The massive black iron gates of the Iron Bastion slowly ground open.

The +30 Abyssal Behemoth Rover shot through the entrance, coming to a perfectly smooth stop right in the middle of the crowded courtyard.

The anti gravity thrusters powered down with a low dying whine.

The heavy side doors hissed open and Declan stepped out into his city.

He didn’t bother putting his +10 Spiked Striders into stealth mode.

His heavy boots crunched loudly against the clean stone pavement.

He was wearing his pitch black Predator’s Coat.

His Abyssal Sovereign aura rolled off him in thick heavy waves that made the air feel incredibly dense.

The courtyard was packed with thousands of players.

They were all wearing the matching black iron armor and carrying the serrated broadswords Declan had mass produced yesterday.

The panicked refugee camp was completely gone. It was replaced by a highly efficient and heavily armed military machine.

The exact moment Declan stepped out of the vehicle, the entire courtyard went dead silent!

Three thousand players stopped what they were doing. They dropped their heavy carts of monster parts.

They stopped haggling over health potions.

They turned toward the main gates and immediately dropped to one knee. They bowed their heads in pure submission.

Nobody spoke. They didn’t need to. The Warlord was back.

Declan completely ignored the grand display of loyalty. He didn’t care about being worshipped.

He cared about numbers and output.

He walked straight past the kneeling players, heading directly for the massive purple forges burning on the eastern wall.

Morgan and Nova quickly stepped out of the Rover and hurried to keep up with his long purposeful strides.

"Boss!" Sloane yelled out, jogging over from her mahogany desk.

The Quartermaster was holding her glowing digital clipboard.

She looked completely exhausted but wired on caffeine and the sheer thrill of running a massive economy.

"Sitrep, Quartermaster." Declan ordered without slowing down.

"The hunting parties are operating at maximum efficiency." Sloane reported rapidly, reading off her scrolling screen.

"The EXP boosting potions you put on the leaderboard completely broke their brains."

"They have been strip mining the low level zones for twelve hours straight. They are fighting each other for the right to kill Level 5 slimes."

"The treasury is sitting at forty five million Origin Points."

"Good." Declan nodded. "Have there been any breaches?"

"None." Sloane shook her head, pointing her pen at the massive barrier above them.

"The +20 Thorned Aegis walls are doing their job perfectly. The Flesh Stalkers just turn into blue dust the second they touch the physical barrier."

"The damage reflection handles all the trash mobs."

"But Declan, the server timer is ticking down. We have less than twenty hours before the physical wall between Sector 6 and 7 drops entirely."

"I know." Declan said. "That is why I am here."

He reached the crafting zone.

Bram, the Level 30 Master Artificer, was standing in front of a massive iron anvil.

He was using his black obsidian prosthetic arm to hammer a thick steel plate into shape.

The old NPC was covered in grease and soot, but his eyes were sharp and completely focused on the metal.

"Boss." Bram grunted, tossing the heavy hammer aside when he saw Declan.

He wiped his sweaty forehead with a dirty rag.

"The basic automated turrets are online. But standard iron bullets aren’t going to stop a full corporate invasion."

"If they bring mechs, we need better materials. I can’t build cannons out of scrap metal."

"I brought better materials." Declan smiled.

He opened his digital inventory. He tapped his interface and selected the massive haul he had just stolen from the Titan Heavy Industries vault.

A torrential downpour of heavy metal slammed onto the stone floor!

Fifty thousand pounds of raw iron ore, ten thousand pounds of high grade copper, and five hundred pounds of dark pulsing purple Void Ore crashed into a massive pile right next to the forge!

The sheer weight of the drop cracked the stone pavement!

Bram’s jaw physically dropped. His mechanical arm twitched in pure shock.

"By the core." Bram whispered, walking up to the glowing purple rocks.

He picked up a jagged chunk of Void Ore, staring at the raw energy pulsing inside it.

"This is... this is enough volatile metal to arm a battleship. Where did you get this?!"

"I found a very generous donor in Sector 6." Declan replied smoothly.

He didn’t stop there. He pulled the two heavy metal slabs out of his inventory and tossed them onto Bram’s workbench.

Clang!

Bram looked at the dark metal blueprints. His eyes went wide as he read the glowing silver runes carved into the slabs.

"A Sovereign Tier Anti Air Battery." Bram gasped, reading the first slab.

Then he looked at the second one, his hands shaking slightly.

"And a Sovereign Void Artillery cannon? Boss, this logic code is insane! It fires localized black holes!"

"The game engine doesn’t even have the math to support this kind of physical damage output!"

"That is the whole point." Declan stated flatly. "I don’t play by the math. I break it. Can you build them?"

"Build them?" Bram laughed. It was a loud barking sound of pure manic joy.

He grabbed his heavy wrench.

"With this much Void Ore and these blueprints? I can turn this city into a meat grinder that would make the developers cry!"

"Do it." Declan ordered. "I want four Void Artillery cannons mounted on the main gates. I want the Anti Air batteries lining the entire perimeter."

"Use the city’s Origin Point treasury to bypass the crafting timers. Do not wait for the loading bars."

Bram didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the blueprints and immediately started rapidly tapping on his forge console.

"System override!" Bram yelled out, slamming his fist onto a red button.

"Initiating rapid construction protocol! Deducting five million points for instant assembly!"

The entire Iron Bastion shook violently!

It felt like a massive earthquake was ripping right through the center of the city.

The players in the courtyard scrambled to their feet, looking around in panic as the ground heaved beneath them.

The heavy black iron walls of the city groaned and physically expanded.

Massive sections of the metal shifted and folded outward like a puzzle box assembling itself.

Sitting on top of the towering main gates, four massive sleek cannons materialized out of thin air.

They didn’t have standard cylindrical barrels. They looked like tuning forks made of pitch black dark matter.

A tiny violently spinning black hole hovered between the prongs of each cannon, humming with terrifying gravitational power that distorted the air around them.

All along the one kilometer perimeter of the wall, dozens of heavy Anti Air batteries sprouted from the iron.

They locked into place with heavy metallic clanks, their blue energy coils immediately tracking the empty sky above the dome.

The Warlord’s city was completely armed. It was a fortress of absolute physics breaking destruction.

Declan crossed his arms and looked up at his new toys.

The dark purple energy of his Abyssal Sovereign class flared in his eyes.

"Let them come." Declan whispered.

He pulled up his system interface and checked the global server timer hovering in the corner of his vision.

[Sector 6 and Sector 7 Merge in: 00:15:00]

Fifteen minutes. The tutorial was over. The real war was about to begin.

"Sloane, Morgan, Nova." Declan called out without turning around. "Get on the wall."