ook didn't start with walls.
Walls were visible. Predictable. They told an attacker exactly where to hit.
Instead, he started with what couldn't be seen.
The Construction tab filled his vision as he stood at the edge of the territory, eyes tracing the natural approaches into the valley. There were only three—two narrow paths through the trees and the shallow slope following the stream.
Too clean.
He selected the first blueprint.
[Basic Spike Trap]
The blueprint overlaid the ground in faint blue outlines, angled and subtle. He dug carefully, placing sharpened stakes at irregular depths, covering them with loose soil and leaf litter. The System tracked placement precision.
[Trap Placement: Optimal]
[EXP Gained.]
He didn't smile.
He moved on.
Alarm bells followed—thin wire lines strung between trees, connected to crude metal chimes salvaged from scrap. They wouldn't stop anything, but they would speak. Early warnings mattered more than damage.
Next came choke points.
Rook dragged fallen logs into the narrower paths, reinforcing them with stakes and rope so they looked natural but forced movement where he wanted it. Anyone—or anything—coming in would slow. Funnel. Expose itself.
Layer by layer.
By midday, the valley looked unchanged.
That was the point.
He climbed the watchtower and surveyed his work from above.
From this angle, it became clear.
A wrong step here.A delayed reaction there.Noise before contact.
Time.
The System chimed softly as the final trap synced with the Territory Core.
[Defensive Network Established.]
[Territory Defense Rating: Improved.]
Rook leaned against the railing, breathing evenly.
Outside his borders, smoke rose faintly on the horizon. Distant echoes carried on the wind—shouting, gunfire, something screaming that wasn't human.
Inside, everything was quiet.
He descended and returned to the cabin, washing dirt from his hands. The timer over the farm ticked down steadily.
Forty-three hours.
Enough.
A sound reached him just as the sun dipped low.
Not a scream.
Not a monster.
Footsteps.
Rook's hand went to the crowbar as he stepped outside.
She stood just beyond the boundary string again.
Same torn jacket. Same controlled posture. But now her pack was heavier, slung low on one shoulder, and there was fresh blood on her sleeve. She looked exhausted in a way that couldn't be hidden.
Her eyes flicked briefly toward the tree line behind her.
Then back to Rook.
"You were right," she said.
The System chimed quietly.
[Unregistered Human Detected Near Territory Boundary.]
She swallowed once.
"About this place lasting."
The boundary string glowed faintly between them.