"Did something happen? Why so suddenly?"
Hestia was a little caught off guard when she heard this. She put down the book in her hand and asked doubtfully. Takumi didn't hide it and said with a smile, "Do you still remember what I told you about the visitor who came after you?"
Hestia nodded. "I remember. She wanted to join Dimensional City, but you temporarily persuaded her to go back. You also said later that there would be a catastrophe in her world and almost everyone would die..."
Just as he said that, Hestia also reacted.
"Do you mean..."
"Yes, she came again just now. She came to take refuge. The disaster has already begun."
"Then since you recalled Kanae and the others, are you preparing to go to this world? Are you going to save people?"
Takumi nodded and then shook his head.
"Saving people can be done, and it will be enough to absorb some people into Dimensional City, but not now."
And even if they wanted to save people, it wouldn't be to save everyone.
"For Dimensional City, what is more important is the technological products and industrial equipment there."
"With them, the production efficiency of Dimensional City will be greatly improved, and the construction efficiency will also be significantly improved. Some previously planned projects can also be started by then."
"Anyway, after this disaster in that world, the people will be almost all dead, and those materials will only rot if left there. In this case, it is better to leave them to us for use. What do you think?"
As he said that, Takumi also asked Hestia. Mainly, he wanted to see what her attitude was towards this matter. If Hestia showed no tolerance, then he thought he would never mention such a thing to her again.
But Takumi was obviously over-worrying. Hestia was not so overly idealistic.
She nodded. "That's right. It's better to give us an advantage."
"Besides, won't you be able to save some people later? Just treat these supplies as a reward."
She didn't think there was anything wrong with Takumi's logic. Since those people are dead, those materials are ownerless things. What's wrong with taking ownerless things for your own? Not to mention, Takumi will save some people in the future. What's wrong with collecting some rewards in advance?
"If you agree, then I'll be relieved."
Takumi also smiled happily when he saw this. He found himself falling in love with Hestia more and more. But Hestia rolled her eyes, obviously guessing what he was worried about.
"I'm not that nosy, and I don't know those people, so why would I care about their life and death?"
What else could Takumi say? He immediately silenced her with a kiss.
"Okay, the newcomers are still there; I'm going to prepare some daily necessities for them."
Although with the addition of Zabuton, Dimensional City can already produce clothes, towels, bedding, and other things on its own, toiletries such as toothbrushes cannot be produced yet and need to be purchased from Orario.
"Well, go ahead. I will inform Kanae and the others." Hestia blushed and pushed Takumi away with some embarrassment.
Takumi stopped talking nonsense and went out to buy things at the nearest store. After returning to the Familia camp, he returned to Dimensional City. Again, he went to find a tailor shop and had them process two quilts and a few sets of traditional clothing.
After finishing everything, he returned to Saeko Busujima and her companion. At this time, the two of them had already eaten the meal prepared by Saeko. Takumi put down his things and said with a smile:
"I see you are eating. These are the daily necessities prepared for you. I will arrange your rooms for you later."
"But we currently only have two places where people can live: the Familia branch building over there and my place."
"If you like, you can stay here with me. Anyway, I don't sleep here much recently."
Isn't that right? Since that day, it seemed someone had turned on some kind of switch and became uncontrollable. Of course, the main reason was that Hestia was very clingy as a "newlywed." It was okay during the day, as she had things to worry about, but at night... the door would be locked tight!
"Sorry to trouble you; thank you very much." Seeing this, Saeko Busujima stood up and bowed to Takumi.
"Yes, thank you very much, Takumi-kun, for taking us in." Shizuka Marikawa also stood up and bowed.
When Takumi left just now, she had come to understand everything through Saeko Busujima's explanation. She understood what kind of existence Dimensional City is. She also knew that her own world was doomed, and she could only live here from now on. So she was naturally very grateful to Takumi for readily agreeing to take them in. Although she was naturally airheaded and very confused, she was not a fool. After figuring everything out, she also quickly corrected her attitude.
