Buying My Way Through the Multiverse

Once they finished loading all of the unconscious Woodbury soldiers, the convoy fired up their engines and drove back to the prison.

Back inside the courtyard, the workforce dragged the prisoners into Cell Block A. This section of the facility was perfectly suited for the task. It was the heavily reinforced area originally meant for death-row inmates, and the exact same block the group had used to quarantine the sick during the prison flu outbreak. They moved the Governor into a maximum-security cell right alongside his loyal men.

With the cell block locked down, Gray walked over to the mobile lab to find Dr. Jenner and Candace. He mentally accessed his inventory and dropped the corpse of the guard right onto their examination table. The Jenners looked hesitant at first, staring at the brutal wound in the man’s chest. But after Gray explained the horrifying list of crimes these raiders had committed, and how they had planned to slaughter the prison community, the scientists shed their doubts and got straight to work. Gray planned on keeping the prisoners secure for a long time. Once the Jenners ran through these subjects, Gray figured they could always find a walker to bite any remaining inmates, keeping the tests running.

Ready to clear out Woodbury, Gray opened his system shop and purchased two full-sized school buses. He called over Rick, Shane, Merle, Daryl, and Morgan to lay out their mission.

”Take these buses and the armored trucks,” Gray told them. ”Drive straight to Woodbury. Talk to the residents. Give them three choices, they can pack their things and move to the prison, stay in Woodbury on their own, or leave the area entirely. Tell them the Governor has been captured and will be executed for his crimes.”

Rick looked at him, adjusting his rifle strap. ”Are you coming with us?”

Gray shook his head. ”No. I need to get something sorted out here first.”

The extraction team nodded, climbed into the two school buses and the bulletproof INKAS vehicles, and drove out the gate toward Woodbury.

Left alone in the quiet courtyard, Gray decided to move his living quarters. He stored his RV back into his inventory and walked over to the edge of his massive underground excavation. He picked an open area right next to his wall of 150 double chests. Using his smooth stone blocks, Gray quickly walled off a private 8x8 meter zone, raising the stone barriers exactly four blocks high while leaving the roof completely open to the sky. He materialized the RV right inside the stone perimeter, giving himself a quiet, isolated workspace away from the main cell blocks.

Three hours later, the distant roar of multiple engines echoed through the gates. The prison group rolled back into the courtyard. They brought back all four of the original vehicles, followed by a long line of civilian cars driven by the Woodbury residents themselves. The courtyard quickly filled with noise as the prison survivors began helping the newcomers unload their belongings. They directed the entire Woodbury population into a completely separate cell block, collectively agreeing that both groups needed plenty of time to get to know each other before they could actually share the same living spaces.

Gray observed the bustling crowd from his private stone enclosure, choosing to let the prison group manage the logistics entirely. He began to realize that it was nearly time to inform everyone that he wouldn’t remain in this world indefinitely. At most, he intended to stay until he gained complete control over his aggressive new Saiyan temper.

As for the system’s Rebirth option, Gray didn’t know what kind of dangerous world he would be thrown into next. He planned to aggressively train his new Saiyan body inside his future training dimension until he felt strong enough to ensure he wouldn’t struggle at the beginning like he did when he first arrived in this world.

But a Saiyan body required an absolutely massive amount of daily food to function, and Gray needed a permanent solution he could take with him across worlds. He opened his system shop and began scrolling through the options until he narrowed his search down to two specific choices.

{Dimensional Farm} (2T Gold) (The legendary pocket-dimension power from the novel Bringing the Farm to Live in Another World)

{Home Garden} (1T Gold) (The overpowered agricultural skill from the manga I Grew the Greatest Home Garden with my OP Cultivation Skill)

Gray stared at the two floating descriptions. Both choices would easily give him more than enough food to feed his massive Saiyan appetite, and if he ever landed in another apocalypse, either power could easily produce enough food to sustain an entire city.

He could tell that the Dimensional Farm was leaps and bounds ahead of the Home Garden in terms of utility and scaling, but he decided to hold off on his final choice until after he purchased his 3-Trillion Gold Training Dimension. Thanks to his jaw-dropping passive income, he could easily buy both powers later just to test them out and see which one he liked more before moving on.

Gray smiled beneath his mask as he closed the interface. He already had an inkling of which three permanent powers he would take with him into his next life. The first would absolutely be his Saiyan Physiology. The second would be the Training Dimension. And the third and final slot would belong to either the Dimensional Farm or the Home Garden.

Finally, once the Woodbury residents had finished unpacking all their belongings into the separate cell blocks, Gray walked into Cell Block C. He raised his voice and told everyone to gather around, as he had some highly important information to share with the entire community. The word spread fast, and within minutes, the crowded corridor fell silent. Even Dr. Jenner and Candace stepped away from their vital laboratory equipment to attend the announcement.

Gray stood before the massive crowd. He didn’t build up any suspense or hide his intent.

”Listen up, everyone,” Gray started, his voice cutting through the room. ”As of right now, I am officially stepping down as your acting leader.”

The announcement instantly caught the room completely off guard. Rick, Shane, Merle, and Daryl all focused their eyes on him, their expressions hardening with confusion and concern. They knew exactly how much the group relied on his power.

