"Show me!"
Cyrus's eyes flashed with curiosity as he said this; he was curious as to what Noah means by 'initial stage.'
The moment the words left his mouth, and before he could react, a blue holographic screen was immediately projected in front of him, which totally caught him off guard.
The screen expanded into fractal patterns that unfolded like the petals of a geometric flower until the holographic screen expanded into his full vision as it floated in front of him.
He quickly calmed himself down. Ten years in the apocalypse had hardened him to always be calm in surprising situations.
He then looked at the shimmering holographic screen in front of him with both surprise and curiosity; this was the first time he had seen something like this in real life.
The holographic screen pulsed as if it was alive, and Noah's cold, mechanical voice rang in his mind.
"Administrator," its voice sounded as steady and calm as bedrock. "You have been granted a Level 1 Noah Ark."
"Heh?!"
Cyrus blinked in surprise and confusion as he repeated what Noah said.
"...Level 1 Noah Ark?"
"Yes, Administrator," Noah's cold voice sounded in confirmation.
His eyes were still full of confusion; his brows were furrowed as he leaned slightly forward, his elbows on his knees as he asked, "What exactly is a Noah Ark?"
The holographic screen expanded once more as lines began to appear like structures, faint sketches of walls, giant gates, and tall towers.
Noah's cold voice came as it began to explain to Cyrus what the Noah Ark is all about.
"The Noah Ark is a survival base shelter, a bastion. A shelter that can be built anywhere in Gaia, it's a survival base that is far more advanced than whatever humans can construct. Its walls are made from adaptive alloys, its foundations are self-repairing, and within there are living residential quarters, hydroponic bays, energy nodes, filtration systems, and automated defense systems".
His eyes flickered with intense excitement as he listened to Noah's explanation; his breathing started to become hurried, but he quickly calmed himself down.
Noah's cold voice continued, "The Noah Ark is simply a complete ecosystem; its design follows a single principle: continuity. Even in the face of total collapse, an Ark can endure."
Cyrus's calm breath tightened once again. For a moment, his calm facade cracked as raw excitement danced in his eyes.
When he looked at the outline of the Noah Ark shimmering in the holographic screen, his heart was practically dancing in his chest.
All ten years of being calm in the apocalypse in his previous life were thrown out of the window at this moment; he couldn't care less.
Damn, if it weren't because he still had some dignity left in him, he would have been jumping, dancing, and shouting right now.
A shelter... a base... a fortress!
This is not one of those crumbling apartment complexes people had fortified with scrap metal in his previous life. Not one of those built with huge stone blocks and cement.
Nor is it one of those damp, makeshift bunkers that immediately become graves when the air filters break.
No... this one... this Noah Ark is something completely different; this thing is simply a fortress, a shelter with walls that can guarantee absolute security.
Cyrus's lips split into a wide and huge grin as he chuckled, "So that's what you mean by 'initial stage.'"
Just then, the holographic screen once again pulsed as it transformed into a 3D dimensional map.
His small apartment seemed to dissolve, replaced by a bird's eye view of Apex City and its sprawling veins of concrete, steel, and light. The map stretched outward, taking in all the surroundings outside of Apex City: roads, rivers, valleys, hills, etc.
"Administrator, you choose a place where the Ark can be built," Noah's cold voice came.
Cyrus stood up from the bed, his hands on his chin as his gaze swept across the 3D map in front of him. The center of Apex City sprawled before him with interconnected roads and highways like artery veins.
Looking at this city in front of him, a faint nostalgia hit him as a dazed look appeared on his face.
In his previous life when the apocalypse hit Gaia, Apex City turned into hell in mere days; after all, there were 50 million people living in this city alone, half of whom turned into zombies.
The screams of people when the apocalypse came, the chaos of traffic as millions tried to flee, and people being trampled to death.
Those animals in zoos also mutated, which added even more misery. Plants and flowers that were once seen as picturesque nature turned into man-eating plants.
Cyrus quickly shook his head to get rid of all these thoughts; all of that doesn't matter now as he is given a second chance to start anew, and this time he will make sure to survive.
He looked at the three-dimensional map and dragged it outward, his eyes scanning the outskirts of the city.
He needed to find a place that is quite far away from the city but not too far as well, just somewhere in the middle.
As he scanned for the right location, his eyes were immediately drawn to a specific location to the east of Apex City, about twenty kilometers away.
His eyes caught a wide river large enough to dwarf bridges; two full-sized cruise ships could sail side by side with more room to spare. It's nearly three hundred meters across.
