"Okay, let's review. Budget: 100,000 gold coins. Raw materials: Abundant basalt rock in the river. Labor: 5,000 starving subjects in need of wages. Target: A gravity-type dam in three months before the rainy season... wait, when is the rainy season in this world?"
I was busy scribbling on the wooden table with charcoal—since ink was far too expensive for Alaric's pathetic remaining treasury—when a voice suddenly chimed inside my skull.
DING!
[The 'Afterlife Contractor' System Has Been Activated!]
I started so violently that my rickety chair snapped. I fell backward, my head slamming into the moldy wooden floor. "Ow! Dammit! Who's there?!"
A transparent, neon-blue holographic screen appeared right in front of my nose. The color was gaudy, like a discount hardware store billboard.
[Scanning Host...]
[Name: Alaric Von Tepez (Soul: Unemployed Civil Engineering Graduate)]
[Status: Poor, Devious, and Possesses a Face That Makes Children Cry.]
[Warning: Host's Charisma Level Drops by 15% When Thinking About Corruption.]
"What the hell is this?!" I yelled, trying to swat the screen away, but my hand just passed through air. "A System? I actually got a System? And what do you mean 'Unemployed'? I just graduated, you know! I'm a fresh graduate!"
[Correction: 'Fresh Graduate' is a polite term for 'Unemployed with a Diploma'.]
[System detects Host's ambition to build a dam without performing an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Truly unprofessional behavior, worthy of construction hell.]
"Shut up! Who needs an EIA when the people are about to die of thirst?!" I stood up, rubbing my rear. "Anyway, what does this system actually do? Can I summon an excavator? Or get instant cement?"
[Primary Function: Construction Points (CP). Host earns CP from every successful project, the satisfaction of the people (or their fear), and every time the Host successfully swindles—System means, 'negotiates'—with another party.]
[Current CP: 0.]
[System Shop: Locked. (You are too poor to even view the catalog).]
"Dammit, this system is incredibly rude," I muttered, a vein throbbing in my forehead. "So, what am I supposed to do now?"
DING!
[Main Mission: The First Foundation!]
[Objective: Perform a topographical survey at Point Zero of the Seraphim River and determine the dam's location.]
[Reward: 100 CP and a 'Bulletproof Hard Hat' (Highly useful considering your fiancée is a psychopath).]
[Failure Penalty: Death by dehydration within 48 hours.]
"Hey! What kind of penalty is that?!"
The System didn't answer. The screen vanished, leaving me fuming in the middle of the room. But the mission was right. Without field data, all my scribbles were just trash.
I immediately bolted out of the castle. The sun was still scorching, but I didn't care. I needed to see that river up close.
As I passed through the castle gates, I saw Kael, the knight who had been with Kaelen earlier. He stood there, leaning against a cracked wall, watching me with a sharp, skeptical gaze.
"Where are you going, Count?" Kael asked coldly. "Princess Isabella ordered me to keep an eye on you. Don't expect to run away with the down payment she promised."
I turned to him, my devious face automatically forming. "Run away? Kael, my strong friend... why would I run away from a pile of gold?"
"Don't call me friend," he cut me off curtly.
"Fine, 'Employee Number One.' Come with me to the river. We're doing a survey."
Kael's brow furrowed. "A survey? Now? In this blistering heat?"
"Engineers don't know office hours, Kael! The sooner we start, the sooner I can build that 'cage'—uh, I mean, the dream dam of your Princess!"
We trekked toward the river. The journey was exhausting. The ground beneath my feet felt like baked ceramic. Along the way, I saw villagers who were skin and bones, staring at me with hollow eyes. They didn't even have the energy to insult me.
[System: Host's Empathy Detection is at level 0.001%. Congratulations, you are a natural talent for being an evil foreman.]
"Shut up!" I whispered irritably.
After an hour of walking, we reached the ravine of the Seraphim River. The condition was worse than what I had seen from the window. The river sat between two sturdy basalt cliffs—perfect potential abutments—but the bed was bone dry.
I scrambled down to the riverbed, ignoring the dust ruining my noble clothes. I began tapping at the bedrock with a small stone, listening to the sound.
"Kael! Give me your sword!" I shouted from below.
Kael grew wary. "For what?"
"To dig, moron! I need to see the depth of the hard soil layer here!"
"My family's heirloom sword is not a shovel, Count!"
"Give it to me quickly or I'll tell Isabella you're obstructing her project!"
With a deeply insulted expression, Kael threw his sword down. I caught it—it was heavy, dammit—and began brutally digging into the riverbed. Kael could only watch with clenched fists as his expensive sword was used to hoe through rocky earth.
After digging about a meter, I found it. Wet clay.
"Found it!" I shouted in delight, my face smeared with mud. "There's an aquifer down here! The underground flow is still active! We just need to dam it at this narrowing point!"
I stood up, looking upstream. My mind began mapping coordinates. A theodolite... I needed a theodolite.
"System! Are there any surveying tools in your shop?"
[Responding to Irritating Host: Yes. 'Magic Theodolite Mark-I'. Price: 50 CP.]
[Your Status: Still 0 CP. Please continue digging with your comrade's sword like a caveman.]
"Argh! You are utterly unhelpful!"
Suddenly, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. That same cold sensation from the castle returned.
"Count Alaric... you look very... enthusiastic."
I turned slowly. Atop the cliff stood Princess Isabella. She wore a black dress that contrasted sharply with the red earth around her. A black umbrella shielded her from the sun. She stood there like a beautiful goddess of death.
She looked at me, covered in mud, holding a knight's sword like a hoe.
"What are you doing in that hole?" she asked in a sweet tone, but her red eyes flashed with intensity.
"A survey, Princess! I've found the perfect foundation for our dam!" I shouted, flashing a wide, mud-caked grin.
Isabella was silent for a moment, then she began to giggle. A beautiful laugh, but it made Kael beside her tremble.
"Good," Isabella whispered, her voice carried by the wind to my ears. "Keep working, my Alaric. The harder you work, the deeper you dig a hole for yourself... inside my heart."
I broke into a cold sweat. "Ah... yes, of course! Your heart, your dam, everything!"
[System: Yandere Detection is at 'Critical' level. Host is advised to finish the project immediately or you will become part of the permanent concrete at the base of this dam.]
"Thanks for the tip, Captain Obvious!" I grumbled.
I went back to digging with double the effort. In front of me was death (Isabella), inside my head was a demon (the System), and beneath my feet was my only hope for survival: Civil Engineering.
"Kael! Don't just stand there! Get down here and help me measure the river width with your arm span! Hurry!"
"Curse you, Alaric..." Kael muttered, but he climbed down anyway.
That day, under the watch of a pair of obsessive red eyes and a system that constantly insulted me, the greatest construction in the history of this fantasy world officially began.
[Mission Accomplished: The First Foundation!]
[Reward: 100 CP Received. Bulletproof Hard Hat sent to inventory.]
[System: Congratulations. You are not dead. For now.]
I smirked deviously while staring at the system screen. "Open the shop, System. It's time for some capital expenditure!"