《Fallout Wastelander》


 Chapter 1: Reborn & Initial Planning

    ¡°Fuck man, another shit day at work.¡± I thought aloud grumpily as I came through the front door of my home.


    Haaa, I hope they lessen my increased workload sometime soon otherwise I''m gonna have to find another job in a moment here...


    No point thinking about it anymore. I''ll just see how things go the next two weeks before I make my decision. At least it''s Friday, so I have the rest of the night to do as I please, not to mention the weekend I have to look forward to.


    Throwing thoughts of work to the back of my mind, I headed off down to my basement to workout. For the next hour and a half, I went through my routine starting off with quite a few sets with my curl bar loaded with 182 pounds on it followed by some weighted dips, bent over rows, shrugs with a couple of 50-pound dumbbells. And finished it off with 3 plates on the bench before I decided to call it quits for the day.


    Damn, I¡¯ve been making gains lately. That dbol sure is making a difference. I¡¯ve added around 2 inches to my arms and increased my weight by 25 pounds since I started it. But I am getting a bit bloated, so I probably won¡¯t run this drug for too much longer since it is liver toxic as well.


    I thought to myself after feeling the great pump I got in a large portion of my upper body.


    *Growl*


    It do be about that time. Guess I''ll go whip up some dinner to fuel my gains. Burgers sound pretty appetizing right about now, so it looks like I''ll be firing up the grill. Gotta feed the muscles if I want to continue making gains.


    Returning upstairs, I gathered the ingredients I needed and spent the following 20 minutes preparing my meal. When I eventually had it all ready, I went and sat down at my PC to watch some YouTube while I hoovered up the dinner I had made for myself in half the time I took to prepare it.


    Damn, those were a good couple of burgers. I didn¡¯t even get to finish watching my video.


    Well, whatever I''ll finish later, it''s time I got a bit gaming since it''s been quite a while since I''ve last booted a game up. Mostly due to me being on a reading binge as of late and increased work hours, so it''s time I got into a game once again. As for what sort of game, I''ll see once I open Steam.


    Starting steam up, I waited the couple of seconds it required before exploring my library of games in search of tonight''s entertainment.


    Hmm, I haven¡¯t played Fallout in a while and I kinda want to roam around the wastes in power armor while gunning down super mutants with a minigun. I¡¯ve also yet to play that mod A Tale of Two Wastelands and this is as good a time as any to do so.


    So that¡¯s what I proceeded to do.


    ...


    It took a bit, but I eventually set up the mod A Tale of Two Wastelands. With the main mod installed, I went on to install a long mod list before I felt I could finally begin my wasteland adventure.


    There shall be no sleep, only fallout.


    I thought to myself as I started the mod up and watched the intro to Fallout 3.


    ¡°Ahh, the intro gets me every time.¡±


    I thought aloud while the music was playing and I started reminiscing about all the hours I dumped into this game as a kid back when all I had was a Xbox 360 along with no worries and responsibilities.


    Those were the days.


    Quickly leaving the main menu behind after some nostalgia, I went through the whole character creation process and made a white male character similar to myself with very dark brown short hair, nearly black in color and blue eyes. My character made in my own image or as close as I could get it, I blew through the whole baby phase, distributed my special points, and whatnot. From there, I speedily ran the vault 101 section of the game and made my way out into the capital wasteland in record time.


    ...


    Many hours of Fallout gameplay later, I¡¯m level 25, have a full suit of power armor, and got my unique minigun Eugene. Shit, I got a lot done over this all-nighter gaming session I pulled.


    As I was beginning to save my game and call things a night because of the sun peaking through my blinds, my head began to throb. Thinking nothing of it initially, I saved my game and got up from my desk. The moment I had done that, the throbbing ramped up, almost causing me to stumble.


    Beginning to feel an onset of pain on top of the rapidly increasing throbbing that felt as if it could make me pass out any moment now, I tried rushing for my phone to dial 911. However, before I could near my cellphone on my night stand the lights shut off and my vision went black, as did my consciousness.


    God knows when I started to wake after an indeterminate amount of time. As soon as I had gotten through my groggy state and regained full awareness, I instantly felt odd.


    My head is kinda fuzzy, I wonder why.


    I thought as I quickly began remembering the events that had occurred prior to me blacking out. Aware of what had happened previously and lucky to not be dead, I looked around my surroundings to see where I was. Unfortunately for me, everything appeared to be as black as ink.


    I¡¯m not dead luckily, but this might not be so good either. I can¡¯t make out a single thing in this pitch black. It¡¯s also hard to move any of my limbs and my neck for some reason.


    Well, this can¡¯t possibly be good. I might end up being a vegetable for the rest of my life at this rate.


    With nothing to do, I sat... laid... or whatever position I was currently in, waiting for something to happen. As more and more time passed, I eventually took notice of a weird pulsing sound that I never recall hearing in my entire stint here. Later, I also started to feel something tugging on my legs.


    Then, after a while, I noticed I was moving and before I knew it; I was popping out of whatever space I was being held in. The very instant I popped out, a blindingly bright white light unceremoniously greeted me.


    Ahhhh, my eyes are burning. What the fuck is this.


    After a few moments, my eyes adjusted to the brightness of the light. And as soon as they had, the world came into view, displaying a scene in front of me that seemed oddly familiar. Whilst I was taking this all in, my body began to act on its own by crying out.


    *Waaaaah-waaaaaahhhhhhh-waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh*


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    ¡°Let''s see, are you a boy or a girl? It''s a boy, a boy. We''ve got a son, Catherine, a beautiful, healthy baby boy.¡±


    Well, it would appear that I¡¯ve somehow been reborn as a baby. Goodbye prior life. Hello whatever this is.


    "Huh, oh oh James, oh we did it. Huh, a son, huh, a beautiful son, huh." The woman who was my new mother said laboriously.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got a bright future ahead of you, son. I¡¯m sure of it.¡±


    ¡°Look at you, look at you¡­ Hi there. I¡¯m your daddy, little guy daddy. You¡¯re gonna need a name, aren¡¯t you? Your mother and I have been talking. What do you think about Harold Todd Woods? That¡¯s a good name, don¡¯t you think? Fits you perfectly.¡±


    ¡°Looks like they¡¯ve finished the gene projection. Let¡¯s see what you¡¯ll look like when you¡¯re all grown up.¡± The man I presumed to be my new father said before a gene projection screen moved towards my face.


    When the piece of equipment stopped in front of me, time seemed to freeze. Thus, I took the unlimited amount of time I had at my disposal to gather my thoughts on the situation I found myself in.


    Now that I¡¯ve had a few moments to process what I believe to be going on, it would appear that I¡¯m in the world of fallout. But in a not-so-bad position of my father being James, the doctor/scientist from Fallout 3 and in this case. And seeing how I get to keep my name from my last life, that would make his name James Woods, not sure what his middle name would be, but I bet I¡¯ll learn of it, eventually.


    Moving on from that thought. I guess I should start to plan out what I¡¯m going to do in the future, because I¡¯m in a world where a good portion of the planet has been reduced to ash and nuclear wastelands with almost everything out to kill you and rip your face off.


    Hmm, let me think, there isn¡¯t much point thinking super far out right now. That said, I can at the very least plan out my childhood and what I should take advantage of since my childhood will be myself and my new dad living in vault 101 in relative safety.


    With that being the case, there are few opportunities I can take advantage of, such as working on my body to increase my physical attributes. And developing my knowledge, which should transfer over to most skills such as bartering, energy weapons, explosives, guns, lockpicking, medicine, repair, science, sneaking, speech, survival, and unarmed. There may be even more skills than that, that currently I¡¯m unaware now that this isn¡¯t a game anymore, but those are the ones I''m aware of at this time.


    It would also be worthwhile to invest the years ahead into making things I would need for my inevitable venture out into the wasteland. So it would be wise to prepare ranged weapons, ammo, armor, medical supplies, a durable melee weapon, a number of miscellaneous items for many situations, survival gear, and food that lasts for extended periods, to name a few.


    I can also try to change the events that happened in vault 101 and use them to my advantage such as stopping/preventing the overseer from going on a murder-happy bender to shaping his daughter Amata and trying to place her in the overseer position to use as a puppet instead of myself. I could take the role myself, but I don¡¯t really want all that extra work. Or I can still just leave after I extracted all the benefits I can milk the vault for.


    I think that¡¯s enough planning for now. Let me take a look at the screen that¡¯s been sitting in front of my face this entire time.


    Throwing further planning for future me to contemplate about, I checked the gene projection out. Upon doing so I discovered it appeared to have defaulted to the character I made last night. In addition to that, I found this gene projector had several additional options to use from the original.


    Ohh, there are even options to change everything from my max height to the length/girth of my dong, sweet.


    After a bit more scrolling through the options, I came across something incredibly useful towards the bottom of the selection.


    Oh, and what is this, I even have traits I can pick from as well. Fuck yeah, that is actually huge.


    Let¡¯s see what options I got.


    Traits


    2 Points Left


    | Bloody Mess | +10% damage and your enemies die more violently.


    | Bruiser | Strength is increased by 2 points and 2 agility is lost. The 2 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points gained by this trait can be used on any S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat, similar to Small Frame and Gifted.


    | Built to Destroy | All weapons have an increased chance to cause a Critical Hit, but at the cost of more frequent maintenance.


    | Chem Reliant | This trait will double the character¡¯s chances of getting addicted to any chem, but it also gives them faster recovery from the side effects.


    | Chem Resistant | The effect duration and addiction chance of chems are halved.


    | Claustrophobia | When outside you gain +1 to all S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s but when indoors, you suffer -1 to all S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s.


    | Early Bird | +2 to all S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s from 6 am to 12 pm but -1 to them from 6 pm to 6 am


    | Fast Metabolism | +2 Healing Rate.


    | Fast Shot | Fire rate +20%, stamina cost +20%, gun and energy weapon accuracy -20%.


    | Finesse | Critical Chance is increased by 10%.


    | Four Eyes | +2 Perception when wearing glasses.


    | Gifted | +1 to all S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s however, all skills are reduced by 10%.


    | Good Natured | Gain a 15% boost to all social skills and a 10% reduction to all combat skills.


    | Heavy Handed | Melee and unarmed attacks deal 20% more damage.


    | Hoarder | +25 carry weight but if the load you are carrying drops below 160 pounds, receive -1 to all S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s until you''re back above 160 pounds.


    | Hot Blooded | When your health drops below 50% you deal 15% more damage, but you also suffer a -2 perception and agility penalty.


    | Jinxed | Higher chances that failures are critical for everyone around you.


    | Kamikaze | Deal 25% more damage at the cost of having no natural damage threshold or damage resistance.


    | Logan¡¯s Loophole | Chems last twice as long and remove the possibility of becoming addicted, but you can¡¯t pass level 30.


    | Loose Cannon | This trait increases your throwing speed of weapons by 30% and reduces your stamina costs by 30% as well. However, you lose 25% thrown weapon velocity, shortening the distance from which you can hit a target.


    | Night Person | Receive a -1 modifier to both intelligence and perception between the hours of 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM. But get a +1 modifier to those same S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s from the hours of 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM.


    | One Hander | -40% Accuracy penalty with two-handed weapons and a +20% accuracy bonus with one handed weapons.


    | Sex Appeal | This trait improves reaction towards you by members of the fairer sex as well as increases sexual prowess. Also upgrades your trading skills when bartering with female merchants.


    | Skilled | You gain +10% to all skills, but you gain 10% fewer experience points.


    | Small Frame | +1 Agility but reduces carry weight by 25 and increases limb damage received by 25%.


    | Take Another | Let''s you take another trait at the cost of 1 special point. Doesn''t cost a trait point.


    | Trigger Discipline | Guns and energy weapons have reduced sway, increased accuracy, reduced rate of fire, and increased stamina cost by 20%.


    | Wild Wasteland | You will encounter oddities and strange events frequently.


    I have quite a few options to choose from. However, there are some obvious traits that provide significantly more benefits compared to others, such as Gifted, for instance. That sole trait awards a +7 to special points for a miniscule -10% to skills which can be converted to a -10% experience points gained instead with Skilled. Something I''d rather deal with comparatively, and that negative 10% effect can be negated with 2 points of intelligence.


    Going with those traits, they would come out to 2 points so far, meaning I''m left with zero trait points remaining. Though if I forgo a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. point, I can claim another trait with Take Another''s help, but what would I use that point on... I can see sex appeal coming in handy quite often and because I¡¯ll be going to Megaton, the minute I leave the vault to stock up on supplies from Moira Brown and to get that free house I can probably get a decent discount out of her.


    Not too bad of an idea. I''ll go with those traits.


    Okay, with traits out of the way, let''s go back to customizing what I¡¯ll look like in the future. I''m pretty satisfied with my appearance, so I''ll leave my main features mostly unchanged and will set my max height at 6 foot 6 inches. As for my dong, I never had complaints in that department, thus I''ll leave that alone too.


    I gave everything a once over and selected complete resuming time.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to look a lot like your dad.¡±


    Nope.


    ¡°See that Catherine?¡±


    ¡°Ohhh¡­. Very strapping¡­ Ha Ha Ha¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a big world out there, son, full of all sorts of people. What about you? What kind of person are you going to be?¡±


    ¡°James?¡±


    ¡°Catherine!¡±


    ¡°James¡­¡±


    ¡°Catherine!¡±


    ¡°Something¡¯s¡­ *Hah* Something¡¯s not¡­¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s in cardiac arrest. Start compressions! Get the baby out of here! Move, move!¡±


    No change there, it seems, not like there is really anything I can do to help since I¡¯m a baby. I also have no medical knowledge or any experience in that particular field to speak of, so there''s that as well. But it would have been nice to have both of them together as my parents.


    ¡°One, one thousand. Two, one thousand¡­ Come on!¡±


    Feeling kinda tired right about now, I began dozing off into the land of dreams as I was being brought away by one of the scientists working on project purity with my parents. A few seconds later, my vision darkened from not being able to keep my eyes open any longer.


    Well, off I go to who knows where, hopefully Rivet City and then to vault 101 later on.

 Chapter 2: S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

    One year later.


    As I was happily sleeping, I was suddenly woken up and blinded once again by that darn light.


    ¡°Don¡¯t look straight into the light, pal. You¡¯ll hurt your eyes. It¡¯s just something you get used to down here."


    "Come on over here, son. Come on! Walk to daddy!¡±


    ¡°Come to daddy.¡±


    Guess it¡¯s that time to play my role as a baby once again, god I can''t wait till I''m older.


    "Gu-gu-ga-ga-dada."


    The very instant I ended my string of baby noises with dada, my dad''s face brightened up a 100 fold.


    ¡°You can make it!¡±


    ¡°There you go! My goodness! Just a year old, and already walking like a pro. Your mother would have been so proud. Listen, kiddo, I know you don¡¯t like it when daddy leaves you alone, but I need you to take care of yourself for a minute. You just stay here while daddy runs to his office. You¡¯ll be okay, pal. I¡¯ll be back in a bit.¡± He said before walking out of the room I was sleeping in moments ago.


    About time he left me alone for a bit, haa.


    A few seconds went by before an idea popped into my head.


    Hmm, I suppose I have enough time to get my hands on that special book since he should be gone for a little while.


    Upon finishing that thought, I opened the lock on the playpen door that I was in and walked over to my toy box and started rummaging through it in search of that special book.


    Ahha, I found it.


    Okay, let¡¯s see what I¡¯m working with here. Hopefully, my stats are the same as they were in Fallout 3 and if not, I hope they aren''t too bad, otherwise I could be playing this life on hard mode.


    Opening the book up, a holographic screen suddenly appeared in my vision, displaying my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats.


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 5


    Perception: 5


    Endurance: 5


    Charisma: 5


    Intelligence: 5


    Agility: 5


    Luck: 5


    11 Points Left


    Good, my stats are the same as they were in Fallout 3 and thanks to the Gifted trait, I got quite a few extra points to spend as well, an additional six of them to be exact. Alright where do I want to start... I know I need to put extra points into intelligence to make up for the decrease in xp gain from skilled so I''ll increase intelligence to 12 to negate a decent bit of that exp reduction.


    Now that I have that squared away, I¡¯ll go from top to bottom. Strength can be reduced because that will be one of the primary S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s I will be focusing on while I¡¯m living here in the vault. As for what number it should be, I''ll reduce it down to 1 because I''ll be able to increase it through a variety of means but mostly with weights and strength training and the proper cultivation of mass slash a large amount of protein intake.


    I also might be able to produce hormones and performance-enhancing drugs later on too since the vault dwellers have to be able to produce their own meds and chems down here to have been able to survive for this long. And from what I''ve noticed from the times dad brought me anywhere in the vault, I didn''t see the vault dwellers lacking anything whatsoever so they should possess the ability to produce a multitude of different chems and medicines.


    Another idea I¡¯ve come up with while I''ve been waiting to get older is utilizing stimpaks for their accelerated healing to reduce the recovery time needed for my muscles to repair themselves from working out. If that recovery time is short enough, I should be able to work out the same muscle groups daily, but that''s just my hopeful thinking for now. Though, I''ll definitely be putting it to the test as soon as I can.


    The stimpaks could also have some additional benefits like increasing my bone density because when microfractures in bones are repaired, they increase the bone''s density. If it can do that, there''s also a possibility that it could strengthen my ligaments too. However, it will take quite a while to see if it possesses either of those effects, thus I''ll have to wait till I¡¯m at an age where I can start weight training before I can actually put any of this to the test.


    With my strength reduced to 1, I''m left with 8 points to spend. So moving on down the list of S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s perception is up next. I don''t think perception will be as easy a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. to train like strength. Therefore, I¡¯ll dump 5 points into it for now and in the future I can try to come up with some sort of method to train it.


    Continuing on to the easy one, endurance. I''ll be making it a 10 because I will certainly need a ton of stamina to endure the amount of training and shit I¡¯m going to be putting my body through in the years to come. It also helps to be able to take a few more hits than everybody else as well, especially in this world. Another benefit of allocating the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points to endurance is it should boost my body''s natural health regeneration, which means I can make even more gains.


    After going over endurance''s many benefits in my head, I put the remaining 3 points into it bringing its total to 8. Two points lower than my desired 10 but that''s alright I''ll be taking the points I need for it from another S.P.E.C.I.A.L. to get it to 10 in a second here. Once the 3 points were distributed, I moved on to the next S.P.E.C.I.A.L. on the list.


    Charisma is a pretty useful S.P.E.C.I.A.L. later on. However, I don''t think I''ll need it all that much initially, seeing how I¡¯m gonna need to be a hell of a lot more worried about surviving. Aside from that, I''m concerned about being able to kill rather than trying to talk to them to resolve something peacefully.


    Something of which I doubt I''ll be able to make happen often, even if I was to go down the speech/diplomacy route. I can also just improve my charisma in the future with the Intense Training perk and by retrieving the charisma bobblehead, but that''s something I can worry about at a later date.


    Yeah, I''m gonna have to take a pass on intelligence. Alright, time to look at Agility now. I¡¯ll be reducing this S.P.E.C.I.A.L. too and taking 4 points from it for the simple reason that I''ll be able to improve it through different methods. Such methods ranging anywhere from stuff as basic as running and doing cardio to more advanced exercises like gymnastics and working on my stretching to increase my flexibility.


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    The moment I had the points taken out of agility, I put 2 points into endurance and continued on down the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. screen onto the last remaining one.


    Finally, luck is all that¡¯s left. I''m pretty happy with the current distribution, so I''ll add the last 2 points to it, bringing it up to a total of 7. And once I do that, I''ll review my current S.P.E.C.I.A.L. distribution again to really make sure I''m happy with their current numbers.


    Distributing the points where they needed to go, I reviewed my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s one last time and decided the distribution was fine. Ready to get this over with, I selected the completion button on the holographic screen.


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 1


    Perception: 10


    Endurance: 10


    Charisma: 5


    Intelligence: 12


    Agility: 1


    Luck: 7


    0 Points Left


    A brief second later, after finalizing my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. selection, the holographic screen poofed and disappeared. Upon its disappearance, I immediately felt an immediate influx of changes happening all across my body, a feeling similar to having pins and needles across one''s body. This went on for a couple of minutes when it appeared to settle down before it abruptly ended. Standing up, the changes were immediately noticeable. My body, for instance, seemed significantly more sluggish than it was previously.


    As if it wasn¡¯t already bad enough being a 1-year-old baby, now I''m even slower than I was but it doesn''t seem by much.


    I''ll have to try training so I can bring my agility and strength up to a somewhat decent amount, otherwise my dad might notice something odd. Although, I doubt I''ll be able to raise it much since there isn''t a whole lot of time I''m left alone to my own devices. Haaa, whatever, I''ll just do what I can when I can.


    Several seconds later, checking out my new and improved self.


    Ohh that''s pretty cool, I now have a sort of zoom to my vision and I can feel the presence of vault dwellers nearby. That extra perception is gonna be a huge advantage out in the wasteland when I''m old enough and eventually decide to venture out of the vault.


    Hmm, my ability to recall information seems to have been improved drastically. I can now clearly remember all those documentaries and articles I¡¯ve watched and read back in my old world word for word. As well as all the research I did on different companies and their products when I used to be really into how things ticked and were made with extreme clarity.


    I can even recall quite a few different gun designs/schematics that will be very useful here, along with how to produce microelectronics from my old world. Although that latter one will be a long term goal since it won¡¯t be all too easy making a lithography machine.


    Hmm, nothing else seems to stand out to me immediately, so I''ll roam around the room until dad returns.


    As I was finishing that thought, a presence arrived at the vault door to our home and began opening.


    *kshhhk*


    "Ha ha ha! You¡¯re quite the little explorer, aren¡¯t you?" Dad said, seeing me running about outside the kid pen he left me in.


    "Serves me right for trying to pen you in! Come on over here. I want to show you something!"


    Following him, he directed me over to a small metal table that had at a picture frame atop of it with some text on it


    ¡°See that? It was your mother¡¯s favorite passage. It¡¯s from the bible. Revelation 21:6. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.¡±


    "Gah."


    ¡°She always loved that passage. All right, come on. Let¡¯s go see if your little friend Amata wants to play¡­¡±


    Sigh, I can''t wait till I''m older. It''s so boring having to act like a baby.


    As soon as Dad finished talking, he immediately picked me up and got a couple of miscellaneous things before he opened the front entrance of our home and exited it with me in hand.


    He then spent the next several minutes walking through the gray vault hallways with me in hand to the overseer¡¯s residence while also passing the occasional vault dweller going about their business on our way there.


    When the two of us arrived at the entrance to the overseer¡¯s residence, dad reached his hand towards a button located to the right of the door and pressed it, producing a ring in the overseer¡¯s home a second later.


    The both of us then waited for moments before I heard footsteps coming towards the door from within the home. And after another moment, the door opened, revealing the overseer with his daughter Amata in hand in about the same position as me.


    ¡°Good morning Alphonse I was wondering if your little Amata could use a playmate for the day?¡± My dad said, to which little Amata¡¯s eyes brightened at the word playmate.


    ¡°Good morning James, I¡¯m sure my little girl could use a playmate. Isn¡¯t that right, my little muffin?¡± The overseer said while directing a question towards his little girl Amata, who started making happy gurgling baby noises in response.


    Ahh, I¡¯m going to be here for a while, aren¡¯t I. Well, I better try my best to get her tired out so we can take a nap and I can go home early otherwise I¡¯ll be here all day like my previous time.


    ¡°There you have it, James. My little Amata does indeed need her partner in crime, but I¡¯m sure a playdate isn¡¯t the real reason you¡¯re paying us a visit today, now is it?¡± The overseer said, implying that my dad was here for other reasons.


    ¡°You¡¯re spot on as ever, Alphonse. I need to discuss some things regarding your wife''s treatment with you.¡± My dad answered in a somewhat serious tone of voice with a facial expression reflecting that he had something serious to discuss.


    ¡°Well, come on in so we can discuss what¡¯s going on with my wife.¡± The overseer said to my dad while moving out of the doorway so we could enter his residence.


    Dad then entered the overseer''s home with me in hand and followed the overseer further into his home before the overseer said several seconds later.


    ¡°Ohh, before we start discussing my wife, we can put our two little ones in Amata¡¯s play area so we won¡¯t be distracted.¡±


    ¡°That sounds good, since what I need to discuss with you is relatively serious.¡±


    The two dads then dropped both I and Amata off in her play area before they walked off into another area of the overseer¡¯s home to discuss whatever was going on with the overseer¡¯s wife.


    I hope Amata¡¯s mother will be alright, but if this world follows the events that took place within the game, she will die relatively soon. It''s unfortunate, however there is not anything I can do to change or help since I¡¯m currently a toddler and still have next to no medical experience whatsoever.


    Although I do possess a decent bit of medical knowledge now, thanks to my ability to recall what I saw previously clearly, as if I had the book or material right in front of me. Regardless, the information I possess is probably nothing that can help the situation out too much, if at all.


    I thought, watching the both of them walk off together.


    A few seconds passed while I was thinking when I heard Amata moving behind me and making noises.


    I suppose it¡¯s time to do my job and play with Amata. Sigh. Hopefully, she will tire out sooner than the last playdate, but knowing my luck, that isn¡¯t going to happen. Maybe the 2 points I put into my luck earlier when I was using the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. book will help with that some, but I have a feeling it won¡¯t be of much help sadly, haa.


    I then spent the next few hours playing with Amata and trying to keep her entertained while both of our dads were off in some other part of the home discussing. After half an hour had passed, I noticed Amata was beginning to tire.


    Finally, I can take a rest. I''m so happy it didn''t take nearly as long as last time, so I must be improving and getting good at this, I guess. Well, let me get her moved over to the cushioned area so we can nap and I can go home sooner.


    Finished with my thoughts, I started bringing Amata over to the cushioned area. After a short bit of stumbling over and some baby noises from Amata, we reached the sleeping area. Ready to catch some zs, I laid her down on the cushions and grabbed one of the nearby blankets and covered her with it.


    I then grabbed another and laid down next to her with a blanket of my own while her eyes started to close. Shortly thereafter, she was out like a light and I followed suit not too much later because I was quite tired as well from playing with her for the last few hours.


    God knows when I found myself woken up again by my dear ole dad, James, to be brought home. I soon arrived back home and when I did and got put in my crib, I quickly fell back asleep.

 Chapter 3: Making Gains

    Nine years later.


    Whilst I was relaxing on my comfy bed with my hands resting behind my head, I started to think of the last nine years.


    Hmm, it''s been a minute since I''ve gone over what I''ve accomplished and man, have I made a ton of progress these last nine years. Let me start off by checking my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. book to see how I''ve been doing as of late.


    Reaching under my pillow, I pulled out my precious S.P.E.C.I.A.L. book that I''ve held onto for all these years and proceeded to open it. A split second later, a holographic screen appeared within my vision, displaying my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s that have progressed a decent bit in the last few years.


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 5


    Perception: 10


    Endurance: 11


    Charisma: 5


    Intelligence: 13


    Agility: 4


    Luck: 7


    0 Points Left


    Yeah, not bad, I''ve made a pretty decent gain of 9 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points over a period of 9 years. Although, most of the gains came from the last few years, but still not too bad overall for not being able to get any real training in for a good portion of those years.


    Now that I''ve had a look at my increased S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s let me go over what I''ve accomplished and what I''m capable of as well as some of my body''s measurements.


    Beginning with my measurements, I now stand at 5 foot 5 inches or 1.65 meters currently and weigh about 150 pounds or around 68 kilograms, give or take. As for my strength, I''m now able to curl 132 pounds and can easily dip my own body weight for reps. My bench press is sitting at 224 and I''m back up to doing 50-pound dumbbell shrugs like I was in my previous life.


    I remember before I started going to the gym I had to get permission from dad and oh god did that take forever. But my old man could only withstand my teary-eyed look for so long before he caved eventually and the day that he did, I started going to the vault gym the very next day and haven''t stopped since.


    Though when I first started hitting the gym, the other vault residents thought I was lost or were asking each other why such a young kid was there. However, they quickly got used to me once I explained to a few of them that I just enjoyed exercising and weightlifting on top of seeing me there all the time.


    As time went on and I started putting on a decent amount of muscle as well as leaning out I became quite the spectacle in the vault dweller gym that I started to draw a few eyes every time I went, especially from some of the younger female residents. There were also a couple of younger guys eyeing me up as well, which reminded me of my previous life when I used to go out to clubs with my buddies and I would get hit on/felt up by the occasional dude.


    I even had an incident where a weird 20-something female vault resident tried to grab me inappropriately while I was at the gym later on in the evening. Where not many people were watching nor paying attention unfortunately for her, I quickly intercepted her hands and shut her down by going off on her and threatening to sick my uncle officer Gomez on her, who has basically become my uncle over these last few years.


    The instant she heard me mention my uncle Gomez, her face turned a bit pale and once I was done telling her off, I let go of her hands before she scurried away quickly, almost fleeing, which I found to be a bit odd. I guess uncle Gomez has a bit of a reputation.


    Returning to my measurements before I got sidetracked, I''ve made other strength gains besides those across a multitude of other weighted exercises. But I think I''ve listed enough for now otherwise I''ll be covering every little thing which isn''t really necessary, so continuing on.


    I wanted to start hormones or peds to boost my progress but I haven''t yet because it could be very problematic for many different reasons, though the main one is my body has yet to fully mature. That aside, I have had access to stimpaks thanks to my dad being both a doctor and a researcher and a pretty high up one at that.


    So that has been a significant contributing factor to my gains, along with my larger intake of food to fuel my training and my increased endurance that has accelerated my body''s recovery speed massively compared to a normal individual. With my strength pretty much covered at this point, I''ll move on to my perception next.


    Where to begin... I suppose I can start there. I feel like the range I can detect others has increased a bit, but not too much because I find it to be extremely tedious to train with my current methods. Which is basically me just sitting with my eyes closed while I focus on detecting the presence of passing vault dwellers going by my home in the hallways right outside of my room.


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Sitting there with my eyes closed for extended periods of time requires a shit load of patience on my part that I don''t necessarily have for that specific activity most days, hence why I haven''t made any substantial progress in it. It''s also one of those S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s that progresses at a slower rate, so it has that working against it too.


    Because of those problems, I only ever really find myself training it when I''m relaxing at home or before I fall asleep in my bed at night, which in reality isn''t really all that much time. I will definitely have to find a better way to train it in the future because the way I''m training it right now just isn''t all that effective.


    And if I could start increasing my perception stat, it should increase the range I can detect different things by a decent amount. So if I improve the range on my pseudo perception field enough, it should prevent me from walking into any dangerous situations out in the wasteland where there are plenty of dangers located around every corner. That sort of ability would be incredibly useful.


    Okay, that''s enough about perception onto endurance now.


    This one I''m not really all that surprised about going up because I''ve been grinding my balls off. As a result of it increasing, I noticed my body has undergone a few changes since my endurance had gone up to 11. Changes like my body becoming tougher, my overall stamina basically doubling, and my sleep being halved.


    I''ve also noticed my pores have basically become so small that a normal person can''t really see them, and my skin seems to be more durable as well as more beautiful. Or at least that''s what the older women around me tell me while going on about how they wished they had skin as nice as mine.


    When this increase happened and I eventually noticed these changes, I decided to perform a few tests on my body to test out its new durability. What I discovered from these tests was that my skin''s durability had increased so much that a knife can barely cause any real damage to it.


    Nevertheless, that was only to a point and the second I surpassed that point and applied enough pressure, the knife still pierced my skin. However, unlike before, it met a ton of resistance from the layers underneath. Upon discovering that, I applied more pressure to the knife, causing it to slice in deeper but only a slight bit more. After that, it just stopped cutting any further no matter how much strength I exerted, which was nice since that was the point where I started to bleed.


    That new durability of mine will certainly be very useful in the days to come. Being able to shrug off knife attacks certainly does sound nice. And since my body''s ability to stop damage is already this strong, I can only imagine how much stronger it will be once my endurance starts increasing rapidly when I begin using hormones, peds, etc.


    Continuing on down the list. Well, there''s not really anything to say regarding charisma. Maybe it''ll go up 1 by the time I leave the vault, or maybe not.


    So I''ll just continue onto Intelligence, which has improved somewhat since I''ve been sucking up as much knowledge as possible by helping dad with his research, providing medical treatment to our fellow vault dwellers, and making visits to the vault library nearly every day of the week.


    The library they have down here in vault 101 is something else. That place is absolutely gargantuan and has the largest assortment of books I''ve seen that cover innumerable topics. Ranging from general robotics to how to run and build nuclear power plants to stuff as basic as cleaning radioactive water and turning it into purified drinking water. But those are only a few of the topics I''ve read about and explored so far.


    And seeing how I''ve only managed to go through a third of the library at this time, I still got plenty left to learn and absorb.


    Due to that all-encompassing selection, I''ve been able to learn a ton from my daily trips back and forth.


    Because of all that time I spent in the library, it has given me some new ideas and influenced my plans. Such as changing my initial plans to leave the vault early to take control of the RobCo facility to the east so I can build up a robot army. And once I think I have a decent amount of robots, I''m going to make a move on the VSS Facility that houses a large untouched armory with a set of T-51 Power Armor and a suit of Chinese Stealth Armor.


    Both of which would do wonders for upgrading my combat capabilities, and if I leave the vault early enough, I could get to and loot the VSS Facility way before the outcasts leave the brotherhood of steel to form their own faction and take over the facility. Which would be one less problem for me to have to deal with in the future.


    I could also try reverse engineering the Chinese Stealth Armor technology to be used on power armor in conjunction with stealth boy technology. Having access to that sort of tech should allow me to take over Raven Rock, the military installation I very much desire because it possesses a majority of the manufacturing facilities I want. Those being its robot, vertibird, weapon, and lastly its power armor manufacturing facilities that created the notorious black devil power armor.


    So if I want to make sure everything goes right, having stealth power armor will probably be a necessary requirement if I want to gain control of Raven Rock safely, especially if it''s occupied when I depart from the vault. And if I had to guess if it is or isn''t, I would put my money on that it is occupied. Therefore, I''ll have to make just about every preparation I can to ensure the facility ends up in my control without going boom, thanks to eden.


    Once I make Raven Rock mine in the future, it''s basically gg, I''ll basically have the ability to make myself a nearly unstoppable force in the wasteland, or at least against the factions I know of here on earth. As for the Zetans, that''s a whole nother story. They could easily wipe me off the map with any one of the death rays mounted underneath their spaceships. Therefore, I''ll definitely have to figure out how I''m going to deal with them in the future.


    I think that''s enough about all that for now since it''s a bit too far out into the future at this time to make any plans with any actual substance. But as I''m getting closer to being capable of taking over and making Raven Rock my own, I can revisit and modify my plans as needed to make it a reality.

 Chapter 4: Pip-Boy

    Moving on down the list again, we have agility. Man, do I hate cardio, so that''s probably the primary reason why it''s lagging slightly behind my strength by 1. That said, an increase of 3 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points to a total of 4 is still a pretty good number nonetheless for the amount of time I''ve invested in training it.


    The increase in my agility has increased my maximum speed, my jump height, and my flexibility by quite a significant margin from my previous 1 agility. Though I am still slightly behind what a normal human adult can physically achieve. But for a 10-year-old, those numbers are basically prodigy-level. I know that to be so because any time I''m on the track running or doing just about any other agility-based activity with anyone my own age, I always leave them in my dust without fail.


    Okay, time to look at the last S.P.E.C.I.A.L. on the list, luck.


    So I''ve tried to train my luck via multiple luck-based activities. However, after about a year of trying, it has not increased by even a single damn point. As a result of that, I decided to cut my losses while I was ahead and discontinue dedicating any further time to training it.


    Besides having no luck with improving my own luck, I have noticed my luck in this life is noticeably better than I had in my previous life. One such effect of that better luck is me somehow tripping over nothing and falling face-first into an attractive, well-endowed woman''s chest. I sure hell thought I was going to get into a heap of trouble, but thankfully she didn''t make a big deal out of it and let me off scot-free.


    I can''t with absolute certainty attribute it to that sole S.P.E.C.I.A.L. since me ending up in that situation and getting out of it without any sort of trouble whatsoever was certainly not possible in my past life. Maybe it''s because of my increased luck in combination with the sex appeal trait I took years ago, and me being 10.


    She was blushing and treating me quite well after the incident, so Sex Appeal might be why she didn''t take issue with what happened. Though I don''t know how much sex appeal a 10-year-old boy could have, even if I am a bit ripped and look older than I am.


    Well, whatever I shall see, if the result remains the same in the future or if their reactions change. And while I''m at it I could also try to do some experiments with it, such as trying to control my luck to prevent that sort of outcome from occurring in the first place. Since any time it does happen, it makes things a bit awkward and uncomfortable, or at least for me it does.


    Now that luck has been covered, I''m done with my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s.


    Other than my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s generally improving minus a few exceptions, I managed to get my hands on quite a few microfusion cells about 200 so far that I can use as ammo for when I acquire a laser rifle. If not that, I can simply modify them and turn each of them into makeshift grenades at a moment''s notice if the need arises.


    Though I doubt one such need will occur because for the nine years I''ve been living down here, I haven''t encountered a single real problem that would require violence to resolve it. Despite it''s nice to have the option of turning my enemies to ash via a corona of energy.


    Returning to what I''ve been able to loot over the years, I scrounged up a good amount of scrap metal, electronics, duct tape, wonderglue, and all sorts of other miscellaneous components. All of which I have all stored and locked away in my toy box along with the previously mentioned microfusion cells.


    With all that stuff I''ve collected, I nearly have all the components I need to build a laser weapon. All I''m missing at this point is a few laser weapon parts, thus my current goal is to find and secure some laser weapons parts, which I can easily find in the vault armory. I''ll eventually sneak in there unnoticed and when I do and finally obtain those parts, I can build my very own laser weapon since I found out how to make them and put them together from the vault library.


    And while I''m going through the vault armory, I''m going to search the place for recharger laser weapons. If the armory has any of those, I''ll snag a few microfusion breeder cells for myself to study and reverse engineer, possessing a limitless power source such as that would be huge. Hopefully, the armory has them and I can replicate the technology, otherwise I''ll have to wait till I''m out of the vault to locate some.


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    Moving on from that, I used a bit of the scrap metal that I obtained recently to make several lockpicks specifically to practice with and use to break into certain areas of the vault to get my hands on even more material and gear like the armory. Sadly, I discovered access to it is blocked by a terminal and not a traditional lock after the fact.


    Therefore, my plan to lockpick my way in has failed right out of the gate. That''s what I get for presuming and not collecting enough intel. But that''s alright, I''ll just have to hold off on raiding the armory till I can increase my hacking skills so I can go in and out undetected.


    Yeah, I''ve made decent progress in the overall short amount of time I''ve been here... Alright, that''s enough ruminating for now, I best get a move on since it''s my 10th birthday today and I need to make my appearance as the surprised birthday boy.


    As soon as I finished that thought, I started stretching and seconds later got up from my bed and changed into a black t-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. Ready to go, I made my way over to the dining area of the vault, passing by the occasional vault dweller on my way there.


    A short walk later, I arrived in front of the dining area''s door and pressed the button to open it. As the door for the dining area was opening, I got ready to act surprised that there was a party for my birthday. Who would''ve thought.


    "Surprise!" Everyone hiding in the room said loudly while I was somehow blinded again, even though my eyes were already adjusted to the lighting in the hallway. It also wasn''t any brighter in the dining area as well.


    "Stanley, you turned the lights on too fast. You blinded the poor kid!" A light-skinned man in his vault security armor said who I knew as officer/uncle Gomez, my very chill uncle.


    "Happy birthday!" Everyone said loudly while clapping.


    First, giving them a big smile, I said to everyone here for my one day out of the year. "Thank you, everyone. You all really got me good."


    "Happy birthday pal! I can''t believe you''re already 10 years old. I''m so proud of you, son. If only your mother was still here with us." Dad said after walking up to me.


    "I''m sure she''s watching over us, dad." I responded, causing his already bright smile to brighten further.


    Once I was done talking to my dad, he patted my shoulder before walking off.


    When I turned back around, Amata''s dad, vault 101''s overseer, approached me and started speaking to me. "Congratulations, young man! I don''t have to tell you how special this day is, do I? Down here in Vault 101, when you turn 10, well, you''re ready to take on your first official Vault responsibilities but this would probably be your 3rd or 4th since you''ve already been assisting your father James with his research and helping him out administering medical attention to the many vault residents."


    Amata''s dad paused for a second for dramatic effect, I suppose, before continuing the rest of his spiel. "So here you are. As the Overseer, I hereby present to you your very own Pip-Boy 3000! Get used to it. You''ll be getting your first work assignment tomorrow."


    I give a mortified look after hearing that since my plate is already so full before he continues jokingly. "Just kidding, Ha ha ha ha ha!"


    Phew, I dodged a bullet there. I would''ve had to cut my precious sleep back if he wasn''t joking.


    I thought while wiping the nonexistent sweat from my forehead.


    After Amata''s dad was done laughing at my expense, he handed me the Pip-Boy 3000 he was holding and as soon as I had it in my hands; I started fiddling around with it and getting the device fitted onto my left forearm.


    It took me several seconds, but I got the thing equipped. The very second I did, I excitedly turned the Pip-Boy 3000 on and a split second later, everything began to freeze up and slow down.


    Ah shit, here we go again.


    Before I knew it, everything came to a complete stop and once it did, a holographic screen popped up in front of my vision, listing quite a bit of information which I found to be slightly overwhelming at initially.


    Pip-Boy


    Name: Harold Todd Woods


    Age: 10


    Height: 5,5 (in feet and inches)


    Race: Human


    Level: 1


    Experience Points: 0/200


    Total Experience Points Earned: 0


    Experience Rate: 165%


    Health: 320 | Formula: Base of 90 + (Endurance x 20) + (Level# x 10) |


    Carry Weight: 3/200 | Formula: (150 + Strength x 10 and will go up to 500 at full maturity) |


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 5


    Perception: 10


    Endurance: 11


    Charisma: 5


    Intelligence: 13


    Agility: 4


    Luck: 7


    | Skills |


    Barter: 31


    Energy Weapons: 47


    Explosives: 34


    Guns: 40


    Lockpick: 35


    Medicine: 46


    Melee Weapons: 25


    Repair: 53


    Science: 49


    Sneak: 22


    Speech: 25


    Survival: 33


    Unarmed: 35


    Traits: |Gifted|, |Sex Appeal|, |Skilled|, |Take Another Rank 1|


    Perks:


    Mutations:


    Loot: 200 Microfusion Cells, 200 Scrap Metal, 100 Scrap Electronics, 50 Duct Tape, 20 Wonderglue, 109 Other Misc. Junk.


    Quests: 1 Ready to turn in, Many in progress

 Chapter 5: First Quest

    The moment I got my bearings, I started looking at the information on the holographic screen in front of me.


    Ohh my skills are progressing nicely and quite a few of them are close to the 50 mark, nice. I should probably prioritize the skills that are closest to 50 just to even them out. And when that''s taken care of, I think I''ll focus my attention on lockpicking because the skill is quite useful for getting into any locked-up areas.


    It could also use it to grind out xp for level ups by lockpicking different doors. Though it might have some limitations like not being able to gain xp from a door more than once, or not being able to gain xp from locks that I had a hand in creating. I will definitely have to do a few tests when I get the chance to see if it''s a viable way to gain xp.


    Moving down my status screen to the perks section, I don¡¯t seem to have any perks at the moment. I was pretty sure I would''ve had at least a couple since some of my specials are sitting at or above 10 right now. Maybe leveling up once will change that. Yeah, I will give that a try once I have enough xp to level up.


    Continuing on down the screen further, we have mutations. I don¡¯t ever recall seeing those in the games, so that''s new. I wonder how they will work when I do get one. Hopefully; I don''t end up growing a third arm out of my belly button or something equally as odd because that would suck, for obvious reasons.


    Moving on.


    Last on my status screen is quests and would you look at that, I somehow have 1 ready to turn in. I know for a fact there were no quests to complete till you exited vault 101, so there''s another change from the games, not that I''m complaining.


    Well, while time is frozen, I might as well turn the quest in now to test out whether I have any perks that are lying dormant. If not, at least I''ll be able to improve my stats from the skill point distribution and perk selection.


    As soon as I completed that thought, I selected the ready-to-turn quests from the status screen and after a moment the holographic screen changed to show the quest''s information.


    Quests ready to turn: 1


    | Everything Starts With The Pip-Boy | Objectives: Obtain a Pip-Boy, any variant.


    Rewards: Access to perks, Tag 3 Skills, and 200 exp.


    Yeah, I know for a fact that this quest never existed, so I guess the quests in this world won''t be the same as they were in the games and will be handled differently... Hmm, when I have some time available, I should probably dedicate some of it to exploring and figuring out how the new quest system works so I can figure out how to best utilize and take advantage of it.


    This isn''t just a game any longer, thus it would be in my best interest to be as much of a meta gamer as humanly possible. Well, that''s enough about that, time to turn this quest in and see if there are any changes to the perk list. Once I have that taken care of along with the distributions of my skills points, I can get back to my party.


    Selecting the quest, I turned it in and the very next second, the Fallout 3 level-up sound I hadn''t heard in a decade, began playing. Getting hit by a wave of nostalgia, I patiently listened to it and when the sound stopped, the holographic screen changed again to a level-up menu displaying a long list of perks to choose from.


    [ Perks ]


    Perk Points Left: 1


    Level 2 Perks


    | Ambidextrous | Requirements Level 2, Perception 8: Gain the ability to use both of your hands as if they were your dominant hand.


    | Confirmed Bachelor | Requirements Level 2: +10% damage against male opponents along with similar benefits to the Sex Appeal trait when dealing with members of the same sex.


    | Daddy¡¯s Boy | (Ranks 3) Requirements Level 2, Intelligence 4: +5 to both medicine and science while also making your dad more receptive to you.


    | Friend Of The Night | Requirements Level 2, Perception 6, Sneak 30: This perk grants low light vision.


    | Gun Nut | (Ranks 3) Requirements Level 2, Agility 3, Intelligence 4: +5 to both repair and guns and +10% to accuracy and range with guns.


    | Heave, Ho! | Requirements Level 2, Strength 5, Explosives 30: Acquire a 50% Increase in velocity and range for all thrown weapons. This also includes all other weapons that fire in an arc.


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    | Hunter | Requirements Level 2, Survival 30: +75% more critical damage against animals and mutated animals, and corpse processing is much easier.


    | In Shining Armor | Requirements Level 2, Repair 20, Science 70: +2 DT while wearing a metal helmet, +5 DT while wearing metal armor, and +7 DT on top when wearing both.


    | Intense Training | (Ranks Unlimited) Requirements Level 2: Gain 1 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. point to be distributed into any S.P.E.C.I.A.L..


    | Junk Rounds | Requirements Level 2: You can craft ammo using junk. It doesn''t make any sense, but it works, somehow.


    | Lady Killer | Requirements Level 2: Deal 10% more damage against females. Along with that, gain similar benefits to the Sex Appeal trait when dealing with members of the opposite sex.


    | Light Touch | Requirements Level 2, Agility 6, Repair 45: While wearing light armor, you gain a +5% critical hit chance, and your enemies suffer a -25% critical hit chance.


    | Little Leaguer | Requirements Level 2, Strength 4: +5 to both explosives and melee and +10% damage to both melee and thrown weapons.


    | Old World Gourmet | Requirements Level 2, Endurance 6, Survival 45: +25% addiction resistance and +50% health bonus from food consumption.


    | Rapid Reload | Requirements Level 2, Agility 5, Guns 30: +25% faster reload.


    | Retention | Requirements Level 2, Intelligence 5: Magazine duration lasts 3 times as long.


    | Swift Learner | Requirements Level 2, Intelligence 4: +10% increase in experience points gained and learn at a much faster rate.


    | Thief | Requirements Level 2, Agility 4, Perception 4: +5 to both lockpick and sneak and any theft-related activities easier than they once were.


    Spoiled for choice, I gave the list of perks a solid look over.


    The perk list seemed to have remained mostly the same as it was, except for a new addition of Ambidextrous. Which is one of the few perks that stand out to me because being ambidextrous would be a big help any time I''m crafting or doing just about anything with my hands.


    Besides that universal benefit, it would give me the ability to actually dual wield numerous weapons accurately without looking like a clown. I could see myself being able to use all kinds of weapons, ranging from things as simple as knives to smaller ranged weapons like pistols and their machine gun variants. And even light machine guns, possibly as long as I have the strength and endurance to hold them up and keep them on target for any extended amount of time.


    It would also help me with any tasks that require hand manipulation and I could also see it being very useful in the bedroom. That is a nice plus, but that won''t be happening till years later.


    The second perk that stands out to me would have to be Daddy¡¯s Boy, specifically because it''ll make it easier to convince my father to let me do certain things. Such as allowing me to do more dangerous activities like going to the vault mines to kill mole rats, one of the very few ways I''ve been able to come up with to gain xp in my stay down here in Vault 101.


    The perk could also make it easier to convince him to change his plans of leaving the vault to continue work on project purity. I''ve also given that subject a considerable amount of thought and decided to come from a rational angle to prevent him from returning to that project and getting himself killed by the Enclave.


    To get him on board, I''ll have to get it across to him that just creating fresh purified water, although a net positive for the waste, isn¡¯t going to solve the world¡¯s problems, not even a tiny bit.


    When he inevitably asks for me to elaborate, I''ll give it to him straight and tell all it would do is just paint a giant target on his back because drinkable nonradioactive water is an incredibly valuable resource out in the wasteland. Which the powers that be will come out of the woodwork to seize for themselves, thereby invalidating all the work he would''ve put into.


    It might take more convincing than just that, but I can think about this further over the many years I still have left. If none of that works, I''ll go the forceful route and keep him locked up until the Enclave threat has been dealt with.


    Returning to before I got sidetracked by the future project purity debacle, the third perk that caught my attention would have to be Hunter. That +75% increase in critical damage to animals and mutated creatures would be huge for taking out any mole rats I would encounter in the mines.


    However, that still relies upon me convincing dad to let me go into the vault mines, which I haven¡¯t been able to do so far, unfortunately. Also, now that I think of it, Heave, Ho! would also work well with it since a 50% increase in velocity and range would increase the damage dealt against mole rats even more.


    Plus, making spears and javelins are pretty simple as they''re basically just a pole with a sharp metal tip attached to the end. But I think that would be a bit too overkill for taking out mole rats, so I probably won''t be taking either of them.


    The fourth perk that I found appealing would be Junk Rounds. The reason I found it appealing would be because there is a ton of junk that gets produced and recycled every day in Vault 101 due to there being more than 10,000 vault dwellers and counting.


    So if I pick Junk Rounds, I could very easily skim junk off the top and begin stockpiling ammo with this perk slowly but surely. Though that ammo won''t be very useful till I get my hands on a firearm, which I will most likely have to create myself. Thus, I''ll probably skip this perk as well for the moment.


    The final perk that tickled my fancy was Swift Learner. Simply due to that 10% increase in exp gain, that sounds pretty nice and a faster learning speed would be a big help too. Especially with reading the rest of the books in the library, that said Swift Learner will have to wait for now because I don¡¯t currently possess any real way of earning exp right now other than lockpicking.


    So if I want to make any sort of rapid progress right now, I would say being able to convince dad into letting me into the mines to hunt mole rats is my priority right now and the perk Daddy¡¯s Boy would be huge in making that happen. I suppose my decision has been made for me.


    Rooting out all the other perks, I looked over the perk list again to see if I wanted to change my mind. After I was done looking, I was 100% sure of my choice, thus I selected the perk and finalized my choice.

 Chapter 6: Ding!

    Finished with my perk selection, a second went by before the holographic system screen in front of me changed again. Now showing me a window with all my skills listed along with the ability to tag 3 of them as well as a bit of information pertaining to the benefits tagging provides.


    [ Skills ]


    Skill Tags Left: 3


    Skill Points Left: 16


    Barter: 31


    Energy Weapons: 47


    Explosives: 34


    Guns: 40


    Lockpick: 35


    Medicine: 46


    Melee Weapons: 25


    Repair: 53


    Science: 49


    Sneak: 22


    Speech: 25


    Survival: 33


    Unarmed: 35


    Other Information: When you tag a skill, your talent in that skill will rise to genius levels and the skill itself will increase at double the rate of untagged skills.


    Well, that''s unusual. Normally you just get a flat +15 to whatever skill you tag and that''s it... Actually, I do recall that being a thing back in the older games, though that is only for the double rate and not the talent.


    Hmm, if tagging a skill is going to improve that skill at double the rate, then that changes things significantly from what I would''ve done normally. Yeah, I need to think about this for a moment because whatever 3 skills I decide to tag will affect my future significantly.


    Several minutes or what felt like several minutes went by as I was contemplating over what would be the best 3 skills to tag. After that period had passed, I came up with a few ideas. The first idea was I could go and specialize in the intelligence and knowledge route, which would consist of medicine, repair, and science.


    My reasoning behind why these 3 skills would be good to tag together is that I can see them providing many kinds of benefits. A few of which include providing an increase in the speed of knowledge acquisition, shortening the amount of time I need to spend researching, increasing my skill and efficiency in surgery and anything else medical-related and helping me synthesize new drugs.


    There is also the crafting and repairing gear benefits from the repair skill. Those will be a big help when it comes to building new equipment and tools for the other two skills, thus boosting them even further. All that said, the main reason to go with this option would be the research and technological breakthroughs it could potentially provide me.


    Although I probably won''t see those benefits kicking in till, I get a place to call my own with zero restrictions where I can actually perform research and conduct different experiments. I could probably just convince the overseer at a later time to allocate or build a workshop once I''m older and shown off some of my potential...


    Moving onto the next set of skills I thought of would be the pure combat set, which consists of one ranged weapon skill that will either be energy weapons or guns. After that, explosives and melee weapons will be taken to even it off, so that I''m more well rounded in other forms of combat to deal with all sorts of situations I''ll come across in the wastes.


    The benefits of this set of skills are obvious and don''t really need to be stated, but the demerits for going with this set is that I wouldn''t be able to properly utilize two of them until I left the vault years later. I doubt the overseer would be willing to give me firearm clearance, let alone give me one to use since I just turned 10 and all.


    Mm, I have grown on him over the years by spending a ton of time with Amata, so maybe I could get clearance in a few years'' time as long as things keep moving in the right direction between Amata and me. That aside, I''ll probably go with a different set of skills because this one has too many potential problems and ifs, thus I''d rather not put all my eggs in this basket.


    The third set I thought would be pretty decent would be a stealth set involving guns, melee weapons, and sneak. But this set of skills also has similar problems as the combat set in that it can''t be properly utilized and taken advantage of till I''m out of the vault. I also don''t really have a huge need for stealth right now, therefore it would sit mostly unused.


    However, I could see myself sneaking around with a stealth boy through a raider hideout at night, slitting their throats one by one while they slept off whatever shitty drugs they managed to get their grubby mitts on. Or I could plant a bunch of explosives throughout the hideout and rig them all to a detonator for shits and giggles. Ahh, I can''t wait till I can exit the vault and start my adventure, I''m sure I will have a hell of a time out there.


    Now onto the last set of skills I was able to come up with. This last set of skills is made up of more peaceful and social skills centered around barter, speech, and one ranged weapons skill, which would again would either be guns or energy weapons. Though this skill set would more than likely be very helpful for dealing with the many vault residents that have power or things I wish to obtain.


    I won''t be staying here forever since there are many opportunities to be had out in the wasteland if you know where to look. And I know exactly where to look, hence I most likely won''t be going with this set.


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    Thinking and running through a whole bunch of different scenarios in my head, I decided that going the intelligence/knowledge route would be the best choice amongst them. The reason for that was pretty simple: knowledge and technology are king, especially when I will have 6 years at the very least to abuse it.


    Add on that I can also probably start my own small lab and workshop with the help of dad. However, to truly get that sort of project off the ground, I''ll need to get help from the overseer as well.


    That shouldn''t be too hard as long as I butter him up a bit, along with asking Amata for some assistance. I know he dotes on her and has an incredibly hard time rejecting most of her requests, so I should be able to make this happen, hopefully soon.


    As for the skill points, I don''t really have anything that''s of immediate concern other than having to convince others to let me do certain things. I guess I will forgo my original plan of evening out my skills and just dump the 16 points I have into speech.


    Once I was done deciding on what I wanted to do, I finalized my skill tagging selection, those being medicine, repair, and science, while also dumping the skill points from the level up into speech. Locking in the distribution, the holographic screen swiftly changed back to the normal view of the Pip-Boy screen.


    The instant it had, I tried to look at my improved stats, but before I could, I started getting bombarded with a shitload of notifications and an overload of information being crammed into my head.


    Ding! New Perk


    Ding! New Perk


    Ding! New Quests


    Ding! New Quests


    Ding! New Quests


    Ding! New ¡­


    Pip-Boy


    Name: Harold Todd Woods


    Age: 10


    Height: 5,5 (in feet and inches)


    Race: Human


    Level: 2


    Experience Points: 130/350


    Total Experience Points Earned: 330


    Experience Rate: 165%


    Health: 440 | Formula: Base of 90 + (Endurance x 30) + (Level# x 10) |


    Carry Weight: 146.5/200 | Formula: (150 + Strength x 10 and will go up to 500 at full maturity) |


    Resistances:


    Armor: Body Damage Threshold 11


    Poison Resistance: 50% | (Endurance - 1) x 5 |


    Radiation Resistance: 22% | Formula: (Endurance x 2) |


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 5


    Perception: 10


    Endurance: 11


    Charisma: 5


    Intelligence: 13


    Agility: 4


    Luck: 7


    | Skills |


    Barter: 31


    Energy Weapons: 47


    Explosives: 34


    Guns: 40


    Lockpick: 35


    (T)Medicine: 51


    Melee Weapons: 25


    (T)Repair: 53


    (T)Science: 54


    Sneak: 22


    Speech: 41


    Survival: 33


    Unarmed: 35


    Traits: |Gifted|, |Sex Appeal|, |Skilled|, |Take Another Rank 1|


    Perks: |Daddy''s Boy Rank 1|, |Human Supercomputer|, |Monstrous Physique|


    Mutations:


    Loot: 200 Microfusion Cells, 200 Scrap Metal, 100 Scrap Electronics, 50 Duct Tape, 20 Wonderglue, 109 Other Misc. Junk.


    Quests: 0 Ready to turn in, Many in progress, 1 Completed


    Dealing with the sudden headache that appeared, I eventually powered through the overwhelming amount of new information and experience that got directly implanted into my brain. After getting through that phase, I spent the next good while going and sifting through all it.


    Alright, I think I have things back under control. I really thought my head was going to blow for a moment there. Thankfully, it did not. Let me go over the remaining information and when I have that done, I can proceed to the Pip-Boy screen to see what has changed.


    Once I went over the remaining information, I directed my focus to the holographic system screen in front of me. And as I''m going through it, I discovered I obtained 2 new perks called Monstrous Physique and Human Supercomputer. Curious as to what they did, I selected them and man was I surprised about the benefits they provided. Although I was already aware of a few of them.


    | Monstrous Physique | Requirements 11 Endurance: You''ve surpassed human limitations for endurance, gaining increased toughness and resilience. +1 DT for every point of Endurance and you now gain 30 health instead of 20 for every point of Endurance you have. On top of that, your stamina and stamina regeneration are doubled and the amount of sleep you require each night has been reduced from 8 down to 4.


    | Human Supercomputer | Requirements 11 Intelligence: You''ve surpassed human limitations for intelligence, you''ve now developed photographic memory, as well as an increase in experience gain from 3% to 5% for every point in intelligence. You''ve also gained an increase in processing power and any negative xp gains are now negated.


    What an absolutely huge upgrade to my capabilities, especially the DT and the decrease in the amount of sleep my body will need in the future. I can already see myself using that extra time on all sorts of things, like crafting the gear I''ll need for my mole rat hunting trip. And the gear I have in mind will make killing mole rats relatively safe.


    Human Supercomputer ain''t too shabby either. That 2% increase for every point of intelligence from Human Supercomputer will be a huge help when I start earning decent experience. Additionally, I now have that skilled trait of mine fully negated with this perk which will bump up my xp gain by 10%.


    Okay, next on the agenda is the new quest notifications.


    Ready to see why I was being spam pinged into oblivion, I selected the many in progress quest tab.


    Quests In Progress:


    | Surpass Your Human Physical Limits | Objectives: Reach a value of 11 in every S.P.E.C.I.A.L..


    Rewards: New Perk?, 10,000 exp, and 10 SPECIAL points.


    | Save dad | Objectives: Prevent the death of your father, James Watson Woods.


    Rewards: New Perk? and 5,000 exp.


    | Seeker Of Knowledge | Objectives: Continue to hoover up all knowledge in the vault library till there is nothing left. Rewards: 3 Intelligence Points and 2,500 exp.


    | It''s Hunten Season | Objectives: Convince your dad to let you enter the vault mines. Rewards: 3 Speech points and 500 exp.


    | Take Over The RobCo Facility | Objectives: Clear out all hostile forces and set up shop. Rewards: Perk RobCo Certified, 5 Science Points, 2,000 exp.


    | Take Over Raven Rock | Objectives: ¡­


    | Orbital ¡­


    Well, shit, there are a ton of quests to do. Looks like I''ll be able to level a decent amount while I''m here in the vault for the next several years. Hmm, out of the new quests I received, it appears |It''s Hunten Season| will be my priority when my birthday party is over.


    Though I''ll have to get some gear made prior to that, so I don''t end up getting fucked up by the mole rats lurking in the old mining tunnels. However, before I can get that taken care of, I need to finish this birthday of mine and stop that damn Andy from destroying my cake and ruining the party.


    Happy as can be with my first level up, I gave everything a once over to see if I had missed anything. I didn''t, so I closed out the holographic Pip-Boy screen, displaying my stats, and resumed time once again after a few short moments.


    Damn, it felt like I was in there for hours.

 Chapter 7: The Partys Over

    As soon as the clock had resumed ticking, the overseer turned around and walked off in the direction of the other adults, presumably to talk to them.


    Following his departure, dad reappeared and said. ¡°Ohh I forgot to tell you son, make sure to enjoy your party because you¡¯re only 10 once, so have as much fun as you possibly can!¡±


    "Okay, I will, dad." I replied, while giving him a big, wide smile.


    As I was about to head over to talk to Amata standing off to the side and farm some more brownie points, he placed his hand on my shoulder, grabbing my attention.


    "One last thing, son. Make sure you spend some extra time with Amata because she did a lot to get your birthday party all set up!" Dad said in a low voice.


    "Already planned on it."


    "Good, off you go then, champ." Dad said lastly while putting me in the direction of Amata before walking off again towards the overseer.


    "Catch you later, dad."


    Once my old man had walked off, I headed over to talk to Amata.


    ¡°Happy birthday! We really surprised you, didn¡¯t we?¡± She said.


    ¡°Thank you, and yeah you guys got me really good this time, ha ha.¡± I replied, chucking.


    Amata made a small giggle and continued. ¡°Ha ha. Your dad was afraid you were on to us. But I told him not to worry so much since I made sure to keep everything a secret and only let a few others in on the party planning.¡±


    "Yeah, my dad just told me all about how you put in a lot of work getting this party set up for me. Thanks again Amata."


    She and I then spent a few minutes chatting before I cracked a joke that got her giggling.


    Her laughter continued for a couple more seconds when she asked. ¡°Guess what I got you for your birthday?¡±


    I responded very seriously. ¡°Hmm, a date with my childhood friend, Amata?¡±


    ¡°Ah-ah, n-no silly, I got you a Big Book Of Science. I know how you love reading that sort of stuff.¡± She responded, all flustered with red cheeks and all.


    After saying that, she continued in a barely audible whisper with her head turned to the side. ¡°But if that¡¯s what you really want, I wouldn¡¯t mind.¡±


    Thanks to my 10 perception I was able to hear her loud and clear, thus I took her up on her offer with a smile on my face. ¡°Okay deal, I¡¯ll take you and the book, then.¡±


    Hearing my response, she went mute whilst her face began glowing bright red.


    "Alright, I''ll be taking your silence as a yes, then. So we''ll meet up this weekend at 10:00 AM."


    Amata began to try to make some sort of response, but she fumbled her words and just ended up releasing a few small squeaks. A second later, she nodded her head in agreement and the moment she ran off and out of the dining area where the party was taking place.


    Whilst she swiftly fled the scene in embarrassment, I looked over to where my dad had walked off to see if I was in trouble. I saw him standing with Amata''s father and the both of them appeared to be mighty pleased with themselves since they were both giving me a thumbs up while grinning from ear to ear just about.


    They then said something between themselves before they patted each other on the back and turned back around to continue their conversation with the other vault dwellers that they were conversing with originally.


    I suppose I got the go-ahead from the man in charge. Aside from that, it looks like I''ll be reallocating that extra time with Amata till this weekend.


    After that little event, I headed over to talk to Stanley Armstrong, who was at the counter with Andy, the mister handy. ¡°Hey Stanley, can I cut the cake instead of Andy today since it''s my birthday?¡±


    ¡°Sure, I don¡¯t see why not. Just don¡¯t hurt yourself, kid.¡±


    Before I could begin walking off to my next destination, Stanley stopped me in my tracks. ¡°Hold up for a second kid before you wander off and I forget, I got you a present.¡±


    Reaching under the counter, he brought out a kid¡¯s baseball cap and handed it to me.


    ¡°Thanks, Stanley.¡±


    "No problem, kid." He said lastly prior to going back to arguing with Andy the mister handy.


    Happy with the gift I received, I adjusted the strap and wore the baseball cap with the bill pointed to the rear and out of the way. The second I had the baseball cap fitted snugly on my head, I went off to go talk to Grandma Palmer next.


    Arriving in front of Grandma Palmer, I was about to ask her how she''s been doing lately but she wrapped me in a hug with surprising strength for her age and started the conversation before I could.


    "Are you having a nice party, my little muffin?"


    "Yeah, I''m having a great time, grandma." I responded, still wrapped in her arms.


    She held me in her hug for a couple more seconds before letting go to get a good look at me.


    "Ten years old, my, my, my. Seems like it was only yesterday that your daddy and you came¡­ Goodness, listen to me ramble! You¡¯re waiting for your present, aren¡¯t you?"


    ¡°Oh nonsense grandma, you being here is already good enough.¡± I responded, trying to farm a few additional brownie points that I could cash in for sweet rolls later on in the week.


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    She brightened up at my answer and pulled me straight back into another hug and said. "Such a polite grandson I have. Here you go, I baked you a dozen of your favorite sweet rolls this morning."


    "Thanks, grandma."


    Returning her hug and smiling from ear to ear since Grandma Palmer never gives me this many sweet rolls at one time, the most she''ll usually give me is 2 and no more than that. So receiving a dozen of her legendary sweet rolls at one time is a massive haul. They would last me a few days realistically if I was to eat them sparingly, but because they are basically the equivalent of crack, I''ll probably blow through them as soon as I get home and step through the front door.


    Once I was done hugging Grandma Palmer, she gave me the dozen sweet rolls she baked freshly this morning and said. "Alright, there you go, muffin. Go on and enjoy your party now and remember to eat them slowly, otherwise you''ll get a tummy ache."


    "Okay, I''ll be sure not to eat them all right away. Thanks again." I said before I found myself in one last hug for several more seconds.


    After I was released, I made my way over to talk to Butch and the gang.


    ¡°Hey, how are you guys doing?¡± I asked them.


    ¡°Ehh, not too bad boss, but we''re getting kinda hungry over here.¡± Butch responded.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah. We¡¯re starving over here, boss. When is the cake gonna get cut?¡± Wally and Paul followed up while holding their stomachs comically.


    ¡°Ha ha ha. Well, I better hop to it then and get that cake cut, otherwise you three will wither away. Oh, and here are a couple of my precious sweet rolls. They should be enough to hold you guys over till I''m done cutting the cake.¡± I said, while I started handing Butch and the gang a couple of sweet rolls to hold them over until I could get the cake sliced up and served.


    "Thanks a bunch, boss." Butch said first, followed by Paul and Wally next.


    As I was handing the three of them the two sweet rolls to share amongst themselves, I couldn''t help but recall the time when I had to rough em up a bit because they were bothering Amata. After I put them in their place, they straightened themselves out and started following me around and calling me boss for some odd reason.


    I suppose it''s a gang thing, though I don''t know where they could have learned about gangs down here in the vault. Maybe they overheard one of the old timers on the elder council reminiscing about the time before the great war or they could have possibly gotten their hands on an old comic.


    When I was done handing out sweet rolls to the three of them, I returned to the cake to cut it and distribute it among everyone here. A few seconds later, I was back at the counter where Stanley was, thus I asked him for a knife and started slicing the cake into even segments as best I could.


    It took a few minutes, but I got the cake separated evenly and plated on the plates that were already sitting on the counter. With the cake ready to be served, I took one of the slices of cake and put it off to the side for Amata. Once that was taken care of, I informed everyone that the cake was ready.


    Hearing that, dad and the overseer came over and helped me start distributing the cake. The minute everyone had a piece of cake, I got a slice for myself as well and sat down with Butch, Paul, and Wally and started chowing down on the cake that grandma Palmer most likely made, though she probably received a bit of assistance from Amata.


    Hours passed with everyone enjoying themselves, nevertheless we all eventually decided to call an end to the birthday party and wrap things up. As soon as that decision was made, all the partygoers collectively chipped in cleaning up the mess and all the party stuff. After everything was picked up for the most part, all the vault dwellers started to slowly file out of the dining area one by one to either go home or to do whatever else they had planned for the day.


    Staying behind to do a bit more cleaning and put away several things that were missed, Dad and I were the last ones to leave the party. However, once we were finished, I grabbed the piece of cake I had put off to the side for Amata and returned home for the night.


    As we were walking through the vault hallways in the direction of our home, a thought came to my mind just as we began nearing the entrance.


    Hmm, this is probably as good a time as any to ask about going to the vault mines since I got that new perk, but I''ll wait till we get into our home before I bring it up.


    Walking in through the doorway, the two of us settled onto the couch, making small talk. Passing the time like that and relaxing for the next 10 minutes, I brought up the topic.


    "So, dad, I think it''s about time you let me enter the old vault mines since I''m 10 years old now and have made significant gains in most of my physical abilities."


    ¡°Yeah, there is no way that¡¯s happening son, it''s way too dangerous for you to go into the mines. Also, if I did, let you enter them and something happened to you. How would I be able to face your mother in the afterlife?¡±


    ¡°Well, what about if I get uncle Gomez and the other officers to train me? What about then?¡± I responded, trying to convince him.


    As soon as he heard my response, his face changed to a look of contemplation and after a while, he came back with. ¡°If, and this is a big if. If you can show your uncle Gomez and the other vault security officers that you are more than capable of handling yourself against multiple foes. Then I''ll allow it.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, dad, I''ll make it happen!¡± I said, pumped prior to getting up and giving my dad a hug.


    He smiled and said. ¡°Sure thing, son, just be extraordinarily careful and know your limits.¡±


    Finished with that topic, we continued our conversation and relaxed for a while longer on the couch, discussing what sort of projects he was currently working on and how my library conquest was progressing before we both turned in for the night.


    Finding myself laying in bed staring up at the gray-colored metal ceiling, I began going over my plans for tomorrow in my head.


    Hmm, the number one thing I need to do tomorrow is talk to uncle Gomez and ask him if he and the other officers could train me for combat to face the number of mole rats that I will inevitably encounter in the old vault mines.


    The next task that''ll need to be done following that is that I need to make some equipment to ensure nothing goes wrong. Thus, I''m going to need to make a set of armor for protecting my body from the mole rat teeth, a melee weapon, or weapons for dealing lethal damage. And maybe a bow of some sort that would allow me to take them out from afar for my excursion into the mines.


    I''ve already given this quite a lot of thought already, so the sort of armor I was thinking of producing would use a leather armor body suit as a base with steel plates sowed upon it. When all the steel has been attached to the armored suit, I''ll weld metal spikes onto certain areas that would prove useful in various combat situations. Alongside the armor, I''m going to need to make a pair of spiked gauntlets and boots so I don¡¯t lose any fingers and toes.


