Multiverse , Leveling Up in the World I Created

"Shane, I have one favor to ask.

If you agree, I’ll somehow arrange a spot for you on Ziking Island, so tell me honestly what happened up until now.

That way, I can trust you and assign you work."

At that, Shane looked flustered and couldn’t say anything.

"You said you’re leaving this place, right?

So don’t avoid it, lay everything out and go."

I used [Emotion Manipulation] on Shane to guide him into telling the truth.

Shane then began pouring out his grievances, detailing everything from the time he tried to save Rick to the present.

Lori started to look very flustered, and Rick’s expression hardened as if he was deeply shocked.

"I don’t know how I ended up this broken, but I really did my best to protect Rick, Lori, and Carl, and I truly loved Lori!

Hoo...

And the baby in Lori’s belly is definitely mine."

At that, everyone stopped eating and looked at Lori.

Lori looked like she wanted to crawl into a mouse hole, completely at a loss.

Then I spoke.

"This might be meddling, but isn’t this not just Shane’s problem?

Why did Lori push Shane so hard?

After being that close to each other that a child was conceived, was it that hard to hear him out?

Or were you just using Shane to survive?

From what I see, Shane tried to save his friend and did his best to protect that friend’s family.

And did Rick know about this?"

"..."

Rick said nothing.

It seemed this was the first he was hearing of it.

"Well, fine.

I acknowledge Shane.

Come with us.

Leave and make a fresh start.

And it’s better to forget a woman like that quickly."

At my words, Shane shook his head.

"No, now that it’s come to this, I need to settle things with Rick and Lori.

Go ahead, Rick, tell me.

Was there anything wrong with what I did, when I always tried my best?"

Shane spoke as if he had nothing left to lose.

Lori burst into tears, got up from her seat, and ran off somewhere, and Rick immediately got up and followed her.

’She makes a mess and then cries...’

I thought to myself as I watched.

There was a reason Shane could say all this and, unlike the original, people couldn’t properly refute him.

It was because I was here.

As long as I was around, the chance of Shane being driven by emotion and doing something stupid like in the original was greatly reduced, and Shane’s actions had remained within a relatively normal range.

Because of that, an ironic situation had arisen where Shane’s words actually carried weight.

Dale and Jacqui, seemingly feeling sorry for Shane, gently patted his shoulder.

Shane bowed his head and let out a deep sigh.

Even though he had unburdened himself, he didn’t seem to feel at ease.

I didn’t know what Rick and Lori talked about, but the two returned before lunchtime.

But the looks people gave Lori weren’t good.

Part of it was that she hadn’t told Rick the truth, but more than that, people had learned that Lori had played a significant role in driving a wedge between the camp’s leaders, Shane and Rick.

’Haha, she’s become the town villain.

I wonder what Rick will do...’

This wasn’t like the original, where Rick could just kill Shane to stop his rampage.

If handled poorly, Rick could lose the trust of his group, and in the worst case, even his life could be threatened.

That day passed, and the next day, Rick and Shane started arguing.

"We can just leave!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!

The baby in Lori’s belly is mine!

Do you think Lori can give birth safely if we leave this place?!

This isn’t just about your family!"

"Then what do you want me to do?!"

"Let Lori give birth here safely, and then leave the child behind and go."

"That’s nonsense!"

From what I gathered, Rick seemed to have made plans to leave this place with his family, and Shane was incredulously arguing against it.

Moreover, Rick had acknowledged that the baby in Lori’s belly was Shane’s.

’This is really a soap opera.’

But this was a problem even the others couldn’t interfere with.

It was only natural.

It was truly a hopeless situation.

"Oppa, isn’t it that babies are made when you hold hands and sleep together?

That’s what I learned."

"Ahem!

Ovulation, fertilization, implantation!

If just holding hands and sleeping together could get you pregnant, you’d have had ten kids by now, Clem.

You’ve held my hand and slept plenty of times."

"R-right, I guess so.

But what are ovulation, fertilization, and implantation?"

"Knowing will hurt you.

I’ll tell you when you’re a bit older."

"Okay."

I had originally planned to leave the next day, but the current situation was too entertaining, so I decided to stay one more day.

"Hoo...

I don’t know how it ended up like this...

I talked with Lori yesterday.

Both she and I were grateful for him protecting the family, and we acknowledged that we owe him a great debt.

So we’ve decided to let her give birth to the child and then leave with our family, so I think it’s best to end this matter here."

