I want to eat rice. I miss it so much that at this point, I would be willing to trade a weapon or two for a small bag. Actually, maybe that's too far. 

Finding rice was one of the top priorities for the espionage units. 

But with the food market prices going high and the quantities low, it was very unlikely we would find any at the moment. I remembered that I was searching for a purpose in this life, and I think I just found it. 

I had to focus on other things to keep my crippling rice addiction at bay. Our clean up went exceptionally well. The hunting group showed us what parts of the monsters were valuable, and we buried the rest in a large pit near this small tree that was still growing. 

Several tonnes of supplies were being dropped off at Lord Houdart's, the lord's name I finally learnt. We had planned to meet and properly discuss our terms; I feel like the meeting will go smoothly. But for now, I had about a hundred units stationed there. 

You might have wondered why Lord Houdart's people couldn't just eat the edible monsters to prevent starvation? Most of them didn't know which monsters were edible and which ones were poisons. But the main reason was that they all believed that eating the monster's meat during the apocalypse would make you psychotic. But of course, it didn't. 

Our next and final business was...of course, upgrades. With the final rewards, I could summon weapons before 1980. That didn't mean I would replace every single thing we had already. 

The FAL would remain the standard gun, but I won't be making any more of them. I plan to slowly replace a few with the M16 and HK33.

In terms of new types of vehicles, twenty M1 Abrams tanks, twenty of the Bell AH-1 SuperCobra attack helicopters, and ten M109 Howitzer were made.

I finally built that underground area, where all our top-secret things will be done. There were three reinforced steel doors; in order, there was a facial, voice, and hand recognition device. Of course, the units do not have to use anything; apparently, my creations can recognise each other.

I moved the giant dragon fang down there to complete experiments in secret. I left a useless big of metal, painted matte black, in its place. I have no idea why, but I had a feeling that it might be helpful in the future. 

Now, all we had to do was wait. Wait for the Empire to realise that they had been betrayed and an enemy was growing in their backyard.

Their army has been exhausted; it would be difficult for them to attack us. In terms of their technology, it was around the middle ages. But one thing that bothered me was that magic was also at play, something we do not know much about.

Next on my agenda was an announcement to the people. I told them that the monsters were successfully repelled and our alliance with a nearby lord. I mentioned that the Empire might attack us, but it would seem that people had faith in our weapons and defensive capabilities, as none of them looked worried. 

I also had a private talk with the elves about magic. They said things like magic weapons and armour exist; however, most of them were low-grade ones. There are only limited amounts of high-grade magic tools, but they were considered artefacts. 

Anyways, they chose to stay. The elves wanted to repay me for saving their lives, and apparently, the metal bows that we made them were a big hit. But that was expected for these incredible archers to be in love with these bows. I remember seeing one of the elves calling his bow name whilst he cleaned it. 

And that was all I needed to do....at the base. Our new potential ally, which I'm confident will join us, is still having its struggles. Houdart's private army had to be disbanded since he could not afford to pay their wages and replace or repair damaged equipment. 

The money they used was gold, silver, and then copper, the classic isekai currency. A hundred coppers were one silver whilst a hundred silvers were one gold coin. The average price for a loaf of bread was only fifteen coppers; inflation has increased to a silver coin. 

I plan to set up some drills in his territory and give him a share of the profits. Things like gold weren't really that valuable to me except for electronics and stuff like that. And I really want to remove some of the gold so that Ayumi can't use them. 

Want to know why? After the golden office surprise, Ayumi secretly ordered the workshop to produce golden 1:1 statues and mini-figures of me. Thankfully I found out before mass production began. There was one 1:1 and four mini statues of me, which we plan to turn back into gold ingots. 

But of course, this world uses them as a currency, and I had tons of gold mined from the several mining drills making me extremely wealthy in their eyes. 

To help Houdart, I plan to give him a lot of gold and say it was a welcoming gift. With his reputation, he should have many other trustworthy friends who will seek to join us after hearing about the gold and help he has received. 

The Empire would lose even power even if they were minor lords. But I couldn't just stop there. If my plan succeeds, which I'm hundred per cent sure would, many other countries around us will gladly attack us to take over the Empire's land.

But for now, I will focus on fighting the Empire....and finding rice.