Lord Of The World: I Become The Lord Of The Desert From The Start Chapter 3

As Richard eagerly delved into the Black Gold System with excitement, yet another mechanical alert chimed in his ears.

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

Forum?

It really felt like diving into a game...

With just a mental command, a fresh interface popped up in Richard’s mind.

The panel featured three key areas:

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

For now, only [Forum Chat] and [Trading Market] glowed active, while the dim [Territory Ranking] stayed locked.

Richard first tapped into [Forum Chat], burning to uncover the situation.

[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…]

No replies came.

Tens of thousands of posts flooded in, swiftly overtaking the earlier ones across countless topics.

Some players floundered in confusion, endlessly pleading for ways back to reality.

Others, brimming with ambition, itched to dive into this new game realm.

After scrolling through the forum extensively, Richard’s tangled emotions slowly settled.

With countless others here, he wasn’t facing this solo.

After some deliberation, he switched to the [Trading Market].

To his surprise, despite expecting emptiness, it brimmed with diverse resources.

[Beast Head — sold for 10 gold coins.]

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

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

Merely 10 minutes in, and players had somehow amassed these odd items already.

Yet the bulk involved swapping basic 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.]

******

Per the “Shining Era” official site, resources split into common and rare types, vital for enlisting troops and erecting buildings.

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

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

Various troops demanded specific resources to summon.

Basic units relied solely on common resources, while advanced ones needed rares—same for constructions.

Richard eyed his status panel, where the bottom resources tally showed.

[Gold coins: 2,000]

[Wood: 2,000 units]

[Stone Materials: 2,000 units]

[Iron Ore: 2,000 units]

The rare quartet sat at zero.

These marked the system’s starter stockpile.

Richard pondered: The Mummy Pyramid could summon 14 mummies for just 12 resource units each...

A quick tally showed he could burn through nearly all of them.

But with the Black Gold System in hand, plain recruitment felt like squandering potential.

Upgrading a Normal 3-star Mummy Pyramid to Elite 3-star meant elite troops far outshone normals.

He dove straight into [Trading Market] searches.

Troop lair core...

Mid-search, a system note flashed in his thoughts:

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

Richard got it and pressed on browsing.

Starting points varied wildly for everyone, with plenty striking gold.

Some snagged elite troop lairs outright, others nabbed multiple lair cores.

Though these individuals formed a small fraction, the massive base of 20 billion meant that even one-thousandth added up to tens of millions.

Some of them decided to keep the troop lair cores for personal use, while others aimed to trade them for various resources.

Since it was merely the start, prices fluctuated quite a bit. Some reached several thousand units, others dropped to just hundreds of resources.

Richard took some time to filter through the desert camp troop lair cores, snapping up any fitting ones right away.

[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…]

Gazing at the troop lair cores stored in his backpack, Richard brimmed with satisfaction.

Those ten troop lairs had drained 4000 units of resources from him.

Through his careful spending, 1000 units each of gold coins, wood, stone, and iron ore remained.

With just a mental command, the ten freshly acquired lairs materialized in his palms.

Thumb-sized and sparkling clear, they resembled flawless crystals.

He reached for one.

[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.]

Resources needed to construct a troop lair aren’t excessive. So why were countless players selling theirs? Shouldn’t they be building up troops from the outset?

As Richard pondered this, the Black Gold System popped up once more.

[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 snapped out of his reverie and hit confirm, buzzing with eager anticipation.

The very next instant, the 10 troop lairs clutched in his hands morphed into a brilliant white light stream and poured into the pyramid ahead.

‘Kacha!’

With that sharp crack, the 3-meter pyramid surged upward fast, like bamboo after rain.

It came to a halt only at 4 meters tall.

[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.]