Gray stepped out of the freshly lit cell block and into the cool evening air. He instantly activated his Wraith Sight, his eyes flaring with that signature supernatural white glow. He slowly panned his head across the thick perimeter tree line, scanning for any remaining Woodbury scouts or stray raiders. Seeing absolutely no hostile blue silhouettes or gray walker signatures nearby, he deactivated the power and walked back to his RV.
He was completely covered in dust, sweat, and grime from running around the woods and mounting heavy electrical conduits all day. Gray stripped down and stepped into the RV's shower, letting the hot water wash away the physical filth. As the steam filled the small bathroom, his mind drifted to the events of the morning. He had just killed his first human beings. He felt a tiny, brief pang of guilt in his chest, but the moment he remembered the graphic crimes etched over their bodies by his Sin Vision, he firmly pushed the regret to the back of his mind. They weren't people anymore, they were monsters.
Getting out of the shower, he opened his system menu to purchase some comfortable, clean lounge clothes. He climbed into bed and cracked open his laptop, loading up The Walking Dead series to cross-reference his future knowledge with the reality unfolding around him.
Before hitting play, he pulled up his system to check his gold. It was exactly 7:00 PM, and his balance sat at a staggering 281,367,895 Gold. He smiled slightly. He was only two hours away from buying his next massive upgrade.
He immersed himself in the show, watching two and a half full episodes as the hours ticked by. At roughly 9:30 PM, Gray paused the video and pulled up his interface again. His gold had successfully accumulated to 304,402,357 Gold. Without a single moment of hesitation, he purchased the next upgrade.
[New Upgrade]
(300M Gold) 6'400,000 Gold/Hour ✔
[New Hourly Rate]
23,037,233 (12,798,463) Gold/Hour
Gold: 4,402,357
Gray relaxed back into his pillows and kept watching the series. True to his disciplined routine, he didn't just stay glued to the screen all night, every hour, he paused the show, slipped his boots on, and made complete security sweeps around the dark prison. At around 4:00 AM, satisfied, he finally shut the laptop off and drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, Gray woke up early, completed a thorough sunrise perimeter check, and headed straight back inside the main cell block to continue his comprehensive electrical work.
As he was preparing his spools of wire near the entryway, Carol approached him with a hopeful, slightly tired smile. "Hey, Gray. Since you're doing miracles with the electricity in here... is there any chance we could get some working laundry machines? Washing everything by hand in buckets is getting pretty brutal for the group."
Gray paused, wiping a stray strand of hair from his forehead. "Yeah, absolutely. I can get that done today. How many machines do you think we need to keep everyone comfortable?"
Carol thought about it for a second, calculating the group's size. "With four of the big ones, we should easily be able to handle all the laundry for the whole place."
"Consider it done," Gray said with a nod.
Equipped with his Advanced Electrical Skills, Gray began measuring out fresh wire feeds and running heavy electrical cables through the concrete corridors. He traced the path through the complex layout until he successfully located the prison's original laundry room. The space was cluttered with rusted, broken-down commercial units. Gray called over a few of the survivors to help clear the floor, moving the useless old appliances out into the courtyard to make room.
Once the floor space was entirely clear, Gray opened his system menu and purchased six massive, top-tier commercial washing machines and six matching heavy-duty dryers, going well above Carol's initial estimate to ensure they had maximum efficiency.
To prevent the massive new appliances from draining the main grid, Gray climbed up straight onto the flat concrete roof of the cell block. He opened the store and purchased two additional Ultimate Solar Panels specifically dedicated to powering the laundry facility. He bolted them down securely alongside the other units, wired them together, and ran the thick fiber cables over the side of the concrete structure.
He drilled a fresh entry hole straight through the reinforced wall, passing the heavy conduits directly into the laundry room. Inside the utility space, Gray seamlessly mounted a brand new battery box, a master breaker panel, and a high-capacity power inverter. After double-checking every single connection, he reached over and slammed the master breaker upward.
The digital displays on all twelve commercial machines surged to life with a satisfying electronic beep. They hummed perfectly.
Gray walked out into the corridor, tracked down Carol, and waved her over to the utility wing. "All set. Take a look."
Carol stepped into the bright, freshly wired laundry room, her eyes going wide as she took in the rows of gleaming, futuristic commercial washers and dryers. She covered her mouth in absolute shock before looking back at Gray with immense gratitude. "Oh my god, Gray... you are an absolute lifesaver. You have no idea how much this changes things for us."
Gray gave her a quiet nod and got right back to work. He spent the entire remainder of the day drilling into walls, running conduits, and systematically bringing the rest of the prison infrastructure out of the dark ages. By the time the evening sun began to dip below the horizon, Gray had successfully finalized 80% of the entire cell block's electrical grid.
The entire right wing of the cell block was now fully operational and glowing with bright overhead light. The transformation completely altered the community's mood. Glenn and T-Dog had even spent their afternoon setting up a communal recreation area, mounting several flat-screen TVs, and hooking up the video game consoles that Dr. Jenner had back at the CDC. The sound of digital music and laughter bounced off the concrete, providing the weary survivors with their first real sense of normal entertainment since the apocalypse began.
Before heading out for the night, Gray walked over to the main entryway to inspect the MFE battery diagnostic screens. He checked the input-to-output ratios, mapping the immense generation of his roof panels against the current load. He let out a satisfied breath. Even with the entire community running the lights, TVs, refrigerators, and commercial laundry machines 24/7, the massive batteries were storing energy far quicker than the survivors could ever consume it. The prison was officially a self-sustaining fortress.
