Chapter 1741: Popular Silverwing
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chapter 1741 – Popular Silverwing
After the battle outside of Silverwing Town, Zero Wing’s prestige and reputation skyrocketed.
“Zero Wing is amazing! Even Beast Emperor’s monster army is helpless against the Guild!”
“I’ve heard that you can get plenty of combat techniques from the Primordial Divine Ruin. Now that n.o.body can contest Zero Wing for Silverwing Town, won’t Zero Wing acquire a ton of combat techniques?”
“That’s not all. Don’t forget about Primordial City. I’ve heard that Primordial City can help players improve their combat standards.”
“I’ve heard that Zero Wing has been recruiting new members lately. Why don’t we give it a try? I’ve also heard that even Zero Wing’s elite members can learn combat techniques without signing a binding contract right now.”
“What?! Those are combat techniques we’re talking about! I’ve heard that even large Guilds’ core members have to sign strict contracts if they wish to learn one of the Guild’s combat techniques!”
“Honestly, you can learn Zero Wing’s combat techniques without joining the Guild. Only, the price is exorbitant. However, if you become an elite member, you can get a significant discount.”
…
As news of Zero Wing’s victory spread, many independent players made their way towards Star-Moon Kingdom to join Zero Wing.
As a result, the number of players applying to join Zero Wing had increased by nearly three times.
For a time, Aqua Rose was swamped with work.
To make matters worse, now that Zero Wing had proven that it had the strength to defend Silverwing Town, a large number of merchant players and corporations hoped to purchase Shops, conducting their business in the town. This was especially true for the corporations that sold virtual goods[1].
However, s.h.i.+ Feng had no intention of selling Silverwing Town’s Shops. Instead, he would only rent them out. Moreover, the rental price was an astronomical 2,000 Gold or 6,000 Magic Crystals per month…
Because of this price, 99% of the merchant players cursed Zero Wing. This was simply fraudulent!
s.h.i.+ Feng’s decision even confused Aqua Rose.
With 2,000 Gold, one could buy a very good plot of Land in an NPC town. Even in Guild Towns, strategically located Shops only sold for 800 Gold or so, yet not only were Silverwing Town’s Shops only available to rent, but the rental cost was also 2,000 Gold per month. With so much money, players could permanently purchase two good plots of Land in another Guild Town.
Although Silverwing Town’s location was strategic, Teleportation War Fortresses had appeared in the Orc Empire. It was only a matter of time before the various large Guilds occupied these fortresses. Once that happened, Silverwing Town’s value would fall.
The wisest decision Zero Wing could make right now would be pulling as many merchant players as possible to Silverwing Town. By doing so, Zero Wing could make a fortune and solidify the town’s position and advantage in the Orc Empire.
Yet, s.h.i.+ Feng had chosen to rent the town’s Shops at astronomical prices, scaring away many merchant players that had solid foundations. When the various large Guilds began to capture Teleportation War Fortresses, these merchant players would gravitate to these fortresses instead. Doing this wouldn’t benefit Zero Wing.
But s.h.i.+ Feng paid the matter no heed.
First, the Orc Empire’s Teleportation War Fortresses were not that easy to capture. Second, Silverwing Town had five Magic Towers. Players could gain a full rest just by standing in the town; they wouldn’t need to rent rooms from a hotel. There was also the Spirited State buff, which could help players level up far more quickly. One could easily imagine how attractive Silverwing Town would be to players.
However, these players wouldn’t just loiter on the street like fools, doing nothing. They would stroll around the town and window-shop. The chances that they’d spend some money would be quite high.
In addition, unlike Zero Wing City, where players could acc.u.mulate the Double EXP buff even while they were offline, players in Silverwing Town had to remain online to take advantage of the Spirited State buff. They could only take advantage of the buff while offline if they rested in a hotel room or a Guild Hall. Hence, there would be many players strolling down Silverwing Town’s streets.
With how many players would wander Silverwing Town’s streets, business in the town would thrive as well as those in Zero Wing City. Naturally, he couldn’t ask for too low of a price for the town’s Shops.
Moreover, Silverwing Town needed to maintain more than just the five Magic Towers. There was also the Magic King, Craig Midlands. Silverwing Town’s daily operation costs could drive any first-rate Guild crazy. Including the fact that Silverwing Town needed the funds to develop and had limited s.p.a.ce, selling the Shops cheaply would be foolish. Rather, setting up hotels in place of Shops would generate more income for the town.