"It's no trouble. I also welcome you to join Dimensional City." Takumi responded with a smile.
"You both don't know much about this place yet. Since Saeko went back last time, this place has changed a lot, so now it's time to introduce it to you."
Then Takumi explained the current situation of Dimensional City to the two of them: to what extent the construction had reached, how many worlds were currently connected, what kind of worlds they were, and who the members were. Soon, they had a general understanding of the city.
After eating, Takumi took them to choose their rooms. In the end, they did not choose Takumi's room. After all, although Takumi slept here recently, what about the future? So they both chose the Familia branch building.
After tidying up the rooms, the two women washed up and went to bed. After a thrilling escape from the zombie crisis and finally relaxing, they both felt exhausted. Takumi did not disturb them anymore but called Tomoko. He started to make a list, writing down whatever was missing in Dimensional City so that he could collect supplies and customize a resource collection plan.
In the end, he found that the most important thing was Energy. Whether it was fuel or power generation facilities, in short, if you want to develop, you need energy. Energy can support industrial development.
Second was building materials. Although Dimensional City could produce these things, the production capacity was low and not enough to support large-scale expansion. After all, if you want to develop industry, factories must be built, right? Once a factory is established, workers must also be arranged, right? Otherwise, the factory will not be able to operate. Since there are workers, then workers' housing must be arranged, right?
In short, it was infrastructure—a lot of infrastructure! The gap in building materials here was very large, far beyond what Dimensional City could fill by itself. Therefore, building materials were also important resources that must be collected. Then there was infrastructure equipment, production equipment, knowledge, production drawings, and finally, living supplies. Next was people. This was put at the end by Takumi.
He planned to make a wave of "zero-dollar purchases" across various countries. Once the collection of supplies he needed was almost complete and the zombie craze was raging, he would go to China and establish a survivor base. While rescuing people, he would select some qualified individuals to come back and supplement the residents of Dimensional City.
As for who was considered qualified? First of all, they should ideally be women. It would be better if they were of good character, and their appearance shouldn't be too bad. The most important thing was that they could pass his magic test to ensure there was no disloyalty at all. Even then, Takumi felt that this was not safe enough and began to think about creating contract magic to ensure the loyalty of these people.
Just do it. While waiting for the three Kocho sisters to come back, Takumi started to create magic again. As usual, he started with low-level ones and then enhanced them. After several upgrades, it finally reached the expected level. Thanks to his unlimited magic power, Takumi didn't spend much time creating the magic he wanted.
[Soul Contract]
Through this magical contract, both parties who signed the contract, or one of them, will be bound according to the content and will not be able to violate it. For example, Takumi drew up a master-slave contract. According to the terms, Takumi, as the dominant party, would not be bound by the contract. On the contrary, the passive party would be subject to various constraints. It was a very versatile magic; what effect it played mainly depended on the terms written.
After creating this magic, Takumi suddenly realized he had trouble communicating with Kuro and the other monsters. Before, only the Hell Hounds could communicate simply through their calls. But the newest addition, Zabuton, couldn't even bark and could only express intentions with body language. No matter which one, such communication was very inconvenient.
So, why not create magic that allowed both parties to communicate smoothly? Thinking of this, Takumi continued to create and came up with communication magic.
[Thought Transmission]
As the name suggests, it is a magic that can convey thoughts or ideas within a certain range or to a designated object. It is somewhat similar to telepathy or voice transmission, but it can only be actively output and cannot be forced to receive like mind reading. The transmission range depends on the user's mental strength.
If it was just used to communicate with Kuro and the others, this level was enough. Takumi called Kuro and used the magic of memory infusion to give him the ability to convey thoughts.
"Hey, hey, hey, can you hear me? Please reply if received."
"Woof, it's okay, Master, I've learned it."
One human and one animal made a series of encrypted calls while making eye contact. After some testing, he found that the effect was very good and very convenient. So Takumi called Yuki and Zabuton and gave them this magic as well.
