The Smile for a City guild headquarters in White River City.
"Vice Guild Master You Lan, I've finished my investigation into the Candlelight Trading Firm." A Level 23 male Assassin walked into the Smile for a City meeting room to report.
"Who opened it?" You Lan asked urgently.
Originally, Smile for a City was already at a disadvantage in the open field battles, and the gold coins consumed daily were not a small sum.
Although the Underworld had increased its investment, especially in funding, converting Credit Points into gold coins was really not easy. Even with a huge expenditure to purchase gold coins, the guild's funds were just barely holding even.
At the beginning, she hadn't realized that repairing equipment would cost so much gold.
But as the death toll among guild members continued to rise, dying once wasn't much, but after two or three deaths, it pretty much depleted the savings of the guild members. After that, these members had no choice but to use gold coins for compensation in order to repair their equipment.
This immediately gave her, who had been full of confidence, a severe headache. She wished she could strangle Black Flame.
Just the gold coin expenditure up to this point had already exceeded a thousand gold, not to mention the Credit Points used as compensation.
If this went on for a long time, the compensation later would almost all have to be in gold coins. After all, without repaired equipment, one couldn't go outside to level up. If equipment was destroyed, one would have to get new good equipment, but good equipment wasn't that easy to obtain. Every piece cost players immense effort, and losing even one was like cutting off a piece of flesh. If one lost their entire set, they might even feel like dying...
So, before equipment durability reached a critical point, even if it meant spending Credit Points to buy gold coins or selling off everything, equipment had to be repaired.
However, one thing made You Lan very puzzled: Smile for a City's losses were severe, but Zero Wing's losses were also significant. Moreover, Zero Wing didn't use Credit Points for compensation at all. Their gold coin consumption should have exceeded theirs, yet up to this point, Zero Wing not only didn't show any signs of being short on money but was spending even more.
It was absolutely mind-boggling!
You Lan had made inquiries. Just building the highest-level blacksmith shop and purchasing several sets of Dragon Scale armor had cost at least over two thousand gold, not to mention the gold coins spent on battle compensation.
Such a sum was not easy for the entire Underworld to produce at once.
Having seen the outcome of this prolonged war of attrition, You Lan could already envision Smile for a City being forced out of White River City. Something had to change now; they needed to earn a massive amount of gold coins.
And the only way to earn a massive amount of gold coins in the Divine Realm was through trade.
Although the guild quests issued at the guild headquarters were a decent source of income, they were far inferior to trade.
While the major guilds themselves held many gold coins, compared to the countless players of the Divine Realm, that amount was insignificant. Even earning just one silver coin from each of the millions of players in White River City would amount to tens of thousands of gold coins, completely outstripping any guild.
At that point, forget about dealing with a single Zero Wing guild; they could even handle going to war with several major guilds at once with ease.
In White River City, the most powerful trading firm was the Star Trace Trading Firm. Not only did it occupy prime locations, but it also held property in the eight surrounding cities of White River City. The goods it sold went directly to all nine cities, bringing in vast sums of gold every day—just looking at it was enough to make one's mouth water.