The Ork camp had completely turned into ruins.
The two bombed-out watchtowers were still billowing black smoke.
Leo sat on a stone.
The Imperial Frontline Command was still upgrading.
[Remaining time: 17 minutes 21 seconds]
During this time,
Yarrick divided the Steel Legion into several reconnaissance squads to search around the territory.
Leo, on the other hand, opened the public chat channel.
A large number of messages in the public channel were refreshing frantically.
“Buying wood! Three credit points per unit, we will take as much as there is!”
“I am selling a C-grade Centaur barracks, bosses can private message me!”
“B-grade barracks for gold coins, game gold coins only!”
“Who has food? I spawned in a swamp at the start, there isn’t even a patch of farmland nearby!”
“F*ck! The A-grade barracks was gone as soon as it was posted?”
Leo casually opened the trading house.
In just a few seconds,
he saw a new barracks being posted.
[C-grade Dwarf Mountain Barracks]
[Price: $1,200]
In less than five seconds,
it was sold.
Shortly after,
[B-grade Gryphon Knight Training Ground]
[Price: $3,800]
It also vanished instantly.
There was even an A-grade barracks,
with the price directly listed at $7,000.
Leo originally thought he would have to wait a while this time,
but after refreshing,
it was gone.
“They really are wealthy.”
Leo wasn’t surprised.
In his past life, after he sold the A-grade barracks, the price changed almost every single day.
Within just a few days,
it skyrocketed all the way from thousands to tens of thousands.
Every time he discussed this matter with his younger sister, he would get scolded.
But thinking about it, it was quite normal.
In North America alone,
the first batch of players entering Galaxy numbered in the tens of millions.
Rich second-generation heirs,
large corporations,
professional gaming companies,
and all kinds of capital—
how could they possibly be few?
To ordinary people,
thousands of dollars might be a huge sum of money,
but to those truly wealthy people,
it was merely the cost of purchasing in-game advantages ahead of time.
Leo suddenly thought of someone:
Donny.
The son of Donald, chairman of 1-Height Group.
Just as Galaxy opened its servers in his past life, this fellow frantically poured money into it.
Acquiring gold coins,
acquiring resources,
acquiring barracks,
and even directly established a gaming company specifically serving Galaxy.
He recruited players with high salaries.
At the company’s peak,
it supported over five hundred lords!
Later on, he even established a large guild,
ranking tenth in North America!
Half a year later,
Galaxy descended into reality.
While others were still panicking,
Donny had already led over five hundred lords and a massive army to occupy a large area of High Sea Area.
At that time, 1-Height Group
was already able to negotiate terms with the local military.
Leo’s impression of him was particularly deep.
It wasn’t because Donny was wealthy,
but because of a Divine Artifact:
Midas’ Hand!
In his past life,
in the fourth month after the servers opened,
the Red Gold Mountains of the Ork Empire
refreshed an S-grade dungeon:
The Golden Mausoleum.
Leo had joined a temporarily formed team at that time.
A full sixteen lords
and nearly ten thousand troops entered it.
Less than half of the people who went in managed to come out alive in the end.
It was also there that Leo
obtained a Divine Artifact from a hidden golden treasure chest:
[Midas’ Hand]
It didn’t have any combat capabilities,
but its effect was exaggeratedly simple:
it could directly upgrade the quality of a barracks!
Furthermore,
it could be used a full two times!
At that time, Leo had already created a huge gap between himself and the top lords due to a misstep during the novice period.
After obtaining Midas’ Hand,
it was the first time he felt he still had a chance to catch up.
As long as he found a truly powerful Advanced barracks
and upgraded it twice consecutively,
it was entirely possible for it to become his capital to turn things around.
Unfortunately,
this news leaked out in the end.
Leo had only told his younger sister Leah at the time.
And given her personality, she couldn’t keep a secret.
Before long,
Donny appeared by her side.
Luxury cars,
luxury goods,
high-end restaurants—
in less than a week, Leah handed both Midas’ Hand and herself over to Donny.
“Midas’ Hand.”
Leo softly murmured it.
Thinking back now,
it was indeed a pity.
But it was merely a pity.
