Realized Game: I Hoarded 10 Billion Defense Towers

「The next day」

After a good night’s sleep, Shen Fei woke up. The family ate breakfast together, after which Mrs. Shen left for her job as the community director. Because of his plans, Shen Fei had made sure to speak with his mother, asking her to help make some logistical arrangements in advance. Meanwhile, Father Shen, Shen Yue, Yu, and Li Xiaohong all stayed by Shen Fei’s side. During breakfast, he had announced he had big plans for the day, so everyone except for Mrs. Shen had stayed behind.

"Where’s Uncle Sun?" Shen Fei asked from the sofa, waiting to make his move.

"He’ll be here soon!" Sun Yu replied quickly. "He’s already picked up Wang Dapang and his crew!"

Yesterday, his big brother had agreed to Wang Dapang’s request to become Father Shen’s godson and meet with him. Sun Yu felt a sense of resignation toward Wang Dapang, a man older than himself who insisted on calling him "brother." However, Sun Yu had also seen the two incredible items—supposedly eyeballs—that Wang Dapang had gifted his big brother, as well as the dense host of over eighty thousand powerful Tiger and Leopard Cavalry he had inherited. Believing Wang Dapang would be useful to his big brother, Sun Yu maintained a very friendly attitude toward him.

"But Director Li Yunlong and Deputy Director Zhang Qiqiang from the Tourism Management Office are insisting on coming along, too," Sun Yu added.

"Fine! Let them come!" Hearing that the entire upper brass of the Qing City Tourism Management Office wanted to come over in a swarm, Shen Fei simply nodded in acceptance.

I’ve already finished inheriting the first ability. The battle for the Neutral City is about to begin, and many people are already aware of my existence. That being the case, it’s necessary to meet with these people! After all, no matter how strong he became, he was still human and had to live in this world.

"Alright!" Sun Yu quickly nodded and went to make the arrangements.

Afterward, as they waited for the group from the Tourism Management Office to arrive, they watched the news on television. Although tonight was the day for the second event—the first Inheritance—there wasn’t much coverage about it. All the news footage showed the sky.

Day had broken over Xia Country, and the shadow of a colossal city hanging in the sky was finally visible to everyone. The entire nation’s attention was captivated by the urban phantasm. Thanks to the National Treasure Divine Artifact, everyone already knew what it was.

An age of chaos had dawned. The old cities were no longer safe. Now, with the descent of special, gamified Neutral Cities, everyone hoped to find protection within them.

Since it was now daytime and some people had inherited farsight-like abilities, the city phantoms appearing over Xia Country’s territory had already been tallied. Across the nation’s landmass, which had expanded to five or six times its original size, a total of 1,080 Neutral Cities had appeared. Among them were 31 large cities, 100 medium-sized cities, and the rest were small cities. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Shen Fei remembered that in his past life, Xia Country had only managed to capture ten Neutral Cities. Of those, only one was a large city, which in hindsight seemed to have been a freebie. The rest were all small cities.

Of course, this wasn’t to say that Xia Country was weak. Most countries only received the one city gifted by the system’s rules. The fact that Xia Country managed to capture ten already placed it in the global top three.

The reason only nine of the smallest type were captured out of over a thousand cities was because Neutral Cities were simply too difficult to conquer.

Conquering a descending Neutral City was a two-stage process. The first stage was to attack the city while it was defended by monsters and NPCs. One had to kill the defenders, break through the high-HP city walls, and finally destroy the Heart of the City to claim ownership.

After that, the tables turned. The second stage switched from offense to defense. After claiming a Neutral City, one had to withstand an endless tide of monster attacks to prevent the newly acquired Heart of the City from being destroyed.

Only after completing both stages could one truly gain ownership of the Neutral City.

Although he had never entered a Neutral City in his past life, Shen Fei had heard that for even the lowest-level small city, the defensive forces in the first stage alone numbered 10,000,000. The attacking horde in the second stage, meanwhile, was ten times that number.

Bring it on! Let’s see just how tough you really are! Shen Fei thought, watching the city phantoms on the television.

Although he had decided he absolutely had to conquer a city, Shen Fei wasn’t going in blind. Not only did he lack any experience in attacking or defending a Neutral City, but the Neutral Cities had also descended several months earlier in this life. The overall strength of the players was dozens of times weaker now than it was at this point in his previous life.

Therefore, Shen Fei’s goal was to first secure a small city. If the enemy proved too strong, securing just one would be sufficient. But if he could handle the opposition, he would seek out more targets. He wasn’t being reckless.

