Buying My Way Through the Multiverse

The next morning, Gray woke up right at 7:00 AM. He opened his system menu to check his current wealth and saw he had 3,834,655,581,470 Gold available. While looking at his screen, he noticed his system map was only at level 5. Gray decided to max it out, spending a total of 5 Billion Gold to upgrade the map to its highest level.

The change was amazing. Gray could now see the entire world map right before his eyes. Even better, he saw tiny white dots moving across the screen. The max-level map actually allowed him to see living people moving around in real-time.

With the world map unlocked, Gray decided it was the perfect time to start exploring. He planned to check all the places the group visited on the TV show first. Since he was still super early into the apocalypse, he could find those survivors, get them to join the prison, and expand the group faster. Since JARVIS already had ten Chappie robots to handle the daily work around the compound, Gray felt fine leaving everything to him.

Getting up from his bed, Gray called out to the AI. ”JARVIS, I’m heading out to explore around for a bit.”

”Understood, sir,” JARVIS replied through the speakers.

”I need you to get a laptop ready for me with video files inside,” Gray added. ”Record the fields, the livestock, and the stone walls surrounding the prison.”

Gray planned on showing the laptop footage to any survivors he found on his travels to convince them to join the prison group. He was not planning on showing anyone else his powers. He would fly around while checking his map for survivors. Once he found some white dots, he would land out of sight, spawn a vehicle, and drive up to meet them instead.

Once he met the survivors, he would check them with his Sin Vision. If they were bad people, he would just put them down. But if they were normal survivors, he would extend a helping hand. He planned to travel across the entire state of Georgia first, and then he would check all the other places.

Gray walked over to the council room to let Rick and the others know about his travel plans. To prepare for bringing people back, he had already put one of the full-sized school buses into his inventory. For his personal use when he encountered survivors, he decided to buy two vehicles he had always wanted in his past life... an Equus Bass 770 and the reinforced Dodge Charger that Dom drove in The Fate of the Furious.

Looking over his system status, he realized his inventory slots were getting crowded. Up until now, he only had 6 slots available. He decided to expand his capacity to 20 slots. The inventory expansion cost him exactly 52,425,600 Gold, while Dom’s Charger cost 25,000 Gold and the Equus Bass cost 20,000 Gold.

Before heading out, Gray realized the council would need a way to screen incoming people while he was away. He walked up to Rick, shook his hand, and used his skill transference to grant him Sin Vision. The power cost 150 Million Gold. Thinking it over, Gray decided to give the exact same ability to a few more core members so the responsibility wouldn’t just fall on one man. He touched Carol, Hershel, Merle, and Shane, giving all of them Sin Vision as well. In total, he spent 750 Million Gold granting the power to five people.

Finally, Gray spread out a large paper map on the council table. He drew circles around several specific areas where his max-level map highlighted clusters of more than 10 living people. He handed the map to Rick.

”I’m going out there to gather more survivors,” Gray told the council. ”I will start sending the good ones back your way. Just keep an eye out and keep watch on the gates.”

Gray walked out into the courtyard and prepared to take off, but he paused. Thanks to his basic angel wings, he could only fly for about 30 minutes before he was forced to land. To fix this limit, he opened his system shop and spent 15 Billion Gold to purchase the Seraph Tracers boots. He pulled off his current boots and equipped the new ones. The moment they locked onto his feet, a massive pair of white wings erupted from his back. These new wings were twice as large as his old angel wings and far fluffier.

He launched himself into the air and immediately noticed the massive difference. He was flying at least four times faster than before, and he felt like he could stay in the sky as long as he wanted without ever getting tired. He knew he could technically hover and move using Merlin’s magic, but the physical wings were significantly faster.

Flying high above the Georgia clouds, Gray began his scouting run. He tracked the moving white dots on his integrated map, looking down from the sky to observe different groups of survivors struggling below.

After about two hours of flying around and observing, his map highlighted a small cluster of dots. Looking down, he spotted a group of five survivors stranded on top of a stalled vehicle. They were completely surrounded by a massive horde of walkers, with nowhere left to run. Deciding it was time to intervene, Gray dove straight down from the clouds. He used his teleportation to cleanly materialize into the treeline about 100 feet away from the road.

Since Merle had kept his original silver rifle, Gray opened the shop and bought a brand-new Silver M16A2. He didn’t want to terrify these new strangers by flying, using magic, or firing glowing spectral arrows, so he opted for a normal rifle instead.

Making sure his large Seraph wings were completely hidden and his Saiyan tail was wrapped securely beneath his clothes, Gray stepped out of the woods in his armor without his Nazgûl mask. He activated his Sin Vision to check the group on the car roof. The red text floated above them, confirming that all five survivors were completely clean of any innocent blood.

Gray stepped out onto the asphalt, raised his rifle, and opened fire. Bang! Bang! Bang!

Every single bullet drilled cleanly into a walker’s skull. It took Gray less than a single minute to completely put down the entire crowd of walkers surrounding the vehicle, leaving the road dead silent.

