Chapter 2735 - Different God's Domain, Zero Wing's Decision

“Why are there so many NPCs?” Purple Jade couldn’t believe her eyes as she looked at the NPCs chatting merrily on the main street.

Their current location was an island nation on the western continent, with an incredibly harsh environment. As a result, the player population here was insignificant, let alone the NPC population. If not for the increased trade between the two main continents, which attracted many powers and merchant players to the Typhoon Empire, the number of people walking on the main street wouldn’t have exceeded 100. So, what was with this situation?

With just a casual glance, she already spotted more than 1,000 NPCs, many of them NPC adventurers; players were only a small group of unremarkable existences.

After pondering for some time, Yuan Tiexin turned around and asked the Tier 3 Ranger, “Have you investigated the origins of these NPCs yet?”

“We’ve investigated already. However, we don’t know where these NPCs came from. The only thing we know is that these NPCs seem to have appeared directly inside the various NPC cities,” the Tier 3 Ranger replied, shaking his head. Anxiously, he continued, “The appearance of these NPCs has caused a sharp drop in the number of quests available in the Adventurer’s Association. The number of quests players can pick up is continuously decreasing. Moreover…” “What else is there?” Yuan Tiexin asked curiously.

“According to reports, many players have been killed after coming into conflict with NPCs outside the cities. However, this still isn’t the most important part.” In an uneasy tone, the Ranger continued, “Now, many NPCs have also flooded into the various Guild Towns and Cities, and some NPCs with bad behavior have caused a lot of incidents. Most importantly, according to our observations, various NPC forces are actually secretly investigating us…”

“How is this possible?!” Purple Jade goggled in shock.

She never thought that there would come a day where the NPCs who only knew how to give quests would secretly investigate them. She got goosebumps at the thought of this. It was as if the dolls they were playing with had suddenly gained life and began secretly observing their every action.

At this time, the Secret Pavilion wasn’t the only one shocked by the sudden influx of NPCs in the game. The various powers and players of God’s Domain were similarly horrified by this situation.

“What’s going on? Why are so many NPCs competing with us for quests?”

“That’s nothing! I feel that these NPCs are looking at us players as if they are looking at aliens! Some bars in the city are actually refusing entry to players!” “You think that’s surprising? Wait till you go out to the fields. Right now, the NPCs out in the fields far outnumber us players. Some of these NPCs are even stealing Dungeons from us!”

For a time, independent players had heated discussions over the sudden changes in God’s Domain.

Everyone felt as if they had truly arrived in a different world. Now, in addition to other players, they also had to compete with NPCs. Moreover, these NPCs were even more difficult to deal with than players.

Not only were these NPCs powerful, but they also had an overwhelming advantage in numbers over players. The only advantage players had was their inability to die a permanent death.

However, as if understanding this point, the NPCs generally didn’t forge irreconcilable feuds with players. Most of them would only teach the players that offended them a lesson. Only the dark forces’ NPCs disregarded this matter.

Compared to the independent players, though, the various powers were the ones that had a truly big headache. “Dammit! Why did all these NPCs come from?!”

“Instead of staying in NPC cities, they actually came to make trouble in our Guild Towns and Cities. Many of our businesses can’t even operate normally, thanks to them.” “That’s not all! Some NPCs are even robbing our mines and transportation teams!” Along with the sudden influx of NPCs, the various powers suddenly found that the difficulty of maintaining the security of Guild Towns and Cities and completing large-scale transportation quests had increased drastically. Some superpowers had even tasted getting bullied for the first time since entering God’s Domain.

However, the current players were simply no match for these NPC forces. Even the superpowers had no choice but to abandon many of their development plans and focus on protecting their territories. As for the major powers, they even began abandoning some of their Guild Towns to concentrate their forces on defending their crucial territories.

For a time, the various player forces in God’s Domain shrank rapidly. Simultaneously, they also began recruiting members desperately to defend against the NPC forces’ assault.

Silverwing City, Zero Wing’s Residence:

Due to the sudden increase in the game’s NPC population and the many incidents subsequent to this change, Zero Wing’s upper echelon had gathered to discuss how to deal with these NPCs.

“Guild Leader, the major powers are frantically recruiting members to consolidate their power. They are also spending a lot of money to hire Tier 3 NPCs from the Adventurer’s Association to guard their Guild Towns. If we don’t act now, I’m afraid the more powerful Tier 3 NPCs will be snatched up by others,” Liang Jing said anxiously to Shi Feng after reading the latest report. The sudden influx of NPCs had caught every player off guard.

Originally, the changes to the NPCs after the first major update was already a slight problem. Now that the NPC population far surpassed the player population, this change was no longer just a problem but a disaster.

Zero Wing’s three Guild Cities held strategic locations and also had incredible growth potential. Meanwhile, according to the information Liang Jing’s subordinates sent her, many NPC forces had already set their sights on Zero Wing’s Guild Cities. These NPC forces refrained from taking action only because they were still investigating Zero Wing’s strength. However, once they completed their investigation, they would most likely take action immediately. If an NPC force took action, it could create much more trouble than a player force. While the possibility of a frontal confrontation was low, it wasn’t exactly impossible. And even if the various NPC forces did not directly assault Zero Wing’s Guild Cities, they could still dispatch NPCs to lurk around the Guild Cities’ trade routes and ambush susceptible targets. That would be a nightmare for Zero Wing.

