Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 313: A Pocket Loyalist

250 kilometers away, while Li Wei and the Freeman soldiers were throwing themselves into morning training, Liang Yuzhi had already returned to Administrative Zone No. 1 with five Freemen carrying wicker baskets — each filled with mutant fish over a meter long.

This base had originally been a port, situated along a river. Fish were the local specialty.

Scar Glenn had apparently killed a Four-Star mutant creature here at some point, but after last month's Radiation Storm, a new mutant fish had risen to dominance in the river.

Not that it was any match for Liang Yuzhi.

"Caw! Caw!"

Adai was perched happily on Liang Yuzhi's shoulder, having struck gold. A Four-Star fish — without a Pioneering Card present, it wouldn't generate a Universal Gold Card. But Liang Yuzhi had used magic to temporarily preserve the dense magical particles within the fish's body, cut off a portion for herself — Four-Star quality fish flesh, after all — and fed the rest to Adai.

The bird could eat. He consumed over 50 kilograms, effectively absorbing the equivalent of half a Universal Gold Card's worth of magical energy.

Worth noting: a Four-Star fish was normal flesh while alive, but began to decay the instant it died.

"Adai — once you've eaten your fill, head back. Come and go every three days from now on. And catch me a few crow followers while you're at it. What kind of Casting Witch doesn't have crow attendants?"

"Caw!"Adai didn't leave. He kept calling out cheerfully, the flattery practically dripping off him.

"You little creature — when did you learn to flatter people? Fine, it works. Li Wei's side is stable. Go catch me some crows and I'll stew you some fish at noon."

"Caw!"

Adai launched himself into the air with excitement, his wingspan stretching nearly two meters — and clearly powerful. Last month's non-stop scouting through the Radiation Storm had done him a great deal of good.

Liang Yuzhi watched Adai's silhouette disappear to the west, then led the Freemen back to the fortress.

The fifty-odd Freemen remaining here had a reasonably good attitude toward her. She had told them she had defeated the previous lord and was now the new leader — a line that worked surprisingly well, especially after she personally cooked several Two-Star and Three-Star meals. Their loyalty had been climbing steadily ever since.

Unfortunately, the elite Freeman soldiers here had been almost entirely wiped out.

Liang Yuzhi had scraped together a ten-person combat squad — barely enough. At minimum, another combat squad needed to be stationed here.

Winter was manageable for now. But when spring came, there would be planting to do, construction to manage. She couldn't do everything alone.

And this location had cultivated farmland, abundant fish resources — there was no reason to crowd everything into a single territory for development.

This was one of the things she needed to specifically instruct Li Wei about: the land plots reserved for the territory's future expansion should not be planted. Fill them back in, and systematically excavate and stockpile radiation-enriched black soil from the surrounding area. That was the foundation for the territory's future growth.

Beyond that, she needed to write clearly about the external situation.

Li Wei was new. He didn't understand how deep the waters ran in Weir City. Having basic Humanistic Care protections didn't mean internal conflict didn't exist.

Wherever there were people, there was politics. Especially when many players had grown powerful enough to live past 150 years — the variables that introduced were enormous.

Player factions existed. Dynasties existed.

This particular Pioneering Mission was different from previous ones because it fell on a fifty-year milestone — the great Six-Star Lord had decreed that every fifty years there would be a rotation, with internal and external roles swapped.

Roughly: for the first fifty years, military officers guarded the borders while civil officials managed internal affairs. In the second fifty years, the civil officials guarded the borders and the military officers managed internal affairs.

This created massive reshuffling of positions — and with it, a wave of invisible competition and struggle.

Weir Province was like this. Juniper Province, Cadel Province — all the same. The struggle at the Royal Capital had been at a fever pitch for two years already.

That was why the Pioneering Card quota had been fifty, eighty, or a hundred in previous years — this year it was cut to exactly twenty. Twenty for the entire Weir Province.

The great Six-Star Lord saw it all clearly. He allowed the struggle. He allowed them to compete this way. But the boundaries were drawn.

Li Wei, she, and Li Yue — they had simply been in the right place at the right time.

Liang Yuzhi sighed and continued writing rapidly within her Spiritual Power field.

"If I'm not mistaken, Night Owl's support for you as the Rookie King was always a front. Her true protégé was Hathaway. She hoped to use this once-in-fifty-years rotation to secure more influence for herself. Don't think too well of her. The three of us were called the three golden flowers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a reason."

"Of course — if Li Yue and I hadn't stumbled into your mission branch, Night Owl would have been a perfectly adequate superior. Her cultivation of you, to be fair, was decent. Her expectation for you was probably to hold on for a year and a half, then fail and withdraw — and after ten years of hardship, be handed over to Hathaway, who by then would be Chief Internal Affairs Officer, to be thoroughly cultivated into an absolutely loyal subordinate. A pocket loyalist prepared by the emperor for the crown prince — that's exactly what it was."