    All those sharp metal spikes will double as weapons, so if I ever lose my actual weapons, at least I won''t be absolutely defenseless and I''ll at least have something that can deal some halfway decent damage. Lastly, for head protection, I''ll fabricate a protective helmet. For the design, I''m thinking of going with something that looks like an altyn helmet from my previous world with an inbuilt light powered off a small energy cell.


    Now for the weapons, I''m thinking of making a relatively large cleaver-like sword. That sort of weapon will allow me to take on multiple opponents on my own and cleave right through multiple mole rats at once with a wide swing. I would''ve preferred to make something with a ripper, but I doubt anyone I know will just give me one of those.


    Besides that, I haven''t seen one ever since I''ve been reborn into this world, so there''s a good chance that there might not be a single one down here. My inability to get my hands on a ripper aside, I''ll also be making several spears for close-quarters combat and for throwing. For the last melee weapon, I''ll craft 2 combat knives with sheaths that will be attached to one of my boots and the other will sit on my belt.


    I could also make caltrops. But if I do that, I would need to put a steel plate in the bottom of my boots to prevent myself from accidentally stepping on them. Don''t particularly want one of those piercing through the bottom of my foot and fucking with my mobility in a not so safe area...


    Yeah, that should be good enough for now. It''s time to get some much-needed sleep, though I won''t be needing my normal 8 hours anymore thanks to the Monstrous Physique perk. I''ll have to see how to best use those extra four hours over the next couple of days.

 Chapter 8: Preparations

    Three months later.


    As I was chilling in bed in my usual position with my hands clasped behind my head, I started thinking back on these last three months of preparations and training for entering the old vault mines.


    A few months have passed since I started getting ready for my little excursion into the mines, and the progress I''ve made in these said months has been overall pretty good, I would say... Hmm, I got a bit of time to burn so let me go over all the progress I''ve made in depth before I check to see if the quest |It¡¯s Hunten Season| is ready to turn in.


    To start off my progress report, I''ve ground out a +5 in both my melee and unarmed skills. In addition to those increases, I''ve also gained a plethora of sparring and close-quarter combat experience over these past three months from uncle Gomez and the other vault security officers who lovingly beat it into me for my own good. But as a side effect of doing all that training with them, I now have several more additional uncles that I have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. Sigh, what a pain.


    I could¡¯ve started the mole rat hunting trip two months ago since I met dad''s requirements and had most of the gear needed already made. However, I ended up deciding not to so I could invest and dedicate even more time and effort into my training, grinding out my skill points, and gaining increasingly more fighting experience.


    Looking back on it I''m glad I didn''t enter the mines earlier because the only real fighting experience I had at that point was the recent training I had just received, and the fights and brawls I would get involved in on the streets in my previous life when the boys and I would go bar hopping. Thus, getting that extra bit of experience and training seemed like a worthwhile endeavor. Dad was also very happy when I told him I was going to delay my adventure for an additional two months.


    After informing him of the delay back then, I showed him the gear I had managed to produce over the period and as soon as he inspected everything I made for my trip he looked to be more than impressed with the quality and the extent of my preparations. As a result of that, he didn''t appear nearly as concerned as previously and his confidence in me, from what I could tell, seemed to improve by a substantial amount. It was pretty obvious that the preparations I had already finished showed I was taking this little venture into the old vault mines very seriously.


    Onto the next bit of progress. I''ve acquired additional resources and also managed to learn the required hacking skills needed to breach the armory''s security and break into it. That only ended up having a medium-difficulty password, which was a welcome surprise. I was initially expecting I was going to have to beat a hard-difficulty password, but thankfully I lucked out. If I hadn''t, I would''ve had to delay my trip until I could gain access to the armory or find some other way to make a decently powerful ranged weapon since I decided to do away with the bow after a bit more thought.


    So on one of the nights during this period of progress when security was somewhat lax, I hacked the terminal and broke into the armory undetected, and started looking through it. One of the first things I noticed in my search was that the armory had quite an extensive selection of equipment and was stocked with everything from 9mm pistols to 5mm miniguns to even heavy combat armor and pulse grenades. Although no power armor, unfortunately.


    After I had gone through a significant portion of the armory that I had access to, I only took the stuff I knew for a fact I could take without it being noticed. Hence, I was able to "Borrow" 2 broken laser pistols and 1 broken laser rifle that were already disassembled for parts off to the side of a workbench with me.


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    However, that was not all. As I was about to leave with my halfway decent haul, I made another discovery in my break-in. That was the armory did, in fact, have recharger weapons off in a far back corner of the armory secured in a weapon locker. As soon as I found that out, I grabbed 3 microfusion breeder cells that weren''t attached to any laser weapons in the locker on my way out. So I could study them and possibly replicate them at a later date.


    Some weeks following my armory break-in mission, I managed to gain a good understanding of how the cells functioned. Once I did, I figured out how to replicate the microfusion breeder cell''s technology soon thereafter with my pre-existing microfusion cells. Not satisfied with just that, I began improving the capacity and performance of the cells because there were a ton of inefficiencies in the original designs.


    The day I finished the cell''s redesign and improvement, I went on to rebuild the disassembled laser rifle I had borrowed from the armory. And while I was rebuilding it, I took the liberty to customize it by adding a second barrel to it to increase the durability of the weapon.


    Besides that little upgrade, I also set the barrels up in such a way that they will alternate fire similar to how a gatling-style weapon fires minus the rotating barrels part and all that jazz. Because of my modifications, the weapon can fire in full auto with a fire rate of 800 that can be changed on the fly between full and semi with the selector by the trigger.


    Once the base of the weapon was completed, I kitted it out with some additional modifications to it by adding a laser sight, a red dot sight, a sling, a vertical fore grip, and finally 4 microfusion breeder cells to the weapon. After all was said and done, I basically created an unlimited ammo laser light machine gun, although it wasn''t all that light with it sitting at a total weight of 20 pounds. But for a light machine gun, it''s a pretty light one since it''s not being weighed down by ammo on top of the weapon''s weight.


    The weapon''s stats ended up being quite good too, for my first time ever making a weapon other than sharpening a few sticks as a kid in my previous life.


    | AER 18 LMG |


    Damage: 25


    DPS: 333


    Fire rate: 800 Fully Automatic, Semi-Automatic


    Weight: 20


    Class: Heavy


    Ammo Type: Microfusion Breeder Cell


    Value: 10,500


    Attachments: Red Dot Sight, Vertical Fore Grip, Weapon Sling


    Item Description: A large double laser light machine gun was designed and made for hunting mole rats, but the creator went a bit overboard and made it too big for its original purpose. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    As great as this weapon is I probably won¡¯t be taking it out on this upcoming trip because I can¡¯t really sneak it in easily unless I want to drag a cart around with me and it''s a bit too much to use against a bunch of blind mole rats. I also want to try to lower its weight a bit more if I can, but seeing how my strength will just continue to rise as time goes on.


    It honestly might not be worth wasting my effort on trying to cut the weight down when I''ll be able to handle the weapon just fine in the not so distant future. Especially when I start producing and using my own performance-enhancing drugs and begin making massive endurance and strength gains with their assistance. Hence, that isn''t a real reason not to bring it along...


    Anyway, moving right along to other weapons, I made another laser weapon afterward from the leftover parts I got from the armory and one more additional trip into the armory. The resulting weapon from said leftover bits and bobs wasn¡¯t too shabby either, but nowhere near as impressive as the AER 18 LMG, in my opinion. That aside, it sure as hell is better than the bow idea I had originally.


    | 12G Laser Pistol |


    Damage: 8 x 12


    DPS: Variable


    Fire Rate: Semi-Automatic


    Class: Light


    Weight: 3.5


    Ammo Type: Microfusion Breeder Cell


    Value: 3,000


    Attachments: Laser Sight, Micro Red Dot Sight


    Item Description: A laser pistol heavily modded into a handheld laser shotgun with an intricately designed beam splitter. This energy weapon features a laser sight for increased ease of use and accuracy when hip and point firing, a micro red dot sight for better accuracy, and an upgraded microfusion breeder cell which supplies the weapon with unlimited energy. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    This one I can actually hide on myself relatively easily and because I integrated a beam splitter in the design, it should excel at disposing of the sort of prey I''ll encounter, since they basically have zero damage threshold. Therefore, I will definitely be taking it with me on my mole rat hunting trip.

 Chapter 9: Another One

    That about does it for my ranged weapons time to cover the melee weapons I created for my upcoming hunt. When it came time to make the arsenal of weapons I would be bringing along with me for my excursion, I tried brainstorming again to see if I could come up with something better than what I had originally thought of.


    Sadly, no better ideas came to mind, hence I went with my original idea of a large heavy sword meant for dealing with multiple enemies. As a result of that decision, I created a monster of a sword that would have no issue cleaving right through multiple molerats in a single swing from the tests I performed. The weapon''s stats were also quite something to look at, to say the least.


    | Guillotine |


    Damage: 75


    DPS: Variable


    Class: Heavy


    Weight: 35


    Value: 3,500


    Item Description: A large four-foot-long, six-inch wide, and a quarter-inch thick two-handed cleaver-like sword cut and made from a hardened steel sheet. The weapon possesses one side for hacking and slicing through enemies and serrated teeth on the back side of the blade for ripping and tearing. Besides its features, this blade can be used with one hand as long as you have the strength required, otherwise you¡¯ll just pull your arm out of its socket. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    For the knives, I designed something akin to a scaled-up combat knife that is comparable in size to a large bowie knife or a decently long dagger. The tests I performed with the both of them showed that I should have no issue pushing the blades through a mole rat''s skull if the need to ever arises. Other than that, the stats both knives had were the same and were also slightly better than a run-of-the-mill combat knife.


    | Custom Combat Knife |


    Damage: 20


    DPS: Variable


    Class: Light


    Weight: 1.5


    Value: 650


    Item Description: A foot-long hardened steel combat knife. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    For the spear slash javelin idea I had come up with a while back, I decided to just make five simple spears with serrated spearheads that should cause a bit of extra damage. And a hell of a lot of bleeding damage when I rip them out of whatever I''m fighting in close-quarters combat.


    On top of that, they''re well balanced, so they can be used in a similar fashion to a javelin. From the practice I''ve done with them so far on immobile practice targets, my throwing accuracy is around the 80% mark with most of my throws hitting and landing where I intended them to. The remaining 20% typically still land on target just on other parts of the target, for the most part. As for my headshot accuracy with them, it''s decent. However, it still needs some major time in the oven before I''ll be happy with it.


    Now the stats the spears ended up receiving were a nice surprise. I was expecting something around the 55 to 60 damage mark, so when I saw what the final result was, I was pleased to say the least. Despite its great damage, I wished it had a bleed effect stacked on top of the damage; I guess I will have to perform some tests and modifications at a later date to see if I can add the effect on to them.


    | Serrated Spear |


    Damage: 70


    DPS: Variable


    Class: Medium


    Weight: 10


    Value: 1,000


    Item Description: A six-foot-long aluminum pole with a hardened steel serrated spearhead. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    Onto the last of the weapons. So I wanted to have some sort of grenade or explosive to carry around in case I ever ended up getting swarmed at some point. I knew it was going to be somewhat difficult to get my hands on the components and chemicals for it, but I didn''t think it would be near impossible. Sadly, that was how things were. Hence, I modified several of the microfusion cells I had accumulated recently into Microfusion Cell Grenades. The stats for these little guys were similar but not identical to the damage of the ones from fallout new vegas.


    | MFC Grenade |


    Damage: 100


    Class: Light


    Weight: 0.5


    Value: 15


    Item Description: A microfusion cell that''s been modified into a grenade. When set off, this makeshift energy grenade produces a corona of energy similar in appearance to a plasma grenade''s just not nearly as powerful and destructive.


    I will definitely have to pick up any microfusion cells I encounter in the future so I can turn them into grenades and convert them into microfusion breeder cells... Hold up a minute, I wonder what would happen if I was to turn one of the microfusion breeder cells into a grenade, I''ll have to test that out when I''m in the wasteland. There''s no way I''ll be able to set one off down here unless I go deep into the mines, which is kind of dangerous, so I''d rather not.


    That''s it for the weapons time to go over the armor I crafted next. I didn''t have any issues with the idea I had previously of a leather body suit covered in hardened steel plates, so I got to work creating it. However, when I was in the midst of crafting it, a couple of upgrades came to mind.


    Thus, the armor''s leather bodysuit went through an additional hardening process and received some heavier plating to the crotch area to protect and safeguard my crown jewels from damage. I want to have kids this go around, so I''m going to need those two little guys in perfect condition if I want to make that a reality some day. Returning to the armor, when I finally finished assembling this hefty piece of kit, I was quite happy with how it turned out. Its stats included, since they were more than sufficient for holding up against any damage the mole rats could dish out.


    | Black Hardened Metal Armor |


    Resistances: DT 32


    Class: Heavy


    Weight: 80


    Value: 10,500


    Item Description: A heavy suit of metal and leather. Hardened steel plates cover most of the leather armor base in segments, leaving small gaps so the armor remains flexible. The hands, forearms, elbows, boots, and shins have spikes welded on their armor plates for violent usage. Also, the armor provides protection up to 5.56x45 rounds on the metal plates and the family jewels are rated for 7.62x51. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    For the helmet, I went with what I had thought of before, which was to make a helmet similar to the altyn helmet from my previous life. The only modification I made to it was adding a flashlight to it that was wired up to a microfusion breeder cell so I can see in the mines without having to worry about running out of juice literally ever. The stats they were decent as well, but I will for sure make a better helmet before I step foot out into the wasteland because all it would take is one headshot from anything above 5.56x45mm and I''m dead.


    | Black Altyn Helmet |


    Resistances: DT 32


    Class: Heavy


    Weight: 8


    Value: 3,500


    Item Description: A hardened steel helmet with a visor for protecting the face from damage. The helmet features a flashlight on the side of the helmet that is powered off a microfusion breeder cell so it will never run out of power. The helmet''s design was also mainly inspired by the Altyn helmet from the crafter''s previous life.


    The last item I made that could be considered armor is the War Belt. I mainly made it so I could mount pouches to it via magnets. But as a result of using magnets, I can now use it to attach MFC Grenades wherever I please on it and holster my 12G Laser Pistol without a holster.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    That latter bit is a huge improvement over having to take my pistol out of my holster, which would delay me by a second or slightly more. So anything that can improve my ability to respond to threats sooner is a huge gain in my book, since every second in those sorts of situations count. Other than those two benefits, I can also attach many other objects to it on the fly, such as magazines, if I implement a ballistic firearm into my loadout. The stats were not too bad for a simple belt as well.


    | War Belt |


    Resistances: DT 1


    Class: Light


    Weight: 2


    Value: 250


    Item Description: A leather belt with many attachment points for different pouches, holsters, sheathes, and adjustable magnets for quick drawing of ranged weapons, melee weapons, and explosives. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    That¡¯s the end of the gear overview time to move on to my main objective for today, since today''s the day I venture into the old vault mine.


    After finishing that thought, I sat up and checked my Pip-Boy to see if the quest | It¡¯s Hunten Season | was ready to turn in. A second later time froze and as soon as everything came to a stop, the usual holographic screen made its appearance.


    The instant the screen appeared within my vision, I ignored everything else displayed and navigate down to the quest section. Once there, I saw that the quest | It¡¯s Hunten Season | was ready to turn in, so I turned it in and received my quest rewards.


    | It¡¯s Hunten Season | Objectives: Convince your dad to let you enter the vault mines. Rewards: 3 Speech points and 500 exp.


    Quest Turned In!


    Level Up!


    My level up obtained, I quickly entered the perk selection screen with no new perk options displayed other than an increase in Daddy¡¯s Boy rank.


    What to choose... I did say, the earlier I acquire Swift Learner, the better last time, so it looks like I''ll be picking it up.


    As for the next level up, I''ll most likely grab Junk Rounds. I''m going to have to start accumulating ammo for my future venture into the wasteland at some point. Therefore, I might as well take it early on to make the most of it. I also got a feeling I''ll be coming across tons of enemies, so if that ends up coming to bed I''ll without a doubt be blowing through tons of ammo, thus I''ll need as much of the stuff I can get.


    Looking over the perks again, I finalized my selection. A split second later, the holographic screen changed again to display the skill distribution screen.


    [ Skills ]


    Skill Points Left: 16


    Barter: 31


    Energy Weapons: 50


    Explosives: 35


    Guns: 42


    Lockpick: 36


    Medicine: 52


    Melee Weapons: 30


    Repair: 57


    Science: 56


    Sneak: 24


    Speech: 42


    Survival: 34


    Unarmed: 40


    Decisions, decisions... Sneak could be a good option. I could use it to investigate their population, for instance. But I think putting the skills points into something like energy weapons or melee weapons would be more effective because I¡¯m going there to kill, not to sneak around. Nevertheless, it will be very useful when eventually I exit the vault.


    Spending a bit contemplating between energy weapons and melee weapons, I decided to go with melee weapons since most of my slaughter was going carried out with my heavy sword so why not go with the skill that will increasing my experience, skill, and damage with the weapon I''ll mainly be using in the mines.


    Swiftly locking in the distribution, the holographic screen returned to the perk selection screen for my next level up, now with some new perk options.


    Perks


    1 Point Left


    Level 4 Perks


    | Cannibal | Requirements Level 4: When eating human corpses regain health rapidly.


    | Child At Heart | Requirements Level 4, Charisma 4: Your affinity with children will be improved, thus you''ll get along remarkably well with them from here on out.


    | Comprehension | Requirements Level 4, Intelligence 4: Gain 1 additional skill point every time you read a new skill book.


    | Educated | Requirements Level 4, Intelligence 4: +2 additional skill points every level up.


    | Entomologist | Requirements Level 4, Intelligence 4, Science 40: Deal 50% more damage to insects and gain a ton of knowledge regarding that group of organisms.


    | Iron Fist | Requirements Level 4, Strength 4: The hardness of your fists increase and your unarmed damage is raised by 5.


    | Rad Child | Requirements Level 4, Survival 70: Regenerate 2 HP a second per 200 rads accumulated. Caps out at 1,000.


    | Run ¡®n Gun | Requirements Level 4, Gun or Energy Weapons 45: Halve all weapon spread when walking and running.


    | Scoundrel | Requirements Level 4, Charisma 4: +5 barter and speech and gain a 5% discount when trading.


    | Travel Light | Requirements Level 4, Survival 45: While wearing light armor or no armor, your movement speed is increased by 10%.


    Hmm, let me see if there are any better options other than Junk Rounds.


    After a few seconds of looking through the level 4 perk list, I spotted a perk.


    Now that I''ve looked over the list, I''m going to change my initial decision and go with Educated first because it will provide me with 2 additional skill points at every level. Combine that with the fact that I''m going to be heading into the mines in a second here to level up, it''ll benefit more that less say the other perk which won''t show it''s real worth until further down the road... Yeah, Junk Rounds will just have to wait till the next level.


    Once I made my mind up, I performed a speedrun through the skills menu and distributed 16 points to sneak to even it out at 40 before I put the last 2 skill points into speech. When the skill distribution was completed, the holographic screen swapped back to display my status, along with the new changes and my increased stats.


    Pip-Boy


    Name: Harold Todd Woods


    Age: 10


    Height: 5,5 (in feet and inches)


    Race: Human


    Level: 4


    Experience Points: 105/650


    Total Experience Points Earned: 1155


    Experience Rate: 175%


    Health: 460 | Formula: Base of 90 + (Endurance x 30) + (Level# x 10) |


    Carry Weight: 146.5/200 | Formula: (150 + Strength x 10 and will go up to 500 at full maturity) |


    Resistances:


    Total Damage Threshold: 44


    Body Damage Threshold: 11


    Armor Damage Threshold: 33


    Poison Resistance: 50% | Formula: (Endurance - 1) x 5 |


    Radiation Resistance: 22% | Formula: (Endurance x 2) |


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 5


    Perception: 10


    Endurance: 11


    Charisma: 5


    Intelligence: 13


    Agility: 5


    Luck: 7


    | Skills |


    Barter: 31


    Energy Weapons: 50


    Explosives: 35


    Guns: 42


    Lockpick: 36


    Medicine: 52


    Melee Weapons: 46


    Repair: 57


    Science: 56


    Sneak: 40


    Speech: 47


    Survival: 34


    Unarmed: 40


    Traits: |Gifted|, |Sex Appeal|, |Skilled|, |Take Another Rank 1|


    Perks: |Daddy''s Boy Rank 1|, |Educated|, |Human Supercomputer|, |Monstrous Physique|, |Swift Learner|


    Mutations:


    Gear: |12G Laser Pistol|, |Black Altyn Helmet|, |Black Hardened Metal Armor|, 2x |Combat Knife|, |Guillotine|, 10x |MFC Grenade |,|War Belt|


    Loot: AER 18 LMG, 1 Big Book Of Science, 1 Kid¡¯s Baseball Cap, 50 MFC Grenade, 194 Microfusion Breeder Cells 50 Microfusion Cells, 75 Duct Tape, 130 Scrap Electronics, 250 Scrap Metal, 5 Serrated Spear, 1 SPECIAL Book, 25 Wonderglue, 869 Other Misc. Junk.


    Quests: 0 Ready to turn in, Many in progress, 2 Completed


    Quests In Progress:


    | Surpass Your Human Physical Limits | Objectives: Reach a value of 11 in every S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Rewards: New Perk?, 10,000 exp, and 10 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points.


    | Save dad | Objectives: Prevent the death of your father, James Watson Woods. Rewards: New Perk? and 5,000 exp.


    | Mole Rat Exterminator | Objectives: Kill 100 mole rats. Rewards: 1,000 exp.


    | Seeker Of Knowledge | Objectives: Continue to hoover up all knowledge in the vault library till there is nothing left. Rewards: 3 Intelligence Points and 2,500 exp.


    | Take Over The RobCo Facility | Objectives: Clear out all hostile forces and set up shop. Rewards: Perk RobCo Certified, 5 Science Points, 2,000 exp.


    | Take Over Raven Rock | Objectives: ¡­


    | Orbital ¡­


    Nice, looks like I got a new quest for the mole rat hunting trip. Alright everything looks good, but before I exit out of my Pip-Boy screen, let me see if I missed anything new.


    Double checking to make sure I hadn''t missed anything, I spent a short bit going over my Pip-Boy.


    There doesn''t seem to be anything else of interest...


    Not finding anything, I closed the window, resuming time once again. As soon as things resumed, I was unceremoniously greeted by a flood of information, knowledge, and techniques regarding how to fight with a whole assortment of different melee weapons, how to best go about unnoticed, how to steal things of value with none being the wiser, and how to assassinate someone while remaining undetected.

 Chapter 10: It鈥檚 Hunten Season

    Ten minutes passed before I was finished processing and absorbing the flood of information and experience that had rushed its way inside my head.


    Damn, that was a lot to deal with.


    With nothing holding me up any longer, I hopped off my bed and made my way over to the storage area part of my room. The moment I arrived in front of them, I crouched down and unlocked my toy box first. Standing back up, I moved over and began unlocking all the storage cabinets I had lined up against the walls of my room to hold the ever-increasing amount of loot I''m hoarding.


    Over a few dozen seconds later, I had all the storage cabinets I needed access to unlocked and opened. The many cabinets in front of me contained an assortment of ranged weapons, armor, ammo, meds, pouches, and many, many different materials that I can use in all sorts of projects.


    I''ve made impressive progress so far, especially for my age, if I do say so myself. And that little excursion I have planned for today will help accelerate that progress even further. But that progress will mainly be stat oriented, unfortunately, because from the information I''ve gathered, the old vault mines have been stripped of most of their resources.


    That said, as I get older, my progress in the material acquisition area should substantially increase since I''ll be able to get my hands on the necessary parts needed for producing robots. When that day comes, I''ll be able to build myself a few workers and use them to assist me in building some of the custom robots I got planned, such as a mining bot. That specific one I''ll send into the deep earth vault mines, which have replaced the older stripped ones, to gather the ore and different kinds of minerals I''ll require for my preparations.


    After spending a few more seconds deep in thought, staring off in the direction of my stockpile, I pulled myself out of it and got busy. Picking up my body armor from one of the tall cabinets hanger first, I started equipping it. Right as I had it equipped with all its parts, I grabbed my war belt next and looped it around my waist.


    Once I had the belt fully looped and secured around my waist, I followed it up by attaching a number of pouches to it, including my IFAK (individual first aid kit) and a couple of other things to it via the magnets running throughout it. Just as I got done with that, I grabbed both of my custom combat knives and put one in the sheath located on my boot and the other in the sheath positioned on the right side of my war belt.


    Finished handling that, I grabbed 10 MFC Grenades and placed them into the pouches I had attached to my war belt. As soon as I had my grenades secured in their respective pouches, I took my 12G Laser Pistol and hid it in one of the larger pouches on the war belt for now, to avoid any potential trouble involved with having a firearm.


    From there, I threw my Altyn helmet I had crafted a while ago on my head and kept the armored visor flipped in the upright position, since there was no reason to have it down just yet. With it sitting snuggly upon my head, I took hold of my recently crafted blade, Guillotine and attached it to the magnetic attachment point I had made just for it on my back.


    Now that I had all my gear equipped, I gave my equipment as well as myself a look over to see if I was missing anything. I wasn''t, hence I started walking towards my bedroom door to get this show on the road.


    Hmm, I might get hungry out there, so I should probably take some energy bars and a container of water with me... You know what, just in case shit hits the fan and I somehow get stuck in the mines for a while, let me bring along enough for a few days.


    So before I headed out the door to go to the mines, I turned right around and retrieved a few energy bars and protein bars from my snack stash and shoved them into one of the pouches sitting on my war belt. Prepared as I could be, I exited my room and made my way through the house to the fridge and grabbed a large container of water, and attached it to the rear of my war belt to keep it out of the way.


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    Okay, now that I got some emergency rations, I''m good to go now. Alright time to head to the mines and get some levels.


    Once I''d made sure I had everything I needed, I quickly left my home behind and began my trek through the gray vault hallways, moving in the direction of the vault mines and the material processing area.


    ...


    It took a while, but around the 20 minute mark or so, I reached my destination. When I finally did, I took a brief look around the area and spotted a rough-looking old man wearing a light-colored leather hat relaxing in a comfy chair positioned by what looked to be the controls for the old vault mine doors.


    That''s probably the old guy I was told to talk to if I want to enter the mines.


    Walking up to the man, I asked, while pointing at the beefy metal door. "Hey old man, can you open that door for me?"


    He gave me a look over and responded jokingly. "Who are you calling old youngin? I''m a young 65 and my name is Old Man Pete, but only I get to call myself old, got it!"


    I chuckled and replied. "Sure, sure, Old Man Pete."


    "As for this here door, youngin, the answer will be a hell no unless you''re on the list of people that are allowed entry. By the way youngin, what''s your name?" Old Man Pete asked.


    "My name is Harold Todd Woods." I answered.


    Hearing my answer, the old man nodded and said. "Then in that case you can head on in youngin since I''ve already gotten word you would be coming and to let you through."


    The old man paused for a second and continued with a serious look on his face while pointing his thumb at the large metal door behind him. "But before I let you go explore inside, let me give you a word of warning first. This door leads into the old mines and is the only way back into vault 101. So make sure you don''t get lost or venture too far away from the main tunnels off onto one of the many offshoots dug out by the previous vault miners and mole rats that now inhabit them because if you do, you''re basically fucked."


    He took a brief moment to let the information sink in and continued on to his second warning. "For my second warning, if you hear a rumbling sound and feel a vibration you best run at your fastest speed possible back here youngin because that segment of the mine you''re in could be collapsing and if not that you may have pissed off the mole rats which in that case they will swarm you and tear you apart."


    "Those are the things you need to be worried about in there, so if that didn''t put you off and you still want to enter the mines, I''ll open the doors for ya."


    I took a second to process the information and responded swiftly, not deterred the least bit. "Thanks for the information, Old Man Pete. I should be able to handle myself as long as I don''t end up surrounded or go too deep into the mines."


    "Well, you look like you''ve come prepared youngin so I''ll give you that. But as I said before, if you hear that rumbling, I would recommend you turn tail and run like hell for the doors because that rumbling could be caused by an incoming mole rat hoard. If that ends up happening, the turrets set up outside will be your lifeline and the only way of preventing yourself from being torn to pieces." The old man responded with a smile.


    Acknowledging the old man''s words with a nod of my head, he turned around in his chair the next moment and pressed a big red button on the control panel next to him, which immediately set off a high pitched chirping sound around the general vicinity. A few moments passed before the large metal doors began to slowly move with a metal grinding sound. Ten seconds later, the metal doors settled into place in the open position, revealing the old no longer used mine behind it.


    With the way open, I looked over to Old Man Pete and said. "Thanks again, old man."


    "No problem youngin, just don''t go and get yourself killed."


    Throwing an okay gesture at the old man in response, I flipped my Black Altyn Helmet''s visor down, turned on the mounted light, and walked through the large set of metal doors leading into the old mines. While I was walking through them, I noticed they were around 10 feet or a bit more than 3 meters thick, which seemed a bit overkill just to keep a bunch of mole rats at bay. However, I guess one can never be too careful or too prepared here in the wasteland.


    Once I made it past the doors and entered the actual mines, I did the smart thing and scanned my surroundings to get a layout of the mine and to see if there were any immediate threats in the area. As I was scanning my surroundings, I eventually looked back at the mine entrance ceiling and walls and as soon as I had, I couldn''t help myself from letting loose a whistle at the sight that was presented.


    *Whistle*


    "There ain''t no damn way any mole rats are getting through that, or even a pack of death claws, for that matter." I commented aloud, more than impressed looking at the large number of turrets mounted strewn about all over the walls and ceiling of the tunnel, that consisted of two dozen laser turrets as well as two large gatling-style ballistic turrets.


    I definitely won''t have to worry about shit if I run back here with a horde of mole rats right on my tail. I''ll have to build myself something comparable to these in the future when I get a base setup in the wasteland one day.

 Chapter 11: First Blood

    I continued looking at the turrets for a couple more seconds before I turned back around towards the main tunnel that wasn''t illuminated like the mine entrance and started heading into its depths to get the xp farming I came here to do done.


    ...


    About 100 feet in, small pockets of earth and rock missing along the tunnel''s surface began appearing. Finding it odd, I curiously walked up to several of them and checked them out and upon closer inspection; they seemed to be made up of an accumulation of clawing and gnawing marks.


    I suppose I''m within mole rats'' territory at this point... Well, I better take one of my weapons out and keep it at the ready so I can dispatch them as I come across them.


    As soon as I finished that thought, I brought out my 12G Laser Pistol that I had hidden in a pouch on my War Belt and holstered it on one of the magnets on the belt for ease of access. The moment I had it in place, I continued heading further into the mine along the main tunnel. Sometime later, the pockets that I noticed initially had begun to transform into tunnels of varying sizes ranging from 3 to 4 feet in height to even an odd one here and there reaching 5 or so feet in height.


    I should¡¯ve made those caltrops. They would''ve been quite helpful here to slow down any mole rats from coming out of these holes, since there is a possibility they could use these to flank me and cut me off from the entrance. However, it''s a bit too late to turn back now, so I''ll think about making a lot of them for my next trip into the mines.


    Done thinking about making additional equipment for my future hunting trips, I proceeded onward, into the darkness of the main tunnel, where I eventually started to pick up what sounded like clawing and chittering further up ahead.


    And what could that be...


    Prioritizing caution, I stopped in my tracks and paused for a moment, focusing both my vision and my head mounted light down the tunnel to see if I could locate whatever was making the noise. The very second I did, I spotted a group of 3 mole rats digging away at the floor and walls of the tunnel''s surface, searching for food, I presumed. However, on second thought, that didn''t seem to be the case since they wouldn''t be able to find much of anything down here, so they must be digging for some other purpose.


    Hmm, they appear to be unbothered by the light I''m shining at them, so I guess they are truly a blind variant of mole rats, just like I heard. Now do I want to dispatch them now or should I test out their other senses... I''m in no rush and information is king, hence I might as well go with the latter.


    Scanning around the general vicinity around me for a second, I found a small rock nearby, picked it up, and lightly chucked it, around 15 feet away from them. Once the small rock landed, they all stopped what they were doing and immediately looked in the direction of where the stone landed. A few seconds later, the 3 of them collectively returned to what they were doing previously.


    This species of mole rat appears to have a very good sense of hearing or the ability to sense vibrations in their surroundings and, if not that, maybe it''s a combination of the two. Let me perform another test so I''ll know exactly how they sense their surroundings.


    To test out their senses further, I reached my right hand towards my war belt where my 12G Laser Pistol was holstered and released it from its magnetic hold. When I had the pistol within my grasp, I pointed it at the tunnel wall about ten meters away and pulled the trigger letting off a scatter of several laser beams that lit up the tunnel with a red hue for a split second in a relatively tight grouping.


    *Zzztt*


    Before I could register the laser beams, they impacted the tunnel''s wall, leaving behind multiple scorch marks on its surface in a similar pattern to 12 gauge buckshot, although tighter and more uniform. As I registered the sound made by the laser pistol, all three-mole rats began turning in my direction.


    Guess I have part of my question regarding their senses answered now. I''ll just need to do some further tests at a later date to make further determinations... actually that probably won''t be necessary since I will more than likely get my answer as I eliminate more of the pests.


    With that part of the test finished, I swapped targets to the nearest mole rat and let off one shot, scoring a crit and disintegrating the mole rat nearest to me instantly. Once that fella had been killed, I rapidly swapped targets again, took aim at the one directly right of its deceased friend and repeated my actions, getting the same result within seconds minus the disintegration part.


    That the second-mole rat finished off, I started changing targets again to the last remaining one that was located along the opposite wall of the tunnel. Just as I was about to have my 12G Laser Pistol lined up with it, I saw it stand up on its hind legs to perform some sort of unknown action. But before it got the chance I lined up my weapon with the poor bastard and pulled the trigger for the final time, letting off my fourth shot of laser fire, disintegrating part of its body into ash and leaving a good portion of the rest charred and bloodied.


    My prey easily dispatched, I scanned my surroundings for any immediate danger. After a short period scanning said surroundings and what I could see of the tunnel''s depths, I didn''t detect anything. So I re-holstered my 12G Laser Pistol on my War Belt along my right side, just above my hip.


    Well, that was easier than expected. But before I continue my farming trip further into the main tunnel, let me play back my fight in my head to see if I missed anything of importance and do a bit of thinking.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Whilst I was replaying my very short encounter with the small group of mole rats in my head, I noticed one thing that I hadn''t thought of previously.


    This didn''t occur to me previously, but this species of mole rat could also have a decent sense of smell. I don''t know whether they do or don''t with certainty, therefore I''ll need to perform additional tests later on to confirm whether that is the case or not. However, seeing how they weren''t able to pick up my scent even with me being as close as I was to them, most likely means that isn''t the case, otherwise they would''ve detected me and been on my ass right off the bat.


    The other thing I noticed from this encounter was the strange movement that the third-mole rat was going to perform. That rat was either going to go for a leap attack or it might''ve been getting ready to make a screech of some kind. I''m not 100% sure what it was going to do, but I have a feeling in my gut that it was trying to perform the latter.


    If it was indeed trying to make a screech of some sort and had gotten it off, it could have called in additional reinforcements, possibly. That would either be a positive for me if I can handle the amount they throw at me or a negative if I can''t, which could lead to a game over for me, something I''d very much rather avoid after spending 10+ years building myself up so far.


    Moving on from that, there isn¡¯t really anything of value I can retrieve from their corpses, other than maybe turning them into plant food. There are potential issues with that though, such as the plants absorbing the radiation from their corpses possibly, which would obviously be bad in the case of food crops. Thus, it probably won''t be worth the trouble of taking them with me since they''ll most likely end up tossed away, anyway.


    Done thinking about how I could pull more value out of each mole rat other than the exp I receive for dispatching them, I activated my Pip-Boy to see how much exp each kill was worth. Once everything froze like usual, a holographic screen popped up within my vision, displaying my status as it normally did, I began perusing.


    It didn''t take long for me to find what I was looking for and what I discovered was that each mole rat was worth 20 experience points on average. And with my exp modifier added on, they were worth 35 experience points.


    Not too bad I should be able to level up pretty quickly, as long as I can find enough of these vermin.


    Following that, I continued browsing my status until I arrived at the skill section of it where I noticed a change in the value of one of my skills, specifically sneak, which had gone up by a point.


    That''s a bit odd, I wasn''t being all that stealthy when I took the three of them out. I also haven''t really been working on my stealth all that much recently. I wonder if it has anything to do with that small amount of combat I was just in. It may have been enough to raise the skill and push it over the limit... That''s probably what happened, but that seems like a bit too much. Maybe combat raises my skills at an accelerated rate when compared to regular training. I''ll have to keep a close eye on things to see if it truly does.


    Alright, that''s enough about that. Let''s check the rest of my status to see if anything else has changed.


    ...


    There don''t appear to be any other changes aside from the slight increase in my sneak skill I already took note of. I guess I better get back to xp farming to find out whether or not combat has any effect.


    With my status taken care of, I closed out of my Pip-boy screen, resuming time again within a few seconds as per usual. As soon as it resumed, I was unceremoniously hit in the face by the overwhelmingly strong stench of blood, courtesy of the other two-mole rat corpses that didn''t disintegrate fully.


    Hmm, I got an idea why don''t I use these mole rat corpses to test out their sense of smell. And if any of them get drawn in by the stench, I can use it as an opportunity to take a few of them out right off the rip before moving in on whatever enemies are still remaining.


    As I thought about that sudden idea more and more, it became increasingly appealing, thus I decided to go with it. Drawing one of my Custom Combat Knives from my War Belt, I walked over to the 2 mole rat corpses and started opening them up so the blood would drain out of the corpses and start pervading the surroundings more than it already was. Once I finished my gruesome job of cutting up the corpses, I backed up a couple dozen feet and waited to see if my recent kills would lure anything out.


    Around the 15 minute mark, I began to hear a hurried pitter-patter sound approaching right for the three mole rat corpses. As the seconds ticked by, the sound of the movement got louder due to whatever was producing the noise growing increasingly near. Eventually, I was able to make out a dozen mole rats storming over toward my handiwork from the darkness.


    The moment the group of mole rats finally arrived in front of the corpses, I observed them patiently to see what they would do. At the beginning, they started off by prodding each of the corpses and once they had done that for a short bit, something seemed to have clicked inside them and the whole bunch of them began to become more and more agitated by the second.


    Several moments passed when, all of a sudden, the largest mole rat of the group issued a high-pitched chirp. Right as that chirp was issued, one of the mole rats near the rear of the group started to break off from the group and ran towards the depths of the main mine tunnel.


    They seem to be quite intelligent for simple mole rats. But that aside, they also appear to have a sort of command structure and if my intuition is correct, that mole rat scurrying off down the main tunnel is heading off to get more reinforcements. I could be wrong but if that mole rat is indeed bringing reinforcements it shouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem for me since I¡¯ve brought plenty of MFC Grenades with me. Ten in total, just in case I ever came across a blockage or got myself involved in a situation where there was an overwhelming number of enemies...


    Hopefully that mole rat heading off into the depths of the tunnels brings its friends because I''m going to need as much exp as I can get so I''ll have the best chance of survival in this harsh world. That said, let me prepare for whatever possible situation I may face in a short while here and move the MFC Grenades I have stored in the pouch on my War Belt and attach them to the belt directly. So I can have easier access to them on the off chance the backup the mole rat brings is a bit too much for me to handle.


    As that idea finalized in my head, I started putting it into action the very next moment by opening the pouch on my War Belt and attaching the many grenades inside it directly to the belt one by one via magnetic attach points running along it. After around 40 seconds, I had every last one of the MFC Grenades secured to my belt.


    Now that I got all those MFC Grenades attached, I might as well take care of the mole rats in front of me in the meantime while I wait to see if any reinforcements show up. And I think I''ll swap weapons for this group of mole rats.


    Ready to make a move, I picked up a nearby rock from the tunnel floor and slowly started inching my way toward the group of mole rats on the left side of the tunnel as stealthily as I could. Within moments, I reached my desired distance, hence I threw the rock I had in my hand further into the tunnel to get them to face the other way for a second. The instant the rock impacted the ground, all the mole rats within the area began turning in the direction where the small rock landed, just like I wanted them to.

 Chapter 12: Horde

    With all of their backs exposed to me, I quickly pulled Guillotine from my back, releasing it from its magnetic attachment point. Positioning the heavy blade to my right side, I tightened my grip on the weapon''s handle and dashed forward, quickly covering the remaining distance.


    The instant I was in range, I performed a wide cleaving swing with such force that I effortlessly cleaved right through three-mole rats closest to me like a hot knife through butter, splitting them apart and killing them instantly. Within a couple of seconds of completing that swing, the remaining mole rats noticed something wasn''t right through the heavy movement I just made.


    As they were about to turn around and start investigating, I continued my charge forward at my fastest possible speed. Swiftly arriving at the new prey, I transitioned into another attack, cleaving through two more mole rats and right as my blade sailed past, both of their bodies erupted, releasing copious amounts of blood.


    While the blood started pooling, the remaining mole rats that I''d yet to deal with finally got themselves together and turned around. Just as they did the largest mole rat from before, who I suspected to be their group leader, released a high-pitched screech signaling the remaining mole rats within the group to charge.


    Looks like I''m left with two more directly in front of me and five more on my right. I don''t exactly want to be handling enemies from multiple directions, so I deal with the two ahead of me first before I move to eliminate the last five on my right side.


    Done planning out how I wanted to dispatch the remaining mole rats, I wasted no time and rushed the two in front of me and made another wide cleaving movement, easily killing off those two poor bastards. With those couple of moles taken care of, I turned my attention towards the five incoming mole rats and took a step forward while making an insanely wide swing. Which actually managed to cleave through four out of the five-mole rats, surprisingly, although I lost my balance for performing such a wild maneuver.


    As I was trying to regain my balance, the last remaining mole rat slammed into me and brought me to the ground. With my back now against the hard rocky surface of the tunnel floor, the mole rat latched its jaws around my thigh and started thrashing its head back and forth, attempting to tear a chunk out of me. But unfortunately for it, my armor held up firmly against it, thus it managed to do absolutely jack shit to my armor, let alone me. Although its bite force was applying quite a bit of pressure on my poor leg.


    Unwilling to let the mole rat continue to chew on my armored leg and do as it pleases, I tossed Guillotine aside, and tried prying the creature''s jaws off my leg. After attempting to get the damn thing to release my leg for a short bit, I had no luck due to the rat''s bite force being quite high. Thus, I retrieved my trusty Custom Combat Knife from its sheath and stabbed it directly into the mole rat''s jugular, and ripped it up the side of its neck until my knife was stopped by its spine.


    As blood spewed out from its neck, it continued to thrash about for a short while until it began to lose strength and a few moments later; it stopped moving entirely. When the mole rat died, its jaws lost all strength, so I unwrapped it from my leg and stood up back before I kicked its worthless corpse off to the side.


    If there were any more of them that could''ve ended badly for me, I''ll have to watch and keep track of all opponents going forward no matter how weak they may seem.


    Now that all the mole rats were dead minus the one that ran deeper into the mine tunnel, I walked over to where I tossed Guillotine and picked it up. Placing it on my back, I backed up to wait and see what sort of friends the sole survivor would return with, but with my 12G Laser Pistol drawn and my stockpile of grenades ready to be thrown at a moment''s notice.


    Nothing of note occurred for a while and as I was beginning to get antsy, I picked up a small rumbling sound coming from the tunnel''s depths and felt some faint vibrations from the rocky floor.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Looks like reinforcements are on their way, time to farm.


    Ready to receive the coming exp, I waited eagerly for the mole rats to arrive. No more than a minute later, a large group of about three dozen mole rats came running into view, unaware of the danger that awaited them.


    God damn, that''s a shitload of mole rats. I better start lobbing grenades to thin their numbers some.


    Not wasting a second, I hurriedly holstered my 12G Laser Pistol and started throwing my stock of MFC Grenades right into the center of their group.


    Whilst I was in the midst of rapidly chucking my grenades, I began putting some distance between myself and the swarm of mole rats. A few seconds into backing up, the grenades started landing in the middle of the small hoard. Seconds after the first landed, it went off producing a corona of plasma that engulfed and vaporized the mole rats near the center of the blast and turning the ones near the border of the blast radius into piles of ash.


    With the first MFC Grenade going off, the other two sailed through the air and followed suit shortly thereafter, with the same corona of energy thinning their numbers even further down to just eight of them. As the coronas of plasma cleared, the remaining mole rats started producing panic-sounding squeaks.


    So with a prime opportunity sitting in front of me I drew Guillotine from my back once again and advanced forward with my blade at the ready as fast as I possibly could. Reaching the nearest mole rat within seconds, I performed my usual right-to-left swing, slicing through two of them right out of the gate.


    Those two disposed of, I continued moving forward. But just as I was closing in on another kill, one of the little rats leaped at me with its jaws wide open, ready to take a chunk out of me. Reacting quickly, I swung the flat side of my sword at it and the moment my weapon made contact with its torso; it produced an audible crunch from the impact.


    While its body flew off and crashed into the tunnel wall, I continued rushing forward onto the next few mole rats in sight. Once I was in range, I cleaved through them like the rest, leaving me with only two standing and the one collapsed over by the tunnel wall. With the group of them nearly wiped out, I speedily made my way over to the two still on their feet and ended them then and there.


    Now that those two were sent on their way to their next life, I turned back around and walked over to the mole rat that I had incapacitated earlier. The instant I arrived in front of it, I saw that the mole rat was having trouble breathing and was barely hanging on by a thread.


    "Sorry little guy, but it''s a dog-eat-dog world out here and I have no intention of leaving this world anytime soon." I said to the struggling mole rat before I raised the hefty blade I was carrying above my head and swung down on its neck, ending the little guy''s suffering.


    All enemies eliminated, I scanned the area to see if there was any immediate danger. When I found none, I took a moment to settle my heart rate and breathing while leaning up against the tunnel wall.


    Yeah, I think that''s enough for today. I could definitely do more, but I''d rather not get ahead of myself and get bogged down by more enemies than I can handle. I honestly don''t know how I convinced dad to let me venture in here all on my own, the Daddy''s Boy perk must''ve done the heavy lifting.


    Spending the next minute resting, both my breathing and heart rate calmed down enough so I returned Guillotine to its spot on my back and moved my 12G Laser Pistol from my belt to its designated pouch along with the MFC Grenades. From there, I began my journey back through the tunnels in the direction of the mine entrance.


    ...


    As I was closing in on the mine entrance, I heard an extraordinarily loud rumbling sound behind me, originating from the depths of the tunnel.


    Seconds after the rumbling became noticeable, an alarm started blaring as Old Man Pete came charging over yelling at the top of his lungs. "BOY GET YOUR ASS INSIDE NOW!"


    Not wanting to find out what sort of trouble was coming our way, I did as he told me to and raced straight into the vault. Whilst the large metal doors of the mine entrance started to close, I caught a glimpse of a horde of at least several hundred-mole rats storming over.


    Staring at the coming tide of them, half in amazement and half in horror, the massive swarm crossed over into the firing range of many laser turrets surrounding the entrance. At that point, all hell broke loose and the dozens of turrets started unloading onto the waves of blind mole rats, creating a literal light show like no other and eliminating swaths of them.


    While the laser turrets were putting in work, the couple gatling turrets finally spooled up and started spewing hate down range at the many, many moles charging for the mine entrance.


    *Brrrrrrrrrr...*


    ¡­

 Chapter 13: Engagement

    *Ksshnk*


    With the doors now closed and safely secured, I turned back towards Old Man Pete and said with a grateful expression on my face. "Thanks for not shutting the doors on me, old man."


    He patted me on the shoulder and responded with. "Yeah, yeah, no problem youngin. But if you was any slower in coming back, they woulda ripped you apart. So you need to be more careful, because you won''t necessarily be this lucky in your next venture."


    "I''ll try not to kill off as many mole rats when I come again." I said in response, somewhat apologetically due to the trouble I caused.


    "But if I do take out a bit too many of them, I''ll be sure to run back as quickly as I can and give you a heads up about any possible trouble I may have gotten myself in." I added on.


    "Alright, sounds good, kid."


    "Oh yeah, Old Pete, what are we gonna do about that mole rat horde out there and all the corpses that''ll inevitably be left behind once the turrets are finished dealing with them?"


    "Nothing to worry about youngin, the defenses are more than adequate for the number you brought back with you and the defenses would also have no issue in dealing with them whatsoever, no matter how many of those pests were to rush over. As for the corpses, the miners and I will go out and dispose of them later on with some of the vault security officers when the day''s work is taken care of."


    "Can you elaborate further on why the mole rats have no way of breaching the vault defenses? I would think they would be able to tunnel their way into the vault at some point in the future."


    "Well, they do in fact have strong teeth, stronger than a beaver, in fact. However, not strong or durable enough to chip away at the walls, which are made up of a special blend of concrete. And even if they were able to breach the concrete layer, they would be met with the next layer of the walls, a super strong steel alloy. That layer they have no possible way of getting through at all, regardless of how many of them gnaw on the walls." The old miner elaborated.


    "Also, all the materials have been tested in the past with captured mole rats, so as I said before, kid, there''s nothing to be concerned about."


    Once Old Man Pete was done explaining, I asked if he knew what went into the special concrete as well as the steel alloy used in the vault walls and he replied that he did indeed know of what went into the mixture. Thus I inquired if he was able to share said recipes with me too and he said it wouldn''t be an issue because it was common knowledge amongst the construction crews and the guys processing the ore that gets pulled up from the new mines on a regular basis.


    A short while later, I finished learning what went into the two recipes and their related production methods. We continued chatting about a few other things for a further 10 minutes and began wrapping up our discussion. Just about ready to turn around and head home, he gave me heads up that the relevant people that needed to know regarding the situation have been informed already.


    "Thanks again for not leaving me for dead, old man." I thanked Old Man Pete again, gratefully.


    "No problem, kid. Just make sure you go talk to the overseer after you get yourself sorted."


    "Alright will do, I''ll see you around Old Man." I said lastly while turning around to head home to drop my stuff off.


    Navigating the never-ending gray vault hallways, I passed by the occasional vault resident, going about their business and right around the 20-minute mark, I finally made it back home. As soon as I came through the front door, I went straight to my room and dropped my stuff off. It took more than a few minutes, but I organized and returned everything to where it belonged. Pretty tired, I took a load off and relaxed for five minutes before I got up again to pay a visit to the overseer.


    While I was making my way to his office, my mind started wandering.


    I wonder if I''ll be able to get firearm clearance because of the events that took place in the old mines. If I can present an actual need for having one and use some of the affection, I''ve been farming and building up over the years, I might be able to make it happen... On second thought there aren''t too many people who are allowed that privilege, so realistically I''ll probably have to play all my cards just right if I want to obtain clearance.


    Not long after completing that thought, I reached the overseer''s office. Seeing Tom and Bill, who guarded the overseer during the day, I greeted them and chatted with the both of them for a minute. I then asked them if Amata''s father was busy and they replied that he was inside waiting for me, so I opened the hefty metal door leading to his office via the small panel located on nearly every door in the vault.


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    *Ksshhk*


    Nothing standing in my way anymore, I stepped inside his large office and right as I rounded the corner I saw he was typing away busily on his terminal. Noticing that he was in the midst of something I didn''t wish to interrupt and disturb him, thus I did the courteous thing and walked off to the side and took a seat on the couch positioned along the wall of his office to wait until he was finished.


    I sat there waiting patiently for around two minutes or so before Amata''s father, the overseer, either completed what he was working on or got to a point where he could pause his work. And as he did, he looked up from the terminal he was typing away on previously in my direction with a smug grin plastered on his face.


    "I''ve been told you''ve managed to stir up the mole rats quite a bit on your short excursion into the old vault mines and that you did a mighty fine job killing off a decent amount of them. Good job." The overseer commented while I was somewhat surprised at not getting ripped into.


    "You seem surprised. Why is that?" He asked.


    "Well, I thought you were gonna rip into me for putting myself and possibly the vault in danger."


    "Ohh nonsense, son. Why would you be in any trouble for killing off a bunch of those little bastards? I''m actually more than pleased that you took out more than a few of them." He said, quite happy about the losses the mole rat swarm experienced.


    As I was about to get a word in, he stood up and rolled up his vault suit''s right leg, showing a decent size chunk missing from the side of his thigh. "Any chance we get to stir up and dispose of those fucking rats always puts me in a good mood, since I get to have a little payback for what they did to me in my younger days. So how many did you take out?"


    "I managed to hunt down 50 of them, sir."


    He whistled hearing the number and continued with an even broader smile than previously. "Even better than I thought you would do. Also, no need to be so polite son, please call me father-in-law from now on."


    Once I registered what he said, I must''ve had a very befuddled expression on my face because after a second or two, he started roaring in laughter and just about began rolling on the floor. "Ha ha ha ha¡­"


    He recovered somewhat moments later and began again. "Ha ah ha. I haven''t had a laugh like that in a very long time. Thanks for that. But in all seriousness, you did a great job clearing out and thinning their numbers and I was 100% serious about you calling me father-in-law because I''ve already arranged it with your father."


    "What! Why would you do such a thing, sir?" I asked him, surprised that he was serious.


    "Ah, ah, ah, father-in-law." He corrected.


    I repeated the same question I asked moments ago, but called him father-in-law as he wished instead of sir and he answered with. "Well, son-in-law, my Amata, and you seem to get along very well and she talks about you nearly every day. So, wanting the best for my little girl, I decided to take the initiative and do what''s best for her and secure her the person she likes early on."


    "And I''m sure you''re well aware that you are a very special person with many great qualities any normal child, or even an adult human for that matter, shouldn''t have. Hence, why wouldn''t I want to lock down a person of such great quality for my only offspring?" He added.


    Can''t really fault the man there, even though I''d much rather be the one to decide who my own partner is.


    Unable to find fault with the man''s rationale and reasoning, I let him go on.


    "Also, I doubt you''ll be complaining in the end when this is how her mother looked while she was still alive and hadn''t gotten sick yet." He added while handing me a photo of a dark-haired, fair-colored woman with a buxom and well-shaped body with curves in all the right places. And if I was to rate her face, I would say she was about a high eight or nine and possibly reaching a ten with makeup.


    As soon as I was done taking a brief look at the photo, I handed it back to him, where he sighed and added further once he pocketed the photo of his late wife. "Let me tell you, son, they don''t make them like that ever and I would know since I was a bit of a player back in my heyday. But sadly, she passed away around eight years ago shortly after you and your father arrived here at Vault 101 and to this day, I still haven''t been able to get over her passing."


    He paused for several seconds while having this distant look in his eyes before regaining clarity and saying lastly with a grin. "So not such a bad deal, aye, son."


    Having heard him out, I couldn''t help but nod along and agree with what he''s said so far.


    "Yeah, I would say it''s a pretty great deal. I can''t really find much, if any, issues with what you said for the most part, so I''ll agree to the engagement. And I bet there will be some perks that come along with being the overseer''s son-in-law that normal vault residents wouldn''t have, right?" I said in response while also seeing if there was anything else I could get out of this engagement that could possibly help with my future plans.


    "Excellent, I''m glad that you''re in agreement and your assumption regarding additional perks is spot on. We can discuss those benefits and privileges after we iron out some of the finer details regarding your engagement with my Amata." He replied with a very satisfied and relieved look on his face.


    We went over the details of the arrangement for around half an hour and decided not to have anything planned for now since we were both way too young currently. Though we''ll probably start getting everything planned and set up when Amata and I are both nearing the age of 18-19 years old.


    With that figured out, nothing really needs to be changed in my plans currently other than I''ll need to allocate time to come back to visit the vault regularly once I start my venture out into the wasteland. Which honestly shouldn''t be that much of an issue because I should be able to get my hands on a vehicle or some other form of transportation in the future.

 Chapter 14: Gains

    "Moving back to the perks I brought up before, I would like to get clearance for firearm usage."


    "For what reason.?"


    "Because it would increase my ability to hunt down more mole rats while also making the activity safer for myself. In addition to that, if anything bad were to ever occur to the vault, it would be a pretty useful skill to have in my tool belt that I could use to protect Amata. Not that I think such an event would ever occur, but as you know, never say never."


    "Hmm, you make a reasonable argument, son-in-law. I like how you utilized Amata in your reasoning to try to convince me, so I''ll give you the authorization you''re looking for and we can call it one of your perks for becoming my daughter''s future husband."


    The overseer, who had now become my father-in-law, then went on to tell me about quite a few other perks and benefits I would receive for becoming his daughter''s partner. After he spent a long time going over each and every perk and benefit extensively, I asked him if he could help me out with getting a workshop/research facility set up, and he answered that it would be no problem at all to get that put together for me.


    With that out of the way, we discussed several other topics before he sent me on my way eventually and as I was walking back home through the gray vault hallways; I decided it wouldn''t be such a bad idea to spend some quality time with Amata, so I changed direction midway and did just that.


    Hours later I said goodbye to Amata and made my way home through the seemingly endless hallways of the vault and right as I entered the front door I found dad sitting on the couch. My event filled day just about over with, I walked up to the couch my old man was relaxing on and plopped down beside him and started talking to him.


    The conversation began with simple stuff, like how our days went before I eventually steered it in the direction of my engagement and, later, my plans to set up a workshop/research facility. Following those topics, we moved onto talking about some of the other perks I got out of it, which he was already well aware of since he''s the one that had a hand in setting it all up.


    Upon finishing those topics, I got up and told him I had something to show him since there was no need to hide it anymore. Thus, we both walked into my room, where I showed him the rest of the equipment I had been holding back from him for some time. When he saw all the explosives I had accumulated, as well as my AER 18 LMG, his jaw practically hit the floor, metaphorically speaking.


    Ahh, I really wish I had a modern camera like the ones from my old world right about now. I don''t recall him ever making that kind of expression. It''s unfortunate that I''m missing out on the opportunity to capture his reaction, but it is what it is, I suppose. But I''ll definitely have to see about making a decent camera when I get all the modern machinery needed for its production made later down the road.


    After adding another task to my list of things to do, he recovered and rejoined me back in reality. Righ as he had, he asked me why I would hide all this from him and I responded that I didn''t think he would agree with me keeping a large stash of explosives and a laser light machine gun in my bedroom.


    "Of course, what parent would be okay with their kid sleeping next to a pile of explosives that would turn everything around it into a pile of ash, including you, if it were to go off?" Dad said, somewhat agitated at finding out what I''ve been hoarding in my stash.


    "Well, that''s kinda the reason why I didn''t tell you, dad. I knew you would overreact even though there''s no reason to, since I made sure to make them safe to store and carry around with a spring-loaded cap that covers the arming button."


    We went back and forth arguing our positions for a while before I prevailed with better reasoning that he couldn''t refute. Though if I was being honest with myself, I only really won the argument because I pulled out the puppy dog eyes.


    *Sigh*


    "Alright, alright, you win this time, son. You can keep the grenades and your laser light machine gun. But please stay away from dabbling with explosives at least and tell me if you''re making a new weapon, so I can look it over to see if it''s safe and that there are no issues with your design. Can you do that for me?"


    "Sure, I can do that, dad. However, I don''t think you''ll find any faults in my designs because I go over my designs multiple times before I actually start producing or testing them out."


    Now that that was settled, I spent a bit more time showing dad some of the things I was working on, probably causing him further stress the more work in progress projects I revealed to him. After doing so for a while, my stomach released a growl, announcing it was time for dinner.


    Dad was feeling hungry as well, hence we paused the reveal there, both left my room, and proceeded into the kitchen, where we discussed what we should have for dinner. A few dozen seconds later, we ended up deciding to go with spaghetti with red sauce and some protein drinks to go along with it on the side for me to feed my growing muscles.


    *Burrp*


    "Ahh, I''m stuffed, how bout you dad?" I said with my stomach just about ready to explode.


    "Yeah, I''m filled to the brim, too. That was a mighty good meal." Dad replied while rubbing his belly.


    "You go rest on the couch, dad. I''m gonna clean up and head off to the gym."


    "You sure you don''t want my help?"


    "Nah, I got it."


    "Alright, I''ll let you clean up this time." He said before he got up and wandered over to the couch and slumped down on it, ready to pass out in a food coma.


    I spent the next few minutes getting everything picked up, cleaned, and put away, and once I was finished, I sped out of the house to the gym.


    An hour later, I returned home and wished dad a goodnight and returned to my room to get some much-needed rest. When I entered, I laid down on my bed and got comfortable. As soon as I found the right position, I opened my Pip-Boy, where I was greeted by the usual freezing of time. A few seconds passed when a holographic screen popped up within my vision, displaying the perk selection screen with a number of new additions.


    [ Perks ]


    Perk Points Left: 2


    Level 2 Perks


    | Ambidextrous | Requirements Level 2, Perception 8: Gain the ability to use both of your hands as if they were your dominant hand.


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    | Junk Rounds | Requirements Level 2: You can craft ammo using junk. It doesn''t make any sense, but it works, somehow.


    Level 4 Perks


    | Cannibal | Requirements Level 4: When eating, human corpses regain health rapidly.


    | Child At Heart | Requirements Level 4, Charisma 4: You get along remarkably well with children.


    | Comprehension | Requirements Level 4, Intelligence 4: Gain 1 additional skill point every time you read a new skill book.


    | Entomologist | Requirements Level 4, Intelligence 4, Science 40: Deal +50% more damage to insects and receive a large amount of knowledge pertaining to that group of organisms.


    | Iron Fist | Requirements Level 4, Strength 4: The hardness of your fists increase and deal +5 unarmed damage.


    | Rad Child | Requirements Level 4, Survival 70: Regenerate 2 HP a second per 200 rads accumulated.


    | Run ''n Gun | Requirements Level 4, Gun or Energy Weapons 45: Halves weapon spread when walking or running.


    | Scoundrel | Requirements Level 4, Charisma 4: Barter +5, Speech +5, and a 5% discount when trading.


    | Travel Light | Requirements Level 4, Survival 45: While wearing light armor or no armor, your max speed is increased by 10%.


    Level 6 Perks


    | Bloody Mess | Requirements Level 6: +5% Overall damage and your enemies tend to die more violently.


    | Demolition Expert | (Ranks 5) Requirements Level 6, Explosives 50: +20% Damage with explosives.


    | Ferocious Loyalty | Requirements Level 6, Charisma 6: When you drop below 50% health, companions gain 50% DR and come to your defense.


    | Fortune Finder | Requirements Level 6, Luck 5: Stumble across significantly more wealth and things you consider of value.


    | Gunslinger | Requirements Level 6, +25% accuracy when using one-handed weapons.


    | Hand Loader | Requirements Level 6, Repair 70: You gain knowledge of all ammo crafting recipes.


    | Lead Belly | Requirements Level 6, Endurance 5: -50% Radiation taken from food and water sources.


    | Mad Bomber | Requirements Level 6, Repair 45, Explosives 45: Gain knowledge of certain explosive recipes along with increasing the radius of all explosives by 50%.


    | Shotgun Surgeon | Requirements Level 6, Guns 45: When using shotguns, regardless of ammunition used, you ignore an additional 10 points of a target''s DT.


    | The Professional | Requirements Level 6, Sneak 70: Your sneak attacks with all ranged weapons inflict an additional 20% more damage.


    | Toughness | Requirements Level 6, Endurance 5: +3 DT


    | Vigilant Recycler | Requirements Level 6, Science 70: Waste no material when recycling anything.


    Nice I got 2 level ups this time to spend, as expected, for killing 50-mole rats. Hopefully, my guess about my stats going up with combat is correct, otherwise I don''t know why sneak went up there. Maybe they just increase at random... That''s enough speculation about that. Let''s see what new perks I have to choose from and which of them would be best to pick right now, given my current situation.


    ...


    They''re not bad but I''ve been saying I''m gonna pick Junk Rounds for a while now and then never do, so I''ll select that one first and look over the remaining choices once more... Ambidextrous would be pretty useful for a ton of different things from crafting to combat to any other task or activity that requires hand manipulation... Yeah, I''ll go with that.


    My choices made, I confirmed my perk selection and a split second later, the holographic screen changed to show the skill distribution screen.


    [ Skills ]


    Skill Points Left: 37


    Barter: 31


    Energy Weapons: 50


    Explosives: 37


    Guns: 42


    Lockpick: 36


    Medicine: 52


    Melee Weapons: 50


    Repair: 57


    Science: 56


    Sneak: 42


    Speech: 47


    Survival: 34


    Unarmed: 40


    Damn, I got a lot of skill points to spend and my skills went up by a handful of points as well. So I suppose my skills do, in fact, increase at an accelerated rate with combat. Although it doesn''t seem to be random, I guess that means my stealth skill must''ve just been sitting on the precipice of an increase.


    Now that I know my skills increase at an accelerated rate because of combat, I wonder how combat will affect my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s, if at all. I''ll definitely have to keep a close eye on my stats at all times, going forward to see if it has any effect on them.


    With that mystery resolved, I scanned my skills again and didn''t notice anything else, so I moved on to see what I should invest my skill points in. After giving it a bit of thought, I decided to split my skill points between repair and science for various reasons. Though mainly because those two skills will help me with crafting better gear and equipment, which will, in turn, improve my ability to survive the dangers of the wasteland.


    The very moment I had all my skill points dumped between the both of them, I finalized my skill distribution. Following that, the holographic screen rapidly changed again for the third time in this brief period, now displaying my new and improved stats.


    Pip-Boy


    Name: Harold Todd Woods


    Age: 10


    Height: 5,5 (in feet and inches)


    Race: Human


    Level: 6


    Experience Points: 405/950


    Total Experience Points Earned: 2,905


    Experience Rate: 175%


    Health: 510 | Formula: Base of 90 + (Endurance x 30) + (Level# x 10) |


    Carry Weight: 146.5/210 | Formula: (150 + Strength x 10) |


    Resistances:


    Armor: Body Damage Threshold 12, Armor Damage Threshold 41, Total Damage Threshold 53


    Poison Resistance: 55% | Formula: (Endurance - 1) x 5 |


    Radiation Resistance: 24% | Formula: (Endurance x 2) |


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 6


    Perception: 10


    Endurance: 12


    Charisma: 5


    Intelligence: 13


    Agility: 5


    Luck: 7


    | Skills |


    Barter: 31


    Energy Weapons: 50


    Explosives: 37


    Guns: 42


    Lockpick: 36


    Medicine: 52


    Melee Weapons: 50


    Repair: 75


    Science: 75


    Sneak: 42


    Speech: 47


    Survival: 34


    Unarmed: 40


    Traits: |Gifted|, |Sex Appeal|, |Skilled|, |Take Another Rank 1|


    Perks: |Ambidextrous|, |Daddy''s Boy Rank 1|, |Educated|, |Human Supercomputer|, |Junk Rounds|, |Monstrous Physique|, |Swift Learner|


    Mutations:


    Gear: |12G Laser Pistol|, |Black Altyn Helmet|, |Black Hardened Metal Armor|, 2x |Combat Knife|, |Guillotine|, 10x |MFC Grenade |,|War Belt|


    Loot: AER 18 LMG, 1 Big Book Of Science, 1 Kid''s Baseball Cap, 50 MFC Grenade, 194 Microfusion Breeder Cells 50 Microfusion Cells, 75 Duct Tape, 130 Scrap Electronics, 250 Scrap Metal, 5 Serrated Spear, 1 SPECIAL Book, 25 Wonderglue, 869 Other Misc. Junk.


    Quests: 0 Ready to turn in, Many in progress, 2 Completed


    Quests In Progress:


    | Surpass Your Human Physical Limits | Objectives: Reach a value of 11 in every S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Rewards: New Perk?, 10,000 exp, and 10 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points.


    | Save dad | Objectives: Prevent the death of your father, James Watson Woods. Rewards: New Perk? and 5,000 exp.


    | Mole Rat Exterminator | Objectives: Kill 100 mole rats. Rewards: 1,000 exp.


    | Seeker Of Knowledge | Objectives: Continue to hoover up all knowledge in the vault library till there is nothing left. Rewards: 3 Intelligence Points and 2,500 exp.


    | Take Over The RobCo Facility | Objectives: Clear out all hostile forces and set up shop. Rewards: Perk RobCo Certified, 5 Science Points, 2,000 exp.


    | Take Over Raven Rock | Objectives: ¡­


    | Orbital ¡­


    As I was browsing through my stats, I saw another change that I didn''t expect to see.


    Ohh, would you look at that two of my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s increased as well. I guess I really have my answer regarding combat affecting my stats now. Nonetheless, I''ll still be keeping an eye on them to see if anything else has an effect on them other than training and combat.


    After discovering that, I continued looking over my stats and was more than pleased with what I''ve gained from today''s events, those being the increase in two of my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s, five extra skill points, on top of the couple of level ups I earned.


    Those are some pretty substantial gains for such a short trip into the old vault mines. I wish I could go back in there tomorrow to get some more leveling done, but that probably wouldn''t be the wisest idea seeing how I just stirred them up. So I''ll let the mole rats settle down for a decent while before I return and continue hunting them down and aggravating them, since I can''t exactly face off a large mole rat hoard by myself just yet if things were to go south.


    As soon as I finished that thought, I gave my stats one last look over and closed out of my Pip-Boy screen, resuming time a few seconds later. And the instant it had, I was met with an overwhelming flood of information and knowledge regarding repair and science.


    It took a few dozen minutes, but I eventually awoke from my stupor in my bed and started staring at the ceiling of my room while I went over all the new information I obtained from both my repair and science skills increasing all the way up to 75.


    Once I processed all the information, I started thinking about several different ideas and revising my plans. After some time, an idea came to me as I started to drift off into sleep that had a good chance of helping me push my perception to 11. This sudden idea of mine would require multiple pitching machines, a few operators, or possibly some turret-targeting modules to get it all working the way I wanted it to.


    As I was finalizing this idea in my head, my eyelids closed shut and I was out like a light zzz¡­

 Chapter 15: Progress

    Nine months later.


    Whilst I was relaxing in my room like I usually do when I have a moment to chill, I started thinking about how it''s been quite a while since I''ve last gone over what I''ve accomplished. And man, have I made a ton of progress in these last several months.


    To start off this progress report of mine, my perception training idea I had a while back before bed involving the pitching machines rigged up with turret targeting modules ended up being very successful indeed. Although I initially had trouble getting the hang of it, since it''s not exactly easy tracking several baseballs coming at you from multiple directions.


    Despite the difficulty, I eventually got the hang of it after getting hit in the face more times than I would like to admit and when I finally managed to, I was able to break through to 11 Perception with relative ease once I was past that point.


    As for my reward for reaching 11 Perception, I received a very useful perk that should help me immensely on my upcoming wasteland adventure.


    | All Seeing | Requirements 11 Perception: You''ve surpassed human limitations for perception, thus you''ve acquired the ability of a 360-degree field of awareness up to 11 meters. This ability will become stronger the higher your perception rises and for every additional point of perception gained beyond 11, the range of this ability will increase by 1 meter.


    When I resumed my perception training after acquiring that perk, I noticed pretty quickly that my agility was improving somewhat as well with this exercise. So that was a nice bonus to discover even though it wasn''t nearly as good as a dedicated agility-based exercise, unfortunately.


    From there, I continued my training regime like normal for the following few days and soon found that my perception didn''t appear to be progressing like it had been previously. Thus I began brainstorming and at some point or another, I came up with the bright idea of adding a blindfold into the mix.


    After implementing that idea into the exercise over the next couple of days, it seemed to have done the trick, bringing me back to optimal progress again. That said, it required me getting hit in the face several more times by the pitching machines before I got somewhat used to the new training style.


    Moving onto the next major thing in this nine-month report would have to be the progress I made with my workshop slash research facility. To start this section of the report off, it took me just about a month to get things up and running with all the different pieces of equipment that needed to be fabricated, assembled, and transported from the other areas of the vault.


    But once a majority of that had been completed, I was off to the races, developing, researching, and manufacturing everything I could. From replicating the mole rat repellent recipe from the wasteland survival guide to performing research and experiments with Buffout to rid it of its negative side effects. And to see if it was any better than the anabolics from the previous world I left behind for the Fallout one.


    When I initially started my activities there, I set my sights on the mole rat repellent recipe first. Surprisingly, not long into my research, I figured out the formula and decided to start getting ammo production up and running so I could begin accumulating as much of the stuff as humanly possible before my journey into the wild wasteland.


