Chapter 248 - Extraordinary Starts Out from Ordinary
Lone Tyrant wasn’t the only person who was enraged by the matter of the Ranking List. The other Guilds in White River City were similarly furious.
The Ranking List was a place for Guilds like them to increase their reputation. Although such a method of advertising was not as effective as obtaining the First Clear of a Dungeon, if they could occupy the Ranking List for extended periods of time, it would still bring about significant effects.
Now, however, Zero Wing occupied eight of the top ten positions, and many Guilds were disgruntled over Zero Wing’s monopoly of the Ranking List. These Guilds couldn’t help but wish they could invite Zero Wing’s Guild Leader and give him a piece of their mind to relieve their dissatisfaction.
---
At the Level 18 map Pyroxene Mountain, a 20-man elite team was currently clearing out the Level 18 Six-armed Stone Monkeys here.
The Six-armed Stone Monkeys were monsters with large bodies. Although they were two meters in height, their movements were extremely agile. Their Physical Defense was very high, and their only weakness was their low Magical Resistance. Hence, using large-scale magic attacks against these monsters would be very effective. Moreover, the Six-armed Stone Monkeys lived in groups on this mountain, and players could very easily lure a group and promptly kill them.
“Snow, the Ranking List has been occupied by Zero Wing. Moreover, their levels are all very high. It would be very difficult for us to catch up to them. It really makes you wonder how they managed to level up so quickly.” Zhao Yueru currently sat on a rock, resting as she replenished her Mana. After receiving a report from her subordinate and promptly taking a look at the Ranking List, she was immediately shocked by what she discovered.
As a player who had originally ranked within the top ten of the Ranking List, Zhao Yueru knew very clearly just how large a gap there was between Level 15 and level 18. At the very least, she would need to spend another week grinding before she could even reach Level 18.
This was equivalent to saying that these eight players would remain on the Ranking List for another week at the very minimum. However, this was assuming they did absolutely nothing during the entire week. If they were to continue grinding and leveling up at their current pace, who knew when there would be a change to the top eight positions?
“As expected, they are very strong. That Ye Feng has quite the ambition as well, even though he usually maintains a low profile. It seems that he has finally decided to take action now.” Gentle Snow did not feel any shock when she looked at the IDs of the top eight players.
“Snow, have you known all along?” Zhao Yueru asked, confused. She had a very clear understanding of Shi Feng’s capabilities. Shi Feng’s strength, leadership ability, and observation ability were above average; however, these traits alone were not enough for him to establish a Guild. Establishing a Guild was not as easy as playing a game of house since forming a Guild signified one’s intentions to compete for dominance with the other Guilds.
For a small Guild like Shi Feng’s, maintaining a low profile would be more beneficial. If they did so, most of the large Guilds would not have paid much attention to them. However, now that they’d done the exact opposite, they were practically telling the other Guilds to come at them.
“Mm, after they decided to hide their levels, I figured that their levels were not that simple. Ye Feng did not wish others to know, so he kept them hidden. Only, I never imagined that their actual levels would be so high.” Gentle Snow was greatly interested in these talents. She inwardly lamented the fact that these experts could only stay holed up in such a small Guild. If they joined Ouroboros, they would definitely shine with even greater brilliance.
If they stayed in such a small Guild, they would very quickly fall.
After all, a Guild needed financial resources to develop itself. Gentle Snow firmly believed that Shi Feng did not possess a frightening amount of financial resources, especially Gold Coins. There was also the lack of manpower. It would be impossible to develop a Guild in God’s Domain just by relying on several players. In addition, they would also have to suffer the oppression of other large Guilds. Hence, Gentle Snow determined that Zero Wing would not last long at all.
However, at the end of the day, Shi Feng was still her friend. Hence, Gentle Snow sent a message to Shi Feng, congratulating him on establishing Zero Wing. As to how he should develop his Guild, as an outsider, it would not be good for her to make any suggestions.
---
On the third floor of the Starstreak Trading Firm, the situation was not as grim as Gentle Snow believed it to be.
If Gentle Snow could see this scene right now, she would definitely be shocked. After all, not only did Shi Feng possess enough funding, he had also managed to recruit a group of players who had recently left a first-rate Guild, Twilight Echo. He had also managed to recruit Aqua Rose, who was once an honorary elder of Twilight Echo.
