Maids VS Apocalypse

Author note: Mass Release (Chapter 2/5)

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Closing the Quests screen and exiting the Journal section, Mark stared at the one entry on the Player Menu he had been ignoring so far. After hesitating for some time, he let out a long sigh and selected "Base" then pressed A.

In Maids vs Apocalypse, the protagonist is given a rundown mansion at the edge of the human territories. A part of the gameplay is renovating it, gradually making more rooms hospitable. By doing so, the player would gain the option to recruit more maids which would in turn increase the mansion’s defenses.

The base-building aspect received the most praise from players, which made it worth all the effort Mark put into developing it. Seeing the gacha mess his System replaced the maid recruitment mechanic with, he was afraid to see what it did with everything else.

A new screen appeared and Mark frowned even before he looked at it. It was mostly empty with two boxes at the top. One only had a + on it, much like the one in the Maids section. The one on top of it seemed to have some minimal information listed.

[Main Base: Abandoned Apartment.

Capacity: 2/2

Durability: 40/100]

’What in the world...’

He selected the first box and pressed A, causing yet another screen to appear.

[Main base: Stonegate city 12th district 5th street apartment number 05.

Type: Single bedroom apartment. (Abandoned)

Main building material: reinforced concrete (low quality)

Living space: 80m2

Rooms: 2

Capacity: 2/2

Comfort: minimal.

Defenses: none.

Safety: minimal.

]

Mark recognized at first sight that the presented information was nothing like what one would see in the game. First of all, it was much more detailed.

The base stats should’ve only displayed the building’s durability, the number of available rooms, and the installed defenses. His System went as far as to list the apartment’s building material, judging it as low quality.

’But... what do you mean abandoned?’

He was planning on leaving it behind the next day, sure, but at the moment he was still living there. Why would it be listed as abandoned?

Thinking about it for a while, Mark realized that it made sense for it to be listed as that. Even if it was his apartment, the entire city was abandoned. Whether the owner of the building is alive or dead, Mark doubted that he would ever come back.

"So a single-bedroom apartment only has the capacity for two..."

He quickly shook his head and slapped both of his cheeks at the same time.

’It clearly listed the number of rooms as two.’ He told himself. ’That’s definitely it.’

For a moment there he thought the System implied that the two occupying the apartment must use the same bedroom, but thinking about it logically made him realize that couldn’t be the case.

’So it counted the living room as well...’

Mark speculated that his System calculated the Base’s capacity based on the number of rooms it had, no matter their function. What made that more believable was that the details listed the living space. He remembered his lease listing it as 80m2 as well.

’Hold on, wouldn’t that include the kitchen too?’

The more he thought about it the more confusing things got. He didn’t even want to think about the comfort and safety being minimal. As it started to annoy him, Mark pressed B to return and stared at the second box with the + at its center.

’Does this mean I can add more than one base?’

Remembering what happened when he tried to hire new maids, Mark couldn’t help but grimace.

He was absolutely confident that the System would throw some kind of requirement at him, demanding he meet it first before he is allowed to add a new base.

That said, he was there to learn what that requirement was so he quickly selected the second box and pressed A.

A new screen replaced the previous one. To Mark’s surprise, it displayed a three-dimensional rendering of a building. It took him a moment to recognize it as the same building he was in at the moment.

A smaller screen popped up the next second, this one displaying a list of details similar to the ones for his apartment.

[Stonegate city 2nd district 5th street building 324. (Abandoned)

Type: Apartment complex

Main building material: reinforced concrete (low quality)

Living space: 4400 m2

Rooms: 110

Capacity: 2/110

Comfort: minimal.

Defenses: none.

Safety: minimal.

]

[Would you like to make Building 324 your main base?

>Yes

No]

Seeing the option screen that appeared right after, the frown returned to Mark’s face.

’Would it hurt if you displayed the goddamn requirements first?’

Sighing, he pressed A on Yes.

[You do not meet the requirements to use this building as your main base.]

A vein bulged on his forehead.

’Calm down. Calm down. You already knew this would happen.’ 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Though he wanted to go into a fit of rage, Mark tried to be patient. Thankfully he didn’t have to wait too long as another notification appeared right after to inform him of what he was missing.

[Requirements:

Soul: 117/3300

Gold: 75/66000000]

’... huh?’

For a moment there, Mark was somewhat confused.

In the game, Gold was required to get the materials and services needed to renovate the protagonist’s mansion

Attaining a new base was never a part of the game so Mark didn’t know what to expect, but he certainly didn’t consider that it would require both Gold and the Soul stat.

’Great.’ Mark’s jaw tightened even as he smiled. ’Just great.’

He got out of the tub and did some mental calculations while drying himself. If an additional room was all it takes to summon a new maid, figuring out the requirements would be easy enough.

"30 Soul and 600000 Gold for a single room, huh?" He muttered. "That means I would need..."

In the end he had to give up and use the calculator on his phone for the rest. With his Soul stat currently being at 117, he met the first requirement to summon two more maids. That would make the Gold requirement 1200000, but since he would be changing the base, he would have to meet the requirements for his and Lara’s rooms as well.

’1MP can be converted into 15 Gold.’

Going on to calculate how long it would take him to gather the gold, Mark noticed his mood get worse

"... I think... I think I’m sick..."

After taking into consideration his stats and the time needed to recover his MP, Mark learned that he would need 2400 hours to gather that amount of gold. At his current level, it would take 100 days of nothing but converting every bit of his MP to Gold.

But that’s only the case if he were to try meeting the condition while still at his current level. Going by what Ramsay taught him, a higher Focus stat would decrease the amount of MP one requires to use Abilities.

If he were to apply that logic to Gold, increasing his Focus stat would also increase the amount of Gold his MP can be converted into. Raising his Mind stat would also speed up his MP recovery.

’Even so, it would still take a long time...’