    Even though I knew I needed a ton of the stuff, I couldn''t be spending all my time on making ammo personally, hence I started coming up with various solutions to the problem I found myself with. Once I had gone through and eliminated several of them, I settled on fabricating a few fully automated ammunition manufacturing machines.


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    These machines of mine could make a large assortment of different ammunition types, ranging from microfusion cells used to power energy weapons all the way up to 20mm shells used in autocannons. On top of that, all those rounds produced by these machines can be manufactured with junk for the most part thanks to my Junk Rounds perk.


    When I wasn''t working in my personal lab I was improving my relationship with Amata by having her join in on my training, and teaching her about all kinds of subjects and ingraining as much knowledge into her as I reasonably could, since it would benefit her as well as myself in the long run.


    Thankfully, she took to it and seemed to enjoy both the training and the learning if her regularly smiling face and bright sunny mood were anything to go by, so that was a plus. It would''ve sucked for sure if she wasn''t receptive and showed zero interest in either of those two activities. Though now that I''m thinking of it, she may just be happy to be spending time with me¡­ or maybe she''s just interested in the same things I''m interested in but it''s probably a combination of the two.


    As a result of spending all that extra time together, we have now grown so close to the point that we are rarely ever seen apart other than to head home to go to bed. I''m sure if her dad would allow her to have her way, she would even be sleeping in the same bed as me every night if it was up to her.


    Another thing that happened in this period is that I decided to take Butch and the gang under my wing and to start training them. My reason for doing all that was that the three of them looked to be pretty loyal and trustworthy, so I could see them becoming a major asset to me later on when I start establishing myself in the wasteland and begin building my faction.


    And then possibly a country or some other kind of entity in the future if I make it that far. Future kingdom building aside, I''m glad I did since they''ve been making substantial improvements in their training these last few months with those vault security uncles that adopted me as their nephew.


    Furthermore, at the rate that they''re progressing, they should be able to handle most higher-tier raiders by the time I set out for the wastes, as long as they have the required firepower to penetrate their armor. Thus, I''m sure they''ll show their usefulness when I''m in need of some extra firepower and manpower.


    Backtracking back to my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s, I''ve made some significant gains across my strength parameters and as a result of that, my strength stat now sits at a solid 8. That upgraded strength has given me the ability to wield my AER 18 LMG with relative ease for long periods.


    Due to that, I''ve become quite accurate with it after clocking in many, many hours at the shooting range and also killing several hundred-mole rats in the old vault mines. Sadly, as a direct result of that slaughtering I committed, I now have a difficult time finding any of them to hunt, even after several hours of searching.


    So they aren''t really a viable xp source anymore, which is unfortunate. I guess the mole rat leader or leaders smartened up and retreated into the depths of the mines with their numbers to prevent any further losses and to not be bothered any further by me. Quite the intelligent bunch they are.


    On the positive side of things, on my second trip back into the old vault mines, I learned how to delay my level-ups, which in all honesty makes the loss of an xp source not feel as bad. That discovery will allow me to increase my skills and S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s easier through my own efforts than if I was forced to level up and distribute my skill points into whichever skill I decided to go with for that level up.


    Adding on to that, if I manage to increase my intelligence again from now until I leave the vault, even just one additional point of intelligence will give me half a skill point more per level to distribute. So if my intelligence was to be increased by four points, for example, I would get two additional skill points for every one of those level ups I have saved up. Meaning, all in all, it''s not too bad of a loss, I''ll just reallocate the time I would''ve dedicated to hunting for an activity that will increase my intelligence like reading through the rest of the books in the vault library.


    ¡­


    I think that just about covers the progress report for the most part, though I only went over a few of the things that were relatively significant or have seen some decent improvement in this period. Anyway, overall I would say I''ve made some pretty good progress these last nine months.


    As for the future, I''ll just keep increasing my stats through training, performing different activities and tasks till it''s time to leave the vault so I can get the maximum amount of benefits possible. And when that moment finally arrives, I''ll spend my accumulated level-ups on whatever I think will be needed at that moment.


    After I finished going over my recent progress, I checked the clock to see how much longer I had left before Amata arrives.

 Chapter 16: Planning

    The second I pulled up my Pip-Boy, I saw that I still had several minutes to spare before she would show up.


    Since she won''t be arriving for a bit, I might as well go over my near-future plans and goals. I got nothing else to do right now, so might as well. Where should I begin... I suppose I can start with drug synthesis.


    I believe getting a fully automated drug synthesis machine built early on will be quite helpful to me in the long run since I''ll be able to start accumulating all sorts of chems ranging from performance enhancing compounds to super stimpaks and everything else in between.


    Plus, if I''m ever in need of a specific resource or piece of equipment for a project I can use the chems for trade to acquire what I need here in the vault. They also hold a lot of value out in the wasteland, so I''ll be able to use them there as well for bartering with the various merchants and traders spread throughout the wastes.


    The next thing I''m planning to work on is creating a sort of radio or communication device that can either penetrate the ground and reach the vault with the waves it''ll produce. If that isn''t viable or doesn''t work, I''ll build a receiver on the outside of the vault so I can stay in touch with everyone here.


    Adding on to that further, I''ll need the communication device to be encrypted. Because there is no way I''m leaving my communication channel open to be intercepted and listened in on, when that could easily come back to bite me in the ass later.


    Even with those precautions, there are the Zetans roaming about the planet, so I will keep whatever conversations are had over it to casual and nonsensitive information just in case someone or something breaks the encryption. The devices made should play a major role in helping me convince the overseer into letting me leave the vault to explore the wasteland. So getting these devices made is of the utmost importance.


    As soon as that''s taken care of, the next thing I''ll be focusing my attention on will be producing robots. The robots will help me with getting myself set up at the RobCo Facility so that once I arrive there in 5 years'' time, I can almost immediately start building a robot workforce upon reaching the place and later a robot army.


    When I reach a satisfactory number of robots produced here in Vault 101, I''ll begin fabricating a decent amount of extra parts that might be necessary for bringing the manufacturing machinery at the facility back online. The spare part may be unnecessary in the end, depending on the state of the equipment there, but I''d rather be overly prepared than not prepared at all.


    Another thing that will require a bit of my attention is what am I going to do for food out there... I don''t particularly want to eat the radioactive garbage that''s consumed by most wastelanders. Therefore, I''ll have to bring a large stockpile of food with me for my upcoming venture. Continuing along that same vein, not having a way to resupply my food other than going back to restock at the vault seems like a pretty big weakness that could be exploited. Thus, it''ll be wise to bring a variety of seeds with me to grow my own food along with the required equipment so I can be self-sufficient over there.


    Realistically, it shouldn''t take that long to get something like that up and running, since the plants we have in the vault are modified to the point that they will start to produce an abundant amount of food within a month. So food shouldn''t really be an issue after I have it all set up at the RobCo Facility and collect the first harvest. And once I have a sizable stockpile of food, I can look into animal husbandry. I have no desire of subsisting off of plants alone, hence getting meat production up and running will be near the top of my priority list.


    Aside from making my future headquarters self sufficient, I can probably make some decent amount of caps off of my extra by trading it to the local populace and by making trade deals with the local settlements and towns. I''m sure the nearby Tenpenny Tower residents will be more than a little bit interested in good tasting meat and vegetables that aren''t irradiated.


    Moving on from that, I also want to increase the number of my automated manufacturing machines and produce several nuclear reactors for the RobCo Facility. Though in a more modular configuration so they can be easily moved and set up. But even with making those modifications to their designs, they''ll still be quite hefty. Therefore, I''ll need to design some kind of transportation to accommodate moving them to the facility. Which shouldn''t be that difficult since I already have a few ideas for this application in mind that could handle the job while being relatively simple to produce and assemble.


    For a longer-term goal, when I get myself decently set up at the facility, it probably wouldn''t be such a bad idea to expand underground and link up with all the metros at some point for a few reasons. First off, it would make expansion a hell of a lot easier when I inevitably require more space.


    And secondly, having control of the rails would grant me the ability to move large amounts of material and resources through the metro tunnels. However, that is dependent on when I obtain a train or some other kind of transport that can move materials in bulk. I''ll probably just find a bunch of old busted up trains to repair... or I could design a robot specifically for hauling large quantities of material.


    Lastly, having control over the metro system would allow me to perform larger movements with my forces hidden underground in the extensive network of metro tunnels. And seeing how I plan on building a robot army that would attract a ton of attention if they were to travel on the surface, it would be good to have a way of masking and keeping their movements hidden. You never know who''s watching, thus it would be in my best interest to stay as low key as possible.


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    But honestly, I''m more concerned about the Zetan aliens than anything else due to them likely having a hand in why the earth is currently in its radioactive wasteland state. Not to mention them having ships armed with massive death rays that basically have the equivalent firepower of a massive nuke at the push of a button. On top of that, they''ve been flying around the planet in their ships for the last couple thousand years abducting people and placing them in cryostasis to be experimented upon at a later time or for some other reason that I''m not aware of... yet.


    After finishing that thought, I began getting sidetracked by the Zetan subject and started playing out many different scenarios and possibilities in my head and what I would in said scenarios. Eventually, I came back to the metro takeover and restoration plan.


    I went a bit off track for a minute there so returning to what I was thinking about, to get those previously covered benefits I''ll need to clear out any rubble blocking the tunnels, rebuild collapsed tunnel sections, repair any damaged tracks, and eliminate all hostile life lurking within the tunnels. Which will probably be mostly composed of Ghouls, Mirelurks, Mole Rats, Raiders, and Super Mutants.


    I''m not sure how long it''ll take to accomplish all that, but if I was to guestimate, I would say it would take several months to a year at the very least to get all that work completed. Though that time frame can be sped up dramatically depending on how many robots I''m able to churn out at the RobCo Facility and however many of those I can dedicate to those specific tasks.


    For my physical training, I plan on directing my attention and effort to my strength till it reaches 11 before then swapping my focus over to agility till that reaches 11 too. Once that''s up to par, I''ll refocus back on strength because it seems to accelerate the development of my body the most and I would like to reach full body maturity by the age of 15 or 15 and a half, if possible.


    That way, I''ll have enough time left to run a cycle and make some serious strength, endurance, and agility gains in the gym. But if my body doesn''t reach full maturity by that age, I''ll just have to hold off on my cycle until I''m set up at the RobCo Facility and get a gym thrown together.


    On to gear now. I plan on making a whole new set of kit in preparation for when my strength reaches 11 and I can properly use heavy weapons such as anti-material rifles, gatling lasers, miniguns, and tesla cannons without tiring myself out too much when wielding them. What I have in mind for my main weapon is a 7.62x51mm minigun.


    That sort of caliber would have enough power behind it to deal with most hostiles from the fallout world. It is certainly better than this world''s standard 5mm, that round never did a whole lot of damage, although it did possess decent armor penetration. And in the event that the minigun I make ends up being too heavy for me, I''ll redesign it for 5.56x45mm which is still a pretty decent round, it just doesn''t pack the punch that 7.62 has.


    But with how my strength is progressing, I''ll probably stick with 7.62 in the end since it can handle the more fearsome enemies better like Deathclaws, Giant Radscorpions, higher tier Super Mutants, Outcasts, and Enclave potentially. But I may need to use armor-piercing rounds to penetrate their power armor and even that may not work necessarily... So I''ll probably build an Anti-Material Rifle as well specifically to deal with any enemies that can shrug off 7.62.


    After that, I''ll design and craft a whole new suit of armor to accommodate my future height. I''ve already gained a few inches in the last nine months and with the way things are going, I should reach my max height by the time I''m ready to set out into the wasteland in five years.


    Proceeding to the armor''s design, I''m thinking of making several upgrades from my last set, such as replacing the existing steel plates with larger and thicker steel alloy plates for a significant portion of the suit. In addition to that, I''ll add a set of spiked pauldrons that will provide extra protection around the head, neck, and shoulders areas while also doubling as a weapon that I can use in certain situations if the need ever arises. Getting rammed or shoved by a spiked pauldron doesn''t sound all that pleasant to me, at least.


    The neck of the armor will also be getting an upgrade in the way of a couple of pieces of steel alloy that will follow around the neck similar to Jorge-052''s upper left armor from Halo Reach to provide as much additional armor for my head and neck area as possible. All it takes is one round with enough penetration to my head and neck and it''s game over.


    As for the more technical upgrades, I plan on having the armor''s gauntlets electrified so I can use them like a stun gun if I just want to incapacitate someone for a bit. Nevertheless, the gauntlets will have the ability to have their amperage cranked up to lethal levels on the fly, so they can be used for both lethal and non-lethal activities.


    Finally, onto the helmet. I''m going to throw out the old altyn helmet design and replace it with a whole new helmet of my own design that fully encapsulates the head for full protection. It will look similar to a human skull with demonic elements for the added intimidation factor, though I doubt I''ll be needing the extra intimidation factor when I reach full maturity.


    Besides my aesthetic choice, I''ll be implementing turret targeting modules into the visor this time around to alert me to targets I may not have noticed. On top of that, I''ll build in a rangefinder function into the helm as well to assist me with my long-distance shots. I know that feature will be very useful for my future Anti-Material-Rifle''s accuracy.


    Other than those two upgrades, I''ll be adding a voice modulation module so I won''t have to take off my helmet when I want to speak to others. That''ll reduce the risk to my life a smidge whenever I''m talking to wastelanders. Lastly, the new helmet design will get an air, gas filter, which will give me the ability to travel through areas with contaminated and or comprised air.


    ...


    Hmm, that should be good enough for now. Amata should be showing up any minute now.


    While I was finishing up going over the progress I''ve made recently as well as my plans for the future I detected Amata through the walls walking down the grayish vault hallway towards my home''s front door to attempt to wake me up or climb into my bed, most likely the latter.


    Well, I guess it''s time to get up and return to work.

 Chapter 17: A Day Of Training

    "Here we go." I thought aloud as I got my ass up and out of bed.


    As soon as I had both planted on the gray floor of my room, I walked to the entrance of my home and waited till Amata was in front of it. Moments later she arrived where I needed her to pull off my harmless prank, so I pressed the button opening the sliding door before she could get up to any mischief.


    *Ksshk*


    "Well good morning, Amata. You''re here surprisingly early, aren''t you, even earlier than the day before?" I said with a broad smile, implying that I knew exactly why she keeps showing up earlier and earlier with each passing day.


    It took her a second or two for her to recover from the surprise I gave her and once she did, she quickly stammered out a greeting along with an excuse with a bright red face. "G-good morning Harold, I-I came earlier than yesterday because we have a lot of training to do, so I wanted us to get a head start on it today."


    "Uh huh, yeah that''s the reason, definitely not here to pretend to wake me up just to somehow end up climbing into my bed in the end, definitely not that right." I replied, not buying her excuse at all since it had already taken place once before.


    As the shade of red on her face was further deepening over the next few seconds, I got the conversation moving along and asked. "Moving on from that since you''re already here, you might as well join me for breakfast unless you already ate?"


    "N-no, I haven''t had breakfast yet." She stammered out with a still bright red face.


    "Alright then, come on in."


    With that settled and Amata out of her stupor, I moved out of the doorway to let her come in. And right as she entered inside, I closed the front door and headed to the kitchen with Amata in tow to whip up some breakfast for the both of us.


    After rummaging through the fridge for a bit, I asked her. "Hey Amata, are you fine with bacon, eggs, and some buttered toast on the side for breakfast?"


    "Yeah, that sounds great." She replied happily with a not-so-bright red face anymore.


    "Okay cool, that will make things easy, then. Go take a seat, since it won''t take me all that long to get everything prepared." I told her.


    "Oh alright, but if you need any help, let me know."


    "Alright, will do."


    While Amata was taking a seat at the dining table, I started pulling out all the ingredients from the fridge I was going to need. I followed that up by retrieving a couple of pans from the cabinets that I was going to use to cook the bacon and eggs. No more than a minute later, I had everything out, so I started heating up the pans on the stovetop.


    "Amata, how many eggs do you want?"


    "I''ll have two." She replied happily from the nearby table.


    Now knowing how many eggs she wanted, I cracked open eight eggs, two for her and six for myself since a growing boy needs his protein if he''s to make any gains. From there, I checked to see if the pan was hot enough and it was, so I moved on to the next step, which was to butter the pan up for the eggs.


    Once I had a nice spread of melted butter across the pan''s surface, I poured the eight eggs onto the pan''s hot metal surface, producing an audible sizzling sound. With the eggs now cooking, I got the bacon going on the other hot pan along with the toast and had everything ready in about 10 minutes flat.


    "Okay, everything''s done Amata. I''m bringing the food to the table now." I said whilst I was loading the plates up and bringing them over.


    "Here you go. Do you want any ketchup or jam?" I asked her after placing the plates on the table.


    "Umm, can I have some raspberry jam, please?"


    "You sure can let me get it." I replied before heading back into the kitchen to locate the raspberry jam.


    After searching through the kitchen for a bit, I located the jam and brought it back over with me to the table. When I finally sat down, we began eating breakfast I just cooked up for the two of us. And as we ate, we chatted intermittently between bites about the different things we''ll be doing in training today as well as what we''ll be working on tomorrow.


    15 minutes in, we finished the meal and when we did, Amata thanked me with a bright smile on her face. "Thanks for the meal Harold, it was really, really good."


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    "Yeah, no problem, let''s just try to keep the climbing into my bed part out until you''re older. Can you do that for me?" I responded, making her cheeks flush again, although not as severe as previously.


    After a short few moments, she nodded her head. "Good, and since you''re willing to compromise with me a bit, you''re more than welcome to come over for breakfast every day, if you want."


    Once I said that, she had a surprised look that morphed into an ecstatic expression a few seconds later when she realized what I had just said.


    The next second she hopped up from her chair and raced over to my side, wrapping her little arms around me, giving me a hug while looking up at me with slightly wet puppy dog eyes and questioned. "Really, I can eat with you every day from now on?"


    "Uh, yeah, I don''t see why not, as long as you keep your word and discontinue your bed-climbing activities." I replied, putting a small smile on her face while she continued to hug me.


    "Okay, that''s enough hugging for now, Amata. We have our training to get to." I said, while ruffling her hair with a smile of my own.


    After a few more moments, she let go, so I walked back to my room and gathered a few things that we''ll need for today''s training, those being an extra set of clothes and some other miscellaneous things.


    "I got what I needed. Let''s head out." I told her.


    Not wasting any time, we made our way out of my home''s entrance and into the gray vault hallways and began walking towards the track to do a bit of cardio.


    Several minutes later, we arrived at the track, thus I turned to Amata and said. "Let''s start out with some stretching first and when we''re nice and limber, we''ll move onto running. And once we''ve done that for a certain amount of time, we''ll do some sprinting lastly. Are you good with that?"


    "Yeah, I''m fine with that as long as I get to take a break to catch my breath in between."


    "Okay, let''s do an hour of cardio before we take a short break and after we''re finished with our short rest, we''ll hit the weights. Sound good?"


    "Sounds good to me."


    "Alright, let''s get to it."


    The next 30 minutes were spent with her and I running and as I was in the midst of doing so I looked over towards and noticed she was having a hard time keeping up. So we took a breather on the benches nearby for five minutes before Amata seemed to have settled her breathing enough to continue.


    "So Amata, do you feel like you can continue onto some sporadic sprinting with short breaks in between?"


    "Yeah, I think I''m fine to continue, but I will definitely need those breaks in between so I can catch my breath and calm my heart a bit." She answered, to which I nodded my head.


    A few moments later we got up from the benches and continued the rest of our cardio for the next half an hour and right as we hit the 1-hour mark, Amata was basically ready to collapse. Hence, we headed for the benches once again. However, mid way there we, Amata stumbled on her feet so I grabbed her before she could tumble and hit the floor.


    "You alright?" I asked, concerned.


    *Haa-haa* "I''m fine, my legs are just a bit numb from all the running we just finished." She answered, her legs shaking slightly.


    "Well, before you possibly take another tumble and injure yourself, I''ll just carry you the rest of the way."


    "N-no, that''s alright. I-I think I can make it." She responded, somewhat embarrassed with her head now facing down.


    *Ahh*


    Not taking no for an answer, I picked her up with my left hand under her knees and my right hand on her back and carried her the rest of the way to the benches while her face became a bit more flushed.


    ...


    Half an hour later on the benches, I had Amata laying down with her head on my lap almost passed out when I had the bright idea to give her some positive reinforcement so she doesn''t lose her drive to improve.


    "Great job, Amata. You''ve been doing phenomenally well lately and I''ve noticed your speed and endurance have improved quite a bit since we''ve started training together, so keep it up."


    "You really think so?" She replied, springing back to life somewhat.


    "Yeah, you have, so keep up the good work."


    With her smiling brightly, I let her continue resting on my lap for an additional 15 minutes before I decided to get us moving toward the weights. "Alright, let''s go hit the weights at the gym for a bit."


    "Can''t I lay here for a few more minutes, please?" She asked with her puppy dog eyes gleaming.


    I struggled for a bit internally and eventually caved to her request. "Haa, you can lay down for five more minutes, but then we''re going, okay!" I answered, hearing a giggle in reply and seeing her smiling like she just accomplished something huge.


    After five more minutes passed, Amata got up from my lap and we made our way through the gray hallways of the vault to the gym. The minute we got there, I set Amata up to do some free weights exercises with weights she could handle while I also did the same alongside her with the maximum weight I could handle. We then ran through a good portion of the gym equipment and ended up spending about two hours there when we decided collectively to call it quits and head to the pool to get a swim in.


    Upon reaching the next venue, I went over how many laps we should try to do. As soon as we were done discussing that, we began swimming back and forth until we hit our numbers. Though my laps took significantly longer than Amata''s since I had a ton more laps than her that I needed to complete. So she ended up off to the side of the pool watching me till I was done with an admiring look on her face.


    From there, we relaxed and played around in the pool for the rest of the hour until I was starting to get hungry, thus I asked. "Amata, are you hungry yet?"


    "Yeah, I''ve been starving for a while." *Growl* She answered before her stomach agreed with her, making her face flush again for the umpteenth time today.


    "I guess you are ha ha. Let''s head to my home and I will make us some lunch." I replied, which she nodded her head to.


    Done with physical exercise for the day, Amata and I both gathered our things and began the journey back to my home, where I then made a pretty sizable lunch. For the simple reason that we were both practically starving after exerting ourselves so much in today''s training. When we eventually finished eating, I applied a few stimpaks to myself and Amata to help with recovery and muscle fatigue.


    "Okay, time to head out to our next destination."


    "So we''re going to work o-"


    As we discussed what we would be doing there, I headed out the door with Amata following right next to me to my lab to work on a few of the things that needed to be prepared for my future wasteland adventure.

 Chapter 18: Catch A Ride

    Three years later.


    *bzzzt-bzzzt-bzzztsh*


    "Phew, I''m finally done putting this vehicle together." I commented aloud, my voice laced with both excitement and relief that this project I had been working on was finally complete.


    Turning off my welder, I threw my welding mask aside and started wiping the dripping sweat from my forehead that accumulated whilst I was wrapped up in my work. The instant I finished removing the sweat, I began admiring my newly completed creation.


    What stood before me was a 45 foot long 9 foot wide tracked monster with a large armored cabin located at the front of the vehicle and two armored cargo spaces behind it for safely transporting the many things I''ll be taking with me to the RobCo Facility. And all of that is powered by a small fusion breeder reactor that is especially armored, so I don''t get reduced to a pile of ash if the reactor takes a couple of shots.


    While I was busy admiring my newly produced creation, Amata came up to me and presented me with a container of water saying. "Here Harold, you should have a drink since you''ve been sweating quite a bit when you were welding those last several parts."


    "You''re right, I probably should thank you, Amata."


    Gulping down a couple mouthfuls of water, I thanked her. "Haa, that hit the spot. Thanks again."


    "No problem." She replied, happy to help.


    With my thirst now quenched thanks to my ever dutiful Amata, I returned my focus back to the monster of a vehicle I had constructed in front of me and started thinking.


    Damn, I did make a pretty sick ride for myself, didn''t I. Unfortunately for me I won''t really be riding it much if at all because I''m gonna have to act as the defense for the vehicle while it transports my automated manufacturing machines and the numerous parts and other miscellaneous materials I plan on bringing to the RobCo Facility.


    Despite me probably not getting much use out of it in terms of driving it, Amata, on the other hand, will when I get things set up at the facility and she joins me in the future. She can ride around in it until I find something that can better protect her, like a higher-end suit of power armor, for instance.


    Which shouldn''t be all that difficult to procure once I get out there, since I have a literal list of locations in my head that should have a few sets available. As for what sort of models and variants I won''t know for sure till I get there. So hopefully I can get her higher-end set from one of those locations and, if not, I''ll strip the frames of the current model and replace it with a set of my own design and making at the facility.


    Moving on from thoughts of power armor, let me see what else I can add to this monster... Installing an auto turret doesn''t seem like such a bad idea. It would shore up the defenses, no doubt. That said, I''ll make it a laser turret instead of a ballistic turret so I can power it off the vehicle''s existing power plant, save weight and space, and eliminate the need to worry about running out of ammo.


    Continuing further on with the auto turret idea, I will also need to get some active defenses mounted onto the vehicle that can shoot down or disable incoming missiles, rockets, and other types of explosives that will inevitably come my way when I eventually get ambushed in the wasteland by any number of hostile groups or factions that exist.


    More than likely ranging from raiders and super mutants to Outcasts and Enclave. And that''s not even taking into account the possibility of encountering other hostile factions and groups that I have no knowledge outside of the areas covered within the games.


    Therefore, getting active defenses made will be essential for my survival as well as a good preventative measure for keeping my vehicle from getting disabled and destroyed. That sort of situation would certainly slow my progress by a decent amount that I''m not able to determine at this time due to the number of variables involved...


    You know what, I can just have four laser turrets mounted on the roof instead. That will prioritize missiles and other explosives first before moving on to deal with other threats. Doing that would solve both issues with one solution. Yeah, that''s a much better idea, although it will require a bit of effort in the way of programming and the implementation of upgraded turret targeting modules on my part to bring it to fruition. Which should be easily doable in the remaining time I have left before my journey.


    Moving on from that to a different issue but still pertaining to the vehicle, is that it will be a huge pain in the ass to move this monster of a vehicle through the vault to the vault''s main entrance when it''s time for my departure given its size and my current workforce, that is made up of a total of 13 worker bots.


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Thus, to remedy this issue, I''ll need to produce an additional 12 worker bots on top of the 13 I already possess to make the disassembly and transportation of the many parts of the vehicle more efficient. Haa, another task added to the numerous I already got on my plate. That''s just great, but it needs to be done despite me not wanting to spend the time on it.


    ...


    I think I covered everything, but let me see if Amata has any ideas.


    "Hey, what do you think about these upgrades for the vehicle?" I asked, while going over what I had already come up with.


    "Do you see anything that can be added or further improved upon, Amata?"


    "Hmm, the ideas you''ve come up with seem to cover most of your needs. I don''t really see much that you can do to improve it further, other than maybe adding some more defenses and a bed to sleep on. However, you only really built it to move your stuff to that RobCo facility you told me about previously. So there''s not much point doing much more than that if that''s the only thing you''re going to be using it for in the end."


    As I was conversing with Amata about the vehicle for a brief period, we were suddenly interrupted by a synthetic male-sounding voice produced by said vehicle we were discussing. "Sir, I require a name."


    "Yeah, I guess it''s about time you received a name. You got any ideas, Amata?" I replied before asking Amata for assistance with naming my newly created robotic vehicle.


    "Well, what about Hauler? That is what you''re going to be using it for." She replied after contemplating for a couple of seconds.


    "That''ll work. Your name will be Hauler from now on, big guy. Though I may change it in the future if something more fitting appears."


    "Very well then, sir, my name has been registered as Hauler in my database." The robotruck responded.


    "Also change the way you call me to boss since I like the sound of that better than sir Hauler." I told Hauler.


    "Okay, no problem Boss."


    Alright, with that over and done with, let''s move on to some of my other projects like my weapons and armor.


    "I''m gonna head over to my other projects and give them a look over. Do you want to stay here and look at Hauler some more or come along with me?" I asked Amata.


    "No, I''ll come with you. I''ve looked at Hauler enough." She responded, shaking her head.


    "Okay then, let''s go to my new weapons first and once we''re finished there, we''ll go look at my armor. Oh also, if you have any ideas that could improve any of them, please let me know since they could be potentially life-saving."


    "Of course." She replied lastly before we headed over to where my new main weapon was resting.


    What entered our view upon our arrival was a large gatling gun sitting on a sturdy metal rack. Walking up to it, I stood in front of it and began looking it over for the following few minutes. After I was done giving it a once over, I couldn''t help but recall my memories of how I ended up creating such a fearsome weapon and thinking about whether there was anything else I could add to it that would improve it even further.


    With the decision to make a new weapon years ago, I ended up deciding to go with 7.62 instead of 5.56 since I''ve been growing like a beanstalk over these last few years. And as a result of all of that growth, I now stand at a height of 6 feet 3 inches while also weighing 262 pounds or almost 119 kg, so I shouldn''t have too much issue handling the recoil produced from the 7.62 rounds.


    Adding to that, I made two more upgrades to the weapon. Those being the addition of 2 extra barrels to the gatling gun to up the lifespan across all the barrels and making every barrel a heavy barrel so I wouldn''t have to worry about the barrels overheating and warping as much anymore. Unless I fired a stupid amount of rounds through them without allowing the weapon to cool down for a few minutes.


    Because I added those extra upgrades, the weight of the weapon went up quite significantly, resulting in the recoil being reduced by quite a bit, which was an overall plus in my book. As for the fire rate, I decided to make it variable with a 5-setting dial by the trigger that goes from 2,000 rounds per minute all the way up to 6,000 rpm.


    Expanding upon that further, that 5-setting dial can also change the fire rate of the gatling gun on the fly. I''m sure I''ll find that feature quite handy in the future, whether I want to conserve ammo or just turn whatever I have my weapon directed at into nothing but a bloody stain on the ground with only small chunks of flesh remaining.


    For the magazine, I went with an armored backpack magazine capped at 10,000 rounds for the additional armor and so I wouldn''t have to reload nearly as often with drums. The only problem with this setup is that reloading is kind of a pain in the ass due to me not being able to carry another magazine on my person because they''re absolutely massive and take up the entirety of my back. Thankfully, that issue I encountered was resolved with the new perk I got from my strength finally reaching 11.


    | Herculean Strength | Requirements 11 Strength: You''ve surpassed human limitations for strength, thus you are granted these abilities. For every point in strength, you can now exert a force of 100 pounds per square inch per point instead of the default 50 pounds per square inch. A one time +350 carry weight, a +100 carry weight for every point in strength instead of the default 10 per point, along with access to an item box of sorts based on said carry weight. Additional information, item box carry weight is separate from your person.


    So with this new perk I can now reload my primary weapon with one of the spares magazines I prepared relatively quickly instead of having to set myself up with spare magazines nearby to reload with. Which would take a lot of time to do that I may not have in a combat situation. Lastly, both the stats of the weapon and the magazine ended up having in the Pip-Boy were pretty phenomenal, especially in the DPS department.


    | Mulcher |


    Damage: 50


    DPS: 1,666-5,000


    Fire rate: 2,000-6,000 (Can be changed with the five setting dial by the trigger)


    Capacity: 10,000 Armored Backpack Magazine


    Reload: 5


    Weight: 120


    Ammo Type: 7.62


    Value: 56,900


    Attachments: Laser sight, Heavy Weapon Sling


    Item Description: A huge 8-barreled 7.62 gatling gun that was created for the expressed purpose of slaughtering large radioactive mutants and cleansing the wasteland of filth.


    | Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazine |


    Capacity: 10,000


    Resistances: DT 70


    Weight: 100


    Ammo Type: 7.62


    Value: 7,500


    Item Description: A large heavily armored backpack magazine made for the Mulcher gatling gun.

 Chapter 19: New Kit

    Moving on to making further improvements, I don''t think there''s much I can do other than maybe adding some sort of melee weapon onto it if a hostile gets too close. Although I doubt that would be really necessary, given that I now have those electrified gauntlets on my new armor... Hmm, I could add an ammo counter, I suppose, it would be a good way of keeping track of the many thousands of rounds the backpack magazine holds.


    That''s about all I got. Let''s see if Amata has come up with anything.


    "So what do you think, any ideas popping into your head?"


    "Mm, pick it up for a moment for me. I want to see you holding it."


    "Okay." Doing as asked, I picked it up off of its rack and held it while Amata started circling me with a thoughtful look.


    "What about an ammo counter?" She said after circling me for some time and zooming in on the large backpack magazine beside the weapon''s stand.


    "Ohh, you came up with that, too. I guess great minds think alike." I commented while also throwing in a compliment, which brought a smile to her face.


    "But let me hear your reasoning for why you think it should be added."


    "Well, an ammo counter would allow you to accurately track the amount of ammo you have remaining instead of having to go off of feel."


    "Very sound reasoning, Amata. Great job." I told her while I returned the heavy weapon back to its rightful place before then walking over to give Amata a hug, since it''s always a good idea to farm some brownie points whenever an opportunity presents itself.


    Finished hugging a now very happy and pleased Amata, we moved over to my Anti-Material Rifle to give it a look-see and possibly find something to improve. Even though I didn''t think there was much more that can be done to it since it was just made for the express purpose of being accurate and taking out armored targets that my Mulcher didn''t have the ability to handle. And from the tests I performed in my lab and at the vault shooting range, it appears to perform that job exceptionally well.


    Though now that I''m looking back on things, I could''ve made it a semi-automatic to increase its fire rate and damage potential. Despite those benefits, I wanted it to be as accurate as possible, hence why I made it a bolt action. But if I''m being honest, I just wanted to have a 50 cal that was similar in appearance to the one from fallout new vegas. That said, this one has a better scope with a variable zoom and probably a better performing muzzle brake, other than that it''s almost identical appearance.


    The large caliber rifle had some pretty decent stats to boot once I finished assembling it.


    | A-21 Anti-Material Rifle |


    Damage: 115


    DPS: Variable


    Fire rate: Bolt Action


    Capacity: 8, 10


    Reload: 2.5


    Weight: 21


    Ammo Type: .50 BMG


    Value: 10,500


    Attachments: Laser sight, Variable Zoom Scope, Improved Muzzle Brake


    Item Description: An anti-material rifle with a few upgrades, such as a better scope with a variable zoom and an improved muzzle brake that reduces recoil significantly.


    "What do you think about this one?" I asked Amata before she began thinking.


    Several seconds of contemplation went by and she came back with. "What about a suppressor?"


    I''ve already come up with that previously back when I was making the weapon initially, but passed on it since I was busy at the time. Nonetheless, it''s still a good idea, so I''ll get busy on designing one later and give her some encouragement since she did come up with all on her own.


    "That''s not a half bad idea that will definitely help me with hiding my position. I''ll just have to make some subsonic ammunition to go along with it. Look at my genius student coming up with all these great ideas today, one after another." I complimented her, which got a smile and a giggle in return.


    So, on top of all of my other work, I now have to design and mill out a new muzzle break with threads that will allow me to attach a suppressor on the fly. I don''t particularly want to have to unscrew my muzzle brake and screw on a suppressor every time I want to go quiet. Thus, it would be smart to make a new break. Thankfully, I should be able to design and mill out both the new muzzle brake as well as the suppressor in no more than a few hours, so it shouldn''t interfere with my usual schedule too much.


    Following the A-21 Anti-Material Rifle, we went around and inspected some of my other weapons that were either completed or in various stages of completion, and right as we finished going over most of them, I turned to Amata and said. "Well, we went over most of my current weapons. Let''s head over and take a look at my armor now."


    "Okay." Amata replied but before we could head over to our next destination, my armor she continued.


    "Oh, and before I forget, I was hoping we could have dinner together tonight. What do you think?" She requested, whilst showing a somewhat hopeful and pleading look.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    "Sure, that sounds good to me. However, I''ll be the one to cook since you''ve been a big help today. Also, my dad may end up joining us, seeing how he''ll probably get off of work around the time we start having dinner. You alright with that?" I said, which brought her mood down a bit and caused her to deflate.


    "Oh, okay, I was hoping it would''ve been just the two of us sharing a meal together." She responded in a downtrodden voice due to my response.


    "Well, if he ends up joining us today, we can try having a meal/date again together tomorrow if you want." I proposed, bringing her mood right back up to where it was before, if not a bit higher if her bright smile and happy expression were anything to go by.


    After getting that resolved, I made my way over to my new armor with Amata trailing right behind me and once there I gave it the same look over as I did every other piece of equipment before it.


    Hmm, let me think, I''ve upgraded the plating quite significantly from my last armor to the point that it will stop 7.62 AP without issue on the entirety of the armor. On top of that, I beefed up the armor around the chest area so it can stop larger caliber rounds with even more penetration, which should increase my survivability by a decent percentage due to most people aiming for that general area.


    I also added all of those upgrades I came up with three years ago too like spiked pauldrons, extra armor around the head and neck area, and lastly, the integrated stun gun function into the gauntlets of the armor. That can be used to disable targets temporarily or permanently depending what I feel like doing.


    The only other thing I upgraded was, I beefed up the knees of the armor even further, making my knee joints even more protected than they were previously. That armor upgrade also had the side effect of increasing the damage output of any and all attacks involving my legs, especially those requiring my knees, such as a knee bash.


    If I was to perform a knee bash on a normal person with my armor equipped they basically have no chance of surviving since a combination of my strength and the weight of the armor behind the bash would just crush most normal human skulls like Gallagher smashing a watermelon.


    Not to mention the added spikes that would easily penetrate through most human skulls with little issue. Even gifted and mutated humans with special abilities wouldn''t stand much of a chance if I had to guess, unless they had enhanced natural defenses. But I won''t really know for sure until I encounter a hostile one in the wastes.


    Moving on from that, the new helmet I designed and created had all the bells and whistles I had planned for it, such as the turret targeting modules, the integrated rangefinder, the voice modulation module, and the air/gas filter. Along with having those upgrades implemented, I added a couple of new additions as well, those being night and thermal vision, because I didn''t really want to spend a perk point on the Friend Of The Night to get low light vision immediately.


    Nevertheless, I''ll still get it eventually just so I''m not entirely reliant on my equipment alone in case the feature gets disabled, which can occur because of any number of things.


    With all of that covered, it''s time to go over the stats and the stats for my new armor and helmet were a huge improvement from my previous set.


    | Exterminator Armor |


    Resistances: DT 75


    Class: Heavy


    Weight: 160


    Value: 27,500


    Item Description: A heavy black metal armor improved from a previous iteration with electrified gauntlets and a significant upgrade in its armor and damage-stopping capabilities. Was also made for the purpose of keeping its creator safe in his future travels of the wasteland.


    | Exterminator Helmet |


    Resistances: DT 20


    Class: Heavy


    Weight: 23


    Value: 14,500


    Item Description: A heavily armored high-tech metal helmet that comes equipped with an assortment of features, including an air/gas filter, an integrated rangefinder, night and thermal vision, a set of turret targeting modules, and finally a voice modulation module. All of those features are powered by a single microfusion breeder cell.


    I couldn''t come with any other ideas to implement, so that''s about the extent of my helmet design. But if it were a power armor helmet, then that would be a whole different story, since I have a ton of ideas that I would like to try. Hopefully, I''ll come across a suit of power armor relatively quickly after setting out into the capital wasteland in two years.


    I may not have come up with any ideas, maybe my companion has thought of something. "Do you see anything that can be added or improved, Amata?"


    "Mm, nothing seems to come to mind. Maybe try putting it on. Maybe I''ll think of something." She replied.


    "Sure, we can try that."


    After suiting up, Amata had me do a few turns while she was looking me up and down before saying. "I''m sorry Harold, I can''t really think of anything else we could add since you seem to have everything covered with this one. Though I will say you will have no problem at all intimidating others due to your helmet''s savage-looking appearance, along with your large size and spiked armor."


    "Thanks for your help anyway, Amata. And yeah, I made it that way so I could intimidate others to prevent some attacks from taking place. Plus, I can see it helping me out when I''m trying to make a deal with someone out in the wasteland since they''ll more than likely not want to mess with me or piss me off if I look like I could take their head off in a split second."


    "It will definitely help with that for sure, especially with the smarter ones." She commented lastly.


    We looked at my armor for a while longer and when we both came up with squat; I removed the suit and placed it back where I got it from. Once it was where it belonged, we proceeded over to my manufacturing areas for a bit to give the machinery a look over and check to see how much they produced today.


    "I think that''s enough for today. Why don''t we wrap up things here and go get that dinner since it seems about that time. Also, thanks again for helping me out, as always, Amata. I appreciate it." I said after we were basically finished with everything in my lab.


    "No problem, Harold. I always enjoy our time together." She replied bubbly, with her usual bright smile.


    "I as well, so do you know what you want to eat tonight?" I asked before a look of contemplation appeared on her face again for the umpteenth time today.


    "What about pizza tonight?"


    "Fine by me. Alright, let''s head out and have some dinner." I said lastly as we wrapped things up in my lab and exited it moments later, heading in the direction of my home through the expansive gray vault hallways.

 Chapter 20: Long Awaited Discussion

    A couple of days later.


    *brrrt brrrt brrrt*


    *Yawn*


    "It''s morning already, haa." I thought aloud as my alarm was blaring at my bedside.


    I wish I had a few more hours to sleep in, but today''s a big day since it''s time I''ve confronted dad along with Amata''s father, the overseer about my future plans to venture out from the safe confines of Vault 101 into the wasteland finally. Which they should be more than well aware of because I''ve been hinting at it for years now. I wouldn''t have considered doing that if the overseer wasn''t an entirely different person compared to his bat shit insane psychotic tyrant counterpart from Fallout 3.


    Thankfully, for his sake and mine, he was a genuinely good man, otherwise I could very well picture myself having to do something brutal that had a good chance of destroying my and Amata''s relationship. Moving on from that, I also need to have a discussion with everyone about dad''s plans of secretly leaving the vault all of a sudden to work on project purity. That will ultimately end up with him getting himself killed by the Enclave, so that will need to be discussed and resolved as well.


    With the two topics now selected for today''s discussion, I spent the next several seconds contemplating and thinking about what I could use to convince both dad and Amata''s father to let me venture into the wasteland. The moment I had a decent number of ideas in my head, I decided it was time to get up.


    Alright, it''s time I got up and got dressed because Amata will be arriving here soon enough for breakfast with her dad since I had asked her to bring him along with her for today''s discussion. My dad will also be joining us for breakfast as well due to him having his day off today and him being one of the matters involved in this conversation, so everyone that needs to be here will be here for today''s discussion.


    After spending a few minutes getting ready, I opened my door and strode into the living room and greeted dad who was in the process of making himself a cup of joe. "Morning, old man. Did you sleep well?"


    "Morning, son, and yes, I did. How about you?" He said to me as I took a seat on the living room couch.


    "Very, and you''re going to need it, haha."


    "What''s that supposed to mean, you rascal?"


    We joked around for a couple of minutes until his coffee was finished being dispensed. So he grabbed his hot cup and joined me sitting on the couch. When around a minute had passed, I brought up that I had something important to discuss today and that Amata and her father, the overseer, would be joining us today as well, since they were needed for this discussion.


    Once I was done going over what was going to happen today, his face immediately changed to a resigned look before he sighed and said. "Haaa, I knew this day was coming. I was just hoping you would have held off for a few more years, son."


    "Well, dad, I''ve been hinting at it for years now and I''ve been more and more blatant as of late, so you knew the time was fast approaching."


    He sighed again and continued. "Haa, still I would''ve preferred if you had waited till you were 18 to have this discussion."


    "Well, if I had, you would''ve been gone by that time since I know you still have the desire to finish your and mom''s dream of bringing pure fresh non-irradiated water to the wasteland." I responded, while his face morphed into a guilty look.


    As he was about to respond, I continued. "Let''s hold off on continuing this discussion until the other relevant people join us, and when they do and we have this talk of ours. I have a couple of things to point out with how your and mom''s dream would never truly change much and bring about any major change to the wasteland. Other than it being a small blimp in time before things returned to as they were." I said lastly, causing a look of contemplation to appear on his face.


    With dad informed of today''s big event, we went back to relaxing on the couch chatting about a bunch of varying topics for several minutes when I eventually detected Amata and her father coming down the hallway nearing ever closer to the entrance of our home.


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    "Okay, they''re nearing our home, dad. We better get up and get ready to greet them at the door." I told him while he had a questioning look on his face.


    "How do you know that son?" He questioned with a puzzled look which then immediately switched to an aha look after I gave him a look.


    "Ahh, that''s right, your special perception ability." He said lastly while I gave him a nod in response.


    Now that my father''s memory was jogged, I got up from the couch and headed for the entrance of our home with dad in tow to greet Amata and her father. Going through the typical formalities, we invited them inside, but as we were inviting them inside, I noticed dad giving the overseer a certain look, which he responded in kind with a knowing look of his own and an almost unnoticeable nod. Following that, everyone got seated at the table for the delicious breakfast I was going to prepare for the four of us.


    As soon as both my dad and Amata''s father were seated, I went into the kitchen and started preparing the meal with Amata''s assistance. A while later we had everything hot ready, hence we plated it and began ferrying dishes out of the kitchen and to the table. Once everything was placed at the table, my assistant and I took our seats, joining our dads.


    Around the 45-minute mark, everyone was finished and stuffed from the large breakfast Amata and I had just prepared, so I decided the moment had come to have our talk about what I plan on doing in the future. Along with the couple of other things I needed to cover, as well.


    With my mind made up, I began the discussion.


    "Is everyone satisfied with breakfast?" I asked, which received a resounding answer of satisfaction in response.


    "As you all probably know, I have something important to discuss with you all and you probably know very well what that is since it''s been a long time coming." I said, which everyone reluctantly nodded to, with Amata additionally having the beginnings of a sad and upset facial expression coming on.


    "And as you, all may have guessed I plan to leave the vault at some point in the future and that point is actually about two years from now since my body should have reached full maturity by then from my estimations and at that time I should have made more than enough preparations by then to guarantee my safety against most dangers in the wasteland." I continued before adding my reasoning.


    "As for the reasons why I want to venture out into the wasteland, I''ve been having visions of danger coming to the vault as well as my father when he decides it''s a good idea to leave the vault without telling anyone other than Jonas Palmer when I reach the age of 18." I said immediately garnering an upset look from the overseer that was obviously directed at my dear ole dad.


    The vision part of my reasoning is a bit of a lie, but they don''t need to know that.


    I paused for a brief second and explained further. "The danger I''m talking about is the former government of the United States, an extremely fearsome and technologically advanced group known as the Enclave. This powerful organization is intent on eliminating basically all human life besides those not affected by radiation and those not belonging to their group."


    "If that was all they were about the vault wouldn''t be in any danger presumably but this group is involved in all sorts of reprehensible activities from slavery and forced labor to human experimentation and slaughter of entire settlements and groups of people if they are in possession of something they want. So if this group was to ever set their sights on the vault, there would be little we could do given the vault''s current capabilities."


    "How would they get past the vault door, Harold? I can''t think of any feasible way of getting past that monster of a blast door with whatever remnants of technology they possess." The overseer asked skeptically.


    "This secretive organization has survived and existed well before the bombs dropped, so they are more than capable of breaching the defenses of the vault if I''m going by what I''ve seen in my visions. They are in control of orbital weapon platforms that can drop nukes anywhere they desire in the wasteland, for Christ''s sake. So if I''m being totally honest here, this force would have no issue with breaking through the vault''s main door and killing most of, if not all, the residents of the vault if they so pleased."


    "Due to just that singular reason alone, I''m not willing to risk letting any of the people I''ve grown to care about over the years here within this vault come face to face with a danger that I could''ve easily prevented given my current capabilities that are constantly improving as time goes by."


    "Adding on to that, if my gut feeling is right, which I''m sure it is, heading out before they start making major moves in the capital wasteland will increase my capabilities at a drastically accelerated rate. Meaning that if anything ends up happening, I should be more than capable of dealing with them, ensuring everyone''s safety." I added on top of everything I said previously.


    "And before any of you try to refute me on my visions, you are all very well aware I''m not a normal human by any definition of the word due to me showing you all numerous abilities any normal human couldn''t possibly possess since I arrived here at Vault 101 as a baby all those years ago with my father."


    "So, because of my abilities, I''m certain those visions could come true. Hence why I need to head out into the wasteland to deal with the Enclave before they cause any irreversible damage." I said lastly with a serious facial expression worn on my face as I looked at everyone gathered at the table.

 Chapter 21: Continuation

    Once I was finished saying what I wanted to say Amata seemed a little teary-eyed after what I had said but nonetheless understanding since she knew it was coming while my dad and my soon-to-be father-in-law on the other hand briefly looked at each other before the overseer turned back towards me and said. "Well, you said a lot there, son... We appreciate that you place such importance on us that you are willing to go to such lengths as subjecting yourself to the plethora of dangers that exist out in the wasteland."


    He paused for a moment and continued to say. "But as you said previously, we knew you weren''t normal by any normal human standards, so we figured you were going to try to head out into the wastes at some point or another. I mean, you''ve been making things that don''t have any real use down here in a vault like that new vehicle you finished recently, for instance, thus it was only a matter of time."


    "So even though all of us would''ve liked it if you had held off on this topic for a few more years we expected it to come one day and since that is today I guess you''re reaching your limits sooner than I and your father James expected you would, unfortunately." He added.


    Seeing me nodding my head, he continued. "And seeing how you told us there''s a threat to the vault and its many residents, I can''t exactly tell you can''t go, even though that''s what the three of us would like to say. But given what I know about you, that would possibly sour our relationship, which is something I would like to prevent."


    "So you got my go-ahead, Harold. Just don''t go and get yourself killed out there since you still need to marry my daughter and make me a few grandkids once the two of you tie the knot, ha ha." Amata''s dad, the overseer, said lastly, trying to lighten the conversation a bit.


    "DAD!" Amata yelled out loudly, turning bright red with her previous downcast mood nowhere to be seen.


    *Ha ha ha*


    After both of our dads were done, having a laugh at our expense, though mainly Amata''s, the overseer handed the reins of the conversation over to my dad.


    "As for your visions, son, we don''t really doubt your visions given the various abilities you''ve displayed over the years, So if you think there''s danger coming, then I''m inclined to believe you since you''re not the kind to say something like this." My dad said.


    "Also, before I continue, I would like to apologize to everyone here about my plans to leave the vault without telling you all. It was a mistake but I still have a very strong desire to finish the project my late wife Catherine and I were working on prior to us coming here to vault 101 with our son." He apologized in a sincere tone that everyone accepted moments later, me included.


    "Apology accepted dad, but I also have some things I would like to add regarding yours and mom''s project."


    "Okay, fire away."


    "So even if you were to get project purity up and running how would you distribute the water and how would you protect it from other hostile forces such as the Enclave who want most of the wasteland dead because of some arbitrary bullshit reason that all wastelanders are expendable mutants?"


    "On top of that, project purity would be a great way of dispersing a poison or some other biological agent to kill off most of the few remaining humans we have left that have mostly all been exposed to varying degrees of radiation, which the Enclave would likely want to do."


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    "So please explain to me in detail, dad, how you, a man in his late forties, will be able to go up against a hostile faction like the Enclave that could stomp out the brotherhood of steel easily if they were willing to throw everything they got. And that''s not even considering the other hostile groups and enemies you would face as well, like the various raider groups, super mutants, and talon company mercs?" I asked, causing him to actually think long and hard on his harebrained idea of his.


    A short while later, he sighed and answered. "If I''m being honest here after thinking about it over the years and with a bit of influence from you, son, I don''t think my old team and I would''ve really been able to control it and use it for the purposes of bringing life back to the wasteland. We would''ve just had a huge target painted on our backs at all times that would''ve eventually ended up with us being attacked by raiders or some other hostile group down the line making all the effort we would''ve put into the project for naught."


    "Phew, I''m glad some of my qualities started to rub off on you, dad. But as you said, I also didn''t see any reasonable way of how it could possibly work out in the end unless you had the power and force required to control and protect it from others. Hence why I''m trying to persuade you not to run back out into the wasteland to get yourself killed for nothing."


    "I also doubt mom would''ve wanted you to continue the project if it was not going to help anyone other than those that would use it to take advantage of others and spread more suffering." I responded, which got another sigh out of my old man before he nodded his head in a depressed state.


    "Fortunately for you, dad, all might not be lost with project purity. Let me just deal with the Enclave first before we start worrying about fixing the wasteland." I added, improving his mood some.


    "Going back to me, I don''t really plan on leaving the vault forever. I will just be spending the majority of my time out in the wasteland getting things set up so I can take care of the Enclave in one fell swoop and prevent them from causing any irreversible harm to anyone here and the general wasteland populace at large."


    "And this brings me to my second reason why I want to head out into the wasteland. When I''ve dealt with the Enclave and I think things are somewhat safe, I would like to try my hand at bringing this country back from the ashes. Whether that be as the former United States of America or as an entirely new country or entity altogether. The former did have its fair share of issues, such as the constant corruption it faced with politicians. Thus, it may be better to forgo the latter to try to ensure that it doesn''t occur again." I said, while going into a few other details regarding it seconds later.


    "And I have one last thing to add. I''ve taken the liberty of creating a ground-penetrating encrypted radio so I can talk with everyone here daily. Also, the encryption will change weekly to keep our conversation safe and secure because you never know who''s listening." I said lastly as everyone paused for several seconds in thought.


    Now that I covered everything that needed to be discussed in its entirety, for the most part, the overseer took control of the conversation and said. "Those are some lofty goals there, son, but you very well may be the one to accomplish them one day and restore civilization to its previous state, if not better. That aside, you got permission to come and go as you please as the overseer of this vault. Just make sure you stay in regular contact with us, for Amata''s sake, at the very least."


    "Oh, and one more thing, you must come back and make it official with my little Amata when you are the age of 18. I won''t be taking no for an answer." He added lastly with a grin, riling up his daughter for the second time who now had a bright red face facing down towards the table.


    Everyone got a laugh out of it except Amata, but she was secretly smiling with her head down, thus I knew she wasn''t averse to it. After I agreed to his terms, we discussed a number of nitty-gritty details regarding my plans and the information I learned of in my visions. Which was, in reality, just a plethora of information I learned from my many thousands of hours spent playing Fallout and exploring the wiki.


    Following that, the bunch of us discussed a few other things regarding my and Amata''s future before we wrapped things up finally and everyone headed out to do whatever they had planned for the day. Which for me was spending the rest of the day relaxing with Amata accompanying me. That whole conversation was tiring, thus we could use a break, Amata included.

 Chapter 22: Accumulated Growth

    Two years later.


    *Ahaaha*


    "What time is it?" I thought aloud whilst rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and checking the time.


    7:00 AM


    Eh, it''s pretty early, but it''s time to get up regardless, since today''s my big day. I finally set foot outside of vault 101. And man, I really can''t wait to get out there and begin leaving my mark on the wasteland.


    Pumped to start my adventure, I wasted no time and got out of bed and began getting dressed and ready for the eventful day I no doubt had ahead of myself.


    Throwing my clothes on speedily, I cleaned myself up and went over my mental checklist in my head to make sure I wasn''t forgetting anything that I''ll need for my journey to the RobCo Facility. The second I was sure I had everything prepared, I moved onto the next big task at hand, that being to check my stats on my Pip-Boy and spend the level-ups I had accumulated over the years and turn in the quests I had completed ages ago.


    Since this will be a massive upgrade in all my parameters, it will probably be a good idea to take a seat on the edge of my bed before I open up my Pip-Boy. There is a not so small possibility that I may pass out from the overload of information I''ll be receiving from my skills increasing so much. And that''s not even taking into account the adjustments my body is going to experience due to the massive increase in all of my stats that will happen right as I exit the holographic Pip-Boy screen.


    With my next action decided, I sat down on my cushy bed and opened up my Pip-Boy to check my current stats. A split second later time began to freeze as usual and after a few moments had passed the same old holographic screen that I''ve grown very used to over the last several years appeared before me, displaying all the hard fought gains I''ve made since arriving here as a baby over a decade ago.


    Pip-Boy


    Level Ups Pending 9


    Name: Harold Todd Woods


    Age: 16


    Height: 6 Feet 6 Inches


    Body Weight: 295 lbs


    Race: Human


    Level: 6


    Experience Points: 950/950


    Total Experience Points Earned: 17,325


    Experience Rate: 195%


    Health: 690 | Formula: Base of 90 + (Endurance x 30) + (Level# x 10) |


    Healing rate: 2.8 Health a minute | Formula: 0.1 x Endurance


    Carry Weight: 1,220/2,800 | Formula: (150 + Strength x 10) |


    Resistances:


    Armor: Body Damage Threshold 18, Armor Damage Threshold 166, Total Damage Threshold 184


    Poison Resistance: 85% | Formula: (Endurance - 1) x 5 |


    Radiation Resistance: 36% | Formula: (Endurance x 2) |


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 23


    Perception: 14


    Endurance: 18


    Charisma: 8


    Intelligence: 17


    Agility: 15


    Luck: 7


    | Skills |


    Barter: 57


    Energy Weapons: 82


    Explosives: 64


    Guns: 91


    Lockpick: 53


    Medicine: 83


    Melee Weapons: 75


    Repair: 99


    Science: 99


    Sneak: 58


    Speech: 59


    Survival: 49


    Unarmed: 66


    Traits: |Gifted|, |Sex Appeal|, |Skilled|, |Take Another Rank 1|


    Perks: |All Seeing|, |Ambidextrous|, |Monstrous Physique|, |Daddy''s Boy Rank 1|, |Educated|, |Gotta Go Fast|, |Herculean Strength|, |Human Supercomputer|, |Junk Rounds|, |Stimpak Addict|, |Swift Learner|


    Mutations:


    Gear: 10,000x 7.62 rounds, 200x .50 MG rounds, |12G Laser Pistol|, |AER 18 LMG|, |Anti-Material Rifle|, 10x |Anti-Material Rifle Magazines|, 2x |Combat Knife|, |Exterminator Armor|, |Exterminator Helmet|, |Guillotine|, 100x |Med-x Syringes|, 20x |MFC Grenades|, |Mulcher|, |Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazine|, 100x |RadAway|, 5 |Serrated Spears|, 100x |Stimpaks|, |War Belt|


    Loot: 500,000 7.62 rounds, 20,000 .50 MG rounds, 100 Anti-Material Rifle Magazines Assortment Of Automated Manufacturing Machines, 1 Big Book Of Science, Black Altyn Helmet, Black Hardened Metal Armor, 10,000 Med-x Syringes, 10,000 Bottles Of Modified Buffout, 250 MFC Grenade, 20,000 Microfusion Breeder Cells 100,000 Microfusion Cells, 4 Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazines, 10,000 RadAway, 100,000 Stimpaks, 4257 Duct Tape, 25,815 Scrap Electronics, 154,821 Scrap Metal, 6,892 Wonderglue, 724,892 Other Misc. Stuff.


    Robots: Hauling Bots 5, 2 Mining Bots, Sentry Bots Gatling Laser Variants 2, Worker Bots 40


    Quests: 2 Ready to turn in, Many in progress, 2 Completed


    Quests In Progress:


    | Surpass Your Human Physical Limits | Objectives: Reach a value of 11 in every S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Rewards: New Perk?, 10,000 exp, and 10 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points.


    | Save dad | Objectives: Prevent the death of your father, James Watson Woods. Rewards: New Perk? and 5,000 exp.


    | Mole Rat Exterminator | Objectives: Kill 100 mole rats. Rewards: 1,000 exp.


    | Seeker Of Knowledge | Objectives: Continue to hoover up all knowledge in the vault library till there is nothing left. Rewards: 3 Intelligence Points and 2,500 exp.


    | Take Over The RobCo Facility | Objectives: Clear out all hostile forces and set up shop. Rewards: Perk RobCo Certified, 5 Science Points, 2,000 exp.


    | Take Over Raven Rock | Objectives: ¡­


    | Orbital ¡­


    Other Statistics:


    Kill Counter: 462


    Animals Killed: 462


    Damn, I''ve made some serious gains this last year and a half since I hopped on my modified Buffout recipe. I basically look like a Mr. Olympia competitor at this point, which I''m not complaining about since I can still touch my back. Though that''s only because of me gaining the perk Gotta Go Fast perk for surpassing 11 agility.


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    | Gotta Go Fast | Requirements 11 Agility: You''ve surpassed human limitations for agility. For achieving such a feat you''ve gained the ability to jump 11 feet which will increase by 1 foot for every point additional in agility after 11, a max speed of 30 miles per hour + agility, and you can now twist yourself into a pretzel, unfortunately not literally.


    My agility, endurance, and strength S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s especially. Those three are progressing at such an accelerated rate now that I kinda find it to be a bit ridiculous. But I suppose that''s what happens when you modify a performance-enhancing drug that blows all other known compounds from my previous world out of the water. While also combining that with a large amount of stimpak use for accelerated healing and recovery.


    Moving on from that, I see I have a new stat called healing rate, which seems to have appeared because of a new perk I got from using so many stimpaks after and during my training.


    | Stimpak Addict | You''ve abused stimpaks so much that you''ve gained a slight passive regeneration ability. + 1 health regen per minute.


    That will definitely be very helpful in any future activities that cause damage to my body, like hard training and combat, to name two. Hmm, I wonder if there will be any higher ranks of it I can get... Well, there''s no real reason to put too much thought into it right now, because only time will reveal if there is one or not.


    Continuing on to the next thing in my stats, my skills have massively improved over the years as well, particularly repair and science, both of which are sitting right on the border of 100. I could use my big book of science, however I think I''ll hold off on that till I get the Comprehension perk.


    After spending a bit more looking over my stats and how to best go about using my accumulated level-ups and quests. I settled on turning in the Seeker Of Knowledge quest first to get the bonus three intelligence that will increase my experience rate by an additional 15% bringing my total experience rate from 195% to 210%.


    Upon turning that quest in, I received 4,875 experience from the quest gaining another two-level-ups to use. Bringing my total level-ups available to spend to 11 of which 6 will have to be used for the Intense Training perk along with the use of my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Book. The one I''ve been holding onto for all these years for this exact moment so I could finally meet the requirements of the Surpass Your Human Physical Limits quest.


    Ding! New Perk


    Ding! New Perk


    | Adeptus Mechanicus | Requirements Repair 100: You emit a field of energy that repairs all objects around you in a 10-meter radius. This field grows in size and strength the higher your repair skill is and is controlled via your will. +1 meter and 1% repair rate per 10 skill points above 100.


    | Mechu-deru | Requirements Science 100: Grants the ability of intuitive understanding of mechanical systems, and the ability to exert your will on any and all mechanical constructs. Grows in strength and power the more skill points you have in science.


    Oh, fuck, those are a couple of strong perks... I wonder if I can repair all those broken armored vehicles that are spread all across the wasteland with Adeptus Mechanicus. It would certainly give me quite a boost in combat power if I can. As for that second perk, Mechu-deru I can see that being exceptionally useful in controlling and managing my future robot army.


    Now that I''m thinking of it, I could also use it to take over that A.I. zax unit, John Henry Eden, inside the Raven Rock bunker. Doing that would grant me access to all the data he has stored within his data banks. That most likely consists of a shit load of valuable information ranging from blueprints and technical documents on the various advanced technologies such as the advanced power suits they arm their forces with to the Vertibirds they use to rapidly transport and deploy their troops around the wasteland.


    If I get my hands on that knowledge, I could use it to literally make myself into the preeminent force here in the area. Having control of such advanced technology would give me the ability to take over the entirety of the capital wasteland and once that''s done I can move on to the next step that will probably be to head southwest to new vegas to take it over. But before I head to new vegas, I think I''ll take a pit stop at Area 51 to see if it has any alien tech.


    Moving on from Raven Rock, I looked the two of them over again, coming up with several other ideas in the process. I then continued onto my next step and exited out of my Pip-Boy, undoing the freeze on time. The instant the clock resumed, I grabbed my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Book and added one point to charisma, bringing its total up to 9. When that was taken care of, I went back into my Pip-Boy, refreezing time again.


    With my stats displayed to me again moments later, I gave them a look over to see if anything major had changed and noticed nothing. Thus, I moved on to spending my stored level-ups, causing the holographic screen to change to the perk selection screen that I''ve not seen in a very long time.


    Once there, I ignored all the perk choices and selected Intense Training 6 times in a row where I distributed 2 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points right away into charisma bringing its total up to 11. Which unlocked another useful perk as soon as the distribution for charisma was finalized.


    | Silver Tongue | Requirements 11 Charisma: You''ve surpassed human limitations for charisma. This feat has given you the ability to converse with all sorts of different animals, such as but not limited to Deathclaws, Yao Guai, and rabid dogs, not that they''ll listen if they aren''t already pretty tame.


    After giving it a look over and finding its future uses very interesting. Such as using it to tame different mutated creatures, I distributed the remaining S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points into luck, bringing its total up to 11 too. Those actions of mine then unlocked another very great perk with a ton of potential for me to abuse at a later date.


    | Walking Treasure Detector | Requirements 11 Luck: You''ve surpassed human limitations for luck, hence you''ve gained the ability to smell out treasure and situations that should go horribly wrong for you now somehow end up turning around and going pretty well. In addition to that, your base critical chance is increased from 1% to 2% and skill increases gained through luck are doubled.


    That crit chance will increase my overall damage potential substantially. I''m sure it''ll come in clutch one day. That aside, the ability to find where loot may be hidden will be indispensable in my wasteland exploration.


    As I was thinking about the many benefits, this perk brought me two more dings simultaneously, notifying me that I received two new perks.


    Ding! New Perk


    Ding! New Perk


    Hmm, they must''ve been unlocked from the increase in skill points I got from my luck increasing. Let''s see if they''re any good.


    | Bulletstorm | Requirements Guns 100: You are now somehow able to magically increase the damage of all weapons that fall under the guns category by 1 for every 10 additional skill points you have in this skill after 100 as well as increasing the velocity of all projectiles fired from guns without an increase in recoil.


    | Medical Genius | Requirements Medicine 100: You''ve gained the ability to rapidly regrow the limbs of others as well as yourself once a day. The number of times this ability can be used will increase by 1 for every additional 100 skill points in medicine beyond 100. Alongside that, you''ve also gained the unfathomable ability to resurrect anyone or any creature, no matter the state of their body, at the cost of half of your lifespan.


    Holy, those two perks will be pretty broken later on once I get a ton of points dumped in them. I can already see myself pouring a load of skill points into guns, basically turning my 7.62x51mm minigun into a 30mm GAU 8 gatling cannon, gatling gun go brrrrr.


    As for the Medical Genius perk, being able to regrow limbs sounds super useful, even though I doubt I''ll be using very often, if at all. That resurrection ability is in the same boat too. I have no desire to reduce my lifespan by 50%, hence, I''d probably never use it seeing how the price for doing so is quite steep after all.


    Despite me saying that if someone close to me died like my dad or Amata, I''d 100 percent use it. Although before I pull the trigger, I would do everything possible to come up with some sort of solution to the lifespan reduction situation. It probably wouldn''t be a bad idea to get working on that in the next couple of years, just in case.

 Chapter 23: Powering Up

    When I had my fill of looking at my newly acquired perks and thinking of all the different uses they presented for the future, I finalized my perk selection, changing the holographic screen to display the skill distribution one.


    [ Skills ]


    Skill Points Left: 132


    Barter: 72


    Energy Weapons: 97


    Explosives: 79


    Guns: 106


    Lockpick: 68


    Medicine: 104


    Melee Weapons: 90


    Repair: 120


    Science: 120


    Sneak: 73


    Speech: 74


    Survival: 64


    Unarmed: 81


    What to choose, what to choose... Well, since I already know I will get a perk for every skill that reaches 100, I might as well start increasing the ones nearest to 100 first. So let''s begin with Energy Weapons and see what I get.


    Distributing three skill points into energy weapons, my total skill points left decreased to 129 before I heard a ding sound, notifying me that I''ve gained yet another perk.


    Ding! New Perk


    | Energy Weapon Fanatic | Requirements Energy Weapons 100: For every 10 skill points you possess in energy weapons beyond 100, you deal 1 additional damage when using said weapon types. On top of that, energy weapon projectile speed is raised by a similar amount, the only exceptions to this bonus are laser weapons and other similarly fast energy weapons.


    Not bad, not bad, basically just the energy weapon equivalent of Bulletstorm.


    Alright, the next skill I will spend skill points on will be melee weapons. That guy requires 10 skill points to reach 100.


    Following that, I distributed 10 skill points into melee weapons, bringing my total remaining skill points to spend down to 119, and right as the points were dumped into the skill, I heard that signature notification sound go off.


    Ding! New Perk


    | Martial Weapon Master | Requirements Melee Weapons 100: Your skill with handling all melee weapons has surpassed normal limitations, causing you to take your first step into a realm few have entered besides ancient martial masters of legends. Because of you entering this realm, you are now able to emit an energy from your melee weapons that can be used to increase their durability. And if that wasn''t enough, this energy can be swung out for a ranged attack like weapon qi though it is different. The starting range is 10 meters, but it will increase by 1 meter for every 10 additional skill points you have in melee weapons beyond 100. Lastly, the higher your melee weapons skill, the stronger this ability will become.


    Cool, I get to be a pseudo xianxia master now thanks to this perk. I will definitely have to give this a try when I get out of the vault in a short while. Moving onto the next skill on the list that being unarmed. This fella will need 19 skill points to bring it to 100.


    Putting the points where they needed to go, I heard that signature sound ring out once again.


    Ding! New Perk


    | Human Weapon | Requirements Unarmed 100: Your skill in unarmed combat has gained you the ability to emit an energy that you can use to cover your body to increase its durability. Additionally, you can launch this energy from your arms and legs as a ranged attack similar to what one would call qi. The initial range is 10 meters, but this will increase by 1 meter for every 10 additional skill points you have in this skill beyond 100. Also, the higher your skill in unarmed is, the stronger this perk''s abilities will become.


    Well, I think I can probably pass off as a real xianxia master now that I have this perk as well, though I highly doubt there is anyone remaining on earth who knows what that is anymore. I wonder if that samurai on the Zetan mother ship knows anything...


    Hmm, I wonder how much force the energy can withstand and if I can combine it with my armor. If that ends up being the case and I can layer it on top of my armor, that would be a serious game-changer for my durability. I will for sure have to test that out as well when I''m done leveling up.


    Now onto explosives. It will need 21 skill points for it to reach 100, and when the points are spent, it will bring my total remaining skill points down to 79.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    With my next skill to raise to 100 decided, I distributed the skill points into it, earning myself another ding a second later.


    Ding! New Perk


    | The Power Of Atom | Requirements Explosives 100: Your fascination with explosives has earned you the ability to increase the amount of damage of all explosives you use by 2.5% as well as an increase in the radius of the explosion by the same percentage for every additional 10 skill points you have in the skill after 100. You can also control how much damage it will do and how large the explosive radius will be.


    God damn, that''s a busted perk. It would be cool to see how large of a mushroom cloud I could make if I had 1,000 points in explosives and blew up a nuke of similar size to the one sitting in the center of Megaton. But if I was to blow one up of that size around here, it would probably just end up turning the capital wasteland into a smoldering crater, so I''ll have to pass on doing that.


    After making a 180 on the idea of setting off a nuke just for the fun of it, I went to put points into my next highest skill, which was speech. Once I placed the 26 needed skill points into the skill, it brought my total skill points left down to 53 and as I finalized the placement; I heard the usual notification I was quickly becoming accustomed to.


    Ding! New Perk


    | Language Master | Requirements Speech 100: You gain a complete understanding of any language when hearing it for the first time or seeing its text. Also, for every 100 additional speech gain 1 point in charisma.


    Hmm, that will be an incredibly useful perk for learning any foreign languages in the future. It will also be of great help when I eventually come across something alien in origin, like that alien spacecraft that will be sitting in the north of the capital wasteland at some point. Though now that I''m thinking of it, I don''t know if it''s even there right now... or if I really want to mess with it, since I don''t particularly want to be pulled into a Zetan mother ship with current capabilities.


    Continuing on from that, we have sneak next on the list. That one will need 27 skill points to reach 100.


    As soon as I decided on sneak, I placed the 27 skill points into it bringing my total skill points left down to 26 which won''t be enough for a new perk so I''ll just dump the remaining points into the next highest skill that being my barter skill bringing its total up to 98 just on the cusp of the needed 100.


