Chapter Three: Goblin?

“Good morning, Aunt Lilia. Business is going well today,” Sun Li casually greeted the farmer inside the tailor shop as he walked by.

“Good morning, my lord. Wishing you good health,” the matronly farmer in the shop replied respectfully.

“Xiao Bai, why is it that no matter how many farmers I chat with, their responses are always these formulaic phrases? They seem so lifeless, stiff—there isn’t even a single person who tries to flatter me. Isn’t that the real issue?”

“My lord,” Xiao Bai replied, adopting the title Sun Li insisted on after finding 'commander' displeasing. “Due to severe dimensional rejection, the system cannot grant its characters high intelligence. At present, they possess only basic execution and judgment abilities. When the system’s technological era upgrades, their intelligence will rise significantly; by the Gunpowder Age, they’ll be as smart as ordinary people. Moreover, soldiers can improve their intelligence in advance by increasing their kill count—some may even become commanders or strategists.”

“Every time there’s a problem, you blame dimensional rejection and encourage me to wage war and kill. Can’t I peacefully coexist and live in harmony with the natives of this world?”

“The system’s primary function is military, with immense potential and technology far beyond this world’s current level. This poses a grave threat to the rule and survival of the native intelligent life, so collective consciousness restricts it until you conquer the entire world. Once all beings submit to you, the rejection will disappear. War and slaughter are the fastest and most efficient ways to eliminate enemies; once all hostile intelligent life is gone, no one will resist you.”

“So, I still have to fight. Otherwise, I won’t even have competent assistants; these simple-minded farmers can only follow orders and work, never thinking for themselves,” Sun Li said gloomily.

By now, the base population had reached a hundred farmers, and all Dark Age buildings had been constructed. There was even a fishing boat on the river, providing Sun Li with some much-needed meat.

After a whole day of eating nothing but berries, the lord finally saw some meat and sighed, “This system is great everywhere, but the food and lodging are really harsh. Whatever you gather, you eat; even when you grow grain, all you get is bread and rice, with not even a pickle.”

Just one hundred more soldiers, and the task would be complete. Time to check the barracks.

“You finally remembered to recruit troops. Honestly, your luck is incredible—surviving a day here with not a single soldier,” Xiao Bai quipped.

“What do you mean? Are you doubting the wise and brilliant management skills of your great lord?” Sun Li was displeased.

“Wise and brilliant…” Xiao Bai was once again defeated by Sun Li’s shamelessness.

Feeling smug, Sun Li opened the barracks construction list:

Swordsman: Cost—40 food, 20 gold coins; build time—10 minutes; equipped with longsword and shield, wearing fine leather armor; balanced offense and defense. — Just a basic unit, slightly better than cannon fodder.

Spearman: Cost—40 food, 20 wood; build time—10 minutes; equipped with wooden spear, wearing ordinary leather armor; excels at formation attack and defense. — Without formation, just cannon fodder; with good discipline and formation, their combat power is decent.

Infantry Archer: Cost—50 food, 20 wood, 10 gold coins; build time—10 minutes; equipped with standard bow and dagger, wearing fine leather armor; effective range about 100 meters, cannot pierce heavy armor. — Accuracy is decent; great against leather or unarmored enemies, but facing heavily armored infantry is hopeless.

“Only three unit types? And are these really so basic? Where’s the info on vitality, defense, attack, etc.? Xiao Bai, you’re really not being thorough,” Sun Li felt cheated.

“To minimize rejection and maximize efficiency, the system believes these three units suffice for small-scale battles: offense, defense, and ranged attack. In combat, a strike to a vital area means instant death; loss of limbs means loss of combat ability. In reality, stats like attack, defense, vitality are meaningless. Building durability depends on material quality; vitality is simply how long it can withstand damage. Since all houses are wooden, few idiots would try to demolish them by hand (the lord sweats in embarrassment); a single fire would solve the problem. So, vitality basically means how long it burns.”

“That’s really close to reality. Looks like all my gaming experience is useless; this is no different from real combat. Luckily, I’ve watched plenty of war movies and novels (though who knows if that helps),” Sun Li felt he’d lost a major advantage in conquest. In truth, his gaming skills were only mediocre.

Checking the resource list, the farmland was impressive—over a thousand food gathered in a day. With abundant wood and plenty of labor, wood had surpassed two thousand.

Fifty spearmen and fifty archers then. Sun Li’s ‘offense is king’ mindset made him ignore swordsmen, opting for simplicity.

Soldiers were recruited one by one, with most farmers assigned to food production to keep troop output steady.

So Sun Li waited for his troops to be generated while inspecting his domain: twenty houses, one mining camp, three lumberyards, one dock, one outpost, one mill, one barracks, one smithy, one tailor shop, a vast stretch of farmland (all connected, so Sun Li couldn’t be bothered to count), and a ring of wooden walls—truly a large village. Achieving this in just one day and night filled Sun Li with pride.

As he chatted happily with Xiao Bai, boasting about his grand plans for conquest (really just bragging), a warning signal came from the outpost. Having his daydreams interrupted, the lord was annoyed.

“I want to see which fool dares disturb the future ruler of the world (he’d promoted himself after just an hour here). I’ll tear them apart, then steam, braise, boil, and fry them. (Clearly, Sun Li’s dissatisfaction with the food in this world runs deep).”

Climbing the wooden wall, Sun Li saw a group of green-skinned little dwarfs in the distance, shouting and waving wooden clubs as they charged, as if they’d spotted the tastiest meal in the world.

As they drew closer, Sun Li recognized them: “Wait, are these legendary goblins? Looks like this world has a rich variety of species. But with those weapons and gear, it’s clearly a matter of beating up little guys—no, beating up little goblins. Hehehe.”

“All troops, prepare!” Sun Li called out passionately to his ten spearmen and ten archers. “Good thing I wisely recruited ten spearmen and ten archers in advance, just in case,” he thought with relief.

“Move out, form ranks!”