Chapter 1 Silence Descends

As the auction venue's bell rang, the entire White River City fell silent. Almost everyone in White River City held their breath, staring intently at the magic water mirror that appeared in the streets, afraid of missing this battle for dominance.

Those players not in White River City entered the Star-Moon Kingdom's official forums to watch the broadcasts from those present.

It could be said that the entire Star-Moon Kingdom had become quiet because of this competition.

The members of the various major powers and independent experts spectating in the auction venue were also extremely nervous, quietly watching the giant magic water sphere that suddenly appeared in the sky above the arena.

The rules of the qualifier round were displayed on the giant magic water sphere, and they were completely different from the previous competition in the auction house.

The player competitions or gamble battles in the auction house before had involved ordinary prizes, so very few players participated. Any player could join. But now, the control of the White River City Auction House was at stake, a matter of great importance. With so many players participating, the system had set up a qualifier round.

Only players who passed the qualifier round were eligible to participate in the auction house's contest. If their level was not up to par, having more resources would be meaningless.

"Just a qualifier round, and the participation fee is already so expensive?"

The crowd looked at the participation fee set by the system, a whole piece of Epic-ranked material, and couldn't help but gasp.

Epic-ranked materials were extremely rare for the major guilds. An ordinary guild would be doing well to have twenty or thirty pieces, while larger guilds might have dozens. After all, the drop rate for this material in a Difficult-mode hundred-man team dungeon was extremely low. Only the first clear had a higher drop rate.

Moreover, to prevent players from farming low-level team dungeons, the system would not drop any of these Epic-ranked materials if the player's level was higher than the dungeon's level restriction.

As for equipping newly trained, low-level players with top-tier equipment to farm these low-level team dungeons, that wouldn't work either. These team dungeons also required the team's overall skill level, not just good player equipment. And players with good skill levels wouldn't stay at low levels. After all, the higher the level in God's Domain, the more opportunities there were. Staying at a low level for a long time for Epic-ranked materials simply wasn't worth it.

For these two reasons, the major powers had very few Epic-ranked materials.

Now, one Epic-ranked material was collected from each person. The participating forces had at least dozens of people. The qualifier round alone would consume all the Epic-ranked materials of a large guild…

Although everyone felt that the participation fee was very expensive, and ordinary guilds couldn't afford it, the number of participating major powers still exceeded a hundred.

In particular, seeing the Star Ring Guild send more than four hundred people at once, spending more than four hundred pieces of Epic-ranked materials, made the players of the major powers present tremble.

The vast number of independent players outside the auction house were even more shocked.

Everyone had known that the super powers were absolutely unprovable behemoths, and their financial resources were simply incomparable to those of first-rate guilds, but now, seeing the number of people participating in this competition truly exceeded everyone's imagination.

And this was just one city. These super powers weren't just competing for one city.

They could truly crush people with wealth alone!

"Is this what a super power is?" Qin Yin looked at the Star Ring members participating in the competition, feeling even more hopeless.

Regardless of the skill level of these super powers' experts, the financial power to send more than four hundred people at once was enough to completely discourage guilds comparable to first-rate guilds like theirs.

The auction house battle was not an ordinary player battle. Everyone would be randomly divided into five very wide wilderness battlefields. Players would fight each other on the battlefield, competing for the energy crystal balls that randomly fell from the sky. Whichever force obtained the most energy crystal balls would own the auction house.

However, players in this battlefield could not use magic items, and even small-scale large magic spells could not be used. It was a place that completely tested the overall strength of the major powers, and there was no way to cheat.

Although Zero Wing had also sent a full 112 people, which was more than top-tier first-rate guilds like Saint's Hand and Blood Fiends, Star Ring could send more than four hundred people at once. This advantage was simply too great.

In addition to Star Ring, Return of the Kings had more than three hundred people, Blackwater more than two hundred, Pantheon more than two hundred, and each of them could not be underestimated. As for the other super powers, they were mostly here to watch and didn't really want to compete for White River City.

Just as everyone was marveling at the super powers' foundations, the next scene in the arena stunned everyone.

All the players participating in the competition were sent to an independent space. In this independent space, there were more than a dozen trolls. The weakest of these trolls were Lords, and the strongest were Grand Lords, with three of them. The system's given level was slightly higher than the average level of all participating players, each level 65.

Level 65 Grand Lords, and three of them at once, plus more than a dozen Lord lackeys. Ordinary expert players would run away at the sight of them, but now the system wanted the players to survive in this space for one minute, and they couldn't use any items. The difficulty was so high that even the expert players present felt despair.

"Is the system joking?"

"This system must be crazy. Don't even mention three level 65 Grand Lords, I probably couldn't last thirty seconds against one level 65 Grand Lord."

Many experts present who had originally regretted not having Epic-ranked materials, which prevented them from participating in this competition and becoming famous, were now speechless. They were secretly rejoicing, otherwise they would have wasted an Epic-ranked material for nothing.

"As expected of the auction house battle, it's really amazing! The qualifier round is already at such a high level. This trip was worth it!"

"Indeed, the level is very high. With such a high difficulty, I'm afraid most people will be eliminated. Only the experts of those super powers will have more left."

"Small guilds that want to show their faces and become famous will definitely not have a chance. However, besides those super powers, I feel that Blood Fiends of Dark Night Empire, Saint's Hand of Glory Empire, and Zui Yu of Violet Sword Kingdom will definitely have a lot left."

"That's right. These guilds not only have the support of consortia, with good foundations, but also have a lot of powerful experts."

"Zero Wing's luck is really bad. Originally, they had thirty or forty more people than these first-rate guilds, and there was a glimmer of hope for competition, but with this qualifier round, I'm afraid the number of people participating in the official competition will be less than these first-rate guilds."

"Yes, Zero Wing has developed very well and has many experts, but the guild's development time is too short after all. It simply cannot be compared with those top-tier old first-rate guilds. If Zero Wing had been willing to get the investment of those large enterprises and groups, the foundation of experts would probably not be worse than guilds like Zui Yu and Blood Fiends now."

For a time, everyone began to discuss this qualifier round, guessing which guild would have the most people left in the end. Everyone had no objection to the number of people passing from the super powers. Instead, they discussed the guilds comparable to first-rate the most.

Time passed quickly, and a minute passed. Everyone became excited and stared at the giant magic water sphere suspended in the sky above the arena, very curious about the number of people who passed from the major powers.

Thousand Lights Family, 9 people passed.

Swift Wind Adventurer Team, 5 people passed.

Blood Fiends, 32 people passed.

…

Star River Alliance, 17 people passed.

Zui Yu, 26 people passed.

…

Saint's Hand, 35 people passed.

Return of the Kings, 237 people passed.

Pantheon, 175 people passed.

…

Blackwater, 204 people passed.

Star Ring, 339 people passed.

…

Zero Wing, 107 people passed?