    Ding! New Perk


    | Lurking In The Shadows | Requirements Sneak 100: Deal 1% more sneak attack for every 10 skill points you have in sneak. Besides that, you are also now able to emit a sort of presence hiding field with a range of 10 meters that grows by 1 meter for every 10 additional skill points in sneak.


    That will be an exceptionally useful perk for my coming trip to the RobCo Facility. Hmm, I might need to pour a hundred points into it just in case I need to pass an area that may be too dangerous for my convoy.


    Though I doubt I would encounter anything that could put me and my convoy in much danger since I should be able to eliminate most threats by myself, let alone with the nearly 50 robots that will be following me that are all equipped with their own weapons. My sentry bots, for example, are armed with dual gatling lasers and shoulder mounted hive missile launchers. And my worker bots have their integrated laser hands that have the equivalent firepower of a standard laser rifle shot. So, given my robot''s weaponry, I should be more than prepared to deal with any possible unforeseen dangers I may come across.


    After finalizing the skill distribution, the holographic screen changed again, showing my updated status that had a new quest waiting to be turned in that being the Surpass Your Human Physical Limits.


    Nice, it''s finally ready to turn in. Let''s see those rewards.


    Once I finished that thought, I gave my newly updated stats a brief glance over and turned in the Surpass Your Human Physical Limits quest. That bad boy rewarded 21,000 exp, 10 SPECIAL points, and a new perk a split second later. With the quest rewards dispensed, I checked the perk out first to see what the effects were and man, was I in for a treat.


    | High Human | You''ve surpassed all human limits, taking the next step in human evolution. Race Changes to High Human, health formula changes from (Level# x 10) to (Level# x 20), +2 to all specials for every 10 levels, +5 DT, +1 health regeneration a minute, and five times increased stamina and stamina regeneration. Lastly, unlock the ability of multi-thought processing based on your intelligence SPECIAL. +1 Thought process for every 1 point of intelligence.


    Yeah, that''s a pretty busted perk, but I''ve earned it since I had to grind for years to get my stats to this point finally. Mmm, the multi-thought processing feels very odd. I basically have multiple me''s in my head, but I believe I''ll get used to it in no time.


    Ding! New Perk


    There''s that sound again. Let''s see what new perk I got this time.


    | Currency Maker | Requirements Barter 100: You gained the magical ability to turn caps into gold and silver at these rates, 10,000 caps to 1 pound of gold, 1,000 caps to 1 pound of silver. Also, for every 100 additional skill points in barter, the return on conversion will increase by 1 pound.


    That will come in hand when I need more gold and silver for the production of electronics, which will certainly be needed for the manufacturing of my robots. And because it works off of bottle caps, I should probably make a bottle cap press in the near future so I can have a nearly limitless supply of gold and silver. Though I could probably earn through trade but as with everything, it''s better to rely on one''s self.

 Chapter 24: Perk, Perks, & More Perks

    Now, with that out of the way, it''s finally time to do the actual perk selection and I have 12 level-ups pending, so I''ll be able to take quite a few perks this time around.


    Finished with that thought, I immediately selected level up on the status screen and as soon as I did, the holographic screen swapped back to the perk selection screen, displaying a huge variety of perks.


    [ Perks ]


    Perk Points Left: 12


    Level 8 Perks


    | Commando | Requirements Level 8: +25% Accuracy to all two-handed ranged weapons.


    | Cowboy | Requirements Level 8: +25% damage done by dynamite, hatchets, knives, revolvers, and lever-action guns.


    | Grunt | Requirements Level 8, Guns 45, Explosives 20: Deal 25% more damage with pistols, smgs, assault rifles, marksman carbines, light machine guns, grenades, grenade launchers, missile launchers, and knives.


    | Home On The Range | Requirements 8, Survival 70: Able to sleep comfortably when not at home and stay aware of your surroundings when asleep.


    | Impartial Mediation | Requirements Level 8, Charisma 5: +30 to speech and a knack for negotiation.


    | Living Anatomy | Requirements Level 8, Medicine 70: Shows health and DT of any target as well as +5% damage increase.


    | Pack Rat | Requirements Level 8, Intelligence 5, Barter 70: Items with a weight of 2 or lower now weigh half as much.


    | Quick Draw | Requirements Level 8, Agility 5: Makes weapon drawing and holstering 50% faster.


    | Rad Resistance | Requirements Level 8, Endurance 5, Survival 40: +25% Radiation resistance.


    | Scrounger | Requirements Level 8, Luck 5: Find considerably more ammunition.


    | Size Matters | (Ranks 3) Requirements Level 8, Endurance 5: +15% Damage and accuracy with big guns.


    | Sneering Imperialist | Requirements Level 8: +15% Damage and +25% accuracy when fighting against tribals and raiders.


    | Stonewall | Requirements Level 8, Strength 6, Endurance 6: +5 DT and cannot be knocked down unless you wish to be.


    | Strong Back | Requirements Level 8, Strength 5, Endurance 5: +100 Carry weight.


    | Super Slam | Requirements Level 8, Strength 6, Melee Weapons 45: All of your melee attacks are more likely to knock down your opponents.


    | Terrifying Presence | Requirements Level 8, Speech 70: Your presence easily intimidates others. This effect can be controlled at will.


    | Tribal Wisdom | Requirements Level 8, Survival 70: -50% limb damage from animals, mutated animals, and mutated insects along with +25% poison resistance.


    Level 10 Perks


    | And Stay Back | Requirements Level 10, Guns 70: Shotguns have a 10 percent chance, per pellet, to knock back an enemy.


    | Animal Friend | (Ranks 3) Requirements Level 10, Charisma 6, Survival 45: Animals no longer attack you for no reason.


    | Character Builder | Requirements Level 10: You can select 1 more trait.


    | Fight The Power | Requirements Level 10: +2 DT and +5% critical chance against anyone wearing faction armor or clothing.


    | Finesse | Requirements Level 10: +5% Critical chance.


    | Here and now | Requirements Level 10: You instantly level up again.


    | Math Wrath | Requirements Level 10, Science 70: Reduces all stamina costs by 10% and increases your calculation ability significantly.


    | Miss Fortune | Requirements Level 10, Luck 6: You have a small chance that Miss Fortune will show up when you miss a shot to incapacitate one of your targets.


    | Mister Sandman | Requirements Level 10, Sneak 60: Can instantly kill a sleeping target within reason and earn twice the amount of experience points for said kill.


    | Mysterious Stranger | Requirements Level 10, Luck 6: There is a small chance that the mysterious stranger will show up in your time of need to finish off one of your targets.


    | Nerd Rage | Requirements Level 10, Intelligence 5, Science 50: +50% DR and 10 strength whenever health is 20% or below.


    | Night Person | Requirements Level 10: +2 Intelligence and +2 Perception between 6:00 PM and 6:00 AM.


    | Plasma Spaz | Requirements Level 10, Energy Weapons 70: Accuracy and damage for all plasma weapons are increased by 20%.


    | Thick Headed | Requirements Level 10, Endurance 6: Limbs are 15% harder to cripple and the effects of crippling are 50% less. The lower your intelligence, the higher the modifiers.


    Level 12 Perks


    | Alertness | Requirements Level 12, Perception 6: +2 Perception when not moving.


    | Fast Metabolism | Requirements Level 12: +20% More hit points restored when using any health restorative items.


    | Ghastly Scavenger | Requirements Level 12, Cannibal Perk: Gain the ability to rapidly regain health from eating super mutants and feral ghoul corpses.


    | Heavy Weight | Requirements Level 12, Strength 7: Weapons with a weight of 10 or more pounds will have their weight cut in half.


    | Hit The Deck | Requirements Level 12, Explosives 70: +25 DT against explosives.


    | Hobbler | Requirements Level 12, Perception 7: Your chance to hit opponents is increased by 25%.


    | Life Giver | Requirements Level 12, Endurance 6: +30 Hit points.


    | Long Haul | Requirements Level 12, Endurance 6, Barter 70: +200 to carry weight.


    | Piercing Strike | Requirements Level 12, Unarmed 70: All of your unarmed and melee attacks negate 15 points of DT.


    | Pyromaniac | Requirements Level 12, Explosives 60: +50% damage with fire-based weapons.


    | Robotics Expert | Requirements Level 12, Science 50: +25% damage against robots and gain knowledge of all things robots.


    | Silent Running | Requirements Level 12, Agility 6, Sneak 50: Your running no longer makes sound and vibrations.


    | Sniper | Requirements Level 12, Guns 50: +25% To your headshot accuracy, and when you land a headshot, the damage dealt to the target is increased by 10%.


    | Splash Damage | Requirements Level 12, Explosives 70: Explosives have a 25% larger area of effect.


    | Unstoppable Force | Requirements Level 12, Strength 7, Melee Weapons 90: x4 Normal damage through enemies blocks with melee weapons and unarmed attacks.


    Level 14 Perks


    | Adamantium Skeleton | Requirements Level 14: Your bones'' toughness is increased by 50%.


    | Center Of Mass | Requirements Level 14, Guns 70: You do an additional 15% damage when targeting the torso.


    | Chemist | Requirements Level 14, Medicine 60: Positive chem effects last twice as long.


    | Cyborg | Requirements Level 14, Medicine 60, Science 60: +10 To energy weapons, +10% to radiation resistance, Poison Resistance, and damage resistance.


    | Jury Rigging | Requirements Level 14, Repair 90: Able to repair any item using a roughly similar item.


    | Light Step | Requirements Level 14, Perception 6, Agility 6: You no longer set off floor-based traps and mines.


    | Purifier | Requirements Level 14: You do 50% more damage with melee and unarmed weapons against mutants.


    Level 16 Perks


    | Action Boy | Requirements Level 16, Agility 6: +15% to stamina.


    | Better Criticals | Requirements Level 16, Perception 6, Luck 6: +50% damage with critical hits.


    | Chem Resistant | Requirements Level 16, Medicine 60: Half as likely to get addicted to chems.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    | Meltdown | Requirements Level 16, Energy Weapons 90: Foes killed by your energy weapons emit a corona of harmful energy.


    | Tag! | Requirements Level 16: Allows the tagging of a fourth skill.


    | Weapons Handling | Requirements Level 16: Halves the amount of strength required to wield any weapon and the draining of stamina from said wielding.


    Level 18 Perks


    | Computer Whiz | Requirements Level 18, Intelligence 7, Science 70: Can now basically perform magic on a computer.


    | Concentrated Fire | Requirements Level 18, Energy Weapons 60, Guns 60: +5% to accuracy for every subsequent attack.


    | Infiltrator | Requirements Level 18, Perception 7, Lockpick 70: You can somehow break through any lock now, no matter how difficult it may be for others.


    | Paralyzing Palm | Requirements Level 18, Unarmed 70: Can paralyze anyone for 30 seconds with an unarmed attack.


    | Walker Instinct | Requirements Level 18, Survival 50: +1 Perception and agility when outside.


    Level 20 Perks


    | Atomic! | Requirements Level 20, Endurance 6: In irradiated areas, +25% move and attack speed, +2 DT, +2 strength. When you have an excess rad level, stamina regen scales from 1.1 times to 1.5 times normal.


    | Explorer | Requirements Level 20: All locations are marked on your map emphasis on the all.


    | Eye For Eye | Requirements Level 20: For each crippled limb you have, you do an additional 10% more damage.


    | Grim Reaper Sprint | Requirements Level 20: All kills restore some stamina and energy.


    | Mile In Their Shoes | Requirements Level 20, Survival 25: You have come to understand night stalkers. Consuming night stalker squeezin''s now grants bonuses to Perception (+1 PER), Poison Resistance (+5), and Stealth (+5 Sneak) in addition to the normal benefits.


    | Ninja | Requirements Level 20, Melee Weapons 80, Sneak 80: Multiplies Critical chance by x1.15 with melee and unarmed weapons and grants +25% damage with melee/unarmed sneak attacks.


    | Solar Powered | Requirements Level 20, Endurance 7: +2 to strength and +1 HP per second while outside.


    | Them''s Good Eatin | Requirements Level 20, Survival 55: Any living creature you kill has a 50% chance to have the potent healing items, thin red paste or blood sausage when looted.


    Level 22 Perks


    | Deep Sleep | Requirements Level 22: Sleeping in any bed gives the Well Rested effect, which increases your XP by 10%, for 8 hours.


    | Irradiated Beauty | Requirements Level 22, Endurance 8: Sleep removes all Rads.


    | Laser Commands | Requirements Level 22, Energy Weapons 90: You do an extra 15% damage and have a 10% extra chance to critically hit with any laser weapon.


    | Nuka Chemist | Requirements Level 22, Science 90: Gain knowledge of all Nuka-Cola recipes.


    | Puppies! | Requirements Level 22: If Dogmeat dies, he will respawn as a puppy with all memories at the entrance to Vault 101.


    | Spray And Pray | Requirements Level 22: Your attacks do 75% less damage to your companions.


    | Voracious Reader | Requirements Level 22, Intelligence 7: Doubles the speed at which you can read and you are now able to learn the contents of books by destroying them.


    Level 24 Perks


    | Ammo Depot | Requirements Level 24, Strength 7: Ammo and magazine weight reduced by 40%


    | Heavy Gunner | (Ranks 5) Requirements Level 24, Strength 8, Guns 50, Energy Weapons 50: +20% Damage when using heavy ranged weapons, as well as increasing accuracy by 10%.


    | No Weakness | Requirements Level 24: All special stats lower than 5 become 5.


    | Resource Hoarder | Requirements Level 24, Strength 10: All resource weights are reduced by 40%.


    | Slayer | Requirements Level 24, Strength 7, Agility 7, Unarmed 90: The speed of all your melee and unarmed attacks are increased by 30%.


    Oh, the choices. Let me take a few moments to see what perks will be most useful in my wasteland adventure. Hmm, I know I want the weight reduction perks Pack Rat, Ammo Depot, and Resource Hoarder.


    Left with 9 perk points, I continued.


    I definitely want Explorer for the simple fact it will let me know where most locations are. I''ll also need Light Step so I can avoid setting off floor-based traps and landmines. Living Anatomy wouldn''t be bad too for the information it provides on targets which I''ll be able to utilize to decide if I want to take the fight or not.


    That''s 3 more down and 6 more perks to pick now.


    I''ll pick Robotics Expert next since I can see it being very useful for taking over the RobCo Facility as well as potentially giving me more information on different robots that I may have no knowledge of.


    The time to choose some combat perks has come. Now what ones do I want...


    Quick Draw doesn''t seem like a bad pick since it can become a lifesaver in many situations. The next perk I''m going to pick is gonna have to be Stonewall, because getting knocked down could potentially be the end of me, therefore that''s a must-have. Moving on to my next choice, I''m going to go with Adamantium Skeleton, which will increase the toughness of my bones by 50%. That''s a pretty huge percentage, so hopefully if something ever penetrates my armor and skin, my bones will hopefully stop any lethal damage.


    The fourth combat perk I''m picking is one rank of Size Matters, because it will give my heavy weapons a decent increase in damage and accuracy. Lastly, I''m going to choose Meltdown because if I need to kill a swarm of hostiles, there is no better perk than it. It''s basically the energy weapons version of chain lightning.


    With my perks picked, I went over the list one more time and confirmed the perk selection, quickly changing the holographic screen to the skill distribution screen.


    Skills:


    276 Skill Points Left


    Barter: 106


    Energy Weapons: 108


    Explosives: 108


    Guns: 114


    Lockpick: 76


    Medicine: 112


    Melee Weapons: 108


    Repair: 128


    Science: 128


    Sneak: 108


    Speech: 108


    Survival: 72


    Unarmed: 108


    Damn, that''s a lot of skill points.


    Spending a few seconds in thought, I got on with it.


    I''ll fill up both lockpick and survival to 100 using 52 skill points there and leaving me with 224 left to spend.


    Ding! New Perk


    Ding! New Perk


    | Human Skeleton Key | Requirements Lockpick 100: You''ve unlocked the unique ability to open any lock, no matter how complicated or difficult it may seem. Also, any new lock that you unlock from here on out will now grant 20 xp that will increase by 1 for every 10 additional skill points in this skill.


    | Wild Man | Requirements Survival 100: For every 10 additional skill points in survival you reduce your necessary food and drink requirements by 1% also the ability to determine the general direction of things you consider valuable when out in the wild such as the direction of water, food, herbs, etc.


    Another two decent perks, nice.


    Being able to unlock any lock no matter how advanced and eventually not requiring food and water sounds pretty convenient to me, I''ll have to throw some points into those two when I get the chance.


    When I finished giving the two new perks another brief look, I moved back to deciding what to put my remaining 224 skill points in.


    After a bit of thought, I think I''m going to bring sneak and science up to 200 and pour the rest of the remaining skill points into medicine. So I can extend the size of my stealth field, increase the power of mechu-deru, and increase my knowledge base even further. Lastly, having the option to regenerate limbs in case I lose one or come across someone that needs help seems like it could be a lifesaver, though I''ll probably try to stay away from most people till I have myself up and running at RobCo Facility.


    Once I came to that decision, I distributed 92 skill points into sneak and 72 points into science, bringing my remaining skill points down to 60 which I then placed into medicine, bringing its total up to 172.


    Looks good, but let me give it a glance over.


    A short amount of contemplation later.


    Alright, everything looks good. Time to finalize it and lock things in.


    As soon as I completed that thought, I wasted no time and finalized my choices, changing the holographic screen again to show my stats and 10 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points ready to be spent as I saw fit. So I did just that and put them all in luck since that is the one S.P.E.C.I.A.L. I''ve yet to find a way to raise. Hopefully, I will one day.


    After spending the 10 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points I got from the Surpass Your Human Physical Limits quest, all my skills got a nice bump, with some even increasing their totals by about 20%.


    Ding! New Quests


    Ding! New Quests


    Ding! New ¡­


    Oh, and several new quests to boot too, nice. Let me take a look, but I will turn in that mole rat quest first that I''ve been hanging on to for the last several years.


    Pip-Boy


    Name: Harold Todd Woods


    Age: 16


    Height: 6 Feet 6 Inches


    Body Weight: 295 lbs


    Race: High Human


    Level: 24


    Experience Points: 2,950/3,650


    Total Experience Points Earned: 43,200


    Experience Rate: 230%


    Health: 1,230 | Formula: Base of 90 + (Endurance x 30) + (Level# x 20) |


    Healing rate: 4.2 Health a minute | Formula: 0.1 x Endurance


    Carry Weight: 592.25/3,200 | Formula: 150 + (Strength x 100) |


    Critical Chance: 50%


    Resistances:


    Armor: Body Damage Threshold 27, Armor Damage Threshold 166, Total Damage Threshold 193


    Poison Resistance: 105% | Formula: (Endurance - 1) x 5 |


    Radiation Resistance: 44% | Formula: (Endurance x 2) |


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 27


    Perception: 18


    Endurance: 22


    Charisma: 15


    Intelligence: 24


    Agility: 19


    Luck: 25


    | Skills |


    Barter: 134


    Energy Weapons: 136


    Explosives: 136


    Guns: 142


    Lockpick: 128


    Medicine: 200


    Melee Weapons: 136


    Repair: 156


    Science: 228


    Sneak: 228


    Speech: 136


    Survival: 128


    Unarmed: 136


    Skill Points Per Level Up: 24 | Formula: Base of 10 + (Intelligence x 0.5) |


    Traits: |Gifted|, |Sex Appeal|, |Skilled|, |Take Another Rank 1|


    Perks: |Adamantium Skeleton|, |Adeptus Mechanicus|, |All Seeing|, |Ambidextrous|, |Ammo Depot|, |Bulletstorm|, |Currency Maker|, |Daddy''s Boy Rank 1|, |Educated|, |Energy Weapon Fanatic|, |Explorer|, |Gotta Go Fast|, |Herculean Strength|, |High Human|, |Human Skeleton Key|, |Human Supercomputer|, |Human Weapon|, |Intense Training Rank 6|, |Junk Rounds|, |Language Master|, |Light Step|, |Living Anatomy|, |Lurking In The Shadows|, |Martial Weapon Master|, |Mechu-deru|, |Medical Genius|, |Meltdown|, |Monstrous Physique|, |Pack Rat|, |Quick Draw|, |Resource Hoarder|, |Robotics Expert|, |Silver Tongue|, |Size Matters Rank 1|, |Stimpak Addict|, |Stonewall|, |Swift Learner|, |The Power Of Atom|, |Walking Treasure Detector|, |Wild Man|


    Mutations:


    Gear: 10,000x 7.62 rounds, 200x .50 MG rounds, |12G Laser Pistol|, |AER 18 LMG|, |Anti-Material Rifle|, 10x |Anti-Material Rifle Magazines|, 2x |Combat Knife|, |Exterminator Armor|, |Exterminator Helmet|, |Guillotine|, 100x |Med-x Syringes|, 20x |MFC Grenades|, |Mulcher|, |Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazine|, 100x |RadAway|, 5 |Serrated Spears|, 100x |Stimpaks|, |War Belt|


    Loot: 500,000 7.62 rounds, 20,000 .50 MG rounds, 100 Anti-Material Rifle Magazines Assortment Of Automated Manufacturing Machines, 1 Big Book Of Science, Black Altyn Helmet, Black Hardened Metal Armor, 10,000 Bottles Of Modified Buffout, 1,000 Food Stuffs, 10,000 Med-x Syringes, 250 MFC Grenade, 20,000 Microfusion Breeder Cells 100,000 Microfusion Cells, 4 Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazines, 10,000 RadAway, 100,000 Stimpaks, 4257 Duct Tape, 25,815 Scrap Electronics, 154,821 Scrap Metal, 6,892 Wonderglue, 724,892 Other Misc. Stuff.


    Robots: Hauling Bots 5, 2 Mining Bots, Sentry Bots Gatling Laser Variants 2, Worker Bots 40


    Quests: 0 Ready to turn in, Many in progress, 5 Completed


    Quests In Progress:


    | Save dad | Objectives: Prevent the death of your father, James Watson Woods. Rewards: New Perk? and 5,000 exp.


    | Take Over The RobCo Facility | Objectives: Clear out all hostile forces and set up shop. Rewards: Perk RobCo Certified, 5 Science Points, 2,000 exp.


    | Undegrounder | Objectives: Clear all metros of hostiles and take control of them. Rewards: Perk Mole People, 20,000 exp.


    | Such Wealth | Objectives: Obtain 100,000,000,000 caps worth of assets by any means necessary. Rewards: New Perk?, 1,000,000 exp.


    | Take Over Raven Rock | Objectives: Gain full control of the Raven Rock Bunker and eliminate all hostile forces. Rewards: Perk Enclave Secrets 100,000 exp.


    | Orbital Weapon Acquisition | Objectives: Find a way to gain access and control over the many orbital weapon platforms across the United States. Rewards: Perk Hand Of God, 25,000 exp.


    | To The Void | Objectives: ¡­


    | Yer A Wizard ¡­


    Other Statistics:


    Kill Counter: 462


    Animals Killed: 462


    Holy shit, what a massive improvement. Just look at those stats, and those new quests are pretty nuts too. Definitely won''t be completing those anytime soon.


    I gave my Pip-Boy screen another scan and couldn''t help but feel incredibly satisfied from all the hard work I put in over the years.


    ...


    Well, I think I''ve done everything that needs to be done right now in my Pip-Boy, so it''s time I get a move on since I have a big day ahead of myself.


    After giving my status a few more glances, I exited out of my Pip-Boy screen resuming time once again where I was then immediately overwhelmed by such a colossal amount of information and all sorts of different feelings throughout my body that I passed out instantly.

 Chapter 25: Saying Goodbye

    Date Tuesday, August 17th, 2275


    Two years before the events of Fallout 3.


    About an hour later, I suddenly awoke and regained consciousness.


    Holy fuck, my head hurts.


    I thought while grasping my head, that felt like it was on the cusp of exploding.


    As I laid on my bed in pain, wishing for it to go away, time ticked by slowly and after a while, the pressure in my head began to lighten up along with the pain. When it subsided to bearable levels, I unsteadily sat up, got out of my bed, and stumbled over to one of the several medical containers in my room. Once there, I retrieved something to help with the excruciating pain I was still battling with a med-x syringe and stuck it into my arm and pumped its contents into veins.


    It took a few minutes, but eventually the drugs kicked in, reducing my pain by a massive percentage.


    Phew, now that I can actually think straight, I should probably top myself off with a couple of stimpaks just for good measure. I don''t think that overload of information did any damage to my brain, but I''d rather err on the side of caution than not.


    With the idea in my head, I sifted through the medical container, retrieved two stimpaks, and immediately injected them into one of the larger veins on my forearm, one after the other.


    Minutes later, after the stimpak injection, I felt a wave of relief and felt much better. "Aah, yeah, that''s much better now."


    Alright, I''m gonna go lay on my bed for an hour and see how I feel when I wake up. I would hate to have to delay my venture into the wasteland today.


    As soon as I set my alarm, I climbed into bed with my head now resting comfortably on my pillow and closed my eyes for a bit. From there, I passed out and fell asleep in no time at all.


    *zzz*


    About an hour later, my alarm started blaring, waking me from my short power nap.


    *Brrrt...Brrrt...Brrrt*


    *Ah-haa-uh*


    Now that I''ve had a short nap, I''m feeling much better. Actually, on second thought, I''m feeling better than ever before truthfully. Let me take a moment to check out all the different things that have changed with my drastically increased stats.


    Going over a majority of the changes with my body first, I took a fighting stance next and threw several jabs to test out my newfound strength, along with some kicks. I did that for a few dozen more times before I was happy with my tests, at least enough for the moment.


    Having gone over all the improvements that have happened to my body, I can say with certainty that I''m definitely more than ready for the dangers that await me in the wasteland. Unless I come face to face with a super mutant behemoth if I encounter such a monstrosity, I''m getting the fuck out of dodge.


    Upon completing that thought, I went around my room getting several things ready to take with me for later. And as I was gathering said things, I noticed it was about time for breakfast since I could sense dad was in the kitchen preparing his morning coffee. Thus, I headed out to spend some quality time with my old man before Amata and her old man showed up for breakfast. This would be the last time I''ll be seeing him for a bit, so it''s best I spend some time with him before I set off.


    "Morning, dad." I greeted.


    "Morning, son." He replied while I was coming into the kitchen to get stuff ready for when our company arrives for breakfast.


    The two of us chatted while his coffee was being made and shortly thereafter, he headed out to sit on the couch in the living room with his hot cup of joe in hand. I, on the other hand, continued getting breakfast ready for the two of us and the other two that will be joining us here shortly.


    Making small talk for a bit, I eventually sensed Amata and her dad way further out than I ever could previously, about 18 meters out, to be exact. So as they were still coming down the vault hallway and passing the other vault residents on their way, I asked dad if he could get the door since they will be at in a few seconds here. "Hey, dad, can you get the door?"


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    "Yeah, sure thing, son." He replied while placing his coffee mug on the coffee table in front of him before he got up to open the door to our home.


    The instant he opened the door, he found both Amata and her dad were both standing there, thus he welcomed them. From there, they all came my way into the kitchen, attracted by the smell of food I was cooking up.


    "Good morning guys, the food will be done in a sec. If you want to, you three can go take a seat while I finish up here." I directed as I busily flipped pancakes.


    "Do you need any help, Harold?" Amata asked sweetly, looking to help.


    "Nah, I''m good, Amata. Thank you, though."


    Several minutes passed before I had everything prepared and once it was, I had Amata assist me in bringing the plates of food over to the table. When everything was eventually brought over and set upon the table, we both took our respective seats and began to discuss several topics in between bites of food.


    This went on for a good number of minutes when we discovered we had devoured most of the food on the table. Seeing as this was as good a moment as any, I excused myself and went to my room to retrieve the encrypted ground-penetrating radios that we''ll be using while I''m away from the vault.


    After I retrieved them from the container they were sitting in, I came back out of my room with the radios in hand and handed everyone at the table their own radio. As they were looking at them with interest, I began going over their different functions and how to operate them, including a few other things of importance.


    "That covers everything. Just make sure you keep it on your person at all times, otherwise you might miss me." I told them getting a round of agreement and head nods.


    We then finished up what little bit of food remained on the table. But when I say we, I mainly mean me though, since I''m the one whose meals going forward are going to purely consist of shelf-stable food. I''m honestly not looking forward to that part, but it is what it is. After that, everyone thanked me for the meal before Amata and I started bringing the dishes to the sink to rinse them off and put them in the dishwasher.


    A quick few minutes of clean-up later, we started heading out as planned to my workshop/research facility. As soon as we reached it, I tested out Mechu-deru on my robots. And after a bit of trying things out, I discovered that it just seemed to give me direct control of them on top of improving my ability to make calculations, the more robots I had under my control.


    This perk definitely has a ton of latent potential.


    When I was done having my fun, I had all the robots start moving all the materials that I''m going to need for the RobCo Facility to the vault entrance. While they were busy with that, I went over to my gear and started putting it on and in no more than five minutes I had my armor equipped along with my other gear like my sidearm, magazines for the 50 caliber A-21 Anti-Material Rifle, and my grenades.


    Giving my gear a good check over, I asked Amata if I was forgetting anything. "Hey Amata, am I forgetting anything?"


    "Hmm, I don''t think so, but did you grab your spare magazines?" She responded.


    "Yeah, I got them." I replied before I gave my gear one final look over.


    Satisfied with my equipment checks, I began thinking about the next thing that needs to get done.


    It''s gonna take several hours to get everything moved and assembled, so I better help my robots to hurry things along. The sooner I get out and get on my way, the better.


    With that decided, I spent the next several hours moving all the materials to the vault entrance and putting Hauler back together with everyone. When everything was finally ready and loaded up, I did one final check in my head to make sure I wasn''t forgetting anything. Better off being sure than having to turn back around and waste precious time that I could''ve spent on getting myself set up at the RobCo Facility.


    ... Alright, looks like I''m good to go.


    Everything checked, I gave everyone here one last hug and an especially long one with Amata, since she was tearing up more than a wee bit at this point.


    Once Amata calmed down a bit, I said. "Well, it''s about time I got on the road since I don''t want to travel in the dark. Take care of yourselves, everyone."


    "Yeah, we''ll be just fine, son. Make sure you try to avoid anything too dangerous out there and come back alive and well. Otherwise, I''ll come out looking for you." Dad said in reply before Amata spoke up immediately after.


    "Harold, you better come back, you hear me, or else I''m following suit if you leave me here all alone." She said very seriously, on the brink of tears again.


    Seeing her tearing up again, I hugged her and rubbed her back whilst trying to reassure her. "I''ll be back in no time, Amata. You have nothing to worry about."


    I kept her in my embrace until she got control of her emotions for the second time in this short goodbye.


    With Amata dealt with, the overseer decided to take his turn to speak. "Listen here son, you better come back safe and sound or so help me. I''ll go to whatever hell you end up in and kick your ass for leaving my precious daughter behind." He said seriously before bursting out into laughter seconds later, which brightened the general mood of everyone here.


    The minute I was done saying my goodbyes and giving Amata some extra reassurance plus a few encouraging words, I put my helmet on and took out my Mulcher gatling gun. When I had those two pieces of equipment equipped, I finally set foot out past the massive vault door.


    Giving everyone one last wave goodbye, the overseer had uncle Gomez activate the door controls and begin shutting the door. It took a second, but the gargantuan door began turning and once it was lined up, it slid forward and screeched shut behind me.


    "No turning back at this point. Let''s set out guys." I said aloud to my robots while heading out of the huge cave Vault 101 was located in.


    "Okay, boss." Hauler answered lastly as I kept moving forward towards the cave entrance with my sizable squad of robots following not far behind me.

 Chapter 26: Capital Wasteland Here I Come

    Leaving the vault behind, it only took a couple of minutes to reach the cave entrance of Vault 101, with my small army of bots following my lead. And as we began exiting the cave, I was blinded by light, the exact same light that takes your vision when you first depart from Vault 101 in Fallout 3. Giving it a few seconds my vision cleared and what came into view from our elevated position was a gray, barren wasteland as far as the eye could see.


    Turning my head to where the ruined town of Springvale should be, I saw the destroyed town at a much further distance than where it was in the games. This town was far larger than the one from the game, with many more buildings that were in varying degrees of disrepair and collapse.


    I knew it was going to be rough, but taking it all in real life is something else.


    Having seen enough of the town that was nothing but a long abandoned burnt husk, I focused my attention further out to the southeast where the Megaton settlement was. All I saw from my elevated position was a bunch of tall rusted scrap walls protecting Megaton from the dangers of the wasteland.


    I continued looking around the general area for several more minutes and when I was finally satisfied; I opened the map on my Pip-Boy to see where I needed to head to and what roads would be the most optimal to take to get to my destination. The instant I navigated to the map on the Pip-Boy, it displayed a satellite view of the capital wasteland, which is about 68 square miles in area, with a ton of different locations highlighted all across the map.


    Hmm, let''s see what route I need to take to get to the RobCo Facility.


    After a bit of fumbling with the Pip-Boy, I found that I can just take the main road to the west that then branches to the south where the RobCo Facility is located. My robots and I will be traveling quite fast, therefore it shouldn''t take more than a couple of hours to arrive there as long as we don''t encounter any hostiles on our way there.


    About to close out of my Pip-Boy, I had a sudden idea.


    Before I resume my journey, let me see what the limits of the map are.


    Interested in seeing how capable this map function of mine was, I started zooming out the map. It first displayed part of the state of Maryland and Virginia with more and more new highlighted locations popping in the further I zoomed out. Several seconds later into my investigation, I was staring at a map of the earth with innumerable locations spread across its entire surface, along with several hundred locations that were constantly moving around the orbit of the planet.


    Oh, I even have the option to zoom out further... that can wait for till later since I have no use for anything located outside of earth at this current point in time.


    From there I went on and spent the next several minutes checking out all the additional functions and features that the Pip-Boy map had. As soon as I was finished browsing through them, I closed it and headed down the road eastward toward the town of Springvale to get to the main road that was located to the north.


    As I was heading down the dilapidated road that was hardly much of a road anymore, I couldn''t help but think it was kind of a waste of time to visit Megaton right now. Since it''s probably not a great idea to roll up on them with a small army of robots following right behind me. I would like to make a good impression when I do visit, hence I might as well just skip introducing myself to the settlement for now and head directly to my main objective.


    Yeah, I''ll skip going there for now and when an opportunity presents itself, I''ll head on over there and introduce myself.


    If I do a good enough job, I might even be able to make some decent connections there with the various merchants and traders that either have shops there or frequent the settlement. Nonetheless, there''s no point overthinking about this any further since I can''t make any moves till I''m set up and I have a decent amount of production capacity built up.


    With that thought finished, my robots and I continued heading down the road for the next few minutes when we started getting close to Springvale. Because caution is king out here, I scanned the buildings, looking to spot any potential threats. However, after scanning the area for short while, my efforts proved fruitless since there didn''t appear to be much life here other than rad roaches and some feral dogs that fled at the sight of us coming into town.


    "There don''t seem to be any hostiles. Let''s continue."


    Around the three-minute mark, we reached the main cross-section of town without issue and continued north towards the Springvale School, which I remembered having a decent raider presence in the game. I don''t know if that''s the case here, but we shall see in a moment here.


    A couple of minutes later, we were around 100 meters out from the school when I noticed a male raider up on top of the partially collapsed school who appeared to be the lookout. Although not a very competent one, since he appeared to be asleep in a beat-up school desk chair.


    "Alright, guys, hold up for a second." I told my robots, making them all come to a halt while I began thinking about how I was going to handle this.


    There are a few ways I can go about this situation. I''d prefer to pass by without getting noticed, but there is no way that''s going to happen when I have a small army of robots following me, hence they will no doubt be alerted to our presence. So the first option here would be to turn back around and go south through the Fairfax Ruins, which we''re crawling with raiders in the game.


    I know for sure one of them had a missile launcher so on the off chance that there are enough of them, they could overwhelm Hauler''s defenses. Yeah, there ain''t no way I''m risking all the shit I''ve built up over the years for my goals, so that''s out.


    The second option is I can go in and clear them out. I doubt they''ll have anything all that difficult for me to handle, thus this is a viable option as well. That said, I don''t really want to waste all that much time here, so that''s out too.


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    The third and final option is I can draw them out and just slaughter the whole lot of them along with my robots'' help. That would definitely be a hell of a lot easier as well as faster than going in and clearing out an entire school. I could also use this to test out whether I gain any xp from my robots killing enemies, too. Hopefully, that''s the case, otherwise I''m going to have to tag everything before they kill it, which will obviously be a huge pain in the ass.


    I thought over my ideas and didn''t come up with any other alternatives, so I went ahead with my third plan, the plan to draw them out. Right as I made my choice, I sent my robots a signal with Mechu-deru and had most of the robots get set up in the nearby buildings for cover. As for Hauler, I had him pull himself into a nearby alleyway between two ruined red brick buildings that was wide enough to accommodate his size. Once all of my robots were in position, I set down Mulcher for a second and retrieved my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle.


    My big gun in hand, I took aim at the passed-out raider''s chest on the top of the partially collapsed school and pulled the trigger, firing one shot. This shot released a deafening gunshot rang out across the area while the bullet had already flown to its destination that being the male raider''s chest cavity.


    And before he could fly over what I presumed to be the edge of the collapsed floor that he was on, his back burst open with blood and pieces of flesh spraying and splattering everywhere in his vicinity. Following that, he was thrown out of his chair and off the floor he was on into what I guessed was the collapsed interior of the building.


    One raider 100% dead and out of sight, I waited a few moments to see if I would feel a sudden onset of sadness or some other negative feelings for killing my first human. But I didn''t really feel much of anything other than maybe a small amount of satisfaction from removing a blight on the world and gaining a bit xp.


    With the male raider dispatched, I returned my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle and leaned over and picked back up my Mulcher gatling gun and got ready for any incoming raiders that may exit out of the front entrance of the partially destroyed school. We sat there waiting for something to happen, but no one came running just yet, thus I kept scanning the windows and the top of the building, looking for any raiders. However, none showed up there either, so I continued waiting.


    Eventually, our waiting paid off around the 3-minute mark with a group of 24 pissed-off raiders storming out of the front entrance of the school unaware that they were already dead.


    While they were busy trying to locate where the shot came from, I spooled my Mulcher gatling gun that was already aimed in the general direction they were standing and let loose a hail of 7.62 bullets at 6,000 rpm for a few seconds. As the bullets came in contact with their bodies, they were quickly ripped and torn to pieces almost instantly, without any chance to react. When I let go of the trigger, the barrels of my weapons quickly spooled down, leaving one lone raider remaining, which was my intention since I needed one of them left alive to test out whether or not I can gain xp from my robots killing things.


    Opening up my Pip-Boy, I checked how much xp I had gotten from slaughtering that group of raiders going through the usual freezing of time. The moment time was frozen and my status screen was in my view, I looked at my experience points that were now sitting at a total of 47,340, meaning I received on average 75 xp per raider.


    Not too bad. I wonder how much a super mutant behemoth will be worth once I get around to killing the ones I''m aware of... Hmm, on second thought, that might be a waste. If I could find some sort of way of controlling them, that would be far more valuable to me than just a large one time increase to my exp total.


    Ding! Level Up


    Oh, and a new level too, nice. I would spend it now but I''ll hold off on leveling up until I reach my destination, the RobCo Facility. The trip there will give me plenty of time to think about what to best spend my perk and skill points on.


    After looking at a couple of other things in my Pip-Boy, I closed the holographic screen, displaying my stats unfreezing time. Right as things resumed the raider looked like he wanted to say something but I didn''t particularly want to waste any more time here so I gave the signal to my bots to finish off the last remaining raider immediately triggering a laser light show on another level. As the last of my robots'' laser fire stopped, I looked to where the last raider was standing previously and all I saw was a literal pile of ash and a sizable scorch mark on the pavement.


    Time to check whether I received any xp from that kill.


    Going through the whole process of freezing again, I navigated to my xp and found that I do in fact receive the full amount of xp from them, eliminating a target.


    With that mystery solved, I wonder if I can gain xp with robots I haven''t constructed, like the Protectron units that I will take over when I get control of the mainframe at the RobCo Facility. That''ll definitely have to be tested at a later date, but even if I don''t end up gaining xp from them, I''ll just scrap them for their components and resources and build better bots.


    Finished with that thought, I resumed time again and waited patiently for a few more minutes for more company to arrive, but none came, so I presumed that was all of them and reloaded my weapons. Completing that minor task in seconds, I gave the signal for all the bots to come out along with Hauler. The instant they were all back in their positions I had them in originally, we made our way north to get on the main road that will lead us to our destination.


    ...


    About 50 minutes later.


    Things are pretty calm it seems, we haven''t encountered much danger other than the occasional group of mindless Bloatflies and one Yao Guai thus far that were effortlessly dispatched by my robo fighting force. That Yao Guai did tank quite a few more beams than the Bloatflies, but that was to be expected since we''re comparing mutated bears to flies, after all.


    As we continued heading in the westward direction following the road, we passed by the Jury Street Metro Station and right as we were passing it; I spotted something in the distance on top of a building.


    Siding on the side of caution as usual, I stopped in place and took out my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle again and looked down the scope to figure out what exactly we were dealing with in the distance.


    "Ohh, would you look at that more raiders and this time they''re on the roof of a shop. Lucky me, I get to work on sniping skills and do a bit of target practice." I said aloud while lowering my rifle and also getting a response from Hauler.


    "Do you want us to take care of them, boss?" Hauler inquired, ready to deliver a speedy death unto whomever I wish.


    "Nah, I got it this time. I can''t let you guys have all the fun." I replied before raising my Anti-Material Rifle and adjusting the range of the large caliber bolt-action rifle to 1,000 meters since that was about the distance I was getting from the built-in rangefinder in my helmet.


    Once the range was adjusted, I aimed at the left-most raider and lined up the center of the scope''s reticle on his chest first and took one shot. A little more than a second later, whilst I was in the midst of chambering a new round, I saw the raider I had just taken a shot at fly off the side of the building most likely dead. After he sailed off the roof, I lined up another shot on the raider directly to his right and pulled the trigger.


    A repeat of what happened to the previous raider happened again, the moment a little more than a second had passed. With the second raider flying off the side of the rooftop, the last of the three raiders finally noticed what was going on and tried to make a mad dash to the back of the roof where I remember there being a ladder hatch on that particular building. I could be wrong due to the multitude of differences this world has with the games, but I was pretty sure that was the building I recall.

 Chapter 27: En Route

    As the last remaining raider was attempting to get to safety, I chamber another round and took aim, waiting for him to reach the rear of the roof, where I believed there to be a ladder hatch. So I could get an easier shot off as he''s in the process of trying to scramble down the ladder.


    Training my scope on my target, he reached the back of the roof and hurriedly opened the ladder hatch and began to climb down it, just like I thought he would. With my reticle on target already I made a few adjustments to my scope''s positioning and lined up a shot where I believe his head would be in a second and pulled the trigger releasing another deafening bang along with a decent size fireball out the end of my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle''s barrel.


    Shortly thereafter, the raider''s head exploded in the distance while the rest of his body fell down the hatch into the interior of the building, probably scaring the shit out of the rest of the raiders inside the building. Another raider dealt with, I chambered a new round and waited to see if any other raiders would pop out the front door of the building.


    ...


    Several minutes passed by before a singular raider slowly creaked the double door open and took a look around, appearing very apprehensive about leaving the safety of the structure. As the raider was scanning around the general vicinity, I took aim at his chest and pulled the trigger one more time, ending that unfortunate raider''s life then and there.


    "I wonder if they''ll send anyone else out after that, probably not, but I can spare a few more minutes to wait and see." I thought aloud.


    "I think there''s a 50-50 chance, boss." Hauler commented.


    "Well, we''ll see soon enough." I responded.


    Waiting a few more minutes, no new raiders came out, so I reloaded my Anti-Material Rifle with a full magazine and put it away for later use. Once it was away, I took hold of Mulcher again and scanned the area for a moment to see if there was anything else that could be potentially dangerous nearby. Discovering not a single threat of any sort, I sent a signal with Mechu-deru to my small army of robots to proceed forward.


    A short while later, as we were passing by the building, the raiders were in, I saw a somewhat legible sign on the front of the building that read Hank''s Electrical Supply. Besides noticing the sign, I also sensed 11 more raider scum hiding inside the building. So I sent another signal to my group of robots to hold up for a second while I go inside to take care of the rest of the raiders. Can''t be passing up on the opportunity to cleanse some filth from the world and earn a bit of xp.


    The second all of my robots came to a complete stop, I set Mulcher to 2,000 rpm to conserve ammo and spooled its barrels while I walked towards the front entrance of the Hank''s Electrical Supply they were hunkered down in.


    Right as I entered the building, I walked in the direction of the counters the group of raiders were hiding behind in the back of the store. When I got to the point where there was nothing really blocking my way I pointed Mulcher at where the leftmost raider should be behind the counter first and held the trigger while making a left-to-right sweeping motion with it that only lasted a handful of seconds.


    *Brrrrrt... clink-clink-clink-*


    "That was easy." I thought aloud while spent shell casings clinked and clattered on the floor of the store.


    Now that the raider issue was settled, I checked the store to see what sort of materials were here still after all these years. To my surprise, the place was quite filled and had plenty of loot to take. The loot consisted of about 6,000 pounds, worth of scrap, an assortment of different tools that I can either use or turn into even more scrap, 2 Dean''s Electronics skill books, and lastly 1 Big Book Of Science.


    Not too bad of a haul.


    For the raider loot that survived my Mulcher burst, I found 3 Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles, 2 Combat Shotguns, and 2 .32 Hunting Rifles that will all require a bit of fixing and cleaning up before they''re usable. But that can all be done at a later date since I''m out of room due to my robots and I being at full capacity.


    Therefore, I''ll have to pick up all these resources some other time, probably when I''m coming back from Vault 101 again. I got several more trips back and forth to get all of my stuff moved over to the RobCo Facility anyway, so I''ll just grab all this shit then. With that sorted, let me give this place another once over to see if I can''t find anything else of interest or value before I head out. After that, I''ll just lock this place up and keep on moving toward the RobCo Facility to the south.


    Not wasting a second, I gave the place one last look over, not really finding anything else of value other than a hidden floor safe that I lock picked purely just for the exp. Having gone over everything in the place, I exited the structure and directed two of the worker bots to weld the entrance of the building shut, so no scavengers would steal my loot.


    It took them a while to get the front entrance of the place welded shut real tight, but as soon as they did we continued our journey down the road going west for a small period and eventually south when we came across the road I wanted to take.


    Continuing southbound, I scanned our surroundings occasionally, not really noticing much of interest other than some structures in the distance and a few sparse groups of mangy dogs that kept their distance most likely out of fear because of our groups large size.


    Smart dogs.


    ...


    Half an hour of traveling later, we came into an intersection with a power station located a bit out to the southwest along with the massive RobCo Facility and Tenpenny Tower that were located directly to the south. Besides that, there wasn''t much else of note other than the usual rubble and deteriorating structures seen throughout the environment. After scanning the surroundings for a few more moments, I continued on down the road with my small army of robots following close behind, nearing closer and closer to my objective.


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    ...


    A short 10 minutes later.


    "Hah, we finally arrived." I said aloud excitedly as we entered the parking lot in front of the RobCo Facility.


    "That we did, boss. And we got here in not all that much time, too." Hauler added.


    "Yeah, we did make pretty good time, didn''t we."


    Alright, before we do anything else, I''m going to check my Pip-Boy real quick and whilst I''m busy doing that, my robots can take up defensive positions around the place.


    Sending out the command, my unit spread out and took up defensive positions behind the blown up nuclear vehicles throughout the parking lot. Everyone in position, I opened up my Pip-Boy to check my stats and spend the level ups I gained from killing the raiders at the school.


    Time froze not long thereafter as per usual and the instant it did, a holographic screen popped up, displaying my stats along with a number of dings informing me that I leveled up again and that I received several new quests to work on. Checking things out, I soon had a good overview of everything.


    It looks like I''ve gained 4 skill points, 2 levels, and a bunch of new quests from my relatively short journey here. I guess I''m not doing too bad so far. Moving on from that, it''s time to invest my two level-ups and I already know what two perks I want to choose and what I want to dump my skill points into.


    Initiating the level up in my status, it immediately brought me to the perk screen and right as it popped up, I navigated to the perk Silent Running.


    | Silent Running | Requirements Level 12, Agility 6, Sneak 50: Your running no longer makes sound and vibrations.


    This will make sneaking to the mainframe easier, far easier.


    With that perk selected, I made my way down the list to where the level 26 perks were.


    Level 26 Perks


    | Lessons Learned | Requirements Level 26, Intelligence 6: +1% experience gain per level.


    | Nerves Of Steel | Requirements Level 26, Agility 7: 20% Faster stamina regeneration and you can deal with most situations or unexpected events calmly.


    | Rad Tolerance | Requirements Level 26, Endurance 7: Suffer no negative effects from minor radiation poisoning.


    | Warmonger | Requirements Level 26, Intelligence 10, Guns 100, Energy Weapons 100, Explosives 100: You now have a knack for anything having to do with war and creating weapons of destruction.


    When I got to the level 26 perks, I instantly selected the perk Lessons Learned because it would increase my experience gain by a huge percentage that would continue to rise with each new level I advanced. Now that I had my two perks selected, I finalized my choices, changing the holographic screen to the skill distribution, one with 48 skill points ready to be spent, however I pleased.


    Quickly going over the skills, I dumped the 48 skill points I gained from my two level-ups into repair, bringing its total to 204. The reason why I went with that skill over others was because that''s what I''m going to be doing a lot of in the foreseeable future as I try to get all the machinery at the RobCo Facility back up and running. With the skill points dumped into repair, I locked in the distribution, changing the holographic screen again, now displaying my upgraded stats.


    Pip-Boy


    Name: Harold Todd Woods


    Age: 16


    Height: 6 Feet 6 Inches


    Body Weight: 295 lbs


    Race: High Human


    Level: 26


    Experience Points: 1,902/3,950


    Total Experience Points Earned: 51,186


    Experience Rate: 256%


    Health: 1,230 | Formula: Base of 90 + (Endurance x 30) + (Level# x 20) |


    Healing rate: 4.2 Health a minute | Formula: 0.1 x Endurance


    Carry Weight: 592.25/3,200 | Formula: 150 + (Strength x 100) |


    Critical Chance: 50%


    Resistances:


    Armor: Body Damage Threshold 27, Armor Damage Threshold 166, Total Damage Threshold 193


    Poison Resistance: 105% | Formula: (Endurance - 1) x 5 |


    Radiation Resistance: 44% | Formula: (Endurance x 2) |


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 27


    Perception: 18


    Endurance: 22


    Charisma: 15


    Intelligence: 24


    Agility: 19


    Luck: 25


    | Skills |


    Barter: 134


    Energy Weapons: 136


    Explosives: 136


    Guns: 145


    Lockpick: 129


    Medicine: 200


    Melee Weapons: 136


    Repair: 204


    Science: 228


    Sneak: 228


    Speech: 136


    Survival: 128


    Unarmed: 136


    Skill Points Per Level Up: 24 | Formula: Base of 10 + (Intelligence x 0.5) |


    Traits: |Gifted|, |Sex Appeal|, |Skilled|, |Take Another Rank 1|


    Perks: |Adamantium Skeleton|, |Adeptus Mechanicus|, |All Seeing|, |Ambidextrous|, |Ammo Depot|, |Bulletstorm|, |Currency Maker|, |Daddy''s Boy Rank 1|, |Educated|, |Energy Weapon Fanatic|, |Explorer|, |Gotta Go Fast|, |Herculean Strength|, |High Human|, |Human Skeleton Key|, |Human Supercomputer|, |Human Weapon|, |Intense Training Rank 6|, |Junk Rounds|, |Language Master|, |Lessons Learned|, |Light Step|, |Living Anatomy|, |Lurking In The Shadows|, |Martial Weapon Master|, |Mechu-deru|, |Medical Genius|, |Meltdown|, |Monstrous Physique|, |Pack Rat|, |Quick Draw|, |Resource Hoarder|, |Robotics Expert|, |Silent Running|, |Silver Tongue|, |Size Matters Rank 1|, |Stimpak Addict|, |Stonewall|, |Swift Learner|, |The Power Of Atom|, |Walking Treasure Detector|, |Wild Man|


    Mutations:


    Gear: 10,000x 7.62 rounds, 200x .50 MG rounds, |12G Laser Pistol|, |AER 18 LMG|, |Anti-Material Rifle|, 10x |Anti-Material Rifle Magazines|, 2x |Combat Knife|, |Exterminator Armor|, |Exterminator Helmet|, |Guillotine|, 100x |Med-x Syringes|, 20x |MFC Grenades|, |Mulcher|, |Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazine|, 100x |RadAway|, 5 |Serrated Spears|, 100x |Stimpaks|, |War Belt|


    Loot: 500,000 7.62 rounds, 2 .32 Hunting Rifles, 20,000 .50 MG rounds, 100 Anti-Material Rifle Magazines Assortment Of Automated Manufacturing Machines, 2 Big Book Of Science, Black Altyn Helmet, Black Hardened Metal Armor, 10,000 Bottles Of Modified Buffout, 1,000 Food Stuffs, 10,000 Med-x Syringes, 3 Chinese Assault Rifles, 2 Combat Shotguns, 2 Dean''s Electronics, 250 MFC Grenade, 20,000 Microfusion Breeder Cells 100,000 Microfusion Cells, 4 Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazines, 10,000 RadAway, 100,000 Stimpaks, 4311 Duct Tape, 27,815 Scrap Electronics, 158,821 Scrap Metal, 6,923 Wonderglue, 728,569 Other Misc. Stuff.


    Robots: Hauling Bots 5, 2 Mining Bots, Sentry Bots Gatling Laser Variants 2, Worker Bots 40


    Quests: 0 Ready to turn in, Many in progress, 5 Completed


    Quests In Progress:


    | Save dad | Objectives: Prevent the death of your father, James Watson Woods.Rewards: New Perk? and 5,000 exp.


    | Take Over The RobCo Facility | Objectives: Clear out all hostile forces and set up shop. Rewards: Perk RobCo Certified, 5 Science Points, 2,000 exp.


    | Undegrounder | Objectives: Clear all metros of hostiles and take control of them. Rewards: Perk Mole People, 20,000 exp.


    | Such Wealth | Objectives: Obtain 100,000,000,000 caps worth of assets by any means necessary. Rewards: New Perk?, 1,000,000 exp.


    | Take Over Raven Rock | Objectives: Gain full control of the Raven Rock Bunker and eliminate all hostile forces. Rewards: Perk Enclave Secrets 100,000 exp.


    | Orbital Weapon Acquisition | Objectives: Find a way to gain access and control over the many orbital weapon platforms across the United States. Rewards: Perk Hand Of God, 25,000 exp.


    | To The Void | Objectives: ¡­


    | Yer A Wizard ¡­


    Other Statistics:


    Kill Counter: 523


    Animals Killed: 463


    Humans Killed: 40


    Insects Killed: 20

 Chapter 28: Mainframe

    Alright now that that''s done, it''s about time I returned to the present.


    Glancing over my stats one last time to see if I missed anything, I didn''t find anything else. Thus, I closed the holographic Pip-Boy screen, resuming the passage of time once again after a few moments.


    When time resumed, I had all my robots remain in their defensive positions in front of the RobCo Facility while I headed around the building to make sure there weren''t any hostiles behind the building.


    No more than a few minutes later, I finished circling the facility confirming that there were no potential dangers or hostiles that required my attention. That said, as I was checking the rear of the facility out I noticed the loading docks in the back were quite large as well as numerous in number, which was a huge plus for me since it would allow the passing of larger vehicles and robots without issue.


    They could also be used for the loading and unloading tons of resources but that won''t be occurring until I have total control of the capital wasteland and have figured out what needs to be done about the Zetans. So until those two things are resolved, though mainly the latter one, I''ll be keeping a majority of my movements underground when I''ve taken control of the metros and have gotten them linked up with the RobCo Facility.


    Moving on from future issues to the present, the back of the facility had a massive blast door as well so large it could probably allow something as humongous as liberty prime to walk through it with plenty of room to spare, so that was another nice discovery.


    It will definitely see some use when I eventually start accumulating a massive amount of resources that I can use to make robots like the behemoth from Fallout Tactics. though mine will feature a multitude of modifications to increase their combat capabilities. Alongside that, I could try to make a deal with the Brotherhood Steel to get my hands on Liberty Prime, however that will probably be next to impossible, unless I can convince them to join me.


    And that won''t be viable until I at least establish myself as somewhat of a major force here in the capital wasteland. Despite all that, I know Elder Lyons isn''t like the brotherhood from out west with their dumb restrictive rules, so there is a not so low probability that I might be able to get them to join me if I go about things the right way... I''ll continue this line of thinking when start nearing the point where I actually stand a chance of potentially bringing them into my fold.


    Time to get down to business and take over this RobCo Facility. As for how I''m going to do that, I think the best way to go about it without destroying the robots that are most likely still operating in the facility would be to sneak my way to the mainframe that''s located somewhere in the facility.


    It was located on the upper levels in the game, so if the layout is anything like it was in Fallout 3, I should be able to find it there. And once I locate the mainframe, I''ll hack into and gain administrator access, which should then give me full control of the facility as well as the robots that are still functioning within it.


    After I settled on a general plan, I scanned the surrounding area and the distance for any potential trouble. Thankfully, I didn''t find anything other than a pack of feral dogs, a decent way out that would present no issue to my robots while I''m inside getting things taken care of.


    With that out of the way, I unequipped my main weapon Mulcher along with its magazine because I didn''t think I''d be using it inside at all. The second I had it stored away with its magazine, I swapped over to my Guillotine which should be more than enough to handle any dangers I may encounter inside.


    "Alright, I''m heading in. Keep the area locked down. I''ll be back in a bit." I told my robots, which got a whole ass assortment of affirmatives in response and a reply from Hauler.


    "Okay, boss, we''ll hold down the fort till you get back."


    Right as I finished all my preparations, I walked over to the front entrance and cracked the door open to take a peek inside. What I saw was a very similar reception area to the one in the game, along with its old deteriorating furniture and dreary atmosphere.


    Hmm, I don''t see any robots around. But that doesn''t mean there aren''t a lot of them further in the facility... Also, this place needs a serious amount of cleaning up. I can literally see the dust floating around.


    *Clink...Klank...Clunk...Clink*


    As I was contemplating, my thoughts were interrupted by a frequent sound of metal hitting a surface and the longer this went on, the louder it was growing. Meaning whatever was producing it was coming right this way.


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    Remaining patient, a weathered Protectron entered the reception area a few moments later and scanned the area before heading through a different doorway off into another area of the facility to continue its programmed route.


    When I couldn''t hear the Protectron''s metal feet landing on the floor anymore, I opened the door fully and made my move towards where I believed the way to the upper levels of the facility laid. From there, I stealthily moved through the worn hallways of the facility, producing no noise in the process thanks to the perk I just got in my previous level up. Continuing to make my way, I suddenly stopped in place when I heard what appeared to be the sounds of numerous Protectron feet hitting the facility''s floor.


    It sounds like there are quite a few of them up ahead. Let''s take a peek and see how many of them there are.


    I thought before I headed down the hall towards the sound of clinking robot feet originated from. All it took was a brief few moments for me to arrive in front of the door that should lead toward the source of the sound. Cracking the door open a smidge, I took a peek.


    What I saw was a dark dreary warehouse area with several dozen feet tall ceilings and a couple dozen Protectrons walking about, not really doing anything in particular other than moving about. After looking around the area for a bit, I saw off to the right a door with a sign next to it labeled stairwell.


    Looks like I found my way up. Now how am I going to get past them without getting their attention... Mm, there''s a decent amount of distance between them and the stairs and plenty of cover, so it should be relatively easy to sneak past the Protectrons. So combine that with my sneak skill that is so damn high and me being able to make my presence basically disappear, I should have zero trouble getting past them.


    Yeah, I just utilize the environment to my advantage and go from cover to cover and hang towards the shadows and make my way to the stairwell door and if it doesn''t work out, I''ll just make a run for the door.


    Putting my plan into action, I activated the presence hiding field I got from my stealth skill reaching 100 and cracked the door open just enough for me to slip through it. Once I was past it, I gently and very quietly closed it behind me before I started moving from one large rack of parts and different resources to another. About a minute later, I arrived in front of the door leading to the stairwell, but it was locked, so I unlocked it with the new ability I got from Human Skeleton Key.


    The very instant the door was unlocked, I silently opened it and entered the stairwell and right as I passed the threshold, I shut it behind, all while not making a single sound. Now that the door was shut, I looked around the stairwell and noticed it lead up as well as down, which wasn''t a thing in the game, so I guess I got a basement area to explore later. But I''m not complaining since it will be of great help later when I''m ready to construct a tunnel from here to the nearest metro station, Warrington Station, in the southwest.


    When I was finished observing, I headed up the stairs quietly and while I was climbing said stairs I took note that there were three floors not counting the basement floor or floors since I hadn''t been down there just yet. Seconds later into my climb I finally arrived in front of the door on the topmost floor and as I was checking the door out, I saw it also had a label next to the door, but it was covered in dust. So I brushed it off, what was revealed beneath the cover of dust was a label that read Administrative Area.


    Good, I found the floor I wanted.


    Giving the door handle a turn and it was apparently locked, hence I unlocked it with my recently gained lockpicking ability.


    *Click*


    The door sounded as I unlocked it before I then cracked it open and took a peek inside like I''d been doing with every other door thus far since you can never be too cautious, especially out here in the wasteland. What appeared in my vision was a hallway that went on for a bit before eventually splitting off and out to the sides as well as forward. But other than that, I didn''t see anything else that was dangerous or interesting, so I slipped inside and continued on down the hallway.


    A quarter of an hour later, as I was wandering the rundown hallways, I came across another section of hallways, so I continued my exploration down them. Shortly thereafter, just as I was coming up on another cross-section, I detected some turrets nearby, hence I paused for a brief second and walked over to the corner of the wall and took a quick look-see. What I saw while looking around the corner was a semi long hallway with a faded blue colored door labeled Mainframe at the end of it that was also being guarded by four laser turrets.


    Ah, so this is where it was.


    Mm, it seems to be guarded by four turrets too, but that shouldn''t pose much of a challenge for me to sneak past unless they are able to detect in thermal, at which point I''ll just take them out. However, from the looks of them, they don''t seem to have the hardware required for that, so I should be good.


    Done checking the hallway out, I snuck over to the door while continuing to use my new stealth ability following along the wall of the hallway. When I arrived in front of the door, I gave the door handle a quiet jiggle and was surprised to find it unlocked. I would''ve preferred it being locked to farm a smidge of xp, but I wasn''t going to complain since that minuscule amount of xp wasn''t worth much at the end of the day.


    Upon entering the room, I looked around and saw a huge amount of different computers lined up against the walls of the room and smack dab in the center of the room was the mainframe.


    It took a while to get here, but I''ve finally arrived. Time to see what this mainframe can do and make this place mine.


    As soon as I finished that thought, I walked with a bit of pep in my step toward the terminal that was connected to the mainframe. When I arrived in front of it I took a seat in the 200-plus-year-old chair placed at it, fired up the terminal, and started typing away on its keyboard to gain control over the facility even though I could''ve just used Mechu-deru to do just that.

 Chapter 29: Complete Control Established

    About a minute into my hack, I managed to bypass the terminal''s security, gaining access to the mainframe and whatever it had control of.


    Well, that wasn''t all that difficult. Let''s see what I''m working with here.


    From that point on, I spent the next several minutes going over what the mainframe had access to and control over. And after going through a decent portion of the terminal, I found out that the mainframe basically ran the whole facility, top to bottom, from the Protectrons spread out all across the facility, doing their patrols to the turrets mounted right outside of this room.


    Hmm, things don''t appear to be in too bad of a state so far, but I need to go through everything in its entirety to have a comprehensive idea of what needs to get worked on first.


    Continuing to navigate and explore the terminal, I made another discovery in the next few minutes.


    Oh, there are even a couple of sentry bots too, nice. I will definitely put those to good use, but before doing so I''ll need to give them a bit of an upgrade first because they''re the stock models. At least that is what the terminal is telling me.


    The manufacturing machines, on the other hand, seemed to be in a much better state than I thought they would be. And the sole reason for that was that they were being actively maintained by the maintenance robots here. That said, they''re not in pristine condition, thus the manufacturing machines still require some repairs to bring them fully online.


    I don''t believe it''ll take me all that long to get them up and running, seeing how I already have a bunch of fabricated parts in my possession that I made years ago for this exact situation. And in the event I encounter an issue that needs parts I don''t have on hand, I''ll just have my automated manufacturing machines I brought along with me churn the necessary parts out. Which shouldn''t take more than a few hours'' time to get them assembled.


    Besides all that, I made another find while I was browsing the mainframe. That find was a log for the current amount of resources the facility had and from what I was reading on the terminal screen, there seemed to be a ton of stuff left, especially in the underground level. So I should be good on resources for the moment if the resource log has the correct amounts listed.


    Unfortunately, even if this place is well-stocked, I will still need to spend a good amount of time heading back and forth from Vault 101 to gather the rest of my things. And before I can do even that, I''ll need to wait until I have a decent amount of defenses built and set up, since I''m not exactly comfortable with the current defenses and security measures.


    ...


    That should be everything. Time to set myself as the owner/administrator and get this place fixed up to become my new home for the foreseeable future.


    Beginning the process of setting myself as the new owner, I began clearing out all the people off the system. It took a couple of minutes to finish that task, but once I did, I set myself as the sole controller of this place and all its systems and robots. With that completed, I went over a few other things in the system, such as the number of robots and turrets I had at my disposal. Which amounted to about 30 Assaultrons, 8 Mister Handy Maintenance Models, 459 Protectrons, and 10 Sentry Bots, half of which were the gatling laser variants and the other half were the minigun variants.


    As for the number of turrets, they only amounted to a mere 20 laser turrets spread out across the different areas of the facility that needed to be a bit more secure than others. So that will definitely be one of the first things that will need to be massively expanded and upgraded in the near future to make this place safe and secure.


    Ohh, and now that I''m thinking about it, I should also issue a new order to have all the robots gather towards the loading area of the facility so I can use Mechu-deru on them. It would be easier going about it that way instead of wasting my time hunting each individual robot down across this massive robot plant.


    After issuing that new directive, I got up from the 200-plus-year-old chair and used Mechu-deru on the mainframe, gaining full control of the mainframe. From that point, I headed out of the room that held the core of this place, nearing the 4 laser turrets that I snuck past originally.


    The second I was close enough to them, I used Mechu-deru on the 4 of them and proceeded in the direction of the stairwell. Reaching the door for the stairwell quickly, I opened it up and walked down the many steps to the ground floor, where I then followed the group of Protectrons that were originally roaming around the warehouse area. But were now heading towards the loading area due to the new order I issued up above.


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    Several minutes of following the group of Protectrons at a decently fast pace later, I arrived at the loading area and man was the size and scale of it just absolutely enormous. It was so large that I estimated that it could probably accommodate over several thousand sentry bots standing side by side, along with a dozen Liberty Primes sprinkled throughout.


    Not seeing all the robots here just yet, I waited patiently and watched them stream into the wide space, one robot after the next. It took half an hour of waiting, but the rest of the robots eventually streamed into the loading area. Fortunately, the time I spent waiting wasn''t all that boring since I got to listen to the impressive number of noises they made as they walked, rolled, and hovered in.


    It will be quite the sight to behold when I get this plant into shape and have a constant stream of robots coming off the production line.


    Imagining myself amassing the largest force this wasteland has ever seen, the last of the robots had finally arrived and gathered in the loading area of the facility. So, with tons of work needing to be taken care of, I utilized Mechu-deru to gain absolute control over each and every one of the robots. For every new robot I took control of with my ability, the more my calculation speed increased, although only slightly with every new robot taken over.


    A while later, as I was nearly finished taking over all the robots, a thought occurred to me.


    I wonder what would happen if I were to use Mechu-deru on a Robobrain... It is a human brain so maybe it will increase my intelligence and give me some other bonuses... or it may just provide the same effects as taking over a regular robot. Hopefully not because that would be a bummer.


    With that idea planting itself into my mind, I came to the conclusion that I''ll definitely have to head up north to the vault located underneath Smith Casey''s Garage and retrieve some Robobrains to test out whether they can provide me with some benefits. And while I''m there, I can see about maybe making a deal with Doctor Stanislaus Braun.


    However, seeing how he''s a bit of a nutcase and his personality is on the pretty vile side, at least in the games, it may not be worth investing the time trying to convince him to join me. I honestly might just be better off removing his brain and stuffing it into a Robobrain to get whatever use I can out of him before I send him off on his way into the afterlife if he''s too difficult to deal with...


    Getting back to what I was doing, let me finish up taking over the rest of these robots with Mechu-deru.


    ...


    "Phew, I''m finally done." I thought aloud.


    Time to head out front to get a bit of fresh air and move my robots inside and have these new recruits occupy optimal defensive positions.


    Doing just that, I sent a signal to the many security robots here to head out and take positions at every entry point, which in this case was simply the front entrance and the loading bay area. Hence, a majority of the robots just ended up just taking defensive positions around the area while a few Assaultrons along with two sentry bots headed towards the front entrance.


    Following that, I had a Mister Handy open the largest set of doors in the loading area before I turned around and followed after the Assaultrons and Sentry Bots heading towards the front entrance. Upon reaching the front entrance of the facility, I put away Guillotine and re-equipped my gatling gun Mulcher along with its magazine since you can never be too careful or prepared out here in the wasteland.


    Once I had it equipped, I headed outside and issued a command to all of my robots outside to follow me around back into the loading area. Whilst we were circling around the building, I scanned the area, occasionally looking out for any potential danger as we moved. Thankfully, I didn''t spot anything, so we had a nice uneventful trip around the facility.


    When we got to the back of the building, I had all my robots that were currently following go on through. As soon as every one of my robots as well as myself had made it past the massive opening, I had the previous Mister Handy shut the door we just entered through. And right as the Mister Handy pressed the button, the massive blast door began producing a ton of noise as the door began closing.


    *Scrrrrrccccchhhhh-Kshunk*


    That''s not good. Both the siren and light are busted. I''m going to need to get that fixed as fast as possible since a person or robot could easily get crushed while the doors are closing.


    Adding another thing to my ever-expanding to-do list, my thoughts went elsewhere.


    Time to get down to business now and to start things off. Let''s have the robots begin unloading so we can get this place up and running asap.


    "Alright, guys, start getting everything unloaded while I go inspect the manufacturing area of the facility and the basement to see where we''re gonna set up my automated manufacturing machines." I told my robots as I stowed away Mulcher again along with its magazine.


    With both items stored away in my item box now, I headed toward the manufacturing area of the facility that was located right next to the loading area. After a short amount of walking, I entered the manufacturing portion of the facility.


    *Whistle*


    "Quite the large space we have here. It shouldn''t have any issue accommodating double the amount of manufacturing machines from what I can see, though let me check out the condition of the equipment." I commented aloud to myself before I started inspecting one piece of machinery after another.


    Several minutes later, after I physically inspected each machine, I determined that it shouldn''t take longer than a week to get everything up and running properly, including getting the Sentry Bots up to spec. Since all I really have to do is add some extra armor, weaponry and replace their current power systems with fusion breeder tech.


    Hmm, I should also take a look at the power plants here to see if anything needs to be done immediately. But before that, let''s first send an order to the robots to start moving and assembling my automated manufacturing machines in this area so we can get the ball rolling here.


    As soon as I sent the new command over with Mechu-deru, I headed down to the underground level immediately via elevator where the power plants were located to see what sort of power plants were installed at this facility and what condition they were in.

 Chapter 30: Getting The Lay Of The Land

    Minutes into my exploration of the underground level, I arrived in front of a blast door with a label positioned next to it that read Power Plant. My objective found, I entered inside while also passing four laser turrets guarding the door that I took the time to take control of before proceeding deeper.


    Once I passed the hallway, I made it to a room that was lined with systems and a sole terminal. Scanning the rest of the room, I found that this room was sealed off from the nuclear reactors that were in their own dedicated space beyond a see through a pane of some presumably radioactive resistant material.


