Zombie Apocalypse System

Chapter 3: The Crazy First Harvest and the Micro Bunker

...and smashed the asphalt right under Axel's shoes, who luckily jumped into the air instantly with the help of an air thrust from his critical effect!

"Holy crap! Are you crazy?! We just met and you're already swinging, you bastard!" Axel shouted while doing a mid-air flip, landing with a fairly cool style on the hood of a junk car.

"Shut your mouth! Anyone who builds a building without a permit in Lord Bangkit's territory must pay a life tax! Hand over all your stuff or I'll split you in two!" the tattooed man shouted, his red axe still smoking, emitting a heat that made the surrounding air warp.

"Lord Bangkit? What kind of name is that? It's totally tacky, I swear! Did you get that name from a porridge seller or something?!" Axel laughed mockingly instead, making the tattooed man's face turn beet red like a boiled crab.

"Master Axel, don't provoke a fight yet! We don't have a truly strong wall!" Abby whispered from behind the half-finished bunker door, her face pale as a ghost.

"Be patient, By. People like this need to be taught a little lesson. But you're right, I need more materials to turn this place into a real fortress," Axel muttered. He glanced toward the city park across the street. There was a massive old banyan tree there.

"Hey, Tattoo! Wait a second, I'm gonna go grab some wood! Don't go anywhere!"

"Hey! Don't run, you coward!"

Axel didn't care. He ran incredibly fast toward the park, leaving Lord Bangkit staring in confusion. Once he reached the banyan tree, Axel didn't waste time. He grabbed a rusty axe he'd found on the road and swung it with one hand.

"Critical... One Thousand Times... Harvest!"

KRAAAKKKK!

A single small slash from Axel into the tree trunk immediately caused an explosion louder than thunder. Instead of the tree falling, thousands of super-quality teak wood blocks, neatly cut into symmetrical sizes, suddenly appeared from the empty air around Axel!

THUD! THUD! THUD!

"OH MY GOD! AXEL! ARE YOU TRYING TO BURY ME ALIVE?!" Abby screamed, watching from a distance. The thousands of wooden blocks piled up as high as a small hill, blocking the road until Lord Bangkit had to jump back to avoid being crushed.

"Damn... is it really a thousandfold?! I thought I'd just get some firewood, but I got a whole furniture warehouse instead!" Axel himself was shocked by the result. He held a block of wood with a very smooth grain. "By! Look at this! The wood is so shiny, I could make a throne out of this!"

"Crazy! You're absolutely insane! Where did that wood even come from, you idiot?! You're completely trampling over the law of conservation of mass!" Abby ran over, her hands busy checking the quality of the wood using a sensor on her tablet. "This... the density is a thousand times that of normal wood?! Damn, this is harder than steel!"

"See, what did I tell you? Here, you need concrete too, right?" Axel saw a small pebble under his feet. He picked one up and threw it toward the pile of wood while thinking: Critical... Concrete Manifestation!

BOOOOMMMM!

That single pebble turned into a pile of ready-to-use liquid concrete amounting to thousands of gallons, which instantly hardened on the spot and formed an incredibly dense foundation.

"Master Axel, stop! Enough! I can't process the data if you're this fast!" Abby held her throbbing head. "But okay, with these materials... I can make our bunker walls missile-proof in ten minutes! Hurry up and help me arrange them, don't just show off!"

"Yes, Boss! You direct, I'll be the laborer!"

Axel began to move nimbly. He lifted the wooden blocks that weighed tons as if he were lifting crackers. Thanks to his physical stats also being critically boosted, his strength was now like a monster's.

"Put it there! Forty-five-degree angle! Install the plasma lock in the middle!" Abby instructed in a sharp tone.

"Got it! Hup! Done! What else?!"

"That, pour the concrete into the wall gaps! Don't let there be any air pockets! We need stable air pressure inside!"

"Done! Critical... Instant Drying!" Axel touched the wet concrete, and instantly the concrete dried and hardened to be as strong as diamond.

"Crazy... I feel like I'm playing a game in creative mode but in the real world," Abby muttered while wiping sweat from her forehead. "This micro-bunker... it should have taken three months for a hundred people to build. We just finished in... forty-five minutes?"

"Forty-two minutes, By. I am a genius architect, after all," Axel grinned while patting the dust off his clothes.

"Architect my foot! You're an apocalypse magician!" Abby retorted, though she couldn't hide a thin smile seeing the magnificent building that had just risen before them. The bunker now looked like an elegant but fierce metallic black box.

"By, my stomach is growling. Is there any food? I'm hungry after mining a mountain of wood," Axel complained while clutching his stomach.

"Where would there be food, Axel! We were just running from zombies, did you think I had time to stop at a convenience store?!"

"Wait, let me check my bag..." Axel rummaged through his grimy backpack. "Ah! Here it is! One can of sardines!"

Axel pulled out a small, slightly dented can of sardines.

