I was really glad to have finally completed such a major step for the compound, but this wasn’t the time to relish our accomplishments. Tom had mentioned something to me after visiting the apartments that I had neglected to even think about. The sewage tank that I had for the house would be plenty to handle our needs, but when we have thirty-six new households of people here, it would overflow in no time.

I was going to need a much larger sewage system, and since the cost wasn’t an issue, might as well use the most advanced system I can come up with. We could go with a normal drain field system like the one for my house, but the leech field would have to be quite large and it isn’t exactly scalable. Aerobic systems were an option, but no one wants to have that smell close by.

After researching the different systems available, I decided to go with a Membrane Bioreactor process. This would allow us to filter the wastewater and reuse it for irrigation in the field, reducing the use of source water for this process.

The system starts by removing solids, then running through a pre-treatment that separates sludge and disperses it before moving the wastewater into an aeration zone. The wastewater then moves through a settler that further removes any remaining sludge. Then the wastewater is run through a nanomaterial membrane to filter out microparticles. Finally, the water is run through a disinfection process and recycled afterward. The system is fairly easy to set up, there are just a lot of steps involved in the process.

I went out of the compound and to the rear of the property. I decided to place the system a quarter-mile away from the property to allow room for expansion in the future while maintaining efficiency in transportation.

The new bump in mana I experienced allowed me to set the creation for everything all at once. I was finished with the installation within an hour and I just needed to run the piping now. I ran the pipes for the intake and exhaust towards the compound at the same time. I left the exhaust piping connected to an inground reservoir just outside of the crop fields and ran the intake under the walls.

Finished with the system outside, I walked back around and entered the compound again. Once I had gotten back to the apartments, I went inside and ran drain piping from each bathroom to a main set of pipes to run outside. I created basic toilets and corner showers in each bathroom before moving on to the next ones. I connected the water piping from the closed-off connections to the toilets and a cold-water connection on each shower. The hot water for them could wait until we were ready for people to move in, but I wanted to test that everything was working without leaks. So, I would need a connection to each to make sure the flow was working properly. While I was here, I installed a freestanding sink in each of them, thus completing the basic bathroom for them.

It took roughly seven hours to get everything in place and all of the connections established, but I was finally done and ready to test our network. I went through each apartment one by one and turned the connections on for the water before viewing the piping to ensure no leaks were present. After verifying there were no leaks in the building, I went back out to the sewage treatment plant and made sure we had good flow incoming and leaving.

It seemed everything was working properly, and we should have flow into the water reservoir for irrigation in no time once we start using the system.

I was pretty tired from working on everything the past day and really wanted to take a nap. I headed back to the compound and entered the Library World. I started the creation of some more solar panels before going to sleep.

I woke up a couple of hours later, feeling much better after the much-needed rest. There was a new notification in my vision so I opened it to see what the system had decided to grace me with now.

Host has worked continuously for multiple days in a row. +2 Strength, +2 Vitality

+2 Dexterity

Strength

5

Health:60

Mana:175

Stamina:35

Intelligence

16

Skills

Quick Study: You are able to read and comprehend knowledge better than most.

Information Construction: You can use known data to recreate tangible items at the cost of mana.

Vitality

7

Dexterity

6

I opened my status page and it looks like the increase in stats provided me with an additional 10 in Stamina and 15 in Health. I didn’t feel a huge change in my body, but I did notice that I felt considerably more refreshed than I normally would from that amount of sleep.

I headed outside the Library World and went to go make a quick snack. Maybe I could meet up with Tom and go over some ideas for our assault on the city.

Conveniently, I found him already cooking in the kitchen and sat down at the table.

“Hey man, you feel like making some for me too?”

“Yea, of course. You’re doing so much already, it’s the least I can do right now.”

He finished making the food and brought everything over for us to eat.

“So, I was hoping you might have some ideas for what we can do to take back the town. You were there last, so you’re more familiar with the situation than I am.”

