Wasteland's Only King

In other words.

Dawn Fortress is…

Marching straight into danger, fully aware the mountain is full of tigers.

“I can’t help but feel uneasy.”

The Serenity Civilization Lord, who had been self-assured and confident in victory, suddenly felt this intuition rise up inside him.

“Maybe…”

“Should I send in more troops?”

“All worries stem from a lack of firepower.”

Once the thought emerged, it spread and grew wildly in his heart like wild grass.

Not long after.

Beep—

Beep beep—!

One after another, communication orders were transmitted to each star realm planet within the Cerena Star System Group.

Swoosh—

Swoosh swoosh—!

Compared to before, even more numerous and even larger spaceships and fortresses surged out from their planets and star realms, streaming endlessly toward the encirclement in the endless starry sky.

…

…

“They reinforced?”

Inside Dawn Fortress, Yu Jin listened to Carol’s latest report, a look of surprise on his face.

“Yes, Lord!”

“The scale of their fortress battleships is increasing rapidly!”

“If this keeps up…”

“By the time we reach the center of the encirclement, they might have nearly fifty super large fortresses deployed!”

On the light-screen projection midair,

Carol’s face was tense, and her expression grave.

Even though Dawn Fortress had been preparing for ’this war’ the entire past half month,

For that,

The fortress fleet had deliberately stopped several times at large stars along the way, so the Odin Battleship and Decomposition Emitter could be charged up.

But…

Carol hadn’t expected this either.

This war didn’t come— but when it did, it came at such a ridiculous scale!

“Losing confidence?”

Yu Jin noticed Carol’s expression.

“No, it’s not that!”

Carol shook her head without hesitation.

“Carol’s faith in my Lord is more unwavering than the light of the stars!”

“Carol’s just concerned…”

“Such a battle might bring unnecessary losses to Dawn Fortress…”

Carol was tactful in her words, but Yu Jin still understood what she meant.

Yu Jin smiled faintly at her words.

“Losses?”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“If they can reinforce, why can’t we?”

Once he said this,

Carol was dumbstruck.

There was a look of confusion and daze on her face.

As Yu Jin’s personally appointed Commander-in-Chief of War, she was intimately familiar with the current military power of Dawn Fortress.

Reinforcements?

Where would we get them?

Carol couldn’t figure it out, so she just waited quietly for the Lord’s answer.

Yu Jin said nothing—he only willed it with his mind.

Shua—

Before him appeared the translucent panel of the “Wasteland” game.

Dawn Fortress’s current military power, aside from those air-dropped from the High Dimension, all the other fortresses and battleships were rewards from the ’Civilization Hunter’ achievement.

But…

The rewards didn’t end there.

The war in the outer reaches of the P-8808 Star Realm had brought Yu Jin a downright astronomical string of Civilization Source Points.

And Civilization Source Points are the universal currency of the Star System Wasteland Server.

For all the major civilizations—or really, for every civilization force—be it warships or fortresses, they all spend Source Points to purchase them from the “Wasteland” shop.

Yu Jin hadn’t bought any before, simply because there was no need—the fortress battleships from the Civilization Hunter achievement hadn’t even been fully processed yet, and right now Dawn Fortress was busily running commander selection tests, after all.

But now?

Since Carol said the enemy’s reinforcing,

Yu Jin now had good reason to get a little pay-to-win shopping spree going.

“Let me see…”

“How should I use up these tens or even hundreds of billions of Points to maximum effect?”

Yu Jin muttered, gazing over the dazzling array of goods on the panel.

Mechas, spaceships, warships, fortresses…

Anything you could want in the Star System Wasteland Server, it’s all here.

“Buy!”

“Let’s start with ten—no, twenty super large fortresses!”

Yu Jin waved his hand broadly and started splurging madly in the “Wasteland” shop.

And to avoid tipping the enemy off, Yu Jin didn’t immediately accept these new purchases.

He only opened up the information privilege to Carol, so she could do a better job with planning in the final stretch before the war began.

Precisely because of this,

Carol was completely stunned.

“Th-this…”

In her mind, crisp mechanical prompts were ringing out one after another.

[Your civilization force has purchased ’Super Large Interstellar Fortress *1’!]

[Your civilization force has purchased ’Super Large Interstellar Battleship *1’!]

[Your civilization force has purchased ’Automated Combat Mecha Swarm (High Level) *1’!]

[…]

The notifications just kept coming,

and once they began, they barely ever stopped…

…

…

While Yu Jin was busy burning through Source Points, buying battleships and fortresses…

In the “Griffith-1” Star System Wasteland Server, which had the same standing as Drake-3 Star System Wasteland but was separated by a dimensional gulf—

Athena’s High-Dimensional fleet had already been docked for over three days.

Three days—a blink of an eye.

For most civilization forces, even the top-ranked one, there’s no chance to traverse an entire Wasteland Star System in three days.

But…

Athena’s fleet managed it.

Not just because she and her fleet were from the High Dimension, but also because the “Griffith-1” server belonged to the Ophelia Federation.

The Federation itself had partial rule privileges over the server.

Just like now,

Even before Athena’s fleet made their formal arrival, Arthur had already waved the Federation’s wand, modifying “Griffith-1” server’s rules in some respects.

One of them—

High-Dimensional warships may now break through the original server’s limits on detection/shuttle/energy.

Because of this,

After only three days, Athena’s enormous fleet had basically turned the “Griffith-1” server inside out.

Every star system group, every star realm, every planet,

Not a single one escaped her net.

But…

The results were disappointing.

“He’s not here.”

Athena gazed at the endless starry sky before her and murmured softly.

“Since that’s the case, then…”

“Next stop.”

Looking at the dazzling starry sky ahead, Athena’s heart didn’t stir the slightest.

Sometime along the way,

The only thing that could shake her heart—shake it violently—was that man.

“Father reminded me…”

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

“This low-dimensional journey got green-lit by the council in large part because of ’Han Ling’.”

“Han Ling, descendant of the Divine Bloodline, currently in the Drake-3 Star System Wasteland Server…”

“By rights, he should be part of my itinerary this time as well.”

Athena recalled her father’s previous reminders.

But compared to Yu Jin, the name Han Ling meant nothing to her.

In fact…

She had no plans to visit the ’Drake-3’ Star System Wasteland Server where he was.

She wasn’t very clear what kind of privilege or ability that descendant of the Divine Bloodline might have, but even if he’s powerful—could he outshine Yu Jin?

This was a man who, all by himself, could destroy a Level IV Star Domain Battleship—a true monstrous breed!

“Miss Athena!”

“Federation privileges acquired!”

“Ascension channel about to open!”

“We need to return to Federation space for now, then pick another low-dimensional server to descend into next…”

Behind Athena, her charming, sweet-faced maid spoke respectfully.

“Mm.”

Athena gave a faint response.

Before long,

Wumm—

Wumm wumm—!

Within the “Griffith-1” Star System Wasteland Server, countless players—especially high-ranked civilization Lords—looked up in awe.

In the void, a blinding, radiant ascension channel emerged.

At the other end of the passage was the High Dimension, a world every player—even the number one player—dreamed of reaching…

Swoosh—

Swoosh swoosh—!

One after another, warships entered the channel.

The whole process didn’t last long.

Soon enough,

When the starry sky returned to tranquility, only those shaken to their core—those even more desperate for the High Dimension—remained amid the great civilization players’ hopes…

They didn’t know why this high-dimensional figure had come.

All they knew was—

Above the star systems, that world must be even more vast and spectacular than the Star System Wasteland Server…