Global Lord in the Apocalypse: I Begin with a Greenhouse

Chapter 23 - The Final Preparations

“Greetings, Lord Galael! We swear to protect you with our lives!”

Ten undead soldiers knelt before Adrian after he summoned them using the Stone he had obtained by killing the bear.

Together with the original ten undead soldiers, this brought Adrian's army to a total of twenty.

“Rise! A battle awaits you! Don't disappoint me!”

“At your command, my lord! We will never disappoint you!”

Clop-clop! Clop-clop!

Clop-clop! Clop-clop!

Moving in coordinated steps, the ten soldiers marched out of the greenhouse's first floor to join the other soldiers waiting outside.

The sun was sinking lower. Soon, darkness would engulf the world.

High above, a gigantic digital countdown was displayed.

00:01:00.

One hour remained before Evernight officially began.

“How is it? Have you found anything?”

Stepping onto the second floor, Adrian immediately approached Darla, who had been busy working with the computer screen in front of her.

“It looks like we're going to experience the same mist storm we encountered back on Earth,” Darla replied. “Take a look at this.”

She pointed at several spots on the 3D map hovering above the round command table.

The New World had several continents, much like Earth. These continents were further divided into regions.

Adrian was on the Northern Continent, in Region 9. Since the system had established an invisible barrier separating each region from the others, lords couldn't travel between regions. They could only move within their own region.

“The red mist is beginning to move along the outermost boundary of our region. Judging by its speed, it'll take only about an hour before it completely surrounds the entire region.”

Back in the old world, this was the very mist that had brought air pollution, contaminated food sources, and caused random, uncontrolled mutations in both animals and humans.

Now, the same thing was about to happen again in the New World.

“What about the monsters?”

As he asked the question, Adrian studied the mist's movement patterns on the map. It didn't take him long to realize something.

If the monsters arrive together with the red mist, doesn't that mean the shelters closest to the outer boundary will suffer the greatest impact?

The logic was simple. If the monsters were moving toward the center of the region, the shelters along the outer perimeter would be the first to encounter them. The farther out a shelter was located, the more monsters would pass through its vicinity.

And the greater the number of monsters, the greater the risk.

The smaller a shelter was, the more likely it was to be destroyed. The opposite was true for larger shelters.

Unfortunately, Adrian's shelter was among those closest to the outer boundary. Unless he fought desperately to defend it, he might very well be buried beneath the coming onslaught.

“What Yemima said was right,” Darla remarked, pressing a button on the holographic screen to display a more detailed map.

“Damn! There are this many?”

Adrian's expression immediately turned serious.

The map showed countless black dots scattered throughout the red mist. They represented the monsters moving within it. Just as he had suspected, they were advancing from the outer boundary, preparing to attack.

“If you look closely, you'll notice that besides our shelter, there are many others along the outer perimeter,” Darla continued, moving her finger across the map to indicate the region's outermost areas.

“Like us, they have to bear greater risks. If they manage to survive, the shelters farther inward will benefit. And if these shelters fail to hold out, the shelters farther inside will still gain an advantage. In a situation like this, those located relatively close to the center of the region will ultimately benefit the most.”

In other words, if the lords near the perimeter managed to hold back the monsters, the shelters farther inward would be spared from their attacks. And if those outer shelters failed, the lords closer to the center would only have to face the monsters that remained after their numbers had been significantly reduced.

“Having a shelter near the center certainly seems advantageous. But is that really the case?”

As he spoke, Adrian saw a different opportunity.

“I actually think this will be our best chance. The more monsters that come our way, the more Stones we'll be able to collect.”

High risk, high return.

And the more Stones they collected, the easier it would be to upgrade their shelter's tier.

“We can't let a single monster escape this place.”

“You mean... you're going to fight all of them?” Darla asked, turning to look at him.

“Of course.”

Adrian nodded, looking utterly confident. “That's part of my plan.”

Adrian had realized that hunting monsters in the wilderness wasn't as easy as he had imagined. Aside from their unpredictable numbers, which could fluctuate from a handful to a massive horde, the monsters weren't always easy to locate, either.

Evernight, however, presented an opportunity far too good to pass up.

“Besides, we've already upgraded our shelter. I'm confident that with these improvements, we won't just survive. We'll also be able to reap as many benefits as possible from their attack.”

Darla fell silent.

For some reason, hearing the way Adrian thought filled her heart with sudden admiration. At the same time, the strange warmth she had felt ever since meeting him seemed to grow stronger.

This man might appear ordinary at first glance. But beneath that unassuming exterior, his attitude and ideas were always extraordinary.

Tap-tap!

Footsteps sounded as a slender figure entered the second floor.

“My lord, we've successfully grown the magical grass in the area you designated,” Yemima reported. “The soldiers have also been stationed at the positions you ordered.”

Magical grass was a type of green grass that could counteract the effects of the red mist.

Adrian had spent a number of Stones purchasing the grass so he could grow it inside the protective fence.

Now that he had run out of Stones, he had ordered Yemima and several undead soldiers to dig up some of the grass and transplant it around the outside of the fence.

He had then given them a plant-growth elixir he had purchased with the last Stone remaining in his account.

And because the shelter had been upgraded to Gold tier, the grass and palm trees in the yard had also undergone upgrades.

As for the magical grass in particular, at Bronze tier, it could only neutralize the effects of the red mist without being able to stop the mist itself. Now that it had reached Gold tier, Adrian hoped it would demonstrate abilities beyond that.

“Excellent! Let's see what we can do to welcome them!”

Instead of showing the slightest trace of fear, Adrian looked positively excited as he spoke.