Chapter 1 Underground

Silverwing Town, second basement level of the Zero Wing Residence.

At this moment, rows of old, weak, and disabled NPCs stood in the underground hall, which was the size of half a soccer field. The sheer number, over three hundred, puzzled the hundred-plus Tier 3 experts of Zero Wing who were standing guard.

"The situation outside is so tense right now. Instead of preparing for battle, why has the Guild Leader gathered us Tier 3 main force experts here? What exactly is he planning?" A tall, thin man, a Tier 3 player with a level of 115, wearing the badge of a reserve member of Zero Wing's main force, looked at the waiting crowd, completely perplexed.

As the former vice leader of a well-known adventurer team, he had only joined Zero Wing recently, becoming a reserve member of the main force after Shi Feng and the others left the East Continent. He wasn't entirely clear on how strong Zero Wing's foundation was.

However, he understood very well how powerful those Saint-Blessed monsters were, especially when they reached a certain scale. Their sieges were as easy as pushing over dirt.

Now, millions of Saint-Blessed troops were rushing towards Silverwing Town. Instead of quickly strengthening the town's defenses, they had gathered all the Tier 3 main force experts who were supposed to defend the town here, even making them wait for so long, just staring blankly at these old, weak, and disabled NPCs.

It was madness!

Many of the Tier 3 experts of Zero Wing present also found it strange.

Silverwing Town was not small, and there were many places that needed defending. They still needed to organize the guild's other Tier 3 experts and Tier 2 members. Time was already short, yet they were wasting two hours here...

They were starting to suspect that Shi Feng had given up on Silverwing Town.

For the core upper echelons of Zero Wing, Silverwing Town might just be a guild residence, but for the players who had lived in Silverwing Town for a long time, it was their home.

Just as everyone was quietly complaining, Youlan and Melancholic Smile suddenly walked towards the staircase in the hall. They stood on either side of the staircase, silently watching a young man walk down, their faces filled with indescribable respect.

"Guild Leader, all Tier 3 core members with the rank of Viscount or higher are here. They have signed confidentiality agreements. They should be able to incorporate all these NPCs using their quota of direct subordinates," Melancholic Smile reported quietly, looking at Shi Feng as he walked down.

"Good, let's begin," Shi Feng nodded.

Originally, he wanted to keep the matter of the Life Water a secret as much as possible, as this would allow him to better collect injured NPCs with good potential. But now that God's Domain had become like this, he couldn't worry about keeping it a secret any longer.

With Shi Feng's words, Melancholic Smile began to distribute Life Water to the NPCs who were standing in neat rows, one by one, which puzzled the Zero Wing members present.

"What exactly is he trying to do?"

"What rich vitality!"

"Why are these NPCs so excited?"

Many people knew about Life Water, but few had actually seen it.

The crowd watched as Melancholic Smile handed out bottles filled with the aura of life to the NPCs present. Each NPC who received a bottle went from being lifeless and gloomy to being full of hope and vitality. They were also filled with gratitude towards Melancholic Smile, vowing allegiance, which surprised everyone.

They could all see that these NPCs were not players' guards, but free NPCs who would never feel any gratitude towards players, let alone actively vow allegiance.

However, just as the reserve members of Zero Wing's main force were utterly bewildered, bursts of soaring auras erupted from the bodies of these NPCs.

The auras that these NPCs, who were originally much weaker than normal Tier 2 NPCs, now emitted, even the weakest of them, made the Tier 3 experts with the Realm of Micro feeling a chill.

The combined auras of over three hundred NPCs filled the hall, instantly causing the hundred-plus reserve members of Zero Wing's main force to retreat to the walls, each of them nervously watching the NPCs without moving, their faces extremely grave.

Because they could feel that if these NPCs wanted to, they could probably annihilate them all in an instant.

Especially the strongest of these auras, which were like abysses, were not comparable to ordinary Tier 3 NPCs. Facing these few individuals, they felt like they were completely sinking into a swamp, and even the surrounding magical elements were no longer under their control.

"Magic Domain?!"

Youlan, who was standing to the side, also widened her beautiful eyes, unable to believe that this was real.

Although she knew that Shi Feng and Melancholic Smile had gathered these old, weak, and disabled NPCs to do something, she never expected it to be so shocking.

Not only did they instantly turn over three hundred old, weak, and disabled NPCs into fierce tigers, but four of them even possessed Magic Domains, which was simply unbelievable.

It should be known that a Magic Domain, naturally generated, was something that only Tier 4 NPCs could achieve. This could be said to be a huge dividing line between Tier 3 and Tier 4 NPCs, and the reason why Tier 4 NPCs could crush Tier 3 NPCs.

It was because of this that the people of Sacred Heart could never approach Silverwing Town.

Because Silverwing Town had the protection of the Magic King Katy Dran, who was about to advance to Tier 4, Tier 3 players were simply no match for the Tier 4 Magic King Katy Dran.

Now, among these three hundred-plus NPCs, there were actually four who possessed Magic Domains, which meant that there were four NPCs who were only one step away from a Tier 4 class.

"Amazing! This harvest is really great!" Shi Feng, watching this scene, was also secretly amazed.