The small group of survivors looked completely surprised. Just a few minutes ago, they had been driving back from a successful supply run when their truck suddenly ran out of gas. They had jumped out to look for another vehicle to siphon fuel from, but a large crowd of walkers quickly spotted them and surrounded the area.

Not seeing any other option, and lacking enough ammunition to safely shoot their way out, they had scrambled onto the roof of their truck. They truly thought they were goners.

But then, the rapid sound of gunshots started echoing down the road. They looked around in desperation and spotted a lone figure stepping out from the treeline. It was a man wearing what looked like full medieval armor, calmly firing a silver rifle right at the horde.

What surprised them the most was the impossible accuracy at which the lone shooter dropped the monsters. He pulled the trigger at least two times per second, moving with mechanical precision. Every single shot that rang out through the air was instantly followed by a walker dropping dead onto the asphalt. They watched from the roof in absolute awe as the terrifying horde started getting smaller and smaller, until there was not a single walker left standing on the road.

Gray walked calmly toward the vehicle, stepping carefully over the dead walkers. The five survivors slowly started climbing down from the roof of the truck. When Gray got about 10 feet away, the group started getting very nervous. They pulled out their weapons, but they didn’t point them directly at Gray. They just held them tight to their bodies, ready to use them just in case.

Seeing this, Gray let his rifle hang from its strap and held his hands up. He stopped right in the middle of all the bodies. ”I mean you no harm,” he said calmly. ”Was anyone bitten?”

One of the girls looked at him closely. She seemed to be the leader of the group. She noticed that their savior looked fairly young, but she pushed that thought to the back of her mind. ”No, no one was bit,” she replied, her voice still a bit shaky.

”That’s good,” Gray said, looking over the three women and two men. ”What happened out here?”

”We ran out of gas,” the girl explained, gesturing to their empty truck. ”While we were looking around for some fuel to siphon, that horde completely surrounded us.”

”I see,” Gray nodded. ”Do you have another group, or is it only the five of you out here surviving?”

The small group instantly went stiff. They looked at each other nervously, clearly feeling like they couldn’t trust a total stranger. Gray simply chuckled at their reaction.

”I’m just asking because my group is looking for survivors to join us,” Gray said, trying to ease their tension. ”We have a safe space, thick walls surrounding our camp, and we have supplies to spare.”

One of the men narrowed his eyes, gripping his weapon tightly. ”And how would we know that? How do we know you’re telling the truth?”

”I can show you,” Gray shrugged.

”How?” the girl leader asked, crossing her arms skeptically.

Gray pointed to his back to show he wasn’t pulling a weapon. He moved his right arm back, mentally accessing his inventory, and spawned the laptop right into his hand. He flipped the screen open, brought up the video files JARVIS had recorded, and set it flat on the asphalt.

”You can look at it right here,” Gray said. He carefully stepped back several feet into the middle of the road, keeping his hands up in the air to give them space.

One of the other girls in the group cautiously stepped forward, picked up the laptop from the asphalt, and brought it back for the others to see. They all crowded around the glowing screen, their eyes widening with every second that passed.

They watched different videos playing on the screen. First, they saw the towering, uniform stone walls completely surrounding a massive prison facility. Then, the video shifted to show armed guards standing on high concrete towers with rifles in their hands, alert and keeping watch over the perimeters. The next clip showed rows upon rows of plentiful green crops growing beautifully, followed by pastures filled with healthy, adult livestock roaming around. The camera even captured a few kids running around the courtyard, completely safe, playing and laughing together.

In the distance of the footage, they noticed three massive buildings that looked like modern apartment complexes. But what truly blew their minds was seeing that the entire facility had fully working electricity and running water.

The five survivors looked at each other in total silence, then looked back at Gray standing in the middle of the road. They looked at his pristine armor, remembered the impossible speed and accuracy he had just used to eliminate the entire walker horde, and now they stared at the video of the base his group had built.

To people who had been starving and running from hordes in the dirt for months, it didn’t just look like a safe camp. It looked like paradise.

The girl leader closed the laptop screen and looked up at Gray, who was still calmly holding his hands up in the air. ”We will trust you for now,” she said, taking a breath and looking at her companions. ”But our group is struggling. There are only about twenty-five of us left out here.”

She tightened her grip on her weapon, a flash of anger crossing her face. ”We got attacked a few days ago. A group of heavily armed bandits raided our sanctuary and stole almost all of our food and medicine. We will gladly join your community, but only if you can assure me right now that you have a way to transport all of us to safety.”

Gray gave her a nod and lowered his hands. ”I will help your people get to safety,” he said.

He paused, his eyes narrowing as he thought about the danger these raiders posed to other innocent survivors in the area. He adjusted his rifle strap and looked back at the leader. ”But first... tell me about these bandits,” Gray asked.

He knew that leaving dangerous groups out in the wild would only cause more harm to innocent people, and he was more than ready to do a bit of thorough cleanup in the area.