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nThe wait wasn't for long. As the spearhead just said, in five minutes I could hear the loud bangs of fighting coming from the front.

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"What's going on?

" Karoline, who stood all silent on my side while cleaning herself from the blood at last, said in surprise when she heard these noises.

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"My army is here,

" I felt pride in saying these words. A youngster like me who came to this point of time having nothing but knowledge was now speaking like a mighty warlord.

nDamn!

nThe new boys were really capable, hungry for battle. They came hot and in such large numbers to create an instant impact. The street bustling with monsters was now crushed open, and most of the monsters were either killed or routed.

nI noticed a pattern there. No matter where or who, the moment one monster was killed by someone, that person would lean over, cut the monster with such precision and claim its core and materials.

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"Good lads,

" I commended over their swift performance. They were hungry not to kill but to collect more loot. The more loot they gathered, the richer they became, the stronger they would be.

nThat was such a good looking vicious circle, helping me and my boys to grow stronger at a fast pace.

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"Let's go,

" as everything was settled here, I was ready to move.

nWe are here also I dared to leave here when I got this message from Isabella and spearheaded it at the exact moment.

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"What about them?

" The impact my boys left on the major was immense.

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"They know what they should do,

" I only called over ten of each of my warriors, and two dragons to accompany me. The rest were left to help others to quickly clear the monsters and claim the castles.

nThe walk to that base didn't take longer than half an hour. The helis went ahead of us, while rocket launchers and big tanks moved slower alongside.

nAll the way to the base the major kept asking about how to become strong and efficient in fighting monsters like my boys.

nFor a war veteran like him and other soldiers around, seeing those young and weak inexperienced youths fighting and even winning the monsters was a shocking blow to them.

nThey weren't the only ones interested in hearing my words, all of the people walking by my side also listened attentively as well.

nBut I didn't say much. I only clearly stated that once they join my forces officially, integrating with them, they would come to learn many cool things like these.

nMy answer didn't quench any of their thirst, but they came to show my importance here. I wasn't just someone fooling around these times alongside my warriors, but I was far more important than that.

nOn the side, I could feel the pride look over Karoline's face. She seemed to silently say to everyone here: See? This is the man I chose to follow. He is great, right?

nOr that's what I hoped she was thinking in her mind right now.

nThe fort of Hamilton base wasn't that big like I imagined. The front yard of it had many old-time cannons, plus lots of gears and ammunition boxes.

nA bunch of big helis were at the side, giving me the impression that they travelled for a long distance.

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"Go inside,

" I said in a firm tone to Karoline,

"make them all follow you, and by following you they are going to follow me.

"

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"Don't worry, I can handle those old timers,

" she gave me such a firm answer before she vanished inside with the major.

nAs I had to wait, I started to communicate with my scattered forces all over the city.

nThe jumper already completed scanning Brooklyn and now was heading towards the Bronx, the last piece in this city.

nAngelica was having a fun time with Alex. The latter pleaded to come and join me, while the former seemed too excited to even think about that for now.

nIsabella was working her best with spearheads, killing their way inside Brooklyn. The two left enough forces at Queens, enough to crush the rest of the traitor forces at the castles there and claim them for me.

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"It's going better than I thought,

" everything was heading perfectly well towards my final goal. I expected to control this city in the next few hours.

nThen the far risky mission to cross the Hudson river and go to the nearby Jersey city would start.

nThe biggest threat there wouldn't be the monsters or traitors, but in the angels of this city.

nEach place in this world was now controlled by three angel groups. Like New York city, it had three angels that I worked all my time to exhaust their blessing before.

nBut that wasn't the case in Jersey city. The three angels there were already fresh and had all their blessing mostly intact.

nIf I thought for a brief second that the amount of blessing they paid for the change of this quest and modifying it would be enough to weaken them, then I would be a fool!

nBut I was lucky! In other city occasions, I had to cross a lot of distance, walking through towns and counties with more angels to worry about.

nJust thinking about the threat of just three angels made me frown. The deadliest thing they would use against me was that nasty weapon in space.

nI looked up, thinking if there was no way to make that weapon useless.

nI had Karoline for now, but she was barely enough. I doubted that even with my immense support for her so far, she would be able to save all my forces from getting killed.

nI led such a big army, an army that I couldn't protect for now.

