After Shi Feng produced the Four-Star Promotion Token, the beautiful NPC female clerk glanced at him with surprise.
"Sir, are you certain you wish to promote your shop to a Four-Star Shop?" the NPC beauty couldn't help but confirm.
"Is there a problem?" Shi Feng asked, confused.
In his memory, shop promotions were handled by the City Hall. Although he had never promoted a shop to Four-Star in his previous life, the process should have gone smoothly without any issues.
"Sir, a Four-Star Shop is quite different from an ordinary shop. If you choose to promote it to Four-Star, according to the Association's regulations, the shop will no longer be protected by the kingdom's laws. The land the shop sits on will become entirely your personal property, and any dangers that arise will be your personal responsibility," the NPC beauty explained slowly.
"Entirely personal property?" Shi Feng couldn't help but be taken aback.
He hadn't expected such a secret behind Four-Star Shops.
The Four-Star Shops he had seen in his previous life were indeed a bit peculiar. Other guilds' shops never had guild combat members stationed inside — they were managed entirely by the guild's life-skilled players. But in Four-Star Shops, you could see top-tier experts from the guild stationed there on a long-term basis. He had originally thought this was meant to deter expert players who didn't care about NPC guards. Now it seemed the real purpose was to guard against all players.
After all, without the protection of the kingdom's laws, once players entered the shop, they could do whatever they pleased. The NPC guards outside wouldn't interfere at all, and players wouldn't need to worry about being arrested and locked up for ten days, half a month, or even longer. Any major guild's shop would contain a treasure trove of valuable items — if someone managed to grab some and flee, the profits would be enormous.
Without sufficient strength to protect a Four-Star Shop, all the hard work put into building it would be wasted.
"Sir, do you still wish to proceed with the promotion to Four-Star?" the NPC beauty asked again.
"Promote it," Shi Feng said without the slightest hesitation.
Promoting to Four-Star did carry considerable risk, but compared to the value of a Four-Star Shop, that risk was negligible. The only thing he needed to figure out was how to ensure the shop's security.
"Very well. The transfer fee for promoting a shop to Four-Star is five thousand gold. The renovation and territory expansion fees are calculated separately. Here is the renovation and expansion list — you may choose any option. If you're unsatisfied, you can revise the renovation and expansion plans," the NPC beauty said with a smile, handing him a detailed list of renovation and expansion options.
"The fees are outrageous!" Shi Feng muttered through clenched teeth after a quick glance at the list.
Renovation basically meant increasing the number of floors, with three options: twelve floors, fifteen floors, and twenty-one floors. The prices were twenty thousand gold, forty thousand gold, and one hundred thousand gold respectively.
Expansion was even worse. A forty percent increase in the original floor area cost fifty thousand gold, with each additional ten percent adding another thirty thousand gold, up to a maximum increase of one hundred percent.
These fees were more expensive than building a city!
A first-rate guild would consider itself lucky to have thirty to fifty thousand gold in liquid assets at any given time, and here that amount barely covered the renovation and expansion fees…
Zero Wing had saved up a considerable sum over this period — a total of one hundred and seventy thousand gold coins — but it wouldn't survive much indulgence on a Four-Star Shop. That wasn't even counting the five thousand NPCs in the knight order that still needed expensive recruitment fees.
But Shi Feng didn't hesitate for long. He directly opted for the twenty-one-floor renovation along with a forty percent increase in area.
The additional floors in a Four-Star Shop weren't merely about adding more service counters — they primarily expanded the premium spaces and meditation rooms. This was fundamentally different from Three-Star Shops, where the number of premium spaces and meditation rooms was fixed.
A fifteen-floor shop only had thirty premium spaces, but a twenty-one-floor shop offered fifty. The difference in quantity far outweighed the costs on paper.
As for meditation rooms, the advantage was even more significant. A twenty-one-floor shop boasted a full twelve meditation rooms, more than enough to accommodate every life profession without anyone having to fight over three rooms. Shi Feng could even set aside one exclusively for his own personal use.
Unfortunately, the increase in floors didn't add any additional research workshops — there was still only one.