His heart immediately stirred. At the opposite side of the river, a wide plain stretched out; it's flat and seems fertile as well and is surrounded by three tall and big hills.
Two are on both sides and one is located at the back. Cyrus's eyes immediately sharpened when he saw this, as this location already had a natural defensive line.
It's simply perfect for him. The reason he chose this location is that in his previous life when the apocalypse broke out, in the early stages of the mutation, the zombies were quite mindless; they didn't know how to swim across water bodies easily.
As for the animals living in the river, that would not be a problem for him as well, as they would also serve as some sort of defense.
These zombies couldn't scale those hills with proper coordination. That plain valley is protected on all three sides with the river at the front, so this is the perfect natural defense.
So building the Ark there, it will be nearly untouchable in the first few years.
He immediately made up his mind as he extended his finger and pointed firmly at the location. "Noah,"
Cyrus said in a firm voice, "I choose this site."
"Good choice, Administrator. Shall I begin construction?" Noah's cold voice immediately came.
Cyrus opened his mouth to say yes but immediately closed his mouth with narrowed eyes and asked, "Noah, won't the construction cause any noise or disturbance? A huge building appearing out of nowhere will immediately raise suspicions,"
"The construction of the Ark will be completely enveloped in cloaking technology; visual and electromagnetic signatures will be completely covered. Sound will be dampened. To the outside world, this place will appear untouched. Only you, Administrator, will perceive what's going on," Noah immediately explained to Cyrus.
Hearing Noah's explanation, Cyrus let out a sigh of relief as a smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
He sat back down on the bed and said,
"Then… do it."
The holographic screen immediately lit up with intense blue light.
[ Commencing construction of Level 1 Noah Ark ]
[ 50% of energy available reserves allocated ]
[ Estimated Completion Time: 3 Days ]
The moment these announcements were made, Cyrus immediately felt the ground beneath tremble before going silent again as if nothing had happened.
Cyrus stared blankly at the space before him; his breathing was calm.
"…Three days, huh?" he muttered to himself.
"Affirmative, Administrator," Noah immediately confirmed.
For a while, Cyrus just sat there and said nothing. His thoughts were swirling; the room was silent except for the humming of the ceiling fan.
"Administrator," Noah's cold voice immediately cut through the silence in the room.
"There are only two months left before the end of time begins. You must prepare yourself. The Ark alone is not enough; you need resources to survive. Without any resources, although you will be safe, you will be hungry as well."
Cyrus came back to his senses, chuckled under his breath, and said, "I know that."
He leaned forward, his arms resting on his thighs, his eyes half-lidded, and his voice grew low, almost a whisper.
"Two months left…before the end. I remember it all too well."
His gaze sharpened and seemed to grow distant.
"In my last life, the governments knew about the virus. Those high officials, billionaires, conglomerates, aristocrats... they all knew about the virus three years before it even started. But they chose to hide it, burying it under layers of silence and media to shift attention from it. While people lived their normal lives, these hypocrites built huge underground bunkers beneath their mansions, dug fortresses under mountains, and stockpiled tons of food and medicine enough to outlast the first wave."
Cyrus's lips curled up into a smile full of bitterness.
"And when the infection broke, they still chose to stay silent. Until it was too late to hide. A month before the apocalypse, videos were leaked of soldiers killing things that weren't quite human, animals twisting into abnormal heights, and normal plants growing to hundreds of meters tall. But many people didn't believe all of this at all; they said it was some sort of marketing, some new VR project, some horror movie stunt. Even I myself didn't believe it and made fun of it online."
The room fell silent with his voice.
"It wasn't until cities turned into hell that many people finally realized what was truly going on, but by then millions were already dead. As for me... I wasted that time; I lost the chance, and for ten full years, I regretted it, clawing my way through corpses, facing multiple betrayals, the deaths of comrades, loved ones, and friends. I watched as the once peaceful Gaia rotted."
He clenched his fist so hard that his fingers dug into his flesh, drawing out blood, but he didn't care.
The coldness in his eyes deepened even further, the killing intent brewing in his gaze, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop by a few degrees.
"But this time..." His voice dropped, "...this time, I won't waste even a second of it."
The room fell into silence as the atmosphere became oppressive.
Cyrus unclenched his fist as he looked at the blood in his hand and wiped it with the bedsheets.
"First thing's first," he muttered under his breath, "I will need to secure supplies; I'll need mountains of them."