Chapter 1550 - City Opens
Chapter 1550 – City Opens
They’re done already? Shi Feng was a little surprised to hear the system notification.
Normally, even after a Guild City’s construction finished, it would take a considerable amount of time before the city could be opened to NPCs. Only after NPCs could enter the city would it officially open to the public.
NPCs were of utmost importance to a Guild City’s development. The sooner a Guild could lure NPC residents, the sooner a city could unlock its various functions.
He had expected to need a few more days before NPCs could conduct business in Zero Wing City.
Immediately, Shi Feng clicked ‘Agree,’ allowing the NPCs, who had been attracted to Zero Wing City’s scenery, to enter the city.
Shortly after Shi Feng had done so, he received a call from Aqua Rose.
“Guild Leader, for some reason, NPCs have begun to serve into the city. Many NPC merchants have even visited the City Lord’s Mansion, requesting to purchase the city’s Shops. All of these requests have time limits. Should we approve of them all?” Aqua Rose, who currently resided in the City Lord’s Mansion, asked anxiously.
This was the first time she had encountered such a situation. This had never occurred when she had managed Stone Forest Town, since all of the NPCs had long since secured their own Shops. Her job had only been the player-owned Shops’ management back at Stone Forest Town.
Now that Zero Wing City was complete, every plot of Land would become incredibly valuable. If they sold these Lands to NPCs, they wouldn’t be able to take advantage of them in the future.
“NPC merchants?” Joyfully, Shi Feng answered, “Of course! Sell them the Shops! The more, the merrier! But before you do, inspect the NPC merchants’ Reliability ranks and products and compile a list for me.”
NPC merchants were essential to God’s Domain’s players. This was because NPC merchants sold many of players’ daily necessities. Some even sold rare items that could not be found anywhere else. NPC merchants would also purchase miscellaneous items that players did not need.
Once a Guild City was complete, NPC merchants would come to the city to set up their own Shops. However, the NPC merchants in Guild Cities weren’t like those in NPC cities. Not only would they sell items similar to the latter, but they also offered certain special items. Unfortunately, there was a chance that these items would be counterfeits. Hence, when purchasing these special items, players had to rely on luck and foresight.
The NPC merchants that worked with Guild Cities were also differentiated based on their star-ranks. The higher a merchant’s star-rank was, the faster their Shops could be promoted. Meanwhile, the higher a Shop’s rank was, the Shop would have a greater variety and quality of items to offer. As these NPC Shops improved, they would help stir a city’s development and attract even more players and NPCs to the city.
Hence, the various large Guilds in the past had tried all sorts of methods to lure NPCs to conduct business in their cities.
Shi Feng had never thought that NPC merchants would seek cooperation the moment he allowed them to enter Zero Wing City. He had never encountered such a situation in his previous life.
Even after Shadow had upgraded one of its Advanced towns to a Basic City, it had gone through a lot of effort to attract NPC merchants. Now, however, NPC merchants had already sought him out despite the lack of any promotional work.
Is this a benefit given to the first Guild city? Shi Feng could not help but wonder.
By the time Shadow had secured its first Basic City in the past, many first-rate Guilds had already secured Intermediate Cities. The Super Guilds had even been in the midst of upgrading their cities to Advanced rank. Hence, Shadow’s city had had many powerful competitors.
On the other hand, Zero Wing City was the first player-constructed city in Star-Moon Kingdom. It had no competition to speak of yet. Without any better options, it was natural that NPC merchants had flocked to Zero Wing City.
After speaking with Aqua Rose, Shi Feng hailed an advanced carriage and made his way to Zero Wing’s Residence with Youlan’s group.
There are so many people! When they alighted from the carriage and saw the long line of players outside the Residence’s entrance, Youlan was surprised.
Thousands of players had lined up outside of Zero Wing’s Residence, and most of their standards were quite high. On average, these players were above Level 40. There were even quite a few players in Level 40 Fine-Gold Weapons and Equipment in the queue.
However, these players paled in comparison to the 100 Zero Wing members standing guard by the Residence’s main entrance.
