Free Web NovelChapter 70: [70] : The Refugee Wave, Work or Leave
The towering pillar of purple light acted like a massive lighthouse in the middle of a pitch black ocean.
Sector 7 was completely dead.
Director Sterling had cut the power, the water, and the data lines. The megacorp had thrown the entire district into the garbage bin, leaving millions of normal people to deal with the roaming Flesh Stalkers in the dark.
But Declan’s Earth Sanctum was impossible to miss.
The glowing energy dome pushed back the toxic rain and the thick smog. It created a perfect one kilometer radius of clean, breathable air right in the middle of the slums.
Declan stood near the heavy iron gates of his real world fortress. He had his hands shoved into his pockets. He looked through the transparent energy shield.
The streets outside were packed.
It was not monsters this time. It was people. Thousands of them.
Desperate, starving civilians had flocked to the glowing fortress. Entire families were huddled together in the freezing rain. Factory workers in cheap overalls, office drones in ruined suits, and corner store clerks holding metal pipes. They were all pressing their hands against the invisible barrier, staring at the clean, dry courtyard inside.
"Let us in!" A man yelled. His face was bruised and covered in wet mud. "Please! There are monsters out here!"
"My kids are freezing!" A woman cried out, holding two young children tightly against her chest. "Just open the gate!"
The crowd was growing larger by the minute. The noise of their pleading was a low, desperate roar that easily drowned out the sound of the rain.
Sloane walked up next to Declan. She crossed her arms and let out a heavy sigh. She had just finished checking on Mia’s ventilator. The medical equipment was humming well, powered entirely by the raw mana from the +20 Sovereign Core Crystal.
"Well," Sloane muttered. "Word travels fast."
"People tend to run toward the light when things get dark," Declan replied calmly.
"What are we going to do with them?" Sloane asked. She looked incredibly stressed. "We have a massive courtyard, sure. We have clean air. But we do not have food for three thousand people. We do not have beds. If we just let everyone inside, this place is going to turn into a miserable refugee camp in about two hours."
Declan nodded. He knew she was right. He was not playing a city builder game to run a charity. This was a survival scenario. The megacorps wanted him dead. The Grid wanted Earth deleted. He needed a functioning base, not a homeless shelter.
But he also knew that manpower was a resource.
"They cannot just sit here," Declan said. "They need to pull their own weight."
"How?" Sloane asked, raising an eyebrow. "Declan, look at them. They are not gamers. They are not Grid walkers with synced stats. They are just normal people. They do not have health bars or combat skills. If a Flesh Stalker looks at them funny, they die."
"The Grid’s rules are bleeding into reality," Declan reminded her. "When I killed that monster in the alleyway, it dropped a Reality Shard. It dropped Origin Points. The system is operating here now. That means the basic rules of progression apply."
Declan pulled up his digital inventory. The blue holographic screen popped up right in front of his physical eyes. He scrolled past his high tier weapons and stopped at the massive pile of junk gear he had looted back in the Howling Gorge.
He had hundreds of Scavenged and Forged tier weapons. Rusted iron swords, heavy wooden clubs, cheap leather shields, and flimsy spears. To him, it was vendor trash.
To a normal human being, a game generated iron sword was practically indestructible.
Declan tapped his interface. A massive pile of weapons materialized out of thin air. Hundreds of swords and clubs clattered loudly onto the clean paving stones right behind the gate.
Sloane jumped back as the pile of metal crashed onto the floor. "What is all this?"
"Starter gear," Declan smiled.
He looked at Sloane. "You are the Quartermaster. It is time to do your job."
"My job?" Sloane pointed at her own chest. "You want me to talk to them?"
"You said you worked in retail. You know how to deal with angry crowds," Declan said. "Well, I am the Warlord and I obviously do not do customer service."
Sloane groaned loudly and rubbed her temples. "I hate you so much right now. What is the policy?"
"Simple," Declan said. "Work, fight, or leave."
He pointed to the pile of weapons. "You hand out the gear. Any able bodied adult who wants to stay inside this dome takes a weapon. They form hunting parties. They walk out into the ruined streets of Sector 7 and they kill the low level monsters roaming around."
Sloane stared at him as if he had run mad. "You want them to go out there and fight?"
"They have to," Declan stated. "If they kill monsters, the monsters drop Origin Points and Reality Shards. They bring that loot back to you. That is their entry tax. They pay the tax, they get to sleep inside the barrier."
"And if they refuse?" Sloane asked.
