Chapter 2104 – Proper Use of the Auction House

Under the senior administrator’s lead, Shi Feng arrived at a quiet and elegant study.

The study was not particularly large. It had only two bookshelves, which were filled with dilapidated books. Some of the books didn’t even have a cover. At a glance, one could tell that these books were considerably old. Some of them even exuded a faint trace of Divine Might.

In God’s Domain, every item capable of exuding Divine Might was extraordinarily valuable as past possessions of Gods and having been bathed in the aura of Gods for long periods.

Among items that exuded Divine Might, books were especially valuable, since they recorded either a topic that interested Gods or knowledge left behind by Gods. Some even recorded hints and instructions on how to become a Tier 6 God.

Hence, even a useless book that exuded Divine Might could sell for thousands of Gold on the market. Their value easily rivaled an ordinary piece of Epic Equipment.

Meanwhile, more than 50 of such books were sitting on the two bookshelves.

So, this is the study of White River City’s City Hall? Shi Feng was astonished as he gazed at the two bookshelves.

From an ordinary player’s perspective, there was nothing special about a Magistrate meeting a player in his study.

After all, the Magistrate would not always remain in one location inside the City Hall.

However, what most people didn’t know was that Magistrates normally wouldn’t ever meet with players in their studies.

Only the manager of an NPC city’s Auction House would be allowed to visit the study of the respective city’s City Hall. One could say that this was a special privilege of Auction House managers. Any other player would most likely never set foot in a City Hall’s study; Tier 6 God-ranked players were no exception. One could also say that a City Hall’s study was the most fortified location inside an NPC city.

This wasn’t because the study was protected by amazing magic arrays, but because it was located in a special space. Like an Otherworld, unless one gained permission to access it, even Tier 6 Gods wouldn’t be able to enter the study.

At this time, Magistrate Weissman was sitting behind an office desk and reading a book made of pure gold under the sunlight shining through the window behind him.

Compared to the previous time Shi Feng met Weissman, the current Weissman was already a Level 200, Tier 5 Grand Wizard.

This could be considered one of the benefits of White River City being one of the first NPC cities to get promoted in God’s Domain. With a Tier 5 NPC guarding White River City, even Tier 4 players would not dare act rampantly inside the city. The security level of the city was on an entirely different level compared to that of ordinary NPC cities.

Players could develop themselves here without worrying about small incidents ruining all their investments in the city.

You’re here. Do you have some business with me?” Weissman asked as he looked at Shi Feng with a friendly smile.

Due to his promotion in tiers, Weissman’s intellect had received further improvement. The NPC was now capable of acting much more like an ordinary human being. He even perfectly suppressed his aura. If one did not use an Identification Skill on Weissman, they would most likely treat him as an ordinary old man.

“Lord Magistrate, I wish to make the city more prosperous, so I want to link White River City’s Auction House with the Auction House of another city. I hope I can gain your permission to do so,” Shi Feng answered.

An Auction House was an important economic pillar for a city. An Auction House’s development was a city’s development, and the prosperity of an Auction House was a city’s prosperity.

In the past, the powers merely treated the NPC Auction Houses they acquired as an ATM and the key to controlling an NPC city. They failed to understand that NPC Auction Houses were actually a tool for hastening the development of Guild Towns.

This function had only been discovered more than a year after the Auction Arena System’s introduction into the game. A year!

With the popularity and income that an NPC Auction House brought, one year was more than enough to elevate a Guild Town into an Advanced City. However, as the various powers failed to discover this function, even more than two years after God’s Domain’s launch in the past, there hadn’t been a single Advanced Guild City in the game. Even the existing Intermediate Cities back then had still been far from becoming Advanced Cities. Without the help of an NPC Auction House, even three to five years of development wouldn’t be enough to elevate an Intermediate City to an Advanced City.

Guild Towns and Cities were a Guild’s foundation for development in God’s Domain. Meanwhile, there was an enormous difference between Guild Towns and Cities of different ranks—especially when an Intermediate City was promoted into an Advanced City. Although the change was mostly quantitative, the difference was massive. Moreover, some special constructions that assisted players in their development could be constructed only in Advanced Cities.

Hence, when the various powers received news about this function, they had all been filled with regret.

