Chapter 1 City Advancement

Star-Moon Kingdom, White River City.

Shi Feng returned to the teleportation hall of White River City once more. The entire hall was bustling with activity, having undergone a complete transformation into a more magnificent and luxurious space than before.

"No way! The city advanced!" Shi Feng was slightly astonished as he looked around the hall.

Previously, only the first floor of the hall had teleportation arrays. Now, the open-air hall featured teleportation arrays on the second and third floors as well. The higher the floor, the farther the teleportation distance. Furthermore, floating staircases were everywhere. These staircases not only transported players to the second and third floors, but also offered direct access to White River City's sky harbor or central plaza for a fee, as well as a floating staircase leading directly to the central business district.

The floating staircases were extremely fast, even faster than Dark-Gold ranked mounts. They could be considered the fastest mode of transportation within the city, greatly reducing the time players spent moving around.

This might not seem like much, but as the level of NPC cities increased, their scale would also grow to accommodate more players. Traveling from one end of the city to another could take a considerable amount of time. Although the floating staircases only reached a few fixed locations, their presence saved players at least half their travel time.

Typically, NPC cities needed to reach main city status and possess a certain level of economic prosperity before enabling the floating staircase function. It wasn't simply a matter of having more players; it depended on the economic level of both players and NPCs, as well as the level and number of shops in the NPC city.

Currently, only the imperial capitals of the various empires in God's Domain had recently achieved this. The royal capitals of the kingdoms were likely still a step behind, but now White River City had reached that level.

Shi Feng walked down the street and noticed that White River City had become even more lively due to its advancement. The number of merchant players had surged significantly, and the streets had more shops than before due to the expansion.

"Selling Level 50 Mithril Leather Armor! Serious offers only!"

"Selling various Level 50 Magic Resistance Equipment! Adventure teams welcome for long-term cooperation!"

"Buying large quantities of Energy Essences and Ancient Crystals! Long-term offers available!"

…

The casual merchant players on the street were shouting frantically, and the quality of the items being sold was also higher than before. Previously, Level 50 Mithril equipment was only available in guild-owned shops, but now casual merchant players on the street were starting to sell it.

Even Level 50 Dark-Gold equipment was on display in the surrounding shops, but the prices were ridiculously high, far exceeding the market price, making them unaffordable even for guild experts, let alone ordinary skilled players.

Shi Feng quickly arrived at the commercial center of White River City via the floating staircase.

Due to White River City's advancement, the entire main street had undergone significant changes. It was no longer just a street, but more like a commercial plaza, with the area of the original main street expanded more than threefold. A building towering over seventy stories high stood in the center of this commercial plaza. This building was the original White River City Auction House.

The Auction House had also undergone several changes after its advancement. In addition to player consignment auctions, there were also NPC beginner and intermediate auctions held several times a week. Due to the Auction House's upgrade, the auctioned items displayed in the White River City Auction House now encompassed a quarter of the towns in the Star-Moon Kingdom, instead of just the surrounding cities.

This undoubtedly made the White River City Auction House the best place for players to buy items.

Furthermore, the biggest difference between the upgraded Auction House and the previous one was the Auction Arena.

The Auction Arena was a new feature enabled after a city's advancement.

In God's Domain, strength reigned supreme, and the Auction House was no exception. There were daily auction competitions where the Auction House offered rare items. Players could participate in the competition by paying a registration fee. The initial test was a system-based challenge, followed by battles between players. These battles tested players' financial and resource strength more than their combat skills, and had nothing to do with players' attributes or equipment.

At the time, this Auction Arena caused a sensation in God's Domain, igniting the passion of merchant players who were not typically suited for combat. Some merchant players hired experts to compete, and many ordinary merchant players made huge profits as a result. Some skilled players also earned the supreme weapons, equipment, and items they desired.

It was this event that propelled the virtual reality game God's Domain a major step forward in reality.

However, the emergence of the Auction Arena also plunged the major forces of God's Domain into a frenzy of competition and fighting…

"The time to compete for control of the city is finally approaching," Shi Feng murmured, taking a deep breath as he gazed at the seventy-plus story White River City Auction House.

NPC cities differed from player cities. In the early stages, the major forces relied on player numbers and shop economics to assert their influence. Anyone who dared to oppose them would face a double assault of player and economic suppression. They couldn't achieve the same level of substantial control as they could over player towns.

However, the opening of the Auction Arena transferred some of the NPC city's authority to the players.

That was the control and benefits of the city's Auction House!

This might not seem like much, but the city's Auction House occupied a very important position among the city's players. It could be said that controlling the Auction House meant controlling the lifeblood of the entire NPC city, indirectly controlling the players' economy.

For example, gaining control of the Auction House would allow them to prevent players from entering the Auction House and using any of its functions in the city. This would be fatal to the city's free players and major forces, as the main economy of free players and the resources of major forces came from the city's Auction House.

The consequences of not being able to use the Auction House were unimaginable…

Such a control competition was held regularly once a month. All NPC cities in God's Domain that could open Auction Arenas would hold them simultaneously. This largely prevented super forces with overwhelming advantages in resources and experts from seizing all the NPC cities, but it also greatly limited the development of the major guilds.

After all, a guild's resources and number of experts were limited. The more NPC cities they controlled, the less they could allocate to each city. It was impossible for guilds with insufficient foundation to occupy a large number of NPC cities.

Of course, no force knew about this yet. The opening of the Auction Competition wasn't just triggered by the advancement of a city's Auction House; it required a certain number of advanced Auction Houses throughout God's Domain. Only then would the system announce the detailed information and rules.

Although the Auction Arena hadn't opened yet, it served as a great reminder to Shi Feng.

He needed to start preparing to raise funds and resources. The Zero Wing Guild's foundation was only slightly stronger than that of ordinary first-rate guilds. The effects of the Source Iron Vein would still take time to manifest.

Subsequently, Shi Feng entered the Candlelight Trading Firm and notified Youlan, instructing her to send all the Tier 1 Alien Fires that the guild had collected.

As for himself, he took the Fire Spirit to the warehouse where the Holy Grail was stored in the Candlelight Trading Firm. Before heading to open the door to the Super-Large Neutral City, he planned to improve his strength first. After all, the difficulty of the quest to open the Super-Large Neutral City was higher than that of ordinary Epic-rank quests. Going there without sufficient preparation would be nothing short of suicide.