Now that he was back in the real world, Gray went on another massive shopping spree to add some high-utility tools to his kit. He opened the system shop and bought Wood Release, along with Hashirama Senju's full combat skills and legendary Sage Body. Next, he scrolled over to the Avatar section and purchased Toph Beifong's Earthbending, along with her entire lifetime of mastery and experience.
With these incredible new elemental powers at his disposal, Gray made hundreds of shadow clones and scattered them across different states in the country. He gave them strict orders, if they stumbled across any massive settlements holding more than a thousand people, they were to leave them completely alone unless the group was explicitly made up of hostile raiders. He made this rule because he vividly remembered the Civic Republic Military (CRM), the mysterious helicopter people who eventually took Rick Grimes away in the show.
The shadow clones traveled in groups of ten. The moment a squad arrived at their designated state location, they would use Toph's advanced Earthbending to flawlessly level out the terrain in a matter of seconds. Next, they utilized their newly acquired Wood Release to completely camouflage the area. By executing the Wood Release Secret Technique: Nativity of a World of Trees, the clones instantly manifested a dense, massive sea of towering trees around the perimeter to keep the new base somewhat hidden from the outside world.
With the surface being worked on, the clones moved underground to replicate the high-tech setup used at the Virginia base. They excavated massive subterranean chambers to house the automated Fallout Shelter water treatment plants and the Arc Reactor power grids. To coordinate the construction logistics, the clones would simply write down a checklist of the building materials, furniture, and appliances they needed on a piece of paper and drop it into the shared spatial inventory. Gray, sitting comfortably back at his main house, would pull the note out of his inventory, read exactly what that specific state required, and buy the necessary components from the system shop instantly. The moment the items manifested inside the inventory, the distant clones would pull them out on-site and install them into the new fortress.
While ten different groups of clones were simultaneously constructing ten brand-new state bases, an even larger army of shadow clones was deep underground carving out the massive, interconnected railway lines. This time, instead of manually swinging their Minecraft tools to chip away at the raw stone, the clones combined Earth Release ninjutsu with Earthbending. The supernatural excavation moved ten times faster than before, parting the dirt and rock effortlessly.
Right behind the digging teams, a secondary wave of clones moved through the smooth tunnels to construct the automated air vents, place down the glowing Shroomlights along the ceilings, and anchor the iron train rails onto the floor. The collective work was advancing at such a fast pace that even Gray was completely surprised, at this rate, it would take him at most a month to finish constructing a fully automated, connected safe zone inside every single state in America.
Seeing that his vision for this world was rapidly nearing completion, Gray decided it was finally time to prepare the main group for his departure. He already knew exactly which baseline powers he was going to choose to keep and carry over to the next universe, but he planned to tell Rick and the Council that he was simply going on a long, distant journey. He didn't know yet if the system would automatically allow him to return to previous universes after a rebirth. However, since he was absolutely choosing to keep his max-level Home Garden power, he knew the ability inherently gave him the spatial option to travel directly between his designated garden zones. If the system mechanics functioned the way he hoped, he would theoretically be able to link back to these worlds through his farms. He would just have to test that theory out once he officially triggered the world jump.
Gray walked straight to the main building inside the Virginia base to look for Glenn and Maggie. After searching the hallways for more than ten minutes, he still couldn't find them anywhere. Ezekiel happened to spot him and noticed his puzzled expression.
"Greetings, Sir Gray!" Ezekiel called out. "What is it that thou seekest within these walls?"
"I'm looking for Glenn and Maggie," Gray replied. "I need them back at the Georgia base for something important."
Ezekiel smiled. "Ah, they have already departed for Georgia. They left just yesterday, leaving myself and the others in charge of this domain for the time being."
"Got it. Thanks, Ezekiel," Gray said, waving as he turned around.
He walked toward the train station to make it look like he was taking the transit line. But the second he was completely out of sight and made sure no one was watching him, he activated his Jumper ability and teleported straight into his house back in Georgia. Stepping outside into the prison courtyard, he immediately called for an emergency meeting. Not even ten minutes later, every single council member was sitting around the table, along with Merle and Daryl Dixon.
Gray decided to lay his cards on the table. He told them exactly what he had been doing across the United States, along with his ultimate plans once he finished.
"I'm building new bases all over the country, and it's going to take me less than a month to finish building them all," Gray explained to the quiet room. "But it will take a little while longer to completely finish the underground rail system connecting them all."
He turned his eyes to the terminal screen where the AI was listening. "JARVIS, you're getting a major upgrade soon. I plan on putting radio towers all over the country, but I'm also going to deploy a massive satellite grid surrounding the world. We're making it so everyone across our bases can have a perfect cellphone signal and internet at all times."
Rick leaned forward, exchanging a glance with Shane before looking back at Gray. "What do you plan to do once you're completely finished building all these bases?"
"I plan on exploring the world," Gray told them. It was a complete lie, but they had no idea about the system rebirth mechanic, and he planned on keeping it that way.
"I won't be around for a long while," Gray continued, looking around the table. "But you guys don't need to worry. You have more than enough resources and crops to survive for centuries out here. And with the SCP-5094 computer classrooms fully installed, no one will struggle to rebuild society. Anyone can sit down and learn any trade or subject they want in a matter of hours."
The council nodded, visibly relieved by the massive safety net. They then started giving Gray updates on everything that had occurred while he was busy dealing with the Commonwealth.
"We've had a massive new influx of survivors coming to the gates lately," Shane spoke up, tapping a clipboard. "And at this rate, we're going to need more buildings to house them all safely."
Gray nodded without hesitation. "I'll expand the apartment blocks. I'll make dozens more buildings for them to use. My shadow clones are completely used to the workload, so it'll take me less than three hours to construct them all and leave them fully usable."