Had they known about this function early on, they would have been able to elevate their Guilds’ development speed and the standard of players in their territory to a whole new level. This was particularly true for the standard of players.

As players reached higher levels, the maps inside kingdoms and empires would become inadequate for players seeking to improve themselves.

This improvement wasn’t limited to Levels; it referred to clearing the Tier 3 Promotion Quest as well. Level 100 was a massive turning point for players in God’s Domain. Not only were Level 100 monsters much more difficult to handle than Level 99 monsters, but it was also the minimum level at which players could get promoted to Tier 3.

Meanwhile, the precondition for promotion to Tier 3 was development in neutral maps. However, as luck would have it, Level 100-plus neutral maps were extremely dangerous, so dangerous that even Tier 2 experts would struggle to survive in them. Most importantly, the environment in these neutral maps was extremely severe. Low ambient Mana, like in the Witch’s Hill, was only the least of the environmental challenges in these Level 100-plus neutral maps.

If players wanted to have an easier time developing in these Level 100-plus neutral maps, they needed to rely on the support of a Guild City. Developing in a Level 100-plus neutral map was akin to walking through a barren desert with a Guild City serving as an oasis.

However, proper player development in Level 100-plus neutral maps depended largely on the rank of the Guild City. In Level 100-plus neutral maps, a Basic City was only the baseline for survival for Tier 2 players.

That was right: survival. Basic Cities merely protected players from dying from unexpected events.

Only after reaching the Intermediate standard would a Guild City be able to provide players with a better life in neutral maps. Guild Cities that had reached the Advanced standard could provide players with comfortable lives even in Level 100-plus neutral maps. Tier 3 promotion would also become considerably easier—which was the reason why the various powers of God’s Domain had been so desperate to obtain an Advanced City of their own in the past.

If a power could upgrade its Guild City to the Advanced standard early on, the speed of conversion to Tier 3 and the number of players converted would increase significantly. Said power could then widen the gap between itself and other powers.

This was also the reason why Shi Feng was so desperate to secure White River City’s Auction House.

After all was said and done, superpowers were still superpowers. Zero Wing could not hope to match the resources and manpower they had on hand. Although everyone believed that Zero Wing was only one small step away from becoming a superpower, they failed to realize that a gigantic gap remained between Zero Wing and an actual superpower.

Moreover, as more time passed, this gap would only become increasingly obvious—the so-called snowball effect. Currently, even the best players in God’s Domain had just started their journey in Tier 2, so the difference might not be so obvious. However, after players reached Tier 3, the gap would be glaring.

If he did not set up a sturdy foundation for Zero Wing now, then once the various superpowers of God’s Domain started obtaining Tier 3 players, he might be able to protect himself, but Zero Wing might not be able to defend itself against superpowers.

“Link with the Auction House of another city?” Weissman put down the book in his hands and enter deep thought when he heard Shi Feng’s words. Before long, he said, “It’s not exactly impossible, but this matter will be very difficult to accomplish. If you fail, you’ll have to pay a considerable price. Are you truly willing to accept this task?”

Yes.” Shi Feng nodded seriously. He had long since known about this point, as he wouldn’t have visited Weissman without preparation.

“Which town or city would you choose?” Weissman asked.

“Stone Forest Town!” Shi Feng replied.

The Witch’s Hill Zero Wing City was built in was a precious leveling ground. He couldn’t possibly move Zero Wing City to a neutral map. Stone Forest Town, however, was a different story. The Stoneclaw Mountains the town was built in was already starting to lose popularity among players. Moreover, Stone Forest Town was already an Advanced Town and only a step away from becoming a Basic City; he naturally had to prioritize its development.

Although linking an NPC Auction House with a Guild Town’s Auction House was slightly more difficult than doing so for a Guild City’s Auction House, the difficulty was only on the standard of an Epic Team Quest. To Shi Feng’s current self, completing such a quest would be no problem at all.

“Alright, as White River City’s Magistrate, I will grant you this authority. Here are the tasks you need to complete. I hope you can succeed!” Weissman said as he took out a parchment and handed it to Shi Feng.

Meanwhile, the moment Shi Feng accepted the parchment, a system notification entered his ears.

...

System: You have accepted the Inferior Legendary Quest “Road of Prosperity.”