"No way, this is my livelihood!" Gou San hid the blade behind his back.
Loyalty -1
Loyalty -1
Loyalty -1
......
Han Huohuo's face went green. If this bastard's Loyalty kept dropping like this, wouldn't it turn negative any second now? Stab me whenever he pleased?
With no other choice, he tossed his own miner's pick into the recycling furnace too.
Gained two iron ingots.
Ten iron ingots at last!
Gou San's Loyalty had already sunk below the red line. A murderous glint surfaced in his eyes as he glared at Han Huohuo, anything but friendly.
Han Huohuo felt a chill at the back of his neck, and a hard edge rose in his heart. This treacherous little rat — does he think I'm going to keep him fed through the New Year? Once I've got a Mechanical Wolf made, I'll make him pay.
He pretended not to notice and strode quickly to the Mecha Workshop.
Gou San, harboring ill intent, hurried after him from behind.
He'd just drawn his blade when a strange set of footsteps sounded, and Gou San froze on the spot.
Han Huohuo turned around with a savage grin. Behind him, a massive mechanical wolf with fiery red eyes had stepped out into view.
Gou San had never seen a monster like this. He was so frightened he couldn't even keep hold of his blade.
It clattered to the ground.
The giant mechanical wolf knelt on both forelegs before Han Huohuo, a gesture of absolute submission, then turned and fixed its terrifying titanium-alloy eyes on Gou San, locked dead on him.
Sweat poured off Gou San. He dropped to his knees with a thud. "Chief, I have a treasure to offer you!"
【Special event triggered. Gou San's Loyalty has risen to 100. He is presenting you a treasure.】
"What?"
Han Huohuo had never met anyone so shameless. I've already drawn my forty-meter blade — how am I supposed to put it back now?
Just as his expression flickered between dark and light —
Ding!
The system's voice rang out.
【System Alert: the Hundred-Thousand Mountains have drawn the attention of the authorities. In seven days, the imperial court will dispatch an army to suppress the bandits. You must defend your stronghold. Any Lord whose defense fails — dies!】
【During the defense you must protect the Crystal at all costs. If the Crystal is shattered or the Lord is slain, the defense fails.】
A flash of red light, and in the center of the camp a huge red crystal suddenly appeared — over three meters tall, gleaming away, a health value of one thousand displayed above it.
Damn it!
This health... isn't it a little low?
This game isn't much fun. Why does it keep threatening to take my head?
A cold wind swept through the mountains, and Han Huohuo's scalp prickled. My fine, handsome head — I can't just lose it like this.
He glanced at Gou San, still trembling on his knees. The guy's Loyalty was 100 now, so he wouldn't betray him right away. No rush to kill him — when the time came he could take an arrow for me. Recycling the trash, so to speak.
He had no time for him at the moment, because by now the forum had completely blown up.
Han Huohuo hadn't had a chance to look at the system forum earlier. Now that the danger of Gou San turning on him was over, he started reading the comments from the top.
"Where is this? I was just sitting on the toilet — how did I suddenly end up here?"
"Ah, this is terrifying! There are a bunch of swarthy little dwarves around me, leering at me. I'm scared, I want to go home!"
"The system says we've all become Lords? But have any of you ever seen a Lord whose house doesn't even have a thatched roof?"
"How am I on a little island with sea all around? And it says I'm a pirate? But the only thing in my camp is some weirdo with a fish head. That's my underling? The problem is — where's the ship? Without a ship, what kind of pirate am I supposed to be?"
"......"
"......"
These were all earlier comments. Han Huohuo scrolled quickly down.
"What do you mean, the rookie protection period is only seven days before the authorities come to wipe us out? You're joking — in seven days I can't even finish a wall!"
"No bandit-suppression here, but the prompt says a desert insect swarm is coming. My camp's this shabby — how am I supposed to defend against a swarm?"
"Holy crap, where do I even recruit soldiers? How am I supposed to defend with no troops?"
"Bunch of idiots. Just go out and walk around, there's bound to be somewhere to recruit. Everyone, go grab resources first and get your camp built up."
"......"
After scrolling for half an hour, Han Huohuo closed the chat. Everyone had arrived in this world together, with roughly the same starting conditions.
This was an ancient world, ruled by blade and spear and bow, yet it also seemed to hold a few mythical creatures — what the hell were that fish-man and those little black imps?
