Chapter 162 – New Expansion Pack

Nine slots? Shi Feng was greatly surprised when he heard the system notification. It seems I’ll have to make ample preparations for this.

Shi Feng possessed an in-depth understanding of the Stratified Abyssal Realm. The average Gate of Crossing could only accommodate five or six people, with larger ones accommodating up to ten people.

Yet, not only could the Gate of Crossing before them teleport up to twenty players at a time, but it only had a short Cooldown of ten days. The value of this Gate alone was several times greater than the combined value of several Tier 6 God-ranked experts.

It should be known that in addition to allowing players from God’s Domain to travel to the Stratified Abyssal Realm, the Gates of Crossing also allowed players native to the Stratified Abyssal Realm to travel to God’s Domain. The only difference was that the Stratified Abyssal Realm’s native players needed to pay an exorbitant price in Seven Luminaries Crystals to travel to God’s Domain.

According to Shi Feng’s knowledge, the amount of Seven Luminaries Crystals that native players needed to pay to leave would differ depending on their combat standards. The higher a player’s combat standards, the more Seven Luminaries Crystals they needed to fork out when leaving the Stratified Abyssal Realm.

Even experts at the World Tower’s first-floor standard were already required to pay 1,000 units of Seven Luminaries Crystal to leave, while second-floor experts were required to pay 3,000 units.

However, 1,000 units of Seven Luminaries Crystal was a sum that a second-rate Guild would need two months to collect. Although first-rate Guilds and superpowers could collect a lot more Seven Luminaries Crystals, it simply wasn’t worthwhile to do so.

Players who reached the World Tower’s first floor might be recognized as experts in the Greater God’s Domain, but they weren’t exceptionally rare or powerful experts. They wouldn’t even be considered top-ranking experts in the various first-rate Guilds.

As for second-floor experts, while they were indeed powerful combatants, the cost to teleport a second-floor expert out of the Stratified Abyssal Realm was 3,000 units of Seven Luminaries Crystal. Even a first-rate Guild could only afford to teleport one such expert out of the Stratified Abyssal Realm once every two months.

Not to mention, due to the Stratified Abyssal Realm’s restrictions, native experts were at a very low level and tier. So, Guilds would have to invest a lot of time and resources to develop these experts to their full potential.

For a God’s Domain that had yet to gain access to the Greater God’s Domain, the Stratified Abyssal Realm’s true value lay in the trade opportunities it offered.

The Stratified Abyssal Realm possessed various precious resources that weren’t available in God’s Domain. Even if they set aside the Stratified Abyssal Realm’s unique resources, the Skills, Spells, combat techniques, and Mana Techniques the Stratified Abyssal Realm possessed were also far superior to what was available in their God’s Domain.

Due to the various Stratified Abyssal Realms having a very low level cap on average, the native players there compensated for their lacking levels and tiers by developing their Skills, Spells, combat techniques, and Mana Techniques.

It was especially true when it came to the development of combat techniques and Mana Techniques. The various Stratified Abyssal Realms had far surpassed the many worlds of God’s Domain and reached an entirely different level. Moreover, different Stratified Abyssal Realms would have different civilization cultures and development paths. Because of this, the variety of combat techniques and Mana Techniques the various Stratified Abyssal Realms possessed was so large that it could astonish even the Greater God’s Domain’s hegemonic powers.

If an isolated God’s Domain could gain access to these combat techniques and Mana Techniques, these techniques would greatly help its development.

Meanwhile, nine entry slots were already more than enough for Shi Feng to do many things in the Stratified Abyssal Realm.

Afterward, Shi Feng, Crimson Heart, and Blood Hammer agreed to meet before the Gate of Crossing two days later. Though, after factoring in the time needed to traverse the Sealing Labyrinth, they would only have one day to prepare once they returned to their respective God’s Domains. So, they were considerably tight on time.

After agreeing on a time, everyone promptly took out a Return Scroll and teleported back to their respective God’s Domains.

...

Miniature Ancient World, Abyssal Star City:

When Shi Feng and Gentle Snow teleported back to Zero Wing’s Residence, they quickly noticed that the Residence was missing some of its liveliness and prosperity. Many Guild members in the Residence also wore looks of frustration and envy.

Before Shi Feng could even begin to wonder what had happened while he was gone, a series of message notifications rang in his ears.

