"Does Zero Wing really have the nerve to set that price? Do they really think only the Advanced Battle Rooms can improve a player's Skill Completion Rate?"
"Ten Magic Crystals—I could trade those for a decent piece of equipment, or enter the God and Demon Arena ten times!"
"Does Zero Wing think Magic Crystals grow on trees?"
The crowd in the arena lobby stared at the ten Magic Crystals displayed on the big screen, and quite a few top-tier players concluded that Zero Wing had gone certifiably insane over Magic Crystals.
True, player levels were higher now and there were more channels for obtaining Magic Crystals than before, but the total supply remained scarce—and the number of places demanding them had only grown.
Ten Magic Crystals far exceeded what most top-tier players could stomach. After all, even a full day of grinding might not net ten. Who would blow an entire day's worth of earnings just to squeeze out a marginal improvement in Skill Completion Rate?
The only silver lining was that there were far more Advanced Battle Rooms than before—a full thirty of them—which made the wait considerably shorter for anyone looking to train. In truth, not many top-tier players had been willing to rent them in the first place, and those who did only showed up every so often.
Still, the elite players of the major factions were knitting their brows. They were the primary tenants of the Advanced Battle Rooms, and while they could technically afford the price, guild budgets for Magic Crystals were already stretched thin. Blowing a large chunk of the allocation on this felt like poor value.
Fighting simulated creatures inside the Advanced Battle Rooms could indeed accelerate learning and boost Skill Completion Rate—but the higher the rate climbed, the harder each incremental gain became, and the less the rooms contributed. For players at their level, a single training session was hardly worth ten Magic Crystals. Yet at the same tier, there was nowhere else that offered a comparable environment for pushing Skill Completion Rate any higher.
It was an awkward position to be in.
"Wait—there's an update on the Advanced Battle Rooms." While the lobby buzzed with debate, new regulations appeared on the arena's main screen.
First, the session duration for Advanced Battle Rooms had been extended to fifty minutes.
Second, Zero Wing regular members received a ten-percent discount, elite members twenty percent, and core members thirty percent. On top of that, the guild had reserved ten Advanced Battle Rooms exclusively for its own members.
The moment this news hit, the lobby erupted once more. Members of rival factions looked at the Zero Wing players around them with undisguised envy—this was a genuine guild perk.
A perk almost envious enough to kill for.
Originally ten Magic Crystals, but a core Zero Wing member now paid only seven. Factor in the extended duration, and the effective price was essentially unchanged. Meanwhile, the total number of Advanced Battle Rooms had increased, and the guild-exclusive rooms meant Zero Wing members would likely be able to walk right in without waiting in line from now on.
Within moments, a wave of independent top-tier players filed out of the arena and headed straight for Zero Wing's headquarters to apply for membership. Many elite and veteran players from rival factions grew visibly torn.
The executives of the major guilds, upon receiving the same news, went pale with fury.
"Zero Wing would actually resort to a move like this?"
"Now Zero Wing is truly going to skyrocket."
One decisive battle had already cemented Zero Wing's absolute dominance within the Star Moon Kingdom. No local guild dared challenge them anymore—which meant no guild in the Star Moon Kingdom would compete with Zero Wing for the kingdom's resources. Naturally, Zero Wing's own members would reap the lion's share.