Chapter 1821 – Crimson Flame Fortress

A series of system notifications assaulted Shi Feng’s hearing after he chose to upgrade Silverwing Town.

Ore Empire Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Silverwing Town for becoming the first Intermediate Town in a neutral map. Rewarding 10,000 Town Popularity Points and one Caravan Guard Order.

Silverwing Town Region System Announcement: Silverwing Town will undergo a promotion. All players will be teleported out of the town in one minute.

Silverwing Town Region System Announcement: Silverwing Town’s promotion will take 30 minutes. Please wait patiently until it is complete.

The system announcements repeated three times, echoing in players ears in their respective regions.

“What?! A promotion?! They’re already upgrading Silverwing Town?!”

“How did Zero Wing do it?”

“Amazing! Once the town is upgraded, we’ll have a much easier time getting in!”

For a time, Silverwing Town’s players were in an uproar over the sudden promotion. As for the various large Guilds’ upper echelons, they wore solemn expressions when they received a report on this matter.

The fat piece of meat that was Silverwing Town had already been tempting to the various major powers, and they had been trying to find a way to claim it for themselves, but the improvement speed of the town’s defenses was simply absurd. The NPC soldiers the town had recruited were also becoming increasingly powerful. Including the five Magic Towers, none of these superpowers felt powerful enough to capture Silverwing Town. Hence, they decided to continue accumulating their strength for now.

However, Silverwing Town’s promotion to an Intermediate Town was a huge problem.

Not only would Silverwing Town be able to construct more defensive structures, but the number of NPC soldiers it could hire had also increased from 1,000 to 2,000. That would effectively double the town’s defensive capabilities.

In terms of Basic Attributes, NPC soldiers were far superior to players. In addition, Silverwing Town’s soldiers were more than ten levels higher than current players. If players wished to deal with these NPCs, they would have to employ zerg tactics.

Now that the town had twice as many NPC soldiers to protect it, they would need at least twice the manpower to defeat these NPCs, making Silverwing Town even more difficult to capture.

Shortly after the system announcements, the players in Silverwing Town were all teleported a considerable distance away. However, instead of leaving the area, the teleported players stood outside of the town. In fact, players who grinded in the Ore Empire hurried to join the crowd.

Meanwhile, news of Silverwing Town’s promotion quickly spread to the various superpowers.

“Zero Wing is impressively efficient. It’s a pity that there is no longer a point in upgrading Silverwing Town,” Yuan Tiexin said, sighing slightly when he read the report he had just received.

“Uncle Yuan, now that Silverwing Town has been upgraded to an Intermediate Town, it will be able to accommodate more players and increase Zero Wing’s income by multiple times. Why would that be pointless?” Purple Jade asked curiously.

“I guess it’s expected that you don’t know. Yesterday, I received news stating that Nine Dragons Emperor has secretly joined hands with Blackwater and Beast Emperor and they are preparing to raid the Ore Empire’s Crimson Flame Fortress,” Yuan Tiexin said. “The Crimson Flame Fortress is located in the Ore Empire’s inner region and on one of the safer paths to the Ore Capital City. In addition, the fortress offers teleportation services. Once the Crimson Flame Fortress has been captured, it’ll generate massive profits for the three involved parties. It’ll also allow them to raid the Ore Capital City far more quickly.”

“What?! That’s the Crimson Flame Fortress! Based on our investigations, its raid difficulty ranks among the top five Teleportation War Fortresses in the empire. It is too difficult for current players to raid, and on top of that, Dark Players will definitely try to interfere. Do they really dare to raid the Crimson Flame Fortress?” The news astonished Purple Jade.

There were countless Ores inside the Crimson Flame Fortress, and the lowest-leveled among them was Level 60, with the highest-leveled Ores being Level 75. Furthermore, the fortress was protected by many war weapons and Mythic Ores.

