I kept poking around in the system, because it had become unpleasantly clear: there was a ton of work to do, and if I didn't sort everything out now, later it would sort me out. And not in a position I'd enjoy.
So. In the ever-hovering interface in front of my eyes, I've now got several tabs.
The first tab is the Marketplace.
[Marketplace]
[Currency: Gold Coins (GC)]
[Available operations: purchase, sale, barter]
[Your balance: 0 GC]
[Help: gold coins drop from hostile creatures, for completing quests, from treasure vaults and rare loot]
The Marketplace looked like a feral hybrid of a flea market and a stock exchange: everything flying, blinking, people haggling like there's a notary and a loan agreement standing behind them.
I scrolled through a few pages—not so much out of curiosity as to get the world's logic: what counts as valuable, what's trash, and where I sit in this food chain with my zero GC.
[Lord_GoblinKiller]: Wooden logs x100 — 5 GC
[ElvenQueen69]: Mana crystal x1 — barter for iron x50
[NoobLord_42]: Bone axe — 2 GC (probably from undead)
[StoneLordXXX]: Stone x50 — 1 GC
[Fire_Mage]: Coal x200 — 3 GC
[GodOfWar_228]: Rare ore: Mithril x10 — barter for weapons or technologies
I couldn't help but smirk: the nicknames are, of course, like a schoolkid's stream chat—but the stakes aren't "minus rating." They're minus life.
Wood and stone are pennies, so lots of people have starter resources right under their feet; rare stuff already holds a price, and that's a good sign: the market will live, and you can plug into it if you don't screw around.
And still, the nasty feeling wouldn't let go: I'm staring at a storefront with an empty wallet.
Right now I'm a spectator. A passenger without a ticket. And honestly, that pisses me off more than it should.
I closed the Marketplace and tapped the next tab—Global Chat.
And this is where the truly "human" stuff started. Loud, twitchy, sometimes disgusting. Real.
Messages were pouring down like people were competing to see who could confess to panic faster.
I stopped the scroll and started reading what people were writing.
[Lord_OrcGod]: My whole territory is full of gold, but there's nothing except gold. Will barter.
Basement_Mage: I got the dragon race. Legendary. Can someone explain how to level mana?
[Lucky_Kid]: Ha, I rolled undead and already summoned my first servants. Skeletons are chopping wood. What about you?
[HelpMePls_777]: HELP! My territory is COVERED IN WEBBING! Giant spiders everywhere! They'll eat me!!!
[Tank_Without_a_Tank]: @HelpMePls_777 aw, poor guy. Drop coords, I'll come later and loot your remains.
[GoblinMain]: I've got goblins. Five of them. Already building a raid wagon. Is that a decent start?
[Ent_Tree]: TREE. ONLY TREE. And mushrooms. Kill me.
[Lord_BloodyFang]: Anyone know where to get gold? I've got 0.
[NoobSlayer]: Jesus, what is this circus. What race did you all get? I'm an orc berserker.
[HelpMePls_777]: THE SPIDERS ARE BREAKING THROUGH THE BARRIER! WHAT DO I DO?!
[Elf_Archer_Girl]: @HelpMePls_777 you've got three days of protection, stop whining. Level up.
[Chaos_Demon]: Anyone else get the "Necromancer" class? How do you resurrect corpses properly?
[Knight_of_Light]: I'm a paladin. Territory on a plain. Pretty, but empty. Where's the ore?
[DarkLord666]: I'll sell my soul for starter resources. Kidding. Or not…
[HelpMePls_777]: THEY GOT THROUGH!!! THEY'RE INSIDE!!! AAAA—
[Tank_Without_a_Tank]: First blood. Fast.
[GoblinMain]: Did they seriously kill him? Half an hour after start?
[NoobSlayer]: The barrier lets monsters in, only blocks other players. Read the rules, morons.
[Lord_OrcGod]: Rest in peace, bro. I'll take your gold if I find it.
And that's the worst part. Not the death. The reaction to death.
Someone panicking, someone in shock, someone already dividing up someone else's coins like it's "loot from a mob," not someone's cut-short life.
I caught myself thinking I didn't even know who I was more angry at—at them, or at myself, for even reading this and trying to "analyze the emotions market" while a guy just got smeared by spiders. Disgusting.
The chat stirred again.
[Lucky_Kid]: Alright, I'm off to build walls. Later.
[Knight_of_Light]: Anyone know how to level fast? Need a guide.
