Leo’s hand hovered over the confirmation button for a moment before finally pressing it.
Ding!
[Guild creation successful!]
[Congratulations, Player Leo, on creating the guild — Emperor’s Dream!]
Four large characters appeared in front of him.
Leo glanced at them twice before closing the interface with satisfaction.
He was just messing around.
The Astartes he was about to produce were successors of the Imperial Fists.
If they ever saw this guild name, wouldn’t they come charging over with chainswords, demanding to know who came up with it?
Just as Leo walked into his territory, a series of tiny numbers began rapidly popping up in the distance.
[Wood +1]
[Wood +1]
[Wood +1]
[Wood +1]
Dense and endless!
Almost without stopping!
Leo looked toward the distance.
Large sections of trees were being cut down.
Farmers dragged the logs away and continuously transported them to the Automated Lumber Mill.
Huge mechanical saw blades spun at high speed.
The logs had barely entered one side before they came out the other as standardized wood that Galaxy could directly use.
Seven hours!
[Wood: +31,500!]
[Corpse recycling in progress!]
[Usable biological corpses in this recycling round: 3,070!]
[Corpse-Starch Manufacturing Plant continuously operating!]
[Cumulative corpse-starch production: 19,900!]
[Pending extraction.]
The corner of Leo’s mouth curled upward.
This was exactly why he had recruited a thousand farmers all at once back then!
Ordinary players were still carefully calculating everything.
A few dozen territory residents.
Mining today.
Cutting trees tomorrow.
The day after that, they would have to pull people away to repair buildings.
Meanwhile, his people were hauling corpses and chopping wood nonstop.
Wood happened to be one of the most in-demand basic resources during the early stages.
When the server had first opened, a single unit of wood could even sell for three credit points!
Once the game entered the middle stage, however, the population of each territory would skyrocket.
Thousands.
Tens of thousands of people would begin working.
Wood prices would then drop rapidly.
What Leo was doing now was using 50,000 Gold Coins in advance to obtain the massive labor force that would normally only appear during the middle stage.
More importantly, there was the Automated Lumber Mill.
Its processing speed was even more ridiculous than Galaxy’s native B-grade Woodworking Workshop.
There was no lengthy processing time.
Throw the logs in.
And what came out were resources the lord could use directly!
Leo opened the warehouse.
[Gold Coins: 18,908]
[Iron Ore: 18,468]
[Wood: 41,305]
[Food: 22,510]
[Mercury: 820]
[Crystals: 838]
[Sulfur: 855]
[Gems: 830]
“Comfortable.”
A voice suddenly came from ahead.
“My Lord!”
Yarrick had been waiting there for some time.
Leo nodded.
“Mhm.”
Behind Yarrick, the area near the Adeptus Mechanicus Fabricator Sanctum was exceptionally lively.
A group of Armageddon Steel Legion soldiers surrounded a Tech-Priest.
One was holding a lasgun.
Another was carrying a plasma weapon.
Someone else had completely disassembled their equipment and laid the parts out on the ground.
“Priest!”
“Can you modify this scope a little more?”
“My cooling efficiency is too low!”
“How about replacing it with a larger energy component?”
Several Tech-Priests’ bionic eyes flickered continuously.
Mechanical tentacles grabbed the weapons and carefully inspected them.
They showed no intention of stopping.
Leo couldn’t help laughing at the sight.
The Imperial Guard meeting the Adeptus Mechanicus.
They really were perfectly matched.
Leo didn’t go over to disturb them.
With a flip of his hand, three purple blueprints appeared.
[D-Rank Gold Mine Building Blueprint]
[D-Rank Gold Mine Building Blueprint]
[D-Rank Lumber Mill Building Blueprint]
Leo picked up the first Gold Mine blueprint.
Nothing happened.
He tried the second one.
Still nothing.
“Can’t be converted?”
Leo didn’t dwell on it.
He simply put them away.
But the moment he touched the third blueprint—the Lumber Mill blueprint—
Golden light suddenly flashed!
Ding!
[Convertible building detected!]
[Conversion successful!]
[Congratulations on obtaining the special building — Automated Lumber Mill!]
Leo’s eyes lit up.
“Another one?”
Perfect!
Without hesitation—
“Build!”
The new Automated Lumber Mill appeared directly beside the original logging area.
Two processing lines!
In the future, as more workers were assigned to logging, his wood production could continue increasing!
After dealing with the blueprints, Leo opened the resource map.
Currently, there were sixteen newly occupied resource points that still hadn’t been assigned gathering personnel.
Galaxy’s neutral resource points could have a maximum of five ordinary farmers gathering at each location.
“Sixteen sites.”
“Five people per site.”
Leo calculated mentally.
“Eighty people.”
A small matter.
He now had a full thousand farmers!
[Deploying farmers: 80 people!]
[Divided into 16 gathering squads!]
[5 people per squad!]
[Heading to the corresponding resource points!]
Just eighty people.
To Leo now, that wasn’t even a fraction of his workforce.
The real main event was still coming!