"There are nine Neutral City phantoms within a 1,000-kilometer radius of Qing City," Shen Fei muttered, focusing his search on the surrounding Neutral Cities. "One is an Immortal-style city, one is a Western fantasy-style castle, one has a savage Beastman aesthetic, one is sci-fi themed..."

His targets had to be within that area. According to his memories from his past life, the final step after successfully defending a Neutral City was placement. One could freely reposition a successfully defended city, but the maximum range for this relocation was 1,000 kilometers. If he wanted to place the Neutral City near Qing City, then with Qing City as the center, his only viable targets were those descending within a 1,000-kilometer radius.

The Neutral Cities came in all shapes and sizes. Inherited from different games, they had various appearances depending on the style of their origin game. In fact, Shen Fei even saw one in the style of Adventure Island, with Stone Age-esque thatched huts.

For now, Shen Fei wasn’t picky about the style. First, I’ll just take one. I can’t be picky. While cities of different styles would inevitably synergize better with certain inherited game abilities, the primary task was to successfully conquer and then hold one. If I can’t defend it, any synergy is useless.

After watching the news for a while and seeing that Uncle Sun and his group still hadn’t arrived, Shen Fei turned and logged onto the internet. Without Uncle Sun, his plan couldn’t be set in motion.

WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH.

He logged into the new Forum, where the information was far more detailed than what was on television. All sorts of threads and images were flooding the platform.

"Holy crap! Everybody look at the outline of this city. Why the hell does it look like Orgrimmar, the Beastman capital from World of Warcraft?!"

"I’m in Wurumuqi in the northwest! Anyone want to team up and attack Orgrimmar!!!"

"Beastmen will never be slaves!!!"

The most popular thread was topped by the silhouette of a city in hues of red and yellow, with countless menacing spikes reaching for the sky. Besides the picture, the thread also contained a video of the colossal city slowly descending. It solidified as it came down, exuding an immense sense of pressure.

WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH.

He continued scrolling through the threads.

Shen Fei soon saw many famous game cities descending. For example, a ring-shaped, ice-covered city named "Beloborg," which had descended near Northeast Ha City. There was also a city named "Demacia," built entirely of white stone, which had descended in Hanpu City in the central region. Another was a city called "Hedonmar," which had already been identified, descending amidst the world-renowned peaks of Yangshuo.

There were countless famous cities, and they all had one thing in common: the Shields surrounding them were golden. These were all large cities.

In his past life, not a single large city had been captured by humanity. Not even a purple-tier, medium-sized city was taken. Only nine of the green-tier small cities had been captured by the people of Xia Country.

Shen Fei saw on the Forum that besides these golden cities in Xia Country, special golden cities had also descended in North America, Europe, and other regions.

All over the world, everyone’s attention was fixed on the massive cities as they slowly descended and solidified. Countless people were rubbing their hands together, eager to make their move. They could hardly wait!

"Bro! What’s the plan?! Which one are we going for?" Shen Yue asked, looking over his shoulder. Shen Fei was systematically browsing the threads, familiarizing himself with the information on the descended capital cities.

The news broadcast had already mentioned that the Neutral Cities could be conquered and that doing so came with many benefits. Watching her brother carefully study the information, Shen Yue knew what he was planning. After the events of the past seven days, she was convinced her brother was Invincible and naturally assumed he would conquer one of the descending cities. Moreover, she had complete confidence in her big bro and was certain he could conquer a city.

"Bro, how about this one?" Shen Yue couldn’t help but point to a thread showing a city that was gradually solidifying. It looked idyllic, like a pastoral town set amidst green mountains and clear waters, under blue skies and white clouds. Girls naturally liked these kinds of pretty cities.

"Not interested," Shen Fei said, rolling his eyes at his sister’s choice.

As far as he was concerned, conquering one city to have a fallback was the primary objective. But if he had the strength to spare and could be choosy, his ideal city would be a classic, ancient Xia Country-style fortress: square, stately, and exuding a heavy, solemn majesty.

Xia Country’s style was the most badass! The city’s perimeter would have walls, arrow towers, and crenelated battlements. Inside, there would be various districts and farmland. Beyond the moat, there could even be additional fields. That ancient Xia Country style was what Shen Fei personally preferred.

Shen Yue scoffed at her brother’s words. Of course, she also knew that with only her Traveling Frog—which she had already sent out—she didn’t have much of a say in the matter. When it came to conquering cities, she had no combat power to speak of.

"Bro! They’re here!" Just as Shen Yue was about to say more, Sun Yu suddenly called out.

Looking up, they saw Uncle Sun leading a group of people, filing in through the mist that had been parted since that morning.