Chapter 1 A Big Surprise

After Shi Feng produced the Four-Star Upgrade Order, the NPC female attendant looked at him with some surprise.

"Sir, do you really want to upgrade the shop to a four-star shop?" the NPC female attendant couldn't help but confirm.

"Is there a problem?" Shi Feng asked strangely.

In his memory, things like shop upgrades were managed by the City Hall. Although he hadn't upgraded a shop to four stars in his previous life, the process shouldn't have any problems.

"Sir, a four-star shop is different from ordinary shops. If you choose to upgrade the shop to a four-star shop, according to the association's regulations, it will no longer be protected by the kingdom's laws. The land of the shop will belong entirely to you personally. At that time, you will have to bear all the risks yourself," the NPC female attendant said slowly.

"Completely belongs to me?" Shi Feng couldn't help but realize.

He didn't expect four-star shops to have such a secret.

The four-star shops he had seen in his previous life were indeed a bit strange, because other guilds' shops didn't have guild combat members stationed there. They were all managed by the shop's lifestyle players. But in four-star shops, you could see many of the guild's top experts stationed there for a long time. He had previously thought it was to deter those expert players who didn't care about the NPC guards, but now it seemed it was to prevent all players.

After all, without the protection of the kingdom's laws, players could do whatever they wanted after entering the shop. The NPC guards outside didn't care at all. Players didn't have to worry about being arrested by NPC guards and locked up for ten days or half a month, or even longer. And any large guild's shop had a lot of treasures inside. If you could get some and run away, you could make a lot of money.

Without enough strength to protect the four-star shop, the shop that you had worked so hard to run would be ruined.

"Sir, do you still want to upgrade the shop to four stars now?" the NPC female attendant asked again.

"Upgrade it," Shi Feng said without hesitation.

Upgrading the shop to four stars did have considerable risks, but these risks were nothing compared to the value of a four-star shop. The only problem was figuring out how to protect the shop's safety.

"Okay, the transfer fee required to upgrade the shop to four stars is 5,000 gold. As for the shop's reconstruction and territory expansion fees, those are calculated separately. This is the reconstruction and expansion list. You can choose any one you like. If you're not satisfied, you can rebuild and expand again," the NPC female attendant said with a smile, taking out a reconstruction and expansion list.

"These fees are really ruthless!" Shi Feng couldn't help but click his tongue slightly after just glancing at the list.

Reconstruction basically meant increasing the number of floors in the shop, with three options: twelve floors, fifteen floors, and twenty-one floors. The prices were 20,000 gold, 40,000 gold, and 100,000 gold, respectively.

And expansion was even more ruthless. Increasing the original area by 40% cost 50,000 gold, and then every 10% increase in area would cost an additional 30,000 gold, up to a maximum increase of 100%.

These fees were even more expensive than building a city!

You had to know that first-rate guilds currently had a maximum of 30,000 to 50,000 gold in liquid funds, and that was only enough for a fraction of the shop's reconstruction and expansion…

Although Zero Wing had saved a lot of money during this period, totaling 170,000 gold, it couldn't afford to splurge on a four-star shop, not to mention the 5,000 NPCs in the Knight Order that still needed to be recruited at a high price.

However, Shi Feng didn't hesitate for too long. He directly chose to rebuild to twenty-one floors and increase the area by 40%.

Increasing the number of floors in a four-star shop wasn't simply about adding counters. It was more about increasing the number of special spaces and meditation rooms, unlike three-star shops, where the number of special spaces and meditation rooms was fixed.

For example, a fifteen-story shop only had thirty special spaces, but a twenty-one-story shop had fifty special spaces. The difference in quantity was far more cost-effective than the fees on paper.

As for the meditation rooms, there was no need to mention them. The twenty-one-story shop had a full twelve meditation rooms, which could definitely meet the needs of various lifestyle professions. People didn't need to compete for those three meditation rooms anymore. Shi Feng could even create one specifically for his own use.

Unfortunately, increasing the number of floors didn't increase the number of research workshops. There was still only one.

