Chapter 165 - A Foolish Choice?
Shi Feng completely ignored the high prices these Guilds were willing to pay. He headed to the appointed Hotel directly.
He had stockpiled Hard Stones for so long, to the point where He had purchased 90% of the Hard Stones available in White River City. Thus, he would not reveal his hand just for this little bit of profit.
Right now, the danger of equipment durability was only beginning. Along with the constant increase of players’ levels, they would head towards monster areas of a higher level. Very quickly, players would discover the problem regarding their equipment durability and the importance of Whetstones. If they did not possess Whetstones, it would greatly affect their leveling speed, and as a result, others would increase the gap between them. This result had caused the demand for Whetstones to soar; they were as popular as the commonly used Regeneration Potions and Mana Recovery Potions.
Meanwhile, Hard Stones were required to make Whetstones. Along with the growing demand for Whetstones, the prices of Hard Stones would still increase by several folds.
In Shi Feng’s previous life, Hard Stones once sold for a maximum price of 3 Silver Coins per stack; its price had increased by tenfold from the original. Right now, due to God’s Domain’s evolution and the investment of major corporations, the available resources were more precious than in Shi Feng’s previous life. Most likely, the prices of Hard Stones would increase to record highs. The current price of 80 Copper per stack was only the beginning.
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Red Leaf town, Trade Area, Black Rose Bar.
At this moment, Fire Dance had gathered her entire team to discuss matters regarding the team’s future development.
Fire Dance’s team often frequented this Black Rose Bar, as it occupied a more secluded region; very few players came to this place. Thus, this place became the gathering spot for Fire Dance’s team. Every time they completed a Dungeon raid or obtained some precious item, they would come to this bar to celebrate.
“Fire Dance, we understand what your intentions are. However, I will still tell you the same thing. We are only playing God’s Domain to pass the time, and we don’t have any great ambitions. We prefer to be free, and we aren’t planning to earn any achievements through God’s Domain. If you want me to join that person called Ye Feng’s team, I can only tell you that I’m sorry.”
“That’s right, Fire Dance. If it were a normal situation, maybe joining would be fine. However, Ye Feng has a beef with Martial Union, and right now, Martial Union targets us too. Martial Union has already put out the word that, if we do not sever our relations with Ye Feng and apologize to them, we won’t ever need to think about leaving town to level up and quest. If we leave town, they’ll just kill us and send us back. If we join Ye Feng’s team, won’t we end up in an even worse situation?”
“That’s right! Martial Union is just too powerful right now. There is no way Ye Feng can establish himself in Red Leaf Town. If you want us to join Ye Feng’s team, I can only look for another way out of this.”
“I, too, share this opinion. We have lost a lot of our levels, and our average right now is only Level 5. We can only apologize to Martial Union if we want to have the possibility to continue mingling in Red Leaf Town. If we join Ye Feng’s team, we’ll truly be finished.”
“According to my investigations, the Martial Union branch in Red Leaf Town is completely under the control of that person called Unstable Devastation. He has gathered all the players from Martial Union in five different towns to Red Leaf Town, and he is prepared to go all-out developing in Red Leaf Town. There are many experts from Martial Union in Red Leaf Town right now. Their Guild’s treatment is generous, and its development rate is impressively fast. I heard that their member count has already exceeded 1,000, and amongst them, there are over 200 elite members. They are much stronger than before.”
“Martial Union has the ability to constantly target us and prevent us from leaving town to grind and level up. We can afford to provoke them any longer.”
“Even if we reach Level 10 and go to White River City, Martial Union’s member count would have exceeded 10,000 by then. It would only be a simple matter for them to deal with us. It was a mistake to provoke them right from the very beginning. Our only way out of this mess is to offer them an apology.”
“Right, I agree as well. Our original goal in playing God’s Domain was simply to mess around. We are completely different from that Ye Feng who has embroiled himself in a fight with Martial Union. If you, Fire Dance, wish to join him, please don't drag us in as well. We don’t wish to be under surveillance 24 hours a day.”
Fire Dance did not expect everyone to voice their opinions. They all expressed their refusal to join Shi Feng’s team, and they even wanted her to apologize to Martial Union.
“Hah… I understand. I’ll only ask this one last time, then.
“If there are any of you willing to join Ye Feng’s team with me, please stand by my side.”
Fire Dance understood their troubles. Previously, they were all veteran gamers of virtual reality games. However, the virtual reality games they played before only had a player base in the hundreds of thousands. Even until the later stages of the game, a top-tier Guild would only have several thousand members. On the other hand, God’s Domain had made clear to them the true meaning of a large Guild and the true power of a game with over two billion players across the globe.
God’s Domain was completely different from any other virtual reality games. It had utterly shattered their concept of virtual reality games, as it was practically a second reality.
Previously, they didn’t think there was anything special about the various large Guilds. Only now did they truly understand how frightening a Guild could be in a virtual reality game. Just the members of Martial Union inside a single town reached the thousands, and it was still increasing. If they reached White River City, their member count would break into the tens of thousands. A team of independent players like themselves could not afford to provoke such a large Guild.
Moreover, such a large Guild like Martial Union was only an unrated Guild. As for third-rate, second-rate, and first-rate Guilds, they were tyrannical existences.
Although Martial Union was a very frightening existence in Red Leaf Town, Ye Feng’s shocking performance had been deeply engraved onto Fire Dance’s soul. She truly thought that she had wasted her time playing those other games before. Right now, only the thought of following Ye Feng filled her heart. She wanted to get to know and experience the world of apex experts.
“Fire Dance, wake up, alright? We will not follow you. Right now, our only way out of this mess is to apologize. Haven’t you always dreamt of becoming an expert in God’s Domain? If you continue fighting it out with Martial Union, you will head away from that goal. Stop being silly and acting foolish.”
After Fire Dance finished speaking, aside from Water Buffalo, there was not a single person who walked towards Fire Dance’s position. They all had their heads lowered, feeling that Fire Dance was simply too foolish. She had truly been bewitched by that Ye Feng for her to dig her own grave by joining him.
“Alright, since you guys have decided, Water Buffalo and I will join Big Brother Ye Feng by ourselves,” Fire Dance’s mood sank after hearing everyone’s decision. They had joined each other after much difficulty, dreaming of reaching some achievements in God’s Domain. Yet, the result was such in the end.
Soon after, Fire Dance opened her friends list, selected Ye Feng, and contacted him. Previously, she had told Ye Feng that she would contact him after speaking with her team. Now that everyone had finished their discussion, she had to notify him.
“Big Brother Ye Feng, I’m done on my side,” Fire Dance said, disappointed. Although she had long since guessed such a result, she originally thought that three to five others would follow her. Now, however, there were only two of them. She was too embarrassed to even speak of this matter.
“That’s great! How many people do you have? If we have enough, we can raid a team dungeon.”
At this moment, Shi Feng had just finished meeting with Cola and the others. He was prepared to focus fully on establishing a core team for Zero Wing. Before that, he sent Cola and the other two to visit the Auction House to purchase some bags with larger capacities, a large amount of Mana Recovery Potions, and some refreshments. He also asked Violet Cloud to join Blackie to grind and level up. However, he did not think that Fire Dance would contact him just in time. Her timing was impeccable.