Farmers and Invaders

***

10 Hours Passed.

Caleb successfully arranged the layout of the buildings in his territory. The rules of this game were simple, whoever managed to kill the King won and controlled the enemy's territory.

The king wasn't an NPC but the player himself. Caleb becomes the king of his kingdom, as do the other players.

Even so, he didn't know if other humans were playing the game like Caleb. That's what the scout was for, to explore this place and discover the truth.

[Three villagers have been created]

[Number of Villagers: 20]

[Settlers limit: 20/25]

Since the beginning, the Town Hall could only hold 10 villagers, but since the construction of three houses, the number of settlements increased by fifteen.

Caleb ordered the 15 new villagers to work in the three most important places during the early game: the bushes, the big forest, and the gold mine.

Bushes were useful for obtaining food resources; food was used to build constructions or create new villagers.

The creation of a new population will automatically happen when the builder builds a house. If resources are insufficient, then population creation is delayed.

Five villagers were employed in the large forest; five worked in the bushes, gathering berries, and the rest worked in the mines.

Caleb pointed his finger, pressing the building icon as he focused his gaze. A holographic panel with the details of the building appeared.

[Lumber]

[Durability: 100/100]

[Level: 1]

[Production: 10/worker]

[Production time: 1 hour]

[Capacity: 8/10]

[Description: An economic building that can support wood supplies. The building level affects durability, production, and worker capacity]

He checked Lumber and other buildings, such as the mill, mining camp, house, and town hall. Caleb's attention was focused when he saw the Town Hall.

[Town Hall]

[Durability: 300/300]

[Level: 1]

[Attack: 5+(full capacity of Town Hall settlers)]

[Defense: 10+(full capacity of Town Hall settlers)]

[Range: 5m]

[Accuracy: 30%]

[Capacity: 10 people]

[Upgrade to next level: 500 wood || 500 food]

[Upgrade Town Hall?]

Although the amount of wood and food was sufficient, it was too early for Caleb to upgrade his TH.

He needed to complete technology upgrades on several buildings before fully advancing to TH 2. One of the technologies unlocked at TH 1 was a basic farming field and a coarse gold mine.

Caleb pressed both buildings, and two panels appeared in front of the man. The resources required to research the Basic Farming Field technology were 150 wood and 100 food.

At least 300 food and 200 wood were required to research the Coarse Gold Mine technology.

During the 10 hours, Caleb got an additional 300 wood as the number of workers was only 3 people. Unlike the current number of 8.

Caleb got an additional 200 on the food resource side because the workers hired were only 2, and their production was only 10/hour.

Caleb pressed the resources menu to bring up a specific panel, the third panel in front of him.

[RESOURCES INFO]

[Wood: 660] [+300]

[Food: 635] [+200]

[Gold: 250]

[Stone: 175]

[Villager: 20]

'I could increase my TH to level 2, but my workers would work so slowly. I'd rather increase my technology research than my TH,' Caleb explained.

He pressed the Basic Farming Technology from the Mill building. After confirmation, resources were immediately consumed according to the cost of the technology's research.

[Technology Research]

[Technology Type: Economy]

[Building: Mill]

[Technology Name: Basic Farming]

[Needs: 150 wood || 100 food]

[Increase worker food production by +7/hour]

[Research Time:]

[00:04:59:59]

Caleb looked at the dashboard menu above, but only he could see it. There, he saw a blue bar showing the technology's research time.

According to his experience, the bar would turn into a circle and adjust if the technology research was quite a lot.

The tech research on the mill building was ongoing, so he shifted the panel and pointed it at the trash icon, removing the panel from his sight.

Now, Caleb's focus was fixed forward, looking at the technology he would research in the Mining Camp building.

[Technology Research]

[Technology Type: Economy]

[Building: Mining Camp]

[Tech Name: Coarse Gold Mine]

[Needs: 300 wood || 200 food]

[Increase mining camp section gold mine production rate by +7/hour]

[Research Time:]

[00:07:59:59]

Two blue lines appeared on the dashboard at different speeds, like a loading menu. Caleb felt happy and relieved. He was waiting for the harvest from the early technology research investment.

He removed the Mining Camp panel and the Info Resources panel from his sight. It looked peaceful and serene in his TH territory.

[Talent Activated]

[Vision Fog activated]

[Vision Fog Range: 50x50km]

Caleb's eyes closed for a moment, then opened again and looked through his vision fog.