    Not seeing anything else of interest, I walked over to the terminal and took a seat in another 200-plus-year-old chair that somehow held up remarkably well against my weight. With my ass firmly planted on the chair, I scooched a bit closer to the terminal and started typing away on the keyboard to see exactly what type of power plants were installed in this facility and what their current state was.


    Moving through the system speedily, I discovered that the cluster of power plants installed were fusion based reactors. In addition to that, they were all in pretty decent condition too, so I won''t have to worry about this place going off underneath me anytime soon, as long as I perform the necessary maintenance on them.


    That aside, it also shouldn''t be all that difficult to convert the reactors over to fusion breeder ones as well, although it''ll probably take around a month to do so given my current workforce. But that timeframe can be reduced with an increased workforce and seeing how I''m in a literal robot manufacturing plant, it would be smart to get on that and begin producing more worker bots.


    The benefit of changing them over to fusion breeder reactors instead of keeping their preexisting fusion power would be the entire removal of refueling, which is a pretty big incentive to upgrade them. That said, it doesn''t really need to be done right away since, from what I''m reading on the terminal, the fuel levels should be able to sustain current operations for another couple dozen years, if not a few more. Thus, I''ll throw the upgrade to the low priority list for the time being while I focus my efforts on more urgent problems.


    Pretty much finished there, I was about to set off to get some more work done when I decided to check a few more things on the terminal. Following that decision, I double-checked a couple of other important areas on the terminal and when I was done doing my check; I got up and returned the level up above to see how things were coming along.


    The minute I made it back to the loading area, I saw my robots had about 30% of my stuff unloaded so far. Which was a decent bit faster when compared to how long it took for us to get everything loaded up at Vault 101, but that''s what happens when your workforce increases by many times in size in an instant.


    Observing them for a few seconds longer, I joined them.


    There''s a lot that needs to get done right, hence I might as well help them unload and assemble my automated manufacturing machines to speed things along.


    On my way there I thought about all the specifics involved with the next task and right as I neared Hauler I got to work helping my robots.


    ...


    Several hours later.


    "That should do it for now." I thought aloud as me and my robots just finished unloading and setting up the last of my stuff, including getting all of my accumulated resources moved over and stored in the warehouse area and setting up the automated manufacturing machines.


    Alright, with that out of the way, the worker bots can finally begin repairing and replacing the damaged parts of the robot manufacturing machines.


    Deciding on their next task rather quickly, I immediately put that thought into action and issued a new command to my robots so I could start growing my robotic forces as soon as possible.


    With my robots working on their next job, it''s probably a good time to give everyone a call on the radios I made. I don''t really have anything requiring my immediate attention, thus I should let them know I made it to my destination safely. I can''t have them worrying about me needlessly now, can I.


    Taking care of a couple of other little things that needed doing by yours truly, I took a seat and made the call with the radio.


    "Hey, is anyone there?" I asked over the radio in our encrypted private channel.


    A few seconds went by before Amata quickly answered with a number of rapid-fire questions with a large amount of concern in her tone. "I''m here, Harold. Are you injured at all? Did you make it there alright? Have you eaten yet?"


    "Woah, woah, Amata, calm down. I''m just fine. I arrived at the RobCo Facility several hours ago safely and I just got it locked down with a decent amount of security not too long ago. So I should be more than safe. As for eating, I haven''t had anything just yet since I wanted to inform you guys that I had arrived safely." I told her, trying to calm her down.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    "Oh, thank god you''re safe. I was so worried something may have happened to you since you called so late." She responded with a distinct amount of relief in her voice.


    "Yeah, sorry about that. I was just busy getting the place in order and getting all of my supplies unloaded. That''s what held me up from calling, but that''s enough about me. How are you doing?" I asked with some concern of my own because Amata has basically been attached to my hip since we''ve been kids, so I don''t know if this separation of ours has affected her negatively.


    "I''m doing alright for the moment, but I miss you a bunch so I don''t know how long I''ll last without you." She replied with a bit of a sniffle.


    "Well, you won''t have to wait that long. I''ll be coming back in about a week''s time to pick up more of my stuff so we can spend some quality time together while the robots are loading up my things." I informed her, trying to cheer her up.


    Hearing me say that, she questioned with a bit of hope in her voice. "Really? You''re really coming back in a week?"


    "Yup, it should take me at most a week to get things up and running here. Thus, as soon as everything has been taken care of on my end, I''ll be coming back, so be prepared to spend the whole day together. Adding to that further, I don''t think it will take me all that long to find some power armor like we talked about previously. Meaning the moment I acquire a suit of it is the moment you''ll be joining me."


    "But before we even get to that point, whatever set I do end up finding isn''t going to be enough to satisfy my protection needs for you. Hence, I''m gonna have to upgrade its armor by a significant margin to ensure you''ll be safe from most of the dangers roaming around out here, because there''s no way I''m letting you set foot out of the vault till I''m 100% sure that your power armor suit can shrug off a gauss rifle shot to the head." I added lastly before I heard a squeal of delight come over the radio.


    "That''s great, Harold. How long do you think it will take for you to acquire a suit of power armor and modify it for me?" She asked with a ton of excitement and hopefulness in her voice.


    "Hmm, that''s a good question. I would have to say at most a month, but if I was to really put my efforts into obtaining it as fast as possible then I would say maybe a little more than two weeks and that''s including the armor upgrade and getting it ready to go."


    As soon as she heard my answer, I heard her say over the radio in a much more upbeat tone of voice with some surprise added in that, then changed to worry halfway through. "You can actually get all that completed in such a short amount of time... But knowing you, I can see you doing something like that. Just promise me you''ll be careful and if the two-week time frame is too dangerous, I would rather you not since I don''t want to see you hurt or possibly dead, if that was to happen I don''t think I could go on."


    "Ohh, come on, Amata. You really think I would take the risk of doing something dangerous if I wasn''t absolutely confident in being able to achieve it? Plus, all the dangers I met on the way here couldn''t even react nor put up much of a fight. Therefore, you have nothing to worry about." I replied, trying to ease her unnecessary worries.


    "Well, you''re probably right, but I still can''t help but worry. Just promise me you won''t do anything too risky, please." She responded in a pleading tone.


    "Okay, I promise I''ll try to stay away from anything too risky." I caved, which satisfied her.


    She and I communicated via the advanced radio for a while when I came to the decision to get back to the never ending and ever-increasing amount of tasks I had awaiting me. "Alright, I gotta get back to work and get ready for bed, Amata. Tell my dad and father-in-law that I made it to the facility without issue?" I said lastly before we then wished each other a good night and ended the call.


    Time to get back to work.


    Now that my call with Amata was finished, I did a few things around the area and headed over to the manufacturing machines to see how things were coming along.


    When I got there, I found my robots had basically everything under control. So with my presence being unneeded, I went around the whole facility to see if there was anything that needed to be taken care of. From that walk of mine, I found that there wasn''t much of anything other than the place needing to be deep cleaned from top to bottom.


    I''ll just have the worker bots handle that once the immediate concerns are resolved.


    After spending a couple of hours looking around the entire facility, I headed over to Hauler''s cabin and took my armor off and stowed it away in my item box. Next, I climbed into Hauler''s cabin to take a rest on the seat that folds out into a bed since there was no way in hell I was going to sleep on some ratty 200-plus-year-old mattress.


    The second I got myself nice and comfortable, I reached over to Hauler''s mini fridge that I stocked with some cold drinks and grabbed myself a nice, cool, non irradiated bottle of water and took a couple of big gulps.


    "Ahh, that''s the stuff." I commented aloud, satisfied after having my fill.


    Now that I''m rehydrated, I need to eat something and get some nutrients in me. I have gone without food for nearly half the day after all.


    With my hydration needs met, I retrieved and opened up several high-protein shelf stable meals for dinner.


    A quarter of an hour later.


    "Ahh, that hit the spot."


    That was a pretty decent meal, however it''s not a replacement for actual prepared food. But I guess when I compare what I just ate with what most wastelanders eat, this is definitely a luxury, so I can''t really complain too much, I suppose.


    There isn''t too much I can do about my food situation right now due to there being more important things that need dealing with currently. But when I begin resolving and checking those issues off of my list like the security and power situation, I can start work on it...


    Hmm, actually I could divert a few of the worker bots to get working on getting a small hydroponics system setup so I can at the very least have some fresh fruits and vegetables sooner rather than later. Yeah, I think I''ll go with that, but that plan will have to wait till I have my robot production up and running.


    With that thought finished, I got under my covers and rolled over with my head on my pillow for some much-needed rest.


    *zzz*

 Chapter 31: One Machine Online

    Date 2275 August 18


    *Ahhaauh*


    "What time is it?" I asked aloud whilst I was rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.


    "It is 6:12 AM, boss." Hauler answered.


    "Oh, okay, thanks, Hauler."


    "No problem, boss." Hauler said lastly while I began getting up to see what I was going to do today.


    What needs to be done... Well, first off I should eat something and when I''m finished with breakfast, I think I''ll work on getting turrets fabricated to increase the defenses here. And later on, I''ll see where I''m gonna put my workout area, even though I won''t have anything to put there for the moment seeing how I left my workout equipment back at Vault 101.


    After planning out what tasks I was going to complete for the day, I got up and went to go get some breakfast. Which just ended up being the same thing I had last night, sadly, but that will hopefully be changing here soon enough as long as no surprises pop up.


    Having spent 15 minutes eating breakfast, I finally got myself together and headed out of Hauler''s cabin to the manufacturing area. The minute I arrived on the scene, I went over to the manufacturing machines and noticed my worker bots had repaired one of the machines fully and were part of the way done with a second one.


    Oh, there''s even a new worker bot too, to boot, nice. That will definitely speed things up and from what I can see, it seems that each manufacturing machine can produce about 3 robots a day, which equates to about 1,095 robots a year for each machine. So not too bad as long as I can keep feeding enough resources into them. I could also improve their designs and make them more efficient, however, that can come later on since I think a total robot production capacity of 10,950 bots a year is sufficient for now.


    As soon as I finished that thought, I used Mechu-deru on the freshly produced worker bot, gaining full control of it. With that taken care of, I strode to the automated manufacturing machines and had them start producing the assortment of parts that I''ll need for the turrets. While the machines were manufacturing the parts I needed, I made my way to the workshop area nearby, that was relatively close to the manufacturing machines to begin fabricating several other parts that will be required for the turrets.


    I should probably turn in that quest I completed for taking over this facility before I start producing the parts for the turrets, since I can use the gains from that quest to boost my Adeptus Mechanicus perk to further accelerate the rate at which the manufacturing machines are being repaired while I''m working. Although the repair effect will only work for the ones that are within range of the field of energy that I''ll be emitting... Yeah, I''ll go with that.


    Several seconds later, I reached the workshop area. Thus, I opened my Pip-Boy freezing time like usual and right as time completely froze, a holographic screen popped into my view, displaying my stats. With the holographic screen open, I navigated to the quests section and turned in the quest Take Over The RobCo Facility, gaining the following rewards, the perk RobCo Certified, 5 points of science, and 5,120 xp.


    Ding! New Perk


    Ding! Level Up


    Ding! New Quests


    When the rewards were finished being distributed, I immediately went to the perk section to see what the RobCo Certified perk effects were.


    | RobCo Certified | You''re now RobCo certified. You now have knowledge of all things having to do with RobCo for example, all research, plans, robot designs, RobCo locations, and much more. Also, intelligence +2, science +10, and repair +10.


    That''s actually a pretty good perk and the bonus intelligence it gives should help with processing all the new information that will be driven into my head when time resumes. Plus, the two points of intelligence will give me one additional skill point for all my future level-ups.


    Moving on from that, let me use the level up I just gained and after that, I''ll check out the new quest.


    From there, I turned in the pending level-up I had just received. A moment later, the holographic screen changed from displaying my stats to the perk selection screen, presenting no new options in the perk selection, unfortunately. Though there would be new options next level up.


    Hmm, what to choose... There are quite a few perks that I would like to pick right now, but I think for the moment I''m going to go with Rad Resistance. Since I''m in a radioactive wasteland and some of the areas I want to go to have a pretty good probability of being hot. So going with this perk should help out with that, at least somewhat.


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    | Rad Resistance | Requirements Level 8, Endurance 5, Survival 40: +25% Radiation resistance.


    After making sure that was the perk I wanted to go with, I selected the perk Rad Resistance and finalized my choice, changing the holographic screen once again with it now displaying the skill distribution menu with my recent skill improvements.


    [ Skills ]


    Skill Points Left: 25


    Barter: 134


    Energy Weapons: 136


    Explosives: 136


    Guns: 147


    Lockpick: 130


    Medicine: 204


    Melee Weapons: 136


    Repair: 219


    Science: 250


    Sneak: 230


    Speech: 136


    Survival: 128


    Unarmed: 136


    Yeah, that''s some pretty decent progress right there, if I do say so myself.


    Let''s get these 25 skill points distributed into repair so I can accelerate the rate at which the manufacturing machines are being repaired by my energy field.


    The instant I had all 25 points distributed into repair, I finalized my choice by changing the holographic screen one last time to my current stats.


    Pip-Boy


    Name: Harold Todd Woods


    Age: 16


    Height: 6 Feet 6 Inches


    Body Weight: 296 lbs


    Race: High Human


    Level: 27


    Experience Points: 2,468/4,100


    Total Experience Points Earned: 56,418


    Experience Rate: 267%


    Health: 1,290 | Formula: Base of 90 + (Endurance x 30) + (Level# x 20) |


    Healing rate: 4.2 Health a minute | Formula: 0.1 x Endurance


    Carry Weight: 592.25/3,200 | Formula: 150 + (Strength x 100) |


    Critical Chance: 50%


    Resistances:


    Armor: Body Damage Threshold 27, Armor Damage Threshold 166, Total Damage Threshold 193


    Poison Resistance: 105% | Formula: (Endurance - 1) x 5 |


    Radiation Resistance: 69% | Formula: (Endurance x 2) |


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 27


    Perception: 18


    Endurance: 22


    Charisma: 15


    Intelligence: 26


    Agility: 19


    Luck: 25


    | Skills |


    Barter: 134


    Energy Weapons: 136


    Explosives: 136


    Guns: 147


    Lockpick: 130


    Medicine: 204


    Melee Weapons: 136


    Repair: 244


    Science: 250


    Sneak: 230


    Speech: 136


    Survival: 128


    Unarmed: 136


    Skill Points Per Level Up: 25 | Formula: Base of 10 + (Intelligence x 0.5) |


    Traits: |Gifted|, |Sex Appeal|, |Skilled|, |Take Another Rank 1|


    Perks: |Adamantium Skeleton|, |Adeptus Mechanicus|, |All Seeing|, |Ambidextrous|, |Ammo Depot|, |Bulletstorm|, |Currency Maker|, |Daddy''s Boy Rank 1|, |Educated|, |Energy Weapon Fanatic|, |Explorer|, |Gotta Go Fast|, |Herculean Strength|, |High Human|, |Human Skeleton Key|, |Human Supercomputer|, |Human Weapon|, |Intense Training Rank 6|, |Junk Rounds|, |Language Master|, |Lessons Learned|, |Light Step|, |Living Anatomy|, |Lurking In The Shadows|, |Martial Weapon Master|, |Mechu-deru|, |Medical Genius|, |Meltdown|, |Monstrous Physique|, |Pack Rat|, |Quick Draw|, |Rad Resistance|, |Resource Hoarder|, |RobCo Certified|, |Robotics Expert|, |Silent Running|, |Silver Tongue|, |Size Matters Rank 1|, |Stimpak Addict|, |Stonewall|, |Swift Learner|, |The Power Of Atom|, |Walking Treasure Detector|, |Wild Man|


    Mutations:


    Gear: 10,000x 7.62 rounds, 200x .50 MG rounds, |12G Laser Pistol|, |AER 18 LMG|, |Anti-Material Rifle|, 10x |Anti-Material Rifle Magazines|, 2x |Combat Knife|, |Exterminator Armor|, |Exterminator Helmet|, |Guillotine|, 100x |Med-x Syringes|, 20x |MFC Grenades|, |Mulcher|, |Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazine|, 100x |RadAway|, 5 |Serrated Spears|, 100x |Stimpaks|, |War Belt|


    Loot: 500,000 7.62 rounds, 2 .32 Hunting Rifles, 20,000 .50 MG rounds, 136,875 5mm Rounds, 100 Anti-Material Rifle Magazines, Assortment Of Automated Manufacturing Machines, 4 Big Book Of Science, Black Altyn Helmet, Black Hardened Metal Armor, 10,000 Bottles Of Modified Buffout, 3 Chinese Assault Rifles, 2 Combat Shotguns, 2 D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine, 3 Dean''s Electronics, 5,450 Flamer Fuel, 1,000 Food Stuffs, 1 Lying Congressional Style, 10,000 Med-x Syringes, 250 MFC Grenade, 20,000 Microfusion Breeder Cells 130,524 Microfusion Cells, 4 Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazines, 2 Nikola Tesla and You, 10,000 RadAway, 10 Stealth Boys, 100,000 Stimpaks, 5,347 Duct Tape, 87,865 Scrap Electronics, 576,699 Metal, 9,989 Wonderglue, 2,732,582 Other Misc. Stuff.


    Robots: Assaultrons 30, Hauling Bots 5, 2 Mining Bots, Mister Handys Maintenance Variants 8, Protectrons 459, Sentry Bots Gatling Laser Variants 2, [OLD Model] Sentry Bots Gatling Laser Variants 5, [OLD Model] Sentry Bots Minigun Variants 5, Worker Bots 41


    Turrets: 20 Laser Turrets


    Quests: 0 Ready to turn in, Many in progress, 6 Completed


    Quests In Progress:


    | Save dad | Objectives: Prevent the death of your father, James Watson Woods.Rewards: New Perk? and 5,000 exp.


    | Farmer Bob | Objectives: Harvest two tons worth of crops. Rewards: Perk Green Thumb, 2,000 exp.


    | Undegrounder | Objectives: Clear all metros of hostiles and take control of them. Rewards: Perk Mole People, 20,000 exp.


    | Such Wealth | Objectives: Obtain 100,000,000,000 caps worth of assets by any means necessary. Rewards: New Perk?, 1,000,000 exp.


    | Take Over Raven Rock | Objectives: Gain full control of the Raven Rock Bunker and eliminate all hostile forces. Rewards: Perk Enclave Secrets, 100,000 exp.


    | Orbital Weapon Acquisition | Objectives: Find a way to gain access and control over the many orbital weapon platforms across the United States. Rewards: Perk Hand Of God, 25,000 exp.


    | To The Void | Objectives: ¡­


    | Yer A Wizard ¡­


    Other Statistics:


    Kill Counter: 523


    Animals Killed: 463


    Humans Killed: 40


    Insects Killed: 20


    One cursory look later.


    Ohh, and would you look at that radiation resistance is at 69% percent now, nice.


    Continuing on from that, I checked out the details of that new quest I just received a few moments ago.


    Navigating over to the quests section, I looked for the new quest. After going through the list, I found it and was happily surprised to find that it was a relatively easy quest to complete, since most of the work can just be handled by my worker bots. That will certainly be increasing in numbers substantially in the next coming weeks. Meaning this quest will probably get completed in the next two months at most if not even sooner.


    Done looking at the new quest I had just got, I gave my stats one last look over and exited out of my Pip-Boy, resuming time shortly thereafter.

 Chapter 32: Bolstering Defenses

    Now that that''s taken care of, time to get to work, but first let me activate Adeptus Mechanicus so I can help speed up the rate of the manufacturing machines repair.


    Willing a field of invisible energy into existence, it began to repair the nearby manufacturing machines at an incredibly slow but nonetheless still noticeable pace.


    With the ability active now, I observed the field of energy repairing the nearby machinery for the next several minutes to see how it worked and how much time it could cut off of my previous estimate of about a week. Standing there for the next several minutes, I came to the conclusion that it could probably reduce the repair time by about two days, which is a welcome improvement over the original one week estimate.


    From that new repair estimate, I can use that extra time to go visit that VSS Facility, the one that shouldn''t have a single brotherhood outcast at it this time. Because they shouldn''t have been established until the year 2276, though I don''t know what month. And if I don''t go to the VSS Facility, I could go check out the nearby metro station to see what I''m working with there for my eventual expansion.


    That said, I''m currently leaning more towards the VSS Facility for the simple fact that it should have an intact and untouched armory, along with a suit of power armor, a Chinese Stealth Suit, and a gauss rifle. And if that ends up being the case, it would increase my combat power by a huge margin, so hopefully, all that gear is still sitting there waiting to be claimed, otherwise I''ll be incredibly disappointed.


    When I was finished thinking about what I was going to do with those two extra days I just freed up, I finally got to work making all the parts I was going to need for the turrets.


    Six hours later, I ended up doing everything from fabricating armor for the turrets to getting the gatling mechanisms put together and what I received for my efforts was a total of ten gatling laser turrets that each weighed well over 100 pounds.


    Also, from what I''ve tested so far, the gatling laser turrets should have no issue dealing a ton of damage and receiving a ton of damage. Since they basically have the equivalent firepower of six souped-up laser rifles each, as well as enough armor to shrug off .50 caliber rounds or even rounds that are slightly larger and more powerful. That latter bit has yet to be tested, so that''s only my speculation at this point, but if I''m going off the thickness of the plates, that should be the case here.


    Other than that, we''ve almost got a second robot manufacturing machine fully repaired. But that was not all. I also had some of the worker bots diverted to set up my other automated manufacturing machines. So now different types of ammo are being manufactured along with an assortment of different parts, ranging from parts for weapons to parts that will be used to produce more automated manufacturing machines, that will further improve my production capabilities.


    *Growl*


    Ohh, my stomach is informing me that it''s time for lunch. Guess I better go get something to eat and while I''m having lunch, the worker bots should be able to get that second machine up and running before I get back.


    With food on my mind, I walked away from the production area back towards the loading area where Hauler was parked. When I got there, I climbed into his cabin to make myself a high-protein meal.


    An hour later, I finished my lunch and got a small workout in, thus I headed back to the manufacturing area of my facility to resume my crafting of even more turrets to bolster this place''s defenses. When I was nearing the area, I noticed through Mechu-deru that my worker bots had just finished repairing the second machine, making my previous estimate spot on.


    I suppose using Mechu-deru on all those robots has made some substantial improvements in my ability to make calculations and estimations.


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    As I was entering the area, a fresh new worker bot was just completed, so I walked up to it and used Mechu-deru on it before sending it to help the others in repairing the remaining eight manufacturing machines.


    The moment I was done handling that, I headed back over to the workshop area and returned to work on fabricating more parts for the gatling laser turrets.


    Around six hours into my work, I was interrupted from said work by my stomach once again crying out for nutrients. Thus, I decided to take a break, get something to eat, and give everyone back in Vault 101 a call to see what they were up to and to inform them that I was doing just fine.


    It took me a bit to get to the loading area, but when I got there eventually, I hopped into Hauler''s cabin again. And this time, instead of getting something to eat immediately, I pulled out my radio and made a call. A few seconds went by before my dad answered the call, asking me how I''d been doing.


    "Hey, son, how have you been handling the wasteland?"


    "Not too bad, dad. I''ve been having a pretty good time getting this RobCo facility up and running, though on my way here I did encounter a couple of groups of raiders that I took care of with no issue. Other than that, the only other thing I had to handle was 20 bloatflies and one Yao Guai, but those also didn''t really present any challenge at all, either." I replied before dad took the wheel of the conversation again after I heard a sigh of relief.


    *Sigh*


    "Well son, for any normal wastelander, those threats you just casually mentioned would be lethal, but I''m glad you handled them without issue and are safe and sound. Nevertheless, do try to stay away from anything you don''t think you can handle since you''ve only got one life, son. And I don''t think I can handle another loss." Dad said in warning.


    "Okay, I promise I won''t do anything stupid. Ohh and that reminds me, dad. Was mom buried and if so where since I would like to go visit her grave?" I asked while I was thinking about the possibility of bringing the women who brought me into this world back from the dead, even though it would cost me half my lifespan.


    Several seconds of radio silence later, dad came back and said in a somewhat saddened tone that then turned into a somewhat serious one by the end. "Your mother is buried on the south side of Jefferson Memorial with a tombstone marking its location. I''m sure she''ll be glad that you''re visiting her, son. Just be extremely careful when you venture out into that direction because the downtown DC ruins are a well-known hotspot for all kinds of dangers ranging from super mutants to swarms of feral ghouls."


    "Alright, I''ll be sure to be extra careful when I decide to venture over to that area and if I meet anything that I think I won''t be able to handle, I''ll make a speedy strategic retreat." I responded after he told me the location of where my later mother was buried before I then continued to ask him how he and everyone else was doing.


    "Pretty good actually, we all got together to have dinner, so everyone is currently here at our home. I can also see your girlfriend here is eagerly waiting to talk to you as well." He said with a bit of a chuckle while I could practically see Amata''s face glowing red.


    "Other than that, everything''s been the same as usual. Alright, I''m gonna hand the radio off to Amata, now so you guys can talk for a bit."


    "I''ll talk to you later, dad."


    "Yep, I''ll talk to you later, son, stay out of trouble." Dad replied lastly before handing over the radio to very eager Amata.


    Around 10 minutes after that, I finally got off the radio with Amata and started making myself some dinner. As soon as it was ready, I began eating while going over what I got done in the last six hours of work.


    I managed to finish up another ten gatling laser turrets over this six-hour period of work, and while I was doing that, my worker bots and the energy field I was emitting repaired a good percentage of the third manufacturing machine. So it shouldn''t be long before it''s completely repaired, hopefully by the time I get up in the morning.


    All in all, not bad progress, though I should be able to get another ten gatling laser turrets done by the time I hit the hay. On top of that, another two worker bots should also roll off the production line by that time as well.


    Done thinking for the meantime, I focused my full attention on the food in front of me and finished my meal. And right as I finished, I got myself cleaned up a bit and headed back over to the manufacturing area to resume working for the following six hours.


    Once I was done fabricating parts for the day, I went around the whole facility to find where I wanted to set up my workout area. After exploring for a bit, I ended up deciding to go with putting it in the basement since there''s a ton of free space down there. Done figuring that out, I finally hit the hay for the night at around 2:00 AM give or take a few minutes.

 Chapter 33: Repairs Completed

    Date 2275 August 23


    *Yawn*


    "What time is it, Hauler?" I asked, as I was just waking up.


    "About 6:21 AM, boss."


    "Okay, thanks."


    "No problem, boss."


    I spent a few more seconds in bed before I got up and started getting ready for the big day I had planned out for myself. The second I was fully dressed and had taken care of all my hygienic needs, I began preparing a huge breakfast, a much larger one than usual because I''ll be on the move for a good portion of the day and don''t know when I''ll be able to spare a bit time to eat again. Therefore, I might as well fill up my tank as much as possible now.


    Fifteen minutes later, I had all the food hot and ready, so I began shoveling the food down as fast as I could without choking for the simple fact that I don''t really have time to waste today. As I was in the midst of hoovering up my meal, I got to organizing my thoughts and going over what I had accomplished these last four days.


    I''ve made some halfway decent progress since I stepped into this place. My robots and I have completed the repair of the 10 robot manufacturing machines, grown our numbers by an additional 83 worker bots, and upgraded the 10 old model sentry bots to my Mk II designs, which are now displayed in my Pip-Boy.


    As great as all that sounds, that is not all we''ve gotten done. We also converted 10 assaultrons to power armor compatible assaultrons of my own design. The reason for the conversion is that there may be more power armor frames at the facility and if that''s the case, there''s no way I''ll be able to move them all in one go, hence the reason for the conversion. Last but certainly not least, the production of 90 more gatling laser turrets that are now spread throughout both the interior as well as the exterior of the facility, along with the other 30 I made previously.


    Other than getting all that completed, the Pip-Boy gained a new function as well over this period. A new tab labeled as Robots that gives me various information regarding my robots as well as some of their stats, though it doesn''t give me their armor values or damage output, which is unfortunate. But hopefully, that will change in the not so distant future.


    As for what was displayed within the new tab, this was all I was able to see as of this moment.


    [ Robots ]


    | Assaultron |


    Carry Capacity: 200


    Power: Fusion


    Value: 7,500


    Description: A standard RobCo Assaultron fitted with claws and a powerful head laser to make it extremely deadly in close-quarters combat and just as deadly at medium-range engagements once its powerful head laser is charged up. Designed by RobCo Industries.


    | Hauling Bot |


    Carry Capacity: 4,000


    Power: Fusion Breeder


    Value: 10,000


    Description: A relatively large tracked robot that has a bed for moving materials from point a to point b, it also has an integrated laser turret for dealing with any hostiles that might want to take whatever load it''s transporting. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    | Mining Bot |


    Carry Capacity: 300


    Power: Fusion Breeder


    Value: 6,000


    Description: A bulky bipedal robot equipped with two manipulator arms with integrated lasers for using tools, moving materials, and lastly for fending off hostiles that may be dwelling underground. Also equipped with an ore and mineral detector for finding veins of resources. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    | Mister Maintenance |


    Carry Capacity: 150


    Power: Fusion


    Value: 2,000


    Description: A standard mister handy with all arms being manipulators so it can perform its duties with an assortment of tools. Designed by General Atomics International and refined in collaboration with RobCo Industries.


    | Power Armor Compatible Assaultron |


    Carry Capacity: 200


    Power: Fusion Breeder


    Value: 10,000


    Description: A heavily modified slim assaultron with updated programming to be compatible with power armor frames, looks remarkably similar in appearance to T-800 Terminator meshed with an Assaultron. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    | Protectron |


    Carry Capacity: 250


    Power: Fusion


    Value: 1,250


    Description: A standard run-of-the-mill RobCo Protectron. This simple clunky robot is capable of performing basic tasks and providing security with its built-in, low-powered laser.


    | Sentry Bot |


    Carry Capacity: 1,000


    Power: Fusion


    Value: 17,500


    Description: Standard RobCo sentry bot usually fitted with a combination of a gatling or minigun and missile launcher. This combat robot should be avoided at all costs due to the amount of armor they have and how much damage they can deal in an instant. Designed by RobCo Industries.


    | Sentry Bot Mk II |


    Carry Capacity: 2,000


    Power: Fusion Breeder


    Value: 40,000


    Robot Description: A heavily modified jet black sentry bot equipped with significantly increased armor, two six barreled gatling lasers, two shoulder-mounted hive missile launchers, an improved power system that fixes the cooling issue of standard RobCo units, and a multitude of other miscellaneous upgrades that improve its various parameters over its predecessor. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    | Worker Bot |


    Carry Capacity: 350


    Power: Fusion Breeder


    Value: 3,500


    Robot Description: A bipedal robot designed with manipulator arms that are similar in appearance to human arms and hands so it can easily use different tools for any job that it''s assigned to. The hands also have integrated lasers that have the equivalent firepower of a standard laser rifle. Also has integrated jets so it can perform work on things that require the robot to be able to reach a certain height though it won''t be able to perform that sort of task if it''s required to lift a large amount of weight at the same time. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    Besides achieving all that with my robots, I also decided to make myself a gatling laser as well after I had finished fabricating all the gatling laser turrets. The stats on the weapon were quite impressive, if I do say so myself.


    | Purge |


    Damage: 45


    DPS: 750-4,500


    Fire rate: 1,000 - 6,000


    Resistances: Total DT 230, DT 60 Front, DT 170 Rear


    Weight: 250


    Ammo Type: Fusion Breeder Reactor


    Value: 69,500


    Attachments: Laser Sight, Heavy Weapon Sling


    Description: An extremely heavy huge 6-barreled gatling laser with an armored quick-release fusion breeder reactor backpack for when the reactor is compromised and an armored shield was attached towards where the barrels of the weapon begins to provide additional protection to the wearer as well as the weapon''s main components from damage.


    Not as strong as my Mulcher, but I don''t have to worry about ammo at all when using it, so the only thing to be concerned about with it is heat. That said, the six rotating barrels help massively with managing that aspect of the weapon.


    When I got done putting my new gatling laser together, I decided to put an armored shield on my Mulcher too since I added one to Purge already. So I did and the only tradeoff was an increase in its weight by 20 pounds, but as a benefit of that extra weight, it gave me an additional 60 DT of protection where a majority of my vital organs were located. On top of that, it provided a decent increase to the weapon''s durability, so the tradeoff in weight wasn''t that bad of a deal overall.


    Moving on to the next bit, from completing this large assortment of different tasks these last 4 days along with some working out, I saw an increase in my strength and endurance S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s as well as a number of my skills. Which was a welcome surprise, but I had a feeling that they were both nearing another increase, so it wasn''t all that surprising in the end, I suppose.


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    After going over my recent progress, my thoughts continued to meander from one topic to another as I continued spooning away at my meal.


    Ten minutes later, I figured out what project I was gonna assign my worker bots to next and several minutes from that point, I finally finished getting the last bit of food down. So, with nutrient requirements met for at least a few hours, I got off my ass and threw my gear on. As soon as I had my loadout equipped, I headed over to the manufacturing area to use Mechu-deru on the newly produced worker bots. Once that was handled, I had half of my worker bots start cleaning and repairing this place from top to bottom.


    The other half I had split between assisting the manufacturing area, converting the power plants down in the lower level from fusion to fusion breeder, and getting food production up and running. Along with that, I also issued a new order for any new worker bots rolling off the production line. That order was for them to begin scrapping all the ruined cars in the parking lot out in front of my facility. Those wrecks will provide me with ample materials for the production of even more robots for a good while.


    With all of that taken care of, I got a few other things squared away before I had my power armor compatible assaultrons follow me towards the front entrance of the facility with laser rifles and belts of mfc grenades equipped.


    It took a bit, but I eventually arrived at the front entrance with my robots trailing right behind me. The instant reached there; I checked over my gear one final time before I headed out of the front door that I had now replaced with a heavily armored blast door to beef up the defenses of my newly acquired base even further.


    Walking outside, I pulled up my Pip-Boy map to check what route I wanted to take, even though I can recall it visually in my head. Nevertheless, the map could be updated at some point with new locations, thus I should check it whenever I get a second to make sure I don''t miss anything new.


    A few went by before I finished going over the map, deciding what route I wanted to take and checking the map for any new locations, of which there were none in the capital wasteland from what I could see. Though there were a few new locations popping up across the planet, as well as beyond it, in space.


    But the locations beyond the planet are not really something I need to be worried about right now, since the locations are not even in the solar system. They also don''t appear to be military in nature from what I can tell, and even if they were, I have no feasible way now of doing anything about it at this moment.


    As for the route, I decided to go with the one that will have me go north back to the crossroads I came from originally. And when I get there, I will travel east on the main road towards the Fairfax Ruins, which should be raider controlled. So I''ll be expecting quite a bit of resistance from those scum once I arrive in the vicinity of the ruins.


    From there, I''ll get on a smaller road that branches off from the Fairfax Ruins towards the south. That road will then pass through another main road before branching off again towards the east, passing in between the Red Racer Factory to the north and my destination, the VSS Facility to the south. After arriving at that point, the place was blocked with a ton of rubble in the game, so I''ll probably need to find the Bailey''s Crossroads Metro entrance to cut through the metro tunnels to actually reach it.


    On my way there I might also encounter super mutants, so I''ll be keeping Mulcher out for this whole trip unless I encounter a super mutant behemoth. In that case, I''ll pull back and see if I can''t take it out with my Anti-Material Rifle loaded with APE (armor piercing explosive) rounds. If that doesn''t do the trick, I''ll retreat and wait to see if it wanders off. And if not, I''ll have to come back with heavier firepower... Maybe a Fatman mininuke launcher.


    The moment I was done going over my route and including going over a bunch of hypotheticals with my other thought processes, I made my way through the parking lot towards the road heading north. No more than ten minutes in, I arrived at the intersection that my group came from originally with my robots following right behind me, and right as we came up on the four-way intersecting road, I scanned the area for any potential threats. Spending a couple moments scanning, I didn''t spot anything other than a pack of feral dogs in the distance, so we continued pressing on toward the east, following the main road.


    Another 10 minutes went by as my robots and I continued moving towards the east down the road and while we were traveling down the torn-up asphalt road, we continuously scanned our surroundings for any potential dangers. As we kept heading east, I spotted a roaming group of super mutants. Not wanting to get close to them, I issued a signal for my robots to hold up for a second so I could see what kind of super mutants we were dealing with and what kind of weapons and gear they were armed with.


    With my robots coming to a stop, I whipped out my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle and looked down its scope. Observing them for a few seconds, I saw I was dealing with a group of 12 sickly yellow-green super mutants around 1,000 meters out. Nine of which were normal super mutants, from what I could tell. The other three were two larger brutes and an even larger super mutant master.


    As for their gear, I could see the regular super mutants had 6 R91 Assault Rifles and 3 Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles. The two super mutant brutes, on the other hand, were using 5mm Miniguns and the super mutant master was using a Browning M2 50-caliber machine gun.


    Damn, they''re fucking huge. The games really didn''t do them justice... Their massive frames aside, I guess I''ll be focusing on the master first unless I want to risk taking a round that could easily rip through a good portion of my armor. My armor around my chest area could probably prevent the round from penetrating, but I''d much rather not take the risk of possible death when I can deal with the threat from afar.


    Done checking them out, I took aim at the super mutant master''s head and fired one shot off with my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle, releasing a deafening gunshot into the surrounding environment. About a second later, as I was chambering a new round, I saw my shot was off by a smidge so I only managed to take a small chunk off the side of his head, unfortunately.


    As soon as I had the next round chambered, I lined up another shot within a split second and pulled the trigger again as the super mutants were beginning to react to what just happened to the super mutant master, who was most likely the group''s leader.


    A brief second later, I saw my shot was on point, this time around since the super mutant master''s head just exploded like a watermelon being shot by a high-caliber rifle. Whilst its body was starting to fall towards the asphalt, I racked a new round into my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle as the group of super mutants were turning towards me due to me firing unsuppressed.


    Once I had the new round chambered, I put away my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle and swapped back over to my Mulcher gatling gun that was slung on me still and took aim at the group of super mutants and right as I took aim at the group of super mutants they released a cacophony of battle cries before they then started charging over towards my position.


    As soon as they started charging over, I issued a command to my robots to get prone on the ground so they could reduce their size and make themselves as hard as possible to hit. When they were all prone, I had them all start firing off their AER9 Laser Rifles at the charging mutants that were still quite a ways out.


    Within 30 seconds of giving my order, my robots managed to take out 5 of the regular super mutants, which was pretty good given the range they were at. However, as the seconds ticked on, the group of super mutants were beginning to get within the range that their weapons could start to do damage.


    *Snap-Snap-Snap*


    Now that I had a few rounds whizzing past me, I believe it''s time I''ve dealt with the rest of them to prevent any issues from occurring. Definitely don''t want any damage to come to my robots and myself, especially now when we''re out trying to complete a mission.


    Immediately after finishing that thought, I pointed Mulcher in their general direction with my laser sight on the leading super mutant and spooled it before I then held the trigger for a few seconds, releasing a storm of lead at a fire rate of 2,000 rpm.


    *Brrrrrrt-*


    As I was firing, I watched the bullets I was sending down range, shredding the group bit by bit while also ripping chunks of flesh from their frames. From those holes I was putting in them, I saw blood gush forth from their bodies before they then finally began falling over one by one, collapsing onto the weathered pavement.


    When I assumed they were all dead, I let go of the trigger and stopped spooling the weapon. Once Mulcher''s multiple barrels stopped spinning, a bit of smoke began leaking out the end of the barrels courtesy of the 100 7.62 rounds I had just finished firing off.


    A moment later, I said aloud with quite a bit of excitement in my voice. "Damn, this gun is a beast,"


    I''ll definitely have to take my time going through the Fairfax Ruins just so I can have a bit of fun with it. But before that, let''s go check the spoils. Hopefully, their guns are worth taking with us.


    Following that, I sent a signal with Mechu-deru to my robots to get up from their prone positions and follow me. Thus, with that new order issued, I made my way over to the super mutant corpses to see if they had anything of value worth taking with me.

 Chapter 34: Fairfax Ruins

    Once I reached a majority of super mutant corpses, I sorted through them and checked for any loot while ignoring the blood, guts, and chunks of flesh spread about in the general vicinity of the bodies.


    It took 10 minutes for me to sort through most of the corpses other than the super mutant master that is located a bit further down the road. And what I managed to loot from the shredded corpses was 6 R91 Assault Rifles, 3 Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles and 2 5mm Miniguns. As for the state of the weapons, they were all in various conditions of wear and tear, with some of them being in pretty rough shape thanks to my Gatling gun spray, but that can be fixed when I get back to my new home.


    Alongside the weapons, I scrounged up 36 drum magazines for the R91 Assault Rifles, 18 drum magazines for the Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles, 8 magazines for the 5mm Miniguns, 5,533 rounds of 5.56, 3,627 rounds of 5mm, 26 frag grenades, and 2 mininukes which luckily didn''t go off. So all in all, not a bad haul to say the least.


    Finished going over my haul, I stored away the two mininukes and the 26 frag grenades in my item box. I then had 2 of my robots equip the 5mm Miniguns since they were still in functional condition and would be much better suited at dispatching larger groups of enemies than the AER9 Laser Rifles.


    For the rest of the gear, I had my robots load up with whatever wouldn''t burden them too much and what was left of the loot I dumped into my item box, increasing my weight by quite a bit. Though not my felt weight since I had that toggled off right now due to me being in an environment that wasn''t exactly safe to train in.


    With that taken care of, I made my way down the road to the super mutant master and picked up what I wanted from him as well. Netting myself a Browning M2 Machine Gun along with 3 magazines for it, 297 rounds of 50 MG, 5 frag grenades, and another mininuke that was immediately put away in my item box for safekeeping. Following that, I stowed the rest of the gear away and spent the next few moments scanning the area for any potential threats. Which there ended up being none, thus I continued going down the road heading eastward with my robots following right behind me.


    ...


    20 minutes of travel later, we arrived at the outskirts of the Fairfax Ruins. Knowing danger was likely right up ahead of us, I brought out my anti-material rifle to scan the area with the optic mounted on it. A few minutes passed by as I scanned the area and what I found was a heavy presence of raiders spread throughout the collapsing urban environment all the way from the streets to the tops of the buildings.


    This is going to take a while, but I''m sure the xp return will be well worth the time investment.


    Continuing to look down my rifle''s sight, I began looking for a building that my robots and I could use as cover to start clearing them out from. I searched the area for a few minutes and eventually set my sights on a very tall building on the outskirts that would suit my needs just fine. So with our firing spot found, I had my robots follow me on my six while I deployed my presence hiding field around us to ensure we could get to the building without being spotted.


    Shortly thereafter, with a bit of sneaking, we reached the side of the worn-out gray concrete building and circled around it to the back of the structure, where I saw a back door previously when I was searching the area. The second we made it to the door, I gave the handle a jiggle to check if it was unlocked and it wasn''t, thus I used my lockpicking ability to open it. Hearing a click from the door a split second later, I cracked the door open a smidge and took a look down the hallway since my perception field only extended down it part of the way.


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    Mm, it looks to be clear. Time to head inside and see if we can''t reach the upper floors of this building or possibly get up on top of the roof so I can start causing some mayhem for the local raider population.


    Just as I finished that thought, I entered inside with my robots trailing me closely and when all of my robots were inside the building, the last one in shut the door behind it quietly to not give away our position. After that, we headed further into the many story building to find the stairs or some other way of getting up to the upper floors.


    Minutes into our search, I found a stairwell with my perception field, so we headed in its direction. Once we arrived in front of the stairwell door, I tried the door handle to see if it was locked or not and it wasn''t this time, thus we headed up the stairs. We climbed a dozen floors'' worth of stairs and eventually found ourselves on the highest floor in the building. Sadly, the place had no roof access due to said access being blocked by a partial roof collapse.


    Seeing how the roof wasn''t accessible, we made our way through the stairwell door to the 12th floor and headed towards the northwest side of the building, which should provide a good view of the Fairfax Ruins. The instant we got close enough to the broken windows, I scanned the surrounding streets and the dilapidated structures for any raiders carrying potentially lethal weapons such as Sniper Rifles, Missile Launchers, and Fat Man mininuke launchers.


    At the 10-minute mark, I had a good portion of the surrounding area scanned, and what I managed to spot in that period was about a dozen raiders spread across the area on the tops of the buildings equipped with Sniper Rifles that were likely chambered in the standard 7.62. Adding on to that further, I could see that they were relaxing and not on high alert. Thus, it shouldn''t be all that difficult to get the jump on them and have a good portion of them killed off in a moment.


    Other than the sniper wielding raider, I also managed to spot a handful of raiders with missile launchers equipped. Those guys will be slightly more difficult to deal with given they are in the surrounding buildings behind cover and spread out between floors three through five.


    I don''t particularly want to get blown the fuck up by a bunch of missile launchers, so I might as well use those three Mini Nukes sitting in my inventory. As for how I''m going to do that, I think I will just arm them and chuck them at their positions, which should have no problem killing the ones behind cover immediately. It''ll also have the side effect of scaring the shit out of the rest of the raiders in the zone. But before I begin putting that plan into action, let''s have my robots set up to take out the surrounding raider snipers.


    When I was done planning out how I wanted to start out the upcoming battle, I got all my robots with AER9 Laser Rifles set up in position to take out the surrounding snipers. Including the two robots wielding the 5mm Miniguns who were now temporarily using their AER9 Laser Rifles again for the moment since it will be easier for them to accurately hit the snipers located further away with them. But once all the snipers are dead, they will pick their 5mm Miniguns right back up and start spraying the surrounding raiders that will most definitely be in a panic. Probably in a similar manner to a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off.


    As for my other 8 robots that aren''t using the 5mm Miniguns, they will start chucking half of their MFC Grenades right after the snipers are taken care of, which is 5 grenades each. So a total of 40 grenades are about to go off along with the mininukes.


    The fireworks should be pretty impressive. I honestly can''t wait.


    With everything set up, I brought out my 3 newly acquired mininukes out of my item box and armed each one of them. As soon as they were all armed, I took a pitcher''s stance and started chucking the football like bombs in rapid succession at the buildings that the missile launcher equipped raiders were hiding in. The instant the mininukes were airborne and were sailing towards their intended targets, they started producing a sound that I fondly remember from my time playing Fallout 4 back in my old world.


    *Whistle*


    *Whistle-...Whistle-...*


    *Whistle-...Whistle-... Whistle-...*


    "Ahh, I haven''t heard that sound in years. Thankfully, it''s not coming towards me." I thought aloud gleefully before a moment later, everything in the surrounding area started rumbling and shaking.


    *BOOOOOOOOOM...BOOOOOOOOOM...BOOOOOOOOOM*

 Chapter 35: So Anyway I Started Blasting

    Well, there''s the signal time to start blasting.


    Right as the Mini Nukes arrived at their destinations and went off, the buildings they hit started to have several of their floors collapse, probably sending a good number of raiders I couldn''t see to the afterlife. And as all this was happening, my robots simultaneously fired at the dozen raider snipers positioned across the surrounding buildings with their laser rifles.


    *RUMBLE*


    *Bzzzt-Bzzzt-Bzzzt¡­*


    In an instant, my bots managed to kill 10 out of the 12 raider snipers before they then swapped over to their other weapons to deal with the raiders below. Simultaneously, as that was taking place, I spooled up Mulcher to shred the remaining two snipers.


    *Brrrrt*


    Shredding the last of the raider snipers to bits, I kept my weapon spooling and examined the surroundings to see how the raiders were reacting to our sudden surprise attack and if we needed to retreat and change positions. Since all it would take to put me down is one well-placed missile hitting me directly in the torso or a well placed 7.62 AP (Armor Piercing) round to the face. But fortunately for us, what I saw below was a disorganized mess of raiders that were either fleeing, panicking, or trying to find cover wherever they could. So, not letting this opportunity go to waste, I took this chance along with my robots to start dealing as much damage as we possibly could.


    *Brrrrrrt Brrrrrrt Brrrrrrt*


    *Booom*


    *Booom*


    *Booom¡­*


    Whilst we were putting out as much damage as possible, I took what I presumed was a 7.62 round to the chest. Fortunately, it ricocheted since it didn''t have the penetration power necessary to go through my armor, so I pulled back and scanned the buildings in search of where it came from. Two seconds into my search, I spotted another sniper hiding on the 10th floor of one of the buildings to the northwest across the street. With the perpetrator found, I pointed my still-spooling Mulcher at him and let loose another storm of bullets, dismembering that particular raider to pieces.


    Now that that enemy was easily and ruthlessly disposed of, I eyeballed the surrounding area again while the cacophony of gunfire, explosions, and laser fire continued going off. After no more than 10 seconds of watching the area like a hawk, I didn''t spot anything further, so I went back to the shattered windows and resumed laying down fire over the area, adding many more bodies to the battlefield.


    Ten minutes into the slaughter, I spotted waves of raider reinforcements coming from the depths of the ruins. And if I had to take an educated guess at their numbers, I would say there were at least a few hundred of them charging over in this direction. As they were getting closer and closer to the slaughter taking place on their turf, I could see they sporadically had some raiders in makeshift power armor mixed into their numbers. Paying special attention to the raiders wearing normal power armor frames attached with a messy amalgamation of rusted metal plates all welded together, I began thinking about taking my leave.


    Oh, they got power armor, time to get the fuck out of dodge... But before we do that, I''m going to rack up several dozen more kills on the regularly armored raiders. I might even be able to get some lucky hits on the ones in makeshift power armor and take out a few of them.


    As our time to make a tactical retreat was rapidly approaching, I issued a command with Mech-deru to my robots to start pulling back and making their way down the stairwell at their absolute max. My reason for doing so was simply because they were slower than me and I didn¡¯t particularly need their firepower anymore at this point.


    So as my robots were beating a hasty retreat, I pointed Mulcher at the incoming enemies'' general direction and held the trigger while also making a side-to-side sweeping motion. My gatling gun roared and poured well over a 1,000 rounds onto the small army of bandits, decimating a good portion of the hostile reinforcements. Despite thinning their numbers, a majority of the ones in power armor looked like they were still in relatively good condition, although I could see that I fucked up several of them luckily.


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    *Brrrrrrrrrt-*


    Continuing to lay into them, I ran my weapon dry and found they still had a significant amount of the remaining raider reinforcements hiding behind cover.


    Not wanting to find out what would happen if I got surrounded by a bunch of raiders carrying heavy weapons ranging from fatman mininuke launchers to multi-barrel missile launchers. All while I was up in a building that has been left to rot in the wasteland for the past 200 years, I put away Mulcher for the meantime and raced down the stairs after my robots so we could make a speedy escape. No need to stick around and find out whether they wanted to lob a mininuke at me.


    As I was racing down the steps, the building started to shake from what I presumed to be missiles impacting the building''s exterior. Seeing that the situation was beginning to deteriorate, I turned my speed up a notch and continued flying down the steps. Moments later, I reached the ground floor of the building where my robots were waiting for me, so I signaled for them to follow me while I activated my presence hiding stealth field.


    With my stealth field active, the robots and I ran out the back door and retreated to the southeast, off of the roads into the wasteland wilderness. When we got a bit of distance between us and the structure we were using for cover, I heard a loud rumbling sound, so I turned around to see what was up and what I saw was the collapse of the building we were in just a short while ago.


    "Those mother fuckers actually leveled building down... Haha, thank god I got out of there when I did."


    "Alright guys, let''s continue putting more distance between us and them." I told my robots before I heard 10 simultaneous rogers in response.


    A few minutes later, we were quite a ways away from the war zone, so I had my robots hold up for a second while I swapped out Mulcher''s empty backpack magazine. Following that, I took Mulcher out of my item box again and started swapping its current spent magazine with a fresh fully loaded one. And as I was doing that, I simultaneously checked my robots for any damage with Mechu-deru.


    The moment I was done with my reloading procedures and checking my robots for any damage, which there was none of, thankfully, I headed eastward towards the location of the VSS Facility with my robots trailing behind me.


    After about 10 minutes of traveling, we began nearing the Red Racer Factory, which was about 1,000 meters out still give or take a few. So, doing the smart thing, I took out my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle and scanned the surrounding urban area for any potential threats. And to see if I was going to have to venture through the Bailey''s Crossroads Metro due to there being rubble blocking the path forward. A minute or so into my scanning of the area, I discovered there was indeed rubble in the way.


    I could get over it with relative ease, but I don''t think my robots would be able to... I suppose we''re gonna have to pass through the metro.


    *Sigh*


    I was really hoping we wouldn''t have to.


    Besides that discovery, I also found a raider party nearby made up of 15 members walking down the road.


    I''ll deal with those bastards first before I head on into the metro, which I''m not looking forward to since I doubt it''s going to be a fun time if my experience from the games is anything to go off of.


    Man, I fucking hate feral ghouls. I can only pray I don''t encounter any feral ghoul reavers while we''re passing through the metro because I have no interest in finding out what those radioactive globs they throw at you in the games are made of.


    With more raiders to dispatch my robots and I made our way over and came up behind the rear of the raider party with my stealth field active. And when they were all in position, they opened fire on them with their laser rifles, annihilating the group several seconds later.


    *Bzzzt-Bzzzt-Bzzzt¡­*


    Dealing with them easily, I walked over to see if there was any halfway decent loot. What I ended up scavenging was 1 Guns and Bullets skill book, 4 Combat Shotguns, 1 7.62 Combat Rifle in a sniper configuration, 4 R91 Assault Rifles, 6 Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles, 8 drum magazines for the Combat Shotguns, 5 20 round magazines for the 7.62 Combat Rifle, 12 magazines for the R91 Assault Rifles, 20 magazines for the Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles, 100 rounds of 7.62, 996 rounds of 5.56, 83 12 gauge Shotgun Shells and 20 frag grenades. All of which I dumped onto my robots to carry except for the skill book and the frag grenades. Those guys were coming with me.


    As soon as my guys and I were done loading up on raider loot, I started walking in the direction of the Bailey''s Crossroads Metro entrance with my robots in tow. A short time later, we arrived in front of the stairs that lead into the metro below and after looking around the area for a bit; we walked inside cautiously, passing by the partially destroyed rolling security door on our way in.


    While we continued going further and further into the dark metro, it began to affect my visibility. Hence, I turned my night vision on so I could actually see where the hell I was going. Once the night vision was enabled, my eyes took some time to get adjusted to it and when they finally did, we ventured further into the dark decaying metro.

 Chapter 36: VSS Facility

    Minutes after turning on my night vision, my robots and I kept trudging along through the tunnel, getting closer and closer to the train terminal, when I heard noise up ahead.


    "Hold up for a moment guys, I heard something further up ahead." I ordered robotic companions.


    "Affirmative." All 10 of them responded.


    While the robots were holding their position, I started my investigation and crept forward until I could hear low raspy grunts and growls coming from the train terminal that should be located just around the corner.


    Curious as to what was making the noise, I snuck to the corner that was just a little ways ahead of me and peeked around it to see what was producing it. The second I looked around the corner, I saw a large metro terminal similar to the one from Fallout 3, just significantly larger in size, with about two dozen zombie-like feral ghouls wandering around the area.


    Phew, no feral ghoul reavers this time, thank god.


    I scanned the terminal a bit longer and when I was content; I signaled for my robots with Mechu-deru to come to my position and to get rid of the feral ghouls in the terminal straight ahead. So we could continue heading towards our goal via the other metro entrance on the opposite side.


    My squad, receiving my command, swiftly arrived at my location and immediately got into semi-spread-out positions, collectively took aim at the nearby feral ghouls with their AER9 Laser Rifles. And whilst still under the effects of my currently active stealth field, they began firing off laser beams in rapid succession around the train terminal, creating a laser light show in the process and startling the remaining feral ghouls that weren''t eliminated in the initial burst of shots.


    *Bzzzt-Bzzzt-Bzzzt¡­*


    *eh-HAA*


    *eh-HAA eh-HAA*


    As my robots were busy mopping up the feral ghouls around the terminal area, a ton of screeches went off from below where the train platforms were. Moments later, a couple dozen more feral ghouls came flying up the old and broken escalators charging toward where we were positioned.


    *Bzzzt Bzzzt Bzzzt¡­*


    Watching my robotic forces kill off one ghoul after another, the last few feral ghouls left were closing in on our position. Thus, I raised my leg and kicked the air in front of me while utilizing the energy I obtained from the Human Weapon perk. This move of mine sent out a wave of energy that blasted the remaining survivors to pieces of rotten flesh that flew off in multiple directions.


    Yeah, I didn''t mean for that to happen. I was just planning on knocking them back. I guess I''ll need to add energy control to my training regime so I can accurately judge and control the power output and gain a better understanding of the energy itself.


    Adding another thing to my training regime, I continued forward to the other side of the terminal while ignoring the rotten flesh strewn about the vicinity that will more than likely be cleaned up by the many rad roaches that exist out here in the wasteland.


    After walking through the metro for a short amount of time, we began nearing the metro exit and as we neared it; the area started to brighten up again, so I toggled off the night vision on my helmet. Waiting for my eyes to adjust to the brightness, I proceeded and walked out of the metro moments later with my robots following my lead as per usual.


    "Ahh, we''re finally back in the light once again." I commented aloud before I took a nice deep breath of the noticeably fresher air.


    As soon as I had gotten several more breaths of fresh air in my lungs, I ascended the rusted nonfunctioning escalators and inspected my surroundings. Scanning the general area for 15 seconds, I didn''t really find anything in the way of danger since it seemed the rubble had collapsed in such a way around the area that it has basically made a wall around the collapsed buildings.


    Thereby preventing most creatures from accessing this part of the DC ruins, unless, of course, they wanted to attempt to scale large unstable piles of rubble that had a good likelihood of giving way. In addition to that, a lot of the rubble had sharp broken steel rebars spread and jutting throughout it, which no doubt further discouraged anything from climbing on it.


    Done scanning the place, I checked my Pip-Boy map and went toward the building that I needed to cut through to reach the VSS Facility. The minute we neared the location, what stood before us was a large multi-story concrete building with a weathered and barely visible US army insignia on the front door.


    This is the place.


    Now that we found our way through to the facility, I walked up to the front door of the multi-leveled structure and gave the handle a test to see if it was locked. It wasn''t, so I cracked it open and took a peek inside but saw nothing out of the ordinary other than a normal general reception area in obviously dilapidated condition.


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    Following that, my robots and I walked inside while checking our surroundings and keeping an eye out for any possible threats or anything of interest. A couple of moments later while I was scanning the surroundings, I discovered with my perception field a Guns and Bullets skill book, a Nikola Tesla and You skill book, and an N99 10mm Pistol in pretty decent condition. With some halfway decent loot found, I put the skill books away in my inventory for safekeeping and handed the pistol off to one of my robots.


    Once the loot was properly stowed away, we continued exploring the building until we found an exit in the back of the structure that led to the VSS Facility. Wasting not a second more, I went right to the door and checked to see if it was locked as usual. I found it wasn''t, thus I cracked it open and checked what was beyond it.


    After several seconds of scrutinizing the area, I only saw the unfinished VSS Facility with its exposed steel i beams and several offline laser turrets spread throughout the surroundings. So with no hostiles needing to be eliminated, we headed over to the unfinished facility and went towards the elevator placed in the middle of it.


    The second we arrived in front of it, I began inspecting it to see if it still worked and didn''t, so I investigated further. Fumbling around with the control panel, I discovered that the panel wasn''t functioning correctly, hence; I popped off the metal cover, crouched down, and took a look at the insides. Examining it, I quickly discovered what the issue was, thus I got to work on fixing it. I first adjusted the internals a bit before then removing and removing one of the copper wires that had accumulated quite a lot of corrosion. From there, I replaced the missing wiring with a small length of copper wire I scavenged along my travels, repairing the elevator panel.


    "Alright, that should do it. Hop on the elevator, guys."


    "Roger."


    Standing on the spacious industrial elevator, my robots joined me and when everybody was aboard, I hit the B4 button, which then brought the elevator back to life.


    *Whirr*


    Dozens of seconds later, after we had passed by a number of underground levels, we descended to the lowest floor. However, despite us reaching the floor, the elevator doors for this floor didn''t open, so I walked up and got my fingertips into the crack and pried them open. And right as I got the doors open, I was immediately greeted by an armored blast door in the locked position. So, needing to bypass this one as well to get to the goods on the other side, I used my increasingly useful lockpicking ability on it.


    *Click-errrrsk-thump*


    Now that the blast door is open, let''s head inside and explore this facility from top to bottom and loot it for all it''s worth.


    With nothing impeding our path, I walked through the opening, followed by my squad of bots. Upon entering the VSS Facility, we spent the next 30 minutes exploring the underground military facility, finding everything from a pristine medical slash surgery block to an area filled with virtual simulation pods for training military personnel. After exploring most of the place, my robots and I got to work and started logging all the loot spread throughout the facility, minus the armory, since it was sealed shut and I was saving it for last.


    ...


    It took us about 3 hours to find and log most of the loot that was in this facility, but it was time well spent because we found a ton of resources and a large variety of high-tech equipment. So my trip was definitely well worth it from just this loot alone.


    Finished logging the loot spread throughout the military site, I signaled to my robots with Mechu-deru to meet me at the armory blast doors, since it was time to open them. Following that, I walked off in the direction of the armory which was on the lowest floor of the facility, so it took me a short while to get down to it due to me being on one of the upper floors.


    Once there, I had to wait for several minutes for all my robots to gather and the moment they did, I finally walked up to the blast doors protecting the armory and used my lockpicking ability. A second passed when I heard a click and before I knew it, the large blast door protecting the armory started to open up.


    No more than a handful of seconds later, the blast doors were set into the open position, revealing a massive armory and its wide assortment of armaments.


    *Whistle*


    "I think that''s the most amount of loot I''ve ever seen." I couldn''t help commenting aloud with a bit of excitement in my voice as I stared at the large assortment of weapons, armor, and ammo.


    That''s enough staring. Let''s get down to business and see what sort of loot we got here.


    Excited to see what sort of haul I would come out of this military installation with, we set off and began inspecting and logging all the loot sitting inside the armory.


    ...


    Over the next couple of hours, my robots and I went through absolutely everything, and what we ended up finding in the armory was enough gear and equipment to outfit at least 1 battalion of troops.


    | Armory Loot |


    Aid: 1,000 Bottles of Buffout, 1,000 Syringes of Med-x, 1,000 Psycho, 1,000 Bags of Radaway, 1,000 Stimpaks


    Ammo: 3,000 7.62 Rounds, 50,000 10mm Rounds, 15,000 12 Gauge Shotgun Shells, 10,000 2mm Gauss Rounds, 5,000 25mm Grenades, 1,000 40mm Grenades, 250,000 5mm Rounds, 100,000 5.56 Rounds, 10,000 Units of Flamer Fuel, 500 Fusion Cores, 50,000 Microfusion Cells, 100 Mini Nukes, 500 Missiles, 25,000 Small Energy Cells


    Apparel: 10 Advanced Radiation Suits, 10 Chinese Stealth Suits, 50 sets of Heavy Combat Armor, 50 sets of Marine Armor, 10 sets of T-45 Power Armor, 5 sets of T-51 Power Armor, 1 set of T-60 Power Armor


    Magazines: 50 5mm 500 Round Minigun Drum Magazines, 10 5mm 1,000 Round Minigun Backpack Magazines, 50 8 Round Anti-Material Rifle Magazines, 500 Combat Shotgun Drum Magazines, 50 10 Round Gauss Rifle Magazines, 50 30 Round Grenade Machinegun Magazines, 100 Light Machine Gun Box Magazines, 50 M2 Browning Machine Gun Magazines, 2,000 N99 10mm Pistol 12 Round Magazines, 500 30 Round R91 Assault Rifle Magazines, 100 10 Round Sniper Rifle Magazines, 500 30 Round Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifle Magazines


    Miscellaneous: 100 Stealth Boys


    Vehicles: Chimera Tank Partially Assembled


    Weapons: 10 5mm Miniguns, 50 AEP7 Laser Pistols, 50 AER9 Laser Rifles, 10 Anti-Material Rifles, 100 Bricks of C4, 10 Chinese Officer Swords, 500 Combat Knives, 100 Combat Shotguns, 5 Fat Man Mini Nuke Launchers, 10 Flamers, 1,000 Frag Grenades, 1,000 Frag Mines, 10 Gatling Lasers, 10 Gauss Rifles, 20 Grenade Launchers, 10 Grenade Machineguns, Jingwei''s Shocksword, 20 Light Machine Guns, 10 M2 Browning Machine Guns, 10 Missile Launchers, 400 N99 10mm Pistols, 500 Plasma Grenades, 500 Plasma Mines, 50 Plasma Pistols, 500 Pulse Grenades, 500 Pulse Mines, 100 R91 Assault Rifles, 20 Sniper Rifles, 100 Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles, 50 Urban Plasma Rifles

 Chapter 37: Power Leveling

    Okay, now that I''ve got all the loot is logged. Let me check and see if that quest is ready to turn in and while I''m at it, I can use the level-ups I''ve accumulated recently.


    Finished going through everything, I opened up my Pip-Boy freezing time mere moments later. And right as everything came to a complete stop, a holographic screen appeared in my vision, displaying my current stats along with a few new quests.


    | Tank Assembly | Objectives: Put the chimera tank back together. Rewards: 5 Repair, 2,500 exp.


    | Anchorage Simulation | Objectives: Complete the anchorage training simulation without dying. Rewards: Perk One Man Army, 7,500 exp.


    | Secret Armory | Objectives: Open up the armory at the VSS Facility. Rewards: Perk Mobile Armory, 5 Lockpick, 5,000 exp.


    Cool, some of my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s have gone up a couple of points, and several of my skills have also seen a decent improvement as well. So I''ve made some fairly good progress in my brief stint out here in the capital wasteland. Honestly, the gains aren''t too bad for really only taking out almost 300 hundred raiders. I''ll definitely have to pay another visit to the Fairfax Ruins at a later date. Although only once I modified one of the power armor frames for my use since I am way too large to fit in any of them, unfortunately.


    Also, while I''m at it, I might as well upgrade my AER 18 LMG and make some modifications to the T-60 set of power armor... Or you know what, I''ll just make a whole new custom set of power armor because I know I can design a set that''s a hell of a lot better than any set they could produce back in the day.


    My future plans aside, these quests look like they provide some pretty decent rewards for not much work other than the Anchorage Simulation, of course. That simulation is probably going to take quite a bit of effort to make it out of that war zone alive with no deaths now that this isn''t a game any longer. I''m going to have to Rambo that shit if I want to complete this quest. The quest''s difficulty aside, I wonder if I''ll gain any xp from killing the Chinese forces in there... probably not since it''s a simulation.


    Alright that''s enough about that, it''s time I''ve spent those level ups. And as soon as that''s taken care of, I can turn in the Secret Armory quest for the maximum amount of gains.


    When I was done planning out a couple of new upgrades, thinking about my new quests, and what I was going to do, I selected level up on the holographic Pip-Boy screen. Upon doing so, I was prompted to select how many of them I wanted to use, so I chose to use 3 of the 14 level-ups I had saved up. Since I wanted the extra skill points, I would receive from my intelligence going up by 2 points from the High Human Perk.


    Locking my selection in the holographic screen immediately changed to the perk selection menu with the perks I''ve yet to take and a variety of new perks available to choose from.


    Level 28 Perks


    | Basher | Requirements Level 28, Strength 8, Guns 50, Energy Weapons 50: Ranged weapon bashing damage +25%.


    | Gray Matters | Requirements Level 28: Your head takes 25% less damage.


    | Metal Detector | Requirements Level 28, Perception 8: Acquire the ability to sense where metals you consider of value are located within a certain radius. The distance you can sense metals increases the higher your perception.


    | Rad Absorption | Requirements Level 28, Endurance 7: -1 Radiation every 20 seconds.


    | Roughin'' It | Sleeping outside gives you the well-rested benefit.


    Level 30 Perks


    | Almost Perfect | Requirements Level 30: All S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats are raised to 9.


    | Burden To Bear | Requirements Level 30, Strength 6, Endurance 6: +100 Carry weight.


    | Implant GRX | (Ranks 2) Requirements Level 30, Endurance 8: You gain a non-addictive subdermal turbo (chem) injector. This perk may be taken twice, with the second rank increasing the effect from 2 to 3 seconds and the uses per day from 5 to 10 (activated with thought).


    | Tech Junkie | Requirements Level 30, Intelligence 10, Repair 100, Science 100: Gain immediate understanding and production knowledge of any technology when touched, no matter if its origins are human or otherwise.


    From the new perks, 3 of them immediately stood out to me, those being Gray Matters for the damage reduction for my head, Metal Detector for being able to locate resources, and Tech Junkie for gaining immediate understanding and production knowledge of all technology I encounter in the future.


    Marking those 3 as potential candidates, I left them aside for the meantime and looked through the long list of perks I had available. Nevertheless, I eventually circled back and selected the 3 new perks that stood out to me and finalized my perk selection. As soon as I did, the screen swapped over to display the skill distribution menu.


    [ Skills ]


    Skill Points Left: 75


    Barter: 134


    Energy Weapons: 141


    Explosives: 141


    Guns: 168


    Lockpick: 135


    Medicine: 204


    Melee Weapons: 138


    Repair: 251


    Science: 257


    Sneak: 235


    Speech: 136


    Survival: 133


    Unarmed: 140


    Hmm, what to spend my skill points on... Well, I''m going to be doing a lot more fabrication work in the near future. So repair is probably what I should be dumping my points into... Yeah, I think that''s what I''ll go with for now.


    With my skill distribution figured out, I distributed all 75 skill points into repair, bringing its total up to 326. And the instant I finalized the distribution, the holographic screen changed again, displaying my increased S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, my new perks, and my upgraded repair skill.


    Ignoring my increased stats, I chose to use 10 of my remaining 11 accumulated level-ups right away so I could get the additional skill point that would be coming from intelligence increasing again right as I hit level 40.


    Level 32 Perks


    | Aqua Boy | Requirements Level 32, Endurance 5: Water is your ally. Gain the ability to breathe underwater and no longer accumulate rads from swimming. In addition to that, you will become totally undetectable whilst underwater.


    | Inspirational | Requirements Level 32, Charisma 8: Your companions do more damage, cannot hurt you, and are able to carry more weight.


    | Penetrator | Requirements Level 32, Perception 9: Your attacks now have an added -15 DT.


    | Rooted | Requirements Level 32, Strength 9: While standing still, gain +25 DR and +25% damage for melee and unarmed.


    Level 34 Perks


    | Armor Smith | (Ranks 5) Requirements Level 32, Strength 8, Repair 100: All armors you''ve made or modified are now 20% better in all parameters.


    | Moving Target | Requirements Level 34, Agility 6, Endurance 6: When sprinting and running, you gain 25 DR and your stamina drain while performing those two activities is halved.


    | Refractor | Requirements Level 34, Endurance 10: When being attacked by energy weapons, gain a +10 to DT.


    | V.A.N.S. | Requirements Level 34, Intelligence 1: Let Vault-Tec guide you! The path to your closest quest target is displayed via a holographic line that can be toggled on and off. +2 Perception.


    | Weapon Smith | (Ranks 5) Requirements Level 34, Strength 7, Intelligence 7, Repair 100: All weapons you''ve made or modified are now 20% better in all parameters.


    Level 36 Perks


    | Broad Daylight | Requirements Level 36: You receive no sneak penalty when sneaking in the light.


    | Great Sword Preference | Requirements Level 36, Strength 10: Your preference for using heavy melee weapons has unlocked the ability to exert your carry weight behind your swings. Additionally, your damage output when using weapons of this type is raised by 25%.


    | H.U.D. | Requirements Level 36: You gain a customizable and toggleable heads-up display.


    | Lead Foot | Requirements Level 36: Any vehicle that you are in can go 25% faster and any damage you inflict with your legs is now increased by 25% as well.


    | Quick Hands | Requirements Level 36, Agility 9: Your hands are now able to do anything they could do before, but twice as fast.


    Level 38 Perks


    | Auto Loader | Requirements Level 38: Any weapons you store in your item box are reloaded after a certain period. PS You are also required to have the ammo stored in the item box for this perk to work.


    | Commander | Requirements Level 38, Charisma 8, Speech 80: You gain exceptional leadership skills and charisma. You''ll also have a much easier time persuading others to join under you and finally a +10% to all damage done by all forces under your command.


    | Death From Above | Requirements Level 38, Energy Weapons 75, Guns 75: Deal 50% more damage when attacking from above a target.


    | Death Sense | Requirements Level 38, Perception 10: Acquire the ability to sense when danger or possible death is near. +2 to Perception.


    | Flash Bang Resistant | Requirements Level 38, Endurance 7: You are no longer susceptible to being blinded by bright light or rapid changes in brightness.