"One can for the two of us? That's not enough to fill us up, you shrimp! I need carbohydrates, protein, and vitamins if I'm going to think of a strategy!" Abby pouted, her hands on her hips.

"Take it easy. Did you forget who your friend is?" Axel placed the sardine can on the wooden table he had just made. "By, what flavor of sardines do you want? Tomato or spicy?"

"Huh? I can choose?"

"Of course. System, listen to me... Critical... Logistics Harvest!"

Axel tapped the sardine can once.

SHUIIIIINNNNGGG!

Silver light exploded again, but this time it wasn't destructive. The light split into thousands of tiny dots, and in an instant, the wooden shelves that were empty inside the bunker were filled with thousands of cans of sardines, piles of rice, bottles of mineral water, and even boxes of warm pizza that came from who knows where!

"FOR REAL?! PIZZA?! YOU CAN SUMMON PIZZA FROM A CAN OF SARDINES?!" Abby immediately grabbed a pizza box, opened it, and the smell of pepperoni filled the room. "Damn... it's still warm! The cheese is still melting! Axel, are you literally a god or something?!"

"I'm just an Architect, By. An Architect who doesn't want to starve to death," Axel took a slice of pizza and took a huge bite. "So good, man. The critical effect seems to make it taste a thousand times better too."

"I think I'm going to have nightmares about sardines, but if there's pizza every day... I'm fine with the apocalypse lasting forever," Abby muttered while devouring the pizza. "But Axel, this bunker is safe, there's plenty of food... so what's your next plan?"

"Plan? I want to make this world bow at our feet, By. I want to build a nuclear fusion fortress. I want to build a city more luxurious than Las Vegas in the middle of this hell," Axel stared out the small bunker window, his eyes gleaming with ambition. "And I need you to manage the technology."

"Your ambition is huge. But okay, I like a challenge. Besides, there's no other choice, right?" Abby put down her pizza box, her face turning serious again. "But don't forget, Lord Bangkit was still outside. And I hear a strange sound coming from the gate."

Axel went silent for a moment. He listened intently.

DUM... DUM... DUM....

The sound of hundreds, maybe thousands, of heavy footsteps could be heard from a distance. Not the sound of zombies dragging their feet, but the sound of organized military boots.

"Those aren't zombies, By," Axel whispered, his hand immediately grabbing his electric iron pipe.

"Other humans? Refugees?"

"No. I'm getting a bad vibe. It looks like Tattoo brought his 'civilized' but greedier friends," Axel walked toward the bunker's steel door. "Don't worry, By. I already installed the Sentinel Railgun earlier, right?"

"Yes, but the sensors just picked up something strange. They're not just bringing weapons, Axel. They're bringing system-hacking tools!" Abby panicked, looking at her tablet screen which suddenly showed many red glitches. "Someone out there is trying to disable your critical function in this area!"

"Disable my function? Hahaha! They've got some nerve," Axel took a deep breath, his aura suddenly turning so cold that the temperature inside the bunker dropped drastically. "By, lock the door from the inside. I'm going out for a bit."

"What are you going to do?! There are so many of them!"

"I'm going to give them a life tax discount. One hundred percent," Axel grinned coldly.

As the bunker's steel door opened, Axel was greeted by a sight that made him shake his head. In front of his micro-bunker stood rows of men in black tactical uniforms, complete with riot shields and long rifles with tips glowing electric blue.

In the middle of the line, Lord Bangkit stood holding a strange electronic device that emitted a humming sound wave.

"How about it, kid? Still want to be arrogant?! This device is called a 'System Jammer'! You won't be able to use those supernatural powers of yours here!" Lord Bangkit shouted with a wicked laugh. "Hand over this bunker, hand over your girl, and then you can leave on all fours!"

Axel just stayed silent, his hands in his pockets. He looked at the thousands of armed men as if he were looking at ants.

"One... two... three... Wow, you have a lot of friends, Tattoo," Axel said casually.

"Don't talk back! Attack him! Break his spirit!" Lord Bangkit ordered.

The troops began to advance, their shields locking together, creating a steel wall moving forward to crush Axel. In the back, the shooters began to aim at Axel's head.

"Axel! Watch out! They're using shield-piercing bullets!" Abby shouted from inside over the intercom.

Axel only gave a thin smile. He pulled a thousand-rupiah coin from his pocket. A small coin that was already a bit grimy.

"You say my power can't be used because of that piece of junk?" Axel tossed the coin up, then caught it again with a relaxed motion. "You're wrong about one thing, Tattoo. My power isn't magic... it's absolute authority."

Axel flicked the coin toward the line of troops in front of him.

"Critical... One Thousand Mass-Destruction Projectiles... Execution!"

The small coin suddenly glowed with a blinding white light, splitting into thousands of light bullets, each with the destructive power of an anti-tank missile, and just as the first bullet touched the steel shield...