Chapter 1

"Respected Lord of the City, please quickly build the defense towers. The monster army has already gathered and will attack in sixty minutes..."

The system prompt sounded in his ear.

"Don't panic, don't panic!"

Li Hanqiang calmly observed his surroundings.

As a [Chaos City Lord], Li Hanqiang knew this should be his Chaos City, but looking around, where was the city?

All he saw in his field of vision was a floating stone sphere, grayish-white in color, about one meter in diameter, slowly rotating.

There were no walls, no halls, and the ground was covered with rough stone slabs. No plants grew, and there was not a single person in sight.

Looking further, the land ended, and the void stretched endlessly in all directions. Stars dotted the space above and below, as if this was a small piece of ruins floating in the starry universe.

A huge black vortex stood in the distance.

"Is this my Chaos City? It's just a ruin, and monsters are coming to attack!" Li Hanqiang shook his head.

Today was the first day of the public beta test of the super online game [Endless World]. Li Hanqiang chose the [Chaos City Lord] profession.

According to the official information, every Chaos City Lord would receive a Chaos City at the start of the game. The Chaos City would be isolated in the Chaos Void, facing wave after wave of monster attacks. The Chaos City Lord could build towers for defense, issue defense tasks, and so on, to develop their own power in the Chaos Void and strive to dominate the Endless World.

In simple terms, the Chaos City Lord profession added tower defense elements to the traditional lord profession. Building various defense towers to withstand wave after wave of monster attacks was the primary task.

Only after that could they talk about recruiting troops and vying for supremacy.

Random defense rewards, endless unpredictable trigger events, and infinite wondrous buildings and items would ensure that each Chaos City would have a unique development path.

It could be said that the starting point of each Chaos City was the same, but whether it would develop into a bizarre and fantastic city, a city of swords and magic, or a city of steel and machinery, no one could predict.

Li Hanqiang was an unemployed wanderer. After his parents passed away, he inherited several properties and lived off the rent. With a lot of free time and no focus in life, he naturally became an online game enthusiast.

Before the public beta test of [Endless World], he had played several virtual online games, mostly choosing professions like warriors and mages.

Unfortunately, although he had a competitive spirit, his hands were clumsy, and his operations did not keep up. Years of gaming experience had made him realize: as an adventurer, he could only be mediocre and would never become a top expert!

This had nothing to do with spending money or grinding; it was a matter of mindset!

Smooth sailing leads to recklessness, and adversity leads to giving up—this described people like Li Hanqiang.

[Endless World] also had adventurer professions, and they were diverse. However, Li Hanqiang had a profound realization and looked down on them, choosing to become a Chaos City Lord to experience the thrill of strategic planning and vying for supremacy.

He did not expect the initial Chaos City to look like this.

"What kind of Chaos City Lord am I? I'm just the lord of ruins." Li Hanqiang sighed but quickly checked his attribute information.

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Nickname: Li Hanqiang (default is the player's real name, one chance to change the nickname)

Profession: Chaos City Lord (owns Chaos City No. 68)

Level: 1

Health: 100

Talent: To be unlocked

Skill [Invincible City Lord]: Special skill, cannot be upgraded. The Chaos City Lord is in a permanent invincible state within the Chaos City, immune to any skills and invulnerable to any damage. At the same time, the Chaos City Lord cannot cause any damage to invaders in the Chaos City.

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"Invincible City Lord! What a great skill, no need to worry about being ambushed!" Li Hanqiang sighed and opened his inventory, which contained only one scroll: [Blueprint for Basic Arrow Tower].

[Blueprint for Basic Arrow Tower: Exclusive item for Chaos City Lords. Using it allows the quick construction of a Basic Arrow Tower (Level 1 Defense Tower) on Chaos Stone Slabs. Attack power: 35-40, range: 200 meters, can fire two piercing crossbow bolts per second. The Basic Arrow Tower has a large upgrade potential (upgrades require upgrade scrolls or unlocking related technologies).]

Holding the blueprint, Li Hanqiang looked around.

The Basic Arrow Tower needed to be built on Chaos Stone Slabs, but what were Chaos Stone Slabs?

The game had just started, and everything needed to be explored. Li Hanqiang immediately set off to check things out.

The first thing he noticed was the floating stone sphere in front of him, named [Chaos Heart].

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Chaos Heart LV1: The core of the Chaos City, capable of drawing energy from the Chaos Void and storing it.

Current Chaos Energy: 100/100

Energy Collection Speed: 1 point per hour

Description: Upgrade the Chaos Heart to increase the Chaos Energy storage limit. The current upgrade requires 1000 gold coins.

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Clearly, the Chaos Heart was very important.

Li Hanqiang realized that, although it was called a monster attack, there was no city to defend. It was 100% about protecting the Chaos Heart.

Besides the [Chaos Heart], there were three other prominent things in this small ruin.

The first was the black vortex in the distance, labeled "Spacetime Wormhole," which was likely the entrance for the endless monsters to invade the Chaos City.

The second was a stone-paved road floating in the void, about two zhang wide, extending straight from the edge of the Spacetime Wormhole to the Chaos Heart.

This was the [War Corridor].

Li Hanqiang estimated that the total length of the War Corridor was about one kilometer.

At the edges of the War Corridor were some square platforms with a faint green glow, which were the [Chaos Stone Slabs].

Li Hanqiang counted them, and there were only five Chaos Stone Slabs, all on the same side of the War Corridor, near the midpoint, spaced only two to three meters apart, almost touching each other.

"Build towers, build towers!"

Li Hanqiang took action. He chose the middle Chaos Stone Slab, took out the [Blueprint for Arrow Tower], and threw it on the slab. A building over ten meters tall immediately appeared, perfectly covering the Chaos Stone Slab.

The building's shape was similar to an ancient Chinese octagonal tower, with three floors, towering and majestic, labeled "Basic Arrow Tower." At the top of the tower was a large automatic crossbow, which rotated, with long arrows already loaded.

As a defense tower, the Basic Arrow Tower had infinite arrows, automatic targeting, and automatic attacks, requiring no manual operation.

"Congratulations, player, you have successfully built the first defense tower. You can now issue a defense task and recruit adventurer players for support."

"System prompt: Before each wave of monster attacks, the Chaos City Lord can issue a defense task, which will appear on the Chaos Temple's task board for adventurer players to claim. The Chaos City Lord will receive a system announcement benefit for the first defense task issued."

"System prompt: Your Chaos City currently has 4 idle Chaos Stone Slabs, allowing up to four adventurer players to claim defense tasks."

"System prompt: Adventurer players need to hold a portal ticket to claim defense tasks. The price of a portal ticket is 1 gold coin per ticket, and the Chaos City Lord will receive 50 silver coins for each ticket purchased by an adventurer player. (Note: 1 gold = 100 silver)"

"System prompt: Please write the task announcement..."

Li Hanqiang touched his nose. Issuing a defense task was interesting. Adventurer players had to buy tickets to come and defend the city!

Wasn't this a paid task? Making adventurer players pay to defend the city?

The key was that for each ticket sold, the Chaos City Lord would receive 50 silver coins. Wasn't this a way to make money?

"Regardless, let's issue the task first!"