Chapter 132 – Abyssal Star Ancient City’s Strength

“That was before.” Seeing the astonished look on Hidden Soul’s face, Shi Feng confidently said, “No one will be able to threaten Abyssal Star City from today onward, at least not until Tier 4 players appear!”

Normally, it would become possible for players to breach a Guild City after reaching Tier 3. This was because the NPC guards a Guild City could recruit were at Tier 3 on average. Their levels would also be ten to twenty levels above the player set as the settlement’s administrator.

Moreover, Guild Cities were limited to the number of NPC soldiers they could recruit.

In the Miniature Ancient World, the standard Advanced City would only have a force of 4,000 NPC guards defending it. In other words, an Advanced Guild City could, at most, recruit 4,000 NPCs to defend it.

It was true that NPCs were stronger than players on average. NPCs would typically have more Skills and Spells than players of the same tier. It was also much cheaper and easier to fully equip NPC guards in Epic items. Thus, even Refinement Realm experts would have difficulty fighting against an NPC of the same tier.

Meanwhile, a force of 4,000 Tier 3 NPCs was more than enough to crush the siege of any superpower.

However, faced against the siege of multiple superpowers, a force of 4,000 Tier 3 NPCs would crumble quickly. After all, unlike players, it was much more difficult for NPCs to get resurrected.

Hence, in the era of Tier 3, the various superpowers could easily take down an Advanced City so long as they worked together.

However, that was no longer the case for the Abyssal Star Ancient City.

Shi Feng had money now!

As a city of the Second Sequence, Abyssal Star City had a massive advantage over normal cities when it came to recruiting NPCs. So long as one had the money, one could recruit powerful NPC guards to defend the city. It was similar to the NPC Merchants visiting Abyssal Star City. In only a few days, many NPC Merchants had already gathered in Abyssal Star City and rented many of the Shops in the city.

“Are you really sure about this?” Hidden Soul asked. When she looked at Shi Feng’s confident look, it didn’t seem like he was lying to her.

“Go ahead and do it. Just make sure to keep Zero Wing’s connection with this city a secret,” Shi Feng said, chuckling.

“These are your words. Don’t say I didn’t warn you when you lose this city.”

After saying so, Hidden Soul promptly logged out of the game, evidently delighted by Shi Feng’s proposal. She could already imagine how her acquaintances would react once they found out about Abyssal Star City’s effects. Those people would most likely beg her to let them join the mercenary alliance.

After reaching Tier 5, players would need to meet two requirements that involved Mana if they wished to reach Tier 6. The first requirement was to master the basic principles of Mana, while the second requirement was to master the advanced usage of Mana.

Unfortunately, even if players managed to find a holy land with incredibly dense Mana, it’d still be nigh-impossible to achieve these two requirements. The difficulty of doing so was simply far too great for most Tier 5 players.

However, it was a different story for the ancient tower. The ancient tower’s ability to filter out all but one type of Mana would simplify the process of perceiving, understanding, and learning how to use Mana significantly. Hence, players would have a much higher chance at fulfilling the requirements to reach Tier 6 in the Abyssal Star Ancient City’s ancient tower compared to a holy land.

Moreover, these were only the effects of the ancient tower’s first floor. Along with the Abyssal Star Ancient City’s development, the ancient tower’s second and third floors would also open up. At that time, even more powerful effects would become available.

Hence, in a situation where combat standard requirements were met, the ancient tower would become a crucial component for Tier 5 players seeking to reach Tier 6 in the Miniature Ancient World.

“What a hurry she’s in.” Shi Feng couldn’t help but shake his head and laugh when he saw Hidden Soul logging out of the game. Then, he looked toward Blackie and said, “Let’s go. It’s time we begin our business.”

“What business?” Blackie asked in confusion.

“I asked you here to help me with two things.” While walking toward the City Lord’s Mansion located in the center of the city, Shi Feng explained, “Your first job is to help me organize the recruitment information in the City Lord’s Mansion. Your second job is to make an announcement to the entire Miniature Ancient World in Zero Wing’s name.”

“Make an announcement to the entire Miniature Ancient World?” Blackie grew even more dumbfounded.

Making global announcements was a job Blackie was familiar with. This was because he had been responsible for making these announcements back in Shadow. But why was Shi Feng asking him to make an announcement in Zero Wing’s name?

