Chapter 1048: Expanding into the Apocalypse Empire
Translator: Hellscythe_ Editor: Vampirecat
Chapter 1048 – Expanding into the Apocalypse Empire
“So fast!”
Hovering Feather could not help but rub his eyes as he looked at the massive mountain range in the distance.
He found it hard to believe what he was seeing was true.
Although he could tell from the strong winds pushing against his face that the Swift Dragon Speedboat was moving rapidly, he never imagined that the speedboat would actually be thisfast. It was definitely much faster than the fishing boats they had used before.
Time was money—this was a saying that the Gnomes of God’s Domain loved saying the most.
This saying was perfectly appropriate for adventurer teams like theirs, which made a living on the seas.
Ordinary players might not understand this, but as a veteran player who frequently fought on the seas, Hovering Feather was quite aware of the terrifying consequences this sort of time savings could bring.
Many islands possessed extremely abundant resources; even the high-resource maps on dry land could not compare.
However, they had a very severe drawback—the journey to these islands was simply too time-consuming.
Generally, players could remain in God’s Domain for only 30 hours or so and used the rest of the time for work, studies, and such activities in the real world.
On land, Guild players might need only five or six hours to travel to a high-resource map to level up. Afterwards, they would have over twenty hours to spend grinding at the map before having to return to a city to rest.
On the other hand, maritime players usually spent around twenty hours just searching for a high-resource island, leaving only ten hours to grind monsters.
Yet, despite this gap in actual grinding time, maritime players still managed to keep up with Guild players’ levels. One could see just how effective it was to level up on high-resource islands.
Meanwhile, players could also come across rare materials and good weapons and equipment more readily on high-resource islands.
If one’s travel time at sea got shortened to around five hours only, they could spend over twenty hours grinding on a high-resource island. With this, their leveling speed would be two or three times faster than that of players grinding at high-resource maps on land.
Two to three times the leveling speed of Guild players!
Just thinking about it excited Hovering Feather. At that time, it would be child’s play to overtake the leveling maniacs on the Apocalypse Empire’s Ranking List.
For now, though, he merely fantasized about this situation. An item like the Swift Dragon Speedboat was simply too rare. It was not an item he could get his hands on.
Just who is he? Hovering Feather could not help turning to look at Shi Feng and gulping.
At this moment, even if he was a fool, he could tell that his party had encountered a true expert. Otherwise, how could Shi Feng possibly possess such a powerful speedboat?
Hovering Feather wasn’t the only one who realized this problem. The other members of his party had likewise come to a similar appreciation.
“So this is a real expert!”
“I’ve always thought that such experts were arrogant and aloof bastards. I never thought that experts were actually such approachable people. I wonder if he has a girlfriend already. I want to introduce him to my younger sister.”
“What?! You have a younger sister?! Why don’t I know about this?! What kind of friend are you?! We’ve known each other for so long, yet you didn’t even introduce her to a handsome man like myself!”
“Scram! Although she isn’t related to me by blood, I can’t possibly push her into a pit of fire.”
“Alright, enough. Be serious. The expert is walking over.”
Only after Hovering Feather interrupted their hushed discussion did everyone notice that Shi Feng had already walked over to them.
At this moment, when they looked at Shi Feng again, they suddenly felt that Shi Feng’s figure seemed bigger than before. They also felt a heavy pressure bearing down on their bodies.
“We’ve arrived. I had a very good time chatting with you all during the journey. However, I still have some matters I need to attend to, so let’s part ways here,” Shi Feng said. He could not help but smile as he looked at everyone suddenly taking a cautious attitude towards him.
On their way here, they had not encountered any danger. Even when they met with sea monsters, it took very little effort to shake off the monsters with the Swift Dragon Speedboat’s speed.
Hence, during their five-hour journey, they had mainly been chatting and joking with each other.
Through their conversations, Shi Feng had also learned much about the Apocalypse Empire.
The information that interested him the most was the empire’s maritime situation.
