It didn’t take long for the truth to spread among everyone who had arrived there alongside him, over a billion people from Earth had been thrown into this unfamiliar world and turned into “Lords,” each person receiving a territory of their own, expected to expand, survive, and compete against everyone else before they were swallowed by monsters, war, or starvation.
Nobody cared what your life used to be back on Earth, because in this world strength decided everything almost immediately.
Some territories were lucky enough to appear near rivers, resources, or defensible terrain, while others were practically death traps from the start. Lords began attacking each other early for supplies and land, alliances formed out of desperation rather than trust, and every passing day made it clearer that this was less a fresh start and more a brutal selection process.
Compared to many others, Leo Ray’s beginning was honestly unimpressive, his village was small, his villagers weak, and even gathering enough food became stressful once nearby monsters started wandering close to the territory at night.
Then he awakened his talent, [Golden Touch.]
At first, Leo Ray didn’t fully realize how abnormal the ability actually was, upgrading items and duplicating resources sounded useful, but not world-shattering. That opinion changed quickly once ordinary equipment began turning into high-grade weapons, low-tier recruitment orders transformed into elite summons, and resources multiplied faster than other Lords could gather them manually.
While most people were still struggling to reinforce wooden walls or survive monster attacks, Leo Ray had already started quietly building something much larger behind the scenes.
The strange thing was that he rarely acted recklessly despite his rapid growth, instead of chasing attention, he stockpiled supplies, controlled trade, recruited talented subordinates, and expanded carefully enough that many people failed to realize how dangerous he had become until world announcements started repeatedly displaying his name.
The first Lord to upgrade a Mansion.
The first Lord to eliminate a regional boss.
The first Lord to conquer a city.
By the time people truly noticed him, Leo Ray’s territory had already grown beyond the scale of an ordinary village.
And the deeper he explored this world, the more unsettling certain things became, ancient ruins were beginning to awaken, powerful races hidden beyond human lands were starting to move again, and some parts of this world looked less like naturally formed kingdoms and more like the remains of something that had already collapsed once before.
