Chapter 2: Forum Chat and Lair Upgrade

While Richard was excitedly studying the Black Gold System, a mechanical notification rang in his ears again.

[Ding~ The forum has opened. Please check it yourself.]

Forum?

This was truly like playing a game...

With a thought, a new panel appeared in Richard's mind.

There were three significant sections on it:

[Forum Chat], [Trading Market], and [Territory Ranking].

At present, only [Forum Chat] and [Trading Market] were lit up. The gray-colored [Territory Ranking] could not be opened. 

Richard opened [Forum Chat] first. He wanted to know what was going on.

[F*ck the game developers! You're bastards! Have you been planning this all along?]

[Why did our world merge with a game? Can anyone explain this?]

[The moment I opened my eyes, my kindergarten son waved a wolf skull in front of me. I was almost scared to death.]

[Science died. Once I have time, I will just burn paper…]

[I want to call the police! I want to file a complaint! Curse this life!]

[I wandered randomly and ended up in the territory of orcs. The first troop lair consisted of f*cking orc laborers. Sh*t, these creatures only know how to work. But a wolf pack is outside my territory!]

[Hahaha, my troop lair has a griffin. Its level is Elite 1-star!!]

[Someone, save me! A bear is lurking outside my territory. If it rushes in, my weak soldiers won't be able to stop it at all!]

[Who knows how to get home? My home is in Riverrun City. I have at least twenty unoccupied rooms. I'm willing to give ten to anyone who can send me back!]

[This must be a prank, right? I don't want to come to this damned place!]

[You idiots! Do you still want to return? Only god can make the entire world transmigrate! Since he let me do so, I will uphold the will of heaven. I shall become this world's main character! You just wait. When I ascend, I'll send you all back!]

[Just asking for help, how can I gather resources? I only managed to recruit half of my troops. I can't recruit them anymore…]

There was no response. 

There were tens of thousands of incoming posts. They already replaced the previous ones on the forum. There were various topics being discussed. 

Some people were at a loss. Many of them kept asking for help in returning to the real world.

On the other hand, some ambitious people were eager to try and explore the game world.

After looking at the forum for a long time, Richard's complicated feelings gradually eased up.

There were so many people. He was not alone.

After thinking for a while, he opened the [Trading Market].

Unexpectedly, Richard thought there would be nothing, but there were all kinds of resources.

[Beast Head -- sold for 10 gold coins.]

[Bloody Fangs -- sold for 5 units of stone.]

[Special Ore -- sold for 8 units of wood.]

It had only been 10 minutes. Richard didn't know how players could gather so many strange things in the beginning.

However, the most common thing here was the exchange of various resources.

[10 gold coins -- sold for 10 units of wood.]

[10 units of wood -- sold for 10 units of stone.]

[10 units of stone -- sold for 10 units of iron ore.]

******

According to the official website of the "Shining Era", resources were divided into common resources and rare resources. They were mainly used to recruit soldiers and build various structures.

[Common resources -- gold coins, stone materials, wood, iron ore.]

[Rare resources – gemstones, sulfur, mercury, and crystals.]

Different types of soldiers required different resources for recruitment.

Low-level soldiers only needed common resources for recruitment. High-level soldiers required rare resources, and the same was true for structures.

Richard glanced at his attribute panel. The resources column at the bottom was displayed.

[Gold coins: 2,000]

[Wood: 2,000 units]

[Stone Materials: 2,000 units]

[Iron Ore: 2,000 units]

As for the four rare resources, all of them were empty.

These were certainly the basic resources given by the system.

Richard thought about it. The Mummy Pyramid could recruit 14 mummies, and it only needed 12 units of resources for recruitment...

After calculating, he could spend most of the resources.

However, since Richard has the Black Gold System, directly recruiting was too wasteful.

After all, Richard could upgrade a Normal 3-star Mummy Pyramid to Elite 3-star. Recruiting an elite was surely many times better than a normal one.

He immediately started searching in the [Trading Market].

Troop lair core...

Just as Richard was searching, a piece of information appeared in his mind: 

[The materials purchased in the 'Trading Market' would be directly stored in the 10 cubic meters of space gifted by the system.]

Richard understood and continued to check.

Everyone's starting point was random. There were still many lucky people.

Some directly went for elite-level troop lairs while some obtained several lair cores.

The proportion of these people was low. However, based on the huge data of 20 billion, even if there were only one-thousandth, their numbers would still be tens of millions.

Among them, some chose to store the core of the troop lair for their use, but some planned to exchange it for resources.

But then, it was just the beginning, and the price was a little volatile. The high ones were a few thousand, and the low ones were a few hundred units of resources.

After spending some time, Richard screened out the core of the troop lair of the desert camp. He bought it directly when he saw a suitable one.

[Do you want to spend 400 units of wood to buy the core of the Desert Poison Rat's Troop Lair?]

[Do you want to spend 500 gold coins to buy the core of the Desert Lizard Troop Lair?]

[Do you want to…]

Looking at the troop lair core kept in his bag, Richard was in a great mood.

Ten troop lairs cost him 4000 units of resources.

Under his deliberate control, 1000 units of gold coins, wood, stone, and iron ore were left.

With a thought, ten newly purchased lairs appeared in his hands.

They were thumb-sized and crystal clear, like pure crystal.

He picked one up.

[Desert Viper Lair]

[Level: Normal 1-star]

[Construction Requirements: 200 gold coins, 200 units of stone, 200 units of wood]

[Description: After construction, you can recruit a Normal 1-star soldier -- Desert Viper.]

The resources required to build a troop lair are not that much. Why did so many people sell their lairs? Didn't they develop their soldiers in the early stages?

While Richard was thinking, the Black Gold System appeared again.

[Mummy Pyramid (Normal 3-star) – Using 10 normal desert troop lair cores will upgrade it to Elite 3-star. The conditions have been met. Do you want to upgrade it?]

Richard retracted his wandering thoughts and chose to confirm with anticipation and excitement.

In the next second, the 10 troop lair in his hands turned into a white stream of light and surged into the pyramid in front of him.

'Kacha!'

Following a crisp sound, the 3-meter-tall pyramid rose rapidly like a bamboo shoot.

It only stopped after reaching 4 meters.

[The upgrade is successful.]

[Mummy Pyramid (Elite 3-stars) -- By consuming 10 elite troop lair cores, the pyramid can be upgraded to Rare 1-star.]

[Note 1: Ten ordinary lair cores can be combined into an elite one.]

[Note 2: Level has been upgraded. The troop lair can only be upgraded again after a 7-day cooldown.]