A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

Chapter 108: Upgrading (part-1)

Ciara was having the worst time of her life, as she suddenly found herself surrounded by people she held an intense dislike for, her frustration increased several-fold when she spotted her daughter having a time of her life while watching her misery.

'Micha, I will show you what laughing at my misery would yield for you.'

The stink eye that Michalina received quickly sobered her as she made herself scarce from Ciara's sight, as Ciara then gave her undivided attention towards the group in front of her.

Beth eyes moistened upon seeing Ciara as she quickly went to hug her as she exclaimed out loud, "Ciara my daughter."

Only to be stopped by Ciara herself who pushed her away from her as she spoke, "We are not that close for you to hug me, now what do you want I am busy."

Beth grimaced at Ciara's tone and she could not blame her, since the day the apocalypse took place she was slapped by the harsh reality of truth, and now she can clearly see how much important she was to her children, which was not so much but what confused her and saddened her was the fact that both of misunderstood her when all she wanted for her children to live a happy life, as such with her immense experience she managed to point them towards the right direction but first her daughter rebelled and broke off and now her son is rebelling, but she was patient and knew one day they would understand why she did as such.

Ciara's eyes travelled over the group before she spoke, "I see one of you is missing."

With a pained expression, Marcel spoke, "Dad died while trying to help us escape."

Ciara did not know what to feel about that, on one hand, there was once a time when she adored her father like any other daughter but that feeling soon changed to disgust when she watched her father let her wife run all over him, never had he stood against her wife, never had he supported her except a few circumstances but it was directly and as long as it was away from his wife's eyes, as such instead of feeling sad she was surprised at the turn of event.

'Huh, what do you know even a coward can grow a spine sometimes.' her eyes went towards Beth before she snorted inwardly at that as she mused, 'Nah, never the spineless coward must have been ordered by his owner to sacrifice himself so that she can escape otherwise there is no way that man would sacrifice himself for someone else, sigh, what a pathetic existence, I am glad my son has received more of me than any of his blood-related relatives.'

Meanwhile, as Ryan's group made their way towards the water pumping system Xuelong could not help but ask out loud a question that was running in her mind, "Miss Zhan may I ask you something?", as Zhan nodded Xuelong continued, "Are you from Ryan's world or are you from ours?"

Zhan frowned as she spoke, "I am from Ryan's world, but why are you asking this question?"

"Nothing, your race is known as Red Oni, an extinct race, a race that had immense physical strength, as such I was hoping you were from our world."

"Why so?"

A feral smirk appeared on Xuelong's face as she spoke, "Well I always wanted to compare my strength with a member of that race though it seems I would be finally able to do so."

Ryan rolled his eyes as he spoke, "You will get plenty of chances to fight various kinds of creatures now please pay attention, the last time I was down there inside the gorge I ended up becoming snake food, so please watch my back."

Zhan looked stunned as she spoke, "You are going down there now! Wait let me get some of the soldiers to protect you."

Ryan simply waved his hand as he spoke, "No there is no need for you to worry I can handle myself."

"Did you forget what happened last time?"

"Of course not I remember clearly auntie if it were not for you I would have ended up becoming snake food."

With his words being said he began his climb down which proved to be difficult as most of the ladder was missing, as such he was glad he went towards the fort to bring enough parts to repair his way down, and by the time he had managed to reach the bottom the flying unit of Fort Genesis were all present having surrounded Ryan's place of work, who unlike before was working even faster.

'Even if the flood had ravaged the pumping system, but it could not completely destroy it, except all it left in its wake was a damaged and misaligned system, though the same could not be said for the ladder that helped me down to the bottom of the gorge, as I had to completely repair and recreate a great part of it, including the electrical system.'

"Ryan watch out!", a familiar shout of warning followed by a familiar explosion of water was created by an all too familiar creature that was a giant snake, seeing the sight in front of him Ryan had a feeling of dj vu, but unlike before his pistol was jabbed into the creature's mouth before he pulled the trigger, a loud sound of laser being fired was heard as the creature died as Ryan casually tossed the carcass into the water before resuming his work.