Although there were no Tier 4 NPCs this time, it was still a very rare thing to have four Tier 3 NPCs who had mastered Magic Domains.

Tier 3 mastering Magic Domain was already equivalent to having one foot in Tier 4. As long as there were enough resources, stepping into Tier 4 was a certainty.

Moreover, in addition to these four NPCs, the quality of these three hundred-plus NPCs was also quite good.

There was actually one NPC with Dark-Gold rank potential, eleven NPCs with Fine-Gold rank potential, one hundred and fifty-one with Mithril rank potential, and the rest were all Mysterious-Iron rank.

In God's Domain, NPCs with Fine-Gold rank potential or higher were hard to come by. Aqua Rose had already scoured once before, and now there were still so many NPCs with Dark-Gold and Fine-Gold rank potential among these three hundred-plus people. This harvest could be said to be huge.

It should be known that any Fine-Gold Tier 3 NPC could compete with or even suppress the current monster-level Tier 3 experts. Such direct subordinates were rare in the various super forces and were all treasures.

Now, there were fourteen more all of a sudden, including three who had mastered Magic Domains, as well as one Dark-Gold rank potential and one Dark-Gold rank mastering Magic Domain NPC. This would probably make the various super forces want to kill someone.

After a brief silence in the hall, Shi Feng looked at the reserve members of Zero Wing's main force present.

"Alright, stop daydreaming. Now, follow the numbers you were assigned earlier, and come to me one by one to sign a contract with these NPCs," Shi Feng clapped his hands and said slowly.

As soon as Shi Feng spoke, the Zero Wing members in the hall fell silent again, and after two or three seconds, a commotion broke out.

"Damn it! Seriously!"

"The weakest of these NPCs are probably Mysterious-Iron rank or higher..."

"Can we directly sign a contract with these NPCs as direct subordinates?"

Hearing Shi Feng's words, everyone felt like they were dreaming, their mouths wide open, unable to believe that this was real.

It was already outrageous enough that the guild could recruit so many powerful NPCs, but now they were actually letting these NPCs become their direct subordinates. Who would believe that if they said it?

It should be known that even Mysterious-Iron rank direct subordinates were treated as treasures by the various first-rate guilds. Not to mention members of the main force, only guild elders and above were generally qualified to have them. As for Mithril rank guards, they were definitely exclusive to the guild leader and guild elders. No one else should even think about it.

But these reserve members of the guild's main force could actually sign contracts with these NPCs, the weakest of whom had Mysterious-Iron rank potential. This was even more outrageous than giving each of them an Epic weapon above level 100.

However, after a while, the Zero Wing members present reacted and rushed to Shi Feng to line up, signing contracts with these NPCs.

As for the distribution of NPCs, Shi Feng assigned each of these members a Mithril rank NPC. As for the Dark-Gold rank NPCs, he gave them to Melancholic Smile and Youlan, one each. At the same time, he gave Liang Jing and himself a Fine-Gold rank direct subordinate each, so that the three of them wouldn't have to worry about safety when entering and exiting God's Domain. As for the other Fine-Gold rank NPCs, they were given to the eleven members who had made the highest contributions to the guild, which made the other members of Zero Wing extremely envious.

Fine-Gold rank direct subordinates!

With such strength, even if they encountered a hundred-man Tier 3 team in the wild, the Tier 3 team would probably have to take a detour...

"Great! With the help of these direct subordinates, plus those direct subordinates stationed in Stone Forest City, and relying on Silverwing Town's defensive magic arrays and magic towers, we should be able to hold on," Youlan said, relieved, looking at the distributed direct subordinates.

Although the entire Silverwing Town was just an advanced town, Zero Wing had invested a lot of resources and money in it. Its defenses might not be comparable to a real guild city, but they were not much different. What's more, there were four magic towers and a Tier 4 NPC guarding it. Now, with so many powerful Tier 3 NPC guards, there should be no major problems in defending Silverwing Town.

"Hold on? It's too early to say that!" Shi Feng shook his head, a hint of a cold smile on his lips, looking at Youlan, who was relieved. "Since they dare to come, they shouldn't think about going back!"

Saying that, Shi Feng handed over the defense of Silverwing Town to Youlan and Melancholic Smile, while he himself went directly to the City Lord's Mansion in Silverwing Town.

In the core magic array control room of the City Lord's Mansion, Shi Feng took out magic crystals, a full six hundred or so, and arranged a new magic array on the core magic array.

The Magic Energy Notes recorded many powerful items, but the most representative of the Magic Energy Notes was the Magic Energy Magic Array, a special magic array that could forcibly elevate magic arrays to a new level.

Of course, there was a price to pay for doing so, which was that the consumption of the magic array would be more than three times the normal amount, and natural recovery would also take longer. However, compared to the effect gained, this price was not unacceptable.

As Shi Feng finished drawing the last magic array, a pillar of blood-red light suddenly burst out from the core magic array in the room, soaring into the sky.

Immediately afterward, a system notification suddenly sounded in Shi Feng's ear.

System: Silverwing Town has reached the standard for upgrading to a guild city. Do you want to upgrade?