A deep rumbling sound made the earth tremble as Sam bought the two upgrades, and a wave of blue light, followed by one of dark purple light, expanded outwards from the orb. Two floating crystals came into being next to the Metropolis Core, one of them made out of scintillating blue energy, and the other out of inky darkness. It was quite clear which was which. Power rushed into Sam like water through a dam, and he felt his stats noticeably increase. He was nowhere near as strong as Hugo Mar, but he was beyond any of the man’s lieutenants now. Neither of the fields had any available upgrades, but they were already powerful enough. Sam prepared to leave, but before he withdrew his hands from the orb, he remembered something.
Defence
Short Range Missile System:5,000,000 Credits
Lesser Automaton Barracks:7,500,000 Credits
Long Range Missile System:10,000,000 Credits
ICBM System:25,000,000 Credits
Automaton Barracks:35,000,000 Credits
Nullification Field:50,000,000 Credits
Potency Field:50,000,000 Credits
The two options for the different forms of Automaton Barracks piqued his interest. If they worked in the way that he suspected, then they would be able to even the odds a little bit against the numerically superior Legion. Sam opened up the description for the Lesser Barracks first.
Lesser Automaton Barracks
This staging center will create automatons every hour to defend the city. Depending on the priorities of the barracks, the number and level of the automatons will change. At its current setting, this barracks can produce a maximum of either 1000 level 30 automatons, or ten level 49 automatons. These automatons will be destroyed after one day of existence.
The Barracks seemed unreasonably strong. Level 30 might not have seemed like much to Sam, who had long since transcended it, but it was about the strength of the majority of the townspeople. If the Legion took a few days, or perhaps a week to arrive in full force, they would have upwards of a twenty thousand soldiers. Weak soldiers, sure, but the fact that they were uncaring, unfeeling automatons made them more efficient. The fact that they did not last longer than a day was a bit annoying, but there would still be enough. Before purchasing it, Sam checked out the other barracks.
Automaton Barracks
This staging center will create automatons every hour to defend the city. Depending on the priorities of the barracks, the number and level of the automatons will change. At its current setting, this barracks can produce a maximum of either 500 level 40 automatons, or ten level 51 automatons. These automatons will be destroyed after one day of existence.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The number of automatons that this particular structure could deploy was less than before, but the quality had taken a substantial leap. It was now able to create low F Rank robots as well, which were quite a bit stronger than their level suggested. As long as they followed the same rules as people, then they would be above and beyond any G Rank robot.
Sam deliberated for a few moments, but eventually purchased both of them. There was still a fair bit of money left, and they were both so powerful that he could not justify leaving them behind. Sam felt the ground shake once more, a common theme in the higher tier city upgrades, and as he heard someone shout in alarm, he rushed outside. On the other side of the city, two towers shot up from the ground, both of them made out of a strange silvery metal, run through with accents of gold. One of them stopped at about a hundred feet in height, while the other continued to almost double that. A faint humming noise rang up from the buildings, and although Sam could not see it, he could imagine an automaton sliding out of the bottom and into the streets.
Sam walked over to the Metropolis Core and fiddled around with the production parameters for the automatons, having the lesser one produce the maximum number of weaker soldiers, and the normal one creating F Rank automatons. Hopefully this would turn the tide somewhat. When the Legion comes calling, only overwhelming force can avert utter defeat.
By the time that Sam made his way back into the war room, finally finished with his purchases, there was a fully fledged battle plan resting on the table in the room. Sam walked over to it, and stared at the various squiggly lines, not fully comprehending what he was looking at.
“Uh, guys, what is this?”
“It’s a map of possible outcomes when the enemy arrives,” Laos said. “I know that will sound a bit cliche, but we had few books at the monastery. One of them was The Art of War.”
“Well, that’s, ahem, interesting. Why exactly did a monastery have something like that though?” Sam asked.
“Our abbot was a bit of a maverick. He thought that we needed a bit more variety in our lives. He was actually the one who allowed us to occasionally watch movies.”
“Well, he certainly sounds like an interesting guy. I would have liked to meet him,” Eduardo interjected, smiling a bit. “He reminds me of my brothers from the Vatican a bit. But that is neither here nor there. Why don’t you take a look at the battle plan? See what you think.”
Sam walked over to the table and bent over the map, trying to decipher its meaning. Although he had no idea what any of it meant, his enhanced intelligence got to work immediately, allowing him to get a basic idea. The captains had tallied up the average level and number of their citizens, and had divided them into three distinct groups. Citizens, which were those over level 25 or under, Warriors, which were those who had levels of 25 to 35, and Elites, who were over level 35. The latter group was quite small, with only about a hundred people in it, and even fewer at over level 40. That was because of the lack of leveling opportunities in the city, and the only people who had managed to make it anywhere decent had gone off on hunting expeditions into the wilderness.
In any case, the main plan was to sequester the weakest group in the center of the city, where it was safest, and have the lower half of the Elites guard them. Meanwhile, the Warriors would defend the city, manning the artillery and guarding the streets in case of a breach. The upper half of the Elites would directly support Sam and his captains in their efforts to take out the common structure of the Legion.