”The truth is, I will be leaving this world entirely,” Gray continued, silencing the rising murmurs. ”My abilities would allow me to move on to another universe in less than a month. But I don’t want to abandon you guys like this. I have decided to postpone my departure for at least two full years to guarantee you have a completely safe, fully automated paradise to live in first.”

He looked across the faces of his core group. ”To prepare for after I am gone, you need to form an official council today. No one should ever have to rely on the whims of a single leader again. Rick, Shane, Carol, Hershel, Glenn, and Morgan will take the foundational seats to vote, debate, and decide the future of this prison. Furthermore, I want the council to choose at least two representatives from the Woodbury population to join them. No one should feel isolated or think their voice doesn’t matter here.”

The room stayed quiet for a long moment until Amy slowly stepped forward, looking up at him. ”Does this mean you won’t be helping us around the prison anymore?”

Gray shook his head firmly. ”No. I will still help out here and there when it’s absolutely necessary. You all need to learn how to survive and run this place without needing me to hold your hands. I have already handed you the tools, the infinite water, the perfect crops, and the perfect aim to conquer this world long after I am gone.”

He paused, letting his gaze sweep over the newly formed leadership. ”I won’t leave you completely in the dark, though. I will still give you the necessary knowledge to keep everything running smoothly. I am going to keep working hard on building up the prison infrastructure, but I won’t be doing it as openly as before.

Gray adjusted his gauntlet, laying out his true objective for his remaining time. ”I plan on exploring around the world some more. I want to save as many good survivors as possible and bring them back to populate our expanding safe haven. For that to happen, I need to step down as the one in charge so I can actually have the time to go out there and save those people.”

Gray took a final look across the massive gathering of faces. ”Since I am leaving this world eventually, you all need to know how to run things on your own. What better way to learn than right now, while our group still isn’t too big to manage?”

He turned around and walked out of the cell block, leaving the newly formed council and the survivors to look at each other, realizing the era of absolute handouts was officially over.

For the next few days, the prison fell into a steady, productive rhythm. Everyone focused completely on their assigned tasks, working hard to plant the underground fields and map out the utilities for the new apartment complexes.

Gray, however, stayed mostly inside his private stone area. He spent the majority of his time catching up on his anime, allowing his passive income to stack up by the tens of billions every single hour. But there was still one piece of business he needed to handle for his inner circle. Daryl Dixon was the only original fighter he hadn’t given an upgrade to.

Gray walked out into the courtyard, found Daryl cleaning his crossbow, and extended his hand. When they shook hands, Gray activated his skill transference. He injected Daryl with Deadshot’s Marksmanship and the Wraith Bow Ability. Instantly, Daryl gained perfect aim and a spectral bow that gave him an infinite number of arrows. The massive upgrade cost Gray exactly 530 Million Gold.

With the core fighters fully upgraded, Gray spent his free time browsing the system shop for permanent upgrades to keep the city’s future infrastructure running smoothly. He knew that once he left this world, the human council would eventually get overwhelmed trying to manage power grids, water loops, and security for thousands of residents. He reached an answer,he would purchase a network of highly advanced Artificial Intelligence systems to run the future city.

First, he mapped out the security grid. He decided he would purchase a militarized tactical AI to be completely in charge of defense. This AI would directly command a massive army of Code 8 police robots, which would patrol the outer walls and guard towers twenty-four hours a day, completely eliminating the need for human guards.

Next, the scientists needed automated support. Gray searched for a medical supercomputer and settled on The White Queen AI from Resident Evil. He would install her core underground to directly assist Dr. Jenner and Candace with data calculations, accelerating their research for the walker virus cure.

Finally, the community itself would need a digital helper. Gray picked out a highly advanced, user-friendly AI like Jarvis from Iron Man. This AI would be in charge of the apartment grids and above-ground infrastructure, ready to assist the survivors with resource management, power allocation, or anything else the council might need in the future. With these three advanced systems running beneath the earth, the above-ground city would practically run itself.

Exactly fifty-five hours after securing his Saiyan physiology, Gray opened his system interface. His passive income had accumulated a massive balance of 3,021,814,176,446 Gold.

Looking at the options, he had two choices. His first option was to buy the next upgrade now, which meant waiting about 30 more hours to save up for the Training Dimension. His second option was to buy the Training Dimension immediately, but that would force him to wait more than two full days before he could afford the next income upgrade.

Since he knew he would need a lot of extra Gold to buy legendary masters and teachers once inside the dimension, Gray picked the smarter long-term play. He decided to buy the upgrade right away. This meant he would get the Training Dimension right after, and he would only need to wait about two extra hours to have plenty of gold to spend to test it out.

[New Upgrade]

(3T Gold) 24,422,400,000 Gold/Hour

[New Hourly Rate]

107,460,756,618 (48,845,798,463) Gold/Hour

Gold: 21,814,176,446

Pulling out his calculator, Gray ran the exact math with his new income rate. To gather the 3 trillion Gold needed for the Training Dimension, plus the extra billions for recruiting teachers, he would need to wait exactly twenty-eight hours for the dimension itself and two more hours for the teachers.

Gray closed his calculator and checked his clock. It was currently 11:00 AM. According to his calculations, at exactly 5:00 PM the day after tomorrow, his gold would hit the perfect amount, and he would finally have enough Gold to start his ultimate training.