Chapter 465 - Rapid Promotion
Blue Moon Restaurant, a high-class restaurant located in White River City. At this moment, the entire restaurant was completely reserved by Overwhelming Smile, and tens of elite members stood guard outside the building. Each and every one of these elite members of Overwhelming Smile was in a very bad mood, which showed in the fierce expressions on their faces. Any unrelated players passing by Blue Moon Restaurant would no doubt distance themselves from the building, as far away as possible, in fear of meeting with bad luck and getting into trouble.
Currently, Zero Wing and Overwhelming Smile were waging an all-out war with each other. While there was nothing bad to speak of about Zero Wing, the members of Overwhelming Smile were infamous for their tyranny. As long as Overwhelming Smile members felt even the slightest displeasure, they would try to make trouble for someone else. What Overwhelming Smile members did most frequently was field hogging. They would lay claim to an entire area and chase away all non-Guild members. However, although many independent players of White River City were furious over Overwhelming Smile’s actions, nobody dared to actually voice their opinion.
No doubt many independent players were cheering and clapping secretly over the war between Zero Wing and Overwhelming Smile.
It was especially true when news spread mentioning that Overwhelming Smile’s death count had increased significantly lately, and was now past the 8,000 threshold.
At this moment, two people, a man and a woman, were seated inside one of the booths on the second floor of Blue Moon Restaurant. The man was Feng Xuanyang, and the woman sat opposite of him was the quiet and elegant beauty Youlan.
“I’ve already looked through the information you sent me. It’s very well written; I’m quite satisfied with it. I also forwarded your analysis to the higher-ups, and they have already determined that Zero Wing is indeed a thorn in Underworld’s side. They’ve also said that if we cannot obtain Zero Wing, then we’re to destroy it to save us from future troubles. In addition, they have a very optimistic view on White River City right now.
“The current population of White River City has already exceeded two million. Many players from other cities, and even other kingdoms and empires, are constantly migrating here. At present, White River City has already become the second most populous city in Star-Moon Kingdom, so we must obtain control over White River City. This time, not only have the higher-ups sent a great load of manpower, but they have also increased our funding and are prepared to focus on the nurturing of Overwhelming Smile.
“I heard that after Zero Wing increased the compensations and rewards it is giving out, you increased Overwhelming Smile’s as well. I believe it should have increased the burden on your side significantly, right? However, you can rest easy and feel free to continue contending with Zero Wing. The higher-ups have already gathered 500 Gold as well as 300 million Credits for you. The Credits should have been sent to you by now. As for the Gold Coins, that will arrive in another hour or two at most. Afterwards, they’ll be sending even more Gold Coins and Credits. I hear that the higher-ups are very serious this time. Just the total amount of Coins they are planning to invest into Overwhelming Smile may be over 5,000 Gold, not to mention the Credits.”
Saying so, Feng Xuanyang snapped his fingers. In the next moment, another twenty people entered the private booth. Every one of these twenty people was shrouded in a thick layer of killing intent. Their bodies were as robust as a grizzly bear’s. Instead of looking like ordinary players, they looked more like a group of well-trained soldiers.
“These men are the Underworld Guards the higher-ups have dispatched. All twenty of them are party leaders, and every one of them leads a party of six members. In total, you will have 120 Underworld Guards to command as you see fit,” Feng Xuanyang said, smiling. “They are different from the other Underworld Guards. I’m sure you can tell, but they have all worked as mercenaries in the past. They are people who have walked on real battlefields. Isn’t Overwhelming Smile waging an all-out war with Zero Wing right now? As long as you have these Underworld Guards to assist you, those players who have never seen fresh blood will be easy pickings. Even if Zero Wing has more than 50 Tier 1 players, they will still be finished.
“I’ve already handed the men over to you. What they do next is up to you.”
“Young Master Feng, rest assured, I definitely will not disappoint you.” Originally, Youlan had already been confident of slowly exhausting Zero Wing to death. Now that she was looking at the two rows of neatly lined-up Underworld Guard party leaders, a sense of indescribable joy filled her heart.
Zero Wing’s 50-plus Tier 1 players had been giving Overwhelming Smile a huge headache recently, forcing the members of Overwhelming Smile into a state of passiveness. At this moment, they needed to similarly send out experts or Tier 1 players. Otherwise, they would simply be helpless against Zero Wing’s Tier 1 players.
However, Youlan had suddenly come to a realization.
Overwhelming Smile had plenty of elite members, but they were sorely lacking in experts and Tier 1 players.
Although not all twenty of the Underworld Guards standing before her were necessarily experts, and their levels only ranged between 23 to 24, they were all veterans of the battlefield. Meanwhile, now that the battles in God’s Domain were growing increasingly realistic, these people would have an undeniable advantage. They were much more powerful compared to ordinary elite players. If they worked together, they should have a very frightening effect on field battles.