"There must be something I could do,

" I didn't lose all hope and went directly to the market.

nI wasn't looking for a defensive item. After all there was no such a big scale defensive gear in such early stages of the apocalypse.

nI had to think outside the box, I needed a genuine idea to solve this problem.

nIf I went there all alone, I was sure I could survive with my warriors, dragons, and Karoline by my side.

nYet I would have to work all over again, work from scratch and repeat the entire process once again.

nIf this was the case for that city only, then it wouldn't be a problem. After all I was pressured with impending bomb coming in the form of the second quest.

nHowever I was looking at the big picture, thinking of the events that would happen after that.

nThe end of the second quest was either one of the two extreme results. Either I would fail and the entire human race would be purged by the other races, or I would win.

nIn case of my win, I wouldn't only save endless human beings from annihilation or even save myself, but I'd also become the sole ruler and the lord of two cities.

nThe next step logically would be to withstand the wrath of monsters. This time monsters would evolve, showing new breeds and more diverse types of monsters.

nThe aquatic monsters would appear. Also I wouldn't remove the possibility of even the appearance of hybrid monsters here.

nIf that was the case, then I had to not only defend, but I had to find a way to replenish my lost forces.

nThe two cities weren't just two strong footholds for me, but also wide open gates to the vast world. Each city had lots of places connected to them, either counties as neighbourhoods, or towns that weren't far away from here.

nIn everything I thought about, a way to solve the threat of that weapon was a must to have. Not only for now, but for the future.

nSo I started to thoroughly search the market. I started with the class market, but I couldn't find anything useful in this case.

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"Then the general market,

" I didn't lose hope yet. The market was such a big place where I could find anything there.

nBut everything was limited to my current class rank, quest stage, and the amount of wealth I had. I currently have slightly over fifty million coins.

nIt was a shocking wealth for anyone, even for me. But to get what I wanted, I had a feeling this wouldn't be enough.

nAnd I had another feeling that after finding this item and getting it, I would turn into a beggar once again.

nBut I didn't care about that. I didn't inherit my wealth or got it by luck. I worked my as* here to become this rich. What if I became poor again? I was confident that I would rise up again.

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"First let's search for a solution before anything else,

" I started to search randomly. The market that had few pages before now had hundreds of them.

nThere was a search icon for me to use, but the problem was that I didn't know what I was looking for. At this moment, I hoped my luck would still be on my side and find this item fast.

nI scanned for half an hour with no result at all. Things in the general market were shifting fast, so fast that with surfing a page, few items would disappear and more would emerge.

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"That won't do,

" reaching to the middle page, I couldn't continue like that!

"Let's check that auction place then.

"

nWhat I was looking for was the front interface of the general market, not the auction interface. The auction was something that would bleed my wallet till the last penny.

nI tried to evade it, but I had no hope of finding anything useful in the general market.

nJust as I opened the auction interface, I found an item that might be useful.

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"Damn! Fifty million coins as a starter! What price will it end up at then?

"

nI clenched my fists, feeling the pressure of the lack of my coins at the moment. But that item was really precious! Something that suited my needs if used in the right way.

nTeleportation system staff: Unique grade item. An ancient staff that's being made by an unknown genius. Once used, you can link two places apart through an instant teleportation portal. Can be used more than once, but each time must consume one million coins

nThis was a solution away from the typical defensive tools I might have thought about. Yet when considering this, I could easily create portals between two places and move part of my army to dominate a battle before recalling them back.

nBut that alone wasn't enough. The issue wasn't only about moving the boys from one place to another, but also to protect them at any place I'd visit.

nJust thinking about depleting the angels of any city or town off their blessing points each time I moved was simply illogical and practically impossible.

nUnless I was ready to spend more time in each zone, it would only result in disastrous failure and delay my speed by a big chunk.

nI couldn't do that! I needed something else, something that wouldn't be sold at the general market auction this time.

nAs I got a way to secure moving my troops, then I had a glimpse of an idea about what I should do to protect them from that deadly weapon.

nKaroline's ability was really OP, yet she was limited by many things for now. What if I found her a useful item that was class limited only and could help her ability to show its true power?

nShe could freeze time, and use instant teleportation to get away from the way of harm. What if I found a gadget that could expand her ability's reach to cover not people but a certain area around her?

nSo I only needed to make her move fast and reach any place around in the city we were at in mere seconds before the attack arrived. To do so I might need another item to boost her movement speed.. And I just saw many of such items, and they didn't cost much.

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