Chapter 195 - 130: October: Defense Month
[This is the Month of Defense]
[After a random drawing, you have been assigned the role of Defender for this month.]
[The system will randomly match you with a participating region from Phase Three, which will act as the Attacker.]
[Every day at 10:00 AM, a Teleportation Gate will be deployed ten kilometers from the border of the defending lord’s territory. The Attacker can use this Teleportation Gate to reach the world where the Defender’s territory is located. The Teleportation Gate is only visible to and usable by the Attacker.]
[The Teleportation Gate will close every day at 4:00 PM. Any attacking forces that have already crossed over will be sent back to their own territory.]
[Killing the Attacker’s troops and heroes will grant bonus experience points.]
[For each successful defense against an invasion, you will be able to draw one Elemental Core.]
[Receiving a bye—meaning no hostile lord invades—counts as a successful defense.]
[There will be no leaderboards or ranking rewards this month. We wish all lords the best of luck.]
[Note 1: Defenders have three chances. After the third failure, your connection to your Territory Heart will be severed, and you will be banished back to your original world.]
[Note 2: After each successful defense, you may spend points to repair damaged structures or resurrect fallen soldiers. After a failure, your territory will be restored to its previous state for free.]
The new announcement arrived right on schedule, and everyone was mentally prepared for it. The lords who hadn’t yet finished their preparations scrambled to set up their defenses.
In the chat channel, the lords who had already completed their defensive arrangements began to chat excitedly.
[World Chat Channel (788211)]
"Last month was awesome! All of my invasions were successful. I’ve upgraded my territory’s Elemental Core to the Excellent grade, and the chance for a soldier to be promoted to a hero upon leveling up increased from +2% to +4%. The effect was immediate—I got a new hero right away. I have two heroes now."
"Congrats! Congrats! It’s a shame, though. I didn’t get enough Elemental Cores to upgrade my own. My hero count didn’t go up either. I’m stuck with just 10. What a pity!!!"
"My Elemental Core didn’t get an upgrade either, which is a real shame. But I did get one more hero, so now I have 20."
...
A whole crowd of people were humblebragging in the channel. Lin Yu chuckled as he read through their posts. ’Their combined gains don’t even add up to what Dong Lin alone achieved.’
-----------------
Time flew by, and soon it was 10:00 AM on October 1st. The chat channel fell silent as everyone awaited the enemy’s attack.
Lin Yu poured his consciousness into the Territory Heart, embodying the World Tree to survey his domain, paying special attention to the borders.
The outskirts of his territory were now densely planted with defensive flora, extending far beyond the originally planned five-kilometer buffer.
Thanks to the successful development of the ’Cultivable Plant Structures’ technology, the defensive plants, spurred on by the Druids, constantly bloomed and bore fruit.
The Druids collected a portion of the seeds to bolster the vegetation within the defensive lines.
The rest were left to disperse naturally—some fell to the ground where they stood, some drifted away on the wind, and others were carried off by animals.
They grew wild both inside and outside the defensive perimeter, either increasing the density of the existing fortifications or expanding the boundaries of the Defensive Array.
Furthermore, under the combined effects of the territory trait [Skyscraping Trees] and the defensive plant trait [Giant Flora], these plants grew much larger than before, and their stats were significantly enhanced.
Amongst this dense defensive foliage, Lin Yu had also dispatched several defensive plants that had evolved into [Floralkin]. Their job was to eliminate any powerful enemies the invaders might send.
Especially the Floralkin who had ascended; their duty was to counter enemy heroes while commanding the ordinary Floralkin.
Lin Yu had no intention of deploying his main army until the outermost defensive line was breached.
’Killing invaders grants a ton of experience. It’s the perfect opportunity to level up the defensive plants and catalyze more of them into Floralkin. I need to build a massive Floralkin legion.’
...
Outside a certain territory, a Teleportation Gate suddenly materialized. A faint, humanoid figure flew out.
It oriented itself for a moment before flying toward the territory ten kilometers away.
A short while later, the figure arrived above the city at the heart of the territory.
Then, it began to circle slowly above the city.
A strange light glinted in the figure’s eyes. With every soldier, hero, and building it observed, the light would flash once, as if it were scanning or taking a photograph.
Once the figure had surveyed the entire city, it flew swiftly back through the Teleportation Gate.
The humans in the city remained on high alert. The sentries in the watchtowers diligently scanned the horizon. None of them had noticed that an enemy scout had already taken a tour of their city, gathered intelligence, and left.
Not long after the figure disappeared back through the Teleportation Gate, squads of soldiers began to march out.
Leading the vanguard were several enormous rats, each standing four to five meters tall. Their claws were mutated, measuring a full meter in length.
Behind them, a horde of Ratman followed. Some carried firearms, others swords, and still others shortbows. They stood in silent, orderly ranks, their strict military discipline an intimidating sight.
The moment they emerged, the giant rats began to dig. The soft turf was instantly torn apart as several large holes appeared, and wide tunnels were rapidly excavated.
The Ratman behind the giant rats followed them down into the tunnels, with a small contingent breaking off to help clear away the excavated earth.