Zhan let out a low whistle as she spoke, "He has surely grown a lot."

Ylerias looked towards Zhan as she could not help but ask, "Did he not have any kind of combat experiences before?"

Zhan shook her head as she replied back, "No, he never had any prior experience in combat, you can say he was a scholar who was studying hard, though he dabbled in sports like fencing which is basically sword fighting and was good at it, such sports were played with people wearing protective gears and blunt swords so as not to cause any injury let alone a fatal one so no, he did not have any prior combat experience before the apocalypse."

Xuelong frowned as she spoke, "What about others of his age?"

Zhan shook her head as she spoke, "Our world never had to fight against deadly and dangerous creatures unlike in yours, as we humans had managed to establish ourselves at the top of the food chain especially at the onset of various scientific discoveries, children in our world never had to fight or face dangers and even joining in the army is voluntary, and as for sports well not all of them has remotely anything to do with combat at all."

Xuelong sighed as she spoke, "I see."

A few minutes later with the help of one of the flying unit Ryan was safely on the topside as he spoke, "Well there is no need to wait let us start the pumps though and then we can start with the next phase."

Zhan frowned as she spoke, "So what do you wish to do next Ryan."

Ryan gave her a bright smile as he spoke, "What else but to create a large wall."

Zhan's frown deepened as she spoke, "I see a wall surrounding the small village we have."

Ryan shook his head as he spoke, "No of course not, this part of the land is almost like a peninsula with a deep gorge to the North, the south being a steep cliff, that suddenly gives rise to a small beach in the middle, with the east being the same, while the west having a large forest, and if I am not wrong the animal attack is from the forest so that means putting up a large wall would at least form some type of sturdy barrier from where we can retaliate."

Zhan frowned as she spoke, "Yes it would work."

"Splendid aunty, by now surely you already know the lay of the land well.", as Zhan nodded Ryan continued with a large smile on his face, "Then please make sure to select the narrowest part of the peninsula and start making at least a ten feet deep and wide trench as fast as possible, while gathering some people to cut down as many tree trunks as possible, I will need them and make it fast."

Zhan was about to leave only to be stopped once again by Ryan as he spoke with a wide smile, "Also aunty please make everyone leave the fort completely I am going to upgrade it."

As Zhan made herself scarce Ryan let out a deep sigh before he spoke, "It would take some time as such I need your help to keep an eye on any creature that might launch an attack while I would be making the wall."

The duo simply nodded before they engaged in small talk amongst them while Ryan found himself surrounded by his mother's subordinates who were not only excited but also happy and relieved upon seeing his safe return.

Though most were curious about the laser gun and the gauntlets that had disappeared as such he was bombarded with various questions though he managed to stave off their questions stating that he would answer them soon he would wait for everyone to be present so that would not have to answer same questions over and over again, he was rescued from their onslaught by the timely arrival of Donna, who promptly drew him to a bone-crushing hug.

"Ryan it is good to have you back."

Ryan simply smiled as he gave a pat on her back before he spoke, "I glad to be, so how have you been."

"I have been fine but what about you, you look a bit worn out."

Ryan gave a tired smile as he spoke, "Well the journey was long and many things happened in the way don't worry I will tell you later, I am now waiting for aunty Zhan to finish my request."

"Ah, about that the fort is empty and you can carry on with your work."

"Splendid.", that he quickly moved to the side of the fort before he closed his eyes while touching it, at first there was nothing then the entire fort gave ethereal as it glowed with a light blue glow and it in front of everyone's it began to shift its shape slowly.

The sight was an awe-inspiring one too many though Ryan suddenly gained a frown on his face, 'It will take fifteen minutes to upgrade, fifteen minutes and during that time it is not accessible not to mention every time I upgrade it, not only there will be a sharp increase in materials required to do so with the involvement of many exotic and rare materials but it would also pose a large trouble when the fort would not be available for a long period of time especially when it is the only source of clean and purified water and power at present, troublesome.'

Donna smiled at Ryan as she spoke, "Well then Ryan I will be off, after all, I have a trench to dug.", and with a wave, she left behind a slight absent-minded Ryan who was busy planning for the future.