In the end, only six merchant a.s.sociations were willing to rent Shops in Silverwing Town.
Although there were so few, Zero Wing had still earned 12,000 Gold. This allowed the Guild to construct more high-rise buildings in the town, which would, in turn, hasten the town’s promotion to an Intermediate Town.
A neutral town’s promotion conditions weren’t like those of towns constructed within kingdoms and empires. In addition to the population and Town Reputation requirements, the neutral town also needed to achieve certain conditions.
These conditions involved a certain number of high-rise buildings and NPC merchants. Unfortunately, due to safety concerns, NPC merchants would rarely set foot into neutral maps.
The town needed to earn a C-rank in safety, but trying to do so with a Basic Town was excruciatingly difficult.
Because of this, neutral towns had a hard time getting promoted. One had to develop the town to its very limits before it could reach the next rank.
Of course, there were methods that could hasten this process, and one involved using a Town Promotion Order.
Only, the Town Promotion Order a neutral town required was unusual. To upgrade a Basic Neutral Town to an Intermediate Neutral Town, one would need a Gold ranked Town Promotion Order. Meanwhile, Gold Town Promotion Orders could be used to upgrade an Intermediate Town to Advanced rank in kingdoms and empires. One could easily imagine how difficult such a Promotion Order would be to obtain.
Even s.h.i.+ Feng did not have a guaranteed method of acquiring a Gold Town Promotion Order. All he could do was hasten the construction of high-rise buildings in Silverwing Town.
Although it was true that Silverwing Town currently had the ability to stop Beast Emperor’s forces, he wasn’t so arrogant to think that Silverwing Town’s current state would always be enough to stop Beast Emperor. After all, the Evil G.o.d’s Temple, which Beast Emperor belonged to, was everyone’s enemy on the G.o.d’s Domain continent. If given enough time to grow, Beast Emperor could definitely become strong enough to overcome Silverwing Town’s current defenses.
Moreover, Beast Emperor wasn’t the only enemy Zero Wing had to worry about. The various superpowers also eyed Silverwing Town. With these superpowers’ foundations, they would only grow stronger as time pa.s.sed. Once the various superpowers realized Primordial City’s true importance and gathered sufficient strength, they wouldn’t miss the chance to strike at Silverwing Town.
The various superpowers only saw the benefits Silverwing Town currently offered. However, they had neglected to notice the potential threat Silverwing Town could become. Hence, s.h.i.+ Feng needed to develop and fortify Silverwing Town as quickly as possible.
However, although Zero Wing currently had a goldmine like Zero Wing City, which earned a large number of Coins and Magic Crystals each day, it wasn’t enough to sustain the Guild’s development…
This was because Zero Wing had constantly recruited new members recently. Since the start of the latest recruitment drive, more than 150,000 players had joined the Guild. This number would only increase as time went on. Meanwhile, the Guild needed to provide all sorts of benefits for these new members, and to do so, the Guild would need a ton of resources.
Normally, new members were a good thing for a Guild. After all, the more members a Guild had, the stronger it would be. But Zero Wing wasn’t like first-rate Guilds. Zero Wing’s sphere of influence was tiny in comparison. As a result, although Zero Wing had gained more members, the Guild did not have the necessary territory to let these new members operate and generate wealth for the Guild, which was necessary to sustain the Guild benefits its members enjoyed.
To put it simply, Zero Wing couldn’t afford to take in so many members. If the Guild wished to develop, it would need a large amount of resources and Coins. Without the proper funds, the Guild couldn’t be self-sufficient.
Meanwhile, after the battle, s.h.i.+ Feng returned to Silverwing Town’s Candlelight Trading Firm and began to evaluate the Guild’s latest harvest.
After killing the Evil Demons and Evil Beasts, the Guild had acquired nearly 2,000 Evil Energy Crystals from this battle. This was a considerable harvest. However, it was a drop in the bucket compared to how many Evil Energy Crystals s.h.i.+ Feng needed.
“Huh? What’s this?”
As s.h.i.+ Feng inspected the loot from the Dark Hunters, he noticed a skeletal hand made entirely of crystal.
Surprisingly, s.h.i.+ Feng couldn’t actually inspect the skeletal hand normally. The system simply stated that it was an unknown item.
His curiosity piqued, s.h.i.+ Feng used Omniscient Eyes to inspect the skeletal hand.
The instant he tried to appraise the item, he heard the sounds of a series of system notifications.