[Chaos_Demon]: Kill monsters. Loot. Level. Or die like that guy.
[ElvenQueen69]: Maybe we should make an alliance? Safer together.
[NoobSlayer]: An alliance five minutes into the game? Seriously?
[Ent_Tree]: I just want to survive. Please.
[Lord_BloodyFang]: Anyone near the Black Forest? Maybe we team up.
[Basement Mage]: I'm going farming. Good luck, everyone. Don't die.
I closed the chat. I can read it later. And I don't feel like feeding envy.
Some people already have an army, some got a legendary race, and me… I've got a huge territory, a pile of resources, and an entire system of technologies and factories.
If you think about it, I'm not that poor…
The next tab is the Territory Map. The system clicked, and the map unfolded in front of me—not a toy mini-radar, but proper topography with elevation and markers.
[Lord's Territory: 5×5 km]
[Scale: adjustable. Resources marked. Fog of war: beyond territory.]
Five by five kilometers. A perfect square. Too perfect, honestly. Like someone assembled a testing ground for my exam: "Alright then, engineer—show us what you've got."
And I couldn't decide what was more unsettling—that everything here was prepared, or that it wasn't prepared by me.
The center is a lake.
Icon: "Water source (fresh, deep, stable)."
I zoomed in. The lake's big—about a kilometer and a half. Fish present, depth present, water clean. And the thought hit immediately: if there's water, there's cooling, steam, chemistry, life, a reserve in case of fire, even basic hygiene. By the way, I still don't know whether I even need to drink, eat, and handle biological needs here.
On the right side of the map—plains: flat, open.
Convenient for construction. Clear: a zone for the factories themselves, conveyors, warehouses, and expansion.
Bottom and left—forest.
And judging by the map, it's dense. That's good—there's no such thing as "too little wood," it's a basic building material, fuel, plus you can make barricades and stakes. Yeah, sure—what stakes are going to help me against some paladins who can split a mountain in half while yelling "EXCALIBAAA."
Up top—mountains. And there, resource markers are scattered everywhere.
I switched on the "Show all resources" filter—the map lit up so hard my eyes got tired for a second from the number of points.
And again, two feelings at once: relief ("I won't run out of iron in an hour") and realization ("if all this is given to me—then all of it will have to be used").
Iron ore: 12,000 tons (surface layer, easy extraction)
Copper ore: 8,500 tons (surface layer, easy extraction)
Coal: 15,000 tons (open seam)
Limestone: 20,000 tons (open seam)
Quartz sand: 30,000 tons (open seam)
Clay: 18,000 tons (open seam)
Oil: deposit ~6,000 tons (requires a pumping station)
Natural gas: pocket ~4,000 tons (requires drilling and liquefaction)
Sulfur: 2,500 tons (open seam)
Salt: 7,000 tons (open seam)
Bauxite (aluminum): 5,000 tons (medium depth, requires drilling)
Titanium ore: 1,200 tons (deep layer, difficult extraction)
Rare earth elements: 800 tons (dispersed, requires chemical separation)
Uranium: 150 tons (deep layer, radioactive, requires protection)
I scrolled further—and there was an even longer list, like someone decided to play "guess the periodic table element" with me. I counted at least 50 different resource types.
For a second I wanted to believe everything would be fine: lots of resources, a convenient map, a lake in the center—live and build.
And then my brain did what it does best: ruined the mood with math. 12,000 tons of iron is definitely a lot for one person. But on the scale of a factory that chews through at least 100 tons of iron per hour, my reserves will run out very fast.
While I'm inside the barrier—it's safe. Probably. I still don't know if there are dungeons here, aggressive mob spawns, or anything like that.
But as soon as production ramps up, I'll have to push into the fog of war, and out there none of the pretty numbers on the map will help. Which means by then I'll need armor, weapons, and an armada of combat robots at my back.
I closed the map and opened the Tech Tree.
The system dumped ten levels of progress on me, all interwoven and only условно separated from each other.
[Engineer Tech Tree]
[Current level: I — Stone Age]
[Available levels: 10]
The tree unfolded in layers. Ten levels. Ten eras of progress. From manual labor to… something unimaginable. But the main thing I understood immediately: each level is tied to its own research pack set. And without automating production of those packs, you won't go anywhere—making them by hand is pointless, the numbers are too big.