Youlan could tell that the upper management of Underworld was taking things seriously this time.
Currently, the various Guilds in God’s Domain were desperately purchasing Coins. They had even secretly established many money-farming teams.
It was very difficult to accumulate 500 Gold. Not to mention, they were also planning to invest an additional 5,000-plus Gold Coins in the future. With such a sum of money, dealing with Zero Wing would be a piece of cake.
With the subsequent funding from Underworld, Youlan no longer had to worry about equipment. Currently, there were three main sources of equipment: Dungeons; the Auction House; and the virtual trade center. Unlike the Auction House, one used Credits instead of Coins when purchasing equipment from the virtual trade center. As a result, the prices of equipment sold there were very expensive. Even so, the wealthy did not mind doing their purchases through the virtual trade center.
The first reason was due to the supply of weapons and equipment there being much more abundant. This was because, in order to earn Credits, many Workshops and players would post their items up for sale at the virtual trade center.
The second reason was due to convenience. The currency of God’s Domain was not easily obtainable. Moreover, the trading procedures involved were very onerous.
With such a large sum of Credits, she could immediately fill up Overwhelming Smile’s Guild Warehouse and rebuild the confidence of the Guild members. At the same time, it would give Zero Wing immense pressure.
Hence, on the same day Youlan received the funds from Underworld, she purchased weapons and equipment ranging between Level 15 and Level 20 from the virtual trade center in bulk. The quality of the items ranged from Bronze rank to Fine-Gold rank. In total, she bought over 5,000 weapons and equipment, greatly boosting Overwhelming Smile’s morale. At the same time, she also raised the death compensation and kill rewards. Seeing this change, many more members of Overwhelming Smile were tempted to join in the field battles.
For a time, Overwhelming Smile’s momentum in White River City surpassed Zero Wing’s.
However, as the Guild Leader of Zero Wing, Shi Feng was completely ignorant about this occurrence. At the moment, he was focused on producing the Dragonscale Set Equipment and frantically raising his Forging Proficiency.
Recently, Shi Feng had been constantly busying himself with other matters. As a result, his Forging Proficiency had stagnated. Despite being the first person to become an Advanced Forging Apprentice, he had long since fallen behind Cream Cocoa and the others. These future Master Forgers had already become true Forgers. Meanwhile, Shi Feng himself still needed a lot of Forging Proficiency before he could become a Forger as well.
It should be known that only 3,000 Proficiency Points were required to get promoted from an Intermediate Forging Apprentice to an Advanced Forging Apprentice. Yet, in order to advance from an Advanced Forging Apprentice to a Basic Forger, 10,000 Proficiency Points were required; the amount required to rise a rank had more than tripled. Moreover, Advanced Forging Apprentices did not receive Proficiency Points from producing Common ranked items, resulting in a drastic reduction in promotion speed.
Melancholic Smile and the other two had only managed to become Basic Forgers so quickly because of the Basic Strengthened Armor Kit Forging Designs Shi Feng had provided them. In the future, however, even the Basic Strengthened Armor Kits would not be able to help them with their promotions.
Fortunately, the Dragonscale Set Equipment Shi Feng possessed was different. Not only was it of a very high rank, but it could also provide him with bonus Proficiency every time he succeeded in producing the Set Equipment. He also had the Forging Talent, Forging Genius, which had a fixed chance of giving him additional Proficiency Points whenever he succeeded in forging an item. Moreover, as the Dragonscale was a Fine-Gold Set Equipment, the EXP rewarded from its successful production was also very generous.
However, when producing the Dragonscale Set Equipment, Shi Feng had to spend ten Starfire Essences for each individual set piece. Moreover, even with the help of the various support tools he possessed, his success rate was less than 25%.
Even so, Shi Feng was already very satisfied with this result. If it were anyone else producing the Dragonscale Set Equipment, let alone 25%, it would be a miracle if they even managed a 10% success rate. Furthermore, the materials needed to produce the Dragonscale Set Equipment were not particularly precious, and he also had plenty of Starfire Essences.
Hence, Shi Feng madly produced the Dragonscale Set Equipment unmindful of cost. The more sets he produced, the more proficient he became. In addition, his increased brain activity also gave him an accurate grasp of the production process, allowing him to become increasingly faster and better at producing the Dragonscale Set Equipment as time went by.
Shi Feng never imagined that he would also have such a fortunate development.
Finally, after investing more than a day’s time, Shi Feng managed to completely use up all his materials and had succeeded at producing over a hundred sets. He was also promoted to a Basic Forger during this period of time, his promotion speed leaving one simply speechless. Furthermore, he had also leveled up to Level 26, his leveling speed even faster than when he was grinding monsters at White Fog Canyon.