The forum was lively.
One after another, Lords were leveling up or upgrading their Main Bases.
Most Lords hid their information; only a few chose to broadcast worldwide. Scrolling messages flooded the screen now and then, and everyone had grown used to it.
Looking at the regional data, in just two days over a hundred Lords of the Hundred-Thousand Mountains had already vanished — surely to mishaps of one kind or another.
Well, one of those was killed by yours truly!
The early game was the most dangerous; sometimes a Lord might run into a vicious wolf in the wild and get bitten to death by accident.
From the chatter in the channels, Han Huohuo judged that nearly all the Lords were able-bodied adults — some younger, some older, more men than women, with no elderly, sick, or disabled, and no children. So it was a relatively fair world.
The black stone was about to hit 50 again.
Han Huohuo planned to build another Charging Station, then recruit 30 more workers and go all-out on the economy!
Just as he was about to build the Charging Station —
【Warning: a band of barbarians who lost their cargo to Wanqing City is searching through the Hundred-Thousand Mountains. Their location is uncertain and their combat power extremely high. All Lords, take care for your safety!】
Holy crap!
The system was rather considerate.
Was this a mobile barbarian vengeance legion?
So whoever ran into them was just out of luck?
The Hundred-Thousand Mountains were vast; running into the barbarians was a low-probability event. Han Huohuo didn't think his luck was that rotten — what were the odds he'd just happen to meet this band of barbarians?
A one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance — mathematically, basically negligible.
So he didn't take it seriously.
The private chat lit up again. It was that not-too-distant neighbor Lord, Zhu Yiming.
"Big bro, want to come to a meeting?"
"A meeting?"
Han Huohuo was a little baffled. What was this — someone calling him to a meeting? Could it get any more absurd?
"Big bro, there's an Abyss Crystal Mine here, a rare deposit. Several nearby Lords have fought over it round after round, life-and-death brawls, lots of dead. Everyone figured grabbing at it like this isn't sustainable, so someone's gathering the Lords in range to discuss cooperating. Your domain's in range too — want a share of the pie?"
"Not going, no interest!"
Han Huohuo flatly refused.
He thought this bunch had water in their brains. Rare ore was precious, sure, but it'd be little use in the defense battle seven days out. Couldn't you at least survive past the seventh day before worrying about rare ore?
These Lords could be summed up in two words: too greedy!
Seeing those eerie paper cranes in the sky, did they feel not a shred of tension? A magical power like that had been unthinkable before.
How could they be so dull?
A bunch of tender flowers raised in a greenhouse, they didn't yet grasp the world's cruelty. These guys were doomed sooner or later.
Han Huohuo was very pessimistic. He now wondered how many Lords would survive the bandit-suppression seven days from now.
After the flat refusal, Zhu Yiming didn't press further.
Before long, Zhang Xiaoping on the watchtower suddenly called to him. "Chief, six units are stirring nearby. Want to come up and take a look? These troops are a little strange."
"Coming!"
Hands and feet working together, Han Huohuo climbed the watchtower. Zhang Xiaoping handed him the telescope, his expression a bit odd. "This crowd's moving strangely — they're gathered together, like... they're having a meeting."
Han Huohuo took the telescope and looked, utterly speechless. It really was Lords holding a meeting — and fast, too. He'd barely finished talking, and here this bunch was. Of all the places to hold a meeting, they had to come do it right at my doorstep?
He saw six teams, each led by the Lord in person, like a Beggars' Sect assembly — because everyone was dressed in rags, these Lords looked little different from beggars.
Vagrants fighting over first pick at the dump.
A pack of fools. If I went and ambushed their Main Bases right now and smashed their Crystals, they'd learn their lesson!
Han Huohuo speculated viciously.
About the clothes.
Though it had only been two days in this world, the other Lords were unlike Han Huohuo. They'd gone hunting, logging, and quarrying in person, and their clothes had long since fallen to tatters.
So far no Lord had been found doing textiles; cotton and hemp cultivation hadn't even been unlocked yet.
So it was no surprise everyone looked like a beggar now.
Han Huohuo did little labor, so his clothes were fairly well kept. Compared to these beggars, he was as clean as a landlord's young master.
