CHAPTER 70: NEW MISSIONS

After observing the chaos of the city, Lucien returned to the apartment, following the same advice he had given to his friends by completely blocking the windows and doors. But soon, a sound inside one of the rooms caught his attention.

"Scratching"

"Meow"

"Scratching"

"Meow"

"Mr. Mustache!"

Hurrying open the door, he found the familiar black feline, only now the cat was staring at him with the same vertical pupils, only they were no longer yellow, but blood red. Lucien also noticed a certain intelligence in its gaze that seemed to be missing before...

"Meow"

"Yes, friend, I missed you too..."

"Meow"

"Eat this!"

Lucien bought a level 2 crystal from the system and fed it immediately, seeing an immediate transformation that shocked him greatly.

Its legs lengthened, along with its tail, and finally, its chest expanded, while its head grew slightly larger; its whiskers and ears also extended. The domestic black cat grew rapidly to the size of a black panther, still retaining its new red eyes.

[Your pet, Mister Mustache, has become a Level 2 mutant!]

[Side Quest Completed!]

[Save Mister Mustache 3/3]

Reward: 1000 Creation Points + 3 Random Recipes + 1 Special Recipe + 1 Level 2 Crystal

Lucien looked at the new random recipes excitedly. He hadn’t made any of them yet, but he wanted to know how this essential part of the system would work. Among the new recipes were a trash can, a kind of stove/furnace, and a sort of bone knife. The stove was something he’d need. He didn’t want to eat all the fast food on his inventory so quickly, and having additional ways to prepare his food was something he needed now that he’d no longer have electricity or gas.

The last recipe was marked "Special" and was alongside the first recipe he unlocked*1, called "Living Drone". It claimed to be capable of making small deliveries within the system’s range and also carrying crystal bombs. But its minimum crafting requirement was something Lucien didn’t have at the time, making it somewhat unfeasible: a level 3 crystal.

Lucien soon scrolled through the many messages the system sent after the apocalypse began.

[The apocalypse has begun!]

[New quests are being issued...]

[Main Quest:]

[Survive until winter arrives!]

Days until winter: ???

Rewards:

-New Special Recipe.

-Three Level 3 Crystals.

-New item unlocked in the shop.

[Side Mission:]

[Friends, Enemies, or Subordinates?]

-There are survivors in some apartments in your building... Without energy and supplies, they will soon become violent and dangerous. You can help them, ignore them, or manipulate them. The fate of each survivor will be influenced by your actions...

Survivors inside the building: 19

Reward: ???

[Daily Mission:]

[Pest Extermination!]

Mister Mustache needs large quantities of food now that he has increased in size. Take him daily up the stairs to the building’s underground parking lot or outside the building to exterminate small threats in the vicinity.

Reward: Each mutant creature he kills will give you 50 percent of the Creation Points associated with the extermination.

[Emergency Mission:]

[Master Key!]

- The building administrator has a master key that accesses all apartments. Obtain this key to prevent others from accessing your apartment so easily, and to facilitate entry to other apartments.

Reward: 500 Creation Points + 1 random recipe.

The missions weren’t that difficult... Feeding Mr. Mustache will inevitably force me to contact the survivors from the side mission, which, in my opinion, is the most problematic, since the system probably wants me to act more coldly by ignoring or manipulating the survivors...

Survive until winter? Okay? I think it should be easy to do if I don’t leave the building until the specified date.

The emergency mission, however, is the most complicated... How do I convince the building administrator to give me this key?

"Supplies!"

I can offer food in exchange for the key. He must be the only one who knows I have plenty of supplies at home because of the many deliveries I’ve received. If he tells the other survivors in the building, it’ll be a problem for me too...

Okay, let’s start with a well-stocked backpack to show goodwill and buy his initial silence...

Lucien quickly filled a backpack with supplies and, along with Mr. Mustache, descended the stairs, trying to get to the ground floor quickly without being seen...

The building administrator position was an outsourced job, like the doorman. There were a total of four administrators, divided into pairs and working day and night shifts on a 12-36*1 schedule. At that moment, one of the daytime employees should be on the ground floor of the building...

