The basement hummed with the low, thrumming energy of the activated system core. The faint, cold light from the console panels painted Kane's face in shades of steel and frost as he scrolled through the menus.
Every day since its awakening, the system revealed another thread of its vast design. And Kane? He was weaving those threads into something formidable.
[System Interface – Skill Development Tab Opened]
Drone Deployment (Lv.1): Allows deployment of autonomous aerial units with infinite ammunition once constructed. Manufacturing requires stored resources.Infinite Storage: Any non-living item can be instantly stored with physical contact. Storage capacity: unlimited.Upgrades: Locked until post-cataclysmic elements detected.
Kane exhaled slowly, fingertips hovering over the holographic prompts.The first step to survival wasn't brute force—it was dominance of the skies. Drones meant eyes, firepower, and reach, all before the infected even knew where he was.
And unlike soldiers, drones never needed sleep.
He'd been testing the manufacturing pipeline for two days now. For early models, the system only required common materials:
Aluminum sheets for the outer frame.
Basic copper wiring scavenged from junk appliances.
Plastic composites from discarded electronics.
Standard rechargeable battery cells to complete initial assembly (though power was infinite once deployed).
All of these could be found in warehouses, scrapyards, or even neighborhood dumps—no rare alloys, no exotic fuels… yet.
But after the apocalypse hit, the system hinted at post-event materials:
[Element: Arcanium Alloy][Element: Abyssal Crystal][Resource: Mana-infused Steel]
For now, Kane would have to build the skeleton before he could clad it in armor.
He rubbed the stubble on his chin, mind shifting toward the real problem—acquisition speed.The clock was ticking.
The plan forming in his head was simple but daring:
Map every industrial, storage, and scrap site within a 40-mile radius.
Break into them now, long before they became warzones.
Use Infinite Storage to strip them clean in seconds.
He didn't need trucks, forklifts, or even time to load—just a touch. One hand on a warehouse shelf, and gone, every single pallet swallowed into the void of his personal arsenal.
A dark thought slid into place. Stealing.
Technically, it would be theft. But in sixty days, the world wouldn't have laws, only survivors and corpses. And Kane intended to be the former.
His focus was broken by the sound of giggling.Reina sat cross-legged in the corner, the warm glow of the artifact they had recovered earlier that morning still pulsing faintly on the table beside her. She had been staring at it for hours, her little fingers tracing the golden filigree.
Now, she clapped her hands.
"Kane! Look!"
He turned, brow furrowing—then froze.
Her favorite stuffed rabbit, a patchy old toy with one ear barely hanging on, was moving. Its stitched mouth curled into a grin, button eyes glinting with eerie light. It hopped forward on its own, circling her like a playful pet.
[System Notification]
New Power Detected: Linked Soul Manifestation (Lv.1)Ability: Allows user to temporarily animate personally bonded toys or objects into physical constructs.Duration: 30 minutes.Limit: 2 active constructs at a time.
Kane's jaw clenched. To Reina, it was magic. To him, it was a potential weapon—and a dangerous one if she lost control.
She giggled again as the rabbit patted her knee, then pointed to a plastic dinosaur nearby. The creature twitched, plastic shifting unnaturally as it lumbered to life with creaking joints.
Two toys. Two tiny soldiers. Innocent now… but in a world gone mad, Kane could already imagine what they might become.
He crouched beside her, masking his concern with a small smile."That's… amazing, kiddo. But remember, you only use that when I say so. Okay?"
She nodded enthusiastically, not realizing the weight behind his words.
Back at the console, Kane began queuing the first five drone units for production. The basement floor shimmered faintly as the system's automated assembly field came online, materials from Infinite Storage spilling into the air and snapping together piece by piece.
This was just the beginning.
Sixty days from now, when the sky burned and the dead walked, his swarm would already be ready.The world would scramble for scraps, but Kane Wylder would have factories in the clouds.
And now…He had one more reason to make sure the future belonged to them—because Reina's strange new soldiers would need somewhere safe to march.