Retreat into the Sea

On the morning of the Tenth day, Isaac arrived on the beach. 

"Fuck!" Not a single one of his colleagues from the 301st generation was on the beach. An abandoned hut and the signal tower were the only things they left behind.

"No… it's fine. We expected this! There's still time… We still have a bit of time."

Designing a boat seemed like the most feasible thing for Isaac at the moment. But even after designing one, his system didn't integrate any of the boats that he designed. "The restrictions are still the same, I need to have a building… not a moving vessel."

Isaac looked at the steel structure in front of him. "Since it's not a naturally occurring source of iron and it's not my own building, can I claim the iron that's in it?" His hand was placed next to the structure, he tried to store it in his inventory but nothing happened. "It was worth a shot, Unit list!"

[Units] Total: 12

T1 Swordsman 2x

T1 Archer 2x

T1 Spearman 1x

T1 Murlok Militia 4x

T1 Murlok Enchanter 1x

T1 Murlok Berserker 2x

"I can send a Militia out into the forest as a pawn." The rest would be used to gather materials, with wood being the primary material that he needed. 

"If I can design some sort of port, it can then produce a boat… but that'll take too long. And even if I wanted to spawn such a structure the odds of it being what I actually need is too low." Isaac looked at the group he had and the sea in front of him. "With the amount of manpower I have right now, I can make a simple raft that can have both me and Noctis in it. If the wind wont guide us then the Murloks can just move the boat manually while they swim!"

"They'll arrive in half a day or even less. I need to leave as soon as the boat is ready." Isaac could always store the human units in the unit storage provided by the system. "I have enough food and water to last for a week, the ocean can provide fish. For now, our goal is to leave this rock!"

He lost his first base along with multiple units but what he had on-hand were more soldiers than what he started with just a week ago. He also had the help of a powerful unit in Noctis and the water spirit that Gristlethum gave him. "Most of my current units are water-based, I think it's almost a given that this is the next step." 

While storing as much as 200 units of wood and a total of 105 stone in his inventory, Isaac also managed to create a raft. One that could fit about five people, powered by rowing.

[Your unit is under attack!]

"They're close, let's go!" 

While the swarm was only a few hours away, Isaac already decided to leave. There was no time to waste, testing his mettle against such a large horde of enemies was suicide. With only eleven basic units left, the raft would move forward into the sea.

Isaac sat in the middle of the raft, right next to the sail. As the last person in his batch of 12 to leave the island, he didn't know what was ahead but he knew that he needed to stay away from the swarm. With 50 crystals and enough resources to slowly start back up, he had decent prospects of the future. But on that day, his hatred for Orion would be cemented.

"Orion might not have done all of this to me but he started this fast fall from grace. I'll build an army, I'll continue on the mission that the guardian gave me. But one thing's for sure, I'll wipe that smug grin off of his face the next time that I see him." 

It's not that Isaac hated the waters, the reason for his stockpiling hatred was more of an amalgamation of his hatred for those that take advantage of others. Bullied in the workplace by those that are decades older than himself, treated like a piece of dirt despite the degree that he worked so hard for. These were experiences that shaped him but what Isaac couldn't forgive was the fact that Orion made the others choose. 

In the grand scheme of things, Orion could've taken the role of leader without tossing him aside. In the days since the incident, Isaac has had an awakening of some sort. "In this reality, the only rule they gave me was a suggestion. If I kill him then it's not even a loss for our generation. It's not like I'm making an enemy out of all of my peers… and in the first place.. In the first place he started all of this." 

The new world was testing his morals. "Had things been smoother, If I was in a position of privilege then maybe… just maybe I could have forgiven him but with the way things are… Stuck in this boat for god knows how long… Callum."

"Yes, My lord." Callum, the swordsman, along with the rest of the other units were rowing the boat. 

"You're one of my original units when I first got here, correct?"

"Of course, sir."

"Do you remember the faces of my old colleagues?" Isaac took out his notebook, he had small sketches of every one of them.

"Yes, sir. Grandpa Tony was your greatest ally, though I struggle to remember any of the rest."

"I see, I want you to remember this man's face." It was Orion, the man with two mechanical arms strapped to his back. "From here on out, every new unit will be made aware of his existence. We're out for blood, I want him dead."

Isaac made a promise, to both himself and the rest of his troops. "The comrades we lost, your friends and fellow soldiers. We lost all of them because of him, I did my best..no we did our best to survive in that god forsaken forest and yet here we are…out in the ocean. Not a single one of you should forget this."

On the 10th day since the Bunker, Isaac made his first target known to his forces.