Rise of the Zerg in the World of Gods

Returning home, Xu Luo continued to immerse himself in the arena, training his combat abilities.

After all, his personal strength was still lacking a bit.

If it was just invading others, there was nothing to say; he could simply command his Zerg army to attack.

But for competitions, the combat power of the God's body was also factored in.

In point matches, if others chose to engage in a battle of Demi-Gods, like experts such as Li Dong, he truly couldn't win.

Although the strength of one's Demi-God had to be cultivated personally, there were still some ways to speed up this process.

For example, various heavenly treasures could increase training efficiency.

Celestial spirit stones and magic stones were not only energy sources but also supreme aids for cultivation.

There were also various skills. Although one had to learn them personally, one could purchase skill books, scrolls, and the like to deepen one's understanding, observe how others cultivate and fight.

This could quickly bring one to a certain level, but such methods were very expensive.

Even people from wealthy families wouldn't choose this method.

Cultivation wasn't something with immediate effects; it had to be done gradually. Using various tools could only accelerate this process.

Xu Luo naturally didn't do such extravagant things.

He simply possessed Zerg, personally experiencing their battle processes and feeling the release of various skills.

Although experiencing the skills of his units wouldn't allow him to learn their abilities, it could deepen his impression and reduce the difficulty when he cultivated.

After all, he had many units, and his advantage was that their faith was consistently at a fanatical level.

Others who wanted to use this method would first have to be willing to spend, and secondly, they'd need to see if they had a large number of fanatics to squander.

Time passed very quickly during cultivation, and before he knew it, evening had arrived.

No longer eating the unpalatable toothpaste-like nutritional substance, Xu Luo was no longer so tight on money and had slightly improved his living conditions.

Although he couldn't afford to eat meat or natural food at every meal, he could afford synthetic meat and grains.

Despite not tasting so good, it was still better than those nutritional substances.

Those nutritional substances were dry, tasteless, and unpalatable, costing over 100 credit points a month.

Synthetic food was more expensive, costing over 1,000 to eat at every meal, which ordinary people truly couldn't afford.

In this background of massive unemployment, many people only had a few hundred in wages per month, or couldn't even find work, having to rely on relief funds distributed by the federal government. Being able to afford synthetic food was already very luxurious.

As for natural food?

Forget about it.

One meal could deplete an ordinary person's monthly salary, or even not be enough.

Not wanting to eat synthetic food, Xu Luo unusually ordered a portion of barbecue, along with a bottle of soda and a bowl of rice.

It was a way to reward himself.

Since coming to this world, apart from eating a feast at the Wang family's place last time, Xu Luo hadn't really eaten well.

It was all tears when talking about it!

Sometimes thinking about it really brought shame to transmigrators.

A transmigrator might not be punching celestial gods or stepping on true gods, but to not even be able to afford normal meals?

However, after evolving the Leviathan, when there wasn't such a high demand for faith power, Xu Luo decided that he would definitely exchange some faith power for credit points to improve his diet.

Continuing like this, his development would definitely be affected.

How could he grow taller eating junk food at just fifteen years old?

As for the money from his parents?

It was actually not a little, several thousand every month. Xu Luo felt this was money they earned risking their lives exploring space, so he naturally didn't want to squander it.

Previously, his predecessor had saved the money, only using it for rent, utilities, property management, and the like, being quite frugal otherwise.

Xu Luo also kept it saved without touching it.

To live a good life, one naturally had to rely on oneself.

Now that he had become a seed, the education department actually provided some credit point subsidies, which definitely improved his living standards.

However, the first month's credit point subsidy was used by Xu Luo to buy some equipment, such as a specially built personal arena to assist in improving his Demi-God strength in God's Domain. Therefore, he temporarily didn't have much money, which was why he needed to consider exchanging faith power.

Eating rice with barbecue, along with the familiar taste of carbohydrates, Xu Luo was moved to tears.

It had been several months, and he finally tasted familiar flavors again!