After checking his message interface, Shi Feng found that several dozen people had messaged him these past few days. Among these people, Su Qianliu and Blackie had sent him the most messages, each of them sending several dozen messages.

Did something happen? Shi Feng grew a little confused as he looked at the several hundred unread messages in his inbox.

Before leaving, Shi Feng had already informed Su Qianliu and Blackie that he would be taking care of something important and that they shouldn’t contact him unless it was something urgent. It was especially true for offline communication. He told them that unless Zero Wing was under the threat of destruction, they absolutely should not try to contact him in the real world.

The Sealing Labyrinth was a special location that granted access to the Stratified Abyssal Realm, so players were prohibited from communicating with the outside world or logging out of the game while inside it. Although players wouldn’t be put into real danger for logging out of the game, their in-game souls would be weakened for a certain period as a penalty.

“It seems something big happened while we were away,” Gentle Snow said. “Yaoyue messaged me saying that a new expansion pack called ‘Primordial Demon’s Awakening’ appeared while we were away. Along with the introduction of this expansion pack, a special building appeared outside the various NPC Cities. This building leads to a primordial secret land, and players can hunt for Mounts in that secret land. Moreover, the leveling inside is at least two times faster.”

“Hunt for Mounts?”

Realization dawned on Shi Feng when he heard Gentle Snow’s words.

Mounts could greatly increase a player’s leveling speed and range of movement. However, there was still no reliable way to acquire Mounts in the Miniature Ancient World. Even Shi Feng had only obtained his Mount in the Primordial Demon Court by chance. Now that a reliable means of acquiring Mounts had appeared, it wasn’t strange to see players causing a huge commotion over it.

However, this was a huge problem for Zero Wing. After all, Zero Wing’s operations were based in Abyssal Star City. It didn’t have a base of operations in any NPC City. So, there was no way Zero Wing could compete against the various powers.

“But entering this primordial secret land isn’t an easy task. Players will have to raid Team Dungeons to acquire the secret land’s teleportation tokens, and each Team Dungeon will only drop around a dozen tokens. Moreover, even after entering the secret land, players are only allowed to stay there for a limited time,” Gentle Snow explained. “So, the various powers are frantically searching for and raiding Team Dungeons right now. Many powers have started a fight over Team Dungeons, and even Mysterious Moon has already suffered over 10,000 casualties.”

“There’s a dramatic difference in leveling speed between players with and without Mounts. Team Dungeons also appear randomly in the various maps, so not even the various superpowers can monopolize them. Even small Guilds will try to compete for some Team Dungeons in this situation. So long as they get into the Team Dungeon, there’d be nothing other powers can do about it. So, it’s normal for Mysterious Moon to suffer such losses,” Shi Feng said. He wasn’t surprised that Mysterious Moon had suffered so many casualties. Mounts were a key factor that could decide a Guild’s future. No Guild would be willing to give up on the opportunity to acquire a large number of Mounts.

While Shi Feng and Gentle Snow were conversing, Su Qianliu suddenly approached them in a hurry.

“You’re finally back, Guild Leader,” Su Qianliu said as she looked at Shi Feng, who had just walked out of the Residence’s Teleportation Hall. “Something big has happened while you were away. Had you taken even a day longer to reply, Blackie and I would’ve had to contact you by force.”

“Did something happen to Zero Wing?” Shi Feng asked in confusion.

The current Zero Wing was prospering greatly in the Miniature Ancient World. Although the new expansion pack had thrown a monkey wrench into Zero Wing’s development plans, it wasn’t so bad that the Guild would face destruction.

“It’s not Zero Wing,” Su Qianliu said, shaking her head. “But it isn’t completely unrelated to Zero Wing, either. Specifically, something major has taken place over at the Asura Mercenary Alliance. Chief Administrator Hidden Soul and many other peak experts intend to withdraw from Asura...”

...

TL Notes:

For those wondering, “peak powers” and “hegemonic powers” are two new terms the author has introduced. Hegemonic powers are above peak powers. I don’t know how they compare to the superpowers in Shi Feng’s God’s Domain, though.

Also, Su Qianliu, Blackie, and the others still aren’t aware that the Asura Mercenary Alliance is actually owned by Zero Wing. Hence, Su Qianliu’s manner of speaking.