wanted was:
A formal institution with real authority
Fear-based loyalty and absolute obedience
Dedicated manpower to actively scout for eligible women across the entire region
Resources and infrastructure to systematically create new eligible women
That plan was obviously quite distant, of course.
But for right now, with his absolutely massive current resource stockpile?
Building a functional survivor sanctuary wasn't actually hard at all. He had more than enough supplies.
He simply didn't want to personally manage the tedious day-to-day operations himself—that sounded mind-numbingly boring.
Instead, he would let his capable women create it, actively run it, and systematically expand it according to his vision.
Ambition and genuine talent were plentiful among his current nine retainers. Management wouldn't be an issue.
Military force to maintain order and defend territory? Also not a problem.
Because starting today, he would begin selectively distributing those attached Devil Fruits to his most trusted and capable women.
Superpowered loyal subordinates changed everything.
Snap.
The bedroom door swung open decisively.
Elric stepped out calmly into the living room, fully dressed and refreshed, ready to begin implementing the ambitious next stage of his carefully constructed plans.
Nine women looked up at his entrance—some eating breakfast, some chatting quietly, some nervously waiting.
They could all sense something significant was about to happen.
The way he carried himself had changed. More confident. More commanding. More like an actual leader rather than just a survivor.
"Everyone," Elric announced clearly, his voice carrying natural authority that made them all immediately fall silent and turn to face him.
"Gather around. We need to have an important discussion about our future."
There is 60 chapter Advance, in my patreon. If you are interested can check it out.
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