Damn this era's background, even soda had become a luxury item.

[You have a communication from God's Domain.]

 

However, at this moment, his personal assistant's prompt sounded.

Xu Luo frowned slightly.

Not directly using his contact method but coming from God's Domain meant that person didn't know him, or at least didn't know his real-world contact information. Those who would do this should only be those "underlings" he had taken in.

Although he didn't know what it was about, he had just finished eating and drinking and had nothing to do, so he decided to listen to what the other party had to say. If they wanted to ask for his help, he could earn some extra money.

After tidying up the trash and throwing it in the garbage bin, Xu Luo lay down in the game pod and entered his Divine Domain.

Seeing the communication request prompt, he casually opened it.

What he saw was a figure resembling a giant flea.

"Number One, what's the matter?" Xu Luo didn't reveal his true appearance but possessed a Zerg to communicate with the other party.

"Boss, I'm here to pay the protection fee!" Number One, the first alien race Xu Luo had taken in for "protection," was still a bit afraid when facing Xu Luo.

"What protection fee? This is normal task remuneration for the protection I provide," Xu Luo corrected the other party's words.

"Yes, yes, yes!" The alien nodded quickly, without any objection.

He showed Xu Luo a screenshot of his income during this period, then prepared to exchange faith power for faith crystals to send over.

Gods in God's Domain also had trade dealings; transmitting some things, as long as they weren't too large or numerous, wouldn't cost much within the same star region.

"It's not the agreed time yet, is it?" Xu Luo spoke calmly.

The agreement was to settle once a month in real time. Now only a few days had passed, and the other party was eagerly sending protection fees over. No matter how you looked at it, there was a problem.

"I just wanted to send it over early to show the boss my sincerity!" This alien from the Mercury civilization smiled ingratiatingly.

It was quite a feat for him to make such an expression with a flea-like appearance.

"Oh, I see. That's thoughtful. If there's nothing else, then that's it." Xu Luo said indifferently, casually receiving the faith crystals sent over from the other side.

"No, no, boss, I have something, I really do!" Seeing Xu Luo say this, the Mercury civilization alien named "Bukaduo" quickly spoke up.

"Tell me, who did you invade and couldn't beat?" Xu Luo had said before that these "underlings" could ask him for help if they couldn't beat someone when invading.

Now that Bukaduo had come to him, it should be such a situation.

"No, no, I didn't invade anyone," Bukaduo shook his head like a rattle drum.

He was self-aware, knowing his strength was ordinary and he had no ability to invade others. Instead, he had introduced several fellow species members who, like him, were weak and usually bullied, to actively join the Umbrella group.

Apart from actively invading others for additional income, introducing others also came with rewards.

However, invading others meant that if you conquered them, they would become your downline, providing continuous additional income.

Introducing others would get a one-time reward from Xu Luo, but correspondingly, there was no risk, no need to bear the loss of units or the risk of not being able to beat others.

"Then what do you want?" Xu Luo was puzzled. If not to fight others, why did he come to him?

"Boss, your expedition quota selection has also started, right?" Bukaduo didn't answer directly, but first asked a question.

"It's the same time for everyone, what's strange about that?" Various civilizations were selecting quotas for expeditions, choosing the most powerful geniuses to compete with other civilizations.

"Well, I never thought about directly becoming an expedition candidate, but in the early stages, having a certain ranking also comes with rewards," Bukaduo said embarrassedly.

"It's the same for everyone, what about it? But I can't influence your selection, I can't help you with this." The Mercury civilization was a level three civilization with two Main Gods overseeing it, much stronger than humans. No matter how arrogant Xu Luo was, he wouldn't think he could handle them.

"No, boss, you can!" Bukaduo said confidently.

"You can interfere with the progress of the competition."

"Oh?" Xu Luo was puzzled.

How did he not know he had this ability?

"Boss, during the competition, everything is projected based on one's own Divine Domain, so the state of one's Divine Domain greatly affects their performance in the competition."