"Good.

That must have been a hard decision.

Thank you."

In the end, it ended this way.

But whether they liked it or not, they would inevitably have to stick together.

This farm was going to be overrun by walker hordes soon anyway.

"So you’re not leaving?"

"Yeah...

Things have turned out this way, so I have no choice.

But I have one favor to ask.

Could I get one of the guns Clem uses?

I feel bad for Carl, so I want to give him a gift.

He seems to have been the one most affected by this whole thing."

Even in this situation, Shane was trying to look out for Carl.

He had lived with them like family, and it seemed he couldn’t just abandon that affection all at once.

"Alright, given the situation.

I’ll give it to you for free."

"Yeah, thanks."

I gave Shane the same Ruger 3 .22 LR that Clem used.

Then, having seen how things concluded, I said my goodbyes and headed to Macon.

But the motel camp in Macon, where Lee was the leader, was quite quiet.

"It seems like there’s nobody here.

Are they going to move somewhere else?"

"I’m not sure yet, but let’s go in first."

"Okay."

As expected, there was no one there.

There were no signs of an attack, but one of the buildings was scorched, as if there’d been a fire, and from the fact that most of the vehicles were gone, they had definitely moved.

"Did a fire break out and make them move the camp somewhere else?

Surely Lee would have left some kind of note..."

"There it is!

Over there, they wrote something."

The place Clem pointed to had a cloth hanging on the window that said "Ziking Island."

They seemed to have gone to Ziking Island.

"A lot of people must have gone together.

I hope they’re okay."

"I’m worried too."

Since Clem was also worried, I immediately turned the armored vehicle around and headed for Ziking Island.

We arrived at Ziking Island in just two days.

I had rushed a bit because I was worried about the motel survivors.

The soldiers guarding the entrance to Ziking Island weren’t androids but regular soldiers.

It seemed the androids had been reassigned to the aircraft carriers or guarding other walls, and the first checkpoint had been handed over to the regular military.

After a brief verification process, we entered and found the place bustling with people, reminiscent of a marketplace.

Survivors were buying and selling goods everywhere, exchanging items they needed.

There was also an exchange office, and after watching for a while, I saw they were using coins made of gold or silver.

It seemed they had taken the accumulated gold and silver and minted coins to use as currency.

"Oh, oppa!

There’s Uncle Kenny over there.

He looks like he’s running some kind of business."

"So he is.

It seems they’re staying here, just as they wrote."

Then a commotion broke out on one side.

"Hey, you can’t just grind down gold coins like this!

We can’t accept these, so either bring proper gold coins or go to the exchange office and trade them for silver coins based on weight."

"What?!

Look, this was issued here!

So the value shouldn’t change!"

"That’s only for intact coins.

That kind of trick won’t work.

Stop arguing, or I’ll call the soldiers."

"Damn it..."

It seemed that because it was gold and silver, things like this happened occasionally.

"Let’s go home, drop off our luggage first, and then come back out.

That way we can move around freely."

"Okay."

We drove the armored vehicle to the second wall, Wall Rose.

As expected, from here on, androids were standing guard.

As soon as the armored vehicle approached, they came out and saluted in unison.

Then, without any verification process, they opened the gate immediately.

There was no ID check or vehicle inspection.

There was no need for that with androids who obviously knew me and the armored vehicle.

There were also some people inside Wall Rose.

They were all men, probably the surviving soldiers my clone had taken in.

They saluted when they saw my rank.

Clem looked at it with curiosity.

"Oppa, is your rank really high?"

"Well, I guess so.

I’m a Major."

When we arrived at the house, androids were waiting, and as soon as they saw us, they saluted and spoke.

"We’re sorry, but we’ve received orders to move you to new quarters.

Since you are a Major..."

"Really?

Then where are we going?"

"We will guide you."

We followed the android and slowly drove into Wall Sina.

Unlike the tightly packed houses in Wall Rose, this place had only large detached houses with big yards and buildings that looked like government offices.

Moreover, there wasn’t a single person here, just androids everywhere.

"You will be staying here from now on.

We have also upgraded the bracelet for the girl named Clem, so please exchange it.

We should mention that reissuance is difficult and security is strict, so please make sure to wear it at all times and not lose it.

We will take care of organizing the supplies in the armored vehicle."

"Got it.

I’ll leave it to you."

The mansion the androids guided us to was the largest house closest to the government building, and it even had a swimming pool.

"Wow!