Hence, Zero Wing had to increase its defenses as soon as possible.

“That’s right! Guild Leader, if we act slowly, the various major powers will steal all of the powerful Tier 3 NPCs!”

The other management personnel present nodded in agreement with Liang Jing. In the current situation, even the various superpowers had to lower their heads and hire NPCs from the Adventurer’s Association. If Zero Wing didn’t act now, it would soon be too late.

After all, there was a limited number of Tier 3 NPCs available for hire at the Adventurer’s Association. If the other powers got to pick first, nothing would be left for Zero Wing.

Although Zero Wing also had many powerful Tier 3 Personal Guards, these Personal Guards were still far from enough to maintain the security of three cities.

Moreover, the difficulty of directly recruiting Tier 3 Personal Guards was incredibly high. At best, players could only recruit Tier 2 NPCs with good Growth Potential. In addition, Personal Guards cost a lot of money to nurture. On the off chance these Personal Guards died in combat, Zero Wing would suffer a major blow.

However, the Adventurer’s Association’s NPCs wouldn’t pose such a problem. Even if these NPCs died, it was none of Zero Wing’s concern. The Guild wasn’t obligated to pay a huge price to resurrect these NPCs.

“That won’t be necessary.” Shi Feng shook his head. “While hiring the Adventurer’s Association’s Tier 3 NPCs is indeed a solution, it isn’t a long-term one. The cost to hire these NPCs is excessive. Any random Tier 3 NPC will cost at least 100 Gold per day to hire, and the defense of a Small City will require at least 500 Tier 3 NPCs. That’s an expenditure of 50,000 Gold per day.”

Only the superpowers could afford to pay a daily maintenance fee of 50,000 Gold for one Guild City. However, it was a different story for Zero Wing. Zero Wing originally already spent a lot of Coins every day. In fact, the Guild was reliant on selling Coins for Credits to maintain the operation of its headquarters in the real world. Hence, it couldn’t afford to hire Tier 3 NPCs to safeguard its Guild Cities at all. “But quite a number of NPCs have begun making a ruckus in our cities. Fortunately, we have Tier 4 NPCs defending our cities, so those NPC forces are still cautious when causing a scene. However, if those NPC forces take action against us outside our cities, we’ll have a difficult time managing the situation,” Youlan said worriedly.

Previously, as their opponents were only players, they could still deal with the situation. However, now that their opponents were Tier 3 NPCs that ranged between Level 130 and Level 160, Zero Wing was in an incredibly unfavorable situation.

Of Zero Wing’s combatants, the only ones capable of fighting the hostile NPCs were the Guild’s Personal Guards. However, these Personal Guards were necessary for maintaining order in the Guild Cities.

“Let’s just stop caring, then,” Shi Feng said, chuckling “???” Youlan was stunned by Shi Feng’s response.

Stop caring?

At this moment, let alone Youlan, the other Zero Wing executives present were also stunned.

What did Shi Feng mean by that?

If they stopped caring about this situation, how would the three Guild Cities generate income?

If the Guild Cities lost their trade routes, the items sold by NPCs would disappear from the cities. If that happened, the cities would lose a significant portion of their attraction for players. Moreover, the taxes collected from NPC merchants made up a large portion of the Guild Cities’ income.

“From today onward, Zero Wing’s three Guild Cities will prohibit entry to unrelated NPCs. As for NPC merchants, we’ll set an exception for them. However, each Shop is allowed to bring only ten people into the cities,” Shi Feng said calmly. “In addition, raise the entrance fees in all three cities to 20 Silver Coins and double the rent for the Shops. However, partnered powers may receive a 20% discount.” “Guild Leader?”Everyone present in the meeting room gaped in shock at Shi Feng’s words.

They could indeed prevent NPCs from making a ruckus in the three Guild Cities by prohibiting entry to the majority of NPCs. However, the development of the three cities would also stagnate. After all, players had to get their quests from these NPCs. Moreover, many of the items sold in the three cities were actually sold by NPCs. If they refused entry to NPCs, it would be equivalent to halving the income of the three cities.

As for raising entrance fees to 20 Silver and doubling Shop rent, that was basically saying Zero Wing wanted no players inside its Guild Cities.

Zero Wing would be digging its own grave if it instituted these measures.

“Just get it done. I have my reasons,” Shi Feng said, not bothering to provide any additional explanations. He then left the meeting room immediately. When the first major update took place in his previous life, the various powers already had plenty of Tier 3 players under their command, with some even having Tier 4 players. However, at present, not only was the NPC population boom much bigger than in the past, but the various powers also barely had any Tier 3 experts under their command. Hence, the damage the various powers would suffer in the ensuing chaos would definitely be much worse than in the past.

While Zero Wing indeed possessed great strength and even commanded Tier 4 NPCs, it was still impossible to maintain the three Guild Cities’ security with their current manpower.

The only solution Zero Wing had now was to take decisive action and thoroughly prohibit NPCs from entering its Guild Cities. Afterward, he would have Zero Wing’s members enter the Secret Covenant Tower in full force to raise their levels and strength. Otherwise, once the NPC population increased even further and the NPC forces began their assault, Zero Wing would be in a ton of trouble.

Soon afterward, Zero Wing’s three Guild Cities announced Shi Feng’s decision to the outside world. All three cities immediately went into an uproar.