The gathering team that was under attack was the one accompanied by Lorelei...
Caleb paused for a moment as he looked at the words 'Supreme Ruler' floating on the panel. Just as he was about to take Mewtwo with him to settle the score, he saw the information on the panel change:
[Beep! Support character 'Lorelei' has successfully repelled the enemy forces!]
"So fast?" Caleb was a bit taken aback.
But then he thought about it; it was still the very beginning of the game, and everyone was on their first day. Aside from their own six Pokémon, players probably hadn't recruited many Pokémon soldiers yet.
And who was Lorelei? She was the Ice-type Elite Four member of the Kanto League. Her strength was top-tier even within the Infinite World.
Unless she was unlucky enough to run into a player ranked at the very top of the leaderboard, those lower-ranked players were probably no different from rookie trainers from the Kanto League to her.
Having been in the Infinite World for so long, Caleb had a rough understanding of the leaderboard. The so-called player leaderboard was highly fluid. The top spot couldn't always be held by the same person... there would always be players who achieved their goal and saved enough points to buy a residency ticket into the Pokémon world.
Once they left, their names would automatically disappear from the leaderboard. Yuna was a prime example...
Seeing that Lorelei had already dealt with the enemy, Caleb shifted his attention away and back to using his ability to obtain food resource units. Recruiting the Pidgeys and Rattatas had already cost 200 units, leaving him with 150 food units.
He opened the construction panel and directly spent 50 wood resources to build five farm plots.
The construction time for farm plots was very short compared to the barracks. With three Pokémon residents working together, it only took five minutes to cultivate one plot.
The Onix, Tauros, and Bellossom that had returned early received the command and went to the area Caleb designated, then started tilling the ground.
Caleb watched for a while, then retreated under a large tree to play Gwent with Lucario and Mewtwo...
...
By the time the fourth farm plot was finished, the two Machamps sent to gather wood resources returned to the territory with 300 units of wood resources...
Lorelei walked ahead of them, a faint smile on her lips as she looked at Caleb.
"Someone just tried to steal your stuff." She said.
Caleb put down the Gwent cards in his hand, opened the construction panel to send these two Machamps to continue building the lumberyard, stood up, and said, "I know. You already successfully drove them off."
Lorelei raised an eyebrow and asked, "Should we fight?"
Caleb was taken aback, asking, "Fight what?"
"What do you think?" Lorelei deadpanned.
Caleb: "..."
'Alright, I get it...'
"Do you know their location?" The map hadn't been unlocked yet; it was all shrouded in fog. He couldn't pinpoint the exact location of the territory called Supreme Ruler.
Lorelei smiled and said, "Of course."
She looked up, and soon, a Delibird flapped its wings and flew over from the distance, landing beside Lorelei.
'Hah! It seems lik she was already prepared.' Caleb was curious to know what that player on the other side had done to make Lorelei so proactive about counterattacking.
Thinking this, he curiously asked.
Lorelei seemed to recall some unpleasant memories... Her face darkened for an instant, "That's not important. What's important is that they've already bullied their way to your doorstep now!"
"Okay..."
He said no more, turned around, went to the already constructed farm plots, used the Flower Planter title to extract 500 food resources, then recruited 250 Rattatas and 250 Pidgeys from the barracks.
After making preparations, he returned to Lorelei, bringing along the massive army of Rattatas and Pidgeys, and said, "Shall we go?"
Now it was Lorelei's turn to be speechless. She glanced somewhat hesitantly at the dense black shadows above and asked, "Is such a massive show of force really necessary? I think teaching him a slight lesson would be enough..."
Even though he knew the other party's actual strength might not be great, Caleb still pointed out, "What if that person has some hidden trump card?"
He never initiated unprepared battles.
Lorelei opened her mouth, but upon hearing this, she found herself at a loss for words.
"Being cautious isn't a bad thing," Caleb said.
"Alright." Seeing this, Lorelei had the Delibird lead the way...
...
Meanwhile, in the territory of Supreme Ruler, a young man with dyed red hair was sitting on a wooden stump, browsing the territory interface on his panel.
His name was Roi Puissant, ranked over twenty thousand on the player leaderboard. A few hours ago, he had taken his Pokémon and residents out to scout for resource units, never expecting to run into Lorelei from the Pokémon-verse.
"Could it be that NPCs from the Pokémon world can also act as lords and play the game alongside players in this Instance?"
Roi was puzzled, so the first thing he did upon returning to his territory was to look up the specific introduction for this event.
But he found nothing...
And just then, he heard a rumbling sound coming from outside the territory, as if a large army was advancing.
Roi was stunned. The moment he looked up, he saw a mass dense black shadows flying overhead.
Immediately after, a series of emergency notification sounds rang out.
"What just happened?" Before Roi could even process it, he received prompt after prompt about buildings being destroyed:
[Beep! Your territory is under attack! The attacker is territory 'Unnamed'!]
[Beep! Resident housing is under attack! Durability is rapidly decreasing!]
[Beep! Durability reached 0! Resident housing has been destroyed!]
[Beep! Barracks are under attack! Durability is rapidly decreasing!]
[Beep! Durability reached 0! Barracks have been destroyed!]
The durability of Level 1 buildings was mostly around 250. It only took a few attacks for them to be destroyed.
And if all the buildings within a territory were destroyed, that territory would be completely desolate.
In this game, there were two ways to eliminate a player...
The first was to occupy the other party's Lord's Hall. This method was relatively gentle, and allowed one to obtain all the stored resource points from the other party's warehouse.
The second was to destroy all the buildings within the other party's territory, completely disabling the territory. However, this method yielded no resources from the enemy.
Remembering this, a cold sweat instantly broke out on Roi's back...
He quickly released his six Pokémon from their Poké Balls, wanting to fight back. However, the moment his Pokémon emerged from their Poké Balls, a vast ocean of intangible psychic power surged forward.
Immediately after, a blue glow appeared around the six Pokémon. That was Psychic!
Roi's eyes widened. Just then, the swarm of Rattatas and Pidgeys that had invaded the territory stopped in front of the last resident housing. They stood completely still, as if obeying some command.
In the midst of this eerie scene, a Mewtwo slowly descended from high above...