    Level 40 Perks


    | Certified Tech | Requirements Level 40: +25% critical hit chance against robots and a very good chance of fully salvaging any destroyed robots.


    | Gatling Gun Specialist | Level 40, Strength 10, Energy Weapons 80, Guns 80: All gatling-style weapons gain a +25% damage increase and can no longer overheat.


    | Healer | Requirements Level 40, Intelligence 8, Medicine 85: Healing is 25% more effective.


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    | Regeneration | Requirements Level 40, Endurance 10: You''ve gained the unnatural ability to regenerate any part of your body as long as you''re not dead. +100% to healing rate.


    | Pain Resistance | Requirements Level 40, Endurance 10: You are now able to deal with an incredible amount of pain with little to no issue. +5 DT and +2 Endurance.


    Man, I never have enough perk points.


    Sigh. Let''s see what would be best to get for the moment.


    Bummed out at the fact that I never had enough perk points, I started going over the whole list to see what would be best to take at this current moment. After scouring the list of perks, I came to the decision to acquire Aqua Boy, Armor Smith, Commander, Death Sense, Gatling Gun Specialist, Pain Resistance, Quick Hands, Regeneration, Rooted and lastly Weapon Smith due them all being pretty good choices for various reasons.


    Alright, I''ve decided on what perks I''m going with, it''s time to move on to the skill distribution.


    My perk selection decided, I finalized my perk selection, changing the holographic screen once again to display the skill distribution screen.


    [ Skills ]


    Skill Points Left: 260


    Barter: 142


    Energy Weapons: 153


    Explosives: 153


    Guns: 176


    Lockpick: 147


    Medicine: 212


    Melee Weapons: 146


    Repair: 334


    Science: 265


    Sneak: 243


    Speech: 144


    Survival: 145


    Unarmed: 153


    Hmm... I think I''m going to modify my plans a bit and split the distribution of skill points between repair and science. For the simple reason that science will keep giving me knowledge regarding all sorts of different technologies and other miscellaneous information. On top of the fact, it''ll increase the power of Mechu-deru.


    With a change in plans made, I distributed 130 skill points into repair, bringing its total up to 464. Finished with repair, I distributed the remaining 130 skill points into science, raising its total all the way up to 395. As soon as all the skill points were where they needed to go, I finalized the distribution, changing the holographic screen again to display my hugely improved stats.


    Quickly glancing over my stats, I began the level up process again, immediately changing the holographic Pip-Boy screen to the perk selection one.


    Following that, I looked over the perks I hadn''t chosen yet, as well as some of the new additions. As I was looking over the perk list and thinking about what perk I was going to go with, I was drawn to Animal Friend perk for some reason or another.


    | Animal Friend | (Ranks 3) Requirements Level 10, Charisma 6, Survival 45: Animals no longer attack you for no reason.


    After a bit of thought, I could see a few benefits from choosing it, such as making most animals nonaggressive and making it easier to domesticate them. I also kind of wanted a pet deathclaw or something comparable, hence this perk should help with making that want a reality.


    As I decided to go with the Animal Friend perk, I finalized my perk selection on the holographic screen, changing the screen to display the skill distribution menu. The second I was able to, I dumped all 27 skill points I had at my disposal into repair, bringing its total to 499. When I had all the points distributed into repair, I locked in my decision, bringing myself back to the stat screen.


    Okay, those level-ups are spent. Time to turn in the Secret Armory quest and see what that Mobile Armory perk can do.


    I browsed through my stats a slight bit longer and moved down the Pip-Boy screen where the quest section was located. Once there, I selected the Secret Armory quest and turned it in, receiving 15,100 xp, 5 skill points in lockpick, and the Mobile Armory perk as my quest rewards.


    My rewards in hand, I navigated to the perk section and checked the Mobile Armory perk.


    | Mobile Armory | You''ve gained the ability to store 5 suits of armor, 5 weapons, 5 vehicles, and 50,000 rounds of ammunition weightlessly in your item box.


    Yeah, that''s a damn good perk. It will for sure help with moving all this armory loot I just acquired over to my new home away from home.


    Having seen the new perk effects, I began looking over the rest of the changes on my stats and right as I got to the pending level ups; I noticed I had 4 more level ups ready to turn in. Thus, I turned them in, returning to the perk selection menu with the previous selection of perks that I''ve yet to take, plus a number of new additions.


    Level 10 Perks


    | Animal Friend Rank 2 | (Ranks 3) Requirements Level 10, Charisma 6, Survival 45: Animals now enjoy your presence and are much more receptive to you.


    Level 42 Perks


    | Bone Head | Requirements Level 42, Endurance 9: Become 50% less likely to be knocked out.


    | Eagle Eye | Requirements Level 42, Perception 8: You''ve gained the ability to see out to extreme distances. This ability grows stronger the higher your perception.


    | Leave Nothing Behind | Requirements Level 36, Strength 6, Endurance 6: +1,000 Carry weight.


    | Road Warrior | Requirements Level 42: You are now able to shoot accurately while driving.


    | Stat! | Requirements Level 42, Medicine 75: The speed at which you do anything medical-related is increased by 20%.


    Level 44 Perks


    | Human Warehouse | Requirements Level 44: +100% to carry weight.


    | Merman | Requirements Level 44, Agility 8, Endurance 8: Double your swimming speed.


    | Pleasure | Requirements Level 44: Acquire the ability to induce pleasure in others via touch. This ability can be controlled along with how strong you want the pleasure to be.


    | Travel Heavy | Requirements Level 44, Survival 90: While wearing heavy armor, your max speed is increased by 10%.


    I took a few moments to look over the perk list before I decided to go with Animal Friend Rank 2 for its ability to make taming and keeping a pet easier. Following that pick, I went with Bone Head because it will reduce my chances of being knocked out, which could end up being a possible game over for me if it ever happens, hence why I was taking this perk.


    After that, I grabbed Eagle Eye since it''ll improve my eyes significantly. And for the last perk point, I went with Human Warehouse for the doubling effect it had on my carrying capacity. That effect will certainly make transporting loot a hell of a lot easier.


    Once I decided what perks I was going to go with, I locked my perk choices in changing the holographic screen to the skill distribution, one with 108 skill points ready and waiting to be distributed. Not wasting a moment to even think about it, I instantly poured into science, increasing its total to 510. I then evened off repair at 500.


    Completing the skill distribution for the last time, the holographic window changed to the Pip-Boy screen.


    Pip-Boy


    Name: Harold Todd Woods


    Age: 16


    Height: 6 Feet 6 Inches


    Body Weight: 296 lbs


    Race: High Human


    Level: 45


    Experience Points: 2,362/6,800 | Formula: 25(3 x Level + 2)(Level - 1)


    Total Experience Points Earned: 153,062


    Experience Rate: 305%


    Health: 1,860 | Formula: Base of 90 + (Endurance x 30) + (Level# x 20) |


    Healing Rate: 9.8 Health a minute | Formula: (0.1 x Endurance + 2) x 2


    Carry Weight: 1,144.475/7,400 | Formula: 150 + 350 + (Strength x 100) x 2 |


    Critical Chance: 58%


    | Resistances |


    Armor: Body Damage Threshold 39, Armor Damage Threshold 226, Total Damage Threshold 265


    Poison Resistance: 130% | Formula: (Endurance - 1) x 5 |


    Radiation Resistance: 79% | Formula: (Endurance x 2) |


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 32


    Perception: 25


    Endurance: 29


    Charisma: 19


    Intelligence: 30


    Agility: 23


    Luck: 29


    | Skills |


    Barter: 150


    Energy Weapons: 161


    Explosives: 161


    Guns: 184


    Lockpick: 155


    Medicine: 220


    Melee Weapons: 154


    Repair: 500


    Science: 510


    Sneak: 251


    Speech: 152


    Survival: 149


    Unarmed: 157


    Skill Points Per Level Up: 27 | Formula: Base of 10 + 2 + (Intelligence x 0.5) |


    Traits: |Gifted|, |Sex Appeal|, |Skilled|, |Take Another Rank 1|


    Perks: |Adamantium Skeleton|, |Adeptus Mechanicus|, |All Seeing|, |Ambidextrous|, |Ammo Depot|, |Animal Friend Rank 2|, |Aqua Boy|, |Armor Smith Rank 1|, |Bone Head|, |Bulletstorm|, |Commander|, |Currency Maker|, |Daddy''s Boy Rank 1|, |Death Sense|, |Educated|, |Eagle Eye|, |Energy Weapon Fanatic|, |Explorer|, |Gatling Gun Specialist|, |Gotta Go Fast|, |Gray Matters|, |Herculean Strength|, |High Human|, |Human Skeleton Key|, |Human Supercomputer|, |Human Warehouse|, |Human Weapon|, |Intense Training Rank 6|, |Junk Rounds|, |Language Master|, |Lessons Learned|, |Light Step|, |Living Anatomy|, |Lurking In The Shadows|, |Martial Weapon Master|, |Mechu-deru|, |Medical Genius|, |Meltdown|, |Metal Detector|, |Mobile Armory|, |Monstrous Physique|, |Pack Rat|, |Pain Resistance|, |Quick Draw|, |Quick Hands|, |Rad Resistance|, |Regeneration|, |Resource Hoarder|, |RobCo Certified|, |Robotics Expert|, |Rooted|, |Silent Running|, |Silver Tongue|, |Size Matters Rank 1|, |Stimpak Addict|, |Stonewall|, |Swift Learner|, |Tech Junkie|, |The Power Of Atom|, |Walking Treasure Detector|, |Weapon Smith Rank 1|, |Wild Man|


    Mutations:


    Gear: 20,000x 7.62 rounds, 495x .50 MG rounds, |12G Laser Pistol|, |AER 18 LMG|, |Anti-Material Rifle|, 10x |10 Round Anti-Material Rifle Magazines|, |Browning M2 Machine Gun|, 3x |Browning M2 Machine Gun Magazines|, 2x |Combat Knife|, |Exterminator Armor|, |Exterminator Helmet|, 50x Food Stuff, 51x |Frag Grenades|, |Guillotine|, 2x Guns and Bullets, 100x Med-x Syringes, 20x |MFC Grenades|, |Mulcher|, 3x |Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazines|, 1x Nikola Tesla and You, |Purge|, 100x RadAway, 5 |Serrated Spears|, 100x Stimpaks, |War Belt|


    | Loot |


    Weapons: 1 7.62 Combat Rifle Sniper Configuration, 2 .32 Hunting Rifles, 12 5mm Miniguns, 50 AEP7 Laser Pistols, 60 AER9 Laser Rifles, 10 Anti-Material Rifles, 100 Bricks of C4, 10 Chinese Officer Swords, 500 Combat Knives, 106 Combat Shotguns, 5 Fat Man Mini Nuke Launchers, 10 Flamers, 1,000 Frag Grenades, 1,000 Frag Mines, 10 Gatling Lasers, 10 Gauss Rifles, 20 Grenade Launchers, 10 Grenade Machineguns, Jingwei''s Shocksword, 20 Light Machine Guns, 10 M2 Browning Machine Guns, 1,000 MFC Grenade, 10 Missile Launchers, 401 N99 10mm Pistol, 110 R91 Assault Rifles, 20 Sniper Rifles, 5 Partial Gatling Lasers, 5 Partial 5mm Miniguns, 500 Plasma Grenades, 500 Plasma Mines, 50 Plasma Pistols, 500 Pulse Grenades, 500 Pulse Mines, 112 Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles, 50 Urban Plasma Rifles


    Weapon Magazines: 5 20 Round 7.62 Combat Rifle Magazines, 50 5mm 500 Round Minigun Drum Magazines, 10 5mm 1,000 Round Minigun Backpack Magazines, 50 8 Round Anti-Material Rifle Magazines, 100 10 Round Anti-Material Rifle Magazines, 508 Combat Shotgun Drum Magazines, 50 10 Round Gauss Rifle Magazines, 50 30 Round Grenade Machinegun Magazines, 100 Light Machine Gun Box Magazines, 50 M2 Browning Machine Gun Magazines, 2 Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazines, 2,001 N99 10mm Pistol 12 Round Magazines, 512 30 Round R91 Assault Rifle Magazines, 36 75 Round R91 Assault Rifle Drum Magazines, 100 10 Round Sniper Rifle Magazines, 523 30 Round Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifle Magazines, 18 75 Round Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifle Drum Magazines


    Apparel: 10 Advanced Radiation Suits, Black Altyn Helmet, Black Hardened Metal Armor, 10 Chinese Stealth Suits, 50 Heavy Combat Armor Sets, 50 Marine Armor Sets, 20 Neural interface suits, 10 T-45 Power Armor Sets, 5 T-51 Power Armor Sets, 1 T-60 Power Armor Set


    Aid: 5 Big Book Of Science, 1,000 Bottles of Buffout, 10,000 Bottles Of Modified Buffout, 5 D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine, 7 Dean''s Electronics, 890 Food Stuffs, 2 Lying Congressional Style, 12,500 Med-x Syringes, 1 Nikola Tesla and You, 13,000 RadAway, 103,975 Stimpaks, 1,000 Psycho


    Miscellaneous: Assortment Of Automated Manufacturing Machines, 115 Stealth Boys, 20 Virtual Simulation Pods, 6,847 Duct Tape, 95,000 Scrap Electronics, 1,911,942 Metal, 13,563 Wonderglue 3,458,931 Other Misc. Stuff


    Ammo: 823,100 7.62 rounds, 75,000 .50 MG rounds, 50,012 10mm rounds, 15,147 12 Gauge Shotgun Shells, 10,000 2mm Gauss rounds, 5,000 25mm Grenades, 1,000 40mm Grenades, 106,484 5.56 rounds, 388,502 5mm Rounds, 15,450 Flamer Fuel, 500 Fusion Cores, 120,000 Microfusion Breeder Cells, 155,000 Microfusion Cells, 100 Mini Nukes, 500 Missiles, 25,000 Small Energy Cells


    Robots: Assualtrons 20, Hauling Bots 5, 2 Mining Bots, Mister Handys Maintenance Variants 8, Power Armor Compatible Assaultrons 10, Protectrons 459, Sentry Bot Mk IIs 12, Worker Bots 127


    Vehicles: Chimera Tank Partially Assembled, Hauler


    Turrets: 120 Gatling Laser Turrets, 20 Laser Turrets


    Quests: 0 Ready to turn in, Many in progress, 7 Completed


    Quests In Progress:


    | Anchorage Simulation | Objectives: Complete the anchorage training simulation without dying. Rewards: Perk One Man Army, 7,500 exp.


    | Farmer Bob | Objectives: Harvest two tons worth of crops. Rewards: Perk Green Thumb, 2,000 exp.


    | Orbital Weapon Acquisition | Objectives: Find a way to gain access and control over the many orbital weapon platforms across the United States. Rewards: Perk Hand Of God, 25,000 exp.


    | Save dad | Objectives: Prevent the death of your father, James Watson Woods. Rewards: New Perk? and 5,000 exp.


    | Such Wealth | Objectives: Obtain 100,000,000,000 caps worth of assets by any means necessary. Rewards: New Perk?, 1,000,000 exp.


    | Take Over Raven Rock | Objectives: Gain full control of the Raven Rock Bunker and eliminate all hostile forces. Rewards: Perk Enclave Secrets 100,000 exp.


    | Tank Assembly | Objectives: Put the chimera tank back together. Rewards: 5 Repair, 2,500 exp.


    | Undegrounder | Objectives: Clear all metros of hostiles and take control of them. Rewards: Perk Mole People, 20,000 exp.


    | To The Void | Objectives: ¡­


    | Yer A Wizard ¡­


    Other Statistics:


    Kill Counter: 846


    Animals Killed: 463


    Humans Killed: 341


    Insects Killed: 30


    Super Mutants: 12


    That''s a huge amount of gains I''ve made in an incredibly short period. But I did kill over 200 plus raiders along with a bunch of super mutants and ghouls on my way here, so it does make sense that I''ve progressed this much in such a brief amount of time.


    Very satisfied with the progress I''ve been making since I''ve left Vault 101 behind, I inspected a couple of other things in my Pip-Boy before I decided to get back to reality. Thus, I exit out of my Pip-Boy, resuming time shortly thereafter.


    As soon as I was back in the present, I had my robots begin helping me with gathering and moving all the materials spread throughout the facility to the armory for safekeeping. I had no way of possibly moving everything here over in one trip and there was no way I was going to let anyone waltz in here and take these valuable resources while I was away. Hence why it was imperative that I get everything secured here in the armory.


    And if the Outcasts couldn''t breach the security without the lone wanderer''s aid, I doubt any wastelander running around the D.C. ruins was going to be able to. Therefore, everything should be here the next time I come to collect it all.

 Chapter 38: Heading On Back

    It took us a few hours before we had all the loot secured in the armory but once we did I had my power armor compatible assaultrons equip 5 of the T-51 sets of power armor and 5 of the T-45 sets of power armor. When my robots got themselves decked out from head to toe in power armor, I had them start loading up on the large assortment of loot spread throughout the armory to take back with us.


    While they were busy gathering loot to take with us, I headed over to the remaining power armor suits and put the rest of the sets away in my item box. After that was settled, I walked over to where the partially assembled chimera tank was located and stored that away as well with the Mobile Armory perk.


    Alright, it''s time for me to get loaded up with some weapons and to start off my loot-gathering spree... I think I''ll start with the uniques first. And I''m finished there, I''ll begin filling my inventory with mini-nukes and as soon as I''m done turning myself into a nuclear stockpile, I''ll see what else I can get. Nevertheless, I''ll more than likely just end up filling the rest of my inventory with heavy weapons.


    ...


    The next 45 minutes or so consisted of my robots and me getting ourselves filled to the brim with the large assortment of loot here in the armory, and when we were finally completely full of loot, we made our way out of the armory. As the last of my robots exited the armory, I closed the armory''s blast doors and locked them shut before we then proceeded to the elevator, so we could head up and make our way back home to the RobCo Facility that I''ve yet to rename.


    Making it to the elevator several minutes later, I turned to my robots and told them. "Guys, get on so we can head back home."


    "Roger." The 10 of them responded.


    The moment we were all loaded onto the elevator, I pressed the button that would take us back to the surface. Shortly after pressing the button for the surface, the elevator began moving upwards while also producing a whirring sound in the process. We quickly passed by one sealed blast door after another on each of the VSS Facility''s levels.


    Once we passed by a number of underground concrete floors, we made it back to the surface with a whole shitload of loot in tow. Arriving above ground, I signaled for my robots to get off the elevator first. Whilst they were stepping off; I pulled off the panel on the elevator''s control panel and disabled the buttons from functioning, thereby increasing the difficulty for anyone attempting to access the bunker below.


    So unless they knew how to undo the mess of wires I made in the control panel, there was no way they were reaching any of the floors below, let alone the armory where all the loot was stored. Happy with my handy work, I reinstalled the panel back onto the elevator controls when I had another idea come to my mind when I looked at the turrets above mounted on many of the steel i beams.


    I should probably turn those turrets on as well... Yeah, let me do that real quick.


    Following the appearance of that idea in my head, I spent the next half an hour climbing up the steel i beams of the partially constructed facility and getting all the turrets back online.


    Okay, now we can head to the metro.


    With the inside of the elevator''s control panel looking like a rat''s nest and the surrounding laser turrets up and running, I left for the military building we came through originally to reach the VSS Facility. My group and I speedily made our way through it and exited out the front entrance of the building. From there, we proceeded down the street towards Bailey''s Crossroads Metro and after a few minutes; we arrived at the metro station entrance and went inside.


    Damn, the place is still as dark as when I first entered the metro. I was really hoping my new Eagle Eye perk would have helped some on that front. I guess I''m going to have to pick up that Friend Of The Night perk on my next level up. It''s better to rely on my body''s own abilities than my equipment.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Because if my helmet''s night vision were to ever stop functioning at an inopportune moment like at night or in a place with very little to no light, I would be blind with my only other way of sensing anything being my perception field. Which has a relatively limited range at the minute, though it is increasing in range day by day as my perception continues to go up. So having that perk in my tool belt would be an absolute lifesaver if anything were to go wrong in that area.


    As I continued thinking with my multiple thought processes, my robots and I entered the dark metro station. Toggling my night vision back on, I walked forward into the darkness with my robots stomping behind me in their heavily armored power armor suits and heavy weapons at the ready. While I was heading deeper into the interior of the metro, another idea popped into my head.


    It wouldn''t be a bad idea to lay some traps out to stop others from coming into this metro. The ghouls are no longer here to stop anyone from passing through, so it''s not like it would be hard to reach the VSS facility.


    So as we continued making our way through the metro station, I would occasionally crouch down and disperse several frag mines around the area we were in to try to stop anyone from reaching the VSS Facility while I was gone. I did this the entire way through the metro and after doing so for quite a while; we found ourselves at the metro''s exit. Thus, I toggled off my night vision and exited the metro station with my robots following suit right on my tail.


    As I exited the metro station, I eyed my surroundings with my newly enhanced vision for a couple of moments and didn''t spot anything other than some feral dogs heading up the road north. Not finding anything that needed our attention, I continued backtracking the way we came for the next 50 minutes.


    The trip back was mostly uneventful, with us only encountering a group of 20 bloatflies that were quickly annihilated, along with 3 radscorpions that were also killed off just as fast. So before I knew it, we were walking into the parking lot out in front of my new residence with some of my newly produced robots busily running about scrapping the cars in the parking lot for materials.


    "Haa, we''re finally back, guys. Let''s head inside and unload all the loot we just got into the warehouse."


    "Affirmative-."


    But right before I headed inside with my robots in tow, I used Mechu-deru on the 30 worker bots that were busy scrapping the nonfunctioning cars in the parking lot. After I was done using Mechu-deru on all of them, I entered inside with my robots and as we were making our way to the warehouse area; we passed by a number of the defenses I had recently installed.


    While we continued walking through the facility, I noticed the place was in a much cleaner state than what I had left it in. Meaning my robots had gotten quite a bit of cleaning done from the time we left. A few minutes later, we made it to the back of my new home where the warehouse area was located and started unloading all the loot, getting it organized, and stored away.


    Speedily finishing that job, I had my power armor compatible assaultrons go to the manufacturing area and exit their power armor suits there since I wanted to make some upgrades to them.


    Those changes being a swap of their power systems over to fusion breeder and fabricating new power armor sets. I knew I could make significantly better power armor than any of the previous iterations of power armor that I have now, so it just makes sense to get them replaced. That said, it''s just going to take a lot of fabrication and time on my end.


    Also, while I''m at, I can see about adding stealth capabilities to the power armor suits as well as some emp shielding since normal power armor is susceptible to electromagnetic pulses. That is one weakness I would like to do away with, so this would be the time to do it.


    When I was done planning out what sort of upgrades I wanted to make to the power armor suits I returned with; I sent a signal with Mechu-deru to have 10 of the worker bots outside currently scrapping the cars in the parking lot to come inside. Minutes later they showed up, so I had them get to work on producing more gatling laser turrets to upgrade the defenses of my home even further.


    As soon as I finished issuing that new order, I made my way to the manufacturing area and got to work modifying the power armor power systems for the next few hours. From there, I got a little something to eat, which was the same old high-protein meal I''d been eating since the time I arrived here. And when I had my fill, I made a call with my encrypted radio and spent the next 10 minutes chatting with Amata.


    Once I wrapped up my conversation with her, I walked back to the manufacturing area and began modifying one of the power armor frames and adjusting it for my size, since none of the frames I possessed would fit my massive size. Sometime later, I completed my power armor frame modifications, so I spent what little time I had left before bed fabricating power armor for the next few hours.


    Unfortunately, due to the limited time I had left, I was only able to get a few pieces of the set made before I headed to bed for some much needed sleep.

 Chapter 39: Power Armor

    Date Tuesday, August 24th, 2275


    The very next day.


    I woke up as usual, checked out the situation of my home via all the robots and turrets I had control of all across the place.


    Everything appears to be going well, and we didn''t have any unwanted visitors too, so that''s good.


    Staying in my makeshift bedroom in Hauler''s cabin for a while longer, I got up and began taking care of my hygiene. After going through my morning routine, I prepared something to eat, filled my tank, and took a walk through my home physically to see how things were progressing with my own eyes.


    ...


    It took me a good while to walk a majority of the facility, but once I had I saw my robotic workforce had the whole facility cleaned up from top to bottom. So, with that task completed, I assigned the cleanup crew to start reinforcing the building and to replace all the windows with armored plates. It would''ve been nice to replace them with glass so I could actually look out from inside. However, I have no way of replacing the glass windows for one, and two even if I could, I wouldn''t because they would present a security vulnerability.


    Adding on to that, if I or Amata want something similar or comparable to a window later on, I can just have my robots install screens where the windows were previously and cameras on the exterior of the building. Those two pieces of tech combined would allow us to look outside from within without reducing the building''s defenses.


    The minute I was done assigning my worker bots their new tasks, I headed over to the manufacturing area and continued my work from the previous night. But before I set off, I sent out a signal with Mechu-deru to have any newly produced worker bots to start the production and assembly of more automated ammo manufacturing machines. So I could get ammo production ramped up to 1,000,000 rounds a day.


    Following that, I spent the next 6 hours fabricating and constructing my new set of power armor. The suit ended up looking like an amalgamation of a X-01 power armor suit and a Mk X Power Armor suit from Warhammer 40K with an enlarged version of my Exterminator Helmet with some additional upgrades.


    I really knocked it out of the park with this one armor set.


    | Annihilator Power Armor |


    Resistances: DT 500, Radiation Resistance 100


    S.P.E.C.I.A.L.: +8 Strength, +2 Perception


    Skill: +50 Energy Weapons, +50 Explosives, +50 Guns, +25 Medicine, +150 Sneak, +50 Survival


    Class: Heavy


    Weight: 2,000


    Value: 1,000,000


    Item Description: A large jet black power armor that took inspiration from the X-01 Power Armor of Fallout and the Mark X Power Armor of Warhammer 40K and a scaled-up version of the designer''s Exterminator Helmet. The armor features heavy armor plating all across that is heavier than any previous known power armor iterations known in the Fallout world. This armor is entirely made up of an advanced metal alloy, making the weight of this design heavier than any other power armor sets by a significant margin. This suit features a set of spiked pauldrons and shins for close combat, electromagnetic shielding over every component to prevent the armor from being disabled by emp weaponry, a custom-built heavily armored fusion breeder reactor, electrified spiked gauntlets that can either stun a target or disable them permanently, an integrated stealth field that can turn the user invisible, a built in nuclear propulsion jetpack, a war belt with many magnetic attach points to hold all sorts of weaponry, ammo, and other such things, magnetic soles that can be toggled as the user wishes, a specially designed weight dispersion system, a chemical injection system, and lastly a standard power armor frame that was enlarged and beefed up to fit its creator and support the new extra heavy armor. In addition to those already impressive features, the power armor helmet contains all the features its predecessor had, such as the air/gas filter, integrated rangefinder, turret targeting modules, voice modulation module, and night and thermal vision. Though all the features listed have all been enhanced to a certain degree. But aside from those, the power armor helmet also has a few new additions, those being the addition of a rebreather, an integrated encrypted radio, and an AI assistant that can administer chemical aid at a moment''s notice. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    I added and upgraded all I could for the moment, given my current knowledge base and fabrication and manufacturing capabilities. That said, as soon as I introduce lithography machines into this world, I''ll be able to make even more upgrades to this monster of a power armor suit. Sadly, that won''t be happening for a while here since I still need to obtain a few things before I can start making them. I''m also going to need to have a clean room built for it ahead of time so I can immediately get right into chip production.


    More than happy with how my personal suit turned out, my stomach made it known that it was time to eat.


    Looks like it''s that time again.


    Hungry, I wandered back to Hauler and began whipping up lunch.


    ...


    Ahh, that was a solid meal.


    Alright, I better get back to work. I still have a lot that needs to get done, like making a second smaller suit of Annihilator Power Armor for Amata. And after that suit is ready, I''m going to design and produce some better under armor that we''ll be able to wear inside the power armor frames.


    As for what kind of under armor I have in mind, I think I''ll just make something similar to the Chinese Stealth Suits since they have stealth capabilities and are already on the slim side. So they should have no issue fitting inside a power armor frame and providing a means of escaping if we need to bail out of the suits. But besides all that, I''ll be sure to add additional armor to the suits wherever I can fit it, along with a few other miscellaneous improvements.


    With my stomach full, I got up and returned to the manufacturing area to continue fabricating the power armor set that will be used by Amata. By the time I reached my destination, my worker bots assigned to the manufacturing area just finished bringing another automated ammunition manufacturing machine online, increasing my total ammo production capacity by an additional 100,000 rounds a day. So before I got to work, I used Mechu-deru on the automated ammo manufacturing machine and took control of it.


    Things are coming along nicely to say the least.


    Satisfied with how much progress was being made, I went on my way and returned to grinding away at my assignments.


    ...


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Around 5 hours later, I finished the last bit of work that needed to be done on Amata''s power armor. Getting up from my crouched position, I took a step back and eyed the armor standing in front of me.


    | Phoenix Power Armor |


    Resistances: DT 300, Radiation Resistance 100


    S.P.E.C.I.A.L.: +5 Strength, +3 Perception


    Skill: +50 Energy Weapons, +50 Explosives, +50 Guns, +25 Medicine, +150 Sneak, +50 Survival


    Class: Heavy


    Weight: 1,200


    Value: 650,000


    Item Description: The Phoenix Power Armor is a large, mainly jet black power armor with crimson accents and a phoenix motif. This set shares many of the features the Annihilator Power Armor possesses and is designed very similarly. With that said, this suit leans more on the feminine side in appearance and has a different helmet that takes after a feline with ears on the top of the helmet to enhance hearing. That specific feature is designed with the user''s safety in mind so in the event that the user would experience damagingly loud noise that could potentially injure the user''s ears, the sound transmitted to the wearer will be muffled to prevent any sound related injury from occurring to the user. So other than the different style of helmet meant to enhance hearing, this power armor suit shares all the same features as the Annihilator Power Armor just scaled down for a female. Designed by Harold Todd Woods for Amata Ashlen Almodovar.


    Even though it''s smaller, has lower stats, and less armor than mine, Amata should be more than satisfied with what I made her.


    Following the completion of her power armor, I spent the next hour working on my stealth armor and as soon as that hour had passed; I paused my work then there and got up to go grab some dinner.


    Hoovering up that meal, I finished my dinner and went to go workout by filling my inventory with metal and enabling the weight to be felt via my will. So, after working out my body by doing all sorts of body exercises, I emptied my inventory and gave everyone back in Vault 101 a ring to see how they were doing.


    *Ring... Ring... Ring... Katcha*


    "How are you making it out there, kid?"


    "Not too bad, father-in-law. How''s things in the vault?"


    "Well, you know, same old, same old."


    The two of us talked about various subjects before I told him I would be dropping by tomorrow.


    "Oh, what time do you think you''ll be rolling by?"


    "I don''t really have a time in mind, but I plan on getting on the road early. So I''ll just give you guys a call when I''m at the cave entrance."


    "Alright sounds good, son. Make sure you prioritize your safety above all else. You only have one life after all."


    "I will."


    From that point, we covered a couple more topics before I said my goodbyes and wished him a good night.


    Now that my daily call was over, I got a few things in order and proceeded back over to the manufacturing area to resume work on my stealth armor.


    ...


    About an hour in, I had finished work on it and the stats it ended up having were not too shabby for an armor I only really made just to be used inside power armor.


    | Shadow Armor |


    Resistances: DT 50


    S.P.E.C.I.A.L.: +1 Agility


    Skills: +150 Sneak


    Class: Medium


    Weight: 50


    Value: 49,000


    Item Description: A slim, pitch black armored stealth suit with an integrated stealth field based on a combination of the Chinese Stealth Armor and Stealth Boy designs that was then improved upon by the armor''s creator. Making the armor completely invisible to the human eye. The armor''s stealth technology is powered by a single microfusion breeder cell. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    This armored stealth suit is pretty sweet. It has decent armor values and exceptional stealth capabilities that are even better than a Chinese Stealth Suit. They''re so good in fact that if I ever need to abandon my power armor which I don''t think I''ll ever need to given my power armor''s stats that I''ll be able to slip away with ease. Due to it having the ability to turn the wearer invisible to the point that even I can''t detect it with my enhanced eagle eye vision, so that''s saying something. But that''s what happens when you combine Chinese Stealth Suit technology with Stealth Boy tech.


    With my under armor finished, I began working on Amata''s one next and after a little more than an hour''s time; I had her shadow armor ready to go in around half the time it took to make my own. That was only possible because this was my second time making it and hers was much smaller compared to my own Shadow Armor by quite a lot.


    Moving on from the Shadow Armor, I think I''ll upgrade my AER 18 LMG next. It is due for an upgrade, so might as well do now while I''m on a crafting spree. And when I''m done overhauling it, I''ll make a new melee weapon and whatever time I have left after completing that I can use on adding emp shielding to the other power armor suits. So they''ll no longer be susceptible to pulse weaponry in the future.


    ...


    Time quickly flew by from then and when I looked at a clock again, I saw several hours had passed.


    Shit, time sure flies by when you''re having fun.


    In this period I managed to overhaul my AER 18 LMG, which ended up becoming a different weapon due to me going a bit nuts with the modding and redesigning. I had also just finished creating my replacement for Guillotine a few seconds ago to go along with that and the stats both weapons had were a substantial upgrade from the weapons they were replacing.


    | AER 29 LMG |


    Damage: 80


    DPS: 2,000


    Fire rate: 1,500 (Can be set to semi)


    Weight: 28


    Ammo Type: Microfusion Breeder Cell


    Value: 29,500


    Attachments: Canted Red Dot Sight, Laser Sight, Variable Zoom Scope, Vertical Fore Grip, Weapon Sling


    Item Description: A large double-barreled laser light machine gun based on the AER 18 LMG that was then modified and upgraded with beefier barrels, improved microfusion breeder cells, hardier materials, rails for mounting attachments, and a toggle to change the laser beam from a visible red to an invisible infrared laser. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    | Severance |


    Damage: Variable


    DPS: Variable


    RPM: 10,000 - 30,000


    Weight: 450


    Value: 25,000


    Item Description: A massive 6-foot long two-handed chainsword that has a 5-foot long, 1-foot wide, and 3-inch thick double-sided chainsword blade with large hardened saw teeth installed to rip and tear while also being powered by a single microfusion breeder cell that is installed near the weapon''s foot long handle. This weapon can cleave through steel like a hot knife through butter, but one has to be able to handle the weapon''s weight for that to even be possible. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    I think I''ll upgrade my combat knives next and when those two have undergone an upgrade I''ll see how my robots are doing with the tasks I assigned them.


    Still full of energy, I spent a short amount of time making 2 new blades out of the advanced alloy I discovered a short while ago via my science and repair skills increasing. The instant I had the new blades made out of the advanced alloy, I fabricated some spiked knuckles to go along with the two blades.


    Finished making all the required parts, I swapped out the original blades and put them off to the side before I then inserted the new advanced alloy blades into the existing handles. After that, I attached the spiked knuckles to the handles of the combat knives, and finally, when all the parts were in place, I checked the stats of my new knives to see how I did.


    | Commando Knife |


    Damage: 43


    DPS: Variable


    Weight: 2


    Value: 1,350


    Item Description: A 18-inch hardened advanced alloy combat knife with spiked knuckles around the handle of the knife for whether the wielder wants to slice, stab, or bash.


    "Not bad at all. They''re definitely an upgrade from what I was using previously." I thought aloud.


    Spending a couple more seconds looking the stats over, I swapped my primary focus over to my robots that I was connected to with Mechu-deru and checked their progress.


    What I saw through their vision was my robots converting the power plants in the basement from fusion to fusion breeder. Looking elsewhere, I saw the ongoing construction of an indoor growing area that, from my estimations, should be able to produce 10 tons worth of food every time the crops are harvested.


    I''m definitely going to need a massive freezer to be able to hold that amount of food. Hmm, I think I''ll just have the robots currently working on food production start construction of a huge walk-in freezer once they''ve completed their current construction job.


    As soon as I was done queueing up several more tasks for my robots to handle, I checked my other robots'' progress and saw that they were all progressing nicely with their currently assigned jobs. So seeing nothing that needed my attention or direct oversight, I headed to bed a bit earlier than usual since I wanted to get to vault 101 as early as possible tomorrow to have some extra time to spend with everyone.

 Chapter 40: On The Road Again

    Date Wednesday, August 25th, 2275


    The next morning, right as I woke up, I asked Hauler for the time as usual, to which he told me it was 5:45 AM.


    Looks like I''ve woken up a bit earlier than normal.


    Ready to get a head start on my day, I immediately rose from my simple sleeping arrangements and went through my morning routine of taking care of my hygiene and making a bit of something to eat for breakfast.


    Once I had that all out of the way, I swapped my focus to Mechu-deru to check on my robots. With my focus swapped over, I saw that I was now up to a total of 200 worker bots.


    Good, my workforce is growing larger day by day. It won''t be long before I''m one of the big guys here in the capital wasteland.


    Having done my checkup there, I sent a signal with Mechu-deru to have any newly produced worker bots to be assigned to the manufacturing area to assist in getting a number of my other projects up and running. After issuing that order, I sent over another task for my worker bots assigned to the manufacturing area to accomplish. Which was to start getting weapon production up and running using the large number of fabricated parts that were sitting in the warehouse area.


    I was going to need a ton of weapons to arm my robots with, therefore it would be wise of me to get a jump on the issue before I end up in a situation where my robots are running around without proper weaponry or none at all besides what they have built in. So as they began the process of making a stockpile of weapons that they''ll be able to use in any given situation they might encounter in the future, I turned my attention elsewhere.


    ...


    When I eventually finished checking over my robots and assigning them new tasks, I had the robots that I was going to take with me to Vault 101 start moving to the loading area in preparation to leave. With all of that taken care of, I headed to the warehouse area and began stocking up on gear. Once I was fully stocked on gear and equipment I thought I was going to need including Amata''s power armor, I climbed into my Annihilator Power Armor and walked over to the loading area where I had my convoy ready to set out at a moment''s notice.


    As soon as I reached the place, I pulled out my gatling laser Purge from my inventory and slung the heavy weapon sling attached to it over my shoulder. I then followed that up by equipping the backpack power unit and taking a firm hold of the weapon. My weapon now equipped and firmly within my grasp, I had one of the worker bots start the procedures for opening the massive blast door in the loading area. The instant it pressed the button on the door''s control panel, a loud siren began going off, alerting everyone nearby that the door was opening.


    *Grrrnd...*


    Moments later, the massive blast door slid open and settled into place. So I stepped forward and exited my home through the huge opening with 5 power armor compatible assaultrons equipped in 5 suits of T-51 Power Armor along with a whole assortment of heavy weapons, 5 hauling bots, 2 sentry bot Mk IIs, 30 worker bots, and Hauler trailing behind me.


    Not more than a few seconds after the last of my robots passed through the doorway, the blast door started to slowly close behind us as we circled around the building to get to the front of it. Whilst we headed to the front of the former RobCo facility, I kept my eyes peeled, scanning the surroundings for any potential danger.


    And after walking for a short time, we found ourselves at the parking lot out in front of my base of operation that had a significant amount of junked cars missing due to my worker bots scrapping a ton of them. Upon making it to the parking lot, we continued on our way, journeying north toward the intersection up ahead. From there, we kept going north along the road while continuously scanning the surroundings for hostiles.


    ...


    Sometime later, as we were traveling north, I spotted a pretty large group of super mutants far out in the distance. Thanks to my enhanced eyesight, I could see that this super mutant unit consisted of 10 normal super mutants, 6 super mutant brutes, 3 super mutant masters, and even 1 super mutant overlord.


    "Guys, hold up for a second. We have enemies ahead." I told my robot companions while I started examining what sort of equipment they were using.


    Observing the group of super mutants closely for a few seconds, I saw they had better makeshift armor than the first group I encountered. The big sickly yellow green mutants were armed with 5 R91 Assault Rifles, 5 Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles, 4 5mm Miniguns, 2 Light Machine Guns, 1 Missile Launcher, 1 M2 Browning Machine Gun, 1 Fat Man Mini Nuke Launcher and 1 Gatling Laser.


    Holy hell, this group is so much better equipped compared to the last one I dispatched, that''s for damn sure. And from what I can tell, all of their equipment appears to be in much better shape, too. On top of that, all the assault rifles the normal super mutants are carrying all have drum magazines loaded instead of the standard 30-round magazines that are usually seen with those two types of assault rifles.


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    Finished gathering intel on their combat capabilities, I started thinking about how I wanted to handle them. After a bit of thought, I decided to play it safe and take out the main threats first with my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle from afar. When the main threats have been dealt with, I''ll close in and annihilate the rest of the super mutants with my gatling laser Purge that has yet to see any actual combat.


    Decision made, I retrieved my heavy rifle from my item box and loaded it up with a 10-round magazine filled with armor-piercing rounds. Chambering a round into the gun from the newly inserted magazine, I looked down the variable zoom scope while thinking about which of the higher-tier super mutants I wanted to deal with initially.


    About a second in, I decided to start off the super mutant massacre by ending the life of the super mutant overlord first. Since that was the only super mutant that could pose any real danger if he were to get close, given that he stood at a height of about 10 feet and probably weighed over 1,000 pounds.


    And If I had to take a guess, the big guy probably possess a strength rating around the 25+ area if I was comparing it to my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s and if I was comparing it against normal human values, I would put it around the 50+ range for strength. That''s the sort of strength that could smash a human head as if it was nonexistent. My decision was also made easier by the fact that I could see the super mutant overlord had a ton more DT and health via my living anatomy perk. So with that information available, it only reinforced my decision to deal with it first and foremost.


    Now that I had my target picked out, I moved closer to the super mutants with my robots. My reasoning for doing so was because one, I was a long way out and two; I didn''t feel sniping from over 3,000 meters. That last one had a number of negatives I didn''t want to account for, like wind and various other elements that could affect my bullet''s accuracy. Not to mention the lost velocity from shooting from such a distance that would no doubt lessen my weapon''s damage.


    Shortly thereafter, we made it to the 1,100-meter mark. So I took aim with my weapon''s variable zoom scope and moved the scope''s crosshair to where I predicted the super mutant overlord''s head would be a moment later. Holding the crosshair steady, I pulled my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle''s trigger, letting loose a deafening gunshot and sending a sizable fireball out the end of the muzzle brake.


    A split second later I saw the armor-piercing 50 caliber round enter the super mutant overlord''s head, killing it instantly and right as its body started to fall, I had my next round chambered. Ready to go, I swapped over to the super mutant master that was wielding the missile launcher and repeated the exact same set of actions I took with my execution of the super mutant overlord. The instant a second had passed, the super mutant master I was targeting had its head taken off almost entirely.


    Dealing a killing blow to that super mutant master, I racked the bolt on my gun and chambered a new round. As I was lining up the next shot on the super mutant master wielding the Browning M2 Machine Gun, the surrounding super mutants caught on to what was happening and began reacting to the dangerous situation I had them in.


    The instant I lined my scope on my next target and was about to pull the trigger, the group of super mutants began scanning the surrounding area, looking for what was taking them out one by one. So while they were beginning their search, I finally applied enough pressure to the trigger on my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle, releasing another deafening gunshot.


    That echoing gunshot of mine gave away my position, although not till after the round I just fired arrived at its intended target, eliminating another super mutant master. This left the group with only one super mutant master remaining among their increasingly smaller squad.


    As soon as the party of super mutants registered the sound of my 50 caliber rifle going off, they all collectively turned towards my direction, the place where the loud gunshot originated from. Within moments of finding where the gunshot came from, they collectively let out a war cry and started charging towards our position.


    Unwilling to let them get too close with their absurd strength, I lined up another shot on the last remaining super mutant master, the one that was carrying a fat man mini-nuke launcher, and pulled the trigger. Once a bit less than a second had passed the armor-piercing round I had just fired arrived at its intended destination, taking out the last remaining super mutant master from the fight by turning its head into a literal bloody mess and scattering the remains of it across the capital wasteland''s relatively barren soil.


    When the last remaining super mutant master was killed off, I loaded a fresh 10-round magazine into my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle and placed it back in my inventory. The second I had it put away, I grabbed hold of my gatling laser Purge that had been slung and resting against me this entire time. Grasping my unique gatling laser firmly, I pointed it towards the charging group of super mutants with my laser sight accurately lined up on the front-most super mutant and let loose a stream of laser fire milliseconds later.


    *Bzzzz¡­*


    As I continued to hold down the trigger, I watched as the ridiculous amount of laser beams I was sending down range melted, burned, and turned parts of the super mutants'' bodies to ash piece by piece and bit by bit. Around the 10-second mark, I let go of the trigger since I had just finished killing off the last remaining super mutant of the group.


    "Alright, guys, let''s head on over and collect the loot." I told my robots before I started walking towards the super mutant corpses to collect the gear they were carrying.


    Arriving in front of the bodies, rather quickly, I had my robots start removing and loading up all the gear and loot they were carrying.


    [ Loot ]


    Ammo: 385 .50 MG Rounds, 7,744 5mm Rounds, 2,756 5.56 Rounds, 9 Fusion Cores, 73 Microfusion Cells, 7 Mini Nukes, 13 Missiles, 103 Small Energy Cells


    Magazines: 8 5mm 500 Round Minigun Drum Magazines, 4 5mm 1,000 Round Minigun Backpack Magazines, 10 Light Machine Gun Box Magazines, 4 M2 Browning Machine Gun Magazines, 20 50 Round R91 Assault Rifle Drum Magazines, 20 50 Round Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifle Drum Magazines


    Miscellaneous: 3 Stealth Boys


    Weapons: 4 5mm Miniguns, 1 AER9 Laser Rifle, 1 Fat Man Mini Nuke Launcher, 47 Frag Grenades, 1 Gatling Laser, 2 Light Machine Guns, 1 M2 Browning Machine Gun, 1 Missile Launcher, 5 R91 Assault Rifles, 5 Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles

 Chapter 41: Smooth Skin

    It took us several minutes to get all the loot gathered and onto the hauling bots, but once we did, my robots and I resumed moving along the deteriorated asphalt road again. Seconds into continuing our journey, I had an idea pop into my head as I was passing by the super mutant overlord''s corpse.


    I wonder how useful having a super mutant overlord on my side would be. I could revive this one here with my Medical Genius perk. If I do, I could for sure see myself getting a lot of use out of this fella, whether that be as a soldier, a worker, or a sparring partner. Though all three of those things I listed would require me to fix its inherent aggression and intelligence issues, which shouldn''t be all that difficult to resolve given my current abilities.


    That said, to fix its lack of intelligence, I''ll definitely need to produce or procure some highly advanced equipment since I don''t have anything like that on hand right at this time. So I''ll have to see if there are any locations nearby that would possibly have the sort of equipment I would need and if there aren''t any places like that nearby, I''ll just have to make the tech myself. Adding on to that further, I probably wouldn''t get any of that done till I have food production up and running. I don''t think my current food supply could sustain myself, Amata, and a super mutant overlord for very long.


    ... Actually, on second thought, it''s not worth halving my lifespan to resurrect a random super mutant overlord when I can just go and capture a live one. Or I could just convert a normal super mutant into an overload although I have no clue how I would go about that.


    Yeah, that''s not at all worth it. I''d honestly rather conserve my lifespan till I can find ways of increasing it, whether that is through my system, science, magic, or some other means. However, even though I won''t be reviving this mutant, I can at the very least take the body with me to study its physiology later to see if I can''t retrieve anything of value from it.


    "Guys, load this body up as well. We''re taking it with us."


    The instant I issued them a new command, my robots got right to work loading the super mutant overlord''s corpse into the bed of a hauling bot. When we had finally taken everything of value from the slaughtered mutant and got it all secured, we continued our journey north, heading up the deteriorating asphalt road.


    After a not-so-long period later, my companions and I arrived at the three-way intersection we came from when I first ventured out of Vault 101. Immediately upon reaching this three-way intersection, I paused for a moment and took in the surroundings, looking for any danger. Ten seconds had passed without me discovering anything, so I continued leading the way forward, this time to the east towards the Jury Street Metro Station. A location that I had a bit of loot stashed in that needed to be collected from a certain building that was formerly inhabited by raiders.


    Setting off, we progressed forward for the next several minutes, passing by more than a few burned-out houses on the way. This went on until we started coming into the vicinity of the Jury Street Metro Station, and as my robots and I were arriving in the area, I spotted a few people over by the building where my loot was stashed.


    "Hold up for a second. It looks like we have company."


    "Roger-" My robots replied in unison.


    Holding where we were, I focused on the people over by the Hank''s Electrical Supply store that held my stashed loot stashed inside. What I observed was 3 ghouls fitted in leather armor and armed with 2 .32 hunting rifles and a singular sniper rifle that was more likely than not chambered in 7.62x51 trying to gain access to the store.


    What to do... I suppose I''ll try to talk to them peacefully first and see why they''re attempting to gain access to the building. And if they''re friendly enough, I''ll see if I can''t get some local information out of them. Ghouls can have a wealth of knowledge and information due to how long most of them have been alive for so I might as well gather a bit of intel from them. So if all goes well, I''ll send them on their way. But in the event that they aren''t reasonable and respond in a manner as such, I''ll deal with them the hard way and bury the 3 of them 6 feet under.


    "Alright, you guys hold tight. I''m gonna head over and talk to them."


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    As I was stepping forward, I turned back to say one last thing. "Oh, and when I get within the vicinity of them, start making your way over, but keep the formation around the robots that aren''t as heavily armored."


    "Aye aye, Boss."


    "Acknowledged." The rest of my robots responded.


    Done giving out my orders, I swapped out my gatling laser Purge for my AER 29 LMG. Right as I had the laser light machine gun slung against me, I walked over to the 3 ghouls in the least threatening manner I could possible as a massively built guy that stood at 6 foot 6 armored from head to toe in a suit of power armor that was far larger than normal. Probably the largest suit of power armor currently in existence on this planet.


    Whilst I was making my way over, I kept my firearm slung and made a whistle to alert them to my presence.


    The moment they heard my whistle, the 2 ghouls with the .32 hunting rifles stopped messing with the door and turned around rapidly in my direction, since I was the origin of the sound. And while they rapidly turned around at their fastest possible speed, which was slow in my eyes, they both grabbed their .32 hunting rifles and pointed them right at me.


    As for the 1 ghoul armed with the sniper rifle, he was originally looking off in the northern direction. But as soon as he heard my whistle, he also swiftly turned towards me with his sniper rifle gripped and aimed at me in his deteriorating and rotting ghoulified hands.


    As the 3 ghouls were taking aim at me, I made a placating gesture towards them. "I don''t mean you guys any harm, so can you stop aiming your weapons at me? I just want to talk to you 3 gentlemen for a moment."


    A few seconds went by as they tensely scrutinized me and the nearby surroundings.


    "O-okay, but don''t make sudden movements or I''ll take your head off smooth skin." The ghoul wielding the sniper rifle said in a raspy, somewhat aggressive voice that was messed up with a bit of a stutter at the beginning of his response.


    Before I asked my next question, I observed them for half a second and noticed their bodies were shaking ever so slightly. I guess my placating gesture didn''t work too well. Who could''ve ever expected this to happen, definitely not me. Well, I''ve paused for long enough, time to ask them a few questions.


    "So what are you guys doing out here in this area, and why are you trying to gain access to that building behind you?"


    "What does it look like we''re doing? We''re looking for food, water, and to scavenge what we can from this dilapidated store to sell off to one of the traveling merchants." The ghoul with the sniper rifle, who I presumed to be the leading ghoul at this point, said in a much less aggressive tone of voice, although still just as raspy as previously.


    "Well, I kind of had the doors welded shut on that store to keep the place secure and deter anyone from attempting to loot it. So I could come back at a later date to pick up the stuff I''d left behind after killing a bunch of raiders." I informed them as my robots began nearing my location.


    Before any of them could respond, I added. "Though if you guys are in need, how about I make you guys an offer?"


    "And what could you offer us, smooth skin, mhm?" The leading ghoul asked, a bit skeptical.


    "How about a decent amount of food, water, and a handful of explosives that could help you out when you guys are in a bit of a pinch? Or if you don''t want to keep them for yourselves, you could just trade them to whatever traveling merchant or trader you come across for a pretty decent amount of caps, so what do you guys think?"


    "That''s quite the offer, smooth skin, but I know there''s nothing free out here in the wasteland, so what do you want in return?" The leading ghoul asked in what I thought was a somewhat friendlier tone of voice, but still just as skeptical as moments ago.


    "First off, that building behind you guys is mine, so that won''t be included in this deal. As for what I want, I''m interested in information and if you 3 don''t mind, I have some questions that I would like to ask the 3 of you as well. All 3 of you are ghouls that have likely been alive since before the great war. So if that''s the case, the 3 of you must have a wealth of knowledge that you''ve accumulated over each of your lifetimes. Am I right?" I answered after thinking over what I wanted in return for a brief moment.


    The moment they each processed what I wanted in return for the resources I was willing to give them, they gave each other a certain look and turned back my way with. "You''ve got yourself a deal, smooth skin. However, we would like to see the goods first, since we don''t see you carrying anything like that." The leading ghoul said.


    "That''s no problem. The stuff I offered will be arriving shortly." I replied and as they were processing what I had just said, they were able to hear the sound of my robots entering the area seconds later.


    Shortly thereafter, all my robots pulled into the area around us and as they did, the 3 ghouls looked a bit astonished and about ready to piss themselves, from what I could tell. From that point, their expressions changed again to resigned looks as if this was the end of the road for them.


    "Why the long look, guys?" I asked, knowing full well why they had the looks they did.


    "Well, we''re fucked, are we not? Why wouldn''t we be upset?" One of the other ghouls said in a depressed tone and the same raspy voice the leading ghoul had.


    "Yeah, this isn''t a trap or anything. These are just my robots that I take out with me whenever I''m heading somewhere in the wasteland. They are the ones carrying the supplies I offered before, so I apologize if my robots made you think otherwise." I told them, trying to reassure them that I still meant them no harm.

 Chapter 42: Proposition

    It took a bit to convince them that I had no ill intent, but once they were out of the funk I kind of put them in; I asked them why they reacted the way that they did. Hearing my question the ghouls went on to tell me about how their friends that were also ghouls, which wasn''t a big surprise due to most ghouls being discriminated against if not outright shot on sight by most wastelanders, were taken by a group of people equipped in black power armor that looked similar to mine.


    After their abduction, they don''t know what happened to them because they were loaded into an aerial vehicle probably a vertibird and taken to god knows where with no ability to pursue the kidnappers given that the 3 of them were on the ground and their foes were in the air.


    "That''s a sad and unfortunate turn of events. I''m sorry your friends were taken from you."


    "Thank you. You are one of the very few civilized people we''ve met since the day the bombs dropped some two centuries ago." One of the other ghouls said.


    "Thankfully, you guys are in luck. I might actually know what group took your friends."


    "REALLY?" One of the ghouls asked excitedly in his signature raspy ghoul voice.


    "Potentially. Did the people who took your friends have a large symbol right around here on their power armor, by any chance?" I inquired while pointing at the left side of my chest.


    The ghoul leader tried recalling for a few seconds after thinking about it, he began. "Hmm, I don''t recall them having a symbol on the left side of their chest, but they may have¡­"


    Before the leading ghoul could finish answering, the ghoul who hadn''t spoken much till now interrupted him with a hate filled voice. "I remember with clarity what they looked like. So I can clearly remember that each of the bastards had a capital E on the left side of their chests."


    "Ohh, in that case, the Enclave took your friends from you guys then. How long ago did they take them?"


    "It happened about a month ago." The ghoul who interrupted the leading ghoul quickly responded.


    "...I don''t particularly like giving people false hope since I see it as basically lying, so I''ll tell it to you straight. Your friends are more than likely dead at this point."


    Before all 3 of them could lose all hope, I continued keeping them on a roller coaster of emotions. "However, there is a chance they may be still alive, although the chances of that being the case are quite low, and the longer they''re with them, the higher the likelihood they''ve already left this world for the next."


    Once I had finished saying that, the general mood for the 3 of them plummeted through the floor, especially so for the ghoul who clearly remembered the details of the event.


    I waited for a dozen or so seconds to pass and added while the ghouls were still processing, that their friends were more than likely dead at this point. "Sorry that I couldn''t give you all a better answer, but that is most likely who took them."


    "Hah, thanks for telling us smooth skin, it''s better that we knew who took them and what happened to them than to go on thinking that we would have a chance of seeing them again someday, even though that''s a very unlikely thing out here in the wasteland to begin with." The lead ghoul responded.


    "Back to what I was going to ask you 3 originally. What are your names, occupations back before the great war, and what sort of skills did you pick up from the time since the bombs fell till now?"


    They collectively thought over my questions for a minute before the leading ghoul answered first in his harsh, raspy voice. "My name is Don King Hill and my occupation prior to the war was a sniper in the US army. As for what sort of skills I''ve picked up in the many years, I''ve been alive following the great war with my brothers, I''ve managed to pick up and learn an assortment of skills ranging from how to repair weapons from scrap to how to survive and avoid most dangers in the wasteland by going off of tracks and other such clues left in the environment."


    When Don was done answering, the one of the two ghouls who was wielding a .32 hunting rifle next to him started answering. "Well, now that my brother has finished answering, I guess it''s my turn. My name is Kevin Watts Hill, and I was an electrician. I also had a hobby of working on cars, but I''m not able to enjoy that hobby anymore due to the current state of the world, as you can see."


    "As for what sort of skills I''ve picked up since the great war they''re a pretty similar skill set to my brother''s but I would say I''m better at putting things together than him as well as disassembling."


    "That he is." The ghoul leader agreed.


    Following Kevin''s answer, we all looked at the last remaining ghoul who had yet to answer. He didn''t seem like he was all there, thus Don put his hand on his shoulder and woke him up from his thoughts and told him to answer my question after retelling him what I had asked originally.


    "Ahh, sorry about that. My name is Hugo Dean Hill and before the great war I was employed at RobCo as a researcher in the robotics department. As for the skills I learned since the great war I would say I''ve become very good at hacking, lockpicking, and a couple of skills that I picked up from my brothers. Though not to the same levels as them." Hugo answered in the signature ghoul voice.


    Mm, they all have pretty decent skill sets and they seem to be halfway decent people, though that could all be bullshit since I don''t think there are all too many who would want to pick a fight with me when I''m right on top of them. Despite that possibility, that''s not the feeling I''m getting from them, hence I''ll listen to my gut for now and see if I can''t recruit them. Having 3 ghouls that are over 200 years old, each holding a wealth of knowledge and experience, is a very valuable asset to have no matter how I look at it, especially in this day and age.


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    With them done answering my questions, I decided to do the polite thing and introduce myself as well. "Seeing how you guys have already introduced yourselves, I''ll do the same. My name is Harold Todd Woods and I''m a vault dweller from Vault 101. It''s nice to meet you, Dom, Kevin, Hugo." I said with my power armor helmet off, showing my face for the briefest of moments while shaking each of their hands.


    The instant I was done introducing myself, I put my power armor helmet back on and continued. "Now that I know a bit about you 3 brothers and know a little about me, I have a proposition for all of you, if you''re all interested?"


    "Sure, I''ll bite. What''s the proposition?" Don replied after a couple of seconds while his 2 brothers focused their attention on me.


    "Here''s the deal. I''m looking to recruit people as subordinates that would be useful in trying to achieve my goals. And I think the 3 of you fit that to a tee hence, why I''m extending this offer. As for the sort of benefits you would receive for working for me, I''m sure you 3 brothers will be more than pleased with what I can offer."


    "You''ve piqued my interest. What sort of goal do you have and what could you offer my brothers and me?" Hugo asked, both intrigued and somewhat skeptical at the same time.


    "My dream is to bring some semblance of order back to the wasteland and to ultimately build a country upon the ashes of the United States. I''m nowhere near the point of making that a reality just yet. However, I do have the semblance of a foundation to make that dream come true one day, preferably in the next decade or two."


    "As for what I could offer you and your brothers I can offer you safety, actual food that''s the equivalent of what you used to eat prior to the world turning into a radioactive wasteland, fresh clean non irradiated water, better equipment, and a nice place to live. And that''s not all I can also give you, something to strive for instead of wandering the wastes looking for your next meal and the chance to get back at the Enclave that ripped your friends from you. How bout that?" The moment I was done presenting my offer, Hugo instantly responded with a bit of a crazed look in his yellowed eyes.


    "If all of what you said is true and you keep your word, you have yourself a deal, Harold. If there''s a chance I can take revenge on those bastards, I don''t even care if you work me to the bone." When his two brothers heard Hugo, they both sighed and shrugged their shoulders as if they expected he would react the way he did.


    I guess the Enclave must''ve taken someone he cared for deeply if he''s willing to jump on an offer that doesn''t really have anything of substance backing it up other than my word. Not that I would go back on my word, but now that I''m thinking of it, I also haven''t even given them the stuff I offered to them earlier.


    "As happy as I am to hear you''re willing to work yourself to bone for me, I''d rather you not. So you can see human civilization reborn from the ashes of atomic war along with your brothers Dom and Kevin."


    "Nonetheless, I''m happy to have you guys join me. But before we go any further, let me get you the items I offered you 3 initially so you see that I''m a man of my word and not full of shit. Also, while I''m at it, let''s sweeten the deal a bit more and get you guys kitted out with better gear since you''re all now my people and I, for one, take care of my people." I said whilst sending a signal with Mechu-deru to my robots to start bringing the items I had initially offered them, as well as some Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles with drum magazines to upgrade from their .32 hunting rifles and some other miscellaneous items.


    In no time at all, my robots brought them the items I had promised them, as well as the additional things I had asked them to bring over. And right as they did, Kevin gave off a whistle, very impressed by the weapons. Don and Hugo also looked quite satisfied with what I gave them when I looked over at them.


    When they were done admiring their new items, I asked another question. "I have another question regarding what happened to your friends, what direction were they taken because if you remember, I may know the location of where your friends might''ve been taken?"


    Hearing me say that some hope returned to their eyes and their collective mood improved further, and once a few seconds had passed Hugo, who remembered the event in detail, asked hopefully. "I remember the vertibird flying off in the northwest direction. Is that at all useful?"


    "Definitely, they were most likely taken to Raven Rock, which is a bunker meant for top military officials before the great war."


    "We won''t be able to do anything right now due to the Enclave having a ton of guys equipped with all sorts of advanced weaponry as well as power armor. But I promise the moment I have enough firepower, we can take them out. Hopefully, by that time, your friends will still be alive and well. If not, hopefully, their remains are still there, so you can lay them to rest." I added before any of them could respond.


    The second the 3 ghoul brothers processed what I had just said, Hugo looked ready to charge directly to the Enclave headquarters. Nevertheless, his brother Don walked up next to him and put his hand on his brother''s shoulder and slowly shook his head side to side, to which Hugo clenched his hands into fists before relaxing them and letting out a sigh a few seconds later.


    "So Harold, what do you want us to call you by now that you''re our leader?" Hugo asked.


    "Ehh, I haven''t given it much thought... Just call me by name for now, and if we start getting close to the makings of a country or some other entity in the future, just call me by whatever title is selected for my position in the future when in public."


    "I got one more question. When do you think you''ll be ready to take on the Enclave if you don''t mind me asking?" Hugo asked expectantly.


    "Yeah, I don''t mind answering. I would say within a year to give myself enough time to accumulate resources and firepower, but that timeframe could probably be cut down as long as there are no major setbacks." I answered, which put a satisfied look on his face or what I thought was one. I could be wrong since it''s very difficult to tell due to ghoul faces missing most of their human facial features, but that''s the feeling I was getting.


    Finished answering Hugo''s question, I had my robots begin opening the sealed entrance of the building with my stashed loot. About a minute in, they had it opened up, thus my worker bots headed inside and began the process of transferring the loot onto the hauling bots. While my worker bots were busy getting everything loaded up, my now 3 ghoul subordinates, and I entered the building and took a seat at a table away from the bloodstains on the store''s floor and started chatting about different things happening in the wasteland.


    As we were conversing, they started eating and drinking the food I had given them before. Several minutes quickly passed by from then and before I knew it, they finished filling themselves up. And right as they did, my robots were just about done getting everything loaded up. So with nothing keeping us here any longer, I headed outside with the ghouls following behind me.


    "Alright, time to head out to vault 101. Don, do you want a Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifle like one of the ones your brothers are currently using or do want something else, perhaps?" I asked Don.


    "Hmm... do you have any R91 Assault Rifles on hand? I would much prefer one of those since I''m much more used to them from my time in the military?" Don answered in his same old, raspy voice.


    "Yeah, I have a few of those." I answered while I sent 1 of my worker bots to retrieve 1 for Don and when it came back, it handed the weapon to Don.


    The instant Don got hold of the gun in his hands, he went over the weapon and racked the assault rifle''s bolt, clearing a jammed bullet.


    "Now I''m ready." Don said while he had his sniper rifle slung on his back and the R91 Assault Rifle in his hands loaded with a drum magazine.


    Once the 3 ghoul brothers were ready, they loaded up into Hauler since it was faster for them to ride on it than it was for them to try to keep up with my usual traveling speed. From there, we headed towards the east, following the crumbling and deteriorating asphalt road.

 Chapter 43: Home Again

    A couple of minutes in as we were traveling east along the road, it split into a Y shape, so I had us continue back tracking, heading in Vault 101''s direction. Following us changing direction, my group and I eventually got on a road heading northeast for the next couple of minutes till the road bent and continued eastward.


    No more than a handful of minutes later, the road broke yet again into another Y. So we continued retracing the route I had initially used when I departed on my journey into the capital wasteland, heading north for the next several minutes and arriving in the vicinity of Big Town. The moment we came into the area of Big Town, I examined the surroundings, looking for any possible threats.


    The coast looks clear.


    Not finding a single one, I had us follow the road west so we could get on the side road that heads to the southwest. After swapping over a number of roads, we came to the main again, and as soon as we did, I checked the area, searching for hostiles and traps like landmines and IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices).


    Look what we have here, a group of ants that need to be exterminated.


    Counting myself lucky to find such easy prey on my way back home, I scanned the rest of the region to make sure I wouldn''t be getting third partied when I go to eliminate these bugs. Lucky for me I didn''t find any more enemies. Finished observing the region, I redirected my group and had them move in on the small swarm of 30 giant worker ants heading in the southern direction along the main road, the one that directly passes by my destination.


    As we were rapidly closing the distance between us and them, I gripped my AER 29 LMG and aimed it at the group and held down the trigger for 10 seconds while sweeping the weapon left to right. Once those 10 seconds were up, the entire group of 30 giant worker ants was dispatched with their burnt remnants spread across the asphalt.


    Happy to have gained a small boost to my exp bar, we continued south instead of going southeast in the direction of the Springvale School. Because one we''re already on this one and two, this road will lead us directly to the vault just like the other route.


    Quickly passing by the many fresh giant ant corpses I made moments ago, my group and I came upon the branch we needed to take to reach Vault 101. But just as we were about to begin traveling north to follow it to our destination, I spotted a group of 3 giant radscorpions.


    The instant I spotted them, I signaled to my robots that they could deal with them. So, upon receiving that order, my robots unleashed a laser light show at them and after a few seconds of intense laser fire, they stopped. What was left of them was just a scorch mark on the earth and with not a single piece of the giant rad scorpions in sight.


    It''s a good thing I didn''t plan on looting them, otherwise I''d be crying right about now.


    I thought as I mushed Hauler north with the ghoul brothers and my small army of robots in tow.


    From that encounter, we sped off down the street and soon arrived at a large cave opening.


    Alright, I''m nearly at my destination. Let''s give them a ring.


    Slinging my AER 29 LMG over my shoulder, I pulled my communication device out and gave everyone a ring. And no longer than a couple of seconds later, Amata''s father, the overseer, answered the call. "You out front, Harold."


    "Yeah, I''m at the cave entrance of the vault. I''ll be heading inside when I hang up."


    "Alright, hold up for a minute while I get vault security to open the vault door for you. Also, just a heads up Amata is very antsy so be prepared to catch an Amata before she hurts herself, ha ha."


    "Okay, thanks for the heads up. I''ll see you guys in a minute."


    "See you then."


    The moment I hung up, I returned the communication device to my inventory, as well as my AER 29 LMG. Finished with that, I took Amata''s power armor out beyond anyone''s view and placed it into the back of Hauler so I could give it to her. When I was done taking care of that last thing, I directed the convoy to enter the cave and make their way to the massive door, keeping my original home safe from the dangers of the wastes.


    Making it to the door in less than a minute, I had the Hill brothers hop out of Hauler and waited alongside them for the nuke proof door to start opening. Whilst I was busily waiting, I exited out of my power armor so Amata wouldn''t injure herself when she inevitably leaps at me. As soon as I was out of the suit, the Hill brothers and I kept ourselves entertained by chatting about how life was prior to nuclear annihilation.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    After a couple of minutes had passed by, we heard the vault door begin to open, so we halted our conversation and directed our attention to the vault door.


    *Grrrrnnddd*


    The massive metal door screeched as it was dragged into place and when it had finally ground to a halt, it rolled off to the left side, revealing the vault entrance. The instant the door stopped rolling and came to a complete stop, Amata came charging out towards me and leaped towards me where I caught her and spun her around to slow down her momentum. So she wouldn''t crash into me and injure herself against my increasingly dense and tough body.


    "You missed me?" I asked.


    All I got in response to my question from the girl with a bright red face latched to me was a small nod against my chest and a mm sound. Sharing a hug with Amata for a few short seconds longer, I let her stay latched to me via my hand while I headed inside to greet everyone and see how they''d been doing since I''d been gone from the vault.


    Shortly thereafter Amata, the ghoul brothers, and I entered the vault and when we did we were greeted by my and Amata''s dad along with officer Gomez, a number of the vault security uncles, old man Pete, and Butch and the gang. From that point on, I spent the next 10 minutes talking to everyone there and introducing the three Hill brothers to those gathered here.


    After conversing with everyone for a brief period, I sent a signal to the robots with Mechu-deru and had them start moving the stockpiled stuff in my research/workshop area. Once I had taken care of assigning them their new job, we all collectively headed to the usual dining area and had a bit of a welcome back party for me, even though it was a bit much to have one for me when I was only gone for a relatively short time. Regardless, you weren''t going to catch me complaining since I got the opportunity to eat a ton of delicious food that I didn''t have to make myself.


    ...


    Two hours later, Amata and I headed out to spend some quality time together, like I had promised her a while ago when I was out and about in the wasteland. Venturing off, the two of us exited the dining area where the welcome back event was held and right as we did, Amata immediately attached herself to my right arm.


    Seeing her smiling and happy as can be, we began walking through the maze-like gray halls to one of the many communal entertainment areas down here. On our way there, the two of us navigated our way through the hallways, passing by numerous vault dwellers going about their daily lives, and before long, we were right outside our intended destination.


    Stepping inside the entrance, it opened up to a very large room filled to the brim with well over a hundred different games to choose from. "So what do you want to start off with first, Amata?"


    "Hmm... How about we go play some air hockey?" She replied, whilst seeking my opinion as well.


    "Sounds good to me." I responded before we both headed over to one of the four air hockey tables located in this entertainment area.


    Amata and I then spent the next half an hour playing air hockey. Surprisingly, she got really into it since I was keeping the game at a draw for a good portion of the game. Nevertheless, we kept it up till the half-an-hour mark when I thought it was about time we went and did something else for a bit, otherwise we''ll be here all day from the looks of things. Thus, I waited till she hit the puck and when it was nearing my striker; I let it pass by the smallest of margins into my goal, giving her the win.


    *Clink*


    "Yea, I got it in!" Amata cheered excitedly at the breaking of our tie.


    Waiting a few seconds to let Amata bask in her achievement, I complimented her winning shot. "You did great, Amata. That last shot was phenomenal."


    "Ohh, it wasn''t that great. You just let me win." She said a bit shyly with her cheeks flushing faintly.


