The moment the system announcement went out, it immediately sent shockwaves through every player in the Divine Realm.
"Seriously?! I just put a party together to run a Dungeon, and now there's a system update? This is ridiculous!"
"Who's that amazing? They actually triggered a new expansion!"
"Ten hours of system maintenance — that's a really long update this time. No telling what changes we'll see when we log back in."
...
For a time, the entire Divine Realm was buzzing with discussion, everyone eager to learn the contents of the new expansion. The major powers were especially interested — after all, every new expansion represented fresh opportunities, and seizing those opportunities could be enough to rocket to the top.
It was just like the previous expansion, "Demon God Turmoil," which had caused dark cities to appear across the empires and kingdoms of the Divine Realm. Many guilds had seized the chance to rise during that time, such as the Heaven's Burial guild.
Now a new expansion had arrived — one significant enough to trigger a ten-hour system update. The scale of opportunity had to be enormous.
"The Rise of the Orc Empire is causing this kind of stir?" Shi Feng looked at the system notification with mild surprise.
In his memory, ordinary expansions never triggered offline system maintenance. Only truly massive ones did that — and even then, a ten-hour update was practically equivalent to a full system upgrade.
But Shi Feng didn't dwell on it. He simply chose to log off and rest.
Until the system update was complete, no one other than the Main God System itself would know the contents of the new expansion.
After logging off, it was only five o'clock in the morning in the real world. For many people, this was already time to get up. When players went too long without moving, even a virtual reality pod could only maintain their bodies in a basic state — prolonged inactivity made the brain's control over the body feel unfamiliar, creating the disorienting illusion that the real world was the virtual one.
No sooner had Shi Feng opened his eyes inside his virtual reality pod than a barrage of messages greeted him.
"Winning the championship of the friendly match really brought a mountain of extra work." Shi Feng scanned through the messages. Most had come from his assistant Liang Jing — invitations for him to attend various events hosted by major corporate groups in his capacity as head coach. Nothing like this had happened before.
Now that the Beidou Training Hall had thoroughly crushed the White Tiger Martial Arts Dojo — on top of the White Tiger Dojo's own extensive promotional campaigns — the Beidou Training Hall was hotter than ever. Every day, an endless stream of people came to sign up, including no shortage of professional players from the city.
Because of this, Hei Zi had told him that Zero Wing had recently recruited close to a hundred new trainees for internal development. If they kept expanding at this rate, the current Green Water Villa wouldn't be nearly enough.
Shi Feng had been thinking about this problem too.
But Bai Qingxue's acquisition efforts had made no progress — Snake of the Body stubbornly refused to let go of their training base, putting Bai Qingxue in an impossible position. The only option was a war of attrition: maintaining the training base required significant capital, and sooner or later the enterprises backing Snake of the Body would buckle. After all, the funds Shi Feng had obtained from Feng Qianyu were more than ample — enough to build an entirely new facility from scratch. It was simply a matter of time.
Time spent offline was enough to work Shi Feng to the bone. He had to balance his own training with coaching Hei Zi and the others, and looking at the packed rooms, he felt more and more keenly that securing his own training facility was essential.
"Head Coach, someone from the White Tiger Martial Arts Dojo is here. They say Master Jiang is inviting you over for tea. Should I make arrangements?" Liang Jing contacted him suddenly.
"Does the White Tiger Dojo have some urgent business?" Shi Feng couldn't help but laugh. Last time, Jiang Tianyuan had flatly rejected his proposal with nothing more than a brush-off, and now he wanted to talk again. "That's amusing, but I don't have time right now. The Divine Realm update will be finishing soon — just tell them next time. I'm busy today."
"Next time?" Liang Jing was stunned. This was an invitation from Jiang Tianyuan — someone even Director Xiao would probably show up for obediently — and Shi Feng was turning it down outright.
But Shi Feng had spoken, so Liang Jing had no choice but to comply and politely decline the invitation on his behalf.
Meanwhile, waiting in the lobby of the Beidou Training Hall, Xie Qiwen was first taken aback, then let a cold smile curl across his lips.
"This Shi Feng's got some nerve — refusing even our Master Jiang's personal invitation!" Xie Qiwen had been worried that Jiang Tianyuan thought highly of Shi Feng, which was why he'd been sent to extend the invitation in person. But now that Shi Feng had sealed his own fate, Xie Qiwen could barely contain his glee. "Good. I'll relay every word of this to the Master."
After Xie Qiwen left, Shi Feng returned to his rest room, downed an A-grade nutritional potion, and re-entered the Divine Realm.
Upon logging back in, everything appeared just as before. Shi Feng noticed no changes whatsoever, which left him quite puzzled.