"And finally," Rick said, sliding a tablet across the metal table toward him. "We found a new member out there. She's proved herself to be good enough that we're considering giving her a seat on the council with us."
"Who is she?" Gray asked, picking up the tablet.
Rick brought up the security footage. Gray stared at the screen and instantly recognized the familiar face. Michonne had apparently joined the prison faction a few days ago. On the camera feed, she could be seen walking up to the gates with her two tamed, armless walkers trailing behind her on chains.
"The Jenners took a massive interest in those two dead ones," Rick explained as Gray watched the video. "Since they aren't aggressive like all the other walkers we encounter, the doctors asked if they could run some experiments on them. Michonne seemed really reluctant at first. But after we toured her around the apartment blocks and showed her the state of things here, she decided to stay and join us permanently. She officially gave the Jenners the green light to do whatever they want with the walkers."
After watching the footage of her handling herself, Gray handed the tablet back to Rick. "She's good. She'll make a great addition to the council."
Rick nodded in agreement. "Good. We'll finalize it."
Not hearing any more major updates, Gray officially wrapped up the meeting. Once everyone stepped outside into the courtyard, Gray walked over to the Dixon brothers to see how they were holding up.
"How are you guys doing?" Gray asked.
Merle simply shrugged his shoulders, spitting on the ground. "To be honest, kid, for some reason when I was up in Virginia, I couldn't find a single damn walker to kill. It was way too peaceful. So I decided to pack up, leave, and come right back down to Georgia."
Gray suddenly remembered his massive, high-speed aerial cleanup runs. He started scratching the back of his head, letting out a sheepish laugh. "Oh, man. Sorry about that, Merle. I'm actually the reason there are so few walkers up there. I've been spending my nights flying around and clearing out every single horde in the state."
Merle looked completely upset, staring at Gray in disbelief, but he ultimately just lowered his shoulders and let out a defeated grumble. Seeing that Merle was done complaining, Gray turned to his quiet brother. "What about you, Daryl? What are you up to, and are you comfortable in your spot?"
Daryl shrugged his shoulders, his arms crossed over his vest. "Can't complain."
"I see," Gray answered. He suddenly remembered a cool idea he could pull off with his newly purchased powers. "Right. Follow me."
He signaled for both brothers to follow him out toward a massive, empty stretch of land near the inner perimeter wall. Once they reached the clearing, Gray stepped forward, took a deep breath, and focused his chakra. He activated his brand-new Wood Release.
With a deep rumble, the ground split open. Right before their eyes, a massive, ancient tree sprouted rapidly from the dirt, expanding in thickness and shooting up into the sky until it stood almost 50 feet tall in a matter of seconds. Nestled perfectly among the giant branches was a beautifully structured, modern treehouse, the entire thing was growing out of the wood in one singular piece.
Daryl stood frozen, his eyes wide with absolute surprise as he watched a literal mansion grow out of the earth in a blink. He opened his mouth, but remembering everything else Gray was capable of doing, he chose to keep his mouth shut and say nothing.
"If I remember correctly, you always liked being out in the woods," Gray said, turning to Daryl with a smile. "So I decided to make something just for you. I will install some electricity and amenities later, but go ahead and go up to explore it a bit."
Daryl walked up to the massive trunk and noticed a perfect, sturdy set of wooden steps spiraling out of it, creating a natural stairway straight to the top. He climbed the steps and pushed open the door to his new home. The interior layout was completely flawless. It had a full bathroom, which Gray secretly knew Daryl probably wouldn't use much on his own, but figured if he and Carol finally got together, she would easily force him to take regular showers. It featured a huge master bedroom with its own attached bathroom and a massive walk-in closet. The lower layout had a large, open kitchen and a spacious living room. The rooms were completely empty of furniture for now, but Gray had cleanly grown holes into the wood for modern windows, and there were even wide, extended decks built onto the outer branches for him to sit outside and relax.
Daryl completely fell in love with the place. Thanks to the massive influx of new refugees the prison kept receiving lately, he had been getting incredibly tired of dealing with crowds of people all the time. Even after he had moved his personal RV further away from the main blocks, he still had random survivors constantly knocking on his door at all hours of the day to ask for help or supplies. This secluded high-rise home was the ultimate gift.
He looked down from the wooden balcony at Gray. "Thanks," he said, his voice full of genuine appreciation.
Merle looked up at the spectacular treehouse. He immediately went up to Gray and nudged his shoulder. "Hey! That ain't fair! What about me, kid? You gotta get me one of those too!"
Gray laughed at his impatience. "Alright, alright. Hold on."
Gray focused his Wood Release once more. Another deep rumble shook the ground, and a second massive 50-foot tree violently sprouted into existence about 100 feet away from the first one, forming an identical luxury treehouse in its branches. Gray deliberately placed it a distance away because he didn't want the two brothers living right on top of each other, this way, they could each have their own privacy.
To finalize the builds, Gray summoned a small squad of shadow clones. The clones immediately went to work installing high-tech Quantum Solar Panels onto the roofs of both treehouses, while also setting up an automated, infinite water source in the plumbing.
As for the sewage system, Gray opened his system shop and purchased a highly convenient piece of utility magic items...two automated Magical Storage Units. He linked the treehouses' drain pipes directly into the hidden storage units underneath. Any waste or sewage produced in the homes would automatically drain straight into the magical containers, and after exactly two hours, the enchantment would trigger, making everything inside the storage units simply disappear into nothingness.
With both Dixon brothers completely set up in their own private forest paradise, Gray dismissed his clones and stood back, looking up at his handiwork with a satisfied expression.