Every player in the 100-man team was Level 43 or above. The team leader was even Level 46. The most inferior piece of equipment these players wore was Level 40 Secret-Silver rank. As for the leader of the team, he wore a Level 45, Fine-Gold Set Equipment and carried a Level 45 Dark-Gold longbow. Surprisingly, despite being so well-equipped, these players only wore Zero Wing’s silver Guild Emblem, which denoted that they were elite members; they didn’t wear the purple Guild Emblem for core members.
These are merely Zero Wing’s elite members? Dark Eye couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the Level 46 Ranger guarding the entrance.
Even he was jealous of the Ranger’s equipment. Wearing a full set of Level 45 Fine-Gold Set Equipment was no different than having a full set of Level 45 Dark-Gold equipment. Dark Eye only had four pieces of Level 45 Dark-Gold Equipment on him, while the rest was Level 40 Dark-Gold Equipment.
Unfortunately, Level 45, 100-man Team Dungeons weren’t easy to raid, and they dropped a limited amount of weapons and equipment. It had taken a lot of effort to collect the pieces he wore.
The Ranger had also reached Level 46. In a first-rate Guild, the Ranger would definitely be an expert and given the position of a core member, yet in Zero Wing, the Ranger only qualified to become an elite member…
Youlan couldn’t help her rueful sigh when she saw the elite team guarding the entrance either.
Zero Wing was no longer the Guild she had known in the past. With such foundations, it was no wonder why Shi Feng dared to provoke the Blackwater Corporation.
“Hahaha! Another group of people who are dumbfounded by Zero Wing’s equipment have arrived? How many is that now?”
“Why wouldn’t they be shocked? We’re talking about Level 45 Fine-Gold Set Equipment. Even experts would be lucky to obtain Level 45 Fine-Gold Equipment, much less Level 45 Fine-Gold Set Equipment.”
“Level 45 Fine-Gold Set Equipment would definitely be top-notch in other Guilds and adventurer teams, but it’s nothing in Zero Wing. I’ve heard that Zero Wing’s core members can even purchase Tier 1 Set Equipment. Do you even know what a Tier 1 Set Equipment is? It’s even better than Level 45 Dark-Gold Set Equipment!”
“The Tier 1 Set Equipment is old news already. Based on what I’ve heard from Zero Wing’s internal members, the core members are even allowed to purchase Epic items. Quite a few are already sitting in Zero Wing’s Warehouse waiting for players to trade in their GCPs.”
“What?! Zero Wing is even offering Epic Equipment?! Don’t Guilds usually assign such items to specific players?”
…
When the players in line before the entrance saw Dark Eye and his companions, they launched into a discussion about Zero Wing. Moreover, as they spoke, they become more passionate. Their conversations even caused the players behind them and passersby to drool.
Dark Eye’s team, who overheard the conversations, were at a loss for words.
They had assumed that they could easily become core members after joining the Guild. After all, they had been considerably high-ranked experts in Underworld. But after seeing the Level 46 Ranger guarding the entrance, their confidence faded to nothing.
“Let’s head inside,” Shi Feng said, paying no attention to the players’ conversations outside. As he approached the entrance, he revealed the black Guild Emblem reserved for Zero Wing’s upper echelons. After a few hushed words with the Level 46 Ranger, he led Dark Eye and the others into the Residence.
When the crowd saw the cloaked Shi Feng reveal a black Guild Emblem, they went into an uproar.
“A black Guild Emblem! That is one of Zero Wing’s upper echelons!”
“A Guild Emblem cannot be faked. That player is definitely a big shot in Zero Wing. I wonder who those people following him are? Could they be Zero Wing’s core members?”
“That’s impossible. If they’re core members, why don’t they have Guild Emblems?”
“They should be here to join Zero Wing. They seem pretty high-leveled and are fairly well-equipped.”
“Those people sure are lucky! They actually know one of Zero Wing’s upper echelons! They’ll be able to join the Guild without taking any tests!”
The waiting players couldn’t help but envy Youlan and her companions.
…
Shortly after Youlan and the others entered Zero Wing’s Residence, a stealthed Assassin at the street corner revealed himself. This was none other than Third Ghost, one of the Seven Ghosts Shi Feng had clashed with in the past.
“Zero Wing actually dares to shelter Youlan’s group? They aren’t taking Blackwater seriously.” Third Ghost sneered as he watched Youlan’s group enter Zero Wing’s Residence. “It seems that it’s time to report to the higher-ups.”