Level 1: Stone Age
Level 2: Electrical Era
Level 3: Automation & Logistics
Level 4: Chemical Revolution
Level 5: Advanced Materials & Electronics
Level 6: Biotechnology
Level 7: High-Tech Materials
Level 8: High-Tech Systems
Level 9: Quantum Computing
Level 10: Interstellar Travel
I stared at the list. Ten levels. And I'm on the first.
I clicked Level 2 to see what it takes for the first step.
[Automation Research Pack]
(always crafted in batches of five)
The first research pack, unlocking access to primitive electronics, materials science, and the chemical industry.
Produced in: assemblers; inventory.
Components:
Small parts x5
Air-core inductor coil x1
Empty research pack x5
I clicked into the inductor coil.
[Air-core inductor coil]
Copper wire wound around a metal rod creates a magnetic field when current passes through. An air core is simply empty space inside, without ferromagnetic materials. The simplest way to store energy in a magnetic field.
Produced in: assemblers; inventory.
Components:
— Iron rod x1
— Copper cable x8
Alright. Doable. There's iron. There's copper. I just need to mine it, smelt it, and I can turn it into what I need right in my inventory.
But I was curious what comes next. And it looks like everything truly normal and interesting only opens up at the fourth era.
I clicked Level 4—Chemical Revolution.
And my brain short-circuited.
It requires Chemical Packs—and their recipes include oil, plastic, sulfur, advanced electronics… And you need thousands of those packs. In exchange you get laser turrets, solid robotics, even nuclear reactors.
And then, out of pure curiosity, I opened the Mk1 Nuclear Reactor and… wanted to shoot myself.
[Mk1 Nuclear Reactor]
Produced in: assembler
Consumes: uranium hexafluoride
Ingredients:
— Niobium pipe x200
— Concrete x1000
— Steam engine x10
— Small parts x1000
— Simple circuit board x100
— Mechanical parts 1 x10
— Duralumin x500
— Intermetallics x50
— Lead–antimony alloy x50
— Steel beam x1000
I stared at the list. Two hundred niobium pipes. A thousand concrete. A thousand small parts. And that's just the reactor. And then there's fuel—uranium hexafluoride. I peeked at that recipe too and realized it would be easier to swallow ammonia and go to sleep, preferably forever.
I clicked Simple Circuit Board (one of the hundred required).
[Simple circuit board]
Ingredients:
— Air-core inductor coils x3
— Ceramic capacitors x5
— Power resistors x6
— PCB substrate (lvl. 1) x1
— Galvanic cell (CuZn) x1
— Vacuum tube x3
— Solder x2
Seven components per board. You need a hundred boards. That's seven hundred separate parts just for the reactor's electronics.
I clicked Mechanical Parts 1.
[Mechanical parts 1]
Produced in: assembler
Craft time: 12 sec
Ingredients:
— Small parts x25
— Mk1 brakes x1
— Mk1 shaft x1
— Mk1 gearbox x1
— Mk1 switchboard cabinet x1
— Mk1 control panel x1
— Rubber x3
— Steel beam x15
Eight components. And you need ten of these for the reactor.
So how exactly am I supposed to build a factory that can produce all that?
I closed the tree. My head was buzzing.
I stood up and walked to the clear lake, studying my reflection in it. I hadn't noticed at first, but I'm wearing some very specific gear. A yellow-black coverall, with rubberized gloves and boots, and on my head a small hardhat and a round helmet that completely covers my face, leaving a circular, tinted visor in front. Looks good, honestly.
I touched my neck, finding the helmet's latches, and with a small hiss of depressurization (so the suit is at least partly mechanical) I took it off. My face reflected in the water. Tall, lean, sharp cheekbones. No facial hair yet, hair well-kept, and my eyes—beautiful, glowing gold.
I don't know if I looked like this before (of course not, who am I kidding), whether it was random or some unknown force "helped" again, but I like it.
Scooping a bit of water into my gloved hand, I washed up and gathered my thoughts.
I've got only a week to reach the third development level, where there'll be at least some combat robots, so I can't wait. Today I need to walk the territory and start mining basic resources.
Because out there, beyond the barrier, other Lords are already leveling. Summoning servants. Building armies. And all I've got are my hands, an empty inventory, and a factory-building system in a world of magic.
So, putting the helmet back on and sealing the suit, I opened the system panel and started looking at what I can do right now.
***
You can make your choice of how the story will go:
1. Start expanding and building.
2. Look what we have on our territory. Maybe some dungeon or mobs for free exp.