White River City, Candlefire Trading Company.
The super-tier Forging Room, large enough to serve as a basketball court, was piled high with all manner of rare materials. If ordinary players saw these materials, they would probably be itching to snatch every last one.
The combined value of these materials was at least fifteen thousand gold coins—an astronomical sum for any ordinary player. Even with the gold-to-Credit Points exchange rate steadily declining, it would still be enough for an ordinary person to live out the rest of their days in comfort.
"Guild Leader, here are all the materials you requested." Melancholy Smile produced the final one hundred Mana Spirit Stones and looked at Shi Feng with evident puzzlement.
The various rare materials Shi Feng had asked for had essentially cleaned out more than half of Candlefire Trading Company's stored inventory. Titan Silver and Mana Spirit Stones in particular were exceedingly scarce even at the attribute-rich mineral veins in the Infernal Demon Valley. If any other guild had been asked to gather this many Mana Spirit Stones, they almost certainly couldn't have managed it.
"Good!" Shi Feng inspected the materials, nodded, and said with great seriousness, "After this, I'll need your help with something—but absolutely no one else can know about it."
"No one else can know?" Melancholy Smile was taken aback.
Candlefire Trading Company's staff had all been rigorously vetted. Every core member had signed a series of strict contracts, making it nearly impossible for the guild's confidential techniques to leak. After all, these techniques weren't something you could simply describe in words—you needed blueprints. Without them, even knowing the theory wouldn't let you produce anything.
But now he was saying she couldn't even talk about it? That was truly strange.
"You'll understand once you see it." Shi Feng carefully produced the Red Dragon Airship's design book and placed it on the stone platform.
Melancholy Smile hadn't thought much of it at first—after all, she had seen plenty of precious design diagrams. But the moment she opened the design book on the stone platform, she froze completely.
"An… an airship!" Melancholy Smile could hardly believe her eyes.
As a lifestyle player—and the manager of Candlefire Trading Company at that—forget combat airships; even a transport flying vessel was something they could only dream of.
In fact, countless lifestyle players who had spotted the flying vessels in the cities had fantasized about one day building a steel machine that soared through the skies.
But that was only ever a dream.
The great kingdoms and empires kept all related skills under tight lockdown, so players couldn't learn even a fraction of them. As for trying to create one from scratch, the body of knowledge involved was simply too vast—not to mention the enormous quantities of materials needed for continuous experimentation.
Yet now Shi Feng had produced an airship design diagram!
Only then did Melancholy Smile begin to understand why Shi Feng didn't want her telling anyone else.
Though Candlefire Trading Company's members were bound by contracts, there was no way to prevent real-world conversations. If news of the airship design leaked, the consequences would be catastrophic.
A mere flying vessel was already enough to make countless powers drool. An airship that could both transport cargo and fight in combat—that wouldn't just inspire envy; it would drive people mad. Every major power would stop at nothing. Even if they couldn't obtain the airship itself, they absolutely would not let Zero Wing keep it.
This wasn't about seizing a single airship. With the design diagram in hand and sufficient materials, they could build as many as they wanted. A fleet of airships would be incomparably more powerful than War Puppets. After all, players still had ways to deal with War Puppets as things stood, but there was virtually no counter to an airship.
The major powers would never allow Zero Wing to grow. They would crush it in its cradle without hesitation.
"That's right, it's an airship. I'm planning to build one now, but it's not something I can accomplish alone. Beyond Blacksmiths, we'll need a large number of engineers, alchemists, and masters from every major lifestyle profession," Shi Feng said slowly. "To keep the airship under wraps, I need you to coordinate everyone to fabricate the various components separately. I'll handle the final assembly."
"We're building it now?" Melancholy Smile said, a touch of nervousness in her voice. "Guild Leader, manufacturing components for the other professions is one thing, but crafting the core power source— even a high-tier Master Blacksmith might not succeed. If we fail, all the Mana Spirit Stones will be ruined. Couldn't we wait a bit longer?"
If it were merely a matter of money, Zero Wing's current financial resources would be more than sufficient. But Mana Spirit Stones were extraordinarily rare—you couldn't just buy them no matter how much gold you had. If the attempt failed, there was no telling how long it would take to gather another hundred Mana Spirit Stones.
"I'd love to wait longer, but Zero Wing simply can't afford to," Shi Feng said with a bitter smile.
Right now, every major power was frantically leveling up. They had almost certainly already begun pushing into the Level 100 neutral maps in secret—the Shadowless Empire alone was proof enough of that.
And on the Level 100 neutral maps, the true advantages of the great superpowers would begin to take full effect.