Chapter 519 - Silent Massacre

Inside Maple City’s City Hall...

At this moment, Liang Chen, the person whom Gentle Snow had delegated to assist Shi Feng in purchasing Land, was utterly stupefied.

Without hesitation, Shi Feng had purchased a plot of Land located in the central district of the city that cost over 2,000 Gold. Immediately after, he established a Luxury Shop for 1,000 Gold. In total, Shi Feng had spent over 3,000 Gold in a span of just a few breaths.

Liang Chen was someone whom Gentle Snow trusted absolutely, so she had already shared her knowledge regarding Shi Feng.

Hence, Liang Chen knew that Shi Feng had sold Gentle Snow 3,000 Gold not long ago. Otherwise, he would not have exposed the fact that he already had enough Reputation in Maple City to become a Baron.

Although Maple City was not as good as White River City, the number of players who had reached the Reputation of a Baron was still extremely low. There should only be two or three such players throughout Maple City right now.

Previously, Shi Feng had spent 3,000 Gold. Now, he had spent over 3,000 Gold once again. This level of wealth far surpassed Ouroboros.

With such financial prowess, who could possibly challenge Zero Wing in a war of attrition?

Only now did Liang Chen finally realize why Overwhelming Smile, a Guild that had managed to dominate Maple City, had failed to defeat Zero Wing, and why Zero Wing was publicly acknowledged as White River City’s number one Guild.

The other first-rate Guilds’ upper managers believed in their hearts that, although it was no match for Zero Wing in White River City, particularly in terms of the number of experts each Guild possessed, Overwhelming Smile would still emerge victorious. After all, Overwhelming Smile possessed ample funds, whereas Zero Wing was a Guild with no background or capital at all. At most, Zero Wing could only hold out for a bit longer.

However, now that Liang Chen reexamined the situation...

Even three Overwhelming Smiles would not be enough to defeat Zero Wing.

It seems the sky in Maple City will change soon, Liang Chen inwardly sighed.

After learning more about God’s Domain, the various Guilds had obtained a general understanding of its rules. If a Guild wanted to become an overlord in the game, they required three things; experts, financial prowess consisting mainly of Coins, and member count.

Among these three points, member count was the least important as it was very easy to increase a Guild’s population. As long as a Guild possessed sufficient financial prowess, they could increase their member count indefinitely.

God’s Domain was different from past virtual reality games where member count was a Guild’s top priority. In past virtual reality games, the differences between each individual player were simply too small. In these games, numbers equaled power. If one person was not enough, then they could just send a group. If a group was not enough, then they could send a hundred players. Sooner or later, they were bound to exhaust their enemies to death.

Unfortunately, God’s Domain was different; a single top-tier expert could single-handedly dominate an entire region. Moreover, unlike in past virtual reality games, the top-tier experts of God’s Domain were not easily produced. In the past, one could easily become a top-tier expert if they had sufficiently powerful equipment. Now, however, players needed sufficiently powerful combat techniques to qualify as a top-tier expert.

Meanwhile, Overwhelming Smile was far behind Zero Wing regarding both experts and financial prowess. The result of the confrontation between the two Guilds was already self-evident.

In reality, so long as Overwhelming Smile hurriedly established their trade and earned large sums of money through it, they would have a fighting chance. Only, now that Shi Feng had arrived, how could Overwhelming Smile contend with Star-Moon Kingdom’s Chief Forger with its few Lifestyle players? Moreover, the Candlelight Trading Firm possessed three bona fide Forgers; they were several times more powerful than Advanced Forging Apprentices.

The Candlelight Trading Firm also possessed the tactical weapon known as the Basic Strengthened Armor Kits. Simply put, Overwhelming Smile stood no chance of victory whatsoever.

After Shi Feng obtained some information regarding Maple City from Liang Chen, he hurried towards the city’s Teleportation Hall.

From the information Liang Chen had given him, Shi Feng basically knew all of Overwhelming Smile’s elite members preferred grinding locations. He could use this chance to sacrifice these players to the Icarus’s Heart.