The room where they lived on the ground floor was a complete house, with a kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms. The building was used as a break room for everyone working in the building. In the case of the building manager, he monitored the schedule of other building employees, including those who performed maintenance and only appeared occasionally. He was only needed when a resident needed specific services related to building management, conflict resolution, or emergencies.

As Lucien was about to arrive at the building manager’s office, he noticed a huge commotion at the building entrance. He held his cat with his arm, preventing it from leaving his side, while he tried to listen to the discussion.

From what little I could hear, it seemed the building’s doorman had let some people who had asked for help into the building, and they were telling him about what had happened outside and how they had been attacked. It seemed the power outage had sparked a wave of crime, and the mutants were still a new thing they hadn’t understood.

Lucien took advantage of the commotion and entered the building’s staff room, finding no one in that first room.

"Wait for me here, okay?"

He left Mustache on guard and quickly entered the administrator’s house. In a room with four beds, he finally saw a wall hung with about two dozen keys with numbered keychains.

"I found it... It was easier than I thought... Shouldn’t the master key be a key that opens all the doors? These look like copies of our own keys..."

With a wave of his hand, all the keys disappeared into his inventory, and as Lucien removed his backpack and left it inside the room, his arm was grabbed by a bloody hand.

"Ahhh"

"What are you doing here?"

"Building administrator, you scared me..."

"Where are the keys? Did you get them?"

"Are you hurt? Were you bitten by someone sick?"

The building administrator finally released Lucien’s arm and looked at the bitten hand with worried eyes.

"Yes, one of them bit me on the hand while I was trying to help the people who had just entered the building..."

[Tell him to cut off his hand quickly!]

"Will this work?" Lucien thought.

"Try cutting your hand. I don’t know if it will work, but it’s your only chance."

"Will the bite make me sick?" The man looked worriedly at his hand again...

Lucien just nodded before speaking again:

"I took the keys to hide them and keep the building’s residents safe, but I brought you food. If you need more, let me know, but don’t tell anyone..."

"Okay, go... I need to be alone..." The employee said as he tied a piece of cloth around his forearm and prepared for the worst...

Lucien hurried out of the employee lounge, but instead of going upstairs, this time he went even lower, going to the underground parking lot and opening the parking door for Mr. Mustache.

He then finally asked the system:

"System, does cutting off your arm really work to contain the bite infection?"

[I’m not sure, but we need to test to know in case of future fatalities...]

"So I made him suffer without even knowing for sure?"

[You gave the man a chance to survive...]

"Sigh..."

[Mr. Mustache eliminated a level 0 mutant rat!]

[Obtained 1 Creation Point!]

[Mr. Mustache eliminated a level 0 mutant rat!]

[Obtained 1 Creation Point!]

After almost an hour and two kill alerts, Mr. Mustache scratched at the parking garage door, and Lucien opened it, allowing him to return to the building’s stairs. But it seemed that this time the feline hadn’t brought him anything.

"Makes sense, right? Two rats must have barely satisfied your hunger... Let’s go back to the apartment. I bought enough food to feed you for many years... But at your current size, it should be enough for a few months even if you eat every day."

"Meow..."

Lucien soon climbed all 13 floors of the building, returning to his apartment at 3:00 p.m. as agreed. He tested the radio signals for a few minutes before finally giving up after hearing nothing...

Night fell quickly, bringing a deep darkness to the entire coastal city of Kaelor, which had no electricity. Lucien quickly ate something with a candle and then fed his father another level 1 crystal. Afterward, he went to bed much earlier than usual due to the lack of electricity and other entertainment. He also wanted to create a new habit of waking up early, along with the daylight.

The next morning, around 5:30 a.m., he was awakened by numerous system alerts, this time bringing updates about the building’s many residents.

At the same time, a certain group of residents was about to visit him...

Crystal Bomb is also marked in the system as a Special Recipe.

Special Recipes are unique items created exclusively by Lucien’s system. They’re very different from their "Normal" counterparts, which are items that, despite being common like the "trash can," will have a completely different appearance from a regular trash can.

12-36 schedule. You work with three other people, each taking 12-hour shifts. You get 36 hours off after your shift. Typically used in jobs like firefighters, police, hospitals, and security guards/doormen in my country. I’m giving an example here in case it’s different in your country...