Maggie and Axel spent the early morning harvesting every single crop in the temporary agricultural sector. Thanks to the video-game mechanics, breaking the fully grown wheat, carrots, and potatoes dropped an abundance of fresh produce along with a massive haul of new seeds. Working efficiently with their Advanced Farmer skills, they used the Bottomless Water Bucket to effortlessly top off the central irrigation holes before replanting the entire field.
Since they hadn't fully utilized the entire designated farming footprint yet, Gray walked over and checked their progress. "Replant the potatoes and carrots across the remaining empty blocks," he instructed them. "We need to scale up our yields so we have a larger harvest later, and we can use the excess to start breeding the livestock."
Over in the ranching pasture, Big Tiny used the freshly harvested wheat to breed the adult cows and sheep, watching a new batch of calves and lambs instantly pop into existence. He also gathered all the eggs the chickens had been rapidly dropping across the grass, using some of the leftover seeds to breed the birds once more.
Meanwhile, the rest of the workforce stayed completely focused on processing the remaining real-world cattle. The blades of their high-grade butcher knives flashed rhythmically in the sun, and by 3:00 PM, the final carcasses were cleanly sliced, wheeled along the overhead rail-tracking system, and safely stored in the ice-cold walk-in freezer.
Gray wiped his hands and pulled up his system interface. He checked his gold balance, realizing that in exactly one hour, he would have enough capital to purchase his next massive passive income tier. Wanting to use the downtime productively, he walked into the cell block to find Hershel. "Get ready," Gray said gently. "It's time to go grab your family."
They marched out to the courtyard to board the pitch-black INKAS Sentry. Before climbing into the seat, Gray walked over to the empty 20-foot shipping container and instantly stored the massive metal structure in his inventory, so they would have a clean, respectful space to transport the remains.
With Gray at the wheel, Hershel, Otis, and Glenn climbed inside the armored vehicle, and the heavy truck roared out through the prison gates, speeding down the empty highway toward the Greene family farm.
Arriving at the quiet, abandoned property, they walked over to the isolated burial plots. Using the Netherite shovels, they sliced through the earth like soft butter, carefully and respectfully exhuming the bodies of Hershel's wife, stepson, and nephew. Gray materialized the 20-foot shipping container on the grass, gently placed the remains inside, and recalled the structure back into his system inventory. After methodically filling the graves back up with dirt to leave the property pristine, Gray checked his clock.
It was a bit after 4 PM. His gold had successfully hit the massive multi-billion milestone. Without a single second of hesitation, he purchased it.
[New Upgrade]
(100B Gold) 1,526,400,000 Gold/Hour
[New Hourly Rate]
6,107,596,926 (3,053,798,463) Gold/Hour
Gold: 1,901,292,410
With the upgrade locked in, they climbed back into the Sentry and drove back to the prison. The moment the heavy stone gates secured behind the armored truck in the courtyard, Gray stepped out and looked at Hershel. "In the next few days, we'll bring them back to life."
Hershel nodded with immense gratitude.
Just then, Big Tiny stepped forward from the crowd, looking down nervously as he meekly asked, "Uh, Gray... is there any chance you could bring my mom back to life too?"
Gray paused. He honestly hadn't thought about her body when setting his final resurrection rule, but seeing the immense, heartbreaking expectation and hope painted across Big Tiny's massive face, he simply couldn't bring himself to say no.
"Yeah, Tiny," Gray said with a soft nod. "I'll bring her back too. She's included in the final group." Big Tiny let out a massive breath, his shoulders relaxing as a huge wave of relief washed over him.
Gray walked over to the center of the open courtyard. He looked around his thriving community. The high-tech solar power was humming silently, the automated running water was fully prepped, the ranch was multiplying by the hour, and the magical farm fields were already blooming with fresh life. The survivors were truly thriving in absolute luxury compared to the rest of the brutal world. And further down the line, his mind was already mapping out the next massive phase of his base expansion.
The massive compound fell quiet as the evening sun dipped below the stone walls. Gray began walking back to his RV to clean up after the long drive
On the way back, his mind started plotting his next steps. He could technically wait out the next 100 hours of passive accumulation and buy the Saiyan Physiology. But thinking about the immediate needs of the prison, and the fact that he absolutely required the Minecrafter Physiology to effortlessly punch through stone and construct his deep-underground base, he quickly scratched that idea. Instead, he decided to maximize his economic efficiency by focusing on the next two passive upgrades and boosting his multipliers.
He climbed into his RV, opened his laptop, and pulled up the desktop calculator, or calc for short, to run the exact numbers. According to the system scaling, purchasing the next four consecutive multiplier links would cost him a total of 14,400,000,000 Gold. However, the investment would instantly boost his baseline income, earning an extra 610,759,692 Gold per hour.
He resolved to buy the next four multipliers first, then save up to clear the next two massive upgrades back-to-back. Satisfied with the plan, he closed his laptop, set a digital alarm on his clock for 7:00 PM, and stepped into the shower to wash the road dirt away.
After drying off and buying a fresh set of comfy loungewear from the shop, Gray decided to cook himself a proper home-cooked dinner. He walked over to the main cell block wing, grabbed a few fresh pieces of processed beef, and walked back to his RV. He opened his shop interface to purchase a few fresh potatoes and a bag of tomatillos, planning to make a traditional green sauce.
Working methodically in his small RV kitchen, he peeled the potatoes while setting the tomatillos in a pot of boiling water. Once the potatoes were ready, he diced them into perfect squares and tossed them into a separate pot of boiling water. Next, he sliced the fresh meat into thin, uniform strips and threw them onto a hot skillet, searing them with just a light touch of basic seasoning.
