The classroom door closed silently behind me. I had assigned one Ranger to stand guard outside the makeshift holding room, while the remaining one trailed a respectable distance behind me, a silent shadow of my authority. The immediate threat was contained, the first hurdle cleared.
Phew. A wave of exhaustion, quickly followed by a rush of adrenaline, washed over me. "That was nerve-wracking," I muttered under my breath, my stride quickening. "I guess acting as 'Xenon' is easy enough I just need to project the image of an arrogant, unassailable genius."
The thought was instantly punctuated by the distant, sharp crack-crack-crack of automatic gunfire echoing from the deeper recesses of the school.
"Good," I affirmed, the corners of my mouth curving into a satisfied, if cold, smile. "Once the school is fully secured, I will have a much easier time building up my army."
I summoned the system to communicate with my soldiers, my voice shifting to the commanding, impersonal tone I reserved for my subordinates.
"Attention all units," I broadcasted. "All surviving students and teachers are to be placed in the school's gymnasium. Assign a minimum of four Rangers to guard the location."
The response was immediate and professional "Understood, Doctor Xenon."
I stopped abruptly in the deserted hallway. "Ranger, stand post here."
I had arrived at my destination an unassuming classroom on the bottom floor. It was far from the noise, a temporary sanctuary. I needed to consolidate my resources and deploy more boots on the ground.
My eyes fell on the current resource display floating in my peripheral vision
[Gold: 9,200]
"I need more Rangers," I stated simply, accessing the system's deployment menu. I quickly purchased a batch of ten.
[Ranger: Cost 280 Gold]
[6,400 Gold remaining]
A shimmering effect briefly overlaid the room before dissipating, leaving ten new soldiers standing at attention.
"Doctor Xenon, reporting for duty," they snapped in perfect unison, delivering a crisp salute.
"Good. Four of you, proceed immediately to the gymnasium. The rest of you clear out the entire school. Necessary information and parameters will be relayed to you en route."
They acknowledged with a nod and swiftly moved out, their disciplined footsteps fading down the corridor.
"Alright, that should be enough for the immediate cleanup," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. "Now, let's examine the more advanced units."
I opened the deployment system once more, scrolling through the available soldier types.
[UNITS (Deployable Soldiers/Creatures)
* Revived Zombie: Cost 100 Gold
* Revived Boss 1: Cost 500 Gold
* Predator: Cost 1,000 Gold
* Plague Doctor: Cost 50,000 Gold
* Eradicator: Cost 100,000 Gold
* Erad B: Cost 5,000 Gold]
"So expensive," I mused, scanning the high-tier units. "But I suppose by the names, they must be powerful. If I remember correctly, I can upgrade the towers in TDX... I wonder if I can do the same here."
My focus landed on the unit with the most potential for immediate application: the Erad B.
[ Erad B (Prototype eradicator unit)
Weapons:
Proto-Pyrotechnics: Sprays towers with its mouth-embedded flamethrower.
Tri-Shot Rockets: Fires 3 missiles.
Short Circuit: Screams, inflicting a stun on nearby people.
Core Overheat: When the core is overheating it will scream and explodes, dealing high damage (effectively insta-killing) in a large radius, with damage decreasing with distance.]
[Note: As a prototype of the Eradicator units, it is very slow, clunky, and prone to overheating. The overheating problem was never fixed.]
"Mhm... This could serve as an excellent tank," I calculated. "It can provide support even if I restrict its use of the Core Overheat to prevent a self-destruct. For now, it's only fighting zombies, and true tanks aren't available just yet, so the Erad B will be sufficient."
I placed the order, but held the deployment command. "Not yet. The school needs to be secured first."
I then searched for support personnel the architects of a more permanent installation.
[xScientists: Cost 300 Gold]
[Engineer: Cost 300 Gold]
"I will take two of each," I decided, finalizing the purchase.
[200 Gold remaining]
"Well, that sucks," I mumbled, eyeing my depleted funds. I turned to face the two Engineers and two xScientists who had materialized.
"Engineers, begin building a fortified wall surrounding the school perimeter," I commanded. "Scientists, proceed to the science lab and begin studying the properties of the Zombies. The necessary equipment will be materialized for you."
"Understood," they replied, then immediately departed to fulfill their directives.
"Finally," I sighed, opening the system to check on potential upgrades for my existing forces. "Let me see about upgrading my Rangers, Shotgunners, and other units."
The next few minutes were spent poring over the tech trees.
"Mhm... I can upgrade all of my basic units. However, the 'Xenon' units excluding the simple zombies have two or three distinct upgrade paths. The Erad B only has a single, linear path: Mk 1 to Mk 2, and so on," I summarized, finally closing the system.
Stepping out of the classroom, I immediately saw numerous zombie bodies littered the hallway, well at least my Rangers are efficient.
"Ranger," I called. The guard I had left standing post immediately snapped to attention.
"What is the progress of the clean-up operation?" I asked.
"Approximately sixty percent, Doctor Xenon," he reported.
"Good. Any complications with the clean up?"
"No, Doctor Xenon."
"Excellent. Also, start cleaning up the bodies and blood... Wait. You know what? Make the surviving students do it. I we aren't doing all the grunt work here."
The Ranger saluted sharply and departed to relay the new, rather uncharitable, directive.
"...Oh wait," I groaned inwardly, slapping my forehead. "I could have just used the system comms to call them."
A loud, embarrassing rumble emanated from my stomach.
"Well, I guess I'm just tired," I excused myself. I used the system the proper way this time to call for a Ranger to bring me food.
"It's a good thing they don't need to eat or drink, though they can," I commented idly just as a Ranger arrived, carrying a bottle of water, an onigiri, and a small biscuit.
"Thank you," I said, taking the meager ration. The Ranger, instead of leaving, positioned himself a few feet away, adopting a textbook bodyguard stance.
"You don't need to do that, right?" I asked, starting to unwrap the rice ball.
"Enemies are still in the area, Doctor Xenon. I can't be too careful," he replied stoically.
"Alright then," I conceded, taking a large bite of the onigiri. "Oh, I almost forgot. Did you secure the students on the rooftop?"
"Yes, Doctor Xenon. However, one of them was already bit. The xScientists took the student to the science lab for immediate study."
"Alright. Too bad for that person. Oh well." I finished the bite, a detached shrug accompanying the callous dismissal of a human life. The school was nearly secured, and my Gold reserves were already ticking upward. I opened the system, ready to summon more Rangers to press my advantage.