"Then they do not get in," Declan said flatly. "I am providing an absolute safe zone. I am providing indestructible weapons. I am not running a free hotel. If they want to survive the apocalypse, they have to earn it."
Sloane looked at the terrified crowd outside the barrier. Then she looked at the massive pile of rusty game weapons on the ground. It was harsh. It was incredibly cold.
But it made perfect sense.
"Alright," Sloane said. Her voice hardened. She dropped the nice nurse act and fully embraced the Quartermaster role. "Open the gate. Just a crack."
Declan tapped his admin console. A small ten foot section of the black energy dome hissed open.
The crowd immediately surged forward.
"Hold it!" Sloane yelled. Her voice echoed loudly over the rain. She picked up a heavy iron broadsword from the pile and slammed the flat of the blade against the stone floor. The loud metallic clang made the front row of people stop in their tracks.
"Listen to me very carefully!" Sloane shouted. She paced back and forth in front of the gap. "This city belongs to Player V. It is a permanent safe zone. Monsters cannot cross this barrier. You are safe here."
A massive sigh of relief washed over the crowd. People started crying and hugging each other.
"But you do not get to live here for free!" Sloane continued, cutting off their cheers. "Sector 7 is dead. The power is not coming back on. We are at war. If you walk through these gates, you work for the Bastion."
A guy in the front row frowned. "Work? Doing what? I am an accountant!"
"Congratulations on the career change," Sloane snapped. She tossed the heavy iron sword right at his feet. It hit the pavement with a loud thud. "You are now a monster hunter."
The accountant stared at the sword in absolute shock.
"Here is the deal," Sloane announced to the massive crowd. "We have weapons. They are better than anything you can find in the real world. They do not break. You take a weapon. You form groups of ten. You go back out into the city and you hunt the gray monsters."
"Are you insane?!" A woman screamed from the back. "Those things have scythes for arms! They will kill us!"
"They will kill you anyway if you stay out there!" Sloane yelled back. "If you kill them, their bodies disappear. They drop glowing crystals and digital coins. You bring those drops back to me. That is your rent! You pay the rent, your family gets to sleep inside."
The crowd murmured nervously. Nobody wanted to fight. They were terrified. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
Declan stepped forward. He did not yell. He did not raise his voice. He just let the heavy unnatural resonance of his thirty percent synchronization carry his words.
"You have two options," Declan said coldly. "You pick up a sword and you fight for your right to live. Or you turn around, walk back into the dark, and wait to die. I do not care which one you choose."
He crossed his arms and stared them down. "But nobody gets a free ride. Make your choice."
For ten long seconds, nobody moved. The rain poured down on the ruined streets. The purple light of the Sanctum cast long shadows across their tired faces. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
Finally, the accountant in the front row bent down. His hands were shaking. He grabbed the handle of the rusted iron sword and pulled it up. It was heavy, but he held it tight.
"I will do it," the man swallowed hard. "Just let my wife and kids inside."
"Done," Sloane said. She pointed to the back of the courtyard. "Family goes to the central keep. You get in line for gear."
That broke the dam.
Suddenly, dozens of people were stepping forward. Men and women. Factory workers, teachers, delivery drivers. They realized that waiting for the corporate police to save them was a joke. If they wanted to live, they had to adapt to the new rules.
"Form a single file line!" Sloane barked, waving her hand. "Grab a weapon! Do not swing it near my desk! Next!"
Declan watched as his new citizens filed in. They picked up the scavenged maces, the wooden shields, and the crude spears. They looked ridiculous. They looked like a bunch of fools who got lost on the way to a convention.
But as they grouped up and cautiously stepped back out of the energy dome into the rainy streets, Declan saw something change in their eyes.
They were not just terrified victims anymore. They were players.
The real world army of the Iron Bastion was officially born.
"Boss," Kendra called out. She walked over from the hospital wing. She had her plus 10 Sniper Bow slung over her shoulder. "The first few groups are already engaging Flesh Stalkers a block away. The iron weapons are working. They can actually cut the monsters."
"Of course they work," Declan smiled. "It is game logic. A game sword damages a game monster. It does not matter who swings it."
He looked out over his growing city. It was loud. It was messy. But it was functioning.
He had done it. He had successfully brought a piece of the Grid into the real world and stabilized it. He could probably just sit back, relax, and let his new army farm Origin Points for him until the end of time.
Then, a harsh red holographic box popped up right in the middle of his vision.
[Server Alert]
↳ The Abyssal Tide has initiated.
Declan stopped smiling.
[System Quest]
↳ Defend your Safe Zones or face deletion.
