Chapter 1701: Hidden Dragon Rises

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Chapter 1701 – Hidden Dragon Rises

“Zero Wing sure has guts to demand such a price. Do they really think the advanced combat rooms are the only things that can help players improve their Skill Completion Rates?”

“I can purchase a good piece of equipment or train in the Divine Colosseum ten times with 10 Magic Crystals!”

“Does Zero Wing think Magic Crystals are cabbages?”

When players saw the updated pricing for the advanced combat room on the large screens in the center of the lobby, many expert players thought that Zero Wing had gone mad for Magic Crystals.

Although current players had far more Magic Crystal sources now, they could still only earn a limited number. Moreover, there were many other things that required Magic Crystals.

Ten Magic Crystals simply wasn’t a tolerable price for expert players. Players weren’t even guaranteed to earn so many after an entire day of hard work. How could they possibly spend all of their earnings on gradually training their Skill Completion Rates?

The only benefit was that there were 31 more advanced combat rooms available than before. With this, players would not have to wait in line as long.

However, the various major powers’ experts still frowned on the new change. The advanced combat rooms’ main customers were these experts. Although they could afford the current price, it would be a huge burden on their Guilds. Their respective Guilds also couldn’t afford to send them to the advanced combat rooms as often. It was both unwise and not worthwhile.

While fighting the Illusory Creatures in the advanced combat rooms would indeed help them improve their Skill Completion Rates more efficiently, the higher their Skill Completion Rate became, the less effective the advanced combat rooms were. For expert players like them, the improvement from a single training session wasn’t worth 10 Magic Crystals. Unfortunately, there weren’t any good alternatives once players reached their standards.

One could say that this change put them in a very awkward position.

“Hold on a minute; they’re updating the advanced combat rooms’ introduction.” As everyone discussed the new pricing, the Battle Arena’s main screen revealed the new rules for the advanced combat rooms.

First, the duration of each session had increased to 50 minutes.

Second, Zero Wing’s normal members would get a 10% discount to rent the advanced combat rooms, elite members would get a 20% discount, and core members would get a 30% discount. Moreover, ten advanced combat rooms would be reserved for Guild members.

When these new rules were revealed, the crowd in the lobby went into an uproar once again. Meanwhile, the various major powers’ members turned to Zero Wing’s members in envy over the benefits they got to enjoy.

With the discounts and extended duration, the rental fee Zero Wing’s members had to pay was just slightly higher than before. Moreover, there were now exclusive advanced combat rooms for Zero Wing’s members.

Suddenly, independent experts started to leave the Battle Arena, one after another, and make their way toward Zero Wing’s Residence to apply to join the Guild. Even many of the various major powers elite and expert members hesitated.

When the other large Guilds’ upper echelons received news of the update, they paled.

“Zero Wing actually had such a card to play?”

“With this, Zero Wing’s rise really will become unstoppable.”

Now that Zero Wing had solidified its position as Star-Moon Kingdom’s number one Guild, there was no longer any local Guilds that dared to challenge it. This meant that Zero Wing had a monopoly over the best resources in Star-Moon Kingdom. Naturally, its Guild members would receive more resources than before.

With the introduction of this new Guild benefit, Zero Wing became significantly more attractive towards their respective Guilds’ elite and expert members. It was only a matter of time before their Guilds started to lose large groups of their members, yet there was nothing their Guilds could do to stop it…

For a time after news of the updated advanced combat rooms spread, the number of elite and expert players trying to join Zero Wing increased exponentially. Because of this, Aqua Rose, who was trying to organize Zero Wing’s harvest from its war with Heaven’s Burial and Blackwater, was ecstatic.

In less than half an hour since the new advanced combat rooms had been introduced, Zero Wing had received 20,000-plus applications from ordinary players, 5,000-plus applications from elite players, and 200-plus applications from expert players. Just testing all of these players would take a very long time.

The Guild’s development speed had far exceeded Aqua Rose’s initial expectations.

Aqua Rose had estimated that it would take Zero Wing roughly two or three days to recruit so many elite and expert players, but it would seem that Zero Wing might increase its elite member count past 250,000 sooner than that. The Guild also shouldn’t have any problems increasing its expert member count to 5,000.

