[Journal Log Entry - Day 004]
Weapon Station Mk.I complete. Began crafting tool upgrades. Reinforced Base Zero's west wall. Rainwater collection setup finalized. No confirmed sighting of food thief, but signs increasing. Motion Sensor under assembly. Still learning. Still adapting.
Dawn - Base Zero Interior
Zero stood in front of the crude workbench welded from twisted rebar and scavenged sheet metal. His hands, dirty but precise, worked methodically. The Weapon Station Mk.I wasn't pretty, but it was functional and more importantly, it had just unlocked the ability to refine basic tools.
[Weapon Station Mk.I - Operational]
[Blueprints Unlocked:
Tier 1 Combat Knife | Tier 1 Hammer]
He selected the knife blueprint first, feeding in sharpened scrap, a bent circuit fragment for conductivity, and leftover grip tape from the crowbar handle. When finished, the blade gleamed faintly, blackened but wicked.
[Crafted: Linebreaker (Tier 1 Combat Knife)] [Durability: 22/22 | Stealth Bonus: +10%]
The hammer came next. He reinforced the core with pipe segments and wrapped the grip in wire mesh.
[Crafted: Crude Hammer Mk.I] [Durability: 30/30 | Destruction Value: +4]
Both were significant improvements—and for the first time, he felt equipped to push farther.
Outside, a faint drizzle filled the half-rusted barrel he'd sealed the night before with rubber mesh and charcoal filters scavenged from an old farm generator.
[Rainwater Barrel — Status: Functional] [Purity: Low-Safe | Capacity: 1.3L Collected]
He took a sip from his tin cup. Faint metallic aftertaste. It'd do.
Midday — The Eastern Waste Fringe
He followed a power line skeleton eastward, careful to track signs of structural collapse without stepping on brittle bone-like wire. The landscape was more twisted here—where ash met moss and metal, and the air buzzed faintly from unseen currents.
Then came a ping:
[Scan Detected: Public Maintenance Facility | Tier 1 Lock Integrity — Breached]
The door was half-collapsed. He slipped inside and found three looted lockers, a tangled wire nest, and a shattered maintenance drone. Its lens still flickered dimly.
[Loot Acquired: Lithium Cell x1, Circuit Board x2, Scrap Wiring x5]
Near the far wall, a half-functioning terminal blinked.
"If this log reaches anyone… Bloom's gotten into the uplinks. Don't sync. Don't trust corrupted nodes. They mimic—"
Static. The rest bled red.
Zero flinched. "Bloom corruption spreads through tech too now?"
[System Notice: Redroot Data Echo Fragment Located] [Corruption Risk: Elevated. Access? Y/N]
He hesitated.
"…Not yet."
Instead, he pinged its location, took the data cache backup, and withdrew.
Evening — Base Zero Exterior
The hammer changed everything.
He tore through the last rusted support beams on the western wall, bolted salvaged lockers as new panels, and mounted a metal drainpipe to redirect roof runoff.
With the Motion Sensor parts salvaged, he finally wired it up. It whined faintly before syncing.
[Motion Sensor Node Online] [Coverage Radius: 5 Meters | Active Scan — 0 Anomalies]
He stepped back.
It was working.
Nightfall — Inside Base Zero
He sat under the flickering glow of the interior coil lamp. It cast long shadows across the salvaged panels, his knife hanging from a leather loop, his crowbar now downgraded to secondary use.
He activated the Journal menu.
[Journal Log Entry — Day 004 Continued] Weapon Station functional. Tools upgraded. Motion Sensor online. Water purification stable. Found corrupted terminal hinting at Bloom-tech interfacing. Logged coordinates. Still no food thief spotted. Rations dipped slightly. Laid trap again. Goal: Reach 40% structural by end of week. Secure perimeter.
Quote: "If they're watching, let them see me build."
A soft ping interrupted his thoughts.
[Alert: Motion Detected — East Perimeter] [Entity Size: Small. Classification: Unregistered.]
He didn't move. Didn't panic. Just stared at the HUD, then toward the trap crate outside the base's makeshift gate.
A shadow flitted beyond the barricade. Small. Low.
He exhaled slowly. Not yet.
He shut the Journal menu.
And waited.