Leo walked over to the Adeptus Mechanicus Fabricator Sanctum.
Golden light appeared in his hand.
The A-Rank Military Building Blueprint slowly unfolded.
Boom!
The earth shook.
A massive black monastery rose from the ground!
Towering spires pierced the sky.
Heavy stone walls surrounded it like a fortress.
A huge black cross hung above the main entrance.
Statues lined both sides of the long staircase.
Knights.
Champions.
Grand Masters.
The statue at the very center was the tallest.
It was draped in robes, with both hands resting on a massive greatsword.
Leo tilted his head and stared at it for several seconds.
“Sigismund…”
The Emperor’s Champion.
The first Grand Master of the Black Templars!
[A-Rank Black Templars Monastery construction complete!]
[Capable of producing up to Tier 6 units!]
Leo took a deep breath.
There was one more thing.
The base camp!
[Upgrade the Imperial Frontline Command to Tier 5?]
[Cost: 15,000 Gold Coins]
[Iron Ore: 10,000]
[Wood: 15,000]
[Food: 4,000]
[Mercury: 120]
[Crystals: 120]
[Sulfur: 120]
[Gems: 120]
[Construction Time: 24 hours!]
“Build!”
Rumble!
The area around the command post was once again covered by a construction zone.
[Tier 5 Imperial Frontline Command upgrade started!]
[Remaining time: 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds!]
Only then did Leo turn his attention back to the Black Templars.
The unit panel unfolded.
[Tier 1: Chapter Serf]
[Recruitment Price: 10 Gold Coins, 10 Iron Ore, 4 Food / person]
[Tier 2: Servitor]
[Recruitment Price: 10 Gold Coins, 15 Iron Ore, 2 Food / unit]
[Tier 3: Black Templar Neophyte]
[Recruitment Price: 100 Gold Coins, 80 Iron Ore, 40 Food / person]
[Tier 4: Black Templar Initiate]
[Recruitment Price: 250 Gold Coins, 120 Iron Ore, 80 Food / person]
[Tier 4: Black Templar Battle Brother]
[Recruitment Price: 400 Gold Coins, 320 Iron Ore, 80 Food / person]
[Tier 4: Black Templar Chaplain]
[Recruitment Price: 400 Gold Coins, 320 Iron Ore, 80 Food / person]
[Tier 4: Apothecary]
[Recruitment Price: 400 Gold Coins, 320 Iron Ore, 80 Food / person]
[Tier 4: Techmarine]
[Recruitment Price: 400 Gold Coins, 320 Iron Ore, 80 Food / person]
[Tier 4: Rhino Armored Personnel Carrier]
[Recruitment Price: 1,100 Gold Coins, 360 Iron Ore]
Leo’s mouth twitched.
So expensive!
He continued looking down.
[Black Templars Crusader Squad]
[Composition: Battle Brother ×1, Initiate ×8, Neophyte ×8]
[Total Personnel: 17]
[Recruitment Price: 2,240 Gold Coins, 1,344 Iron Ore, 728 Food!]
Leo stared at the price for a long time.
This bundle seemed like it might actually be cheaper!
“Damn it.”
“Astartes really are burned into existence with resources.”
One squad.
He would check the results first!
“Recruit!”
[Gold Coins -2,240!]
[Iron Ore -1,344!]
[Food -728!]
The huge metal doors of the Black Templars Monastery slowly opened.
Heavy footsteps came from within the darkness.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
A Sword Brother walked out first.
His black power armor was decorated with skulls and Battle Brother heraldry.
Black chains were wrapped around his hands.
The only white on his armor was a long white ribbon hanging across his chest.
The Black Templars cross was clearly carved into his shoulder guards.
Eight Initiates followed behind him.
Their armor had much less decoration.
Power armor.
Bolters.
Chainswords.
Their heavy footsteps echoed as they walked down the stone steps.
Finally…
Eight slightly smaller Neophytes marched out in formation.
Their bodies weren’t completely covered in power armor.
But compared to the ordinary Armageddon Steel Legion soldiers, their physiques and equipment were still incredibly impressive.
Seventeen people.
No shouting.
No unnecessary movements.
The entire squad stopped in front of Leo.
The Sword Brother knelt on one knee.
The other sixteen simultaneously bowed.
“Greetings, Commander!”
The deep voice shook the plaza in front of the monastery.
Leo stared at the giant kneeling before him.
His chest thumped violently.
The sense of oppression was simply too strong!
The Steel Legion was already incredibly powerful.
The Adeptus Mechanicus was terrifying enough on its own.
But this was different.
These were Astartes!
True Space Marines!
A real Space Marine force!
The System inventory appeared once again.
[Gold Coins: 1,668]
[Iron Ore: 7,124]
[Wood: 26,305]
[Food: 17,782]
[Mercury: 700]
[Crystals: 718]
[Sulfur: 735]
[Gems: 710]
Leo looked at the Gold Coins he had left.
Only a little over sixteen hundred remained.
He was silent for two seconds.
Then he looked at the seventeen Black Templars standing neatly before him.
“Worth it.”