Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The Werebear Treasure Room was nearby. It was the spatial wormhole right behind the Boss’ corpse. Inside the room, there were tons of items.
After using the key, the spatial wormhole, which was floating in mid-air, slowly opened, and plenty of materials appeared before Lin Jie.
—’You have received 4 units of Ice Crystal Brick.’
—’You have received 6 units of Polar Ice Dust.’
—’You have received 10 units of Needle Woods.’
…
The treasure room contained a large number of construction materials, which could be used to build towns as suggested by its name. This included campsites, villages, and other buildings. It would usually take players a long time, large manpower, and many resources to spawn construction missions after conquering a city. The rewards for those missions were all those construction materials. However, the items would usually be low-grade materials like ‘wood’ and ‘ores’.
Every 10 construction missions were considered a set, and each set would reward the player with 1 unit of materials like wood. But after plundering the entire Werebear Treasure Room, Lin Jie attained 380 units of Needle Wood, 300 units of Polar Ice Dust, and also 160 units of Ice Crystal Bricks. They were all rare construction materials that could only be found in the North Glaciers and were many times better than low-grade materials.
“Let’s keep all these materials. They’ll be really useful for our city siege,” said Lin Jie happily.
His goal for coming here was for these construction materials, but the loot was far greater than what he had expected. On top of that, after clearing the Werebear Crossroad, their support from the civilians increased by 1% as well.
“Let’s take the chance to clear a few more campsites and attain more construction materials before Tyrese sends us a message.”
Netherblue checked the map and said, “The campsites nearby belong to Centaurs, Murlocs, and Butterfly Demons. Which one should we go to?”
“None of them. Although these monsters are weaker and easier to wipe out, the materials we will get will be much fewer too. We’ll go to the Harpies’ campsite…” Lin Jie said as he mounted the Tiger King. Immediately, all of the members of Savage Blade summoned their mounts and rode ahead.
While Savage Blade was intensely clearing the campsites, the City of Light had been in chaos for 2 days. There was a crowd gathered in front of the bounty list. Whoever was to find the killer would be rewarded the title of Marquis! In The New Age, there were 5 types of ranking, all of which enjoyed different privileges. Starting from the lowest rank, they were Baron, Viscount, Count, Marquis, and Duke. Lin Jie, who was a Viscount, could command a part of the Paladins, enjoy certain discounts, and avoid punishments even if he were rude to certain NPCs.
As for a Marquis, the reward would be even greater! The player would immediately be gifted with a landed property! In the game, even the smallest house would have a courtyard, which was as good as a villa in real life. If one was able to attain a property in the game and invite some young ladies from the streets into the house to spend time together, just how great would that be?
Naturally, all the players wanted to grab this opportunity. However, they were just like blind cats trying to catch a mouse, and were only relying on pure luck. They would search up the names of NPCs in the City of Light and hope that they would get lucky facing the mission inspector.
“My lord, have you found the killer?” A young man stood beside the mission district attorney and asked with a smile as he offered a bottle of expensive chartreuse. He was none other than Baili Xuanyuan! Baili Xuanyuan now had extremely great support from the civilians and was competing with Lin Jie to acquire the city. This was all possible because of money!
Be it an NPC or a player, who didn’t love money? As such, Baili Xuanyuan’s plan was going smoothly.
The mission district attorney was an important NPC sent by the empire. He disclosed many pieces of information, such as the fact that there was an even higher-leveled main city that was above the City of Light, Sunshine City, and other cities. However, this main city was hidden in a mysterious country, and players would not be able to enter if they were not capable enough.
The NPC also revealed to Baili Xuanyuan that there was another human from the alternate realms that was trying to acquire the City Leader position. He had gotten help from the person in charge of the Holy Church to negotiate with Tyrese. The empire had given him 72 hours to find the criminal. If he failed to do so, the position of City Leader would be given to somebody else!
After hearing about this, Baili Xuanyuan hurriedly sent his underlings to find out any information regarding the killer while he continued to flatter the NPC.
“Human from alternate realms, you have a great attitude and power. You may be able to take on this important mission.” The mission district attorney was silent for a long time, before he continued, “This killer is also a human from alternate realms. But since your human species has the protection from the rules of Lord God, we are unable to inspect any further with magic and find the killer. However, the power of my empire has been challenged. If we allow the Holy Church to arrange for a new City Leader, the City of Light would no longer be under the control of the empire. Now, there is only one way left! Lead your army to clear the monster campsites and attain all useful construction materials for the city! If your contribution and materials are sufficient, you can become the new City Leader!”
‘A new mission!’
Baili Xuanyuan was over the moon. He just had to clear the campsites and attain materials to become the City Leader. On top of that, the time limit of the mission was 72 hours, which was 3 days!
“Everybody, listen, we will clear all campsites and retrieve all construction materials! Those who attain over 10 units of construction materials will receive 3,000$ in cash, while those who retrieve more than 100 units will be treated as an elite member of the Xuanyuan Alliance!” Baili Xuanyuan made use of money for power as usual. In just an instant, the entire Xuanyuan Alliance, including the countless second-rate guilds, third-rate guilds, as well as solo-players, sprang into action.
