Chapter 477 – Dark Star

Star Lake City, Star Lake Training Center:

Twenty virtual gaming cabins were neatly lined in a row in a spacious lounge the size of two basketball courts. Following a hissing sound, the door of one of the cabins slowly opened.

Why are there so many people here?

When Shi Feng emerged from the gaming cabin, he was surprised to see all the occupied gaming cabins around him.

The Star Lake Training Center’s gaming cabins were reserved for the city legion’s participants. Although some participants would use these cabins for duels from time to time, they would never use them to access God’s Domain long-term.

The reason for this was safety concerns. While the training center had guards stationed in it, because it wasn’t private property, anyone who wasn’t explicitly banned by the city could visit the establishment. As a result, it wasn’t out of the question for assassinations to happen.

Shi Feng had heard of many such instances during his previous life. For the sake of winning in city battles, some cities would send spies to infiltrate their opponents’ public training centers and incapacitate key participants in one way or another.

Hence, few participants would access God’s Domain via a public training center’s gaming cabins long-term. Some cities even forbade their city legion’s participants from doing so.

After looking around, Shi Feng was surprised to find Hidden Soul among these cabins. He had thought she would have long returned to the God’s Domain Association by now, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

However, before Shi Feng could ponder why Hidden Soul was still logged into God’s Domain, a man and a security robot approached him.

These security robots were strong enough to single-handedly subdue two-star mental strength grandmasters and below. Two of them working together could even keep a three-star grandmaster pinned for a short time. They were effectively the strongest defensive force in the various cities.

Many corporations and powers coveted these security robots and hoped to have several of them guarding their main headquarters. Unfortunately, these technological products were the various cities’ core assets, and no city would sell its security robots. Only a few powerful conglomerates would put a few up for auction from time to time. Moreover, the currency used to bid for these machines was not Star Coins but God’s Domain’s Legendary items or items of equal value.

“Vice Commander Shi Feng, by order of the City Lord and Legion Commander, everyone who comes out of the lounge’s gaming cabins must leave the lounge right away,” the man patiently explained to Shi Feng. “So, please leave the lounge now.”

“Was this order issued because many people were forced to enter the game?” Shi Feng asked out of curiosity.

He was forced to enter God’s Domain because of the Eternal Realm, but he found it hard to believe that this many people in Star Lake City had entered the Eternal Realm as well.

“Yes, there are quite a lot. It’s not just the people in this training center. Many people across the city have been forced to log into God’s Domain as well,” the man said, nodding. “However, from the information we’ve gathered thus far, we only know that this situation is related to the newly emerged Eternal Realm; we still don’t know about the specifics.”

It’s related to the Eternal Realm? Hearing the man’s words, Shi Feng suddenly recalled Death Omen and Thousand Scars, two people who logically shouldn’t have appeared in the current Eternal Realm. Could Soul and Snow be in the Eternal Realm as well?

Earlier, Shi Feng had checked his friends list and saw that he could contact neither Hidden Soul nor Gentle Snow. Evidently, both were in a state where they couldn’t be contacted in God’s Domain. Combined with what he had just learned, there was a 90% chance that the two had somehow found themselves in the Eternal Realm as well.

The current Eternal Realm was in a state where players couldn’t contact those outside the Eternal Realm. Even in the Eternal Realm, if two players were not within a certain range, they would not be able to contact each other.

“Please leave this place quickly, Vice Commander Shi Feng,” the man repeated when he saw Shi Feng suddenly falling silent.

After taking another look at Hidden Soul, Shi Feng promptly made his way out of the lounge.

He had no way of contacting Hidden Soul in her current state. The only thing he could do was wait until Hidden Soul exited the gaming cabin. Fortunately, he wouldn’t have to worry about her safety seeing as the city had already dispatched security robots to guard the lounge’s entrance. After all, not just any power would be willing to send their three-star grandmasters to conduct an assassination.

Meanwhile, after stepping out of the lounge, Shi Feng began inspecting the messages on his quantum watch.

There was nothing he could do about Hidden Soul and Gentle Snow entering the Eternal Realm. However, it wasn’t exactly a bad thing for the two to be in the current Eternal Realm.

While the Eternal Realm was indeed filled with dangers, these dangers also came with the best opportunities available in the Greater God’s Domain.

Both Hidden Soul and Gentle Snow possessed incredible talent. Shi Feng had seen it firsthand during his previous life. If the two could safely grow in the Eternal Realm, they could be of massive help to him in the future. After all, God’s Domain wasn’t a single-player game.

Why are there so many messages? Shi Feng couldn’t help but be astonished when he saw that he had over a hundred unread messages.

Most of these messages were from people applying to join Zero Wing’s battle group. There were also some messages sent by the representatives of Star Lake City’s corporations and powerful families, and these people requested to purchase city contribution points from him using Star Coins.

Apparently, in just two short days, the exchange rate of Star Lake City’s contribution points had increased from 1:25 to 1:30. This was an unprecedented high in Star Lake City.

However, setting aside whether he even had any contribution points right now, even if he did have some, he had no intentions of humoring these requests. After all, city contribution points were of great importance to him. Not to mention, he had just made 200 million Star Coins off of Frey, so he had no reason to exchange his points for Star Coins.

…

Shortly after Shi Feng stepped out of the Star Lake Training Center, he saw an urgent message Xia Qingying sent him a day ago.

An invitation to the Dark Star? The content of Xia Qingying’s message surprised Shi Feng.

There were only a very small number of apex powers in the Greater God’s Domain. Meanwhile, out of these apex powers, the Eternal Chamber of Commerce was an incredibly special entity. It could even be considered somewhat of a transcendental existence.

This was because the Eternal Chamber of Commerce only did business in God’s Domain. Moreover, its business empire was beyond massive. For the sake of expanding its business empire, it had even gone out of its way to construct a satellite in the Darkness Plane to let God’s Domain’s players conduct various transactions there. Meanwhile, the satellite’s name was Dark Star.

The way players could access the Dark Star was by invitation. So long as players had an invitation from the Eternal Chamber of Commerce, they could use the virtual gaming cabin to project a phantom of themselves directly onto the Dark Star.

However, an invitation merely allowed players to visit the Dark Star. If players wanted the right to trade on the Dark Star, they would also need to pass the Eternal Chamber of Commerce’s test.

Xia Qingying was currently trying to pass the Chamber of Commerce’s test, and she hoped that he, or more specifically, Zero Wing’s Guild Leader Black Flame, could make good on their previous agreement to provide her with assistance when needed. Meanwhile, Xia Qingying’s request was that Black Flame could become one of her foreign aids for the test.

…

God’s Domain, Dark Star:

The Dark Star was a Moon-sized satellite floating in the void. Meanwhile, erected on this satellite was a majestic city.

Currently, over a thousand players were lined up outside the city, waiting to enter it. Outside of the Dark Star, these players were of varying levels and tiers. However, upon setting foot on the Dark Star, all of them were either elevated or suppressed to Level 120, Tier 4.

Standing in the corner of the city gate was a group of one man and two women. Of the two women, one was a beautiful and intelligent-looking Cleric who was constantly looking at the time displayed on her wrist, her face looking gloomy and anxious as she watched the seconds go by. Meanwhile, this woman was none other than Xia Qingying’s in-game character.

Why isn’t he here yet?

When Xia Qingying saw that there were less than ten minutes left before the test began, she couldn’t help but look around in search of the person she had not seen in a long time.

…

TL Notes:

I do not know if the Darkness Plane mentioned here is connected to the one mentioned in the main story in any way. It could be an entirely different thing.