Dozens of enormous magical water mirrors hovered above the arena, each one displaying scenes drenched in blood and thick with billowing dust. The corpses of top players from every major faction lay scattered everywhere, and only Zero Wing's members stood tall and proud amid the carnage, their gazes calm and indifferent—as if cutting down those faction elites had been no different from clearing random mobs on the roadside.
Outside the arena, tens of thousands of elite players and the leaders of over a hundred factions watched in stunned disbelief.
Over three hundred top players allied together had been wiped out by Zero Wing, and not by a handful of people or a dozen—dozens of Zero Wing's members had done it.
"Well now, this just got interesting." In the first battlefield, Mu Cheng gazed up at the magical water mirrors in the sky, stroked his white beard, and let out a faint chuckle.
He had originally thought Zero Wing had no shot at the White River City Auction House this time around.
But he hadn't expected them to possess such deep reserves of strength.
In an open-world battle, defeating more enemies with fewer people naturally looked more impressive. But the auction arena was different—it was about seizing energy crystal balls, and the more powerful players you had, the better.
If Yue Wange defeating a dozen or so of the other factions' top players had already made them look twice at Zero Wing's tactics, then dozens of Zero Wing members annihilating over three hundred of theirs was enough to fill them with genuine dread.
Armoring a handful of standout players could be dismissed as mere cleverness—it proved nothing. But producing dozens of formidable fighters? That was proof of a guild's true depth.
A guild that could field that many powerful players could crush any one of their factions without breaking a sweat.
And with so many strong fighters, Zero Wing already had the foundation to compete against the great superpowers for control of the Auction House. If fortune favored them and they actually held the White River City Auction House, and then grew into a superpower in their own right—the ones in trouble would be everyone else.
After all, an NPC city's Auction House had an enormous impact on the future. That was why the great superpowers were fighting so desperately, bringing out their real strength to seize these Auction Houses, showing no quarter—not even granting first-tier guilds the slightest opportunity to get involved, leaving them to watch helplessly while scrambling for whatever empty titles they could grab.
"A guild that only just rose to prominence in the Divine Realm—how can they possibly have so many powerful players and Epic-grade resources?" In the third battlefield, Chen Xue stared at the eight companions his guild had just lost, his expression darkening with disbelief.
An outsider might not know what those eight were worth, but as the team leader, he knew full well.
The guild had invested heavily in preparation for this auction competition while simultaneously honing its top players, spending considerable resources to outfit every participant with at least Dark Gold–rank gear so they could perform at their absolute best.
Just getting all thirty-two participants equipped with Dark Gold–rank weapons and armor had consumed the better part of the guild's accumulated wealth. Yet Zero Wing had multiple times their numbers, and even their weakest members wore Dark Gold–rank equipment, with several sporting pieces of Epic-grade gear. That level of investment was something neither the Yuxue Family nor the Saint's Cycle could possibly afford on their own, let alone together…
Moreover, two of those eight players were genuine Subtlety-realm experts. Even among the great superpowers, they might fall short of the very top players, but they were unquestionably core members.
Yet even teaming up with players from other factions to take on Zero Wing's people, they'd still been eliminated—and the ones who took them out weren't even Zero Wing's known ace players, just regular main-force team members.
Chen Xue simply couldn't accept it. He didn't dare accept it.
Meanwhile, on the arena floor, with over three hundred of their combined forces eliminated, every faction that had been eyeing Zero Wing quietly abandoned the idea.
The whole point of targeting Zero Wing had been to earn favor with the superpowers. But not only could they not win—the prospect of making a future superpower their enemy was something they no longer dared risk. Besides, they had poured so many resources into this competition primarily to prepare for future battles over newly opened Auction Houses. To be wiped out before accomplishing anything was an enormous loss.
In short order, all five battlefields returned to their original rhythm, with factions once again competing against each other to seize the energy crystal balls raining down from the sky. They stopped targeting Zero Wing entirely—unless they spotted a genuine opportunity to contest a crystal ball, they gave Zero Wing's members as wide a berth as possible the moment they came into sight, which made movement considerably easier for the Zero Wing contingent.
The scene left the spectators outside the arena speechless, while Zero Wing's own members watching from the sidelines could hardly contain their excitement, wishing they were the ones fighting on the arena floor.
This was what it meant to be the overlord of the Star Moon Kingdom.