In this lifetime,
Midas’ Hand
would sooner or later still be his.
Thinking of Donny,
Leo casually opened the Combat Power Leaderboard.
[Global Combat Power Leaderboard]
[First Place: Leo]
[Combat Power: 80,900]
No change.
He switched to the North America scope again.
[North America Combat Power Leaderboard]
All the way down,
Leo quickly found that familiar name:
[Fiftieth Place: Donny]
Leo’s brow slightly raised.
“Fiftieth place?”
The game had just opened its servers.
Being able to enter the top fifty in North America
clearly meant he had already poured quite a bit of money into it.
It seemed that Donny in his past life hadn’t started investing only later on.
From day one,
he had already been laying out his plans for Galaxy.
However, Leo only glanced at it
and closed the leaderboard.
Fiftieth place, nothing more.
He was still far behind where Leo was now.
Right at this moment,
rhythmic footsteps came from afar.
The first reconnaissance squad had returned.
Several Steel Legion soldiers quickly came before Leo.
“Lord Commander!”
“A large river was discovered in the south.”
“It is about five kilometers away from the territory.”
“There is a neutral gold coin resource point near the riverbank!”
“However, the guards are extremely numerous, watched over by many Level 4 wild monsters.”
A gold mine!
Leo’s spirits lifted.
Level 4 wild monsters corresponded to at least a Level 4 gold mine, and its yield was far higher than the Tier 1 gold mine gifted by the System at home.
Before he could even speak,
the western reconnaissance squad had also returned.
“Lord Commander!”
“Ork activity areas were discovered about two kilometers west of the territory!”
“It is confirmed that a large Ork camp exists there!”
“About five hundred Orks!”
“The number of Goblins exceeds one thousand!”
Leo’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Five hundred Orks
and over a thousand Goblins—
the scale was already about ten times that of the previous camp.
In a place like this,
the things inside the warehouse would definitely not be few.
However, now was not the time to move against it.
Soon,
the third reconnaissance squad returned from the north.
The leading soldier spoke as soon as he got close.
“Lord Commander!”
“A neutral resource point was discovered in the north!”
“It is about three kilometers away from the territory.”
“It is confirmed to be a Tier 2 Iron Mine!”
Leo abruptly raised his head.
“Tier 2?”
“Yes!”
The soldier continued,
“The iron mine is currently occupied by a group of wild monsters.”
“A total of nearly one hundred Level 1 Black-armored Rock Lizards were discovered.”
“Near the mine cave, there are also four larger Tier 2 Granite-armored Rock Lizards.”
Tier 2 Iron Mine!
“Very good!”
A Tier 2 neutral resource point was the best choice for early-game pioneering.
Military merit,
materials that might appear,
and the first-conquest reward for a Level 2 resource point!
This was an achievement announced across the entire server, with rewards reaching as high as one thousand gold coins and varying amounts of rare resources!
What was even more crucial is that
he had just obtained the Steel Foundry.
It was truly like being handed a pillow just as one felt sleepy!
Chimera,
Sentinel Mech,
Hellhound Tank,
Leman Russ—
in the future, which of these didn’t require steel for repairs?
The production of shells and bolter rounds was also an indispensable necessity.
Leo suddenly discovered
that his spawn point was outrageously good.
The territory came with an automatic logging camp,
there was a gold mine five kilometers to the south,
a Tier 2 Iron Mine three kilometers to the north,
and a large camp of five hundred Orks to the west.
Resources,
enemies,
and spoils of war
were all right nearby!
While others were still scrambling for a few hundred units of wood at the trading house,
he was already starting to prepare steel for his mechanized legion!
In the distance,
the remaining reconnaissance squads also returned to the team one after another.
Ninety Armageddon Steel Legion soldiers completed their re-assembly.
Yarrick stood at the very front of the formation.
His crimson prosthetic eye looked toward Leo.
Leo did not hesitate.
The gold mine was there and couldn’t run away,
and the Ork camp of five hundred people couldn’t run away either.
Right now, the most important thing
was to take down this Tier 2 Iron Mine!
“Everyone, assemble!”
The soldiers turned in unison.
Leo pointed to the north.
“Move out!”
Target:
The Iron Mine!