Rebirth: 100 Days Before Doomsday

[Previoue barrier progress: 69%]

System’s notification was followed by a deep inhale from Grace. She stared at the dark sky above, watching as the usual invisible and silent barrier shimmered slightly as it probably sensed her power.

It was half past seven in the evening and she was currently at the rooftop of the tallest apartment building in Greenstone.

While she had spent the past several months focusing on bringing new survivors into Greenstone, killing infected, and searching for mutated plants, animals, and Spirit Stones, she also didn’t forget about the energy barrier that she was trying to construct over Greenstone.

But even after several months of constant trying, she was only able to create a barrier that was covering a little over half of the Greenstone while the other half was still open to immediate dangers.

Of course, these immediate dangers in her mind were the monster beasts that still hadn’t made their appearance. But she knew better than to enjoy the little peace they had for the time-being.

Because she knew that despite all these advancements Greenstone had made in the past one and a half years, it was still vulnerable. No matter how much food they stored, no matter how strong their people became, it wouldn’t matter if they couldn’t withstand the threats that lurked beyond the Veil.

Which was why she was pouring every ounce of her strength into building the barrier.

The successful establishment of this barrier would not only make Greenstone stronger, but it would also solve a big issue she was preparing herself to fail in her big plan.

A small sigh escaped her lips and her gaze once again returned to the barrier - but it had again disappeared into the darkness. Even during daytime, it remained invisible.

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Other than her, only her boyfriends were aware of the existence of this barrier.

She stretched out her arms and closed her eyes as she focused. The energy pulsed through her veins, seeping into the very air and merging with the already present barrier.

After doing it countless times, the thought creation for barrier now came to her naturally. All that she needed was enough energy to build the barrier. But considering the long days she always had before coming to perform this particular task, it was unlikely for her to be left with enough energy to build more than just a small fraction of barrier with her each attempt.

Seconds ticked by, turning into minutes. It was half an hour later when she finally stopped at the realization of how low her energy level had gone.

Despite the extremely cold weather, sweat beads were decorating her forehead from the excessive use of her energy. Her body trembled slightly from the exhaustion as well.

Not wanting to get lectured by Rune and Davian, she immediately took out a bottle of energy drink from the space and emptied it while listening to the system’s updates.

[Progress Update: Barrier coverage at 65%...]

[Barrier extension successful. Current coverage: 49%...]

[Barrier reinforcement in effect. Current coverage: 59%...]

Each notification was a small victory, a reminder that she was getting closer.

* * *

As if time was working against her, the world continued to shift in dangerous ways.

Two months later, just as Greenstone was settling into a rhythm, another tremor shook Starship Country.

This time, it was stronger.

And thus, despite the safe location of Sunspire City from the earthquake prone zones within the country, the city still experienced the terror of the strong tremors to certain degrees.

The ground beneath them rumbled violently, shaking buildings, rattling supplies, and sending a wave of panic through the residents.

Grace steadied herself against the wall as the tremor passed, keeping a calm expression on her face despite the situation.

Once the tremors stopped and the chaos came under control, she heard 2025’s voice inside her head as the little creature updated her about what the system had found out about the tremors.

[Seismic Activity Detected]

[Origin: Western Restricted Zone]

Again.

A frown appeared on her face as soon as she heard 2025 announcing the area of origin of the earthquake. The previous tremors that happened just months ago, were also originated from this very same place.

While there was nothing abnormal about the tremors originating from the same place again and again, she couldn’t help but kept feeling that something wasn’t right about these recent tremors.

She opened her shared mindlink with 2025 and asked, "Can you confirm if these tremors are because of earthquakes?"

There was silence for a few seconds before the creature answered. [The similarities are too high too dismiss the possibility. But nothing could be said for sure based on the current data.]

Grace didn’t speak and got lost in her thoughts until she heard 2025 asking - [Do you think something is not right with these tremors?]

She let out a small sigh. "It’s just a feeling. But strong enough to make me question if things are indeed as they appear."

[Maybe you can go out and check the restricted zone once you have enough spare time?] 2025 suggested the only solution it could think of at the moment.

Grace nodded her head slolwy but didn’t reveal whether she was taking the suggesting seriously or not.

Whatever the case with these tremors and the restricted zone, at least Greenstone was able to hold firm for the time being.

And most importantly, the barrier worked as it absorbed some of the impact of the tremors.

But it wasn’t strong enough yet, and the impact only weakened it further.

Yet... Grace was determined to master the power of barrier creation. Sooner or later, she was going to do it.

And as if the universe itself was listening to her determination - two weeks after the latest tremor, she finally did it.

Standing at the rooftop once again, she focused all her energy into the barrier. The invisible force rippled outward, expanding across the remaining area, strengthening, locking into place like a puzzle finally reaching its last piece.

Then, she heard 2025’s familiar voice inside her head.

[Barrier Completed]

She blinked in surpise, her breath hitching as she took in what she had actually accomplished.

[Congratulations, Host! The Residential Area is now fully protected by an energy barrier.]

[Rewards: Enhanced Barrier Control, Energy Recovery Buff, +10% Resistance to External Attacks, and 500,000 points.]

Grace let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. A deep sense of fulfillment filled her, and the weight of months of effort finally lifted off her shoulders.

She had done it.

Greenstone was protected.

But as quickly as relief washed over her, 2025 decided to shift her attention to the area she still needed to work on.

[Warning: Barrier durability at 32%. Susceptible to high-impact attacks.]

That meant if a Beast or an unknown enemy targeted Greenstone, the barrier would hold for a while - but not for long.

She inhaled deeply, making up her mind to continue strengthening the barrier from the next day onward.

* * *

It didn’t take long before Grace realized that the process of reinforcing the barrier was much more complicated than simply expanding it.

Now that the foundation was in place, she had to fuel it, give it a power source that would increase its durability.

Fortunately, 2025 was the to guide her.

[Recommendation: Infuse the barrier with energy sources matching elemental attributes.]

That meant using Spirit Stones. Specifically, high-level Spirit Stones infused with elemental powers. She could already guess that the stronger spirit stone she would use, the stronger the barrier would be.

The problem? She had only found one Level Six stone so far.

She needed more.

And that meant hunting.

However, finding high level Spirit Stones was not an easy task, especially when it took her over seven months to find just one Level Six stone.

The moment 2025 made the suggestion, she knew that it wouldn’t be anytime soon when she would be able to find a strong enough spirit stone. Thus, while she conti used looking for one, she also used her thought creation power to strengthen the barrier as much as she possibly could.

While she had a Level Six Spirit Stone, she didn’t use it in the barrier for several reasons.

First - it was the only high level stone she had in possession and 2025 was still running research on it. Second - it could come handy in some other serious situations. Third - Greenstone wasn’t in any direct threat that would have required the protection of an energy barrier.

Over the next few weeks, Grace led multiple hunting expeditions into the dangerous zones outside Greenstone.

She and her team tracked down mutated Beasts, each more powerful than the last. At this point of time, some of these beasts had already started developing elemental abilities that originated from their Spirit Stones. This made it easier for them to locate the beasts that were carrying the stones.

Each battle was grueling, and each victory was hard-earned. @@novelbin@@

But each Spirit Stone they collected brought them one step closer to their goal.