    "Nonsense, you did phenomenally well."


    Showering her with a few more words of praise, I moved things along. "What do you want to go do now?"


    "Let''s go play a few of the other games here and when we''ve had our fill, let''s go for a swim. It''s been a while since we''ve last swam together and I don''t think we''ll have very many, if any, opportunities to do so once we''re out adventuring in the wasteland."


    "It has been a while, hasn''t it... Alright, let''s go do that then and you''re very right about there being no opportunities to go swimming in the wasteland. Most of the water in the wasteland is contaminated with varying levels of radiation."


    "Oh, and when we''re done swimming, I''ll cook us something nice for dinner."


    "For just the two of us?" She inquired with hopeful eyes.


    "Yes, for just the two of us." I answered lastly, which got me a bright beaming smile from Amata.


    Following our little chat, Amata and I spent the next hour and a half going from game to game, enjoying our time together before we finished our session on the skee ball machine, where I took the final win by a few hundred more points than her. Which was surprising since I was actually putting in effort to win.


    "Aww, I almost had you there. Better luck next time, I guess." My talented skee ball girl commented right after we finished the game.


    "Yeah, you had me on the ropes for just about the entirety of that game. You even nearly had me beat towards the end there. Nice try though, Amata. I''m sure you''ll have me beat next time around or if we decide to go bowling."


    "Mm, I''ll definitely win if we go bowling. I have a very good average, you know." She replied, a bit puffed up.


    "Indeed, you do."


    We spent a couple of minutes chatting and when I thought it was time for a change of scenery; I decided to ask if she was ready to head to our next activity. "You ready to head to the pool and get that swim in or do you want to play one more game before we go?"


    "Yeah, I''ve played enough games for now. Let''s go to the pool and after that, we can have that dinner you promised me." She answered.


    The braver and braver girl then wrapped her arms around my right arm, latching herself onto me again a split second later while wearing a small but pretty smile.


    With her attached to my arm, we exited the arcade and took out time going to our next destination.

 Chapter 44: Slice Of Life

    After several minutes of navigating the extensive vault hallways, we arrived at the entrance of the pool. Heading on in, we got changed into swimsuits that were provided on-site to any vault resident that wished to use them and grabbed ourselves a couple of towels. Once we had our towels in hand, the two of us proceeded to the pool and found that it was nearly empty with only a few older residents relaxing or doing laps back and forth to keep themselves in shape.


    Looking at the large pool of water feet away from us, I asked. "You ready to jump in, Amata?"


    "Of course. It''s just too bad we won''t have the ability to go for a swim out in the wasteland."


    "I mean, we could build a pool, so it''s not like we won''t be able to forever."


    "Really?"


    "Yeah, I just need to prepare a few more things before we''re in the position to do so."


    Ready to hop in, Amata and I made our way over to one of the many benches around the pool area, set our towels down, and walked over to the pool to get our swimming in. As soon as we reached an area of the pool that had no vault residents in the way, we dove right in and began performing laps back and forth.


    Some time into our swim, I noticed Amata was beginning to tire out, so I got her attention and stopped her. We then transferred from that activity to enjoying ourselves relaxing in the pool, talking to one another. This went on for a little more than an hour and as we came up on the one hour mark, we started to get hungry, thus we decided that was enough swimming for today and removed ourselves from the comfortable water.


    Upon getting out of the pool, we headed over to the bench that had our towels and dried ourselves off. Once we were sufficiently dried off, we left the poolside for the locker rooms separated for the different genders and got back in the clothes we were wearing prior to swimming. After spending a few minutes getting changed in the locker room, Amata and I met back up outside and headed to my home to have an early dinner between just the two of us.


    Following another walk through the gray vault hallways later, we arrived at my dwelling where we entered and sat down on the couch by the old-styled tube television for a bit, chatting away about this and that. Doing so for a decent length of time, I eventually got up to go whip up some dinner, but before I could venture off to go do that, Amata offered her help. Unwilling to shut down her attempt at trying to spend time together, I took her up on her offer, and thus we went to the kitchen.


    When we got there, I asked her if she wanted to have anything in particular. "So you care what we have for dinner, or do you have no preference?"


    "I don''t really have anything in mind. We can just have whatever you feel like eating. You were eating quite ferociously at the welcome-back party as if you were a starving animal. So I think you are due for some of the dishes you haven''t been able to eat out there." She shrugged, happy to just be spending time together.


    "Well, you would probably react the same if the only thing you''ve been eating for a while now is the same bland, high protein MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) every day. But that won''t be an issue for much longer since I''m working on getting food production up and running back at the RobCo Facility."


    "Unfortunately, it won''t solve the meat issue. Therefore, something is going to have to be done about it since I can''t see us subsisting off of MREs for very long."


    "Very true." She nodded, agreeing.


    "I guess I should probably make a refrigerated truck or a specialized robot for refrigeration so we can have meat while we''re living at the RobCo Facility. Which will be our new home for the foreseeable future, other than Vault 101, of course." I said, noticing her eyes gain a bit of sparkle to them when I referenced the words ''our new home''.


    Waited a couple of seconds for her to come back to reality, her mind seemed to be focused elsewhere so I tried getting her attention. "Earth to Amata, you there?" I called out to her.


    "Ahh-uh, yeah, that would probably work, and when we''re set up enough, we can think about pursuing animal husbandry on our own out there. That would eliminate our need to get our meat from here, thereby making us entirely self-sufficient."


    "Mm, we could do that. Good thinking, Amata."


    "Hehehe." She smiled happily at getting praised.


    "As for what I think we should have for dinner, what about some pork chops and several sides?" I asked her


    "I have no complaints about pork chops. They sound great, in fact. Also sorry about spacing out there."If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "It''s no problem. Now let''s get the ingredients we''re gonna need for the pork chops and the sides." I said lastly as I went to the refrigerator and started pulling out all the needed ingredients we were going to require for dinner. As I was doing that, Amata was off to the side, taking the different seasonings out we normally used for the pork chops.


    ...


    Almost half an hour later, we had everything made, so we began bringing the food to the table and the moment everything was set, we sat down and started working away at the meal we had prepared together. As we ate, we conversed about several different topics, ranging from subjects such as what I''d been up to in the wasteland to what sort of things we''ll be doing out in the capital wasteland. And before either of us knew it, we had completely devoured our early dinner and been chatting for nearly an hour and 30 minutes.


    Time sure flies by when you have good company.


    We would''ve kept it going for longer, but my dear ole dad got off of work and came walking through the entrance, so we cut it at that. Thankfully, it wasn''t much of an issue since Amata was practically smiling from ear to ear just about and was radiating such positive energy, that I may just have to start calling her sunshine at this rate.


    Whilst my old man entered the home, Amata got up and greeted him and when she was done, I asked him how''d things had gone today. "How was work, dad?"


    "Not too bad, son. There were no big injuries or any other emergencies today. Although it would''ve been nice if I had my boy there to give me a helping hand, like old times." He answered while taking off his outer work attire before handing it to Amata, who had partially gotten up to help my father.


    "Well, you know how it is. Gotta keep my promises and all that. That said, I''ll give you a hand the next time I stop by the vault."


    "Phew, I was hoping you would say that and don''t worry, son. I''ll make sure you keep your word." My old man said while patting my shoulder and grinning at the fact that he roped me into his work once again.


    With my dad arriving home, the three of us moved to the living room and talked for a while before my dad started to get hungry. So I got up to make him a hot meal, which was something he really appreciated. When the food was done, I brought it over to him and handed it to him and as he ate, Amata and I conversed about what she could help me with when we got to the RobCo Facility.


    "For starters, things aren''t really going to be all that different from when you were assisting me in the lab. That said, I suppose you can help with organizing the facility and getting it into tip-top shape, and if you want, you can help design the different rooms for the facility such as the bedrooms, entertainment area, gym, etc." I told her after explaining several other things in detail.


    "Really, that''s all?" Amata asked, surprised with a glimmer in her eyes at the mention of designing the rooms.


    Looks like she has that homemaking streak that most women have.


    Happy to offload the job of making the facility feel homely on to her, I responded. "Yup, there''s not a whole lot we need to do since I have over 200 worker bots running around now. They handle a majority of the menial tasks and don''t really require my help at all other than me giving them direction and assigning new tasks for them to complete."


    Hearing my reply, my dad paused his chowing when I mentioned the number of worker bots I now had in my possession.


    "Wait, wait, wait, hold up a second there, son. How many robots did you just say you had now?" He asked in disbelief.


    "Over 200 worker bots, dad. And that number is currently increasing as we speak."


    A few seconds passed by while my dad was in a bit of a stupor, so my girl and I talked for a short time before my dad came back and joined the rest of us in reality.


    "Is what you said really true?" My father asked, trying to confirm the validity of my statement.


    "It''s 100% true, dad. Why do you ask?"


    "Well, son, you''re producing robots at such an absurd rate that you could probably take over the capital wasteland in its entirety within a few years'' time, if not even sooner than that. I just find it to be a bit unbelievable that you have accomplished so much in such a limited timeframe."


    "Ahh, I guess it is a slight bit unbelievable, given the current state of the world. Regardless, that''s the reality of my current situation. I had the materials and the know-how to get the RobCo Facility back up and running and that''s the number of robots I''ve been able to produce thus far."


    A few moments of silence passed before dad commented in a sad voice. "If what you said is the truth, Harold, I guess you''ll be able to accomplish your mother''s and I''s dream within a very short period of time."


    *Sigh*


    "I only wish she would be here to see what you''ll accomplish in the near future." Dad continued, somewhat depressed that his wife, my mother, wasn''t here to see what I will accomplish in due time.


    If only you knew, dad that she''ll be able to see it as well in the future, but I can''t really tell you that since you''ll think I''m nuts if I was to come out and say that I could revive the dead.


    "I''m sure mom is watching us from wherever she is now, dad. So she''ll be able to watch us turn the world into a better place in the not-so-distant future." I told him, trying to comfort him, which did noticeably improve his mood.


    Following that, the three of us discussed several of the other things regarding what I''ve accomplished in the time I had been gone and after a while, dad finished his meal and retired to his room for the night, leaving just Amata and me. And since it was getting around time to head to bed, I got up and walked Amata back to her home, even though she was very reluctant to leave my side.


    Upon reaching her home, we found her father sitting in the living room, likely waiting for his not so little girl''s return. So I talked to him and inquired about how the three ghoul brothers were doing. He told me that they were doing just fine and were with the other ghouls the vault had among their population. The ones that came from the wasteland just like my dad and me all those years ago. Though there weren''t all that many ghouls, only a few handfuls of them actually, since they were rarely seen due to them usually being busy with elder council work.


    After dropping off Amata, I checked up on the three ghoul brothers myself and once I was sure they had accommodations for the night; I headed back through gray vault hallways, passing by significantly fewer vault residents due to it getting late. The second I reached home, I hopped in my bed that I hadn''t slept in for a minute and fell asleep right away.

 Chapter 45: Amata Joins The Adventure

    Date Thursday, August 26, 2275


    Four hours later, I woke up very well-rested and ready to get back into the swing of things.


    *Yawn*


    What time is it¡­


    Sitting up, I checked my Pip-Boy for the time and right as the screen lit up; I saw that it was 2:05 am.


    It''s a bit early to be getting up, but I don''t particularly want to sleep anymore. So I might as well head to my lab and load myself up with as many of my resources as I can hold and when I''m done doing that, I''ll go to the gym to get a workout in. However, before I do any of that, let me check up on my robots and see how they''re doing.


    Following that thought of mine, I used Mechu-deru, which I''ve been becoming increasingly more proficient with, and checked my robots to see how much progress they''ve made. What I discovered was that my robots had finished packing as much as they possibly could onto both Hauler and my hauling bots. They had filled them to the brim with a variety of resources and materials, which meant they were ready to move out as soon as the Amata and the ghoul brothers woke up.


    At the same time that I was checking the robots here at the vault, I investigated the situation back at the facility with one of my other thought processes. What I found there was that my robots hadn''t encountered any issues whatsoever and were actually progressing just fine. Despite how things were progressing without issue over there, I did notice that robots working on scrapping the vehicles out in the parking lot were rapidly closing in on having the last of them scrapped.


    Taking a closer look through my robots'' vision I could see they probably had around a weeks worth of nonfunctioning cars left to go through before they reached the point of me needing to either start sending them out to scrap the cars along the road or divert them to help to get the power plant conversion sped up. If I do the latter, I''ll need to figure out what I want to do to gather resources to fuel my operations and manufacturing needs.


    Good, they have that all taken care of and have encountered even a single issue while I was asleep. As great as that is, I''m inching closer and closer to running out of my reserves of scrap... It''s probably time I started putting that Metal Detector perk of mine to use so I can begin looking for deposits of ore near my home. Ones that I can use for building and making more robots, weapons and expanding my ammo reserves.


    With my robots checked up on, it''s time to do my part and proceed to my lab to get myself loaded with as many resources as possible.


    *Growl*


    But first a quick snack.


    Hopping out of my bed, I took a quick shower, and the moment I was done cleaning myself off and going through the rest of my morning routine, I moved on to the next thing and rummaged through my snack stash. I sifted through my stash until I pulled out several energy bars loaded up with protein and nutrients. Devouring those nutrient packed bars, I started heading for the door.


    I would''ve made something to eat but I don''t want to wake up dad with my cooking so this will have to do.


    Done filling myself up, I exited my room and several seconds later I was out the front and striding through the barren and simplistic gray vault hallways to my lab. Not passing by a single soul, I reached the front of the door of my lab in record time and headed inside. I then made my way over to the portion of the lab I had dedicated to storing the variety of items and resources I accumulated over the years.


    It took me a while, but eventually had my inventory filled just about to the brim with only enough capacity left for a few hundred pounds. My reason for not filling it all the way was in case I came across anything of value on my return to my new home.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Now that I''m loaded up as well, I have a pretty good idea how many trips it''s going to take my mechanical men and me to transport everything over. From my estimations, it shouldn''t take us more than five more trips back and forth to get the rest of my things transferred to the former RobCo Facility, and since that''s the case I think I''ll spend the next couple of days doing just that.


    And the day the last of my stuff has finally been transferred, I''ll explore the nearby metro with Amata and my robots and clear it of all its inhabitants so I can get to work on getting it linked up with my home. Additionally, while I''m doing that I can use my Metal Detector perk to see what sort of resources are nearby. Hopefully, there are some halfway decent deposits in the vicinity of where I plan to do the tunneling to connect with the metro.


    With an item box full of loot, I proceeded to the gym next, intent on getting a workout in. A bit of walking through the gray vault hallways later, I arrived at the front entrance of the gym. Entering on inside, I retrieved a towel just in case and began working out by applying my carry weight onto my body. I spent a few hours there working out and when I decided to call it quits; I checked my Pip-Boy for the time once again and right as the screen lit up; I saw it was 5:58.


    I have a bit more time left till everyone is up. What to do... After thinking about it for a second, I think I''ll head to the pool to get a swim in. Yeah, that doesn''t sound like too bad of an idea. I do miss being able to swim whenever I please. I will definitely have to see about getting a pool built. Though that will have to wait till I get the reverse osmosis system built in the facility to treat and purify the radioactive water supply.


    Coming to a decision rather fast, I left the gym and walked to the pool to swim for the next hour and after that hour of swimming, everyone should be up, or at least Amata will be. And knowing her she''ll likely than not be letting herself into my home by the time I''m done with my swim.


    So the next hour, I swam back and forth in the pool for god knows how many laps and when the one hour mark rolled around; it was time for me to head home. Thus, I swam with enough force to just hop on up and out of the pool, a feat that no normal human would''ve been capable of. Drying myself off, I made my way over to the locker room, swapped back over to my dry clothes and as soon as I was finished changing, I continued on my way to the exit and into the expansive hallways of the vault to my home.


    As I was nearing my place, I detected Amata''s presence in my home already, so I headed on inside stealthily. From there, I crept up behind her while she was in the kitchen cooking breakfast and hugged her from behind, spooking her for just a split second before she relaxed.


    "Moh, Harold, don''t scare me like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack." She said with a somewhat flushed face, pretending to complain even though she knew that I knew she liked it when I would sneak up on her and wrap my arms around from behind.


    "Are you sure about that, Amata? You know I know you love it when I ambush you from behind because it gets your heart racing." I teased.


    Seeing her getting embarrassed, I diverted from that topic with my arms still wrapped around her waist. "Moving on from that. What are you making?"


    "Well, I''m making bacon, eggs, sausage, and toast for all of us, since this will be the last meal we''ll be able to share with our dads for a while." She said, still somewhat red faced. Though displaying a small smile and giving off a vibe that she was clearly happy and satisfied with the current situation.


    "Sounds good. I can''t wait. But you''re wrong about this being that last meal we''ll have with our dads. We''ll be coming back and forth from Vault 101 and our new home five more times in the next two days to get the rest of my things moved over. So we''ll be able to see our dads quite a few more times before we''re out there on our own for a period."


    Seeing her brighten up at what I just informed her of, we chatted for another minute before I let her go and started helping out by getting the table set. Once everything was set up, I began assisting with whatever else needed to be done. Which ended up not being much due to the fact we were only preparing a simple meal. Not too long after that, dad showed up on the scene and made his coffee, followed closely by Amata''s father, the overseer.


    So as the two old men were discussing an assortment of topics regarding the vault and occasionally one about Amata and me, us two kept preparing. The moment all the food was ready, I helped Amata bring everything to the table and mushed our dads to the simple dining table.


    Around 30 or so minutes in, we finished eating, so we spent the next 10 making small talk. When we finished that up, everyone got up and began journeying up to the surface where the main vault door was located. I would''ve sidetracked and retrieved the three ghoul brothers, but they were already at the exit waiting to head out, so we made our way there at a decent pace, not too slow nor too fast.

 Chapter 46: Setting Off Again

    Shortly thereafter, our group of four arrived on the scene and the instant we did, we said our goodbyes to everyone who came to see us off before sharing a hug with our parents. Once the two of us had done that, I brought Amata over to her suit of power armor.


    "This will be your suit of power armor from now on, Amata. I hope you like it. It''ll keep you safe from most of the dangers that exist out in the wastes."


    "Wow, this suit of armor is beautiful." She gushed as she walked circles around, inspecting the advanced and extremely durable black and red power armor.


    Once she had examined it plenty, she turned round and latched on to me. "Thanks, Harold. I love it."


    "Good, I made it just for you."


    She stayed attached to me for a few more seconds before letting me go and approaching the standing set of armor. As she was going to attempt to climb into it, I stopped her in her tracks and had her get suited up in the Shadow Armor I made for her previously.


    The moment she got the suit of Shadow Armor on, I began showing and introducing the different features of the suit to her. As soon as she understood how they worked and tested them out, I started teaching her how to operate the custom power armor suit I made for her, the Phoenix Power Armor. When I was sure she understood how to operate every facet of the armor and all of its features, including the jet pack, I handed her my AER 29 LMG to use temporarily.


    Following that, I got myself decked out in my own suit, that being my Annihilator Power Armor. Immediately upon getting suited up, I retrieved my gatling gun Mulcher out of the view of everyone except my girl since I showed her most of my abilities long ago. Wielding my heavy weapon with a firm grip, I walked over to the three ghoul brothers with Amata following alongside me and had them hop on in Hauler''s cabin.


    With the brothers loaded up, I walked over to the front of my group with Amata and waved goodbye to all our friends and family that we won''t be seeing for a bit.


    "Time to head out. You ready, Amata?"


    "Yes." She answered both confidently and excitedly.


    "Alright, let''s head out." I told my group.


    Now, on our way, we exited the large cave that housed the entrance of Vault 101 and proceeded down the road west to the abandoned ruins of Springvale. From there we got to an intersection within the town and headed north following the crumbling asphalt road. Traveling on that road for a short bit, we reached the main one and right as we did; I scanned the area for any hostiles. Not seeing any, we cut through the main roadway and continued northward for the next several minutes.


    After traveling for the next short bit, we arrived in the vicinity of Big Town, thus I observed the surroundings to see if any super mutants were around. As I was in the midst of eyeing the environment, I discovered a group of 11 of them and 2 centaurs crossing the bridge to the north, most likely coming from the Hallowed Moors Cemetery. Having found mutants to kill, I got everyone to hold up so I could use them to ease Amata into killing before she inevitably needs to take human lives one day, like raider lives.


    "Alright, everyone, we got hostiles about 1,500 meters out coming from the north and they consist of 10 normal super mutants, 1 super mutant brute, and 2 centaurs."


    Getting a number of affirmatives, Amata asked. "What are super mutants and centaurs?"


    "They are two different types of humans that were subjected to the forced evolutionary virus or FEV for short."


    "Oh, if they''re human, can they be reasoned with?"


    "Nope, the ones here in the east are basically all nuts and highly aggressive except for a small few."This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "That''s unfortunate. So what are we going to do about them?"


    "Well, I''m going to have you eliminate a few of them so you can get used to killing. The super mutant look somewhat human so that should help with dealing with any negative mental effects you may have when you take your first human life. Which is a guaranteed thing to happen out here in the wasteland."


    "Okay, I''ll try my best. But I don''t think I''ll be all that affected by it."


    "Why is that?" I asked curiously.


    "Hmm... I just don''t think it will affect me, or at least that is the feeling I have."


    "...We''ll see in a moment, then. Raise the AER 29 LMG I gave you and take out 3 of them."


    Hearing my directive, she raised her AER 29 LMG, rested it against the shoulder of her armor, set it to full auto, and looked down the scope of the gun with both eyes open so as to not reduce her situational awareness. She then locked onto the nearing super mutants that were still a ways out and pulled the trigger when she felt she was ready.


    As soon as she pulled the trigger back, she let out a burst of laser fire, downing one of them immediately. With the first one down, she moved the scope''s reticle over to the next and pulled the trigger, releasing her 2nd burst of automatic laser fire.


    Increasing her kill count to two, the muties started reacting by releasing their usual rage-induced war cry and stormed in our direction where the laser fire originated. While they were pointlessly charging over, Amata effortlessly took out the last super mutant I asked her to kill with her 3rd burst of laser fire.


    "Good Job, Amata. I''ll take care of the rest."


    "Thanks."


    Now that she was done with what I asked of her, I took over, set Mulcher to 2,000 rounds per minute, spooled it, and released a short burst at the remaining members of the mutant party shredding them and even bisecting one of the super mutants. After I was done killing off that group, I heard the residents of Big Town panicking in the distance and yelling for everyone to get inside.


    "With the super mutant problem resolved, how are you feeling, Amata?" I asked her to make sure she wasn''t experiencing anything negative.


    "Not too bad. I just feel slightly saddened at taking a life." She responded in a slightly saddened tone, looking to be somewhat affected by her actions, although minimally.


    "Amata, take your helmet off for a second."


    A second later, she did as I asked, thus I took off mine as well and strode up to her. And as her head was raised, looking up at me, I leaned down and stole her lips so this potentially traumatic experience wouldn''t be all negative and would instead be a positive one.


    Hopefully, this will make it easier for her when she inevitably has to end another life in the future.


    "Aah." She sputtered out before her face lit up with blush.


    "Better?"


    "Nn." She responded, nodding her head whilst looking at me sweetly.


    "Aye, young love." Don commented from Hauler''s cabin along with the rest of the peanut gallery, triggering Amata''s embarrassment.


    "Pipe down, old timer." I told him in a not-so-serious tone.


    "Aye, aye, leader." Don replied jokingly in his rough, raspy ghoul voice.


    "Alright, put your helmet back on." I told Amata while she was distracted by what happened and Don''s comment.


    As Amata put her helmet back on, I slipped my own back into place and got everyone to continue down the road to the east for a minute. From there, we took a turn and went south until we got to the bend of the road. Hopping onto that deteriorating road, the convoy continued journeying to the east for some time till we came upon the Jury Street Metro Station.


    Still as cautious as ever, I raked my gaze across the area to see if there were any hostile forces nearby. After a few seconds of searching the surroundings, I spotted a pack of 5 deathclaws roaming the road we were taking to get to my home.


    "Hold up everyone, we got 5 deathclaws up ahead at around 1,100 meters out." I warned.


    I was expecting Amata to ask what those were, but I didn''t hear her say anything, so she must still be distracted by the kiss from earlier.


    "Amata, you there."


    "Ah, yes, I''m here. What is it, Harold?" She responded in a sweet and endearing voice.


    Haa, I may have opened Pandora''s box this time around.


    Sighing mentally, I asked. "Weren''t you going to ask me what a deathclaw was?"


    "Ohh, yeah, I was going to, what is a deathclaw?" She responded in the same tone of voice as previously.


    "A deathclaw is a genetically engineered Jackson''s Chameleon designed by the U.S. government as a weapon of war. Which means they are exceptionally deadly in close-range combat, so I would advise you not engage them in melee combat and to always take them out from afar."


    "So if I was to engage one in melee combat, what should I do?"


    "You shouldn''t have to worry about that since you have a jetpack, but if you do, your armor is too much for them to penetrate. So just crank the amperage up on your power armor gauntlets to lethal levels and shock them with it. That should be enough to stun if not kill them outright."


    With the Q & A out of the way, I had everyone stay where they were and walked out of the ghoul brothers'' view. And right as I was out of sight, I put Mulcher away for now and retrieved Severance from my inventory to give it its first real combat test.

 Chapter 47: Manhandling The Deathclaw Pack

    Now armed with my new primary melee weapon, I sprinted forth toward the group of deathclaws, ready to put my weapon through a real trial. Because of my inhuman speed, it didn''t take me long at all to begin nearing them, but when I reached around 100-meters away from them, one of the five deathclaws noticed me rapidly approaching them.


    The instant it did, it released a guttural roar from its throat, drawing the attention of its fellow deathclaws. Seconds after it produced that noise, its pack mates seemed to have been informed of my presence, thus they collectively turned in my direction, locking their predatory gazes on my figure that was mere moments away from reaching them.


    A split second later, I arrived in front of the pack of deathclaws, immediately revving the chainsword in my hands, and making a wide cleaving swing with the massive six-foot sword at the nearest deathclaw''s midsection. My heavy slab of a sword whooshed through the air and before long, the durable serrated teeth of my chainsword met the hide of the deathclaw. The many teeth immediately started going to town, ripping through its hard scaley hide, encountering no resistance on its path to meeting the mutated reptile''s comparatively soft tender flesh underneath its tough exterior.


    Entering my first victim''s flesh, my massive weapon tore its way on through to the internals of the poor thing, causing massive damage along the way. And as soon as the many serrated teeth on my sword were done sawing through the Deathclaws organs, they proceeded on their destructive path of destruction. Bisecting the creature and sending blood splattering and pieces of its internal organs flying through the air as if I was sawing through a locust in gear of war with a lancer.


    Just like a hot knife through butter... This brutality reminds me of days of playing gears of war on the Xbox 360 and sawing locusts in half with the lancer. Ahh, those were the days, man. It''s really too bad I''ll never again have the opportunity of ever playing that series, let alone any of the cult classics from my original world.


    Whilst that thought was passing through my mind in a fraction of a second midway through my fight, I raised the flat side of my sword and blocked the elongated claws of one of the deathclaws. As I was about to move on to my next action, which was to push back and decapitate it, I had an idea come to mind. One that will let me get some more use out of them before I send the four of them on their way.


    It probably wouldn''t be too bad of an idea to use these four for a bit of training... That really doesn''t sound like such a bad idea. I''m already putting my new melee weapon through trials, so might as well turn this into a bit of training sesh as well. I might even be able to net myself a few skill points and maybe even raise one of my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s in the process, so why not.


    Knowing that my sword will have little issue dealing with their defenses, I decided to use the four deathclaws in front of me for a bit as my training partners.


    *Clash... Clash... Swoosh...*


    Ten minutes quickly elapsed when I decided I had kept my group waiting long enough, thus revved my chainsword again at 30,000 revolutions per minute and sliced through the chest of one of the surrounding deathclaws. From there, I moved on to the next one and decapitated it, causing it to spew blood all over the place as if it was a fountain. With only two remaining now, I made a wide slash at the closest one, disemboweling it and leaving the mutated lizard on death''s door.


    Even though it wasn''t dead just yet, it wasn''t in any condition to fight, let alone do anything to me, so I moved on to the remaining predator. With only a single deathclaw left standing and not even the smallest of chances of it winning this fight, I took the liberty to swap weapons and shoved the tip of my massive chainsword into the barren wasteland soil. I then proceeded to unsheathe my Commando Knife from my waist and take it into my right hand. However, before I could unsheathe my other Commando Knife from my left calf, I dodged back just enough to get out of range of the last deathclaw''s wild swings.


    Seeing the deathclaw miss its last chance to do any damage to me, I forewent unsheathing my other Commando Knife and engaged it by ramming into it with the spiked right shoulder of my power armor, putting several nice sized holes into the Deathclaws hide that bled seconds later. Drawing blood and putting the reptile off balance for a second, I quickly moved in on the opportunity I made for myself with my knife in hand. Bringing it close, I raised up and slashed down on its right hand, nearly severing it because of my absurd strength.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    From that slash, I rammed into the large reptilian again with my spiked shoulder and brought it to the ground this time. Now that I had it on the ground in a compromising position where it could put up very little defense, I went in for the kill and climbed on top of the beast. I then brought my large knife that was basically a short sword near the deathclaw turned training dummy and stabbed my knife from underneath its chin. As soon as my knife breached its hide, it slid right into the deathclaw''s head, penetrating its brain and ending its life then and there.


    Finished with that poor bastard, I checked the other ones to see if they were still kicking and the second to last one was still alive, though barely. So not wanting to prolong its suffering and to collect a bit of xp, I walked over to primary melee weapon, pulled Severance from the dirt and made my way toward the last surviving deathclaw and ended its suffering by severing its head from the rest of its body.


    Although that was a nice, enjoyable little training session, it''s about time I''ve rejoined my group and gotten a move on.


    Having had my fun with the pack of now deceased deathclaws, I returned to my convoy. And as I was going around to the rear to swap my gear back to what I was using previously out of the view of the ghoul brothers; I saw the three of them wearing rather comical expressions upon their rotten faces with their mouths just about hanging open.


    Amused, I spent the following several seconds swapping back to my main ranged ballistic loadout. Throwing the ammo backpack on, I got a good grasp on Mulcher and walked back to the front of the convoy.


    "Did you have fun?" Amata asked the moment I arrived.


    "I did. I''ll have to see about capturing and training a few of them to use as sparring partners when we get food production up and running at our new home."


    "That''s good. I''m glad that you enjoyed yourself, so where to now?" She responded, still radiating positive energy due to the previous events.


    "We''re going to continue traveling west on the road until we get to the three-way intersection and once there, we''re going to take a left and head south for a while."


    With Amata''s question answered, I re-enabled my presence hiding stealth field before my group and I made our way forward to the next bit. The instant we arrived at the three-way intersection, we made a left turn and continued southbound. We traveled along for some time on that road till we encountered a group of 3 Albino Radscorpions which I had my robots quickly dispatch. And when they were done reducing their carapaces to ash, my group and I kept journeying south.


    Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the next three-way intersection, so I had everyone pause for a second while I scanned the area. Not spotting anything, I continued leading the way forward, now taking a right turn that would then curve to the south.


    We followed the road for a number of minutes and eventually made it to the four-way intersection that leads to the former RobCo Facility. So we continued moving and, upon beginning to enter the large crossroad, I simultaneously scanned the surrounding area for any hostiles. After doing that for a few seconds, I spotted a band of raiders a decent distance out about 1,300 meters approaching from the west, most likely coming from the Evergreen Mills.


    "Alright, guys, we have a group of 18 raiders off to the west. Take care of them and bring back the loot they''re carrying if it has any value." I ordered my robots.


    *Roger-* My more combat-oriented robots responded before they set off to rid the wasteland of another vile group of bandits.


    "Amata, make sure you watch the fight so you can get used to seeing blood, gore, and the death of humans."


    "I''ll try, but it may take me a while to get used to seeing people getting killed, let alone killing them myself." She responded in a not so enthused sounding voice.


    "Well, if it makes you feel any better raiders commit all sorts of atrocities on a regular basis that include but are not limited to killing wastelanders just trying to survive out here for their resources or just because they can, the rape of men, women, and children, the torture of men, women, and children, and the enslavement of them." I informed her, trying to make it somewhat easier for her by giving her a valid reason to rid the world of them.


    "Now that you''ve told me that, I actually don''t feel as bad for them now." She replied shortly after what I had told her.


    "Good, I''m sure once you encounter and see the atrocities they commit frequently for yourself, any reservation you had about killing them will disappear into thin air." I responded, receiving a slight nod from her power armor-covered head before she then lifted the AER 29 LMG I handed her back at the vault and looked through its scope.


    A large amount of laser and ballistic weapon fire later, my robots marched and rolled back over with some halfway decent loot in tow.


    | Loot |


    Aid: 10 Syringes of Med-x, 7 Psycho, 3 Bags of Radaway, 27 Stimpaks


    Ammo: 273 10mm Rounds, 90 12 Gauge Shotgun Shells, 1,143 5.56 Rounds, 299 Units of Flamer Fuel


    Magazines: 6 Combat Shotgun Drum Magazines, 8 30 Round CSG10 Submachine Gun Magazines, 2 100 round Light Machine Gun Box Magazines, 25 30 Round R91 Assault Rifle Magazines, 10 30 Round Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifle Magazines


    Weapons: 3 Combat Shotguns, 2 CSG10 Submachine Guns, 1 Flamer, 1 Light Machine Gun, 8 R91 Assault Rifles, 3 Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles


    The second my robots returned from taking care of that group of raiders, we got the loot organized, loaded up, and continued on our way southbound, crossing the intersection.

 Chapter 48: Living Arrangements

    A brief 10 minutes later, we finally reached our destination.


    As we were coming into the parking lot, I said aloud to my group. "Alright everyone, we''re finally here. Let''s circle around to the back and see where everyone is going to stay."


    Following that, we circled around to where the loading area was located and as soon as we began nearing the massive blast doors; I had one of my worker bots that were inside the facility open them up for us.


    *Chirp...Chirp...Chirp...*


    *Grrrnnnd-*


    With the massive blast door settled into place, we all streamed into the loading area. Once the whole bunch of us had made it past the opening and were inside, I made Hauler park before I told the ghoul brothers Don, Hugo, and Kevin hop on out of Hauler''s cabin. When the three of them stepped out and planted their feet onto the smooth concrete floors of the loading area, they started looking around the area. As they continued taking in the sights, their expressions quickly shifted to awe, or what I interpreted to be as such, upon their rotted faces.


    The three of them stayed in that state for a few seconds before I interrupted them from their stupor. "Not too bad of a setup, right?"


    "...No, you, in fact, have an unbelievable setup. I almost can''t believe you have something like this in the current state of the world." Hugo responded after a moment before continuing on further.


    "When you originally told us you had the foundation for your ambitious goals already prepared, I thought you were talking about the robots following you, not the small army robots I see you have here."


    As I was going to respond, he continued again. "Oh, also if you don''t mind me asking, what model are those robots? I don''t ever recall seeing them back before the bombs fell. I meant to ask that yesterday, but I was distracted by the many things that were happening and taking place that day." He asked, slightly excited.


    "Well, this is the very minimum I would need to say that I have the foundation to possibly restart human civilization and bring back some normalcy to this fucked up world we now live in. Also, if I didn''t have at least this, I would just be spouting nonsense and would be looked at as nothing more than a delusional individual." I responded before pausing for a second and continuing moments later.


    "And as expected, my gut was correct in suspecting that you three didn''t fully believe me back then when I told you I had a foundation all setup and ready to go, which is understandable given the current state of things. But as you can see right before your very eyes, I was in fact telling you brothers the truth, so hopefully with this, I''ve earned at least a little bit of your trust."


    "I can''t deny and say that we trusted what you were saying 100%, Harold. But we decided with the amount of force that you had with you that there was probably some truth to what you were saying. Hence, we took a leap of faith to see if you were legit and, as you already stated, we can see that you were telling the truth all along. So you got yourself three loyal men as long as you keep your word and help my brother Hugo save his girlfriend if she''s still alive and if not, assist him in taking revenge on the ones that killed her, isn''t that right brothers''." Don said, getting got a nod from both of his brothers.


    Immediately upon Don finishing his piece and his brothers nodding in response, I responded. "I originally forgot to do this previously, but let''s shake on it and make this deal official."


    The moment I said that, Don stuck his hand out and since I was still in power armor, I exited my suit and gave his hand a firm shake, followed by Kevin''s and Hugo''s hands.


    "With that out of the way, it''s time to answer your previous question from before Hugo regarding my worker bots."


    Hearing that, Hugo''s excitement went up a level.


    "They aren''t a model of robot that was made by any of the large corporations prior to the nuclear annihilation, they are a robot design that I personally created from the ground up not all that many years ago in the vault to handle most tasks that I would need to have completed. Ones that I myself didn''t want to have to waste time on, such as construction jobs, a number of different menial labor jobs, and manufacturing jobs, just to name a few. And as you''ve seen recently, they are quite good at doing anything a human can do. Any more questions?"


    "I got one more. How old did you say you were again?" Hugo asked with an odd facial expression.


    "I turned 16 this month. Why do you ask?" I responded.


    "Just making sure I heard you right the first time. I thought I may have been mistaken because how could a 16-year-old be capable of all this?" Hugo replied.


    "Well, as you''ve seen so far he isn''t your average 16-year-old by any definition and I''m sure you probably have an idea of why that is if you''ve been living in the wasteland for this amount of time." Amata said now also outside of her suit of power armor, implying that Hugo probably knew the reason why I was so different compared to normal humans.


    "I have an idea of what you''re talking about. I guess he must be one of those gifted or mutated humans that have been appearing on occasion since the time the bombs fell." Hugo said.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "Ding, ding, ding, your guess is right on the money. You got any further questions?" I said even though that''s not the case, but I can''t exactly go around telling people I have a system just because. And even if I did, I doubt many would know what that is nor believe me even if they knew what it was. On top of that, they''re better off not knowing in the unlikely case they ever got caught they wouldn''t be able to reveal it.


    Now that I''m thinking of it the only people who definitively know about the existence of my system as of now are Amata, my dad James Watson Woods, and Amata''s dad Alphonse Franky Almodovar due to the fact that I trust them and me being unable to really pass it off as a gift or a mutation any longer...


    "No, that answered what I wanted to know. Thank you for humoring me." Hugo responded as I was busy thinking about several different things and using Mechu-deru to see how the robots were doing with their assigned jobs.


    "No problem. I''m glad I was able to give you the answers you were seeking. Alright, now that that''s over with, let me give you guys a tour of the base so you can see the extent of what I''ve already done. And while we''re exploring the facility, we can see where you guys want your rooms to be. Sounds good?"


    "Sounds good to me." Don answered whilst his two brothers nodded along in agreement.


    "Okay, let''s first start off with the manufacturing area." I told them as I began walking off in the direction of the manufacturing area with a giddy and excited Amata and a set of ghoul brothers with expectant looks displayed on their partially rotten faces in tow.


    ...


    It took two hours, but I eventually finished showing them most of the areas in the former RobCo facility and answered any questions that came up along the way. As a result of all that guiding, it was time for lunch, thus we gathered at Hauler, had lunch and filled up our tanks.


    Once that meal was over and done with, I asked the ghoul brothers if they had finished deciding on where they wanted to live in the base. Hearing my question, they started discussing between themselves and after a short bit; they decided to stay on the same floor as Amata and I, which was the topmost floor of the building, the third floor.


    With living arrangements settled for the ghouls and lunch finished, we collectively headed upstairs to see who will be going in which room. A nice little elevator ride later, we arrived at our desired floor with elevator doors opening up shortly thereafter. When they fully settled into the open position, I exited the elevator first, followed by everyone else. From there we went through the different rooms and when we were done going through them, for the most part, the three ghouls decided on each getting their own room, but all right next to each other.


    As for Amata and I, we decided, or should I say she decided, that we should sleep in the same room and the reasoning she gave was pretty sensible, so I couldn''t say no. However, I laid down some ground rules such as nothing sexual will be taking place until she was of age, something that will occur in a bit less than two years'' time, specifically on July 26, her birthday. The second I laid down all the ground rules for us residing in the same space, she deflated more than a wee bit.


    I was originally planning on sleeping on separate beds, but I suppose I should compromise slightly. She did just kill some humans today, although mutated ones... Haa, the things I got to do.


    "I''ll compromise with you here, Amata. We can share the same bed, but if you try anything, I''ll be bringing you straight back to Vault 101. Do I make myself clear?" I told her in a tone that clearly said I meant business.


    "Crystal." She answered in a now very upbeat and giddy tone of voice with even a sparkle in her eyes.


    With my fianc¨¦e fully recovered from a couple of moments ago, Amata, I, and several of my robots went to work getting our room set up and into proper order, which was the largest room on the entire third floor.


    From there we spent the next couple of hours riding the elevator up and down repeatedly, retrieving all variety of things and setting them up in the room like the king-sized bed I had loaded up in the back of Hauler. Once Amata was happy with the space, we had a room that was 2,500 square feet in size with a large king sized bed that possessed more than enough space to fit the two of us.


    And two marks for nightstands that we currently didn''t have on hand placed against the middle of the back wall that was lined with a number of metal storage containers of varying sizes to store things such as armor, clothing, smaller weapons, and the number of miscellaneous items Amata and I brought with us from our original home.


    Adding on to that, both Amata''s and my power armor suits were relatively close by to the bed just in case we ever had to hop on out of it quickly and get suited up to face some sort of threat. Thankfully, Amata was the rational girl that she is if it was any other women from my previous life. Good fucking luck getting them to agree to putting a suit of armor in the bedroom, let alone two suits of towering power armor.


    As for where exactly they were located, I gave Amata the reins to choose the spot they should be placed since she likes that sort of thing. So she went around the room and had me move the armors into a number of spots before she settled on choosing to have them positioned right next to two of the four structural pillars in our room. Her reasoning for those exact spots was because that''s where she thought they looked best...


    For the rest of the room, I took the left side while Amata took the right and what I did with my side of the room was set up basically a miniature armory with a whole assortment of weapons mounted on the wall. However, that was not all. I also placed a number of large metal containers for storing everything from ammo to meds to everything in between. I would have done more on my side, but we didn''t have a large amount of furniture nor a tube television to set up just yet, so that''s all I could really do currently.


    For Amata''s side of the room, she just went around and put down pieces of paper on the ground with what she wanted to put there written on them such as couches, different types of chairs, tables of varying sizes, pieces of artwork, and some other miscellaneous things. When she was mostly done with what she wanted to do with her side, we talked about what else we needed and after a while we came to the conclusion that we wanted a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, and an actual bathroom.


    Upon coming to that decision, Amata went back to her side of our space and removed what she had marked on the right of the room as soon as you entered inside, reconfigured, and remarked it for the kitchen. Following that, she rearranged her notes for a living room and dining room area towards the center of the room. When she was done with all that jazz, she went to the bathroom and marked everything to be removed and to be reconfigured due to the fact that it really only had several sinks and stalls in varying states of disrepair.


    Finished doing just about everything we could currently, I assigned several of my worker bots to swap out the front door of our room for a blast door. The moment I was done issuing that order, I sent a signal with Mechu-deru to two of my assaultrons to have them stationed outside our room to provide extra security.

 Chapter 49: Another Trip

    "Alright. I think we''re done here. Let''s head on over and see how the ghoul brothers are making out." I said.


    "Okay." Amata responded in an extremely positive mood.


    But before we headed out, I used one of my thought processes to try out a new technique I gained recently from raising my science to 500. Which was the ability to take over mechanical constructs from afar as long as one of the mechanical constructs I had control of was nearby to the construct I wanted to take over.


    Within a moment, I had the new technique and all of its intricacies figured out, so I put it into use and took full control over the recently produced worker bots that I''d yet to instill my will into due to my time being occupied with other activities. Upon gaining control of them, I immediately told them to go initiate construction of the water purification system on the second underground floor that will mainly be based around reverse osmosis. That construction project, by my estimates, shouldn''t take my worker bots more than a couple of days to get everything built and integrated.


    Thank god this facility has no problems with its water supply other than it being contaminated with radiation and other contaminants, of course. It would''ve sucked if I had to reallocate my workforce to start working on digging and drilling a water well.


    Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the ghoul brothers'' rooms, where we checked in on them to see how they were doing. Talking with the three of them for a short while, they seemed to have everything they needed. Therefore, I told them they could relax for today while Amata and I head on back to Vault 101 to pick up furniture, materials for the bathroom remodel, and to continue transferring more of my things over.


    Check up completed, my partner and I returned to our room and got suited up in our kit again. And when we had all of our gear re-equipped, we walked to the elevator, pressed the button, and waited patiently for the elevator to reach our floor. As the two of us waited for the elevator to show up, I sent a signal to my usual squad that travel with me on my ventures into the wasteland to get ready to depart.


    The second our ride reached the third floor and opened its door, we got on, pressed the button for the ground floor, and rode the elevator down. Once it arrived on the desired floor, I departed for the loading area with my girl in tow and unloaded the stuff from my inventory for my mechanical forces to sort through and transport to the warehouse area.


    Whilst my robots were working away on that task, Amata and I walked over to my usual group of robots. Regrouped with them, the newly reformed convoy began nearing the door and when we reached it, I signaled for one of my nearby robots to open the massive blast doors for us. As soon as it pressed the button, the siren came to life and blared, releasing a loud chirping sound and soon thereafter that the door started to move.


    *Grrrnnnd...*


    Seconds later, the massive door settled into place, so I took the lead, stepped forward, and exited through the massive opening with my main weapon, Mauler grasped firmly within my hands. From there, the convoy I was leading spent the next several hours traveling to and from Vault 101, loading up a good percentage of my accumulated resources. In addition to that, we also brought along several pieces of furniture and a plethora of building materials for redoing the bathroom in my and Amata''s room.


    But prior to us heading out again, the two of us participated in a quick family dinner with the both of our dads in attendance. Following that, we traveled back with a fully loaded convoy packed to the brim with materials on the brink of sticking out the rear of Hauler''s cargo compartment, and before we knew it, we found ourselves back at our new home once again.


    Although it was a safe trip, it wasn''t wholly uneventful; we encountered a large group of giant ants that consisted of 100 Giant Worker Ants and 25 Giant Soldier Ants on our way there that my group made short work of. And that large gathering of giant ants was not all, we also came across another raider party comprised of 21 individuals by the Springvale School on our way back to the facility.


    Thankfully, they weren''t too heavily armed or armored, so they couldn''t put up much of a fight against us. Hence, my robots and I took them out one by one until there was only a single poor sap left alive for Amata to kill. She had some initial hesitation, but as she was working herself up to doing it, the female raider began pleading for her, which exacerbated Amata''s hesitance. Nonetheless, she still followed through and ruthlessly did the deed, cleansing the waste of one more bad actor.


    After she disposed of the raider, I made sure she was alright and she seemed fine for the most part. However, I could detect she was thinking about it and had some negative feelings regarding what she had just done, so I gave her a peck on the lips and told her she did a phenomenal job.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    And that she had no reason to feel that she had done something wrong, when she in fact had made the wasteland a marginally better place just based on the fact that there was one less thing trying to kill the people of the wasteland. The ones who were just trying to get by and survive day by day in this ruthless and extremely dangerous world, for the most part.


    That positive reinforcement of mine did the track and made her mood and energy change for the better. To such a point that she was smiling and practically glowing from that point on till I had to remind her that she needed to put her power armor helmet back on. With Amata''s dilemma solved, mostly, we continued traveling back to the facility without issue while she hummed a happy tune to herself and was practically skipping in her power armor suit, which was somewhat amusing to watch.


    As for the loot we got from this trip, we only got a Guns and Bullets skill book, which we found among the remains of the raiders after my robots and I blasted them. Any other loot that survived the onslaught of ballistic and energy weapon fire was a bunch of useless garbage, so we left the scraps for someone else to come across and continued on our way.


    When we finally made it home, my group and I circled around to the back of the gargantuan facility, where I had one of the nearby robots inside open up the usual door as the sun was setting in the distance. A short period later, the doors slid open and settled into place, so we proceeded inside through the large opening. The instant the last of my forces had rolled on into the loading area, the same robot that opened the door for us pressed the button again, closing the door shortly thereafter.


    "We finally made it home." I commented aloud once the doors had closed.


    "That we did, and before it got dark at that. I was worried for a second there that we wouldn''t make it home before it turned to night." Amata responded, sounding relieved.


    "Yeah, we were cutting it close there, weren''t we."


    As she was nodding her power armor-covered head to my response, I continued. "Well, let''s go head up and see how the brothers are doing before we retreat to our room for the night."


    "Okay."


    Following our brief conversation, we headed over to the elevator and rode it to the third floor while my robots were busy unloading all the stuff we brought back with us from our second trip to Vault 101 today. When the elevator reached our desired level, we hopped off and proceeded to where the three ghouls'' rooms were located and once we arrived there; I knocked on Don''s room since I could tell that all three of them were in there.


    It took several seconds but Don eventually opened the door and when he did; I inquired about how things were going and if they had eaten yet. They replied that they did, so I asked them if they needed anything and to not hold back.


    "... I don''t think we particularly need anything at this moment, but if you don''t mind me asking, what do you plan on having us do tomorrow?"


    "Hmm, that''s a good question... I plan on having Hugo and Kevin help out with the manufacturing area to work on the various things that are going on over there. So if you want, you can head over there and join the two of them tomorrow and make sure things are going smoothly with the newly built automated weapon manufacturing machine my robots just finished assembling an hour ago."


    "That''s fine by me. But I hope you don''t plan on keeping me there forever, since that''s not where my talents really lie."


    "Yeah, it''ll only be a temporary thing till we start exploring the surrounding area, at which point you''ll be accompanying me to go clear the metros of all hostile life."


    "What kind of life?" He asked in his raspy ghoul voice.


    "Probably feral ghouls, giant rats, raiders, and super mutants."


    Our discussion was later joined by his brothers and after covering a few other details I asked. "Any more questions?"


    "No, I think that''s all we wanted to know. Thanks for entertaining our questions." Kevin responded while his brothers followed up with similar responses.


    "Alright, well, I''m heading to bed now, so you guys have a good night''s sleep. I''ll catch you all when you wake up." I said before they responded with something similar.


    As soon as Amata wished them a good night as well, we departed from Don''s room and began walking to our own. Shortly thereafter, we reached our room, which was now being guarded by two of my assaultrons that I assigned here prior to our second trip to the vault today. Going inside once the newly installed blast door was open, I shut it behind us and went over to my designated structural pillar and exited my suit of Annihilator Power Armor while Amata did the same at the opposite pillar.


    When the both of us were out of our power armor suits, we made our way over to the bathroom, took care of our hygienic needs, got changed into some more comfortable sleeping attire, which for me was stripping down to my boxer briefs. The minute I was done changing, I came out of the bathroom and upon doing so, Amata''s eyes glued to me and entered an entirely different reality.


    "Amata."


    "Amata."


    "Amata, you there." I called her name for the third time, bringing her back to the real world.


    "Huh, y-yes I''m here." She responded with a flushed face.


    "It''s your turn to get changed, head on in."


    "O-oh." She stuttered out in response before she raced into the bathroom with a change of clothes in hand.


    A couple of minutes later, she came out of the bathroom dressed in a nightgown that ended just above her knees, with thin straps that rested on her clear, unblemished shoulders.


    She is quite the beauty. I''ve really lucked out in this life compared to my last.


    From there we climbed into bed together, with me taking the left side and her taking the right side, and after staying like that for a few minutes, she wanted to cuddle. So, seeing how she went through what would be considered a traumatic experience, I gave into her wants and did as she asked. Laying there cuddled up together, we started talking about today''s events until her breathing evened out and she fell asleep.

 Chapter 50: Leveling Before Bed

    Now that Amata is sleeping soundly, it''s time I spent those level ups I''ve been holding on to. But before I do that, I''m going to give my current system a good look over to see how I''ve been doing as of later and if anything new has appeared.


    The instant I finished that thought, I opened up my Pip-Boy, freezing time a few short moments later. When reality came to a complete and utter stop, the usual holographic screen made its appearance.


    Let''s see what sort of progress I made.


    ...


    My stats are progressing quite well, especially my combat oriented skills. Those guys have seen a pretty substantial increase from all the slaughtering I''ve been doing. And they were not the only stats that have made significant progress. Both my strength and endurance have been constantly increasing since I''ve been running around, killing, and training out here in the wasteland.


    Happy with what I''d seen so far, I moved onto the quest section of my status.


    ? | Enclave Begone | Objectives: Eliminate the last surviving members of the Enclave from the capital wasteland. Rewards: Perk | Faction Killer |, 10 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points, 25 skill points, 200,000 exp.


    ? | Killing Spree | Objectives: Reach a kill count total of 1,000 kills. Rewards: Perk | Slaughterer |, 1,000 exp.


    ? | Resource Hunt | Objectives: Find more resources, preferably those from the underground, to keep up with your production and manufacturing needs. Rewards: Perk | Beginner Miner |, 2,000 exp.


    ? | Warrington Station | Objectives: Explore, clear out, and take over the Warrington Metro Station and connect it to your home via a tunnel. Rewards: Perk | Tunneler |, 5 skill points, 3,500 exp.


    ? | Water | Objectives: Set up clean water production at your new home. Rewards: 1,000 exp.


    Sweet I got several new quests and my killing spree quest is ready to be turned in... Oh and I seemed to have gained a new tab called production.


    Navigating to that tab, I found it displayed my daily production capacity.


    Not too bad for a few days'' work, if I do say so myself.


    Finished inspecting my status, I navigated through the holographic screen to spend my accumulated level-ups. And as I was in the midst of trying to spend my nine accumulated level ups, the system refused and spat out a small notification window.


    [Important Notice!]


    You can only spend 5 of your level-ups right now due to there being a perk that requires you to take it at level 50 and if you don''t, you will lose access to it and whatever it may provide. Warning! There will be no way of obtaining it if not taken now.


    That''s interesting. This is the first time the system has done something like this... Let''s see what perk it is.


    With the system informing me that there was an important perk to look at, I spent five of my nine accumulated level-ups.


    [ Perks ]


    Perk Points Left: 5


    Level 46 Perks


    | Flame Resistant | Requirements Level 46, Endurance 8: Fire resistance +25%.


    | Ghost | Requirements Level 46, Sneak 100: While you''re surrounded by darkness, you possess the ability to phase through objects for a limited amount of time. This limit is initially 10 minutes, but it will increase in duration by 1 minute for every 10 points you have in your sneak skill beyond 100.


    | Second Wind | Requirements Level 46, Endurance 10: If your health reaches 1 or lower, it will restore immediately back to full. However, this effect can only occur once a month and the cooldown is lowered by 1 day for every 10 points of endurance you possess. [Additional Information] This ability''s cooldown is capped at 1 day.


    | Snake Eater | Requirements Level 46, Endurance 3: Poison resistance +25%.


    Level 48 Perks


    | Cold Resistant | Requirements Level 48, Endurance 8: Cold resistance +25%.


    | Human Smelter | Requirements Level 48: Gain the ability to smelt any ore or metal that is in your inventory instantly. Carry capacity +1,000.


    | Leap Frog | Requirements Level 48, Agility 10: Acquire the ability to double jump somehow. Jump height +100%.


    | Tank Commander | Requirements Level 48, Intelligence 9: Gain intrinsic knowledge of how to best command and use heavy armor. This knowledge also includes a multitude of different strategies and tactics across all kinds of varying scenarios. +25% to armor, maximum speed, and damage output of all of your heavy armor units. This perk affects all things that would be considered heavily armored, such as but not limited to heavy tanks, power armor, heavy class personal armor, warships that are considered heavily armored for their class, armored gunships, etc. In addition to that, if you are wearing heavy armor yourself, these benefits will apply to you as well.


    Level 50 Perks


    | Ain''t Like That Now | Requirements Level 50: Gain immunity to critical hits, +20% to attack speed, and +25% stamina and stamina regeneration.


    | Double-Edged Sword | Requirements Level 50, (Warning!) Must be taken at level 50: Gain more perks each level for a cost and that cost is the amount xp required for each new level is doubled. For example, your exp requirement was originally 25(3 x Level + 2) (Level - 1) but if you take this perk it will be 25 (3 x Level + 2) (Level - 1) x 2. Warning if you take this perk any level-ups that you have yet to use will get adjusted to the new level requirements thereby reducing them, adding on this perk is required to gain access to several perks, mutations, and [???].


    | Just Lucky I''m Alive | Requirements Level 50: Gain 4 Luck for 3 minutes upon finishing a battle with less than 25% of your max health remaining. Immunity to critical hits and +50% to critical damage.


    | Strong Body | Requirements Level 50, Endurance 10, Strength 10: The durability of your body will be increased by 100% as well as your body''s DT. On top of that, your Strength and Endurance improve at a faster rate and for every 10 points you reach in either Strength or Endurance gain a +2 to that special. (Example: 19 strength + 1 strength = 20 + 2 = 22 strength)


    | Thought You Died | Requirements Level 50: Gain 10 health per 100 kills, +10% to damage, and immunity to critical hits. Also, you can come back from the dead now, although only once every ten years. [Additional Information] This ability won''t work if you die from old age or if this ability is on cooldown.


    Taking a look at all the new perks I gained access to, I immediately homed in on the perk that caused the system to delay me from spending my banked level ups, Double-Edged Sword. The one that can grant me 2 perk points for each level up instead of just the normal 1 perk point per level.


    It appears to be a pretty good perk if not for the fact that it requires me to grind out twice as much experience to get to level 51, which is a change from 193,750 to 387,500. So if I take it I''ll lose out on 4 of my level-ups at least for now and if I don''t take it I''ll lose out on whatever perks and mutations that require I have it as well as whatever [???] is. Yeah, I''m going to need to think about this for a moment, don''t want to make any hasty decisions now.


    ...


    Contemplating the issue at hand, I laid there in limbo, analyzing the possible demerits of taking the perk such as it slowing down my leveling and my growth. I did that for god knows how long and eventually started weighing the possible benefits it would provide. One, it would give me access to more perks and mutations that I have yet to get any of, an extra perk point that would let me get more of the lower-level perks, and access to whatever [???] is.


    After thinking and looking at the possible benefits and demerits of taking the perk, I''d rather take the double the exp requirement cost than miss out on the perks and mutations that require it, let alone missing out on whatever that row of question marks is. If I learned anything from my years of gaming and reading from my previous life, that row of question marks is either going to be a huge boon or a curse. That said, the system has yet to fuck me, so it''s most likely the former, hence it''s worth the risk and the effort in my mind.


    With my mind made up, I hovered over Double-Edged Sword and as I was about to select the perk, I couldn''t help hesitating and second guessing my choice.


    ...


    God, I hope I''m making the right decision here.


    The instant I selected the perk and the holographic screen blurred for a while, putting me on edge. Thankfully, it returned to normal rather quickly to the perk selection window displaying 8 perk points available to be spent.


    Ohh, nice, I got 4 more perk points to spend.


    More than happy with my additional perk points, I gave the entirety of the perk list another run over. Not seeing any new perks appearing, I went ahead and grabbed Thought You Died first for the reason that it can bring my ass back to life once every 10 years. Even though I picked it up solely for that effect, the infinitely scaling +10 health for every 100 kills I gain sounds really busted as well, making it an even easier choice.


    Having gotten that busted life saving perk, I selected Strong Body next because it will double my body''s durability and make it far easier to increase two of my primary S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s strength and endurance. With those two perks selected, I moved on and, after browsing the extensive selection over again briefly; I picked out another life saving perk, Second Wind. My reasoning for doing so was simple: it would increase my survivability and allow me to turn the tables on a foe by instantly regenerating my health back to 100% if I was to drop to 1 health or below.


    Now that I had my third perk selected, I grabbed my fourth perk much faster than the last. The perk I went with this time around was Ghost, since it would allow me to escape enclosed spaces easily if I were ever in danger and needed to get the hell out of dodge fast. Another reason why I went with it was because I could use it to breach all manner of defenses and blockages, not to mention using it for repositioning and outmaneuvering my enemies.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Finished deciding on my fourth perk, I gave the fifth choice a bit of thought and after thinking about it; I settled on Human Smelter because it sounded like a useful perk to have. I mean, why wouldn''t I want the ability to process a large amount of ore and scrap metal all on my own without furnaces. It would also be a huge help till I got some arc furnaces manufactured to take over for me and besides, extra carry weight is always welcomed with open arms let alone an extra 1,000 pounds of it.


    ...


    I thought about what else I wanted and once I had gone through the plethora of perks; I chose Solar Powered as my sixth perk simply because it will boost my health regeneration to a massive 1 hp a second while I''m outside, and provide me with a bonus 2 strength.


    | Solar Powered | Requirements Level 20, Endurance 7: +2 to strength and +1 HP per second while outside.


    For my seventh perk, I took Tank Commander mainly because it will boost my fighting power and survivability as well as my people''s and my robots''. The moment I selected Tank Commander, I began thinking about what I wished to take as my final perk for quite some time. I wasn''t going to be able to level for a good while since I was going to need nearly 200,000 exp for my level hence I needed to be extra picky with this last one.


    ...


    After a number of minutes or what I perceived as minutes since reality was currently paused, I eventually decided to get Puppies! just in case Dogmeat died before I could encounter him.


    | Puppies! | Requirements Level 22: If Dogmeat dies, he will respawn as a puppy with all memories at the entrance to Vault 101.


    With my perks selected and Dogmeat made into a perpetual, I gave my choices skim. Once I was decided and happy with my choices, I moved on to the next step in the leveling process and finalized my selection. The very second I had, I saw the holographic perk screen swapped to the skill distribution one.


    [ Skills ]


    Skill Points Left: 135


    Barter: 156


    Energy Weapons: 172


    Explosives: 163


    Guns: 203


    Lockpick: 157


    Medicine: 220


    Melee Weapons: 166


    Repair: 500


    Science: 510


    Sneak: 256


    Speech: 161


    Survival: 157


    Unarmed: 163


    Giving the skill list a peruse, I dumped 80 of my 135 available skill points into medicine, bringing its total up to 300, so I could increase the number of limbs I could regrow in a single day. Following that, I dumped the remaining 55 points into repair, raising its total to 555. With the last of my skill points distributed, I completed the distribution process, bringing the screen back to my now upgraded stats.


    Pip-Boy


    Name: Harold Todd Woods


    Age: 16


    Height: 6 Feet 6 Inches


    Body Weight: 300 lbs


    Race: High Human


    Level: 50


    Experience Points: 36,982/201,300 | Formula: 25(3 x Level + 2)(Level - 1) x 2


    Total Experience Points Earned: 223,182


    Experience Rate: 320%


    Health: 2,450 | Formula: Base of 90 + (Endurance x 30) + (Level# x 20) + 10 per 100 kills


    Healing Rate: 12.4 + 120 [130.2] Health a minute | Formula: (0.1 x Endurance + 2 + 60 while outside) x 2


    Carry Weight: 1517.25/11,800 + 1600 + 400 [13,800] | Formula: 1500 + (Strength x 100) x 2


    Critical Chance: 62% | Formula: Luck x 2


    | Effects |


    Annihilator Power Armor: Radiation Resistance 100, +8 Strength, +2 Perception, +50 Energy Weapons, +50 Explosives, +50 Guns, +25 Medicine, +150 Sneak, +50 Survival


    Shadow Armor: +1 Agility, +150 Sneak


    |Solar Powered| +2 strength and +1 HP per second while outside.


    |Tank Commander| +25% to armor, maximum speed, and damage output while wearing heavy armor


    | Armor |


    Total Damage Threshold 794 + 25% [993]


    Body Damage Threshold 114 | Formula: Endurance + 15 x 2


    Armor Damage Threshold 550


    Weapon Damage Threshold 130


    | Resistances |


    Critical: Immunity


    Poison Resistance: 205% | Formula: (Endurance - 1) x 5


    Radiation Resistance: 109% + 100% [209%] | Formula: (Endurance x 2) + 25


    | S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |


    Strength: 44 + 8 + 2 [54]


    Perception: 28 + 2 [30]


    Endurance: 42


    Charisma: 22


    Intelligence: 32


    Agility: 26 + 1 [27]


    Luck: 31


    | Skills |


    Barter: 164


    Energy Weapons: 180 + 50 [228]


    Explosives: 171 + 50 [221]


    Guns: 211 + 50 [261]


    Lockpick: 165


    Medicine: 308 + 25 [333]


    Melee Weapons: 190


    Repair: 564


    Science: 518


    Sneak: 264 + 300 [564]


    Speech: 169


    Survival: 181 + 50 [231]


    Unarmed: 187


    Skill Points Per Level Up: 28 | Formula: Base of 10 + 2 + (Intelligence x 0.5) |


    Traits: |Gifted|, |Sex Appeal|, |Skilled|, |Take Another Rank 1|


    Perks: |Adamantium Skeleton|, |Adeptus Mechanicus|, |All Seeing|, |Ambidextrous|, |Ammo Depot|, |Animal Friend Rank 2|, |Aqua Boy|, |Armor Smith Rank 1|, |Bone Head|, |Bulletstorm|, |Commander|, |Currency Maker|, |Daddy''s Boy Rank 1|, |Death Sense|, |Double-Edged Sword|, |Educated|, |Eagle Eye|, |Energy Weapon Fanatic|, |Explorer|, |Gatling Gun Specialist|, |Ghost|, |Gotta Go Fast|, |Gray Matters|, |Herculean Strength|, |High Human|, |Human Skeleton Key|, |Human Smelter|, |Human Supercomputer|, |Human Warehouse|, |Human Weapon|, |Intense Training Rank 6|, |Junk Rounds|, |Language Master|, |Lessons Learned|, |Light Step|, |Living Anatomy|, |Lurking In The Shadows|, |Martial Weapon Master|, |Mechu-deru|, |Medical Genius|, |Meltdown|, |Metal Detector|, |Mobile Armory|, |Monstrous Physique|, |Pack Rat|, |Pain Resistance|, |Puppies!|, |Quick Draw|, |Quick Hands|, |Rad Resistance|, |Regeneration|, |Resource Hoarder|, |RobCo Certified|, |Robotics Expert|, |Rooted|, |Second Wind|, |Silent Running|, |Silver Tongue|, |Size Matters Rank 1|, |Solar Powered|, |Stimpak Addict|, |Stonewall|, |Strong Body|, |Swift Learner|, |Tank Commander|, |Tech Junkie|, |The Power Of Atom|, |Thought You Died|, |Walking Treasure Detector|, |Weapon Smith Rank 1|, |Wild Man|


    Mutations:


    Gear: 30,000x 7.62 rounds, 600x .50 MG rounds, |12G Laser Pistol|, |A-21 Anti-Material Rifle|, |AER 29 LMG|, |Annihilator Power Armor|, 10x |10 Round Anti-Material Rifle Magazines|, |Browning M2 Machine Gun|, 5x |Browning M2 Machine Gun Magazines|, 2x |Commando Knife|, 50x Food Stuff, 100x Med-x Syringes, 20x |MFC Grenades|, 10x Mini Nukes, |Mulcher|, 3x |Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazines|, 20x Pulse Grenades, |Purge|, 100x RadAway, 5x |Serrated Spears|, |Severance|, |Shadow Armor|, 100x Stimpaks


    | Loot |


    Weapons: 1 7.62 Combat Rifle Sniper Configuration, 2 .32 Hunting Rifles, 12 5mm Miniguns, 10 AEGG9 Gatling Laser, 50 AEP7 Laser Pistols, 60 AER9 Laser Rifles, 10 Anti-Material Rifles, 100 Bricks of C4, 10 Chinese Officer Swords, 500 Combat Knives, 109 Combat Shotguns, 2 CSG10 Submachine Guns, 5 Fat Man Mini Nuke Launchers, 11 Flamers, 1,051 Frag Grenades, 1,000 Frag Mines, 10 Gauss Rifles, 20 M79 Grenade Launcher, 10 Grenade Machineguns, Jingwei''s Shocksword, 21 Light Machine Guns, 10 M2 Browning Machine Guns, 1,000 MFC Grenade, 10 Missile Launchers, 401 N99 10mm Pistol, 118 R91 Assault Rifles, 20 Sniper Rifles, 5 Partial Gatling Lasers, 5 Partial 5mm Miniguns, 500 Plasma Grenades, 500 Plasma Mines, 50 Plasma Pistols, 500 Pulse Grenades, 500 Pulse Mines, 115 Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles, 50 Urban Plasma Rifles


    Weapon Magazines: 5 20 Round 7.62 Combat Rifle Magazines, 50 5mm 500 Round Minigun Drum Magazines, 10 5mm 1,000 Round Minigun Backpack Magazines, 50 8 Round Anti-Material Rifle Magazines, 100 10 Round Anti-Material Rifle Magazines, 514 Combat Shotgun Drum Magazines, 8 30 Round CSG10 Submachine Gun Magazines, 50 10 Round Gauss Rifle Magazines, 50 30 Round Grenade Machinegun Magazines, 102 100 Round Light Machine Gun Box Magazines, 48 M2 Browning Machine Gun Magazines, 2 Mulcher Armored Backpack Magazines, 2,001 N99 10mm Pistol 12 Round Magazines, 537 30 Round R91 Assault Rifle Magazines, 36 75 Round R91 Assault Rifle Drum Magazines, 100 10 Round Sniper Rifle Magazines, 533 30 Round Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifle Magazines, 18 75 Round Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifle Drum Magazines


    Apparel: 10 Advanced Radiation Suits, Black Altyn Helmet, Black Hardened Metal Armor, 10 Chinese Stealth Suits, Exterminator Armor, Exterminator Helmet, 50 Heavy Combat Armor Sets, 50 Marine Armor Sets, 20 Neural interface suits, 1 Phoenix Power Armor Suit, 14 Power Armor Frames, 10 T-45 Power Armor Sets, 5 T-51 Power Armor Sets, 1 T-60 Power Armor Set, 1 Shadow Armor, War Belt


    Aid: 5 Big Book of Science, 1,000 Bottles of Buffout, 10,000 Bottles of Modified Buffout, 5 D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine, 7 Dean''s Electronics, 1,000 Food Stuffs, 3 Guns and Bullets, 2 Lying Congressional Style, 12,510 Med-x Syringes, 2 Nikola Tesla and You, 13,000 Bags of RadAway, 104,002 Stimpaks, 1,007 Psycho


    Miscellaneous: A Large Assortment of Automated Manufacturing Machines, 10 Automated Ammo Manufacturing Machines, 10 Automated Robot Manufacturing Machines, 1 Automated Weapon Manufacturing Machine, 115 Stealth Boys, 20 Virtual Simulation Pods, 6,850 Duct Tape, 106,826 Scrap Electronics, 3,212,969 Metal, 13,714 Wonderglue, 5,307,519 Other Misc Items


    Money: 69 Bottle Caps


    Ammo: 1,800,000 7.62 Rounds, 49 .32 Rounds, 150,000 .50 MG Rounds, 100,000 10mm Rounds, 20,000 12 Gauge Shotgun Shells, 800,000 2mm Gauss Rounds, 5,000 25mm Grenades, 1,000 40mm Grenades, 300,000 5.56 Rounds, 400,000 5mm Rounds, 15,749 Flamer Fuel, 500 Fusion Cores, 150,000 Microfusion Breeder Cells, 155,000 Microfusion Cells, 90 Mini Nukes, 500 Missiles, 25,000 Small Energy Cells


    Robots: 20 Assualtrons, 5 Hauling Bots, 2 Mining Bots, 8 Mister Handys Maintenance Variants, 10 Power Armor Compatible Assaultrons, 459 Protectrons, 12 Sentry Bot Mk IIs, 250 Worker Bots


    Vehicles: Chimera Tank Partially Assembled, Hauler


    Turrets: 220 Gatling Laser Turrets, 20 Laser Turrets


    | Production Capacity |


    Aid: -


    Ammo: 1,000,000


    Apparel: -


    Bottle Caps: -


    Metal: 300,000


    Miscellaneous: 500,000


    Ore: -


    Robots: 30


    Turrets: 30


    Vehicles: -


    Weapons: 100


    | Subordinates |


    Ghouls: Don King Hill, Hugo Dean Hill, Kevin Watts Hill


    Quests: 1 Ready to turn in, Many in progress, 7 Completed


    Quests In Progress:


    | Anchorage Simulation | Objectives: Complete the anchorage training simulation without dying. Rewards: Perk | One Man Army |, 7,500 exp.


