Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 199: Settlement Management Expanded

The immediate target of the Remnant was not Gravestone. Sure Zane had been marked as an "Enemy of America" for his acts against the Remnant's scouts. But the reality was that the Remnant was more interested in taking on the challenge of reconquering the immediate areas just outside of their bunker complexes. Of which they had many spread across the nation.

And because of this, it would be a long while before Zane came into contact with their forces, or even really learned that they were targeting him. Instead, Zane was busy with other matters. Growth in Gravestone was rather large. Not only was Zane able to build superior defenses around their held territory, via the use of the system's settlement building feature.

But he unlocked some new blueprints that helped expand the settlement's capabilities. While the Stygian Iron Works and the Grim Forge were vital for forging new equipment. There was still a matter of lacking proper agricultural equipment.

It was one thing for Lily to be able to successfully grow the crops in a short amount of time, but harvesting the food required much manpower. Limiting the amount of residents within the town that Zane could dispatch to fight the undead in nearby areas.

However, all was not lost, because there were blueprints to build farming equipment that could be properly operated by his undead servants. Hell, even the lowest level walker, if captured by Zane, could be used to work this equipment.

Of course, the higher the level of the undead, the higher the productivity would be. Not only that, but Zane discovered that he could effectively garrison undead to act as soldiers in the settlement's defense. When he did this, they were no longer a part of his horde management menu, meaning that he could recruit more undead to his cause to replace them.

Because of this, Zane decided to supply his entire current horde of Tier II Undead, and Tier III Undead to the settlement to act as the settlement's garrison and labor force. This meant that the residents of Gravestone, who had previously been sweating away in both agriculture and industry, were now free to pursue more meaningful endeavors, like fighting to reclaim Reno for mankind.

From here on out, the fields outside of Gravestone were effectively worked 24/7, vastly decreasing the amount of energy Lily had to put into maintaining the agricultural industry of Gravestone. Before now, the young woman had to seed the fields herself, grow the crops with her powers, and then harvest them by hand.

It was a lengthy and tiring process, one which limited the quantity of crops she could grow. But now there were agricultural equipment such as the Dread Seeder, and the Dread Harvester which could do these things without her, and were instead operated by an undead servant.

All Lily needed to do now was visit the vast fields, which were far larger than she was able to grow on her own, and speed up the growth process of the crops, while also making sure that the crops were free from spoilage, and infestation.

Meanwhile, the Industrial sector of Gravestone could now produce equipment for the residents 24/7. So long as Zane transferred supplies into its storage and set the servants to work on specific blueprints, they could make just about anything that he could.

This labor force was a must have for Zane. As he simply did not have the time to spend multiple days at a time making equipment for his ever-increasing horde of undead. And surprisingly enough, those undead servants who worked the fields, and the factories gained XP. Allowing them to slowly level up on their own.

Even the Garrison could gain experience, so long as he set them to "train" which effectively meant running drills instead of focusing on defense. The more Zane explored the settlement management feature of his system, the more he realized that he was practically playing a video game, one which perfectly combined the elements of three genres: Grand Strategy, Real Time Strategy, and City Builders.

Any undead servant he had access to could be used to fulfill any laborious role in the town, including construction and maintenance. And naturally, this meant that certain undead servants were better suited to certain tasks.

Because of this, specific jobs that were previously incapable of being performed by the settlement's residents, such as maintaining control over the town's running water, were now delegated to the undead.

Naturally, the residents of the gravestone were cautious about the fact that so many undead were wandering within their town, but Zane had mitigated these fears by only using Tier II and Tier III Undead for garrison and labors.

Meaning that rather than your run of your mill zombies, they were instead animated skeletons, or perhaps even more human like monsters. Which he explained to the residents by telling them that these undead were summoned minions of his, ones that were wholly under his control.

Considering nobody had seen skeletons in the wild, the residents of Gravestone ultimately decided to believe that the undead beneath Zane's command were different than those that had destroyed humanity's grasp over the Earth.

After all, the System which had granted them their powers was both mysterious and inexplainable. It was entirely reasonable that Zane gained an ability to summon minions to control as he saw fit.

As the weeks passed, sooner or later the old buildings above the bunker were knocked down, and were replaced with new, fortified buildings, constructed from the materials harvested from the undead, and forged in the Stygian Iron Works. The aesthetic style of Gravestone now began resembling that of a Gothic-Punk film.

When Zane gazed upon the rapid progress of the town he had built over the span of a few months, he genuinely felt a sense of pride in him. But there was more work to be done. With the majority of his undead servants now being relegated to garrison duty and hard labor.

He had to go out into the streets of new Reno and begin training an entirely new army to replace the one he had lost. With this in mind, Zane gathered the girls in his party together, where he began discussing his ideas with them.

"Currently Gravestone is thriving. It is quickly becoming a settlement in the wasteland that is capable of sustaining itself. And because of this, I wanted to take this time to establish a colony, if you will.

The distance between Gravestone and New Reno is quite vast. If not for our caravans, being both lucky and skilled. We would not be able to reliably trade with our neighbors to the North. And if we want to continue to prosper, trade needs to not only stay stable, but expand.

Because of this, I want to take control over a foothold in South Reno. That way, we can establish a permanent outpost between us and New Reno. Giving our caravans quick access to reinforcements should they require them.

Keep in mind that although we are growing stronger at a rapid rate, our enemy is evolving just as quickly as we are. Our scouts report that there is an ever-increasing number of Abominations, Stalkers, and Juggernauts within the ruins of Old Reno, and if that weren't bad enough, they are starting to become more aggressive towards our people.

I fear our actions in Fallon may have attracted the attention of Reno's Horde King, and if that is the case. Then we will need to make preparations to secure our trade routes. So, who wants to come with me on this little journey of mine?"

The response was unanimous. All the girls in Zane's party agreed to go with him to South Reno so that they may establish a permanent outpost in the area to help protect their current trade routes. Even Maya raised her hand, silently, in an attempt to join in.

An attempt that was quickly rejected by Zane, who shook his head before patting the girl on the head.

"Maya, although I am thankful that you want to help. The fact of the matter is that we need you to protect the bunker while we're gone. You can do that for us, right?"

Maya's eyes shone when she heard Zane say this. Lately, Zane had become much more friendly to the girl than he had when initially meeting her. And the fact that he was trusting her with looking after the bunker without a babysitter was a big step for the both of them.

Because of this, Maya emphatically nodded her head thrice, confirming that she would not let Zane down. Once this matter was settled, he and the girls equipped their gear before heading out in their up-armored HuNovelFireee towards the ruins of Old Reno.

Though Zane suspected that the Horde Kings were targeting him and his people after he had taken out two of them. The reality was well beyond his imagination. As of this moment, the various Horde Kings of the world suspected that Zane was their brother, and a double agent hiding among humanity to uncover its secrets.

While they may harass him in order to "maintain his cover, " they would never try to kill him outright. And the same goes for the girls in his party. As for the Caravans of Gravestone, however, as far as Bartholomew was concerned, they were fair game. After all, he could never expose Zane's "real identity" could he?"