Ice Crystal World, the Great Ice and Snow Rift.
Shi Feng made his way through the Great Ice and Snow Rift. Guilds and adventuring parties could be found everywhere along the path, all pushing deeper into the rift to collect various rare materials in preparation for conquering the Ice Ruins at its deepest point.
If the Ice Ruins could be conquered, Cold Wind City would open a direct passage to other regions, linking it with other cities and granting access to more maps and resources.
However, for the major guilds, the most important benefit was gaining City Contribution Points, which would allow them to take control of the city as quickly as possible.
Upon returning to the Shura Manor in Cold Wind City, Shi Feng found that the queue outside the manor's front gate had grown even longer, with everyone talking about the Adventurer's Alliance.
"The Shura Hall established by the Shura Expedition is seriously amazing! I never expected the training effects to be that good."
"You're telling me. I heard two top players used the Shura Hall's training rooms for a PK spar. After just a single hour of training, both of their combat levels improved noticeably. Players who used to be on par with them now lose far more often than they win."
"That's nothing. A friend of mine joined the Adventurer's Alliance a while back and then gritted his teeth and rented a training room, hoping to break through the 79% bottleneck. To his surprise, in just one hour in that training room, his skill completion rate reached as high as 84%. After that, back in the outside world, he could consistently maintain 81%. Those five silver coins were absolutely worth it."
"I heard about that too. The Shura Hall is completely packed with players now. I really regret not joining the Adventurer's Alliance sooner. If I had, I could be training and improving in those rooms right now."
"Exactly! All the players who've joined the Alliance are using it. If we don't join up and start training too, we'll be left behind sooner or later. That's why I took out all the magic crystals I'd saved up. I heard the Shura Hall now accepts magic crystals for payment — only four silver coins an hour, and you can train for two hours every day."
...
The line of free players stretched endlessly as they chattered about the Adventurer's Alliance, with the recently established Shura Hall becoming the center of all discussion.
Shi Feng simply smiled and walked into the Shura Manor.
He had only been gone for a few short hours, yet the Shura Hall was already beginning to show its effect.
Once inside, Shi Feng immediately summoned Yan Ya and the other members who managed the Adventurer's Alliance.
"Team Leader, what did you call us for?" Yan Ya asked curiously.
The Adventurer's Alliance was currently overwhelmed with work. Just processing the join requests from Cold Wind City's players required an enormous amount of manpower, let alone the exchange operations for materials and contribution points. Since the market prices for all kinds of rare materials fluctuated daily, the Alliance had to adjust its prices every day for both materials purchased and sold. The workload was many times greater than managing the Shura Expedition.
"How are things going with the Adventurer's Alliance?" Shi Feng asked.
"Hehe, ever since news of the Shura Hall got out, our Adventurer's Alliance has become the number one force in all of Cold Wind City. We already have over three hundred thousand registered players, and more are still joining. I believe it won't be long before our membership reaches a million," Yan Ya said with a grin.
The strength of the Adventurer's Alliance had exceeded all their expectations.
A million players — that was nearly half of Cold Wind City's total player population, surpassing the combined membership of every guild in the city. With such power, even if they didn't formally control Cold Wind City, the Alliance would have the final say.
"That many already?" Shi Feng was mildly surprised.
He had originally thought recruiting a hundred thousand players would be a good result, and that attracting four or five hundred thousand would be remarkable. He hadn't expected to have underestimated the value of the Alliance's equipment exchange and the Shura Hall.
"Team Leader, there's more. Many of Cold Wind City's top free experts want to formally join the Shura Expedition. They're hoping we'll start recruiting soon. At the same time, the city's top-ranked adventuring parties are also watching and waiting, hoping we'll grant them — the larger expeditions — some real authority within the Adventurer's Alliance. That way they'd join directly and fully commit to supporting the Alliance's development." Yan Ya then produced several cooperation proposals from Cold Wind City's highest-ranked adventuring parties.
For large adventuring parties, their own strength was already formidable, and they had skilled life-profession players of their own, so they hadn't been particularly interested in joining a loose organization like the Adventurer's Alliance.
As for the Level 50 Gold-grade equipment and Magic Light Sets available through the Alliance's exchange, they could simply have a few of their members join and handle the exchanges — there was no need to commit the entire party.
But now that the Shura Hall had appeared, the major adventuring parties in Cold Wind City were getting restless. Equipment exchanges could be handled by subordinates, but the training at the Shura Hall only benefited the person themselves — you couldn't send someone else in your place.
However, these large adventuring parties weren't willing to simply submit to the Shura Expedition's management the way smaller parties did. That was why they wanted to secure some authority within the Adventurer's Alliance.
"The effects are already that good?" Shi Feng glanced at the cooperation proposals in his hands and smiled faintly. "Fine. Even if they hadn't asked, I was planning to implement a tiered system within the Alliance. Since they've brought it up, let's go ahead and restructure the Adventurer's Alliance into different ranks."
The Adventurer's Alliance was essentially a massive collective of adventuring parties and free players. While it was inherently free-form with few restrictions — anyone could leave as they pleased — it also provided certain guarantees similar to a guild. However, managing such a vast number of people was far from easy, no simpler than running a major guild, which was why a ranking system was necessary.
After all, some people contributed more to the Alliance while others contributed less. It wouldn't be fair to treat them all the same — otherwise, who would bother putting in the effort?
Shi Feng then divided the Adventurer's Alliance into four tiers, each granting different rights and benefits: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Epic.
These four tiers were determined entirely by a player's or adventuring party's contributions and strength within the Alliance. Bronze-tier members received a ten percent discount on item exchanges and could access certain premium items unavailable to ordinary members. Silver-tier members received a twenty percent discount along with all Bronze-tier privileges.
Gold-tier members also received a twenty percent discount, but additionally the Alliance would allow Gold-tier adventuring parties to manage one of the Alliance's branch offices. Individual players who reached Gold-tier status would receive a fixed monthly supply of resources and Credit Points from the Alliance — benefits on par with those of a major guild's management, without any of the restrictions.
Epic tier was slightly different. Only twelve adventuring parties could hold Epic rank at any given time, determined by the Gold-tier rankings. In other words, once a party reached Gold-tier, the top twelve in contributions would become the Alliance's Epic-tier adventuring parties, and based on their capabilities, they could manage multiple branch offices.
As for individual Epic-tier players, there was no limit on numbers. A player simply needed to accumulate enough contribution points and reach a sufficient level of strength, whereupon they would receive priority resource allocation from the Alliance — benefits no less generous than those of a vice president in any major guild.
"Team Leader, when the adventuring parties and free players hear about this, they'll go absolutely crazy. But if we're going to do this, we'll need not only resources but also a massive amount of funding," Yan Ya said. She thought the plan was excellent, but the Alliance would need to invest heavily to support Gold-tier and above parties and players.
"I'll handle the funding." Shi Feng waved his hand dismissively. "Your job now is to get the word out. Make sure every single player in Cold Wind City knows about this."
What he needed to do now was develop rapidly within the Ice Crystal World and secure a firm foothold. If he delayed, the major guilds of the Black Dragon Empire would enter the Ice Crystal World and start competing for territory, which would make things far more complicated.
"Understood. I'll get on it right away," Yan Ya said. She immediately began organizing the new regulations Shi Feng had described and posted them directly on Cold Wind City's official forum.