On the wasteland, while waiting for his troops to assemble, Leo browsed the Auction House.
Barracks.
Resource buildings.
Weapons.
Various blueprints constantly refreshed.
Some had just appeared…
…and in the very next second, they were marked as “Sold.”
Leo flipped through several pages in a row.
His brow furrowed tighter and tighter.
Expensive!
Far too expensive!
[B-Tier Amethyst Mine]
[Price: 50,000 Gold Coins]
Fifty thousand Gold Coins!
According to the current player exchange rates, that was nearly five hundred thousand credits!
A single resource building…
…cost more than several years of income for many people in reality.
Yet, astonishingly, someone actually bought it.
Leo watched with his own eyes as that blueprint stayed in the Auction House for less than a minute…
…and then vanished.
“They really don’t hesitate to spend.”
Leo continued scrolling down.
There was no need to look at A-Tier ones.
Their prices were even more absurd.
What he really wanted to buy were C-Tier and D-Tier resource buildings.
They were cheap.
If he had enough of them, they could build up the territory’s basic production capacity just the same.
The problem lay right there as well.
Cheap stuff…
…everyone wanted it.
[D-Tier Large Farm]
It had just refreshed…
…and it was gone.
[C-Tier Lumber Workshop]
Leo was just about to click on it.
[Item Sold]
Gone again.
Several times in a row, it was the exact same story.
Leo closed the Auction House directly.
He couldn’t spend all day sitting here trying to snatch blueprints.
Besides, today was only the first day of the server launch.
Buildings on the market were naturally scarce to begin with.
As the number of players grew in the future, demand for resources would only become greater and greater.
Buy them?
Too slow.
Leo looked out toward the distant wasteland.
Fists were much more convenient.
Galaxy had a rule:
Lords could initiate wars against each other.
As long as you breached an opponent’s territory, barracks, resource buildings, warehouses, and territory resources…
…all had a chance to become spoils of war.
With a bit of luck, an advanced barracks wasn’t impossible either.
Spend Gold Coins to buy buildings?
How could that compare to taking them for free?
If he found a few more player territories, everything he needed would naturally become his.
Leo turned his head.
“Yarrick.”
Old Bale Eye stood in front of the five Steel Legion companies.
Part of the bloodstains on his body had been cleaned.
His Power Claw still bore several dark red marks.
Five hundred Steel Legion soldiers stood fully lined up in formation.
Five newly recruited Political Commissars stood in front of their respective companies.
“Commander, Your Excellency.”
Leo pointed to the west.
“That large Ork camp the scouts discovered earlier.”
“I’m leaving it to you.”
There were over five hundred Orks there, along with over a thousand Goblins.
Its scale far exceeded that of the initial small Ork camp.
Present-day Leo no longer intended to go in person.
Five hundred soldiers,
five Political Commissars,
and Yarrick.
That was enough.
“Expand westward.”
“Bring back everything you can take.”
Yarrick raised his Power Claw.
“As you command.”
“Steel Legion!”
The five companies turned immediately.
Their combat boots marched in unison across the wasteland.
The force of over five hundred people rapidly departed toward the west.
Leo watched their receding backs.
He had things to do himself as well.
To the south, there was still a large expanse of unexplored territory.
The resources he had just acquired—
leaving them sitting around would be a waste.
“War Fortress.”
“Recruit more!”
[Armageddon Steel Legion Infantry Squad × 50]
[Recruit Quantity: 500]
[Consumes Gold Coins: 2,000]
[Consumes Iron Ore: 1,000]
[Consumes Food: 1,000]
Still not enough.
[Grenadier Squad × 4]
[Recruit Quantity: 20]
[Consumes Gold Coins: 320]
[Consumes Iron Ore: 320]
[Consumes Food: 40]
The gates of the War Fortress opened once more.
Squad after squad of Steel Legion soldiers marched out.
Five hundred infantrymen.
Twenty Grenadiers.
They completed their assembly in a short amount of time.
Leo glanced at his resources.
[Gold Coins: 13,600]
[Iron Ore: 15,437]
[Wood: 6,050]
[Food: 16,060]
[Mercury: 720]
[Crystal: 724]
[Sulfur: 724]
[Gems: 730]
Resources were still abundant.
“Move out.”
The force headed south.
…
Twenty minutes later.
Beep, beep, beep!
The communicator suddenly rang.
Leo picked it up.
Yarrick’s voice came through.
“Lord Commander, Your Excellency.”
“We have arrived at the Ork camp.”
“The troops are commencing the attack.”
On the other end of the communicator, explosions could faintly be heard.
Grenades,
lasguns,
and the roars of Orks…
…mingled together.
“Good.”
Leo ended the communication.
The battle on the western side had already begun.
This was what it felt like to have officers under his command.
He didn’t need to handle everything personally.
One army heading west while he led troops south.
His rate of expansion directly doubled.
Unfortunately, they were still just infantry for now.
A Steel Legion of five hundred soldiers looked like a decent-sized force, but their marching speed was still limited by their legs.
Ammunition transport was also troublesome.
Once the Level 3 Main Base was completed and upgraded to Level 4, the Level 4 units in the War Fortress could truly be unlocked.
Chimera armored transports.
Steel Legion Stormtroopers.
Only then would the Armageddon Steel Legion truly begin to become mechanized.
Soldiers wouldn’t have to rely on their legs to run tens of kilometers anymore.
Heavy weapons,
ammunition,
and casualties…
…could all be transported along with the armored vehicles.
Thinking of the scene of a convoy of Chimeras rolling across the wasteland, Leo was already looking forward to it.
“Report!”
A voice suddenly came from ahead.
A soldier in charge of scouting ran over quickly.
“Lord Commander!”
“An anomaly has been spotted ahead!”
Leo stopped in his tracks.
“Speak.”
“A camp was discovered two kilometers away.”
“It’s not large in scale,”
“but there are two completely different armies inside.”
Leo frowned slightly.
“Two?”
“Orks.”
“And Elves.”
Leo’s gaze shifted.
“Orks and Elves?”
How could these two races share the same camp?
In the lore of Galaxy, the relationship between Orks and Elves was notoriously terrible.
Orks had once entered the forests of the Elven Empire en masse to chop down ancient trees, destroying vast swathes of natural Holy Lands.
The Elves launched retaliations, and the war escalated further and further.
Orks had even slain a demigod of the Elven race in a later war.
Ever since then, the two races practically spat at the sight of each other.
An Elven army appearing in an Ork camp?
Impossible.
Unless…
…those weren’t native forces at all.
Leo narrowed his eyes slightly.
An answer presented itself.
“Players.”
Only players.
A Lord could acquire barracks of different races.
For Ork troops to appear in one’s territory and then buy an Elven barracks was completely normal.
Leo asked directly,
“Did you see the territory core?”
The scout nodded.
“I saw it.”
“There are also two military buildings of different styles.”
Two barracks!
Leo’s eyes lit up instantly.
It had only been a few hours since the server launch.
Regular players were lucky to have even one barracks.
This person actually already had two.
There was no need to guess—
they were most likely a pay-to-win player as well.
Leo had just complained that the buildings in the Auction House were too expensive.
Now, the buildings had delivered themselves right to his door.
He looked up toward the distance, two kilometers away.
The five hundred Steel Legion soldiers came to a halt.
Their lasguns were gripped tightly.
Leo smiled.
“Let’s go.”
“Let’s go pay this neighbor a visit.”