“We’re here. Get to doing your first job for now,” Shi Feng said as he pointed at the majestic City Lord’s Manor. “You can deal with the second job once you’re done with the first one.”

“Leave it to me, Guild Leader. I’ll get the recruitment information sorted out by today,” Blackie said confidently as he looked at the crowded City Lord’s Manor.”

“It’s not going to be an easy job,” Shi Feng said, chuckling when he saw Blackie’s confident look. “We’ll need to check every applicant’s Attribute Panel before registering their information. We’d be lucky if we can get everything done by today...”

The number of NPCs applying for a guard position in Abyssal Star City was massive. If they wanted to recruit a reliable force of NPC guards, they’d have to carefully look through every applicant’s Attribute Panel before deciding whether to recruit the NPCs.

Afterward, Shi Feng and Blackie began inspecting the NPCs gathered in the City Lord’s Manor one after another.

Even though Blackie had done a lot of this kind of work in the past, he still couldn’t help but be shocked when he saw the huge assortment of NPC applicants. The strength of the NPCs ranged all the way from Tier 4 on the highest end to...Tier 1 on the lowest end.

However, the Growth Potential of these NPCs also varied significantly. Many of the Tier 1 NPC applicants had great potential, and they should have no trouble reaching Tier 4 in the future. On the other hand, the Tier 3 NPC applicants might have greater strength right now, but most of them had average potential, and there was almost no chance that they could reach Tier 4 in the future.

When inspecting these NPCs, Shi Feng chose to recruit the Tier 4 NPCs they came across without hesitation. It didn’t matter even if they asked for a weekly salary of 300 Gold, which was ten times higher than what the Tier 3 NPCs asked for.

After inspecting the applicants for six hours continuously, Shi Feng and Blackie ended up recruiting 237 Tier 4 NPCs that ranged from Level 120 to Level 125. Although it cost 71,100 Gold just to hire these Tier 4 NPCs for a week, it was a worthwhile investment for the current Abyssal Star City.

Every Tier 4 NPC could kill a Tier 3 peak expert with little effort. Meanwhile, a force of 237 Tier 4 NPCs was enough to cover the entire city.

Aside from Tier 4 NPCs, they also decided to hire every Tier 3 NPC with great potential. Each of these NPCs cost 30 Gold per week to hire, and they ended up recruiting 2,419 of such NPCs for a total of 72,570 Gold per week. The total hiring cost of the Tier 3 NPCs was almost similar to that of the Tier 4 NPCs, but their numbers were ten times greater than the Tier 4 NPCs.

While these Tier 3 NPCs might not be as strong as the Tier 4 NPCs, they would become an integral part of the city’s management. After all, there was no way a few hundred Tier 4 NPCs could safeguard every corner of the city at all times.

However, compared to the cost of gearing up these NPCs, the cost of hiring these NPCs paled in comparison.

It cost 800 Gold to fully equip an NPC in Level 150 Epic Weapons and Equipment. While this price seemed cheap compared to purchasing Epic Weapons and Equipment for players, Blackie’s heart bled when he saw this price.

After all, if they wanted to fully equip every NPC guard with Level 150 Epic Weapons and Equipment, they’d have to spend over two million Gold... That simply wasn’t an expenditure Zero Wing could afford at this time.

With Zero Wing’s current finances, the best they could do was equip the Tier 4 NPCs with Epic Weapons and Equipment, while the Tier 3 NPCs would have to settle for Level 120 Dark-Gold Weapons and Equipment that cost 100 Gold per set. Even so, the total expenditure of hiring and gearing the NPCs still racked up to 575,170 Gold. Moreover, this was only the initial stage of the city’s expenditure...

If Zero Wing couldn’t find a way to earn a large sum of Coins, it wouldn’t take more than a month for Zero Wing to go bankrupt.

While Blackie was feeling gloomy over parting with a quarter of the money he had earned recently, Shi Feng suddenly received a call from Shi Feng.

“Guild Leader, someone came to the Candlelight Hotel and specified that they want to meet you,” Su Qianliu said after seeing Shi Feng’s face appearing in the video call. “They say they want to discuss a partnership with Zero Wing.”

“Partnership?” Shi Feng was a little surprised by this situation. “Who are they?”

After taking a deep breath, Su Qianliu said, “Witch’s Sin!”