"Bastard, you fucking cunt!" yelled Caleb.
Caleb Ellise, a 20-year-old man who was forced to face the fact he lost in the final round of his favorite game, Lord of Empires.
It was a very popular RTS game, Caleb had always been the best at it.
In the final round of the game tournament, Caleb was betrayed by his closest ally.
His empire was destroyed, his army was in chaos, and money and all resources were taken away.
Caleb was forced to settle for third place, even though he was always in first place.
Caleb pounded the table, threw the mouse, and slammed his phone hard. Losing in the tournament really tarnished his popularity as the King of Kings.
"He really tricked me. I didn't expect her to betray me," Caleb replied.
[DING!]
[Congratulations on being ranked third in the Season King Lord of Empires Tournament]
[Do you want to withdraw your prize?]
[Yes] [No]
Caleb turned his head, looking at his PC monitor screen, which displayed a notification panel. The dimly lit room made the inscription on the monitor screen clearly visible to Caleb, which annoyed him even more.
"Get lost!" Caleb complained.
After waiting thirty minutes to calm down, Caleb sighed while quickly picking up his mouse and keyboard. He pressed the confirmation menu to redeem the reward immediately.
'Probably $10,000 in prize money. That's less than last season's tournament,' Caleb lamented.
[Confirmation of prize recipient:]
[Email: calebthedestroyer@godtc.com]
[Reward will be sent out in]
[3]
[2]
[1]
[Successful reward sending ]
[Please check your inbox]
Caleb squinted. He reached for his phone and saw that none of the M-Banking notifications had arrived.
That made him even more suspicious, so Caleb chose to open the incoming message on his computer.
[Sender: GM_LordOfEmpires@godtc.com]
[Congratulations, CL_Ellis. You deserve a special reward from us]
[Click the link below!]
'This is the official email of the game, but why would he give a strange link like this?' Caleb asked.
The man had faithfully played the game since their first release ten years ago; even Caleb knew who the person behind the game's social media accounts was.
Because of such high trust, Caleb didn't have the slightest doubt about the strange link.
CLICK!
[You have clicked the link]
[Activates self-detonation command on PC]
[PC will explode in two seconds]
[2]
"SHIT!" shouted Caleb.
[1]
[Self-detonation process begins!]
BLAST!
A huge explosion was triggered in the apartment where Caleb lived. The man didn't have time to save himself, leaving him with severe injuries on his face and chest.
The fire spread to the apartment ceiling, burning sofas and beds until many other residents scrambled to leave their apartments.
Caleb tried to save himself, but due to the fatal injuries he received, he struggled to even crawl to the door.
Caleb's apartment door opened, a man in a black suit and white shirt was there. Both of his hands were wrapped in black rubber gloves, and seemed to be taking something out of his suit pocket, an injection with liquid inside.
"W-Who... are you?" asked Caleb.
"Calm down, Caleb."
Without saying anything, the man injected the liquid into Caleb's body through his neck. Slowly, Caleb's senses began to fade.
The pain he felt was numb, his eyes closed with steady breathing. The man smiled, putting the injection back into his black coat pocket.
"Welcome to your game."
***
Izoya Continent
Kingdom #9845007
"Huh?"
Caleb opened his eyes with a startled heart and felt fresh air blow past his nose. He looked to the side and the surrounding area; Caleb was completely shocked to realize he was in a strange place.
'What's happening? Shouldn't I be dead?' Caleb asked.
'Damn it! They actually gave me a fucking bomb. Have they lost their minds?' complained Caleb, clenching his hands together in annoyance.
The man stood up slowly, his face and body returning to their pre-blast normal state. However, Caleb still had no idea where he was.
CHOP!
A faint sound, like a man chopping wood, sounded behind the hill in front of Caleb.
Haunted with curiosity, Caleb ran behind the hill, and to his surprise, he saw a village with five people in it, three men and two women.
"Thank goodness," Caleb thought.
'Somehow, I feel familiar with the architecture of the buildings in this village,' Caleb said, slowly stepping down the hill.
"Milord!"
"Good morning, milord."
"How are you, milord?"
Those people greeted Caleb as ''Milord''. That confused him even more. What had happened to him exactly? Why did he get stuck here? Then who were those people?
A man on a horse stepped up to Caleb, shocking him. The man was seen wearing light armor with a wooden spear clutched in his hand.