Guilds’ elite members were different from ordinary players. When night arrived, ordinary players would usually return to their respective cities to rest or log out of the game, whereas elite players would continue leveling out in the fields. Because of their equipment or combat techniques, elite players had no reason to fear the monsters at night. Only, their leveling speed would slow somewhat this time of day. Even so, it was much better than others who could not level up at all. Even if their leveling speed were slower at night, they would gradually widen the gap between themselves and other players. As a result, the levels of Guild elite members were usually a lot higher than ordinary players.

Meanwhile, Overwhelming Smile’s main grinding location was the Dragon Ridge.

Dragon Ridge was a Level 25 to 30 leveling area. The monsters inside consisted of Dragonmen. Dragonmen were born with thick scales and had inherited the unparalleled Strength of Dragons; they were natural-born warriors. Moreover, as they were a small branch of the Dragon race, Dragonmen also had an innate love for collecting treasures. Hence, Dragonmen had significantly higher drop-rates. There were also many quests available in Dragon Ridge that required players to deal with the Dragonmen, so many players loved to level here.

However, Overwhelming Smile monopolized the high-resource areas within Dragon Ridge. So, other players could only complete some Kill Quests for Dragonmen in areas with low monster populations.

Shortly after Shi Feng teleported to Dragon Ridge and was in the midst of searching for Overwhelming Smile members, Melancholic Smile suddenly contacted him.

“Guild Leader, I’ve completed the task you gave me. Sure enough, they tried to steal all three Advanced Forging Apprentices who have learned the Light Stone Forging Design, regardless of cost. In the end, all three defected,” Melancholic Smile said excitedly.

With all three Advanced Forging Apprentices poached, that meant the Firm had received the compensation for three Light Stone Forging Designs. They had earned nearly 50 million Credits, just like that. As for the loss of the three Advanced Forging Apprentices, Melancholic Smile was utterly unaffected. After the Candlelight Trading Firm had developed itself, the benefits it provided its members were extremely good. The Firm’s Forgers also received an unlimited supply of materials. As long as they worked hard, they could earn a lot of money. Hence, many Forging Apprentices had arrived to apply to the Firm. Among them, there was no lack of Intermediate Forging Apprentices. As long as the Firm nurtured them a little, it would have another batch of Advanced Forging Apprentices in no time.

Although Overwhelming Smile had successfully stolen many players from the Candlelight Trading Firm, the Firm’s Advanced Forging Apprentice count had not decreased since its establishment. On the contrary, they had accumulated more forgers...

“Good.” Shi Feng similarly smiled. With this sum and what he received from Gentle Snow, he could soon carry out his expert training plan. “Right, how many Light Stones have been produced so far?”

“I have secretly recruited dozens of Advanced Forging Apprentices in other cities, and they are frantically producing Light Stones in their respective city’s Forging Associations. They are still unfamiliar with the production process at the moment, so their production is somewhat slow. Even so, we already have several hundred Stones. In one or two days, we should accumulate up to 20,000 pieces,” Melancholic Smile said confidently. “At that time, Candlelight will become a household name. I guarantee that Candlelight will become Star-Moon Kingdom’s number one trading firm.”

Melancholic Smile had spoken these words not out of arrogance, but because the Light Stones’ value was simply immeasurable. Both elite players and ordinary players could afford them. Considering the number of players producing the Light Stones right now, they could supply several cities’ worth of players.

After Melancholic Smile finished her report, Shi Feng had stealthily arrived at the inner region of Dragon Ridge.

At this moment, one could see lights flickering occasionally through the dark and quiet forest, coupled with the sounds of explosions. The cause of these phenomena was none other than Overwhelming Smile’s elite players grinding Dragonmen.

These Overwhelming Smile elites were very organized. Forming groups of twenty, the team of one hundred took turns battling the Dragonmen army. They fought with great efficiency. While one group fought, the others would rest and remain vigilant of their surroundings, preventing other monsters from ambushing them.

“You guys will be it.” Shi Feng smiled.