The main feature of the game "Doomsday Lord" was its wide variety of buildings, some of which seemed to have no apparent purpose. Until the apocalypse erupted, he hadn't yet completed constructing all the buildings from the list.
Tang Yu opened the building list. The buildings included core buildings, resource-type buildings, military buildings, defensive buildings, and specially classified buildings. All these required Source Crystals and corresponding resources, such as wood and stone.
The initial Lord's Castle had been a stroke of luck. At least he didn't have to haul a bunch of materials around. If he seriously had to do that, Tang Yu might have already perished.
Currently, the only building in the Territory was the solitary Lord's Castle; no other constructions had been erected.
Tang Yu first opened the core building list. Core buildings were the most crucial in the Territory, unmatched by any other. For other types of buildings, the quantity was unrestricted, but core buildings were different. No matter how high the Territory's future level or how wide the radiation range, there would always be only one core functional building.
There were four types of core buildings: tavern, market, workshop, and research center.
The tavern could recruit followers. Cost: two hundred units of Source Crystal, one hundred units of wood.
The market could provide resources, blueprints, even rare items. Cost: three hundred units of Source Crystal, one hundred units of wood.
The workshop could manufacture equipment and tools. Cost: five hundred units of Source Crystal, one hundred units of stone, one hundred units of iron.
As for the research center, it could improve or even develop blueprints. Cost: one thousand units of Source Crystal, one hundred units of wood, one hundred units of stone, one hundred units of iron.
Though the research center was a core building, its prerequisite was a level two Territory, meaning the core castle needed an upgrade first. Of course, seeing the cost, Tang Yu already lacked the desire to build it.
Though the others were slightly cheaper, he currently had just over one hundred units of Source Crystal, not enough to even construct the cheapest building.
This was unfriendly to him. Tang Yu felt a sense of urgency. The Sanctuary had recently suffered a Demon Tide attack, proving that this place, although far from the Abyssal Rift, was not safe. Another Demon Tide could strike any time. This time there wasn't even a decent defensive line. Even if No. 1 and No. 2 were mighty, faced with an endless supply of Demonized Beasts, Tang Yu felt it was dangerous.
Territory development was urgent!
The sky was still dim, covered with a silvery veil of light. Suddenly, a slice of pale light appeared on the eastern horizon, illuminating half the sky. The orange-red dawn spread across the land, lighting it enough to reveal the ruins and rubble.
… It was too miserable!
With that, Tang Yu hesitated even to claim himself a Lord of any significant size.
"Let's set a small goal first, at least develop the Territory to the scale of a small town."
With a good night's sleep, Tang Yu's energy and physical strength had restored to their peak.
He began leading No. 1 to clear out the surrounding Demonized Beasts.
Overnight, a few more Demonized Beasts had wandered into the Territory. In the morning, Tang Yu even found a Demonized Beast's body lying at the castle gate.
Demonized Beasts within the Territory were easy to deal with. Regardless of size or those adept at hiding, they couldn't escape the system's map. No. 1 quickly took care of these Demonized Beasts.
Tang Yu found a tourist guide map. This was originally a vacation resort. After being converted into a Sanctuary, it retained its basic structure. Tang Yu's eyes fell on the hotel by the central square. Before the apocalypse, it was reportedly a hotel of rather high caliber.
The hotel had a cold storage even before the apocalypse. After converting into a Sanctuary, it became a food storage center. Even though Tang Yu hadn't been inside, he knew well. Upon arriving at the Sanctuary, he heard many of the lowest-tier survivors talking about it. Their deepest wish was to walk inside and see if the cold storage really held mountains of food as the legends said.
Mountains of food, Tang Yu didn't believe, but he had no doubt that there was food in that hotel!
Tang Yu marked the hotel as a focal point for future searches, aiming to store more food. Even if no other survivors were competing with him in this Sanctuary anymore, what if Demonized Beasts destroyed it while unattended?
Recalling the previously found food, ruined beyond recognition by Demonized Beasts, made Tang Yu's heart ache.
...
At this moment, the hotel, in the underground cold storage.
Several survivors lucky enough to escape from the Demon Tide looked terrified.
One in the front gripped a gun in both hands, firing several shots, but wore a bitter expression.
There, a six-footed, crimson Demonized Beast, standing over two meters tall, was munching on a corpse it held in its mouth.
The bullets hit the beast's red hide, astonishingly bouncing off without causing even the slightest harm. The beast continued to gnaw on the corpse, completely ignoring the group.
Witnessing this scene left Chen Haiping nearly despairing.
The survivors behind him were shaking, their faces pale. Moments ago, one succumbed to pressure, fleeing madly, only to end up with half their body chewed up, hanging from the Demonized Beast's mouth, while the others were too terrified to move.
Chen Haiping fared slightly better. Being an Awakener who had fought Demonized Beasts before, he remained calm enough to think, yet no matter how he pondered, he couldn't find a way out.
The crimson beast was just too terrifying. Handgun bullets lacked firepower, but seeing them bounce off entirely was something he had never witnessed before.
The Demonized Beast remained still, and Chen Haiping dared not act first. From the speed it showed when attacking the fleeing survivor and the power with which it forcibly tore open the cold storage door, he realized this beast was far mightier than himself. Even the strongest Awakener in the Sanctuary might not match it.
He didn't move, merely swapping his empty handgun for a military-grade machete. The blade was sharp, exuding a chilling aura. Despite knowing he wasn't a match, Chen Haiping refused to sit and wait for death. Even if he perished, he wanted to slice off a piece of this beast!
The crimson Demonized Beast spat out the chunk it was chewing, bloodlust gleaming in its eyes.
Chen Haiping gritted his teeth, raising the blade slightly.
Suddenly, boom!
A violent tremor came from above, dust falling. Chen Haiping was shocked, then saw the crimson Demonized Beast suddenly turn, becoming a red blur, racing outside the cold storage.
"Did... did it leave?"
They were bewildered, yet truly felt the relief of having narrowly escaped death. Some survivors were so overwhelmed that their legs gave out, dropping to their knees.