Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 254: Optional Functions

After killing the mother rat, the whole cavern vibrated like an earthquake was happening. Jun knew something changed within the cavern but couldn't pinpoint what it actually is.

The group chat has become lively after Jun's continuous message. Most of the original group members already owned smartwatches and has access to most of the smartwatch's functions except for the mission edit.

[Jamie: "The faction hall feels cozy. It's just a bit weird when a permission dialogue appeared in front of me, but I guess it's common courtesy to ask the owner before entering the house, right?"]

[Edward: "What do you mean faction hall? Where are you? It's already dark outside."]

[Alex: "Ohh, someone did not ask for permission to go out."]

[Jamie: "We're at the Northern Plains. Boss Jun built a new base here. There's a house, a beautiful pond, and a teleport portal. The Scavengers are guarding the whole area, so we're pretty safe. You can see it from a distance, we are the only house in the center of the plains."]

[Sheila: "We're coming~ the Crimson Jeepney is flying. I'm scared."]

After a few more minutes, a message that doesn't belong in the topic made its way through.

[John: Hey, little Jun. I just gave Evo the pickaxe that you're asking for. These ones made from metal scraps and of inferior quality at the moment. You were rushing me, so don't blame me. It took me some time to craft the mold, but after that everything was easy. If you can get better materials, I can make a better one."]

The chat didn't stop becoming lively and everyone chatted with each other. It's just that for Jamie's group, many new things happened today.

After idling for a long time, Jun sprung into action. He opened the faction storage and immediately took out one of the five pickaxes in the storage.

The design was a basic one and even its description was stale.

[Metal Pickaxe]

[Description] A common pickaxe. Its head is made from various scrapped metal melted together. Even the wood used was not carved properly.

[Durability - 100/100]

The pick head was not treated of its impurities and the handles were carved by Old John's apprentice. Although they were used to carving bone weapons, they still felt peculiar when the material they worked on suddenly changed.

Jun sent a private message to Old John thanking him, then immediately started working.

"Now, let's harvest these treasures."

Jun started hitting the ores and gems stuck in the mineral mountain. He kept calling it mineral mountain because it was literally is one. Except for the spacing between gems and ores, the whole mountain was filled with all kinds of minerals. He had no idea what was important nor expensive, what he knows is everything here was for him to take.

Nik's group joined the fray and grabbed the pickaxes in the faction storage. Since there were not enough pickaxes for the six of them, two remained in guard duty to kill giant rats that respawn. 

Jun found mining quite tiring and had to stop several minutes later. His breathing was rough and unregulated.

When he looked around, he noticed that he was the only one mining and everyone was taking a break. It was understandable. 

Every time you swing the pickaxe, it uses your stamina. Then, when it hit its target, a vibration would crawl up to your arms and tire you even more. With nonstop mining for ten minutes, it was understandable for one to be sprawled on the ground. 

Jun looked up and gazed at the five-meter mineral mountain. With a smirk, he plopped down and thought, "It's impossible to mine this in one day, right?"

"Let's rest for a bit, then head out."

With nothing to do, Jun browsed the territory management menu and reviewed everything.

Lord: Jun Reyes

Population: 2168 Registered: 612

Territory: Binangonan

Territory Type: Neutral - Bad

Affiliation: Nature - Receive 10% increase in crop growth rate

Considering the number of small factions in the town, and the two big powers that had most of the population, having more than six hundred registered citizens was already good for him. Those six hundred people were the ones who were rescued and helped by Jun but joined another faction. They don't hate Jun nor despise his methods, they just felt they weren't strong enough to contribute to Black Haven.

Afterward, he moved on and checked the building menu. The altar and portal were grayed out and cannot be built again, and yet to his surprise, the faction hall wasn't. 

He tapped on the image and a notification appeared.

[Faction Hall building must be at least one kilometer away from each other.]

I guess not... If it's that far, then I could build one in Angono. The problem would be materials. We have enough essence shards but the gold was too hard to get. I can't send the Scavengers to fight in dungeons since they're not suited for battles. Having the Elites do dungeons would be a huge waste of resources since they're expanding the safe zone and clearing the surrounding area. I need a group made for clearing dungeons...

