The South Civic Shelter's rooftop buzzed with movement.

Just hours after the impromptu speech, construction was already underway. Trucks gutted from old military stockpiles rolled in with supplies. Mana welders hissed, scaffold frames clanged, and workers moved like they hadn't just been on the brink of walking out. There was no laughter—just grit, urgency, and a strange undercurrent of hope.

Derek watched from a makeshift overlook—an old water tower with a partially collapsed railing, now reinforced with steel bars and reinforced metals. From up here, he saw them: the welders, the fabricators, and all sorts of specialists repurposing decommissioned drones. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't fast.

But it was happening.

Yvalna stood beside him, arms folded. Her coat flared gently in the wind, yet she was a still point amidst the chaos.

"You surprised me, you don't look the type," she said quietly.

"Didn't know I had it in me?" Derek replied, eyes still on the workers.

"I didn't say that."

" I did not know I had it in me, myself, but when you live in the streets half of your life and a broken apartment for the other half of your life, you get a fair idea of what people expect from life ", Derek thought gazing into the distance.

" Well, I made a promise to make their lives very comfortable, so let me also honour my end " Derek turned to Yvalna.

Yvalna studied him for a moment, her silver eyes unreadable.

"Comfortable lives in the middle of the apocalypse," she said, voice tinged with the faintest amusement. "Ambitious."

Derek gave a half-smile. "Yeah, well. Apocalypse or not, nobody wants to live like rats. We build a place where people don't just survive—but breathe. Sleep without one eye open. Eat food that doesn't smell like wet socks."

She raised an eyebrow. "That's… a very specific image."

"You haven't tasted Paleview canned protein stew. It's an experience."

They stood in silence for a while. Below, the first section of what would be the inner wall was rising, fastened from reinforced metal scrap and mana-charged braces. A team of teenagers worked alongside older engineers, and no one complained.

"Derek."

"Yeah?"

"You said earlier that you didn't know you had it in you," she said, tone softer now. "But I think… It's not that you didn't have it. It's that no one ever gave you the chance to show it."

He blinked. That landed harder than he expected.

Then: "Well, if I die tomorrow, at least I'll be known for my excellent speechmaking and subpar wardrobe."

Yvalna smirked. "The coat's decent."

"Borrowed it from a dead guy."

"Stylish corpse."

Yvalna's smirk widened, but before she could reply, the air shimmered around Derek.

A sharp ping! echoed inside his skull—clearer than thought, louder than sound. His vision blurred for a half-second before the cold-blue interface slid into view like a phantom curtain.

SYSTEM EVENT — BASE CORE TECHNOLOGY STORE UNLOCKED

[Notice: You have initiated early-stage urban reconstruction under crisis conditions.]

Three (3) core technologies may be selected to stabilize and accelerate base development.All other technologies will be locked behind mission milestones]

[WARNING: Each choice is final. Select wisely.]

Derek stiffened. He didn't show it, but the screen took over everything in front of him—layered menus, icons, and glowing tech diagrams rotating in mid-air.

One icon pulsed brighter than the others: a humanoid shape surrounded by small drones, labeled PRIORITY RECOMMENDATION.

He muttered under his breath, careful to keep his tone flat. "System. Show me that one."

SELECTED: Project Aegis Constructor Suite

'When human hands can't build, machines will.'

Cost: 899,000 credits

Category: Advanced Support Unit| Description: Unlocks Aegis Assistant Bot (Codename: "Ace") and an initial fleet of construction-grade drones.

Key Assets:

1x Aegis Assistant Bot (Command Unit)

10x Builder-Class Drones

4x Weld Swarm Packs

1x RuneCrafter Utility Module

Core Features:

Capable of building advanced infrastructure beyond civilian ability.

Auto-training mode for human engineers.

Loaded blueprints: defence towers, shielded bunkers, high-capacity power conduits.

"If civilisation must rise again, it will start with the hum of machines."

"Good stuff," he muttered. Honestly, he'd been wondering how the hell they'd build half of what the blueprint demanded.

Derek tapped |ACQUIRE|

There was a brief pull in the air, like a vacuum forming, then a whine cracked through the rooftop as a flash of white-blue light flared at the far end of the construction square.

A crate materialised—sleek, tall, and buzzing with mana currents.

It hissed open.

Out stepped a humanoid bot, tall and broad-shouldered with matte-black plating and pulsing cyan joints. Its head turned with precision, scanning the area. The drones activated behind it, hovering into a tight, organised formation.

Yvalna didn't move. "That… is not from around here, is it? "

Derek didn't look at her. "Yeah. Pulled a few favours with the universe."

She frowned, but said nothing.

The system blinked again.

2 TECHNOLOGY PICKS REMAINING

He scanned the options. There were a lot of flashy and intriguing designs and blueprints, but he avoided all of them.

What mattered now was security and survival.

Derek's eyes flicked through the glowing selections.

|Mana Infusion Power Plant — Blueprint|

"If mana is the new air, then this is the lungs."Cost: 750,000 creditsCategory: Infrastructure CoreDescription: A scalable power plant utilising ambient mana streams to generate electricity.

Key Features:

Auto-balancing mana-electric converters

Surge regulators for mana spikes

Integration-ready with shield grids, drone bays, and civ-systems

Future-proofing protocols for tiered expansion

He exhaled slowly. Energy was the backbone. They couldn't run drones, purifiers, defence turrets, or even basic lighting without a reliable source.

|ACQUIRE.|

Another crate flared into reality—this one bulkier, with pipeworks and crystalline coils snaking around its surface. It landed with a thud and a shimmer of mana discharge, crackling faintly like distant thunder. No flashy humanoid this time—just raw tech waiting to be shaped.

"Power grid's covered," Derek muttered, scanning again.

Yvalna was still watching silently, her posture still unreadable. Maybe impressed. Maybe concerned. Hard to tell with someone who looked like they moonlighted as a storm goddess.

He tapped the final choice. In an apocalypse like this one, money became useless, food was the most important resource. Derek envisioned that if nothing was done, the stored food in the shelters would not last long, and people driven by hunger would ignore all the dangers of venturing into the city.

|Mana Greenhouse & Water Recovery System — Blueprint|

"Crops that feed and water that heal. Because survival shouldn't taste like cardboard and smell like bleach."Cost: 720,000 creditsCategory: Sustainability CoreDescription: A hybrid greenhouse optimised for mana-reactive crops and advanced condensation-based water filtration.

Key Features:

Mana-enriched soil beds

Climate adaptive zones

Modular aqua-condensers for potable water generation

Auto-cultivation compatibility (syncs with Aegis Constructor Suite)

Preloaded crops: Heartroot Beans, Glowcorn, Ironleaf Lettuce

|ACQUIRE.|

The third crate appeared almost gracefully—this one translucent in parts, its glass panels humming with embedded sigils hinting at the self-regulating ecosystem inside. A faint breeze brushed past as it opened, releasing a fresh, almost forest-like scent.

After making these three purchases, Derek looked at his System credit balance, which was slightly over a hundred in exasperation.

" It's not like they were earning interest, system credits are meant to be used " he comforted himself.

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