And increasing the area of the shop only allowed it to accommodate more players, so increasing the number of floors was the priority. The area could be increased slowly later.

"Okay, you need to pay a total of 155,000 gold," the NPC female attendant said with a smile after seeing Shi Feng's choice. "After you pay, we will send someone over immediately. Because the scale of this shop reconstruction is huge, you will need to wait half an hour. No one will be able to enter during this time."

"That's no problem." Although Shi Feng felt the pain, he quickly paid all the gold coins.

The money might have been spent a lot, but with the power of a four-star shop, he could probably earn it all back in a few days. After all, the research workshop, a powerful weapon for lifestyle players, was one of the best in God's Domain.

Especially with the current situation where the mainstream players hadn't even reached level 100, its value was immeasurable.

After Shi Feng paid the gold coins, the beautiful attendant gave Shi Feng a title deed for the Candlelight Shop. Once the shop reconstruction was completed, the Candlelight Shop in White River City would completely become Shi Feng's private property. At that time, Shi Feng would need to protect the Candlelight Trading Firm himself.

After taking care of the shop, Shi Feng left the City Hall and returned to the Candlelight Shop to deal with the security issues.

However, Shi Feng had only gone halfway when he received a call request from Melancholy Smile.

"Guild Leader, two representatives claiming to be from the Shadow Union want to talk to you. They said they want to discuss cooperation with us," Melancholy Smile said excitedly.

Players who had been in the virtual gaming world knew about the Shadow Union, because the Shadow Union was a super guild that focused on support professions. Although the Shadow Union wasn't active on the God's Domain Continent, no force dared to underestimate the Shadow Union.

If they could cooperate with such a super guild, it would definitely bring great benefits to Candlelight.

"Cooperation?" Shi Feng was also slightly surprised to hear this. He didn't expect the Shadow Union to be willing to take the initiative to cooperate. "I understand. Let them go directly to the Candlelight Trading Firm. I'll be there in a while."

Then Shi Feng quickened his pace and headed to the Candlelight Trading Firm.

In front of the Candlelight Trading Firm, the street was already in chaos. After the Candlelight Shop was reconstructed, all the players inside the Candlelight Shop were transferred out. Whether they were players buying goods or Candlelight members crafting items, they were all stunned in place, not knowing what was happening.

"What's going on! Why am I out here?"

"Damn it! I haven't finished buying my stuff yet. What is Candlelight doing? Do they even want to sell anything?"

The players who had been teleported out were now full of anger. They stood in front of the Candlelight Trading Firm and cursed, wanting to reason with Zero Wing.

"They asked us to come, but they sealed off the shop. Is the Guild Leader of Zero Wing playing with us?" The female druid Yi Han, who had come to the Candlelight Trading Firm, said angrily.

She had investigated Zero Wing's Candlelight Trading Firm very thoroughly. The crafting level of the lifestyle players was very good, and they even had good things like meditation rooms, but compared to their Shadow Union, it was still far behind.

Their Shadow Union not only had beginner meditation rooms, but also better intermediate meditation rooms, which greatly helped lifestyle players improve their crafting success rate. It was not comparable to beginner meditation rooms. For example, Yuan Xiaoqian, Miao Wu Yin's opponent, had two or three hours of usage time every day because she had the support of a guild big shot, and her progress was rapid.

"I know Hei Yan better. He's not that kind of person. It's probably a temporary reconstruction of the shop. Let's wait for a while," Miao Wu Yin said.

"Shop reconstruction? Can it be rebuilt into something amazing?" Yi Han said disdainfully.

In order to better attract players, the major forces would indeed carry out a reconstruction of their shops, but no matter how it was rebuilt, it would only change the form. There would be no changes to the conditions for lifestyle players.

Just as Yi Han finished speaking, the Candlelight Trading Firm, which had been sealed off by a magic barrier, suddenly lifted the seal.

Instantly, a building nearly a hundred meters high stood in front of everyone. The surrounding player shops with only four or five floors, as well as the unattainable NPC shops with more than ten floors, all looked like children, silently looking up at this towering giant…