My OP Minion System in the Apocalypse

I was awoken by the feeling of my fingers freezing off.

Holy shit, why is it so cold?

I quickly curled up into a ball and breathed frantically into my hand. Even under the blanket, I could still see the vapour coming out of my mouth. My body was violently shaking, I felt goosebumps all over my skin.

I need warmth...

The issue was that if I were to start a fire inside this wooden hut, I'd likely burn everything down. I quickly thought about what I could do.

Still shivering, I climbed out of bed and opened the door. I was met by the sight of snow covering everything I could see, everything was covered by a layer of white. Luckily, from what I see, my Minions weren't affected at all by the temperature.

I definitely was though.

As the ice-cold breeze brushed against my body, I swiftly slammed the door.

What am I meant to do here?

I decided to look through my crafting menu to see if there was anything I could craft to make this easier. I still had to carefully manage my resources, however.

From what I could see, there wasn't really anything craftable that I'd be able to place in the hut.

With no other choice, I looked at the grand exchange.

-

<Grand Exchange>

Search: related [heat] , Order: top

1. [x1] portable solar-powered heater - Cost: 59 Tokens - Seller [Joe Osborn]

2. [x1] brick fireplace - Cost 22 Tokens - Seller [Robert Eastwood]

3. [x5] wool blanket - Cost 12 Tokens - Seller [Jonathon Brown]

4. N/A

5. N/A

-

There weren't a great deal of items on the exchange either. However, the main thing was that I was going to die if I didn't find some way to warm myself up. I assumed that there was a good chance that lots of people were buying heat-related items so they would run out if I hesitated.

For quite a few Tokens, I purchased the [brick fireplace]. It was the only way I could get heat inside of the hut without burning it down.

As quick as I could, I made the purchase and the Tokens were automatically transferred to him.

In my inventory, my purchase appeared.

I walked over to one side of the hut, still freezing from head to toe. I found a small place where I could place the [brick fireplace] and at my command, it appeared.

I quickly threw some wood inside and lit it. A few moments later, a small flame gradually grew into a bigger one before it was spreading heat throughout the hut. At times, the flashes of the fire made me worried that it'd burn the hut down, however, it looked like I was going to be safe for the most part.

I spread my body in front of the opening in the brick fireplace and absorbed all of the heat that was blasting out. I stood like that for a long time, letting my body slowly warm up after what felt like the coldest I had ever been. It was like standing in the middle of Antarctica whilst soaked in water when I first woke up.

As the fire gradually warmed me up, I was finally able to move my body around without vibrating like a wii remote. As my mind cleared with actual thoughts, I began thinking about how I'd organise everything.

At the moment, all of my Minions were either farming, learning or standing around. I would go out and observe the outside but at the moment, I wanted to feel the embrace of the fire for a little longer. The entire hut eventually began warming up and my body accepted walking around.

I ever so slightly opened the door, and a wave of cold air instantly blasted inside like a jet engine. With no other choice, I decided to slide out through the small opening and look around. I was once again slowly becoming a block of ice as I stood outside my haven.

From what I could see, the forest was much darker than usual. The sky was also quite dark. I wasn't sure if it was that I had somehow ended up sleeping in until late in the afternoon or if the sky was really just that dark. It was a greyish colour, similar to that of a thunderstorm, however, there was no rain, only a slight bit of snow.

I decided to send 5 Scout Minions into the forest to see how it goes. I had a strong feeling that the forest was basically out-of-reach since it appeared so dangerous. I wrote some code so that they would return as soon as they took damage. Minions were precious so I really couldn't afford to lose any at the moment.

-

ON.

if, hurt, return

-

I made sure that they stayed in a group and sent them off. With that, I also decided to rush back into the hut. I was starting to get frostbite in my hands and I was literally going to die of hypothermia if I stayed outside for one more minute.

The infinitely comfortable warm air smashed into my body as I walked inside. It was like entering heaven, it was like entering god's lair after experiencing the worst of medieval torture, it was like taking a big shit after holding it in for 10 hours.

My body instantly loosened, my skin untightened, my face relaxed, and my posture rested. I ran in front of the fireplace and let the warmth bath my entire body. I squirmed around a little bit before finally coming to my senses again.

Well, I wasn't going to be leaving the hut from the looks of it.

I wonder how other people were going. It was basically guaranteed death if you didn't have a house with heating in this temperature.

I decided to have a quick look in my inventory.

-

<Vegetation/Wood>

[x1197] wood

[x100] leaves

[x39] meat

[x967] wheat

-

I wasn't really at risk of running out of wood at this rate.

Basically, if all I wanted was to survive, the most important things I needed were food, water and wood. If I had all those things and I didn't get overrun by zombies or have my hut burn down, I would at least be able to stay alive until the end of Killer Winter.

Water was a slight issue since I couldn't go out and collect it. However, it generally was sold for pretty cheap on the grand exchange so that wasn't exactly a big problem. There were probably lots of people who could produce water just by using their system so just as a result of supply and demand, it was going to be quite cheap.

I didn't have a great deal of food, but it was the one thing that I was guaranteed to collect every single day with my farming Minions.

At my current rate, with some increased efficiency from the Minions levelling up, I was collecting around 3000 wheat per day. This was definitely enough to feed me but the main reason I needed to collect so much was that I needed to constantly sustain losses during the night.

I would be able to minimise losses during the day simply by keeping all my Minions on the settlement. However, at night, when zombies are guaranteed to attack, I would be all but guaranteed to lose Minions as well. Even if I choose to fight cautiously, it would be impossible to keep losses at zero. This meant if I wasn't able to produce more Minions than I was losing, I would slowly get whittled down until I eventually get overran.

My Elite Minions with the Minion Leadership ability were able to train my combat Minions during the day meaning as long as they survive, they should technically get stronger and stronger.

I continued to stand in front of the fire since I didn't really have much to do. I could organise and coordinate my Minions from inside the hut... well, I guess I had to, I wasn't able to stand outside of the hut for more than a few minutes without risking passing out.

Suddenly, I heard a banging on the door of my hut.

What on earth...

"What do you want?!" I shouted.

"It's me, Chloe~"

Chloe? I had chosen to leave her behind... why was she here?

She continued to bang on my door until I had no choice but to open it.

As I open the door, she quickly let herself inside.

She collapsed to the ground as the heat slowly warmed her freezing body.

"William... I can't believe you'd ditch me like that..."

"W-well..."

It was the first time I was lost for words.

"I'm sorry, I realised that it was a mistake."

"I'm still mad at you, you're lucky that I would die if I tried to go somewhere else."

My decision-making, everything, it's been broken since I've known it. I always struggle to make rational decisions, no matter how much I try to act logical, I always seem to be one step behind.

Chloe sat in front of the fireplace, not turning to look at me.

After a short moment of silence, she finally spoke.

"William, am I just a tool to you?" She asked.

It was true, the first time I ever decided to let her into the settlement, my only thought was to use her as a tool. However, as we've spent together, I've slowly come to learn that my way of thinking is indeed flawed.