With such high numbers, Zero Wing would surpass many actual first-rate Guilds. The only real difference separating Zero Wing from actual first-rate Guilds now was the Guild’s smaller sphere of influence and fewer normal members.

However, this couldn’t be helped since Zero Wing’s recruitment standards were too high. Moreover, first-rate Guilds had begun spreading their influence throughout God’s Domain the day the game launched; their influence now covered multiple kingdoms and empires. These first-rate Guilds had spent countless resources and an absurd amount of wealth to build a sturdy foundation for themselves. Zero Wing, on the other hand, had begun its development in a single city with little-to-no wealth or resources.

Meanwhile, the effectiveness of the advanced combat rooms’ promotion effect had also caught Shi Feng by surprise.

Guild elites and experts were necessary for a Guild’s development because Guilds needed manpower to manage and protect the new territory it acquired. Simply chasing away the local rulers wasn’t enough. If a Guild lacked the strength to protect its new territory, some other power would eventually capture the territory. In that case, the Guild might as well have not bothered to expand in the first place.

Currently, Zero Wing was still able to get by with the number of elite and expert members it had since it had very few territories. In total, the Guild only controlled three towns and one city. In comparison, first-rate Guilds controlled over a dozen towns that were spread across multiple kingdoms and empires.

However, if Zero Wing started to expand, it would naturally encounter more rival powers. If multiple locations were attacked at the same time, Shi Feng wouldn’t be able to protect all of his territories even if he were more powerful. Hence, a sufficient number of Guild elite and expert members was extremely important.

As Shi Feng ruminated over Zero Wing’s future, Gentle Snow suddenly contacted him and asked, “Guild Leader, where are you now?”

“I’m in Stone Forest Town. Has something happened?” Shi Feng asked curiously.

When Stone Forest Town had been attacked, Aqua Rose had led plenty of the Guild’s experts to reinforce the town. Meanwhile, Gentle Snow had been responsible for assisting the kingdom’s armies against the Evil Beast army that was invading Star-Moon Kingdom. Since the Evil God’s Temple’s NPCs controlled these Evil Beasts, not players, they were much higher-leveled. The lowest-leveled Evil Beast was Level 60, while the majority of the Evil Beasts were Chieftain rank and above. In addition, quite a few Tier 3 NPCs from the Evil God’s Temple commanded the Evil Beast army.

If Gentle Snow hadn’t led Zero Wing’s forces to help the kingdom’s armies, the Evil Beast army would’ve long since broken past the defensive line. If that happened, the Evil Beasts would devour every resource in their path, growing stronger as they made their way toward Zero Wing City.

“The number of Evil Beasts over here has started to decrease. According to our scouts’ reports, Beast Emperor seems to be pulling out the Evil Beasts and Demons under his control. Beast Emperor has sent his monsters to surround the Primordial Divine Ruin. The 2,000 elite members and 100 expert members we stationed at the ruin have been annihilated. Moreover, Beast Emperor has announced that Zero Wing is prohibited from entering the Primordial Divine Ruin from now on. It seems that we’re his only target,” Gentle Snow said, gritting her teeth.

The Primordial Divine Ruin had already become a prime location for the various large Guilds to acquire weapons, equipment, and combat techniques. Most importantly, it was the only entrance to Primordial City. Primordial City was the only place to obtain Primordial Souls, which could help players complete their Tier 2 Promotion Quests. If Zero Wing’s supply of Primordial Souls were cut off, its development would definitely fall behind other Guilds.

By only preventing Zero Wing’s members from entering the Primordial Divine Ruin, Beast Emperor was clearly trying to provoke the Guild. Naturally, the other Guilds were more than happy to watch from a distance. Now that Zero Wing had already entered Primordial City and gained an advantage over their Guilds, the other Guilds wanted to see Zero Wing’s members enter the Primordial Divine Ruin even less.

Although Gentle Snow wanted to do something about this, the Orc Empire was a neutral map. Even if she notified the kingdom’s armies about the Evil Beasts and Evil Demons at the Primordial Divine Ruin, the kingdom’s armies would not take action.

“Beast Emperor must really think that no one can touch him just because he’s in a neutral map!” Shi Feng could not help but sneer when he heard Gentle Snow’s report, killing intent flashing in his eyes. “Since he dares try to cut off my path to fortune, I’ll cut off his legs!”

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