It took Adrian a good dozen seconds to collect himself and gather enough courage to step outside the safety of the futuristic control room he found himself in.
Of course, the main source of the courage was a mysterious and magnificent transparent energy shield that covered a 100 meter radius around the control room.
It had a very light bluish tint to it, which wasn't that noticeable, but certainly visible if paid enough attention to it.
With the sense of security he got from the energy shield, Adrian felt a little more confident in observing his surroundings a little better.
'That must be the 'water of regeneration', right?' he thought as he gazed at a metallic faucet that was seamlessly connected to a wall of his control room.
It was also built out of the same white metal, but with blue inscriptions running along it.
Placed on the left of the door as he exited the door of his control room, it was quite hard to miss.
Adrian walked closer to the faucet and twisted it just a tiny bit, to let a very thin stream slip through the tap.
He let some of the water pool into his curled palm and then twisted the faucet to turn it off.
Though, he did notice that as the water hit the earth, the patchy grass on the ground started to appear a little more greener.
Which just further confirmed his guess of it being the required water of regeneration.
'Here goes everything,' Adrian brought his palm closer to his mouth and took a small sip of the water.
The change was instant.
Adrian felt the water burn down his throat like an expensive and concentrated whiskey, but it felt much better than that.
His cells felt rejuvenated, and whatever fatigue he may have accumulated, was slowly disappearing like it never existed.
'Ah damn, that's good.' Adrian gulped down whatever remained on his palm and wiped his lips.
His eyes instinctively glanced towards the area outside of his energy barrier, but he quickly lowered his head and threw those thoughts out of his mind.
Instead, he gazed upwards and noticed a sun that seemed to have risen a couple hours ago.
'It should be around 8-9 AM in Earth's time… probably, though I don't know how the day cycle usually is on this 'Sphardia' planet.'
He was working on the 'out of sight, out of mind' strategy, trying to keep himself busy and distracted so he could delay thinking about the monstrosities that crowded the exterior of his 'area'.
Although they were quite a distance away and mindlessly roaming around under the shades of trees, Adrian had noticed the undead corpses, also known as zombies.
He recognized them as such at a single glance after binging countless anime, movies and series about those, but seeing them in real life wasn't a sight to behold.
The look of ugly, rotting corpses with mangled and bleeding flesh wasn't much of an inviting sight to enjoy.
As for the aforementioned beasts, Adrian didn't even have much time to look for those as he stopped trying to look around the base and just focused on what lay inside.
'I should have completed the task by now,' Adrian collected some more water in his palm and drank it all before entering the open control room's door again.
He headed straight for the floating monitor that was still on the same page he left it on, with just a few changes under the [ Tech Tree ] tab.
[ Tech Tree ]
[ Quest ]
// Open the door - Completed.
1 TP rewarded! //
[ Tech ] (1 TP)
// Fabricator - 1 TP // (Tap to unlock)
// Bioreactor - 1 TP // (Tap to unlock)
// Extraction Altar - 2 TP //
// ??? - Requirement not met. //
// ??? - Requirement not met. //
// ??? - Requirement not met. //
…
]
Adrian skimmed through the changes and there weren't much except the new button to unlock the Fabricator and the Bioreactor.
'What if I unlock the bioreactor first instead of the fabricator?'
If it wasn't real life, he might have listened to his intrusive thoughts and gambled on the chance of it being an easter egg, but alas, he didn't want to take any chances.
[ Technology Unlocked, Fabricator. ]
[ Fabrication Grid is now available under the Manager tab. ]
[ Note: Introduction tab has been renamed to the Manager tab. ]
Adrian blinked in surprise as the monitor flashed for a brief second and the introduction tab was swiftly renamed to [ Manager ]
He clicked the Manager tab.
[ Manager ]
[ Tutorial.
1) Finish the first quest in the 'Tech Tree' menu and unlock the fabricator.
2) Capture your first beast.
3) Use the 'Control Hub' to deploy your first helper.
Rewards: Unlocks new tab- Map ]
[ Fabrication Grid ]
// Recipes //
Bonding Sphere (Common) x1 - An item that can capture beings that have been touched by corruption.
1L Energy-infused water( water of regeneration ). 10 energy chips.
Energy Chips (Junk) x10 - Wooden chips infused with energy.
100 ml Energy-infused water, 20 wooden chips.
Note: Wooden chips need to be around 1-5 inches in length, breadth and height.
***
Adrian went silent for a long while.
His mind felt dazed, confused of what emotion to feel.
He felt awe and excitement about the bonding sphere, some minor annoyance about the labour he might need to do in order to achieve the bonding sphere, and then finally, he felt a little worried.
He felt worried about the Earth he was no longer in. It didn't help that the world he suddenly found himself into was filled with zombies and very advanced 'alien' technologies that he was definitely not used to.
He also felt confused about the way his system was working or how the fabrication was going to happen.
There were countless questions on his mind, but no answer to.
'Help.' Adrian whispered in his mind, not out of plea but an option that his gamer mind had completely skipped over.
After all, who actually read help and instructions after playing countless games for years?
They all thought, 'Meh, I'll learn while playing.'
However this was no game for Adrian, even if by some miracle he could respawn in the sleeping pod inside the control room, there was no surety. And he was certainly not willing to try it.
His finger moved without hesitation and tapped the Help tab.
[ Help ]