"Milord, I found another town to the east and northwest," the man said, explaining in detail.
"Town?"
"Is there something wrong, milord?" asked the man, looking at Caleb suspiciously.
"This makes no sense. You, those people, all these buildings. Why does everything look similar to Lord of Empires?!" asked Caleb, raising his voice in worry and fear.
[DING!]
[Welcome host to Izoya Earth Continent #212]
[Starts synchronization of body and memory]
[Synchronization successful]
[Starts activating individual system]
[Individual system successfully activated]
'Izoya? Earth #212? Wait, those are the servers in Lord of Empires,' Caleb replied, very confident.
[Host has been chosen as the Lord of Kingdom #9845007]
[Main mission: Establish your own kingdom, dominate the economy, establish alliances, and start ruling the world]
[Host gets early resources:]
[Wood: 500]
[Food: 500]
[Gold: 250]
[Stone: 250]
[DING! Congratulations on the host getting a Lord talent]
[First Lord Talent: Vision Fog]
[Rank: A]
[Description: An ability allowing the host to see the map in broad and detail, even if the fog has not been explored by scouts]
"If this is the Lord of Empires, then I should do as well as I can," Caleb replied, trying to convince himself of the current situation.
Caleb turned around and looked at them carefully, five worker NPCs and a warrior NPC. Caleb gave clear orders to them, and they easily obeyed without daring to argue.
What should be built first were houses, mills, and lumber. All of them needed sufficient resources.
[Talent Activated]
[Vision Fog activated]
[Vision Fog Range: 50x50km]
[Buildings and resources detected]
[Quantity:]
[10 Gold Mine]
[10 Stone Mine]
[20 Bushes]
[100 Sheep]
[4 Big Forest]
[3 Small Forest]
[7 Town Center]
Through the talent activation panel, Caleb could see there were many natural resources available in that place.
But, the closest ones to his Town Center position were 2 Gold Mines, 3 Stone Mines, 3 Bushes, 8 Sheep, and 1 Big Forest.
Although Caleb could see it, he couldn't send his people there while the fog was unexplored. As a result, Caleb ordered the scout to explore the fog area around his town center. The scout nodded in agreement.
Right in front of Caleb, five menus appeared that he could only touch. Starting from profile, kingdom, diplomacy, building, and map. Caleb was familiar with it and pressed the building menu.
[BUILDING:]
[Town Hall: 1]
[Economic Building]
[House -> 50 wood, 25 food, 25 stone]
[Lumber ->25 wood, 10 food]
[Mill ->25 wood, 10 food]
[Gold Mine -> 50 wood, 25 food]
[Stone Mine ->50 wood, 25 food]
[Dock ->50 wood, 25 food, 25 stone]
[Defensive Building:]
[Outpost -> 50 wood, 25 food, 50 gold]
[Palisade Wall -> 10 wood]
Caleb could figure out all the buildings as this world was similar or even the same as the world in Lord of Empires.
Only a frantic and foolish person would spend the first day's resources on defense buildings, making his economy slower on the second day.
The man ordered three of the five people to work according to his orders. The first person was tasked with building houses.
Building houses were useful for increasing the population. A level 1 house can be occupied by five people.
It was enough to build three houses which could accommodate fifteen people. With that many, Caleb could manage the population and send them to work.
[DING! Construction is complete]
[Building:]
[3 Level 1 Houses]
[Wood: 350] [-150]
[Food: 425] [-75]
[Gold: 250]
[Stone: 175] [-75]
With the houses firmly built, they would produce 1 villager every 2 hours. Caleb looked at the calendar section of the game, which was still on March 25, 1254, at 10:00 AM.
If he managed to build three houses, he would get three new residents every 2 hours. That was favorable enough to fill the economic sector of his town.
The others were tasked with setting up the Mill and Lumber. Of the five residents, Caleb arranged for three to work in the big forest and the rest as sheep herders.
The results of their work would be processed at the Lumber and Mill, which would later be converted into wood and food.
[Wood +10]
[Food +10]
Caleb smiled as he continued to stand, watching the area in front of him. At first, he didn't think he would set foot in this game.
But with his years of expertise in the game and all the experience in the competitions. Caleb was confident that he could establish a large empire with ease.
"Alright. The first day is economy, next is invasion!"