Chapter 209 – Foundation Takes Shape

Miniature Ancient World, Hundred Flow City:

The Candlelight Hotel, which was brimming with Mana, used to be the most popular location in Hundred Flow City. Now, however, hardly any players could be seen in the hotel’s lobby.

Apart from those wearing Zero Wings’ Guild Emblem, the only other players in the lobby consisted of a group of 60 youngsters. If one paid close attention to these youngsters, one would realize that every one of them was an extraordinary individual.

Specifically, every one of them was a Refinement Realm expert. On top of that, every one of them had also reached Level 109 already. In the current Hundred Flow City, where the average level of players was only 107, these youngsters definitely ranked at the top in terms of levels. Not to mention, they were all fully equipped in Level 120 Epic Equipment.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this group of youngsters would be considered a formidable force in any NPC City. First-rate Guilds that had taken control over an entire city would even be fearful of these youngsters.

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Currently, though, it didn’t seem like these youngsters were here to rent a room in the Candlelight Hotel as most of them wore impatient looks on their faces.

At this time, a petite girl carrying a tower shield on her back looked at the callous young man standing at the head of the group and said exasperatedly, “Cloud, what is Elder Aqua thinking having peak geniuses like ourselves come to Zero Wing? Special training? Isn’t that a joke? The Flower of Seven Sins is currently targeting Zero Wing in all aspects. Even those who have dealings with Zero Wing are put on the Flower of Seven Sins’ hit list. Moreover, even non-members of the Flower of Seven Sins can get 1,000 Credits for every targeted player they kill. Not to mention, what kind of training can a Guild like Zero Wing possibly give us?”

“It’s basically a nice way of telling us to come and help Zero Wing!”

“I know, right? Everyone is avoiding Zero Wing like the plague right now. Nobody dares to have anything to do with Zero Wing. I heard that Zero Wing’s member count has even fallen below 5,000 already, and the ones remaining are mostly internal members on Zero Wing’s payroll,” a lanky young man said, nodding. “Zero Wing has so few members right now that it’s only limiting its operation to Abyssal Star City’s surroundings. It doesn’t even have the manpower to compete for the Team Dungeons near Hundred Flow City or hunt for Mounts in the primordial ruins. I bet that Zero Wing must be trying to get us to help it hunt for Mounts.”

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“I also guess that. They might make it sound like we are receiving training from Zero Wing on the surface, but we’ll actually be helping Zero Wing hunt for Mounts in reality. After all, the various powers have already begun exploring the Boundary Mountain Range’s surroundings after amassing a sufficient number of Mounts. I doubt Zero Wing even has even Mounts to form an expedition team right now,” a beautiful female Swordsman said, sighing. “We’ll definitely have to fight with the Flower of Seven Sins’ lunatics a lot from now on. I wonder how Zero Wing is going to compensate us? I spent nearly all of my GCPs to get this set of Epic Equipment. If there’s not going to be any compensation, I’m going to have to use Fine-Gold Equipment to replace any pieces that I lose.”

The other youths present nodded in agreement with the female Swordsman’s words. They couldn’t understand why the higher-ups in Twilight Echo had made such an arrangement for them. They even started to wonder if Zero Wing had offered some sort of astonishing deal to Twilight Echo.

It made sense when they thought about it. After all, while they might be Twilight Echo’s peak geniuses, they weren’t considered full-fledged members of Twilight Echo. Even if they fought for Zero Wing, the Flower of Seven Sins wouldn’t consider their participation as a hostile act by Twilight Echo.

However, while fighting against the Flower of Seven Sins could indeed be considered a type of training, if Zero Wing couldn’t compensate for their losses appropriately, none of them would be willing to fight for Zero Wing. After all, Epic Weapons and Equipment were incredibly rare and valuable in the Miniature Ancient World. It would take them a considerable amount of time to replace any losses.

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“I doubt that’s going to happen. I heard that Zero Wing is poor to the point where it doesn’t even have any Dark-Gold Weapons and Equipment in its Guild Warehouse right now. Zero Wing is completely reliant on the Asura Mercenary Alliance to compensate its members. So, all of you best be mentally prepared,” the callous youth named Soaring Cloud said, shaking his head. He, too, found this arrangement to be a headache.

Soaring Cloud was one of the top five geniuses of Twilight Echo’s new recruits this year, and he was only half a step away from reaching the Flowing Water Realm. Originally, he thought that he would receive Twilight Echo’s priority cultivation and secure himself a top spot among God’s Domain’s latest generation of players. Yet, now, he had ended up in this situation.

If Aqua Rose hadn’t promised him that Zero Wing’s training would only last for four months and that he would be promoted into a trump card legion’s team leader in Twilight Echo as soon as the training was over, he would have never agreed to come to Zero Wing.

While Twilight Echo’s geniuses were talking among themselves, more and more Zero Wing members started appearing in the lobby. These new arrivals were relatively young, with the oldest among them being 20 years old while the youngest was only 16 years old.

When these Zero Wing members appeared, confusion filled Twilight Echo’s peak geniuses.

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This was because these Zero Wing members were not only young but they also had considerably high combat standards. Even the weakest among them was at the Half-step Refinement Realm standard, while the stronger ones like Wu Lingling had already reached the Refinement Realm. In the case of Wu Lingling, it wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to consider her a peerless genius for having such a high combat standard at such a young age.

Meanwhile, in less than ten minutes, the number of these young Zero Wing members quickly increased past 400, causing the originally empty lobby to become slightly crowded.

“How did Zero Wing recruit so many peak geniuses?” the Level 109 female Swordsman from Twilight Echo exclaimed as she scanned the Zero Wing members present. Although most of these Zero Wing members weren’t as well-equipped as Twilight Echo’s members, it definitely wasn’t excessive to consider them peak geniuses with how young and strong they were.

However, peak geniuses weren’t cabbages that were readily available. They were very rare, even among the various superpowers. The various superpowers would also need to offer various lucrative benefits to recruit peak geniuses. Yet, Zero Wing, despite being a recently established Guild, had managed to recruit over 200 peak geniuses. This was simply unbelievable.

However, what Twilight Echo’s peak geniuses didn’t know was that most of these youths from Zero Wing had only been ordinary geniuses when they joined the Guild initially. Most of them only had combat standards at the Trial Tower’s seventh-floor standard.

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However, after following Shi Feng’s harsh training regimen for half a month, every one of them had achieved significant improvements. Even the slower ones had already reached the Half-step Refinement Realm standard, while the faster ones had already reached the Refinement Realm standard a few days ago.

While Twilight Echo’s peak geniuses were shocked by the sight before them, another group of people entered the Candlelight Hotel.

These new arrivals were none other than Shi Feng and the other executives of Zero Wing. When Twilight Echo’s peak geniuses saw the levels of Shi Feng and the others, every one of them couldn’t help but gasp.

“Level 114?”