Su Ye watched Lilith lead Thalys and the other Gene Praetorians out of the Supreme Protocol's hall.
Naturally, anything Lilith could think of, Su Ye could think of too.
Absolute order... was it an extension of my own will? Su Ye couldn't help thinking back to Thalys's behavior.
That did seem to be the case. Order Faction troops seemed to be extensions of some being's will or ideals, and now he had become that guiding will.
That was why Thalys behaved the way she did, nothing like an Order Faction troop, much less one embodying absolute order.
To Thalys, his every thought constituted absolute order and law.
"So that's how it works." Su Ye sighed in relief. He had been a little worried, but now it seemed there was no need at all.
In other words, he was supreme chaos in Lilith's eyes and absolute order in Thalys's. Did those two things conflict?
Not at all, because both were him. He simply represented different things to Lilith and Thalys. The one thing they shared was their loyalty to Su Ye.
"So this is what fixed loyalty means? I love it." Smiling, Su Ye walked out of the hall.
He looked toward the nearby shore of Spirit Source Lake, where Lilith and her Original Sin Fallen Angels were getting along peacefully with Thalys and her Gene Praetorians.
He turned his attention to the two Wonders he had obtained.
Name: Wine Pool and Meat Forest Grade: Exotic Treasure Area: 500–1,000 square meters Trait 1: Infinite food (Infinitely generates any food and drink of Diamond grade or below.) Trait 2: Automatic cleaning Trait 3: Loyalty +10 Trait 4: Happiness +10
"An Exotic Treasure-grade Wonder, all right." Su Ye marveled at the antique-style building model in his hand.
It could generate food and drink of Diamond grade or below. Ordinary food didn't even have a grade, while Black Iron-grade food already had special effects, such as strengthening the body or boosting spiritual power.
Let alone Diamond-grade food and drink—and this could supply them endlessly.
Food and drink with special properties fetched outrageous prices in the Lord World. Food was scarce on the market, practically nonexistent, mainly because it didn't keep for long. Drinks, however, were a hard currency and could generally be stored for ages.
"Should I sell some?" Su Ye hesitated, then decided against it.
The Great Merchant Guilds monopolized things like alcoholic drinks. If he tried selling them, he would be courting death. There would really only be two outcomes.
Either they absorbed him as an underling, or he died.
Those Great Merchant Guilds would never tolerate competition like this. After all, this world truly had lords who had become gods. Those guilds were, in fact, enormous commercial interest groups formed by alliances between the various Families.
It would hardly be surprising for Divine Level lords to be backing them. This was a monopolized sector of the lord market, and Su Ye couldn't afford to play that game yet.
"Forget it. It's too early to think about that. This isn't a novel; it's reality. Those Great Merchant Guilds really would rather kill an innocent than let a threat slip away. Any suspicion would be enough. Evidence or no evidence, gods like them don't care about that." Su Ye shook his head.
This wasn't cowardice. It was reality. At least until Su Ye had sufficient strength to back himself up, he had no leverage to fall out with them, much less challenge the unwritten rules.
Aside from infinite food, the other traits were pretty good too. Automatic cleaning was a welcome benefit; otherwise, Su Ye would have to figure out how to deal with the territory's waste.
Loyalty was of little use to Su Ye, but to other lords, it was a rare, priceless boon. He didn't need it because all the troops under his command already had maximum loyalty—absolute devotion that would never decrease.
Happiness was a rather nebulous concept. How to put it? It could reduce discontent among the territory's residents. Logically, this shouldn't have appeared yet; it was something that should only show up after the Novice Lord phase.
A lord's subjects couldn't all be troops. There would also be ordinary residents, but that concerned later development. It was too early for that now.
Su Ye looked at the antique-style building in his hand, then placed it behind the Lord Manor. With a thought, he transformed its traditional architecture into a modern villa.
A building covering five hundred square meters appeared behind the Lord Manor. Su Ye didn't go inspect it immediately, however. He decided to leave that for later and examine his last Wonder first.
An illusory golden palace appeared in Su Ye's hand, radiating sacred light. Along its mural-covered walls stood statues of various brave, fearless Valkyries.
Su Ye inspected it immediately.
Name: Valhalla Grade: Unique Level Trait 1: Heroism (Increases the attributes of the territory's troops by 100%!) Trait 2: Fearless (Raises the morale of the territory's troops to its peak, never to wane!) Trait 3: Sacrifice (Whenever one unit of the territory's troops is sacrificed, increases the attributes of the remaining troops by 1%!) Trait 4: Loyalty (Loyalty of the territory's troops +20!) Trait 5: Humility (Increases the recovery speed of the territory's troops by 100%, including stamina, spiritual power, and mental energy!) Trait 6: Indestructible (Grants the territory's troops immunity to one instant-death or otherwise fatal attack, forcibly locking their HP!) Trait 7: Undying (Grants the territory's troops one chance to resurrect each day!)
"Okay, okay, okay. So that's how we're playing? Then don't mind if I do." Su Ye stared at Valhalla in his hand. Absurd. Absolutely fucking absurd.
All the troops under Su Ye's command were already stat monsters. Raw numbers? They had those in spades, well beyond normal limits.
And now they had Valhalla's mechanics on top of that.
All right, all right. So that's how it's going to be? Overpowered stats and mechanics rolled into one.
Immunity to an instant-death or otherwise fatal attack, buffs for teammates upon death, and one resurrection every day. Wonderful. If someone else had this, Su Ye would have had a few choice words for them.
But it was his, so there was no problem. This was perfectly reasonable, wasn't it?
Su Ye took a deep breath and placed Valhalla in his territory.
The illusory golden palace turned into a streak of light and merged into Su Ye's territory. Finally, it materialized behind his Lord Manor, right beside the Wine Pool and Meat Forest.
"Excellent. If anything happens and they resurrect, they can go next door for a bite to eat. Nice." Su Ye gazed at the golden palace, its radiance illuminating his territory.
"Now I can finally relax. Combining the attribute boosts from the Crystal Palace and Valhalla is much more than one plus one equals two." A faint gleam shone in Su Ye's eyes. Now he could upgrade his Lord's Heart.
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