It’s huge!"

"Let’s go inside and drop off our stuff first.

We should go see Lee and the others."

"Okay."

Our luggage was just a few sets of clothes and our guns, so there wasn’t much to organize.

We just picked rooms and tossed our things in.

Then we headed back out with Clem, passing through Wall Sina and Wall Rose to the market.

"There are a lot of people, so hold my hand and follow me closely."

"Okay."

We went to where Kenny was.

When we arrived, Kenny was busy doing business.

He didn’t seem to have noticed us coming in.

The items he was selling were clothes and the walker spears I had made before.

Those spears seemed to be unexpectedly popular, judging by how well they were selling.

"You finally made it.

We’ve been waiting a long time."

Only when we got closer did Kenny recognize us.

"Long time no see.

Where are the others?"

"Some are resting at the hotel, and some went to work.

Here, they pay a daily wage for work."

"Really?

What kind of work?"

"Gutting fish the soldiers catch, or clearing away walker corpses.

It sounds like tough work, but meals are provided and the treatment is good, so it’s manageable.

Right now there are so many people that everyone’s fighting over the jobs."

Kenny said that and pointed to one side.

"Well, there are also people who make money easily.

Not our group, but there are female survivors who sell their bodies."

The place he pointed to had bars and a red-light district.

It was still daytime, so only the bars were open.

"I see.

So why did you come here?

Did something happen at the motel?"

When I asked, Kenny scratched his head and answered.

"Well...

Lilly’s father, Larry, eventually died of a heart attack.

We did our best to find medicine, but in the end, we were too late.

After that happened, Lilly blamed us for her father’s death and went as far as setting fire to the food storage before running away.

Because of that, we struggled with food shortages for a while.

Then Lee said it would be better to come here than to try and get new supplies."

"I’m sorry to hear that.

I didn’t know that happened."

So that was why there were scorch marks on one of the buildings.

But one thing bothered me.

"Even for Lilly, I can’t imagine she’d do something that crazy.

Why would she do that?"

Kenny let out a deep sigh.

"They argued a lot over differences in opinion.

Then her father’s death piled on top of that, and she finally exploded."

"Lee couldn’t mediate, I guess?"

"Well, yeah...

It was about her father’s death.

Still, we’re living well here.

Like you said, we had saved up quite a lot of gold items.

Thanks to that, we lived fairly comfortably at first.

But buying this and that made it run out faster than expected.

So we’ve been trying to save as much as possible while doing business or working."

"I see."

"Anyway, I need to keep doing business, so come back this evening.

I’ll let the others know."

"Got it."

Kenny said that, so Clem and I walked around, exploring Ziking Island.

With more people, there was definitely more to see than last time.

This time, we also went to the farm area we hadn’t visited before.

Inside the greenhouses, various types of fruits and vegetables were being cultivated in large quantities.

Since fresh fruits and vegetables had become precious after the apocalypse, they seemed to be producing them on a considerable scale.

But there wasn’t a single person working on the farm.

Instead, androids were quietly managing the crops throughout the greenhouses.

It seemed they had replaced humans with androids to prevent problems like people skimming supplies or to improve production efficiency.

We walked around like that until evening, then went to meet Lee and the others.

"Good to see you, Jin, Clem.

It’s been a while."

"I’m sorry about what happened to the camp, but I’m glad there were no casualties."

"Hoo...

Yeah, I heard from Kenny.

I’m also sorry about what happened with Lilly.

Anyway, let’s go.

My treat."

We moved to a restaurant and continued talking over a meal.

Lee was still the leader of the motel survivors.

But the way money was managed seemed to have settled quite rationally.

Lee managed only the shared assets, while money earned or obtained individually was managed by each person.

They were living in a hotel built at the Ziking Island trading post.

It was a new building, so there were no major inconveniences, but since they had to pay daily, they had to work.

The group was living a fairly tough life.

"Still, this is much better than being outside with walkers everywhere.

And they say they’re going to increase jobs soon, so things might get better."

"That’s good to hear."

Lee had quite a lot to drink, probably happy to see us after so long.

In the end, Kenny and I had to support Lee from both sides and take him back to his lodging.

Still, seeing Lee enjoy drinking with people he hadn’t seen in a while didn’t make me feel bad.

The next day, I called 2B and A2.

It seemed time to move on to another world.

Using [Barrier] and [Life Magic], I removed all viruses from them, put them into my inventory, and ended the "Play Life."