Several gold mines had vanished; they must have been tempted by gold, so they chose to spend the resources sooner.

Caleb could tell because the numbers were reduced from 10 Gold Mines to 7. Thankfully, there were no depleted resources around Caleb's TH territory, only a big forest that was slowly depleting.

Although Caleb had the Vision Fog ability, he couldn't explore the area further. That was because the range of his ability was only 50x50km.

However, he could confirm that there was one TH located south of his territory. It showed a white dot on the vision fog map, but Caleb didn't know who owned it.

He called out to his scout. The cavalry-type NPC rode toward Caleb, ready to take orders.

"I want you to go to this land. But don't show any aggression."

"I understand, milord," the scout explained.

The scout began riding to explore the southern area of Caleb's TH territory. Slowly, the thick fog began to fade as the scout rode away.

If he was lucky, the scout might find a treasure cave. There were three types of treasure caves, ranging from low, mid, and high.

The rewards were varied. Usually, the prize of a high-level cave was a researched technology, a high-level army, significant resources, or even a high-level commander.

Three hours passed, and the scout reached the kingdom. Surprisingly, a message panel appeared in front of Caleb, but it did not show any identity.

[One incoming message!]

Caleb pressed the panel and opened the message, which appeared to have no idea who the sender was. He read and began to notice that the sender was the King of the kingdom the scout was visiting.

[Sender: Liliana_P]

[Kingdom Name: #9845003]

[Hey, can you withdraw your scout? I'm not looking to go to war with anyone. I'm a farmer player, not an invader]

Farmer and Invader, Caleb narrowed his eyes at the term. It wasn't that he didn't know, but he was surprised to find out that this player named Liliana_P knew these player categories.

Farmers were a category of players that focused on agriculture and natural resources. They may be weak in war or invasion but are good at defense and economy.

Women are usually suitable for this category; not only do they dislike war, but they also prefer relaxing and comfortable games.

Nowadays, there's no such thing as a comfortable game. If she can't develop her kingdom well, she could be the first to die.

Invaders, a category of players who like war and invasion. Not much economic technology was researched; they were more concerned with military and defense technology.

Because of the need to build a huge military —needing gold. So they will start wars with those who have gold rush lands —the highest level of gold mines.

If Caleb had to choose, he would be a typical Invader if in alliance and a Farmer if solo. This time, he was forced to be a Farmer.

Caleb replied to the message by saying that he was also a Farmer player. The purpose of sending scouts was to explore the place and hope to find the treasure cave.

[One message incoming!]

[Sender: Liliana_P]

[Kingdom Name: #9845003]

[Really? Thank goodness. I thought I'd be alone as a Farmer player here. Can we be friends?]

[Player Liliana_P sent a friend invitation to you]

[Confirm?]

[Yes] [No]

'If she already knows the terms Farmer and Invader, it's certain that she's not a newbie. She's probably an amateur player in this game who has the fate of being trapped in this game like me,' said Caleb.

'It's better to be friends with her while keeping an eye out! I don't want to be betrayed again.'

[Confirmation received]

[Host befriends Liliana_P]

Even though they are friends, Liliana or Caleb can still launch any invasion. It's a different story; if the two are in an alliance, the members can't invade each other.

[Friend Chat!]

[Liliana_P] [Hey, do you realize that Kings of Kings is on our continent?]

[Caleb] [Huh? What do you mean? CL_Ellise?]

'What does she mean by saying that? I'm CL_Ellise,' asked Caleb.

[Liliana_P] [Yes. He appeared on the diplomacy menu. You can see it, right?]

Out of curiosity, Caleb pressed the diplomacy menu to see if Liliana was telling the truth.

The menu panel opened, the man could only gape at the names displayed before him.

[DIPLOMACY MENUS] 

[Alliance: -] 

[Friend: 1]

[Neutral: 0]

[Enemy: 0]

[List Lord of Kingdom] [Kingdom Name]

[1. D_Destroyer] [#9845008]

[2. Rain_Forest] [#9845006]

[3. Darklord] [#9845004]

[4. Great_Dao] [#9845001]

[5. Caleb] [#9845007]

[6. Liliana_P] [#9845003]

[7. Jack_Hunter] [#9845002]

[8. CL_Ellise] [#9845005]

[9. BitchGetAway] [#9845009]

[10. Lone_Wolf] [#9845010]

"Damn it!"

"Someone's using my username!" Caleb raged.

"I'm gonna hunt him down! He'll be the first player I kill."