Shelter Storage

Since we had reached early in the morning, it was ideal for me to begin with my preparations. 

While majority of the remaining population seemed to have treated the words of our system as a nightmare that they wished to forget, they had not bothered to understand it. 

The major decline in our population when the apocalypse finally began, happened in the first year. The negligence, overconfidence and underestimation of the apocalypse was the major reason behind our predicament. 

While most top players had started preparing meticulously, they too were unaware of a few facts and when the apocalypse struck they too were at a disadvantage, until they learned through countless sacrifices. 

I however was going to be prepared. 

I signalled for Sam to take her brother and stand beside the bus while I changed my profession and designate our base. The reason for cautioning her was because of the fact that when the system assigns a piece of property or land to a settler for building their base, it makes sure to kill of anything and everything that has intelligence and can become powerful enough to harm the settler. 

This meant that when you assign an area into your base you have to make sure that none of your comrades, lackeys or family are in that zone. Without knowing this fact, many of the people will face their first disaster even before the apocalypse strikes. 

I designated the area as my base and as if magic, the area began to transform. The building that the system provided started to take shape right in front of our eyes. The system allowed us to designate an area of only 600 sq. ft. for the base. The villa itself covered an area of 400 - 450 sq. ft. This leaves us with 150 - 200 sq. ft. area on the outside.

Unlike other systems, which everyone had read about in various fantasy and sci-fi novels, our system did not automatically provide us with protection in the area it has assigned. The system was very clear that the protection only applied to the building that you had assigned as your base be it pre-made or system-made. Because most information about a zombie apocalypse in our world came from these novels, this fact did seem to have lost between rest of the information.

The reason I had not awaited until the very last day to build my base was because first, we would require a place to stay in this wilderness and to store our wares and second to complete the base. 

Apart from a simple 2 bhk villa, the system also provided a shelter storage to the owner. This was an actual storage basement that was only accessible to the owner of the shelter. There was no magical space storage that can be summoned and closed at will, neither can one take out or place stuff in it just by thinking about it. The storage was provided to every shelter and it was the same size to begin with irrespective of the initial building size. 

Any and all products that are not stored here will not receive any protection by the system. 

The adventurers on the other could not have this facility and hence the system had compensated them with a backpack with a similar storage area and as their own level increased, their storage area would increase accordingly. This area also did not come with any magical feature like instant summoning. If one wanted to place any item or remove it, they have to manual enter the backpack and do so. While they could technically throw in something in their bags, it would not be placed correctly. Their bags too will only be accessible to the owner and would vanish if the owner died. This led to wanderers not fighting to steal each other's storage bags in the future. 

The villa came with a bed in every room and a cozy sofa in the hall. The kitchen too was well furnished but other than this the entire villa was bare. While Sam's brother explored the villa and Sam followed him, I started to transport the goods from the bus to the underground storage. It was convenient that the storage had an outdoor access from the back of the villa. 

I drove the bus to the back side and started the moving of goods. While I was a halfway done, Sam and her brother also joined to help me. By doubling the speed we were able to finish it before breakfast. 

Sam had taught herself everything related to household chores for the sake of her brother and I who had lived alone in the apocalypse for eight years had also become independent, leading to us quickly dividing the chores between us. While I made the breakfast, she sorted the things in basement and filled the house with the necessities.

Seeing that we were in such a beautiful place and the rare amount of peace around us, I decided to splurge a little and made a heavy breakfast. I was happy as of now. The correct start in this life was a monumental task for me. Last time due to fear, I had been stuck in the outhouse of the orphanage and had not assigned my base even after a month of the apocalypse descending. After the destructing of the biggest base in our city, me and everyone else in our city were given a rude wake up call and only then did we begin our journey in that zombie filled world.

But because of this delay, when I finally decided to become a settler and set up my base in the close vicinity of a very powerful base, I was already left way behind. You see, no matter when you decide to choose a profession and when you settle down, the system was always fair and would start you at the same starting point as the first settlers. This meant that when I decided to become a settler six months into the apocalypse, the system gave me the same villa as it had given me now. It also had the same level of protection as it now had.

The only problem with that was, by the time I became a settler the most common zombies had already evolved from the basic white tier to green tier zombies. The enhanced protection almost lost its advantage and because of the time needed to advance a base, I and everyone else like me were destined to be always left behind. 

I called for Sam and her brother to have breakfast and after that I joined them in moving all the essentials into the villa. The beds were given new bedsheets, the sofa was given a cover, their room was decorated with toys and his favourite posters, the bathrooms were fully stacked with essentials and the kitchen was fully stacked by the time we were done. 

The previously barren villa now had a bit more of the human touch and began seeming more like a house suitable for living.