"I can't make you stronger... Wait a minute!" Xu Luo suddenly realized, this guy was quite crafty!

"You want me to strike at your competitors?"

Although he couldn't make Bukaduo stronger, he could make his opponents weaker!

"Yes, yes, that's right!" Bukaduo nodded excitedly. This was the reason he came to find Xu Luo.

He was self-aware that with his current strength, he had no ability to stand out among the many competitors, so he could only find another way. Luckily, among the people he knew, there was a powerful existence like Xu Luo.

More importantly, now that his Divine Domain's aura was known to the other party, he was already the other's underling. Shouldn't he find the boss when there's a problem?

"But there are so many people in the Mercury civilization, and I don't know who your opponents are. How can I help you?" Xu Luo frowned.

There were so many participants, he couldn't possibly wipe out all the new generation of the Mercury civilization.

Not to mention whether he had the ability to do so, if he really did that, without a doubt, the Mercury civilization would go berserk and directly go to war with humans.

"Boss, boss, this problem can be solved, don't worry," Hearing that Xu Luo seemed reluctant to act, Bukaduo quickly explained.

"I know my opponent's name and roughly which star region he's in. I'll provide search cards and positioning cards. Knowing the specific identity, it shouldn't be too difficult to find. Boss just needs to beat him up, make him lose some troops, and I'll compensate for your losses."

Bukaduo quickly explained his thoughts, afraid that Xu Luo would refuse because it seemed troublesome.

"Just beat him up, no need to destroy the Divine Domain?" Xu Luo hadn't expected this guy to be so crafty, but he didn't seem that vicious!

"No need, no need. If his Divine Domain is destroyed, I'll lose my opponent and might be assigned a new one. Beating him up is enough. His strength is greater than mine, but after a beating, he shouldn't be a match for me anymore."

"..." I thought too much, the clown turns out to be myself!

Xu Luo took back his previous thoughts. This guy was full of tricks, quite devious.

This was even more beneficial than directly destroying the opponent!

"Alright then!" There wasn't much danger, round-trip expenses covered, losses compensated, and he could gain another "protection" target. Why not?

Hearing Xu Luo accept this job, Bukaduo finally breathed a sigh of relief.

With this agreement, his promotion was basically secured.

After all, he was very clear about who he could beat and who he couldn't. Now with the boss as his trump card, he had a guarantee, an ace up his sleeve.

Without further ado, he quickly sent over the faith crystals he had prepared.

He understood clearly that the boss was principled and wanted to establish his own rules, so there was no forceful extortion. Otherwise, controlling their life and death, he could exploit them however he wanted.

Therefore, he didn't think about whether sending things in advance meant the boss might take the payment and not do the work.

If Xu Luo really wanted to do that, he couldn't resist anyway, so he might as well gamble on the boss's integrity.

Watching Bukaduo's figure disappear, Xu Luo's true form appeared in the Divine Domain.

"Quite thoughtful," Xu Luo shook his head and smiled.

This time, Bukaduo came not only to deliver things, and not just to ask him to deal with his competitors.

This time was actually testing the waters, probing Xu Luo.

To see how he would act afterwards, and adjust his attitude on how to deal with him.

Xu Luo wasn't disgusted by this, after all, it concerned his own vital interests, and anyone would be very cautious.

It was understandable for the other party to do this.

Anyway, he never intended to default from the beginning.

As for whether the other party would set a trap specifically waiting for him to take the bait, this was something he wasn't worried about. He was the invader, so the initiative would be in his hands. If the situation didn't seem right, he would disconnect and move his Divine Domain, not giving the other party any chance.

He had prepared many things now.

Apart from regular relocation cards, he also had things like point-to-point teleportation that could move the Divine Domain during battle.

After all, having become the "Umbrella," who knew how many people he would offend in the future. If these things weren't prepared in advance, he wouldn't know if others came knocking at his door.

Xu Luo didn't want to be unknowingly surrounded and attacked.