Is it time to make an army? Probably. I can also use them as guards and patrol the streets. People would feel safer and they would like the status quo of things. 

Then that's that. Hmm?

Jun noticed a cogwheel button on the topside corner of the building's images. He tapped on the cogwheel and a new popup setting appeared.

Jun's eyes widened upon reading the features listed on the popup. 

[Faction Altar]

Altar Blessings

-Faction Members only - Checked

-Faction Members and Citizens Only

-Everyone

[Faction Portal]

-Faction Members only - Checked

-Faction Members and Citizens Only

-Everyone

[Faction Hall]

-Faction Members only

-Faction Members and Citizens Only - Checked

-Everyone

So that's why! Wait... if I set the Altar to faction members and citizens, people would rush to get these extra buffs! Then should I include the portal in that package? No, I should keep it to our group. However, I could allow the Scavengers and the Elites to take the faction portal rune since they're working for us. 

Jun smiled then stood up. "Let's go back for today. I think we need an expert to guide us with mining this. Even if we can't find an expert we'll just have to use manpower to do this labor."

Everyone agreed and got up while activating their teleport runes. After experiencing the so-called mining fatigue, they all decided to relax their body and soul.

Jun browsed the group chat and found out that the latest trend was the new base and whether they were going to move in and leave the mall. He felt that he should clear things up, so he should explain his current direction in mind.

After arriving at the Northern Plains Portal, Jun came up with a reply.

[Jun: "There would be no changes to our operations. The Black Haven compound would serve as our main hub while the Northern Plains would be our safe house."]

Jun looked around after sending the message. A safe house? Everyone knows this place and with my plan, people will regularly visit. He called everyone out of the house and gathered them at the altar. Then, he changed the setting for the altar and portal to faction members and citizens.

"Please go in. you'll receive an altar buff. It's a different one from the XP Buff we got before and they don't stack." Jun explained as he ushered everyone.

The moment people stepped closer to the altar, Jun kept receiving access permission to the altar. While thinking of a way to deal with the notifications blocking his screen, the notification stacked and additional options appeared.

Y / N

Yes to All / No to All

Jun chose Yes to All and everyone felt the barriers stopping them disappear. When everyone was busy talking about the buffs they received, Jun found out that the additional options were added to the building setting functions.

Since he planned to make the altar accessible for his citizens, he chose yes to all, so he won't get notified to death. He also adjusted the settings for the faction portal to members and citizens for easier access. Though it was like that, he had to enforce a rule that only the Scavengers and Elites could use the Portal. In the first place, there was no reason to use the Faction Portal unless you were in a hurry to go back to the faction hall. The town hall portal is still functioning well and people had no reason to teleport in the Northern Plains. 

While the group chatted, Jun heard something odd about the altar buff.

Apparently, the altar buff for citizens was time-limited. It only lasts for three days or seventy-two hours. It was a surprising discovery for Jun since Nik's group received a permanent version of the buff that increases 5% overall stats.

After setting everything on the right course, Jun informed Evo of his plan to use the altar buffs to attract more citizens. No one could refuse to receive a stat increase buff in exchange for registering as a citizen.

While he was feeling overjoyed thinking about people flocking to register, he received a private message from Evo.

[Evo: "Don't give it to them for free! They will take it for granted and will think Black Haven is a pushover. The buff had expirations, right? Then set some rates, like 100CP to receive the buff. The 5% overall stat increase is worth that much. You can also use price variations. Your collecting gold at 20CP per piece. Then you can set the rates at 100CP or 5 Gold. Also, have you ever thought of the altar durability? With the influx of people, the altar would need repairs in the near future. Have you heard about the usage limit and the repair procedures of the town portal? More than a thousand people venture out every day. If everyone just uses the portal, it would get destroyed since it only had one thousand durability. Everyone needs to repair the portal every time they use it, No one is exempted to that. I guess you're the first one. Paolo Canlas talked to me about that and I told him that I would remind you."]

[Jun: "Bruh, you need to walk around and relax."]

[Evo: No u.]