"But with Li Yue and me in the picture, Night Owl crossed you off the pocket loyalist list. Her wariness of the two of us is something you can't imagine. And when you turned out to be so exceptional, she became even more convinced that we had secretly recruited and shaped you. The most important quality of a pocket loyalist is purity — absolute loyalty. Loyalty that isn't absolute is absolutely not loyalty."

"Especially after she sent Zhao Guozhu to deliver a message and you still did things your own way — that confirmed it. Not that it's a particularly important truth. Night Owl has real ability, and she's skilled at political maneuvering — but she overestimates herself and underestimates others. Most importantly, she underestimated you, and habitually underestimated Li Yue and me."

"That said — she's not our enemy right now. In a sense, being reassigned to Thorns Pass as its guardian means she's effectively been sidelined — abandoned by her own faction. If she can't make something of herself at Thorns Pass, she'll be stuck there indefinitely, and eventually die on some Cross-Border Mission, hitting the elimination line."

"In short — don't worry about it. Do your part. You hold the territory, I hold this end. Leave the communication to Adai. For supply transport, find a way to build an armored electric vehicle — Adai handles scouting and pathfinding, the armored vehicle handles transport. We're not afraid of raids, but we're not going to raid anyone either. The more critical the moment, the more important it is to stay steady — Linus in the engineering department has been working on his electric truck. Make sure that gets done."

"Also — the Magic Ore Vein should have produced some magical energy by now. Is it at 50 units? If it's under 50, don't touch it. If it's over 50, you can use the surplus."

"A Magic Ore Vein with 50 units stored can ignore any attack from any Five-Star or below target. This is critical — remember it. Unless the territory goes bankrupt, the Magic Ore Vein must always maintain a reserve of at least 50 units."

"For the surplus magical energy — don't try to extract it directly. You're not a caster; it could cause an explosion. But there's another method, and it's the most common one: gather enough iron ingots and iron plates — at least 2,000 kilograms to start — and place them around the Magic Ore Vein. Then try extracting one unit of magical energy. In the moment of extraction, the iron will be enchanted and strengthened."

"Raw timber logs also work. One-Star timber can be upgraded to Three-Star, Two-Star to Four-Star — but beyond that it's not cost-effective."

"Once you have enough quality enchanted iron ingots, you can attempt to forge enchanted equipment. Zhao Xuanxuan is sharp, and her research with the Enchanting Hammer is excellent. Once she produces ten Two-Star enchanted items, or one Three-Star enchanted item, she can apply to headquarters to build an Enchanting Forge. That will unlock another invitation slot."

"Remember — Zhao Xuanxuan must be invited to stay. Talent like hers is more in demand than even you right now. After this settlement, the Logistics Department head is probably kicking himself. They might actually order a raid just to get her back."

"Also — start building the Three-Star Tavern. The application costs 5,000 standard gold coins. I didn't settle, and Li Yue should have understood — so the account should have enough."

"Those are the two special buildings for now. Keep Zhao Xuanxuan. For Thomas and Leon — ask them yourself. Tell them the Ministry of Internal Affairs now has Chu Wushuang at the top. They'll know what to do."

"That's all."

Liang Yuzhi quickly rolled up the note, tucked it into a special message tube, and prepared it for Adai to carry back.

"Hmm?"

Liang Yuzhi suddenly felt something, and looked up at the sky. Why had Adai returned so quickly?

Seconds later, the reconnaissance images Adai transmitted made her expression shift to one of calm understanding.

Well then. Someone had come to pick up the scraps.

Bold. And quick-thinking.

They had calculated that Scar Glenn's territory had just been taken, that Li Wei wouldn't have consolidated control yet, that defenses would be thin — and had come to take advantage.

In the images Adai shared, she could make out five people in total, still about 15 kilometers out, moving cautiously. But Liang Yuzhi didn't recognize any of them — which meant no Five-Star Cross-Border Players. Probably some low-ranked cannon-fodder Pioneering branch.

Why not focus on developing your own territory? What kind of foolish schemes are you running?

Liang Yuzhi thought it with mild pity — and then in the next second drew her Enchanted Sapper Shovel and charged out.

Not recklessness. She understood clearly: those players all had eyes in the back of their heads right now. Without the Radiation Storm, headquarters could monitor continuously — that was within the rules, even if Liang Yuzhi had no idea why such an absurd rule existed.

But she absolutely could not let them see the fortress's current state of weakness. That would be handing them a map.

"Adai — ascend, hold at 2,000 meters. Keep watch on the fortress."

She also ordered the Freemen to prepare for combat. Not that she was counting on them.

And indeed, exactly as Liang Yuzhi had predicted: by the time she silently flanked them, the intruders turned out to be three Four-Star and two Three-Star players. With that kind of strength, they thought they could raid someone?

One Mental Shock from behind stunned all of them for three seconds. Then the Enchanted Sapper Shovel went to work. By the time they came to, they were already looking at the settlement screen.

Unfortunate — no Pioneering Cards. These were just probe troops.

But the drops per person were decent: ten Profession Cards with Destiny Grid attached, plus weapons and equipment. Not bad at all — good enough to pass along to the Freeman soldiers.

An auspicious start to the month.