    ? | Enclave Begone | Objectives: Eliminate the last surviving members of the Enclave from the capital wasteland. Rewards: Perk | Faction Killer |, 10 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points, 25 skill points, 200,000 exp.


    | Farmer Bob | Objectives: Harvest two tons worth of crops. Rewards: Perk | Green Thumb |, 2,000 exp.


    ? | Killing Spree | Objectives: Reach a kill count total of 1,000 kills. Rewards: Perk | Slaughterer |, 1,000 exp.


    | Orbital Weapon Acquisition | Objectives: Find a way to gain access and control over the many orbital weapon platforms across the United States. Rewards: Perk | Hand Of God |, 25,000 exp.


    ? | Resource Hunt | Objectives: Find more resources, preferably those from the underground, to keep up with your production and manufacturing needs. Rewards: Perk | Beginner Miner |, 2,000 exp.


    | Rescue Operation | Objectives: Save the Hill brothers'' friends from their Enclave takers. Rewards: 10,000 exp.


    | Save dad | Objectives: Prevent the death of your father, James Watson Woods. Rewards: New Perk? and 5,000 exp.


    | Such Wealth | Objectives: Obtain 100,000,000,000 caps worth of assets by any means necessary. Rewards: New Perk?, 1,000,000 exp.


    | Take Over Raven Rock | Objectives: Gain full control of the Raven Rock Bunker and eliminate all hostile forces. Rewards: Perk | Enclave Secrets |, 100,000 exp.


    | Tank Assembly | Objectives: Put the chimera tank back together. Rewards: 5 Repair, 2,500 exp.


    | Undegrounder | Objectives: Clear all metros of hostiles and take control of them. Rewards: Perk | Mole People |, 20,000 exp.


    ? | Warrington Station | Objectives: Explore, clear out, and take over the Warrington Metro Station and connect it to your home via a tunnel. Rewards: Perk | Tunneler |, 5 skill points, 3,500 exp.


    ? | Water | Objectives: Set up clean water production at your new home. Rewards: 1,000 exp.


    | To The Void | Objectives: ¡­


    | Yer A Wizard ¡­


    Other Statistics:


    Kill Counter: 1,080


    Abominations: 2


    Animals Killed: 468


    Humans Killed: 379


    Insects Killed: 191


    Super Mutants: 40


    That''s an overall nice increase to my stats, but man the amount of exp I need for the next level is going to be a pain. I may need to take a trip to the Fairfax Ruins to get some leveling done otherwise it''s going to take a fucking long ass time to reach level 51. Seeing how I need as much exp as I can get my grubby hands on right now, I might as well turn in the Killing Spree to see if it will unlock another quest for me to farm exp from. And if not at least I''ll reduce the amount of exp by 1,000 exp + my exp gain bonus.


    Another decision made, I navigated to the quest section of the Pip-Boy and turned in the Killing Spree quest, gaining 3,200 exp, and the new perk Slaughterer as my rewards.


    | Slaughterer | You''ve killed so many things that you now emit a bloody aura filled with killing intent that you can use to intimidate or put pressure on other beings. It has other uses besides that, but you''ll have to discover those yourself. This aura will become stronger and grow in size the more things you kill or have a hand in killing. [Additional Information] This aura can also be controlled by the user''s will.


    As soon as I was done turning it, a new notification popped up.


    Ding! New Quest


    | The Butcher | Objectives: Reach a kill count total of 10,000 kills. Rewards: Perk Slaughterer Rank 2, 10,000 exp.


    I won''t be able to complete that quest anytime soon. Hopefully, I will have made somewhat of a dent in it by the time I''m done taking care of the Enclave.


    Following me obtaining that new quest, I gave my stats another look over. When I didn''t discover anything I hadn''t noticed previously, I closed out of my status screen, resuming time once again mere moments later. The instant it had resumed, I glanced over at Amata and saw her still sleeping just as soundly as before. Not needing to do anything else, I joined her, ending my eventful day finally.


    *zzz*

 Chapter 51: Making Progress

    Date Friday, August 27, 2275


    Waking up several hours later from my comfortable sleep, I turned my head to my right side to see if Amata was awake.


    Good, she''s still sleeping just as peacefully as she was when I joined her in the land of dreams with her arms wrapped around my right arm... Alright time to get up, I''ll let her continue to sleep for a while longer since she did have quite an active day yesterday. And while she''s busy recharging her batteries, I''m going to head downstairs and grab a snack before getting to work on making an upgraded laser rifle, one that''s powered by microfusion breeder cells instead of the normal run-of-the-mill cells.


    With many things I both needed and wanted to do awaiting me, I checked my Pip-Boy for the time and saw it displaying 5:00 am. Simultaneously, as I was doing that, I used one of my many thought processes to see how my robots were making out. Checking in with all of them, I found that they were making steady progress across the board on the variety of tasks assigned to them. Including the hydroponics project I gave them, which they had finally finished building and setting up.


    So, seeing that they were done carrying out that order, I reallocated those worker bots to begin the construction of a massive freezer slash refrigerator next to the hydroponics on the second level of the basement. I''m unable to start using the hydroponics just yet because my water production system hasn''t been completed.


    Hence, I might as well have them begin working on that task, so we''ll be able to prevent our food from perishing immediately. As for when the other workforce will be done putting together the water purification system, they should have it fully taken care of by tomorrow, given their current progress.


    Plenty satisfied with how everything was proceeding, I took over the robots and turrets that were manufactured while I was asleep. And had the recently manufactured Worker Bots hop on getting an automated weapon magazine manufacturing machine made and assembled, which they should be able to get out of the way by the end of the day.


    The moment I was done with all that jazz, I used my new perk Ghost briefly to slip out of Amata''s hold on me without waking her. From there, I climbed out of bed and headed for the bathroom, where I took care of my daily hygienic needs. As soon as I was ready, I took a ride in the elevator and grabbed some food, specifically shelf-stable high-protein meals.


    After taking the elevator down to the first floor, I spent the next 10 minutes chowing down on three high-protein meals. The moment I had completely inhaled all the food, I set off to the manufacturing area to get busy working on that laser rifle upgrade. It won''t be long before it''s getting mass produced by my robots and the automated weapon manufacturing machine that''s been churning out AER 29 LMGs ever since I turned in last night.


    ...


    An hour or so later, I had the brand spanking new laser rifle model in hand. This design was substantially better than the original iteration.


    | AER10 Laser Rifle |


    Damage: 85


    DPS: 1,133


    Fire rate: 800 Fully Automatic, Semi-Automatic


    Weight: 10


    Ammo Type: Microfusion Breeder Cell


    Value: 10,000


    Attachments: Canted Red Dot Sight, Laser Sight, Variable Zoom Scope, Vertical Fore Grip, Weapon Sling


    Item Description: A durable single-barreled full auto laser rifle that shares some similarities with the creator''s past designs. This rifle features a heavy barrel, the latest version of the improved microfusion breeder cell, hardier and sturdier materials throughout the entirety of the weapon, a quad rail for mounting a variety of attachments that can range from different types of grips to under-barrel grenade launchers to laser sights, and a toggle to change the laser beam from a visible red to an invisible infrared laser. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    Whilst I was looking over the newly finished laser rifle, I headed over to my improvised testing area and ran the weapon through a variety of tests. Once I was content, I sent the automated weapon manufacturing and my robots the new design with Mechu-deru and had them initiate production of it.


    Having taken care of that, I returned to my workshop in the manufacturing area of the facility and busied myself by making some Mining Bots in preparation for when it comes time to clear out the nearby metro and begin the tunneling process to link it up with the second level of the basement.


    ...


    Another hour passed with me grinding away and the minute the clock''s hands landed at 7:00 AM, I detected the Hill brothers heading downstairs, likely going to get something to eat. So, pausing my work momentarily on the third Mining Bot, I picked myself up and made my way over to them and joined them for breakfast.


    The four of us quickly prepared everything necessary, sat down, and began to eat. In between bites we discussed the details regarding what exactly I was going to have them do. Around 20 minutes into our meal, we had all the details ironed out and all four of our plates cleared. So, with nothing else needing to be discussed there, I led the brothers to the manufacturing area and got them set up with their jobs.


    Following that, I hightailed it to my workshop and got back to work on my third Mining Robot. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    ...


    The next hour was spent as such, at least until I detected Amata waking up via my Assaultrons guarding our shared space. Needing to pause my work again, I spent the next couple of minutes applying some finishing touches on my sixth Mining Bot. As soon as I was done, I took over all of them with Mechu-deru and proceeded in the direction of Amata and met up with her on the first floor.


    "Good Morning, how''d you sleep, Amata?"


    "Good morning, Harold. I slept great, but I was hoping you would be there when I opened my eyes." She replied, sounding somewhat saddened at the fact that I wasn''t there when she woke up. However, I could tell that she was putting on an act, thus it didn''t elicit a response from me.


    "..."


    "Moh..." She complained, puffing her cheeks out.


    Continuing to ignore her antics, I moved things along. "You ready to get fueled up for the long day we have ahead of us?"


    "Sigh... Sure."


    Presenting my arm to her, latched on to it before we proceeded to go get her a bit of breakfast. On the walk over to the improvised eating area, I sent several of my Worker Bots up to our room to begin renovations on the bathroom.


    ...


    After another 20 minutes had elapsed, Amata finally finished eating her morning meal while I finished my third one for the day, which I''ll certainly be needing for our trips back and forth from the vault. The two of us chatted for a few more minutes before we got up and headed around the facility to see where we were going to put the gym/training area, the pool, the entertainment area, and the dining area.


    Wandering through the place, we settled on putting the gym on the second underground level, mainly because there is a ton of unused space down there. But there was also the fact that the new equipment I plan on fabricating to keep up with my training needs is going to weigh in the literal 10s of tons, eventually. Therefore, it made the most sense to put it on the lowest level so I wouldn''t have to worry about the above ones caving in from a shit load of weight concentrated in a small area.


    As for the specifics of the space, it will house a variety of normal-weight machines, free weights for relatively normal people to use, and a heavy-weight section that will probably only be used by me. Unless I recruit one of the friendly super mutants like Fawkes, for instance, or recruit someone out there in the wastes that is either gifted or has a special mutation...


    Thoughts of recruiting unique and powerful individuals aside, the heavy-weight section of the space will consist of a variety of weighted machines and free weights that will max out in the tens of tons. Those monstrously heavy weights will allow me to keep pushing myself and my limits further so I can keep making progress.


    Other than those two areas, there will be a training area for training my perception. That specific place will be equipped with the usual setup of baseball pitching machines rigged with turret targeting modules and 10mm ballistic turrets that will be loaded with rubber bullets initially. Those rounds will later be swapped out for live ammunition and probably swapped out again in favor of projectiles with even fast velocities.


    Following picking out a spot for that, we selected one for the pool, which ended up being located right next to it, so they would both have access to a shared locker room. However, due to there not being enough concrete on hand, nor the materials required to produce it at the moment, construction of this project will be delayed until I manage to get some arc kilns fabricated and find a good source of limestone.


    That latter one can be accomplished by my robotic workforce via mining and seeing how limestone is just about everywhere, I''m all too concerned about locating that resource. On top of using the lime for concrete, it can also be used for other things, such as in the process of making steel and various other metals and alloys. Which is something we will be doing a whole lot of when the arc furnaces are made and we possess the ore and scrap to feed them.


    Moving on from there, we started our search for where the entertainment zone should go. This took us a decent while, but we eventually went with throwing it on the first level of the basement due to the fact that there was an abundant amount of space available down there for it.


    With that spot settled on, we began discussing the details of what sort of things will be housed there. And after a bit of back and forth, we eventually got all the details in order and would be acquiring a number of arcade games from Vault 101 in the not so distant future.


    Finished assigning areas to the underground floors, we moved on up to the levels above. The two of us walked around together for a short time before deciding to put the dining area up on the second floor because there was already a cafeteria there. Although an old one in a very poor state.


    "Now that we have that all planned out, let''s head back up to our room, get suited up, and ready to head out."


    "Okay... Ohh, but before we head up, do you want to have lunch at the vault?" Amata replied.


    "Sure, it beats the hell out of eating the stuff we have here."


    Having covered what we wished to do for lunch, we headed upstairs, threw our personal form fitting suits of Shadow Armor, and climbed into respective power armor suits before moving on to equipping the rest of our loadouts.


    Whilst we were in the midst of doing that, I had one of my increasing number of thought processes send my usual group robots to the loading area to get ready to depart for the vault. And as one of my thought processes was managing that, I had another send signals with Mechu-deru to my workers in the manufacturing section of the facility to inform the Hill brothers that Amata and I would be heading out to transfer more of my loot over.


    Shortly thereafter, we arrived in the loading area ready to set out into the wasteland once again, armored from head to toe and armed to the teeth. With me wielding my gatling laser Purge, my 12G Laser Pistol magnetically attached to my waist along with Commando Knife, and more than a dozen MFC Grenades and Pulse Grenades magnetically attached to my power armor''s built-in war belt. As for my partner, Amata, she was equipped with her own freshly produced AER 29 LMG, a Ripper on her waist, and a dozen MFC Grenades and Pulse Grenades each.


    Doing a double check of everything, I found everything was in order as expected. "Alright, we got everything and all the robots are here. Let''s set out."


    "Okay, boss." Hauler responded while many mechanical forces responded with variations of that.


    Ready as we''ll ever be, I opened up the massive blast door on my own this time, since I figured out how to finally take over simpler mechanical constructs.


    *Chirp...Chirp...Chirp...*


    ...


    *Grrrnnnd-*


    As soon as the massive door settled into the open position, I stepped outside, first followed by Amata, and then the rest of the group. Once the last of us were through, we set off for Vault 101.

 Chapter 52: Moving Loot

    On our journey to the vault, we first encountered 10 slavers, which I quickly mopped up with Purge before we then came across a band of 14 poorly equipped super mutants later on that I also gunned down in less than 30 seconds. After our encounters with those two groups of hostiles, the convoy started nearing our destination but as we were coming into the general vicinity of Vault 101 a pair of Albino Radscorpions greeted us so I had the robots quickly reduce them to nothing but a scorch mark on the deteriorating broken asphalt road.


    I think once I''m able to start producing my own meat via the farming of cattle, chickens, and pigs, I might want to try my hand at taming a few of them... I could also see if I can''t gigantasize them as well. I mean the Radscorpion Queen is a thing after all, so why wouldn''t I be able to produce my own if not one even larger.


    However, even if I couldn''t accomplish that, as long as I successfully tame some of them, I should be able to turn them into a pretty useful asset. They do possess an inherent natural regeneration, thick natural armor, multiple sets of eyes, claws, and venomous stingers, all of which are very useful traits for combat and will probably all improve as they grow in size. Combine that with armoring them up and mounting ranged weaponry upon their carapaces'' like turrets, for instance that I would have full control over thanks to Mechu-deru.


    All that combined would essentially turn them into biological tanks slash mobile weapon platforms. Despite how cool all that sounds, it''ll all be worthless if I''m unable to increase their species'' intelligence to at least the level of a smart dog. And even that won''t be all that useful without extensive training being implemented... If all else fails, I could take a look at the tech the Enclave uses to control the deathclaws. That might present a possible solution if I''m unable to tame them.


    Following my thoughts regarding the creation of living bioweapons, we arrived in front of the vault''s cave entrance within an hour and a half, faster than our usual time by 30 minutes.


    "Looks like we made good time." I thought aloud once we made it to the gargantuan vault door.


    "Yeah, we really did arrive here a lot sooner compared to the last trip. Even the enemies we encountered on the way here couldn''t slow us down by much." Amata commented with her breath sounding slightly hurried because of us moving at a constant speed of over 20 miles per hour for the majority of the journey.


    "You''re very right, boss''s miss." Hauler added.


    Hopping on the ground penetrating radio, with Amata''s dad Alphonse I informed him of our arrival so he could send the order up to let us in.


    "Once the door is open, let''s make our way inside and grab lunch with your dad, since he''s available today."


    "Oh, I didn''t expect dad to have time today. I thought he was going to be busy with this week''s meetings with the elder council." My companion replied, with her breathing under control and clearly happy to hear that we''ll be able to eat with her father.


    "I guess he was able to make time for us." I commented lastly as the vault door began its process of opening up.


    *Grrrnnnddd*


    Less than a minute later, the vault door rolled off to the side of the vault''s interior and settled into the open position. So with the humongous blast door no longer impeding our path, we stepped forward and greeted the vault security uncles before venturing further in to go meet up with Amata''s dad for lunch. While we were on the way to have an actual meal, my robots scurried along and navigated the vault''s extensive network of hallways and began ferrying stuff to the cave entrance.


    It took us a bit, but we eventually reached the overseer''s office and when we did, Amata hugged her father while I greeted him from the side. The three of us then departed from his office into the gray vault hallways to get some much needed sustenance. From there, we spent around an hour with her dad eating and generally making small talk and right around the time we wrapped things up, my robots finished things on their end. Thus, we said our farewells and climbed back up to the vault entrance, where my robots were ready and waiting.


    The instant we reached my mechanical men, we double checked our gear and set out into the wasteland, heading for our home away from home. On our return journey, we stumbled across a swarm of 34 bloatflies which I rapidly annihilated in no more than a minute.


    The next thing we encountered on our way was a traveling scavenger who just about shit his pants when he noticed us. Smelling potential benefits in the air, I raced after the poor guy before he could make his grand escape and easily caught up to him, stopping him in his tracks to ask if he had anything to trade.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    He was scared shitless initially, but that didn''t last long when he found out that I meant him no harm and was simply looking to see what sort of goods he had available. So, with his safety somewhat assured, we got right to trading. A short few moments later, he showed me what he had to offer and of the items he had only a single piece was of interest to me, a Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual.


    Seeing me show interest in an item, we started our bartering and before long I got him to take 5 MFC Grenades for the skill book, which was a phenomenal deal for me since they barely cost me anything to produce.


    With our transaction completed, I wished the man good luck in his travels, rejoined my group, and continued on down the road, heading in the direction of our other home. From there, we traveled the rest of the way to our destination without encountering anything else of note. The minute we finally arrived back at base, we went right in, since I already had the massive blast door set in the open position for us. Back in the safety of the facility, I assisted mechanical forces in unloading all the loot we brought back with us from the vault.


    A short while later, we had everything organized and put away, so we all returned to the loading area, but not before I restocked my MFC Grenades. Once I was restocked, Amata and I rejoined the robots and headed back out into the wasteland to the vault for our second and final trip of the day.


    On our way there, we encountered a group of raiders, numbering 8 in total, that were almost instantly dispatched by me. Subsequently after that, we surprisingly met a pack of 3 Yao Guai that I had Amata use as target practice to work on her aim. Nevertheless, I made sure to tell her to try her best to not kill them since I still needed the exp.


    Whilst she was using the three of them for target practice, they began charging in our direction due to Amata shooting her AER 29 LMG at them, and after a short amount of time had passed, they began to approach us. So before they could get close enough to deal damage, I lit them up with Purge, filling them with smoldering holes and killing them off within several seconds of me pulling the trigger.


    The rest of our time traveling to the vault was mostly uneventful, at least that was the case up until we had a run in with a roaming group of giant ants that consisted of 20 workers and 5 soldiers. Luckily for us, they were pretty much a nonexistent threat to our combined forces, thus my robots dust them by lighting them up with a cacophony of laser fire.


    From there we made it to the vault where we got loaded up again, and as soon as we were ready, we proceeded into the wasteland again, heading home. On the way back we came across a wandering pack of 7 Giant Radscorpions that were accompanied by 23 Radscorpions and a group of well-equipped super mutants that was composed of 5 regular Super Mutants, 3 Super Mutant Brutes, 2 Super Mutant Masters, and even a Super Mutant Overlord that my robots and I slaughtered ruthlessly and efficiently.


    "Phew, we made it just as it began to turn dark." I commented the moment the massive blast door shut behind us.


    "Y-yeah, we were cutting it q-quite close this time, closer than the l-last." Amata agreed as she was attempting to catch her breath.


    ...


    "Well, now that we''re home, let''s go upstairs to our room and get out of our armor before we grab a bit of dinner. Sound good?" I suggested, after waiting a few minutes for her to catch her breath.


    "Sounds like a plan." Amata responded happily.


    Following that brief conversation of ours, we walked to the elevator and rode it upstairs to our room with a newly redone bathroom that Amata was over the moon about. And that was without any water running. I can only imagine how pleased she''ll be once water production is brought online.


    A while later, as I was ready and waiting for Amata to finish getting ready to head downstairs to get some dinner, I used Mechu-deru and checked up on my robots to see how they were all doing. What I discovered a few short seconds in was that not even a single issue has occurred while we were away and that they were progressing very well in their assigned tasks.


    So, not finding anything needing my attention or direct involvement, I let them continue doing their thing while I took over the robots and turrets that came off the production line while I was gone for the day. After I was done binding them to my will, I waited an additional 15 minutes before Amata strolled out. Leaving for the elevator, we went downstairs and grabbed some grub.


    Sharing a meal in the improvised dining area, we finished the meal rather fast and turned in for the night soon thereafter. Laying in bed with Amata sleeping cuddled up next to me, I used one of my many thought processes to see how the Hill brothers made out today.


    Mm, they did decently well for their first time and helped wherever they could, not bad.


    Satisfied with today''s progress, I shut my eyes and was eventually whisked away into the land of dreams.


    | New Loot |


    Aid: 3 Bottles of Buffout, 1 Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual, 1 Guns and Bullets, 25 Med-x Syringes, 15 Bags of Radaway, 1 Scout Handbook, 51 Stimpaks, 7 Psycho


    Ammo: 41 7.62 Rounds, 63 .32 Rounds, 309 10mm Rounds, 223 12 Gauge Shotgun Shells, 91 40mm Grenades, 1,920 5.56 Rounds, 1,868 5mm Rounds, 27 Microfusion Cells, 1 Mini Nuke, 7 Missiles


    Miscellaneous: 1 Stealth Boy


    Weapons: 1 7.62 Sniper Rifle, 5 .32 Hunting Rifles, 2 5mm Miniguns, 5 CA12 Combat Shotguns, 5 Combat Knives, 1 CSG10 Submachine Gun, 79 Frag Grenades, 18 Frag Mines, 1 Grenade Machinegun, 1 Light Machine Gun, 1 Missile Launcher, 3 Plasma Grenades, 9 R91 Assault Rifles, 1 Sawed Off Double Barreled Shotgun, 2 Sledge Hammers, 1 Super Sledge, 1 Tri-Beam Laser Rifle, 3 Type 17 Chinese Pistols, 6 Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles


    Weapon Magazines: 3 10 Round 7.62 Sniper Rifle Magazines, 2 1,000 Round 5mm Minigun Backpack Magazines, 13 12 Round CA12 Combat Shotgun Drum Magazines, 10 30 Round CSG10 Submachine Gun Magazines, 3 30 Round Grenade Machinegun Magazines, 3 100 round Light Machine Gun Box Magazines, 29 30 Round R91 Assault Rifle Magazines, 21 30 Round Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifle Magazines

 Chapter 53: Taking A Dip

    The next day I awoke from my sleep feeling well-rested and more than recovered from the previous day''s affairs. Pumped to begin my day, I checked the time on my trusty Pip-Boy 3000 to see how many hours I would be working with till everyone eventually wakes up.


    Nice, it''s only 2:07 AM. That should give me plenty of time to work on some things in the facility before Amata gets up and we head for the vault again today to finish the last three trips back and forth. But before I get up and start getting ready to head downstairs to the first floor, I gotta see how my robots did during the night whilst I was asleep.


    Upon completing that thought, I utilized my ever-increasing number of thought processes and checked up on my robots and the many machines and mechanical constructs I had total control over. Moments later into the process, I got an overall view of what took place and what I discovered was that my workforce had finished the construction of the water purification system and the jumbo walk-in freezer slash refrigerator.


    Great, with the completion of the water purification system, we''ll now no longer have to be entirely reliant upon the vault and can grow our own food. And that''s not all. I''ll also be able to begin cultivating the many modified plants I used in my drug synthesis production back at the vault. The very same ones I used to produce my modified Buffout, Med-x, Radaway, and Stimpaks.


    Along with those benefits, our access to running water now means Amata and I can actually start properly using our bathroom. Which will also eliminate the need for us to make trips back to the vault to load up on clean non irradiated water for cleaning and drinking.


    As for the walk-in combo freezer and refrigerator, that big guy will allow us to store all the food we will inevitably produce when it comes time to harvest the crops. That said, the cold space has its limits, thus we''ll eventually have that thing filled, although that won''t happen for quite some time,


    Nevertheless, when it does indeed occur, I''ll just try to sell it off the excess to the nearby Tenpenny Tower. And if not them, I''m sure some of the other wasteland settlements like Megaton, Rivet City, and Canterbury Commons would be more than happy to take the goods off my hands. I can probably make a decent profit from the trade whether that be as caps, scrap or some other kind of resource.


    Besides those two projects being completed, my guys finished assembling the automated weapon magazine manufacturing machine as well. Which had produced a number of freshly made magazines for the 5mm Miniguns and several other weapons I had in my arsenal.


    Even though there is still much that needs to be done before I can accomplish my goals in this life, I''m nonetheless inching ever closer, one step at a time.


    Happy to have woken up to such good news, I reassigned a small portion of the freed up workforce to the hydroponics to begin farming and sowing seeds. As for the rest of them, I distributed them across a few of my ongoing projects, specifically the conversion of the existing fusion power plants to fusion breeder that was still ongoing, the revamping/remodeling of the dining area, and the construction of arc furnaces and arc kilns.


    Which I''ll be needing in a minute here for the processing of raw materials that I''ll be obtaining via mining and the scraping of more junked vehicles that are just sitting around the wasteland collecting rust.


    Following my check in on my robots'' progress and assigning new tasks for them to complete, I briefly used my recently obtained ability Ghost to get out of Amata''s hold of me and got off of the bed. From there, I walked to the bathroom and hopped into the new shower to test it out and enjoy letting the water run over me.


    ...


    God knows how many minutes in, as I was finishing up my shower, a thought occurred to me.


    You know what I feel like taking a nice hot bath and since I''ve gotten a ton done recently; I think I''m more than deserving of a little bit of me-time.


    Taking a short break for myself, I headed over to the big ass tub we had installed and turned on the hot water, releasing a continuous stream of fresh clean water from the tub''s faucet with not a hint of contaminants in sight. After several minutes of waiting for it to fill it was finally done, so I turned that faucet off, stepped in, and got comfortable.


    "Ahh, that hits the spot." I thought aloud euphorically whilst the water spilled out and over the sides of the tub.


    As I sat there relaxing in the hot water, my mind wandered to what I was going to do next and what ways I could utilize to further hasten my already fast progress.


    Now that I got a moment to myself to relax, I can use this short break I have until I need to head back to the grindstone to plan out some of what I want to accomplish this morning. And while I''m at it, I''ll see if I can''t come up with some ideas to improve my progress even further.


    The first thing I want to start chipping away at when I head downstairs is changing my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle''s bolt action over to a semi-automatic action. The bolt action no longer makes any sense to have since my stats are more than capable of keeping the weapon locked in place and on target even if I fire the whole 10 round magazine in short succession.


    As for how long the conversion will take, it shouldn''t require all that much time, given that I now have a fully automated weapon manufacturing machine that can essentially handle all the milling and other processes for me.


    When I have the new design fabricated and in hand, I''ll look into designing several heavier weapons to make when we''re done exploring and clearing out the nearby metro station. An even larger anti-material rifle doesn''t sound too bad and I think this time I''m going to make a 20mm so I''ll be able to take out larger and sturdier mutants more efficiently like Mirelurk Queens, Radscorpion Queens, and Super Mutant Behemoths without having to resort to throwing mini nukes at them.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    On top of that, the rifle will allow me to take out targets from even further ranges than my A-21 Anti-Material Rifle would allow. It''ll also be able to take an even wider selection of loads when compared to 50 cal that I''ll be able to make use of to deal with all sorts of situations.


    Following the completion of the 20mm anti-material rifle, I''m going to set my sights on designing a gauss minigun with six barrels, a variable fire rate of 1,000 to 6,000 rpm that is controlled by a dial just like my Mulcher gatling gun... Other than those features I''ll spare no expense and implement drastically better coils and electronics into the weapon''s design compared to other gauss weaponry to improve the weapon''s various functions and performance.


    Hmm, what else can I add... Well, seeing how all my gatling type designs all share backpack magazines or power units, this gauss minigun design shouldn''t miss out thus it will also be receiving it. That will ensure that I have the ability to take out literal hoards of armored hostiles easily and efficiently, like anyone wearing power armor such as the not so friendly brotherhood of steel Outcasts and Enclave, for example.


    The second I''ve completed the gauss minigun design, I''ll begin working on designing a belt-fed gauss machine gun next that will have a fire rate of around 1,200 rounds a minute. And as soon as I have that design drawn up, I''ll move on to design a plasma minigun. Once I''m finished with all those designs, I''ll begin working on drawing up two new robots specced out for combat with what little time I''ll have left after all of that weapon designing.


    Moving onto my ideas to improve my already fast progress rate, I haven''t done anything with Mentats, the intelligence enhancing drug thus far. So I can see about adjusting the chemical structure of the compound to rid it of its negative side effects. Such as its addictiveness that was added to the chem so it would get their users hooked to increase sales for Med-Tek.


    And while I''m messing around with the formula, I''ll need to figure out how to make the permanent intelligence bonus adolescent youths receive from taking the drug permanent across all ages. I don''t know how difficult that will be to figure out, but my stats are already leagues above what normal humans would be able to possess, therefore it shouldn''t be all that difficult to do.


    That said, the main time-consuming part will be modifying the plants that will be required to produce the compounds and actually growing them. So I shouldn''t expect to see any real results from this until at least a month later when I begin harvesting.


    ...


    After going over everything in my head again, that should be all I can get done before Amata gets up... Time to go back to relaxing for a while longer.


    Sometime later, I rose from the tub and rinsed myself off with a cold shower.


    I''m so glad we decided to add this huge tub, I''ll definitely have to add this to my regimen going forward since it seems to relax and lessen the tension in my muscles.


    From my cold shower, I went and took care of the rest of my daily hygiene needs, heading downstairs via the elevator to our improvised eating area. While I was taking the elevator down, I took control of the new robots and turrets that were produced during the night.


    Taking care of that business swiftly, I arrived on the main floor and proceeded to the improvised eating area. The second I did, I wasted not even a second and began preparing a meal and once it was hot and ready; I hoovered it down. Done having my fill of a high-protein meal, I made my way over to my workshop located in the manufacturing portion of the facility next and got right to work on the projects I wanted to get done.


    ...


    Hours passed as I busily worked on my multiple projects and when I accomplished just about everything, I wanted to get done for the morning, I noticed what time it was.


    Damn, it''s 7:03 already... Time sure flies by when you''re having fun.


    With it becoming that when everyone gets up, I paused my work there and began going over it while I waited for Amata and the ghoul brothers to come down. What I obtained for my efforts first off was a new and improved anti-material rifle.


    | A-22 Anti-Material Rifle |


    Damage: 120


    DPS: Variable


    Fire rate: Semi-Automatic


    Capacity: 8, 10


    Reload: 2.5


    Weight: 25


    Ammo Type: .50 BMG


    Value: 15,900


    Attachments: Bipod, Laser sight, Suppressor, Night/Thermal Variable Zoom Scope, Vertical Fore Grip, Weapon Sling


    Item Description: This weapon is a 50 caliber A-21 Anti-Material Rifle that was redesigned to be semi-automatic, and in the process of the redesign, the designer decided to make several additions to it to improve the weapon even further. Those additions include a quad rail for attaching different attachments, a mounting point for a bipod, a heavier barrel for sustained fire, improved rifling for better accuracy, and mounting points for a weapon sling. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.


    In addition to that, I gained several new designs for weapons and robots that will provide quite a substantial upgrade to my overall capabilities and firepower once they go into production. But that will have to wait till I have a decent amount of resources flowing in consistently. Which will happen as soon as I find a decent amount of resource deposits within the earth to mine and process.


    But in the event that I can''t reach them immediately or within a short period I''ll have to resort to trading with the local settlements and scraping the nearly unlimited wrecked vehicles around the wasteland to keep up with my current resource expenditure that will continuously grow as time goes on.


    Along with those accomplishments, I made headway with the Mentats formula by modifying the chemical structure. From the modifications I made, it should have removed its addictiveness, the various neurological disorders that it causes to different people when they overuse the drug, and the other known undesirable side effects. Besides making those changes, I also found out what part of the chemical structure of the compound was providing permanent intelligence increases in adolescents and modified it so it would provide those very same benefits to any human, no matter their age.


    Other than that, I also genetically modified some plant seeds I had on hand with one of my specialized machines and sent them off with my Worker Bots to sow alongside the rest of the plants we''ll be growing.


    And from my work on the drug, I even got the sudden bright idea of pursuing research regarding the possibility of increasing the intelligence of other creatures through the use of the drug. However, after thinking about it for several seconds and weighing the pros and cons of such an idea at the time, I decided against it.


    This was because it would be a hell of a lot easier to just simply genetically modify a creature and make it smarter that way than it was to try to increase their overall intelligence via the use of drugs over a long period that would more than likely require years of drug exposure and training.


    ...


    Looking back on things, I sure got a ton done this morning. Nevertheless, let me go over everything again to make sure that I didn''t forget anything important and that there are no issues with any of the designs I came up with over these last several hours.


    As I went over my work, the Hill brothers eventually woke up and began making their way downstairs. So I finished up what I was doing and proceeded over to the improvised cafeteria to meet up with them and chat with them for a few minutes before I head upstairs to wake up Amata and begin our loot runs back and forth from Vault 101.

 Chapter 54: More Vault 101 Loot Runs

    A small walk through the facility later, I met up with the Hill brothers at the dining zone. "So, how''d you guys sleep last night?"


    "Great, it was the best sleep I''ve had in centuries." Don replied.


    "Yeah, it was pretty good. I don''t believe I''ve slept that well since the bombs dropped and the world came to an end." Hugo agreed.


    "Mm, it sure beats sleeping out in the wasteland on some rotten old beat-up mattress." Kevin added lastly, nodding his head.


    "That''s good. I''m glad all three of you were able to sleep so well." I replied.


    The bunch of us chattered on for a bit before I brought up what will be happening today. "Also, some things are going to change. First off, I''m going to have several of my Worker Bots start adding bathrooms to your rooms, so you won''t have to share the one bathroom you three have been sharing near your rooms up to this point. As for when you can expect it to be completed, my robots should be done building one for each of your rooms by the end of the day."


    Seeing them looking mighty pleased to be getting their very own shitter, I continued onto their change in tasks for today. "And while that''s going on, I''m going to have Don and Kevin begin work on assembling the Chinese Chimera Tank instead of having all three of you helping around the manufacturing area. Any questions?"


    "Not a one." Kevin replied, just happy to be getting his own personal bathroom.


    "I have no issue with that. I would actually much prefer to work on the Chimera tank in fact." Don responded right after his brother, Kevin, in his usual raspy and hoarse sounding ghoul voice.


    "Okay cool, now that that''s out of the way, we can discuss what will be happening tomorrow. Don, you''ll be coming out with Amata and me tomorrow to clear out and take over the nearby Warrington Metro Station, so expect to get into at least some combat tomorrow." I told the former military ghoul.


    "Finally." Don said excitedly with a somewhat violent and ferocious glint hiding within the depths of his aged, yellowed eyes.


    Turning to his two brothers next. "As for your brothers, you two can continue working on your current tasks if you want, or you can join us for tomorrow''s excursion."


    "I''m fine with staying and working in the manufacturing area." Hugo answered rather calmly.


    "Yeah, I would prefer to work on the Chimera tank if you don''t mind." Kevin answered, somewhat hyped up more than likely because of the fact that he''ll be working on one of the few vehicles that are still operational.


    "That''s no problem." I replied.


    "Alright, with that settled, you guys enjoy your breakfast while I go head off to wake up my sleeping beauty." I said lastly as I began walking off in the direction of the elevator. However, before I could begin proceeding to the elevator, the three ghoul brothers wished me good luck on my loot runs.


    Shortly thereafter, I arrived on the topmost floor and headed for the bedroom my fianc¨¦e and I shared. Navigating through the hallways, I made it to the blast door that was being guarded by the two Assaultrons I had stationed outside of it and went on inside and found Amata still soundly asleep.


    Striding over to her side of the bed I began attempting to wake her. "Amata, it''s time to get up." I told her while shaking her gently.


    "Amata, it''s time ..."


    I repeated that a few more times and after the fifth time, she finally opened her eyes while releasing a yawn of sorts and stretching her arms up above her head.


    "Good morning, Harold." She said in her typical bubbly voice with a bright smile plastered on her pretty face.


    "Morning sleepy head. Go on into the bathroom and take a shower so we can head downstairs to get something to eat for breakfast."


    "Ohh, did the robots finish putting together the rest of the water purification system?" She asked excitedly.


    "They did, so go on in and get yourself cleaned up. We have quite the busy day ahead of us." I responded while ushering her to the bathroom.


    But before I could get her all the way there, she paused, turned around, and asked me. "Can you lean down for a second, I think I saw something on your face?"


    "Sure." Doing as I was told, I leaned down like she asked when and the next thing I knew, Amata stole my lips before quickly scampering into the bathroom with slightly red cheeks.


    That little rascal is growing bold.


    "Amata, you know you could''ve just asked if that''s what you wanted." I said loudly from outside the bathroom door.


    "Yeah, I know, but I wanted to do it this way." She returned cheekily from the opposite side with a slight giggle.


    "Alright then, enjoy your shower. I''m going to put my Shadow Armor on." I responded before turning around and walking off in the direction of where I stored my armor.


    Over 20 minutes later, Amata finally finished her shower and exited the bathroom, freshened up with her hair and skin glistening under the lights of our bedroom.


    As she was coming out, I couldn''t help letting loose a whistle. "Well, aren''t you a sight to behold." I commented, making her slightly embarrassed and putting a small smile on her face.


    Following that little comment of mine, we played and fooled around in our room for the next several minutes and eventually made our way downstairs via the elevator to grab some breakfast that we''ll surely be needing to fuel our three loot runs to the vault. The minute we reached the main floor, we left the elevator hand in hand and proceeded to the temporary eating area and began preparing breakfast.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    It didn''t take us long to get everything ready, but once it was, the two of us sat down and chatted about this and that as well as what we were going to be picking up on the third trip. Which, after a bit of discussion, will mostly consist of things that will be needed for the entertainment area, like skee ball machines, air hockey tables, and other entertainment related machines and games.


    But besides acquiring games for the entertainment area, we''ll also be picking up a number of items for the dining area and a plethora of materials needed for renovating more rooms for future residents that will be recruited in due time. If I plan on carving out my own little piece of the wasteland one day, I will most definitely be needing a talented group of individuals to assist me in that goal, hence they will need their own personal living quarters.


    When we finished eating breakfast and our conversation, we returned upstairs to our room and got geared up so we could begin transporting the remainder of my shit back and forth from Vault 101. Immediately upon equipping our full loadouts, we went downstairs to the loading section of the former RobCo Facility, where my usual squad was already waiting for us, ready to venture out into the wasteland.


    Meeting up with my usual group of robots, we moved to the massive blast door that I opened for us with Mechu-deru and continued on through the massive opening, setting off into the wasteland and beginning our loot runs back and forth from the vault.


    ...


    Many hours later, we rounded the corner of my base of operations out here in the wastes and kept moving until we arrived in front of the massive blast door that was currently sliding open for us. The second it settled into place in the open position, we proceeded inside, finally completing our third and final loot run.


    "We''re finally back. Good work everyone." I said aloud to my group, which received a variety of responses from my robots and a nod and somewhat exhausted sounding mm from Amata''s power armor-covered head.


    Following our return home, I had my robots initiate the unloading procedures. So whilst they were busy transporting the loot we brought back with us from our final trip to the warehouse area, I and Amata went upstairs via the elevator to remove our equipment and get ourselves cleaned up. Stepping off the elevator once reached the top floor, we journeyed to our room intent on enjoying a nice, hot, steamy shower.


    "You hop in the shower first." I told her as soon as I had my gear off and stowed away.


    "Thanks... You want to join me?"


    "Sigh, you know that isn''t going to happen, Amata. You got another two years before that''s on the table."


    "...Well, it was worth a shot." She replied, sticking her tongue at me and making a face at me.


    Letting her go first, I waited patiently and in the process of doing so; I started going over what we encountered on our loot runs.


    The trips back and forth weren''t too bad and were pretty profitable overall in terms of exp at least. We met 5 Albino Radscorpions, 4 Centaurs, 3 Deathclaws, 21 Giant Soldier Ants, 142 Giant Worker Ants, 21 Molerats, 7 Radroaches, 11 Radscorpions, and 17 Super Mutants on our three trips back and forth from the vault.


    Adding to that further, as we were coming back from our second trip, my group and I encountered a new type of Radroach, a Giant Radroach specifically which was surprisingly capable of flight and had the ability to spit acid from its mouth. The new type of Radroach might''ve been capable of more than that, but that was all I was able to discover before I dispatched it with my Mulcher gatling gun and continued on with our journey to the facility with my convoy.


    Besides encountering that oddity, we also came into contact with a small group of 5 poorly equipped raiders that I had Amata dispatch so she could continue to get used to killing and taking human lives.


    As I was finishing going over what we encountered on our trips back and forth from Vault 101, I had one of my thought processes take over the robots and turrets that were produced while we were away. The moment they were all under my complete dominance, I assigned the robots some work to do.


    That was to start renovating and putting together the dining area and begin transporting the entertainment-related items downstairs to the entertainment area located on level one of the basement. So we could begin putting them to use and do something else other work 24/7. Simultaneously, as I was going over and assigning new tasks for my robots to take care of, I continued busying myself with my thoughts and managing my workers and other mechanical forces all across the facility.


    ...


    20-plus minutes later, my girl and I were all cleaned up, dressed, and ready to get some dinner.


    "Alright, let''s head downstairs and get some food, and hopefully, by the time we''re done with dinner, my Worker Bots will have finished moving and setting up a few of the machines for us to play with in the entertainment area."I said.


    "I hope they do. It would be nice if we could play a few games before going to bed... But before we go grab something to eat, I believe I''m deserving of a reward for working so hard today, don''t you think so?" She responded, looking at me with an expectant look.


    "Hmm, I don''t know." I replied jokingly with a thoughtful expression displayed on my face, which received a teary-eyed look from her.


    Keeping her in suspense for a few seconds longer, I relented. "Now that I thought about it a bit more, I do believe you are right. Come here for a second, Amata."


    Immediately upon telling her to come to me, she did so in an instant, looking forward to whatever reward I plan to give her with her glistening blue eyes locked to my own. With her standing right in front of me with her head raised to mine, I placed both of my hands on her slim but fit waist and leaned my head down toward hers and locked lips with hers. The instant our lips touched, I felt Amata lift her arms up and lock her hands behind my neck to extend the duration of this moment.


    We stayed like that for a bit before Amata started to become a bit more aggressive, so not wanting to let things go too far, I put an end to it before she would provoke me to do something I would come to regret. Drawing back, I saw Amata''s eyes were a bit misted over, so I kept my hands on her toned waist until she came back down to reality. The following moment she did, I saw the disappointment in her eyes, definitely because we didn''t go any further.


    "Yeah, I know you''re disappointed, Amata, but we can''t go any further than this until we''re both of age." I told her, further deflating her.


    "But it''s not that bad since it will be a drastically better experience for the both of us when we finally do advance beyond this stage to the next one." I added, inflating her back up a bit.


    As she was about to open her mouth and respond, I leaned down next to her ear and whispered. "Though in the meantime, we can do plenty of stuff like this and some other things to hold us over until that point." After whispering that last bit, I blew a wisp into her ear, startling her and making her go bright red.


    Chuckling at her response, we spent a bit of time fooling around in our shared space and soon departed from there, holding on to each other''s hands and heading downstairs. Following a short ride, we arrived on the main floor, so we exited it and went to the improvised eating area and prepared ourselves a sizable dinner to replace the calories we expended on our multiple excursions into the capital wasteland.


    Half an hour later we devoured our meal but my Worker Bots were still doing their thing, thus we stuck around there and talked about a variety of different topics until my workers were done moving and setting up the games.


    Another ten minutes passed when I saw they had finished their job, so I brought it up. "Alright, they''re done setting it all up. Let''s go."


    "Finally."


    Getting up from our seats, we made haste for the first underground level where the entertainment area was located and began having fun with the various games placed throughout the place.


    The next hour was spent having fun, but when a full hour had come to pass, we decided we had played enough and that it was time to hit the hay. Thus we beelined it upstairs to our room. Not long after returning, we climbed into bed, cuddled up together, and talked for a short while before we both finally fell asleep.


    | New Loot |


    Aid: Duck and Cover!, 2 Bags of RadAway, 5 Stimpaks, 4 Psycho Syringes


    Ammo: 149 12 Gauge Shotgun Shells, 1,611 5.56 Rounds, 1 Mini Nukes


    Money: 367 Bottle Caps


    Weapons: 4 CA12 Combat Shotguns, 13 Frag Grenades, 9 R91 Assault Rifles, 7 Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifles


    Weapon Magazines: 11 12 Round CA12 Combat Shotgun Drum Magazines, 27 30 Round R91 Assault Rifle Magazines, 22 30 Round Type 93 Chinese Assault Rifle Magazines

 Chapter 55: Equipping The Gym

    Date Sunday, August 29th, 2275


    The following day, as I began to wake up from my brief but very good sleep, I let loose a yawn and started stretching my muscles, specifically the ones that wouldn''t affect nor disturb my girl''s sleep. Stretching them for several seconds longer, they loosened up and were no longer as stiff as they were when I woke up initially.


    Ahh, that was a nice rest.


    Well rested and ready to start my day, I looked over to my right and checked up on my companion. What I found was peacefully sleeping Amata who was looking mighty comfortable and content, locking her arms around my vascular right bicep.


    Good, my stretching didn''t wake her.


    With Amata still sleeping soundly, I pulled up my Pip-Boy, turned it on to check the time. The instant the screen came to life, I looked at the top of the screen and saw it was 2:28 AM.


    Looks like I got plenty of hours to work on a few things here at base before the two I will be taking on this mission wake up.


    That said, I can''t wait till we get out into the wasteland to explore the nearby Warrington Station and clear it out so my robots can begin tunneling to link it up with the bottom level of this facility... Now that I''m thinking of it I''ll probably need to increase the underground levels of the facility down another level if I want to link this place up with the metro rails.


    The current space I have available on those two levels is already allocated to other things, so where would the tunnel connect to... Yeah, after giving it a bit more thought, I''ll without a doubt need to expand the underground levels by one more. However, that construction project will have to be put on hold until I have the manpower and the resources to dedicate to it, which I''ll likely have in the next coming months.


    Leaving thoughts on home expansion and upgrades for some other day what do I want to work on this morning... Hmm, I think I''ll work on fabricated gym equipment and as I finish each piece of it, I''ll have my mechanical men haul it down to the bottom level to the designated area we selected recently for the gym.


    Now that I had an idea of what I wanted to work on, I slipped out of Amata''s hold by using my recently obtained ability Ghost and walked to the bathroom.


    A short period later, I exited the bathroom with my dark brown hair slightly damp from the shower I just took and got changed into a set of clothes that were more suited for the work I was about to do. The moment I had my work attire on, I headed for our bedroom''s door and exited it. Passing by the two Assaultrons I had on guard, I made my way to the elevator and took a ride to the ground floor.


    From there I grabbed a bite to eat and as soon as my stomach was full, I proceeded to my next destination, the manufacturing area, and got right to work creating stupidly heavy gym equipment. The sort of equipment that will allow me to progress faster in my agility, endurance, and strength training than the normal run-of-the-mill items that I''m entirely capped out on.


    But just as I was going to start making the new items for the training facility below, I noticed my capacitor supply was beginning to dwindle. So I rounded up several of my Worker Bots and had them go ahead and begin assembling another automated capacitor manufacturing machine.


    While my robots are taking care of that task, it''s about time that I put my nose to the grindstone and got to work.


    ...


    After working for a few hours, I finished fabricating several machines, all of which my robots quickly transferred to the lowest level and assembled via the cargo elevator. Besides making those machines in these hours, I also made a whole assortment of extremely heavy-duty free weights and associated equipment. They ranged from pieces such as Olympic bars and curl bars to dumbbells, kettlebells, plates, and everything else one could think of wasn''t machine-related, and thanks to their simplicity, I was able to churn out a ton of them.


    That should be enough gym equipment for now. Time for me to return upstairs and wake up Amata.


    With my fabrication work for the morning completed, I first took control of the robots and turrets that were produced while I was asleep and busy in my workshop before I then went upstairs. A short elevator ride later, I arrived back at my and Amata''s room and began the long and very arduous process of waking her up.


    "Amata, it''s time to get up." I told her while nudging her arm gently.


    I repeated this two more times and on the third one she finally woke up, which was a halfway decent improvement from yesterday''s five.


    Right as I got her up, she proceeded to the bathroom and started getting ready for the likely eventful day that we had ahead of ourselves. Once she had taken care of her routine, we made our way down one floor via the elevator and met up with the Hill brothers that were currently going to town on their morning meal in the newly remodeled and renovated dining area on the second floor.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Following meeting up with the three ghoul brothers we greeted them and shared a bit of banter between the five of us before we made some breakfast of our own and joined them at one of the several large tables that were set up in the newly redone dining area.


    When we took our seats at the table, all five of us chatted while we ate. And the minute everyone was done Hugo wandered off to the manufacturing area to help wherever he could like he was doing previously, while his brother Kevin went off with some pep in his step to go continue working on assembling the Chimera Tank. Which upon its completion will net me a decent amount of exp.


    As for their brother Don, I told him to head on downstairs and get suited up in the T-60 Power Armor set and grab himself a new weapon as well as some better equipment. However, as I was about to walk off with Amata to begin preparing, Don stopped me and asked me about what kind of equipment was available.


    After informing him of the selection of weapons available, he was first amazed, almost stupefied, before he decided to grab himself an AER10 Laser Rifle as his primary weapon and a Gauss Rifle for situations that required increased oomph and penetration power. Other than those two weapons, he also decided to equip himself with a belt of 12 MFC Grenades that were basically less powerful plasma grenades and a combat knife as his go to melee weapon.


    Now that Don was making his way downstairs to get geared up, Amata and I proceeded back upstairs to get geared up and prepared to head out to the Warrington Metro Station as well. Upon reaching our room, it took us all of around five minutes to get all of our usual loadouts equipped. And once we were going for our room''s door to go downstairs to get on with our trip to the nearby metro, I held us up for a few moments to expand my gear loadout even further with the addition of 10 bottles of modified Buffout, which I''ve renamed to Buffout T-1.


    Besides the addition of my modified Buffout, I added 10 C-4 Plastic Explosive Bundles, and 20 Plasma Grenades to my loadout that were now affixed to my power armor''s war belt ready to be thrown at a moment''s notice to create numerous coronas of plasma. I also would''ve added a Gauss Rifle to my loadout like Don had, but I saw no need to when we would likely only be taking out ghouls on this excursion of ours and nothing too heavily armored.


    Though in the event that I need to take out something heavily armored, I can just use my new and improved semi-automatic anti-material rifle to deal with it. Which I can load with more powerful specialized ammunition if I need more armor penetration and damage. And if that isn''t enough, the mini-nuke bombardment I performed back at the Fairfax Ruins can make a reappearance again for the unfortunate souls that are impeding my path to accomplishing my goals.


    "Alright, that''s everything. Let''s make our way downstairs and meet up with Don and the robots." I told Amata.


    "Okay." She responded simply, sounding pumped to get and resume our adventure.


    Another brief elevator ride later, we reached the main floor again, so we exited it and made a beeline over to where Don and my robots were patiently waiting for us, ready to set out into the wastes. As soon as we reached them, I had everyone do a quick check to ensure they weren''t missing anything.


    Once we were 100% sure that we had everything we needed for our coming cleanup job, I opened the massive blast door with Mechu-deru and took the lead into the wasteland followed by my usual group of robots as well as a number of new additions those being my Mining Bots and a large number of additional Worker Bots.


    The instant the last of my group had passed through the massive opening, I utilized Mechu-deru again and closed the blast door. And right as the door shut, I tried using my perk Metal Detector for the first time since I obtained it. It took a bit of adjusting myself and trying out several different things, but I soon discovered many different deposits of ore buried at varying depths underground within a several mile radius around me. And thankfully there were a decent number of them that were relatively close by to my base.


    Sweet, there are a good number of deposits no more than a hundred meters from the facility. That said, they are a decent depth underground, so I won''t be gaining access to them for a while with my current capabilities. I guess I''m going to have to ramp up robot production and make those upgrades to the robot production machines that I delayed when I was repairing the machines originally if I want to take advantage of those resources below any time soon.


    With a solid number of resources found and not wanting to miss out on the chance of potentially coming across additional valuable deposits on my travels, I dedicated one of my thought processes to specifically managing Metal Detector. Finished assigning one of my thought processes to take care of that job, my group and I rounded the facility under the wasteland''s gray clouded sky to the front parking lot, which was looking more and more barren every time I saw it due to my robots chipping away at the junked rusted cars.


    From there, we departed the parking lot and hopped on the road and headed southbound for a short while. Once we came to an intersection, I scanned our surroundings for a brief couple of moments and only found abandoned, deteriorated houses and the usual rubble in the distance. So with no hostiles or dangers for us to deal with, I continued leading the way forward, this time to the west.


    As we continued our journey in the westward direction, we passed relatively close by to the somewhat repaired Tenpenny Tower and as we were passing by I looked up and saw the old man Allistair Tenpenny on his penthouse balcony with his .308 Sniper Rifle looking through his scope at my group.


    Hmm, I wonder if this Allistair Tenpenny is as evil as the one in the game... But seeing how he''s sitting up there with his 7.62 Sniper Rifle, he probably is. Regardless, that''s not my problem for now at least, unless he decides to pull the trigger on his sniper rifle, in which case I''ll have to make a detour and deal with him. I honestly wouldn''t mind taking his fancy settlement from him for myself. It would be one hell of an upgrade to go from living in a formerly abandoned robot manufacturing facility to a luxury penthouse house in the sky instead.


    Following that thought of mine, we kept heading west and then southwest minutes after that to the Warrington Station. And thankfully for Allistair Tenpenny, he wasn''t dumb enough to take my group and me as practice targets for his wasteland safari hunt. The old fart would''ve been in for a world of hurt had he done so.

 Chapter 56: Warrington Trainyard

    Continuing on our way, we later arrived in the general area of Warrington Station.


    "You guys stay here. I''m going to check things out." I told my squad.


    "Sure." Alice responded.


    "Whatever you say, boss man." Don replied in his typical rough, ghoulified voice.


    Having my group hold up while I investigated things, I walked over to the metro station entrance to see if it was locked. The second the metro''s entrance appeared within my vision, I saw that the gate was indeed locked, although via a chain and a padlock.


    I guess Roy Phillips and his group are living here. That''s going to change how I''m going to approach clearing out this metro slightly.


    Pretty sure that Roy Phillips and his group were inhabiting the Warrington Station, I returned to my group. "Alright, guys, change of plans. We''re going to head over to the nearby Warrington Trainyard first and clear that out of any hostiles. When we''ve completely cleared the trainyard of all hostiles, we''ll proceed into the metro tunnels next and clear out whatever hostiles we exist inside."


    "That said, keep an eye while cleaning the place out, so you don''t take out any sane ghouls if we encounter any by chance. I''d much rather not decrease the old world human population if I can help it."


    "Sounds like a plan, Harold. I''ll be sure to avoid dispatching any of my kind if we encounter any. But if they start attacking, that''s going right out the window." Don responded, while Amata nodded her head.


    "Of course." I acknowledged.


    Upon finishing our brief conversation, we immediately moved over to the nearby Warrington Trainyard. And right as we were coming up on it, I scanned the area and saw that there were a number of feral ghouls residing within the railyard itself, as well as a few dotting the surrounding area of the place. Finding hostiles that needed eliminating already, I kept scanning the area for a couple more moments to see if I could spot any ghouls with intelligence amongst them and to note down the locations and numbers of the ferals.


    Once I was finally sure there was no intelligent life among them, I informed my two companions of the situation. "We got a number of ferals up ahead and there don''t appear to be any normal ghouls among them. But as I said previously, try not to kill any normal ghouls if we do end up encountering any while we''re clearing the trainyard and the connected metro tunnels."


    "I''ll be sure to keep my eyes peeled." Amata replied seriously.


    "Roger that." Don responded.


    After receiving both Amata and Don''s acknowledgment, I raised my gatling laser Purge, spooled its barrels, and took the lead again. Inching ever closer to the poor unaware bastards, I waited till we were close enough before I initiated the laser light show. That was followed shortly thereafter by numerous screeching feral ghouls, which came pouring out from all across the trainyard and the general surroundings towards our location.


    Not letting up, my Amata and Don joined in, along with my robotic forces.


    *Bzzzt-Bzzzt-Bzzzt-*


    ...


    Half an hour from when I first initiated the battle, my squad and finished clearing the trainyard in its entirety and managed to kill off a total of 108 feral ghouls, which consisted of 79 regular Feral Ghouls, 24 Feral Ghoul Roamers, and 5 Feral Ghoul Reavers. Of those ghouls my companions, Amata and Don took out 17 normal ferals and 5 roamers, all of which I didn''t earn a single point of experience from sadly. Other than the 100-plus feral ghouls we took care of, my robots found and dispatched 26 Radroaches as well as 5 Radscorpions that were hiding around the area.


    "Good job, everyone. Now that we have removed all the ferals and other unwanted critters from the Warrington Trainyard, let''s make our way into the metro tunnels next and start clearing it out." I told my group.


    Receiving varied responses from my robots and a nod from Amata''s power armor-covered head, Don piped up in an upbeat tone, appearing to be in a drastically improved mood compared to when I stuck him with his brothers in the manufacturing section. "Alright then, let''s head on in." Don responded in an


    Following our cleanup of the railyard, we pressed on over to one of the nearby metro tunnels that were currently being blocked by the large metal gates they were known to have in the games. When we reached them, I approached the maintenance door located on the right side of the train tunnel''s entrance. Getting closer and closer to the door, it entered within range of my constantly improving and expanding perception field and, as soon as it did, I instantly noticed that the door was unlocked.


    Aww, that''s a bummer. I was kind of hoping that it would be locked, so I could earn a few extra experience points for myself.


    Unfortunately, unable to obtain some easy exp, I neared the door whilst paying attention to what was entering my perception field from inside the metro''s maintenance corridor. Not noticing anything that could be potentially dangerous or pose some sort of threat to me or those right on my six from within in the metro tunnel itself, including the corridor on the other side of the door, I opened the already unlocked door.


    What came into view was a dark, relatively long poured concrete corridor in not too bad of shape for being as old as it was with all manner of pipes running jutting out from the grayish walls. Besides the solid state the corridor was in, there was a human skeleton wearing what appeared to be the remnants of a green military uniform lying on the floor of the corridor. And right next to the human skeleton was a standard R91 Assault Rifle, 5 30 Round R91 Assault Rifle Magazines, 156 5.56 rounds, and 3 Frag Grenades.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Focusing on the skeleton and the walls of the corridor a bit more, I noticed that the skull of the skeleton had a hole located at the top of its skull. The second I discovered that, I looked up above the skeleton and saw blotches of very old, dark red stains splatter across the ceiling.


    Looks like the guy offed himself when the bombs were in the process of being dropped or had already detonated making the area outside uninhabitable... Honestly can''t blame the guy, I probably would''ve done the same if I was in the same situation of being stuck inside a metro tunnel with no real way to survive and no future to look forward to.


    Finished looking around the corridor, I stepped into it, relinquished the skeleton of its loot, and began slowly making my way deeper into the corridor, with the rest of my group trailing behind me except for my larger robots. Which consisted of Hauler, the Loading Bots, and my Sentry Bots, since they were too wide to fit through the maintenance corridor''s doorway. Hence, I had them hold their position and secure the area around the tunnels'' entrance while we went in to take over and handle business.


    Pressing on without our heavy support, my group and I continued on into the dark and dreary hall until I arrived at the only way forward, that being another unlocked maintenance door. So with it being the only way to reach the interior, I extended my power armor-covered hand out, gave the door''s handle a twist, and proceeded to crack it open and peek my head out to see what was further down the tunnel beyond the range of my senses.


    Immediately upon sticking my head through the cracked opening, I saw a dark deteriorating metro tunnel that sloped down below surface level and split off further ahead into three different directions with two side-by-side tracks heading northeast likely passing by my facility and two side-by-side tracks going southwest probably passing through the Warrington Station terminal and platform. As for the last two side-by-side tracks, they went off to the south, heading out of the D.C. area leading to god knows where.


    Other than that, I found that the tunnel was partially lit by what little sunlight managed to push its way through the gray clouded sky and through the metal gate blocking the tunnel itself. The metro tunnel was also lit up by the occasional industrial light that was somehow still functioning all these years later. Though a great majority of them weren''t completely dim and weren''t functioning any longer, unfortunately, so that will be another thing I''ll have to replace somewhere down the line.


    Other than replacing and fixing all the metro tunnel lights, I''m going to have to redo all the rails as well, because their current designs will certainly interfere with my larger robots'' movements through the tunnels since they are above-ground rails. And since if I''m going to be redoing all the rails at some point and integrating them into the floors of the tunnels, I might as well expand the tunnels further and add additional space on both sides of the rails for my robots and vehicles to move throughout the tunnels unhindered. That will make it so they don''t get in the way of the trains when they are doing their thing of moving back and forth on the rails.


    Remaining cautious of the ever present dangers that existed here in the wasteland, I observed the metro tunnel for five seconds longer to see if anything would pop out and make an appearance. However, nothing did, hence I turned back and said. "There doesn''t appear to be any ghouls within the tunnel, from what I can see, but there will probably be some further into the tunnel ahead, so let''s get on in and clear the vermin out."


    After receiving a variety of affirmations from everyone, I led the way and pushed into the tunnel, with those behind me following my lead closely. As I kept leading the way forward into the darkness of the metro tunnel, we kept descending further and further till we eventually reached the point in the tunnel where it split off into three different directions. And the moment we did, I checked the other two tunnels that didn''t head for the Warrington Station. What I discovered from the initial survey was that the two tunnels were unfortunately blocked by cave-ins.


    Haa, the tunnel that passes by my place is blocked. Of fucking course it is. I was really hoping they wouldn''t be in such a state, but it is what it is. I suppose I''ll be needing that extra robot production now.


    Done checking out those two, I began heading off to check the only tunnel that hadn''t collapsed and led to the Warrington Station and once I rounded the corner I saw a sizable swarm of feral ghouls spread throughout the dark metro tunnel.


    With hostiles to dispatch in sight, I turned back towards and waved for both Amata and Don to come near and right as they did; I relayed to them in a hushed voice that wouldn''t be detected by the ferals that laid further ahead. "Okay, we got feral ghouls up ahead to clear. Time to get to work."


    Having made them aware of what was right ahead of us, I took the frontmost position as per usual. As soon as we were set up and ready to take them out, I began the slaughter by letting loose a lengthy spray of laser fire courtesy of my gatling laser Purge. That burst of mine was then followed up by Amata''s, Don''s, and the rest of our forces'' laser fire, as well as a plethora of Feral Ghoul screeching that echoed across the tunnel.


    *Brrrrrrzt-Brrrzt-Brrrrrzt-*


    *Bzzt-Bzzt-Bzzt-*


    *eh-HAA-eh-HAA-eh-HAA-*


    While the ferals in this section of the tunnel began charging toward our location, we culled their numbers and kept doing so as the seconds passed by. After my group and I spent the last two minutes sending out a huge amount of laser fire, we finally finished slaughtering the rest of the remaining ghouls that came charging at us. And of that group of ghouls, my robots and I killed off 93 Feral Ghouls, 21 Feral Ghoul Roamers, and 3 Feral Ghoul Reavers.


    Now that we finished eliminating that group from the wasteland, all of us continued forward in our spread-out formation in case we came across another horde of brainless, aggressive zombies. Shortly thereafter, we ran into another group of ferals further down the metro tunnel that immediately spotted us.


    The instant the first feral let out a screech, we restarted the laser light show again and shredded that ghoul''s head as another wave of enemies came storming at us.


    ...


    This fight took us slightly more than 3 minutes to clear this group of ferals due to their numbers being larger than the last. On top of there being a couple of trains in the way that provided cover for them as they closed the distance between us and them. As for the number of ghouls that my robots were able to kill off from that group, we were able to bag 137 regular ghouls, 38 roamers, and 7 reavers.


    Seeing that we had killed the last of them off, I had everyone perform a quick check on their equipment to ensure that there were no issues. As soon as everyone had made sure that all of their equipment was in perfect functioning order, we continued onward cautiously into the depths whilst remaining in our formation in preparation for any more feral ghoul encounters.


    On our journey to the Warrington Station, we came in contact with yet another 3 feral ghoul groups, all of which we quickly dispatched with ruthless efficiency. When we finally got done dealing with the last of them, my robots and I managed to slaughter 305 Feral Ghouls, 133 Feral Ghoul Roamers, and 18 Feral Ghoul Reavers netting me a shit ton of exp.

 Chapter 57: Warrington Station

    With those hordes of ferals dealt with, we pushed onward and spent the next several minutes traveling along the rails until we started nearing the metro station. Once we reached a certain distance from the station platform, I detected a number of mines ahead. So I had everyone come to a complete stop and keep an eye on the level above the station platform where there was a makeshift defensive position, as well as below it where there was a makeshift wall constructed from various pieces of scrap.


    "You guys hold here and watch the surroundings while I deal with the mines in our path." I told them lowly.


    "Roger." Amata responded.


    "Sure thing." Don replied lastly.


    Assured that my squad had my back, I moved in and got to work on defusing the mines. Around 3 minutes later, I had all of them disarmed and managed to come out with a solid haul of 27 Frag Mines.


    Finished taking care of that small minefield, I approached the station platform and asked aloud in a loud voice that echoed across the metro station and into the nearby tunnels."Is there anyone here?"


    I repeated that a few more times and received no response, so I called Don over to come give it a try and see if he could get a response.


    "Are there any fellow ghouls here? If there are, we don''t mean you any harm. We only wish to talk?" Don inquired loudly in his usual rough and raspy ghoul voice.


    ...


    When Don didn''t receive a response either, he repeated himself again and seconds after he did; he received a response back from a ghoul that was hiding behind the defensive position up top, above the train platform.


    "There is, but what do you all want?" The ghoul hiding up top responded somewhat standoffish.


    "Well, I''m looking to clear this old metro out and take it over for my own purposes." I answered the unknown ghoul which, if I had to guess, was likely Michael Masters.


    "That won''t be possible since I''m living here wastelander, so I would recommend you turn back around and head on back to where you came from." The ghoul replied, obviously sounding displeased because of me wanting to take his home away from him.


    "Why don''t you hold up for a minute there since you''ve yet to hear my proposition?"


    Continuing before he could pipe up, I began presenting my proposal. "For clearing out of this place, I can offer you the same deal I offered to my friend Don here and his two brothers that are back at our home."


    ...


    "Ohh, and what would that be exactly?" The ghoul asked, only slightly intrigued and still just as defensive and skeptical as previously.


    "That would be a safe home, better equipment, fresh non-irradiated food, and clean, pure water. You can obtain all those benefits and more at the cost of becoming my subordinate and helping me achieve my goals."


    ...


    "Hmm, I don''t know, your offer sounds a bit too good to be true if you ask me, wastelander. Also, what kind of goals do you have?" The ghoul responded, still sounding skeptical after a couple of seconds had passed.


    "Understandable, but as a show of good faith, here''s some of the food you can expect to eat on a daily basis if you agree to my terms." I said while retrieving a sealed package of food from one of my robots before tossing it up to where I heard the ghoul''s voice originating.


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    A few dozen or so seconds later, after I heard some rummaging with the food''s packaging, the ghoul who had those clear normal human eyes that only a very minute percentage of ghouls possessed popped his head up from behind his cover and said with a bit of food on the corner of his mouth. "If this is what you''re offering as a daily meal, sir, you got yourself a deal, at least from me. As for the rest of my group, I can''t say for sure whether they''ll agree to your terms, but they''ll more than likely agree as well as long as we''re not discriminated against and get to eat food like this every day."


    Oh, so it is indeed Michael Masters, nice. Having a highly intelligent electronics and biological engineer who focused mainly on human mutation experiments to develop super-soldiers prior to the bombs falling as one of my subordinates will be exceptionally useful in many of my future endeavors, especially those involving genetic augmentation and modification.


    He can also help out with educating others as well, though I''ll more than likely have him focused on research and experimentation since he would be more useful there. So with his talents and knowledge being more useful elsewhere, I can just have him type all the information he knows into a terminal occasionally and that material can be used for others to learn from.


    "Then you have nothing to worry about because I have plenty of this kind of food and am in the process of growing more of it, as well as various other foods, just as good as we speak." I responded after finding out who I was communicating with for the last few minutes.


    "Now, to answer your previous question regarding my goals, I plan on taking over the wasteland and restoring some semblance of civilization back to it. Hopefully recruiting you and possibly your ghoul friends as well can reduce the difficulty and help me accomplish that goal of mine faster given that you''ve likely been around for a couple of hundred years at this point and have a wealth of accumulated knowledge and experience to draw upon just like Don here and his brothers back at our home."


    "Ahh, you have a good point and yeah, we''ve been around since before the world went to hell in a handbasket. So you''re right that we have accumulated a ton of knowledge and experienced a lot over these last two centuries. Although not as much as we would''ve had the world not been turned into the wasteland that it is now... That aside, how do you plan on accomplishing that goal of yours, sir? It is quite the steep task, after all."


    "Before I answer your question and we continue this conversation of ours any further, I think it''s about time we''ve introduced ourselves. I''ll go first. My name is Harold Todd Woods. The person standing next to me on my right side is my fianc¨¦e, Amata Ashlen Almodovar, and the person on my left side is Don King Hill."


    "It''s nice to meet you all. My name is Michael William Masters." The previously unknown and unnamed ghoul said.


    "With introductions out of the way, I''ll answer that last question of yours regarding how I plan to accomplish my insane goals. For starters, I''ve taken over the nearby RobCo Facility, repaired it and its machinery, and brought it back online. Which has now given me the ability to take over the capital wasteland within a year if I had to make an educated guess. But if I really go all out and rush it a bit, I could probably cut that timeframe down in half and have everything within my control within half a year."


    "Besides the RobCo Facility, I have a number of automated manufacturing machines that I''ve developed that produce all manner of components and items that I''ll need to accomplish my goals. I also know the location of many advanced civilian and military installations, manufacturing facilities, and military bases that will help me in regards to taking over and restoring humanity to what it once was and eventually advancing beyond where it was previously. Does that answer your question?" I added further.


    "That it does, and the fact that you have a small army of robots helps add validity to what you just stated about taking over the nearby RobCo Facility." Michael replied.


    Following that, the both of us discussed several more things, including Michael telling us about his previous occupation prior to the bombs and what skills and knowledge he picked up since that very day.


    "I wasn''t always like this, you know. I was a goddamn scientist back before the war. We were doing great things. Amazing things!" Michael said passionately as we were wrapping up our chitchat to go recruit the rest of his friends.


    "Well, I''m sure you can start pursuing and doing amazing things again once we''ve recruited the rest of your group and get back to the facility." I responded.


    The minute we were done with that, Michael guided the way forward for us until we got to the portion of the metro tunnel that was guarded by a pack of Feral Ghouls, which my group quickly and easily mopped the floor with. And of those ferals dispatched, my robots and I took 29 Feral Ghouls, 6 Feral Ghoul Roamers, 2 Feral Ghoul Reavers, and 1 Glowing One.


    When we finished off the last of the ferals, we continued on our way through the dark, dreary metro tunnel until we arrived at a blast door that Michael immediately went up to and opened via a button located on the side.


    *Kssnhhnk*


    The instant the blast door had settled into the open position, we pressed on inside and into the maintenance corridors.