“Well, they seemed to be bringing everyone, and the objects of their looting, towards the center of the town. They had started to wall off sections of the street with the remains of cars as makeshift walls before I got out of there. So, they’ve probably finished making a secure perimeter around their base by now. They were using the store as their main base of operations and keeping people in the buildings around it under guard. They started out as a fairly small force, but since most of the people in town weren’t prepared or armed, they joined them when prompted and they have likely grown into a decently sized group.”

“Ok, so most of them aren’t actually there of their own volition and more under the circumstances of the situation?”

“Yea, I’m assuming that most of them would rather not fight and risk their lives compared to endangering themselves and possibly hurting the people close to them.”

“Ok, that’s good, we can use that to our advantage. If we show superior firepower and control, we should only have to take out the most radical of the bunch. I think I have an idea for that actually. Ava, can I bring Tom to the Library World as well?”

“Yes Robert, you can bring him with you just like you brought Greta. You would just need to open a door to the Library World and have him walk in with you before it closed.”

“Alright Tom, follow me and we can get to work on what I think will be the best course of action.”

I stood up and opened a door to the Library World. I walked towards it casually, but it seemed Tom hesitated.

“What’s up man, c’mon?”

“Alright, you might be used to this, but this is like some real magic shit for me. Give me a second to take in the random door that seemingly leads to a void, alright.”

I chuckled. “Yea, take your time man.” I left my slack-jawed friend outside and entered the doorway by myself.

“Alright Ava, I think we should try to make Tom as comfortable here as possible. Can we do any of the improvements to the Library World that you mentioned before?”

“Unfortunately, you still don’t have enough mana to do much. However, with my help, you could create a small portion of space in here to place an actual house and some land. It won’t have any of the things you’re used to outside like a sun, but it would be a lot better than sleeping in a bed floating in the void.”

“Alright, let's do that and we can move the bed and 3D model into one of the rooms once it’s done.”

I saw the little orb slide off to the side of where I entered the library right as Tom actually entered and I closed the doorway.

“Hey man, glad you finally put your eyes back in your head, but you better hold onto them again. Check this out!”

I summoned all of the shelves full of books and had them circle around us, floating through the air like a tornado of bookshelves with us in the eye of the storm. He looked around incredulously as all of the knowledge passed by us in the maelstrom of information. Tom always liked books, not as compulsively as I had, but enough to open a bookstore. I slowed them down and formed the neat shelves they were usually in before looking over at him almost pissing himself in excitement.

“You’ve got all of this information in your head!”

“Yea ha-ha, it was kind of overwhelming to start with, but I’ve gotten used to it now.”

“Can I check these out?” He asked as he seemed to rock back and forth.

“Yea, sure. They’re sorted into categories like a typical library and labeled at the ends of the shelves.”

After I let Tom loose, I walked towards the orb floating off in the distance. She seemed to be waiting on me.

“So, I’ve got a layout ready and I can create about a four-hundred-foot by four-hundred-foot space of land with your current mana pool.”

“That sounds like it would be plenty for a small house and room to design and create my next idea. Go ahead, how long do you think it’ll take?”

“Oh, I should be done within thirty minutes. You can accompany Tom through the Library while I work on it since I already have access to your mana pool.”

“Alright Ava, thanks for real. I know I would probably struggle to try to get something like this set up in here by myself.”

“Yea, yea, come back in thirty minutes and you can show me what you plan on working on.”

I headed off to locate Tom in the stacks and walked around with him until Ava let me know she was done. I pulled Tom away from the books and brought him to the newly created house.

“Ava, Tom. Tom, Ava.”

The little orb bopped over to Tom. “Hello, nice to meet you, Tom! I’ve seen great things about you in Robert’s memories.”

“Oh, hello Ava! Nice to finally meet you as well. Robert told me about you, but it’s good to see you in the fle… energy.”

“Ha-ha, alright Robert, show us both what you were thinking about.”