After leaving the guild headquarters and stepping onto the main streets, Silver Wing Town had already begun to take shape. All manner of buildings stood in rows, and even the five-story Candlelight Trading Company had been completed — all that remained was bringing in the merchandise to sell.
Moreover, as Silver Wing Town grew to a certain scale, more and more NPCs had appeared on the main streets, no longer limited to patrol NPCs, adventurers, and guild members.
Whether it was because of the Magic King or not, Shi Feng spotted several NPCs wearing worn-out armor along the way — they looked like mercenaries heading toward the Zero Wing headquarters.
Though these NPCs appeared rather down on their luck, using Eye of Omniscience to observe them revealed that every single one was a Tier 2 class at level 70 or above…
When a town was first established, recruiting NPC guards of Tier 1 was already considered a good outcome. The vast majority were Elite-tier NPCs, and Tier 2 NPCs were practically impossible to come by.
Yet now, three had shown up all at once. After all, the number of Tier 2 NPC guards defending Zero Wing City still only numbered in the hundreds. Though these NPCs were somewhat low in level, for current players, that strength was more than sufficient — and NPC guards leveled up far faster than players did.
"No wonder they say a powerful hero can give rise to an entire city," Shi Feng murmured, watching the NPC mercenaries line up to register. He couldn't help but recall those first-rate guilds from his previous life that possessed powerful heroes.
Though those first-rate guilds were far behind the top-tier and supreme guilds in terms of funding and resources, once they had a powerful hero defending their city, the city's defensive capability alone was in no way inferior.
Back then, even those supreme guilds found it extremely difficult to deal with such cities. It wasn't until someone advanced to Tier 6 class that the battles became somewhat easier.
The reason was that cities defended by powerful heroes not only had formidable heroes themselves, but the NPC guards defending the walls were also exceptionally strong. Some of the recruited NPCs with extraordinary talent and potential could even advance to Tier 4, and Tier 3 NPCs were hardly rare. On top of that, NPCs were inherently stronger than players of the same tier, and with the city's magic array reinforcement, their combat power was even more terrifying.
Without establishing an overwhelming advantage, conquering such a city was virtually impossible.
Before long, Shi Feng arrived at the outskirts of Silver Wing Town.
He could see a large number of builders demolishing the old perimeter walls and constructing proper city walls. The original town walls had offered some defensive value, but they were essentially useless against Tier 2 attacks and above, so they all had to be torn down and rebuilt. The new city walls could withstand Tier 3 attacks and had high durability, making them resistant to destruction by siege weapons. They also featured effects that prevented players from climbing over — for a town on a neutral map, these were essential structures.
However, the cost of building these city walls was not insignificant. Enclosing the entirety of Silver Wing Town would require at least ten thousand gold coins, comparable to the cost of building all the inns, taverns, smithies, and restaurants within Silver Wing Town. It was only because Zero Wing possessed Zero Wing City — this treasure trove that generated massive amounts of gold coins every minute — along with numerous merchant players renting shops in Zero Wing City, and the weapons and equipment sold off after defeating the Sky Burial Guild, that they dared to spend so lavishly.
For any other first-rate guild, simply getting a town to take shape in a short time would have been impressive enough. After all, the total expenditure from establishing the town through all the construction that followed amounted to nearly one hundred and twenty thousand gold coins.
One hundred and twenty thousand gold coins was no small sum even for current top-tier guilds, let alone first-rate guilds.
But everything built so far was merely the beginning of the investment in Silver Wing Town. The construction of the arena and the full defensive infrastructure still lay ahead, and the gold coins required would be astronomical.
At the four corners of Silver Wing Town stood four Magic Towers, with an additional Magic Tower positioned near the town's main gate, ensuring complete coverage of the entire Silver Wing Town.
"Guild Leader, several supreme powers have already contacted us. They say they're willing to cooperate with us — as long as we cede 50% of Silver Wing Town's shares and establish temporary guild outposts, they'll join forces with us against the Beast Emperor. They'll also progressively invest two hundred thousand gold to accelerate Silver Wing Town's defensive construction," Waterfall Rose reported quietly as Shi Feng approached.
"Fifty percent of the shares? Are all of these supreme powers offering the same terms?" Shi Feng asked, somewhat puzzled.
He was not surprised that major supreme powers wanted to cooperate and invest in Silver Wing Town. After all, similar situations had occurred plenty of times in his previous life. Many first-rate guilds had lucked into a Town Founding Token but lacked the strength to hold a town on a neutral map, so they chose to partner with supreme powers.
The first advantage was that it protected the town.
The second was that it provided more capital to develop the guild, preventing them from tying up all their gold coins in the town's development.
"Mm, their offers vary slightly, but they all insisted that 50% of Silver Wing Town's shares is non-negotiable." Waterfall Rose nodded. "I've negotiated with them several times, and from the looks of it, they believe the Beast Emperor will target us and drag us into a prolonged war of attrition. They don't think we can hold Silver Wing Town, and with the latest system announcement, they're even more reluctant to budge."
"We just received word that the Beast Emperor has somehow dispatched another large wave of demonic monsters, evil beasts, and free players. They've already departed from Ancient Rock City and are heading our way. It looks like he intends to wage a war of attrition against us."
"What a bunch of old foxes," Shi Feng said with a faint smile. "They really think Zero Wing can't outlast the Beast Emperor without them? Just ignore them for now. We'll keep having Zero Wing City's Elite and expert members come to develop Silver Wing Town. If the Beast Emperor sends Legendary forces to attack the city, let Ke Le and the others handle it."
"I'll make sure they all come to develop here as soon as possible," Waterfall Rose replied with a smile of her own.
Perhaps they had no way of dealing with demonic monsters and evil beasts out in the wild, but within Silver Wing Town, guarded by five Magic Towers, their combat power was no joke. Even against Legendary forces, they had Ke Le and others who wielded Tier 3 magic weapons and were Tier 2 classes. Combined with the Magic Towers' reinforcement, fighting a Legendary monster was not beyond the realm of possibility.
After finishing his instructions, Shi Feng walked up to one of the Magic Towers and headed inside to begin inscribing magic runes.
Inscribing the runic patterns that comprised these advanced magic arrays was extremely difficult for most players and required considerable time. However, for Shi Feng, who had already become an Advanced Magician, designing advanced magic arrays independently was well within his capabilities — let alone a composite advanced magic array, which had a higher margin for error.
In less than five minutes, the core runes of one Magic Tower were completed.
After spending less than an hour in total, Shi Feng visited all five Magic Towers and finished inscribing their core runes, completing the full Magic Tower network.
"Good! Activate all Magic Towers simultaneously!" Shi Feng stood before the Magic Tower nearest the town gate and issued the command.
Immediately, Waterfall Rose and the other guild executives at the remaining four Magic Towers activated their towers in unison.
The massive magic crystals atop the towers erupted with deep blue radiance, and five pillars of light shot straight into the sky.
The pillars gradually spread outward in midair, forming a pale blue protective dome that enveloped all of Silver Wing Town. When the domes from the five Magic Towers met, their color deepened by another shade. Finally, all five merged into a single enormous, semi-transparent, deep blue barrier that shrouded the entirety of Silver Wing Town.
The spectacular display was clearly visible even to the players at the Ancient Divine Ruins.
"What's going on?"
"What happened to Silver Wing Town?"
Everyone stared at the five pillars of light and the colossal deep blue barrier in the sky, stunned — because they could feel the ambient mana around them growing noticeably denser…