After a brief silence in the rest hall, the room erupted into an uproar.
Everyone thought the plan Shi Feng had proposed was insane. Setting aside how many more evil beasts and evil demons they were facing, the Legendary-tier evil demons and evil beasts alone were enough to result in a total wipeout.
Not to mention that deep in enemy territory, reinforcements would be plentiful—far from being in Stone Forest Town.
"It's perfectly natural to be worried and scared. If any of you have a problem with this, you're free to leave on your own. I won't force anyone. After all, this operation is quite dangerous. Those who want to participate can come register here, sign a non-disclosure agreement, and then collect your weapons." Shi Feng swept his gaze across everyone present, his voice perfectly calm.
The guild provided all kinds of resources—even competing for them—all to offer better benefits to its members, and a large portion of those resources went to the guild's Elite and core members.
If the guild's core members weren't even willing to take risks for the guild, who could say how they would behave when the guild faced greater pressure down the road? There was simply no point in continuing to nurture such core members.
Back when Zero Wing hadn't yet grown, he could afford to let the guild resources support numerous Elites and experts. But now the guild had gradually developed—he'd even obtained Lost Town—and would need to invest even more resources going forward. It was time to adjust the guild's culture.
The rule was simple: the more you contributed to the guild, the greater your rewards. Strength alone was no longer the sole criterion.
In his previous life, many large guilds had neglected this aspect. When they finally faced a real crisis after growing, their forces would collapse and disband before the battle even began. Meanwhile, some seemingly weak small guilds, with hearts united, had managed to go head-to-head with first-rate guilds and maintain a place for themselves.
And this was the beginning of changing the culture.
After Shi Feng finished speaking, everyone was stunned into silence for a long time. Bai Qingxue, Shui Se Qiangwei, and the others, who had been about to say something, suddenly understood what Shi Feng was trying to do. They fell silent and simply watched from the side.
"Just going there like this is suicide."
"Awesome! I've been waiting to show those bastards what Zero Wing is capable of!"
"Guild Master, just give us our orders!"
...
The room immediately erupted into discussion. The guild's main team members one after another came to Shi Feng to register, while a very small number of newly promoted Black God members hesitated.
After more than ten minutes of registrations, Bai Qingxue and Shui Se Qiangwei on the side couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
A total of 1,500 people, with over 1,400 signing up and only a few dozen declining. Still, this served as a wake-up call—these were relatively trustworthy guild experts. Among other experts and Elite members, the ratio of refusals would likely be even higher, and there would be more experts and Elites joining in the future.
"Over 1,400?" Shi Feng was fairly satisfied. After all, Zero Wing had already gone through several rounds of filtering, and most of those who didn't want to participate were newly absorbed members. He then turned to Shui Se Qiangwei and Bai Qingxue and said quietly, "Starting today, restructure the guild hierarchy. Whether someone is an expert or an Elite member, their rank will no longer be permanent. If they fail to earn enough guild merit and contribution each month, they'll be demoted—right down to probationary member status, and eventually expelled from the guild, regardless of their level of strength."
Shui Se Qiangwei and Bai Qingxue both nodded, feeling it was time to introduce a new guild system.
After all, the current Zero Wing was no longer the Zero Wing of old.
Previously, Zero Wing had been small in numbers and constantly fighting other guilds. To keep the guild stable, benefits of all kinds had been handed out freely, with no clear hierarchy or structure. That was nothing like the first-rate guilds that enjoyed long periods of stable development, with clear systems and well-established merit and contribution frameworks that didn't carry deadweight.
After everyone had signed their non-disclosure agreements, Shi Feng began handing out the second-tier magic weapons one by one to everyone present.
He made sure all 1,400-plus people had second-tier magic weapons. For the Tier 2 class experts present—including Shui Se Qiangwei and Bai Qingxue—Shi Feng gave them third-tier magic weapons instead.
Even Jian Ying, who wielded the third-tier magic weapon Edgeless Blade, was dumbfounded by this.