In the past, as he mainly operated around Star-Moon Kingdom, he did not know much about the Apocalypse Empire, particularly the empire’s current state of affairs.
The Apocalypse Empire was a coastal country. Its development path was slightly different from Star-Moon Kingdom’s, which mainly focused on land. This divergence was considerably beneficial during the mid-late stage of God’s Domain.
After the game entered its mid-late stage, the competition on land became increasingly intense. The reason for this was the sheer scarcity of high-level maps. Moreover, high-level maps were usually located at the borders between countries, prompting the Guilds of various countries to wage war for resources.
With so many Guilds fighting over a limited number of maps, one could just imagine how little resources each Guild could obtain.
However, it was a different story for the sea. There were far more islands than there were players and Guilds to occupy and harvest them. For coastal countries that had long since developed their maritime power, gaining a large amount of resources and continuously improving their own Guilds did not take much effort. As for Guilds that realized this only then, how could they possibly contend against these coastal Guilds?
Hence, it was extremely important for Zero Wing to develop its strength at sea.
However, developing a Guild’s maritime power was not an easy task. This endeavor required massive amounts of resources and manpower. At the same time, said Guild also needed to have territory along the coast.
The Apocalypse Empire had a total of 26 NPC coastal towns and cities. Of these, three were cities, while the remaining 23 were towns. Ocean Viewing Town was the most inconspicuous one.
The three major powers of the empire had already claimed the three coastal cities, leaving no room for other Guilds to intervene. Fortunately, these three major powers did not pay much attention to the 23 coastal towns. Although other large Guilds were contesting for control over these towns, it was not entirely impossible for Zero Wing to try and get a share of the pie.
From Hovering Feather and his party members’ conversations, Shi Feng had found out that six of the 23 towns remained ownerless. Hence, he decided to have Immortal Light, Zero Wing’s subordinate Guild, come and develop at these towns.
In any case, Sinned Heart, the Guild Leader of Immortal Light, had yet to decide where he would develop his Guild next. Hence, he might as well serve as Zero Wing’s spearhead.
If Zero Wing abruptly expanded its influence into these towns, it would no doubt attract the attention of the three major powers. In that case, even before Zero Wing could start developing, it would’ve already been squeezed to death. However, Immortal Light was different. It was a small Guild that was not even considered a third-rate Guild. None of the local large Guilds would pay attention to it if it expanded into these towns. As for the three major powers, Immortal Light’s existence was no different from air to them.
With Zero Wing’s current foundations, it was definitely possible to let Immortal Light take advantage of the situation.
If Immortal Light could establish its roots at these coastal towns, its presence would be of great help to Zero Wing’s development in the future.
Afterwards, Shi Feng added Hovering Feather and the others as friends. He also mentioned to them that he was willing to purchase any rare materials the party found for a high price. He was even willing to exchange using high-quality weapons and equipment. This offer fanned Hovering Feather’s gratitude towards him. To independent players like them, the most difficult things to obtain were high-quality weapons and equipment.
If they had these things, their adventurer team would have a much easier time developing in the future.
After parting ways with Hovering Feather’s party, Shi Feng found a deserted location and used the Seven Luminaries Ring’s Space Movement. In the blink of an eye, he arrived before a small cabin beside a lake.
This mundane cabin was none other than the most famous Golden Sands Exchange Shop, located in ancient ruins in the Golden Sands Archipelago’s core area.
In the past, this place had been crowded with players. Practically every large Guild in the Apocalypse Empire would send people over daily to snatch up any rare items in the exchange shop as soon as they appeared.
Now, however, there was nobody here to compete with Shi Feng over these rare items. He could take his sweet time making his picks.
Just as Shi Feng’s hand grasped the handlebar and was about to push the cabin’s door open, the sound of a system notification entered his ears.
System: Congratulations! You are the first person to have discovered the Golden Sands Exchange Shop. Do you wish to pay 10,000 Magic Crystals to become a member of the exchange shop?