…
Savage Blade was slowly approaching a dense mountain valley. Harpies liked to build nests in trees. At that moment in this map called [Harpy’s Valley], the sky was dark, filled with Harpies flying everywhere! Countless feathers drifted slowly down, leaving black marks in the sky.
“Jie, there’s some trouble…” Zheng Ziliang said out of the blue.
The City of Light Central Auction House was suddenly flooded with mission messages, which all pertained to players buying construction materials!
Ever since the Brotherhood did a reform, all recruitment missions had been transferred to the Central Auction House, making them more flexible and convenient. However, there was a downside to this: the mission content could not be controlled.
For this, Lin Jie had made arrangements such that everyone would have to collect an identity card at the Auction House anytime they received a mission. After they completed a mission, they would gain points. Once their points reached a certain amount, they would be able to undergo assessments for them to join either the Brotherhood or Supreme Tribe. With that said, everything was still under Lin Jie’s control.
Lin Jie was shocked. After understanding the situation, he said, “They may be Baili Xuanyuan’s people! Or someone is trying to mislead us. No matter what, do as I say! Increase the trade tax for all missions related to construction materials by 300%! Ziliang, help me send out a mission. It’s also a mission to purchase construction material, and the price shall be greater than that other person by 10 silver coins. If he were to increase his offer, it’d prove that he has a motive and then increase the trade tax for items up to 1,000%!”
“Haha, how ruthless!” Zheng Ziliang gave him a thumbs up.
Netherblue asked worriedly, “Will people think that we, Brotherhood, are deliberately cheating?”
“Hmph, we’re cheating, to begin with.” Lin Jie scoffed. “The conflict in the City of Light is out in the open now. Other than Knight’s Glory and Vampire City, whom we’ll be giving special treatment to in order to rope them in temporarily, the other guilds, whether they are third-rate guilds or the Xuanyuan Alliance’s men, will all be suppressed by us!”
Baili Changcheng nodded and added, “You’re right. Now is the climax of our conflict. Players won’t think of you well just because you treat them nicely. Instead, the more oppressive you are, the more they will want to join.”
As the decision was made, the heart of all trades in the City of Light, as well as several nearby cities, the Central Auction House would be increasing the trade tax for all transactions that were related to construction materials by 300%! This sent Baili Xuanyuan into a fit of anger. However, even if Lin Jie was suppressing them, there was nothing he could do against him. After all, the monopoly of the Central Auction House was already deeply ingrained in everyone’s heart, and would not be destroyed in a short time.
“Continue to collect!” In response, Baili Xuanyuan ruthlessly continued to order his men to proceed with the purchase and shoulder the 300% tax. A unit of construction materials, which required only 30 silver coins, now cost Baili Xuanyuan 1 gold coin and 20 silver coins!
However, after seeing this, Lin Jie confirmed that Baili Xuanyuan had received some sort of strange mission that required him to gather construction materials. Lin Jie directly increased the price by 10 silver coins, and raised the tax of any transaction of items related to construction materials at the Central Auction House to the maximum: 1,000%! This meant that even though Lin Jie only increased the item price by 10 silver coins, Baili Xuanyuan would have to pay another 1 gold coin to buy it!
Lin Jie was the owner of the Central Auction House and had a huge advantage in this price war! After 1 hour, Baili Xuanyuan was no longer able to stand the pain of sending money into Lin Jie’s pocket and withdrew all the messages on acquiring materials. He then sent players to the surroundings of various monsters’ campsites to look for trades and ordered all members of the Xuanyuan Alliance to clear the camps.
The battle to scramble for materials had started!
After the death of the City Leader, there were countless monster camps that launched attacks at the city. Even if all the players in the City of Light were sent out, they would not be able to clear all camps. However, the endless waves of monsters allowed the players to make a fortune. Of course, there were many weak players that died among these battles.
As for Savage Blade, they were definitely the team with the most profits! Normal players would form a team of hundreds or even thousands of people to farm the monsters. Meanwhile, Savage Blade only had 25 people. Unfortunately, Ophadi Wantless was not around. Otherwise, their rate of farming would be even more terrifying.
The Harpy camp was the same as Werebear Crossroad, with it being a higher standard than normal camps. The Harpies that lived in the trees were able to attack with wind blades. Among them, there were even Elite Harpies with the ability [Wind Rage], which had a chance of dealing an additional 1 to 3 attacks after dealing Critical Hit Damage! While battling a Harpy, one should not be surprised to see more than 3 numbers popping up above their heads every second.
Harpies were known for their fast attack speed.
However, this was still beneath Lin Jie. After activating Blood Power and Heart of Enrage, his Attack jumped to over 3,000. When he used Devour, any damage that was below 1,000 would be immediately swallowed. Even if the entire population of Harpies in the valley was to attack at once, they would not be able to deal any damage! With Lin Jie blocking the attacks, it was naturally a walk in the park to clear the camp. They were even lucky and found a treasure chest that had an [Eye of Feather Drop] in it.
[Eye of Feather Drop]: Can be used on cloaks, helmets, and armors. You will be able to cast [Feather Drop Skill], which allows your body to be as light as a feather.