As someone who had once managed a first-rate Guild with over 10,000 subordinates, Aqua Rose possessed a wealth of experience. Hence, when placed in a situation where she had a large amount of financial resources but only a small Guild of slightly more than a hundred players to manage, she could carry out her tasks with little to no effort.
“Guild Leader, I have received your intentions. I will increase our member count up to 5,000 to the best of my abilities. As for the matter relating to the Guild perks system, for the moment, I will implement Twilight Echo’s Guild perks system as a temporary replacement. However, I hope that you can draft it as soon as possible. Otherwise, once some time passes, it would not be as easy to make changes to it.” Aqua Rose now had a good grasp of Zero Wing’s situation, and she felt very optimistic about Zero Wing’s future prospects.
Wealth, manpower, and fame. With all three things together, it would be very easy for them to recruit a large batch of new members.
“Then, I’ll have to trouble Miss Aqua with this matter.” Plans could never keep up with change. Based on his original estimates, it would still have been a long time before he established his own Guild. However, with the sudden addition of Aqua Rose, Shi Feng could not afford to wait any longer. Even if his preparations were currently lacking, he still needed to establish the Guild. Moreover, he had intended all along to deal with these Guild matters as soon as possible; it was just that he still had other things he needed to handle. Now that there was a professional standing right before him, why wouldn’t he make use of her?
“Guild Leader Black Flame, I am already the Vice-Leader of Zero Wing. Please just call me Aqua from now on. If Guild Leader doesn’t have any other orders, then I will start making the necessary arrangements now,” Aqua Rose said in a professional tone. Maybe because she had received a new position, Aqua Rose had very quickly entered a superwoman mode.
Shi Feng could only take a step back in this matter. He then returned to producing the Arclight Shields and Basic Mana Armor Kits.
Later on, the members of the Guild continuously increased. The reason being, Shi Feng had set the exchange of Basic Mana Armor Kits as one of the perks available to Guild members. This item held a fatal attraction to independent players, and if new members wished to obtain them, they needed to exchange for them using Guild Contribution Points.
Meanwhile, there were many methods for them to obtain Guild Contribution Points:
1) Dungeon diving.
2) Exchanging Bronze ranked equipment or above.
3) Making a contribution to the Guild - the upper management of the Guild would reward players who made a contribution with Contribution Points.
4) Carrying out Guild Quests - Contribution Points would be awarded by the system in this case.
5) Personal Guild Reputation received reaching a certain amount.
Hence, with so many methods available, Guild members would have no need to worry about not being able to earn sufficient Guild Contribution Points.
However, to prevent abuse by opportunistic players, further restrictions were added to increase the difficulty for Guild members to obtain the Basic Mana Armor Kits. Above all, one had to contribute a set amount of Reputation Points to the Guild before being allowed to exchange for the Armor Kits. Secondly, one needed a large number of Guild Contribution Points to exchange for the Armor Kits. Meanwhile, the total value of these Guild Contribution Points was no lesser than 20 Silver Coins.
With these two safeguards present, there would be no opportunity for Guild members to abuse the Guild perks system implemented.
Meanwhile, during the time Shi Feng was producing the Arclight Shields and Basic Mana Armor Kits, Aqua Rose had also arranged for her subordinates to recruit players at the Trade Area and Adventurer’s Association.
After half a day of recruitment, Zero Wing’s member count increased explosively. From the original hundred or so members, there were now over 3,000 players in the Guild. Moreover, the tide of players wanting to join the Guild showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.
“Big Sis Aqua, the number of players wanting to join the Guild hasn’t decreased at all. If this situation continues, we can easily recruit double the target of 5,000 members. Should we increase the number of players we recruit?”
“Follow the original plan; we won’t be able to handle so many players right now. If we did so, it would instead force the Guild into a period of stagnation, hindering our development. Increase the entry requirements for the Guild; raise the minimum level requirement from Level 11 to Level 12.”
Under Aqua Rose’s management, the newly recruited Guild members started taking on Guild Quests. Aqua Rose’s direct subordinates had also split up and formed new parties to raid Party Dungeons, upgrading the equipment of the new members. Everything was flowing smoothly at Zero Wing, and it did not look like a newly established Guild at all.
Before he knew it, nighttime arrived at God’s Domain. After making a large number of Basic Mana Armor Kits and three Fine-Gold ranked Arclight Shields, Shi Feng immediately logged out of the game.
The reason being, the Jin Hai Fellowship Party that Shi Feng had been looking forward to was being held today. He needed to make some preparations before he attended the party.