Yuki: "I also learned how to speak to Master."
Zabuton: "Ha~ I can finally speak. This feeling is really great."
Unlike Kuro's slightly thick baritone, Yuki's voice was an intellectual and capable female voice, while Zabuton had a gentle young woman's voice; both were very pleasant to listen to.
"Okay, you go back first. Yuki, Kuro and the others will be taught by you. If you can't teach them, come to me again. Kuro, stay here."
"Okay, Sir, call me if you need anything." Zabuton waved her forelimbs vigorously and returned to the big tree.
"I understand, Master, I will teach the children well." Yuki also replied and then went back to take care of the offspring.
"Master, what do you want from me?"
"Well, you also know the situation at the Dimensional Gate. Tomorrow I will prepare a world to collect supplies, and I want you to go with me."
Just in case, Takumi planned to bring Kuro with him.
After all, although Kanae and the others were already quite strong, and more than capable of dealing with zombies and mortals, that world had powerful thermal weapons. Many were beyond their ability to cope with. The collection plan required them to travel around the world, and there was no guarantee they would not encounter remnants of the army or people lucky enough to have these weapons. So, as insurance, Takumi planned to let Kuro follow them.
With Kuro's strength, he could handle anything as long as they didn't use nuclear bombs. If it didn't work, they would just return to Dimensional City. Letting Kuro follow Kanae and the others was less about protecting them and more about ensuring they faced no resistance during the collection process.
"As long as the Master orders me, I will definitely try my best to complete the task." As soon as Kuro heard there was a mission, he accepted without hesitation.
"Okay, then I'll ask you to help them tomorrow." Seeing this, Takumi stretched out his hand and rubbed the dog's head with satisfaction.
"Yes!" The dog wagged his tail happily.
...
After that, Takumi prepared some items to be used. For example, a magical mobile phone with communication magic added so they could communicate when separated in the Highschool of the Dead world. He also made magic scrolls for purification and magic shields to avoid virus infection, as well as teleportation and flying magic for traveling.
He used a new magic he created:
[Magic Inscription]
The function is to "burn" magic onto items to create magic props and scrolls. He also created a magic for testing loyalty:
[Psychic Test]
The function is to detect the target's emotions toward the user through mind reading and perception of good and evil—whether they are lying, their favorability, loyalty, and so on. It was a very convenient and versatile magic.
After preparing these, it was almost dark. The three Kocho sisters came back from the dungeon and returned to Dimensional City after Hestia's notification.
"Master Takumi." x3
"Mhm." Takumi nodded and spoke without any nonsense. "Now there is a new task for you. This task is related to the future development of Dimensional City and is the highest priority. I hope you will take it seriously."
"Yes!" x3
After hearing what Takumi said, the three sisters quickly cheered up and listened carefully.
"The mission is as follows: tomorrow we will set off to collect supplies in a world currently experiencing..."
Takumi explained the current situation of the Highschool of the Dead world, what zombies are, what to pay attention to, and so on. Then he produced a list.
"Here are the supplies that need to be collected. It doesn't matter if you can't recognize all of them. I will arrange for Tomoko and Kuro to assist you when the time comes."
"What you have to do is follow the advice given by Tomoko and, under Kuro's escort, find the materials corresponding to the list and carry them back to Dimensional City. Do you understand?"
To put it simply, they were the manual labor and transport.
"Understood." x3
The three Kocho sisters nodded in unison to express their understanding.
"Well, here are some props that will be used. Let me introduce them to you. These are for contact. The method is..."
Takumi taught Kanae and the others how to use the props and warned: "The viruses in that world are very dangerous. You must be careful. If you are accidentally infected, you must use the purification scroll immediately."
"At the same time, the social order has been lost there, and many survivors have gone crazy, so be careful with people you meet, just as you are careful with people you meet in the dungeon."
"Clear!" x3
"Okay, that's it. Let's all rest and recharge. This mission may be very long, and it will be difficult to get good rest once it starts."
"Yes!"