When news of the private residence auctions in Stone Forest City spread, the general player base thought the major factions had gone completely mad — spending over a million Credit Points in just one month simply for the convenience of having a place to stay in Stone Forest City. Even having money didn't mean you had to spend it like that.
With that kind of money, you could afford to stay in a seven-star hotel without breaking a sweat.
Yet here they were, shelling out fortunes just to rent a private residence in Stone Forest City — a place as ordinary as ordinary could be. The world of the wealthy was truly beyond their comprehension.
"Seriously? Just so they can come and go more conveniently? Was that really necessary?"
"If I ever had a city like that in the Divine Realm, I'd be one of the richest people in the world."
"This is hype! Absolute hype!"
…
For a time, everyone was buzzing about it. People forgot about grinding and leveling up, their attention entirely consumed by the auction status of the Stone Forest City private residences.
Beyond the ordinary players, the major factions across the Divine Realm also came to a sobering realization upon receiving this news — the sheer money-making potential of the Divine Realm when you seized the right opportunity was absolutely terrifying.
For ordinary players, the impact was even more profound. In the past, most transactions had been conducted in gold coins, and day-to-day expenses were paid in gold and silver. Even though the Divine Realm wasn't all that different from reality and gold coins could be sold outside for Credit Points, it had never quite felt real.
But now, the Stone Forest City auctions were priced entirely in Credit Points. This drove home a visceral realization for everyone — suddenly, the Divine Realm didn't feel like just another virtual reality game. It felt more like another country they were actually living in.
After the sky-high-priced private residences in Stone Forest City were snapped up one after another, the entirety of Zero Wing was thrown into an uproar.
"Guild Leader, we've currently rented out 1,667 units. The lowest price was just over six hundred thousand, and the highest reached one point seven four million. Total revenue has already surpassed two billion Credit Points!" Melancholic Smile could not contain her excitement as she reported to Shi Feng.
She had originally figured that renting out all the residences in Stone Forest City would be enough to cover the guild's daily operating expenses and retain the crafting players — and that would have been good enough. But now, less than a third of the constructed residences had been rented out, and the revenue had already far exceeded expectations.
Forget just retaining the crafting players in the Trading Company — they could double their current crafting player roster without a shred of financial pressure.
Moreover, whether it was Zero Wing's own members or the crafting players of Torch Commerce, after learning about Stone Forest City's income, every single one of them was filled with confidence in both Zero Wing and Torch Commerce. In fact, high-level crafting players who had been working under other major guilds began reaching out to Torch Commerce en masse, hoping to negotiate terms for joining.
Torch Commerce had indeed been considered a haven for crafting players in the Star Moon Kingdom. But the major guilds had countered by offering far more generous compensation packages to retain their talent, which was why those high-level crafting players had stayed put rather than flooding into Torch Commerce.
But now, Torch Commerce had introduced a guaranteed Credit Points stipend system for high-level crafting players, and that threw every major guild — as well as independent high-level crafters — into a panic.
A guaranteed monthly salary of twenty thousand Credit Points — for an ordinary person, that was the stuff of dreams.
It meant that once you became a high-level crafting player at Torch Commerce, you could quit your day job entirely and just do what you loved. What a life that would be! And if you managed to reach Master rank, the guaranteed monthly income would be ten thousand Credit Points — that was pure bliss.
In that short span of time alone, Torch Commerce had received applications from over six hundred high-level crafting players, every one of them eager to join Zero Wing. Five Crafting Masters had also reached out. Torch Commerce's growth was no longer something to worry about.
"I really did underestimate just how desperate these guilds and adventure teams are for Stone Forest City." Shi Feng murmured, genuinely surprised.
He had already known that this round of auction prices would certainly surpass the fifty thousand Credit Points that had been the peak in his previous life. After all, Stone Forest City had established itself in the Bottomless Abyss far too early — it didn't even have a single competitor yet, so exceeding the previous record was entirely expected. What he hadn't expected was for it to surpass the old figure by this much.