As soon as the potatoes and tomatillos finished boiling, Gray transferred the tomatillos to a blender and pulsed them into a thick, vibrant green sauce. He tossed the tender potato squares directly into the same pan he used to cook the meat, letting them absorb the savory juices, and poured the rich green sauce over the entire mixture to simmer.
He intentionally prepared a massive portion of the meal, figuring Merle or Daryl might smell the cooking and step out of their vehicles to look for food. When neither of the Dixon brothers come out, Gray neatly packed the leftovers away in his running refrigerator and sat down at his small table to eat in peace.
Since he had completely finished binge-watching The Walking Dead series, he decided it was time to dive into a brand new show. He opened his store, spent 100,000 Gold to get a secondary ultimate external hard drive, and plugged it directly into his laptop's USB port. He scrolled through the massive digital library until his eyes locked onto a critically acclaimed animated series... Arcane.
He hit play and relaxed against his pillows. Right in the middle of Chapter 2, just as the tension on screen was building, his desktop alarm rang sharply.
Gray instantly paused the show and pulled up his system dashboard. It was exactly 7:00 PM, and his passive gold had hit the necessary multi-billion mark. Without wasting much time, he purchased the next four consecutive multipliers back-to-back.
[New Upgrades]
(960M Gold) +0.05x
(1.92B Gold) +0.05x
(3.84B Gold) +0.05x
(7.68B Gold) +0.05x
[New Hourly Rate]
6,718,356,618 (3,053,798,463) Gold/Hour
Gray spent the next 44 hours settling into a comfortable and efficient routine. The newly planted crops and the booming Minecraft livestock required little constant monitoring due to their rapid, video-game-like growth cycles. This gave him plenty of free time, which he split between working with Big Tiny to breed the animals and relaxing in his RV.
He finished watching Arcane in no time at all. Wanting to start something new, he began browsing through the ultimate external hard drive's anime library and decided to watch My Hero Academia. He maintained his strict security discipline, pausing his show every hour on the dot to conduct standard sweeps of the perimeter fences with his Wraith Sight active.
Once the 44 hours officially passed, his balance easily hit the next massive economic tier. Gray pulled up his dashboard and purchased the next upgrade.
[New Upgrade]
(300B Gold) 3,052,800,000 Gold/Hour
[New Hourly Rate]
13,434,516,618 (6,106,598,463) Gold/Hour
Gold: 1,431,774,380
It was barely 3:00 PM when the upgrade locked in, so Gray simply continued with his daily routine. He spent the afternoon checking on the automated water supply, surveying Axel and Maggie's crop logs, and helping Big Tiny organize the booming livestock fields.
Later that evening, Glenn came out to the courtyard, looking thoroughly restless and eager to pull his weight. He managed to track Gray down near his RV. Gray didn't want to make him wait any longer, so he stepped up and firmly shook Glenn's hand, instantly utilizing his Skill Transference to inject Deadshot's Marksmanship directly into the young man's mind for 30,000,000 Gold.
Glenn clutched his temples for a brief moment as the immense ballistic math and shooting reflexes settled into his muscle memory. As an apology for taking so long to get around to his combat training, Gray opened his system menu and purchased a Blue Phasesaber from the store for 500,000,000 Gold. Next, he scrolled to the specialized training tabs and spent 100,000 Gold to buy Advanced Lightsaber Combat Skills for himself, immediately transferring the master swordplay knowledge directly into Glenn's mind for an additional 1,000,000 Gold.
Glenn snapped his eyes open, staring down at the sleek, ornate hilt in his hand in absolute, breathless awe. With the supernatural marksmanship and the elite swordplay reflexes humming through his brain, he was completely over the moon.
"Oh my god, Gray..." Glenn whispered, ignition pressing the switch as a beautiful blade of crackling blue energy erupted with a sharp VROOOM-HUMMM. "This is unbelievable! Thank you so much!"
"Hold on, I'm not done," Gray said, with a smile on his face. Before Glenn could run off to show Maggie, Gray reached into his shop and bought a new UAC handgun and another Silver M16A2 rifle with infinite ammo. He handed both weapons over to the young survivor. "If you want to protect this place and keep Maggie safe, you're going to need the proper tools for it."
In total, Gray had dropped exactly 532,250,000 Gold just on upgrading Glenn. But looking at his massive, multi-billion-per-hour passive income stream, it was a minor drop in the bucket.
Thirty-eight hours after purchasing that last upgrade, Gray woke up right at 7:00 AM to the sharp buzzing of his digital alarm clock. He sat up in his RV bed and pulled up his Status Info.
[Status Info]
Name: Gray Ashwood
Age: 23 years old
Race: Human
Gold: 511,411,155,864
Gold per hour: 13,434,516,618 (6,106,598,463)
Gold Multiplier: 2.20x
Time: 7:05 AM
Gray purchased the next upgrade right then and there.
[New Upgrade]
(500B Gold) 6,105,600,000 Gold/Hour
[New Hourly Rate]
26,866,836,618 (12,212,198,463) Gold/Hour
Gold: 11,411,155,864
Gray pulled up his laptop's calc to run the exact time requirements for his ultimate goal. Looking at the numbers, he smiled. In exactly 19 hours, meaning 2:00 AM the next morning, his passive accumulation would comfortably pool enough gold for him to finally afford the Minecrafter Physiology. He closed his laptop, a spark of anticipation in his eyes. He was finally stepping foot into the realm of the truly big powers, and the prison was about to undergo a complete architectural revolution.