After eating his dinner, he checked on his accumulated gold, knowing that he should be getting around an upgrade per day. Seeing that he had a bit over 500 million, he bought the next upgrade.
[New Upgrade]
(500M Gold) 12'800,000 Gold/Hour
[New Hourly Rate]
46,077,233 (25,598,463) Gold/Hour
Gold: 6,198,126
Seeing his new hourly rate, Gray couldn't believe it. He was about 8 days away from being able to buy one of those one-time resurrection syringes every hour... and after reviving Dr. Jenner's wife, he was going to test one on a "Living" walker to see if he could bring people back that way. For now, though, he was facing much more grounded issues.
With the electricity fully stabilized, Gray leaned against the concrete wall and focused on the next critical infrastructure puzzle... water. They had plenty of water sources outside the perimeter, the keyword being outside. Dragging buckets from a creek under the constant threat of Woodbury snipers or wandering walkers was an unnecessary risk.
Gray remembered a highly unique item from his shop, the Bottomless Water Bucket from Terraria. He opened his interface and looked up the price. It was a whopping 40,000,000 Gold. With his newly upgraded passive income bringing in over 46 million gold every hour, it was a drop in the bucket. Having a source of completely infinite, potable, and usable water was an absolute steal.
He still needed to wait an hour, but he used the time by watching one more episode of The Walking Dead, and after finishing it, he went outside.
Gray bought the Bottomless Water Bucket, and a heavy, iron bucket materialized directly into his grip. Eager to test its mechanics before mapping out a prison-wide plumbing grid, Gray went out into the open courtyard.
He tilted the container forward, splashing a heavy stream of clear water onto the dry dirt. Amazingly, the exact millisecond he pulled his arms back and leveled the container, the bucket was already refilled to the brim with crystal-clear water. Next, he turned it completely upside down. A continuous, heavy torrent of water kept flowing out infinitely without ever stopping or running dry. He tilted it sideways onto the concrete floor, and the infinite flow spilled out smoothly across the yard.
Gray immediately thought of something. He bought a standard, empty metal barrel from the shop and set it down in the courtyard. He filled it to the brim using the bucket, then submerged the Bottomless Water Bucket upside down right at the very top layer of the water line. The moment it was submerged, the water completely stopped overflowing.
Merle had been sitting on the steps of the INKAS truck, chewing on a toothpick and watching Gray mess around with a magical, physics-defying bucket with an expression of pure bewilderment.
"Hey, Merle, get over here," Gray called out. "Try to drain this metal barrel as fast as you can."
"What kind of voodoo crap are you playing with now, boy?" Merle muttered, chuckling as he walked over. He grabbed a smaller, empty bucket from inside his RV and began scooping water aggressively from the metal barrel, throwing it onto the grass.
The exact millisecond Merle scooped a gallon of water out and lowered the fluid level, the submerged bottomless bucket instantly engaged, releasing the exact same amount of water to refill the barrel back to the brim before turning off again.
Gray smiled. His experiment was a flawless success. He already had the perfect blueprint mapped out for the prison's next massive upgrade. Gray decided to hold off on a massive underground excavation for now. Digging out a subterranean reservoir would require heavy earth-moving equipment or specialized structural blocks that he wasn't ready to deploy just yet. Instead, he thought of a highly efficient, temporary solution to completely eliminate the prison's water issues using his newly acquired Terraria artifact.
Gray opened his store and browsed through it, picking out a heavy-duty, reinforced 10,000-gallon industrial water storage tank for 8,000 Gold.
With a dull thud, the towering, dark-green plastic cylinder materialized in the utility courtyard. Gray scaled the side with a ladder, popped the top inspection hatch, and pulled out the Bottomless Water Bucket. Holding the heavy bucket directly over the open hatch, he turned it completely upside down and let a massive, infinite torrent of roaring water flood the empty chamber. It took a little time, but he held it steady until the stream filled the massive plastic container directly to the brim. Once the tank reached its cap, Gray stopped the flow instantly.
Before putting the artifact away, Gray walked over to his RV and held the bucket over the intake valve to completely top off his personal freshwater tank. Once his vehicle's utilities were fully prepped, he stashed the physics-defying bucket safely back into his inventory.
He went inside the cell block and gathered the community in the common room. "Listen up, everyone," Gray announced. "I just installed a ten-thousand-gallon water tank out in the yard. From this moment on, nobody has to step foot outside the perimeter to haul water from the creek. It's too dangerous with those Woodbury spies out there."
"Over the next few days, I'm going to start running the main plumbing lines through the building," Gray continued. "Once the pumps and heaters are hooked into our solar grid, you guys can finally take actual hot showers every single day if you want to."
Deep down, Gray knew the longer the Governor hesitated, the stronger Gray would become. Even now, barely a day after standing face-to-face with the dictator at the gates of Woodbury, Gray's passive income upgrade was quietly flooding his system balance with an unbelievable 46,077,233 Gold every single hour.
If the Governor truly believed he had the upper hand because he had more people, and some data layouts from Tomas and Andrew, he was mistaken. Gray was simply playing the long game, waiting patiently for the psycho to make his very first tactical mistake so he could execute an overwhelming counter-strike and completely wipe his regime out.
Of course, Gray wasn't a heartless monster. He wasn't going to just blindly slaughter the entire population of Woodbury. His tactical plan was already mapped out. When the time came, he would publicly expose the Governor's graphic atrocities to the citizens, systematically execute his inner circle of commanders if their bodies bled with rape or murder markers under his Sin Vision, and offer a peaceful, well-defended safe haven to all the innocent, normal families currently trapped inside Woodbury's walls.
But for now, the prison was peaceful, the lights were on, and only time would tell who would draw blood first.