From the conversations, he didn't find anyone else with a special item, and no one had mentioned a Tablet of Destiny. So the Mecha Workshop was his exclusive building.
There were probably others with special encounters, but like him, they wouldn't go shouting about it. Nobody was that stupid.
He also noticed that people had transmigrated into all sorts of places.
Some were pirates at sea, some sand-bandits in the desert, some wild men in the marshes, others recruiting refugees in the snowfields — and, of course, plenty like himself, playing bandit on a mountain.
Not a single decent person among them, and not one from inside the government. Every last one a rebel!
Looking at the data, Han Huohuo's eyelid twitched. Thirty billion people online at once.
And this wasn't just thirty billion people — this was thirty billion ringleaders of rebellion?! Han Huohuo was already silently praying for this world's government.
He felt a touch of gloating too.
What man hasn't harbored a little urge to rebel?
To overthrow a rotten old world — wasn't that the dream? How satisfying could it get!
This was the happiest Han Huohuo would ever be, because he didn't yet know how brutal and powerful the authorities were. A mere thirty billion bandit chiefs — there might not even be enough of them to kill!
In short!
This was a colossal war-for-supremacy game, set in an ancient world, where you fought not only for victory but for your very life!
Wouldn't my mecha corps just rampage and slaughter freely in a world like this?
Provided, of course, the iron supply held up!
Han Huohuo had sorted out the whole picture, cause and effect, and didn't dare waste any more time.
Seven days would pass in the blink of an eye. He didn't know the scale of the bandit-suppression force, but it certainly wouldn't be three or five sorry runts.
By the numbers on paper alone, a single Mechanical Wolf could beat four or five Gou Sans without trouble. The authorities' soldiers would be fully armed — certainly no worse than Gou San.
So right now, he had to gather iron ingots fast!
Then build a powerful mecha legion to guard his stronghold!
Survive first, develop later.
By normal logic, everyone in the early game should prioritize wood and stone to get their camp built up first.
Build houses for people to live in, gather food, build a smithy, forge weapons, build barracks, train troops.
Recruit soldiers, shore up the defenses.
But Han Huohuo only needed iron. As long as he had enough iron, he had everything. This was the absolute crushing advantage of the industrial age over the agricultural age.
"Chief!"
Gou San was still kneeling, his knees bleeding. Without hearing Han Huohuo summon him, he didn't dare stand.
"You said earlier you had a treasure to offer me?"
"Yes! I have a peerless heirloom treasure to present to you, Chief. You are the true Son of Heaven, your aura overflowing with command. This humble one is willing to follow you to the death!"
Gou San spoke with such heartfelt sincerity — then stole a glance at that terrifying Mechanical Wolf.
"Bring it here!"
Gou San scrambled to his feet, drew a roll of sheepskin from his robe, raised it respectfully over his head with both hands, and shuffled forward in little steps.
"What is this?"
"Chief, this is a map of the Hundred-Thousand Mountains. It holds the locations of all sorts of ore deposits and beast lairs!"
Han Huohuo was thrilled. Now this was a real treasure!
What's the most valuable thing these days? Information, of course! No more scouting blind — it saved him so much time in the early game!
Looking at Gou San again, he suddenly found this little turncoat not so detestable after all. He even looked a bit easy on the eyes now. When the time comes to make him cannon fodder, I'll leave him a whole corpse.
Han Huohuo was in a good mood, and a sudden burst of charity welled up in him.
He opened the map. The markings were quite detailed.
His Black Wind Stronghold was one of countless unremarkable little peaks. A hundred meters downhill, there was an iron mine!
Good news: the iron mine was close.
Bad news: no one could mine it. Gou San's Loyalty was up now, but he'd just thrown the miner's pick into the recycling furnace.
No tools — a worker alone couldn't mine.
Just thinking about it set Han Huohuo's teeth on edge, and the look he turned on Gou San went unfriendly again.
"Let's go!"
"Chief, where to?"
"Fuck, to work, obviously. You think we're going to sit here and wait to die?"
"But there are no tools?"
Gou San wanted to remind Han Huohuo that he'd just smelted down every tool in the stronghold.
Han Huohuo, short on patience, couldn't be bothered to deal with him. He'd already led the Mechanical Wolf straight out the stronghold gate, and Gou San hurried to scramble after him at a trot.