“That is exactly why Nine Dragons Emperor and Blackwater are working with Beast Emperor. Based on what we know so far, Beast Emperor will guard the battlefield with his Evil Beast army. Meanwhile, Blackwater and Nine Dragon Emperor’s armies will be responsible for sieging the fortress. With the Evil Beast army in their way, the Dark Guilds and Dark Players won’t try to interfere,” Yuan Tiexin explained. “Once they capture Crimson Flame Fortress, Silverwing Town’s status in the Ore Empire will become quite awkward.”

Thus far, the Secret Pavilion had only conducted a preliminary investigation on the Regional Dungeon, Ore Capital City. Even so, the resources they had discovered had far exceeded their expectations. Not only did the Regional Dungeon offer a large number of Magic Crystals, but players would also level 50% faster if they grinded in the area. Most importantly, the Ore Capital City, an Intermediate City, could be captured.

If one captured this Intermediate City, they would earn just as much profit as the Secret Pavilion’s Magic Crystal vein earned.

Moreover, they wouldn’t need to station a large force of players to protect the city long-term.

If Blackwater and Nine Dragons Emperor acquired the Ore Capital City, with the wealth of resources they earned through the city, they could easily destroy Silverwing Town. The two entities might even be able to threaten Zero Wing’s safety in Star- Moon Kingdom.

This was because Beast Emperor bore an irreconcilable vengeance against Zero Wing. Setting aside the fact that Beast Emperor had a significant portion of his foundation within Star-Moon Kingdom and would need to take over the kingdom to further his development, the Secret Pavilion had recently learned that of the five precious Evil God Apostle slots Beast Emperor had, Shi Feng had destroyed two. This loss had severely impacted Beast Emperor’s development

If Beast Emperor got his hands on the Ore Capital City’s resources, he’d have a good chance of taking over Star-Moon Kingdom and yanking Zero Wing out of the game by its roots.

“Uncle Yuan, why don’t we notify Zero Wing?” Purple Jade asked.

“Forget it. Even if Zero Wing found out, there is nothing it can do. Although Zero Wing’s main force had displayed outstanding combat power in the Eclipse Gate, this revelation will not change Zero Wing’s situation. While Zero Wing is fully capable of defending its territory, it simply doesn’t have enough forces to launch an offensive assault on Beast Emperor. This is also the greatest problem that upstart powers with little-to-no background normally face,” Yuan Tiexin said, shaking his head. “Had Zero Wing agreed to partner with us, they might have been able to stop Beast Emperor’s group. However, with Zero Wing’s current forces, even if they gain the full support of Phoenix Rain, Beast Emperor is impossible to stop.”

In God’s Domain, many upstart powers rose to prominence every day, but these powers had a fatal flaw; they were ignorant of greater powers. They all deemed themselves capable of rivaling true superpowers. Although Zero Wing was superior to most of the up-and-coming powers in God’s Domain, it wouldn’t be easy for the Guild to become a true superpower. There would be plenty of other powers trying to use Zero Wing as a stepping stone and rise to prominence themselves.

Meanwhile, in the Ore Empire’s Silverwing Town...

After a half-an-hour wait, the recently promoted Silverwing Town appeared before the crowd.

Silverwing Town now occupied twice as much space as the old version. It was also much closer to the Primordial Divine Ruin, which was now within range of the town’s Magic Towers. Since the town was in a neutral map, Silverwing Town’s walls had grown taller, as well. Now, they were seven meters tall. Divine runes had been carved into the walls, preventing players from vaulting over and enhancing the walls’ Defense.

“Guild Leader, look! Even the town’s buildings have changed! They look nothing like they did before!” Melancholic Smile could not help but gape in shock as she looked at the tall buildings in the distance.

Every building in the town had grown considerably taller. It was evident that the buildings had been upgraded as well.

Rather than a town, Silverwing Town looked like a Basic City.

“Mhm. Have everyone prepare to reopen Silverwing Town to the public,” Shi Feng said, nodding.

He had spared no expense in outfitting Silverwing Town with the most extravagant buildings he could afford precisely for this moment. This was also neutral towns’ secret.