Through the telescope it was crystal clear — he could even see several Lords spraying spit as they argued fiercely.
"Keep a close watch on them. If this crowd makes any move, or heads toward our stronghold, tell me at once!"
"Yes, Boss!"
He had no interest in watching their meeting, but he had to guard against an ambush.
Han Huohuo climbed down the ladder.
Thinking it over, he left his resources untouched. He'd originally planned to build another Charging Station and recruit thirty more mechanical workers, but this bunch of fools had thrown him off.
Who knew whether, once they finished their meeting, they might get a hot head and gang up to attack him.
Keep the resources for now!
Better safe than sorry.
Once they'd finished meeting, he'd assess the situation, then decide whether to build Floaters for defense or build Charging Stations and more workers to speed production.
The Beggars' assembly went on for a full hour before this bunch finished discussing how to jointly mine the Abyss Crystal Mine.
Meeting done, they retreated their separate ways — clearly with no particular designs on Han Huohuo's Black Wind Stronghold.
In truth these Lords were all a flock of little lambs — no fierce or valiant types among them, much less the bearing of a great warlord.
With the alarm lifted, Han Huohuo immediately built a Charging Station, then recruited 30 workers on the spot.
The worker count shot up to over 120.
Thirty mining black stone, thirty mining iron ore, thirty logging, thirty quarrying stone, plus 5 giant mechanical wolves hunting.
In the camp, 4 Floaters were on patrol.
In this world, thirty workers gathering at any mine was already the cap; more than that had to queue and wouldn't raise efficiency.
A hundred and twenty workers was the current ceiling of gathering efficiency! More workers were useless.
Unless he seized someone else's mine!
Or developed other unclaimed mines farther afield.
As for nearby mines, only Twin Dragon Mountain still had a wood node and a stone node. He'd have to wait until he'd gathered enough black stone before going over to build a Charging Station and warehouse and get production going.
Beyond that, there was another problem.
A Tier-2 Main Base capped at 200 units, and Han Huohuo had already used up nearly 150 slots.
He couldn't fill the remaining slots all with workers — what if the enemy came?
Han Huohuo decided that before upgrading, he'd use most slots to recruit Floaters. In large-scale battle, giant mechanical wolves were just meat shields, troops to plug the gate, no need to recruit too many. But Floaters were absolutely the battlefield mainstay.
Especially in a siege defense, ranged units like Floaters were vastly more powerful.
Having worked it out, Han Huohuo finally returned to the Main Base to rest.
Liu Qiang poured him a cup of tea.
Sipping the tea, Han Huohuo gradually relaxed, then suddenly remembered something and asked Liu Qiang, "When you first mentioned the monks you seemed quite panicked. Are the Great Qian Dynasty's monks that formidable? I've got time now — give me a rundown of the Great Qian army's combat power so I can prepare."
"Yes, Chief! Let me tell you, the monks are extremely powerful. You must never take them lightly."
"Please instruct me, sir!"
Han Huohuo rose and cupped his hands respectfully. Liu Qiang repeatedly said he didn't deserve it.
"Chief, the Great Qian Dynasty's most basic troop types are shieldmen, spearmen, and archers — these are called Tier-1 troops. But even these Tier-1 troops can take on three or four of us ordinary bandits without losing ground at all — utterly ferocious."
Han Huohuo was shocked. "The Great Qian's Tier-1 troops are that fierce? Then what tier are the Rattan Armor Soldiers?"
"I report to you, Chief: Rattan Armor Soldiers are Tier-2 troops, skilled at summoning wild wolves, extremely hard to handle in field or defensive battle. The Great Qian Dynasty has another Tier-2 troop too — the tamed Royal Griffins. Though not as troublesome as the Rattan Armor Soldiers, they can fly, ignoring walls, with enormous bodies. Once their numbers swell, in a siege they blot out the sun."
Mere Tier-2 troops, and this terrifying. Han Huohuo could no longer imagine how a rabble could defend their strongholds against an assault by such elite court forces.
He'd been full of confidence in his powerful mechanical arms, but after hearing Liu Qiang out, his heart grew uneasy again.