System Rebirth: Lucas thrives in the Endless Winter

6. The tour

After getting some documents from the office, William took him to the villa for a quick tour.

Lucas studied the tall structure of the villa, and it's surrounding. In his past life, Houston Villa stood strong while most of the other buildings crumbled. It somehow fell into the hands of a group of thugs who never stopped bragging about its defenses to anyone who cared to listen.

The gate and fence were made of reinforced steel and concrete respectively, and electric wires lined the top of the fence. Breaking in would be extremely difficult. This should offer him some protection from the zombies and thugs.

After exploring the outside, they went inside. The entrance hallway led to the living room, their footsteps echoing as their shoes hit the marble floor. The living room spanned wide, equipped with soft cushioned couches, a large TV that nearly occupied the whole wall it was mounted on, a dinner table, a bar, a coffee table, and a fireplace. A double staircase flanked the fireplace and led to other floors.

They explored the kitchen before climbing the stairs to check other floors.

The second floor contained the master bedroom, four guest bedrooms, and the bathrooms.

On the third floor, they saw the entertainment and game room which was as large as the living room. This room seemed perfect for killing boredom, if it would be useful in the apocalypse. Otherwise, all he saw were more storage rooms.

Then, finally, the sitting room which stretched into the balcony. It was beautiful but would be too cold to use in the apocalypse as it was exposed. Quite a pity. Lucas had a nice view of the nearby military base and buildings from the balcony.

“What's the security status of this house?” asked Lucas as they went down the stairs. That was the main reason he got this house.

William explained the whole villa security status.

Reinforced gates and fence. Bullet-resistant doors and windows. Thermal cameras covering the entire property, including outside. Facial recognition, voice recognition and biometric access on the gate and front door.

There was a specialized remote to control the security systems.

Lucas already knew most of this information from the thugs in his past life, so most of it didn't come as a surprise to him. He was just glad the villa was in his hands this time.

The tour ended outside in the generator room. The space housed a massive industrial-grade generator connected to an advanced solar power system. There were also backup generators.

By the end of the tour, Lucas understood why the villa cost so much. He wondered how much it had cost to build it.

Satisfied, he paid the remaining balance of six million dollars and added an extra two hundred thousand dollars to process and sign all the necessary documents that same day and get the keys.

It took a long time to do all this. By the time they were done, it was already half past six in the evening.

All that was left was to close the deal which they'd do the in two days as Lucas requested. William happily handed him the keys, the security remote and the password to the security system before leaving.

As soon as the keys touched his hands, the system screen appeared.

[QUEST #1 Completed]

[Rewards]

[100 SP Received]

[Dimensional Storage Space Unlocked]

Lucas smiled as he went inside. One task done.

‘How do I use the Dimensional Storage Space?’

The system returned him to the main interface. The padlock symbol had disappeared from the ‘Storage’ tab and the SP icon now displayed 100.

The system opened the Storage tab. A blank screen appeared with the word ‘Empty’ written in the middle.

A pop-up message appeared on the screen.

[Add Houston Villa Remote to Storage Space]

[Energy Cost: 10]

[Yes]

[No]

Lucas frowned. It cost energy to add something to the space?

‘Yes,’ he thought.

In the blink of an eye, the remote vanished from his hand.

[Houston Villa Remote has been added to the Storage Space.]

An image of the remote appeared on the screen.

‘How do I get it back?’ thought Lucas.

The pop-up appeared again.

[Remove Houston Villa Remote from Storage Space?]

[Energy Cost: 10]

[Yes]

[No]

Once again, Lucas selected Yes, and the remote materialized on his hand.

Lucas was amazed.

After testing the space with a few items, the system confirmed the rules governing the Storage Space.

The space could accept anything except animals. It could contain anything, no matter how huge, but energy required varied for each item depending on its size and contents. A bigger object would require more energy and vice versa.

So the Space could most likely store a truck, but it would require a large amount of energy, which Lucas didn't have at the moment.

‘How do I increase my energy pool? Is one hundred the maximum?’

[There's a potion in the Shop for that.]

He had to complete the next quest and unlock the Shop, then. Now that he had a shelter and the storage space, storing supplies wouldn’t be a hassle.

He had approximately eight million dollars left, which should be more than enough to get supplies. Or so he hoped.

***

Brian stormed into the Vales mansion living room, fuming.

“What happened? How did it go?” asked Dean, who sat in the living room with his laptop, Jasmine beside him.

Brian dropped into a seat, his fist clenched. “Someone already bought the house.”

Dean pursed his lips. “I knew we should have bought it sooner.”

“You're not going to believe who it was.”

“Is it that insufferable Patrick? That man has been competing with us since—”

Brian interrupted. “No. It was Lucas.”

Dean blinked. “What?”

Jasmine, who had been examining a box of jewelry, looked up. “Lucas? Our son?”

“That's impossible,” scoffed Dean.

“That’s what I thought right before he paid for it in front of me,” Brian said. “I thought he was just doing it for our attention, but he really bought the house.”

“How?” asked Jasmine. “We’re talking about twelve million dollars here. His allowance couldn't possibly have amounted to that much…unless he was doing something else. But what job would give him that amount?”

She faced her husband. “Check your balance and the company records. That boy must have stolen from us.”

Dean replied. “I'll check, though I don't see how he'd steal from us unless he had help from someone close to us.”

Seeing an opportunity to play the good son role, Brian forced a troubled expression. “Let's not just accuse him of stealing, mum.”

“It’s not like he can't do it. He has stolen from you before, hasn't he?”

“But this is a large amount of money. We should investigate before jumping to conclusions.” He lowered his gaze. “I'm sorry for not getting the villa.”

Dean waved his hand. “It's alright. There will be better houses anyway.”

“And we'll get to the bottom of how he got his hands on that money.”