Chapter 380: Zero City's Mechanism

According to Qiao Yifeng, Zero City’s allocation was a very delicate matter.

Only the resident guilds in Zero City would have the eligibility to enjoy the allocation. Outsiders have no such eligibility.

Generally speaking, the allocation by Zero City could be divided into two types.

The first was known as the essential quota.

This essential quota was something that Zero City would give to everyone who’ve met the qualifications to become a resident guild. A small space where they can operate freely, a small world separated from others. This small world came with its own basic mineral resources and its own production workshop, equipment, fully automated machinery etc.

All resident guilds would have this benefit.

“What I mean is, not just the seven guilds that are still in existence, but also those recorded throughout history. Those that exist in name only, the guilds that had been submerged by history.”

Hearing that, Chen Xiaolian shook his head and said, “I don’t get it. What do you mean by ‘exist in name only’?”

Qiao Yifeng smiled wryly. “I mean it literally.”

Qiao Yifeng looked at Chen Xiaolian’s puzzled expression and sighed. “The authority to give a guild permanent residence status rests in the hands of the Board of Patriarchs. In other words, although we are not Zero City’s owner, we can give other guilds the right to become a ‘tenant’. The qualification to become a resident guild is the equivalent of the qualification to become a ‘tenant’.

“However, there is a problem. This matter is complicated.

“Let’s put it this way. The essential quota is distributed evenly. It doesn’t matter if there are 10 resident guilds or if there are 100 resident guilds, each of them would receive the same amount of the essential quota. No more, no less.

“There would not be a situation where the amount of essential quota becomes less due to there being too many resident guilds. Do you understand?”

“Understand.”

“Once a guild gets the pass from the Board of Patriarchs, it will garner the qualification to become a resident guild. That guild will then be able to acquire the essential quota. The benefits and resources gained from this essential quota are very big and it can greatly propel a guild upward. In but a short amount of time, that guild will be able to develop at a rate far greater than those ordinary guilds outside Zero City.”

“That should be a good thing.” Chen Xiaolian frowned. “If so, why don’t Zero City take in more resident guilds? Won’t that help improve the strength of the city?”

“Theoretically speaking, that is true. But reality is not that simple.”

“Oh?”

Qiao Yifeng considered his words before smiling bitterly. “The first problem, our Board of Patriarchs have the authority to give a guild the permanent residence status, but we cannot take it away.”

“Eh?”

Chen Xiaolian was stunned.

“This is the disadvantage from us not being the owner of Zero City.” Qiao Yifeng sighed and continued, “Once the Board of Patriarchs accepts a guild as a resident guild, that guild will theoretically speaking gain the permanent residence status within Zero City… the Board of Patriarchs will no longer be able to take back that status. They cannot drive that guild out of Zero City! This is a more complicated scenario.”

Chen Xiaolian pondered upon the information before nodding his head. “I can think of some of it.”

He was indeed able to somewhat understand it.

Firstly, the inability to take the status away after having granted it – for the original Board of Patriarchs from the resident guilds, this was a dangerous thing. Hell knows if the new guild was good or bad. What if the guild wreaks havoc after entering the city? After entering and having a stake in the Board of Patriarchs, what would happen if they chose to disrupt the structure of authority and balance in the city?

What if the new guild was a dangerous element?

That was a very big risk!

Qiao Yifeng slowly continued, “In addition to those dangers, there is something else… the strength of the guilds will inevitably change. Some guilds will grow ever stronger, while some would only flourish for a moment, only to make a mistake. Perhaps it is a wrong decision within an instance dungeon, leading to a critical loss and a rapid decline… it could even lead to the absolute extermination of the guild!

“Such examples can be found throughout Zero City’s history.

“Some guilds, after becoming a resident guild, would bring about a civil war.

“Although some guilds did not cause any problems after becoming resident guilds, some internal issues would then lead them to their decline. It is possible that the Team Leader for a high-rank instance dungeon had made a terrible mistake, leading to the deaths of the guild’s powerhouses, or worse, utter decimation of the team. Thus, the guild would have received a devastating blow, losing a great deal of their core strength. In some cases, they would lose all of their members, thereby leaving only their guild’s name…

“However, as I said earlier, we face a problem. The permanent residence status is irrevocable! Perhaps the real owner can take it back, but we, the ‘tenant’ cannot!

“At present, there are 33 nominal resident guilds in Zero City. But in fact, only seven of them are still in existence. As for the 20 plus guilds… they are there in name only!”

“Not a single one remains?” Chen Xiaolian frowned.

“That’s right. All of them are dead and not a single one of them remains.” Qiao Yifeng smiled bitterly and continued. “This is where the problem lies.”

Chen Xiaolian was stunned.

“This game world is very dangerous. Even for guilds at the level of resident guilds, they will still encounter crises. After two or three of such encounters, their strength would ultimately decline. In fact, it is possible for one such encounter alone to lead to the utter extermination of their guild! Danger and opportunity come hand in hand after all. Some people like to gamble and in doing so lose everything.

“Those guilds that had failed, even though all their members had died…

“They still exist within Zero City’s system. It would still recognize the guild as a resident guild in Zero City who holds one of the essential quotas.”

Chen Xiaolian thought about it before asking, “Is there a problem with them holding one of the quotas? You’ve said it yourself just now, the essential quota is the same. It doesn’t matter if the number of resident guild is high or low, the amount of essential quota would not change. It would not affect the other guilds.”

“It would appear that way,” replied Qiao Yifeng with a wry smile. “However, we have this sense of foreboding.”

“What do you mean?”

“Perhaps… the number of resident guilds in Zero City is limited, but we had yet to reach the limit?

“What I mean to say is, although Zero City now accommodates 33 resident guilds… nobody knows how many resident guilds Zero City can accommodate in total.

“We are not the owner. There is no way for us to know how much space there is.

“Maybe there is enough for 35? Maybe 100? Or maybe 1,000?

“Only God knows!

“However, one thing is certain, Zero City is not infinite! Zero City’s capacity must certainly be limited. Zero City is a refuge, a miniature version of the main program that was cut out from the main program itself.

“Since it is a miniaturized version, the amount of space and guilds it can accommodate must surely be limited!

“Once there are too many, we may face a ‘limit exceeded’ situation. That would lead to danger!

“It might lead to Zero City being discovered by the main program, bringing serious danger to Zero City.

“Don’t forget, we only have one Zero City. We dare not take this risk!”

After saying that, Qiao Yifeng continued in a hushed tone, “As of now, there are 33 guilds. Then maybe, and I mean just maybe, the city could only accommodate 34 guilds. Then, when the next resident guild enters, Zero City would reach its limit… no one knows.”

“I understand. That is why an extremely detailed consideration is required before giving another guild the permanent residence status. It is not something that could be done on the fly.”

“Mm, that is fairly accurate.”

“If so, just don’t accept any more new guilds. Wouldn’t that solve the issue?” asked Chen Xiaolian. “Wouldn’t the danger be resolved that way?”

“That’s what everyone thinks,” replied Qiao Yifeng with a frustrated smile. “But Zero City’s system is not that simple.”

“Oh?”

“Zero City has a very abominable rule. This rule seemed to have been designed to make Zero City stronger – although we are not the ones who came up with the rule, we have to accept its constraints. This rule is: Spur Zero City to become stronger!”

…

Zero City had a very special mechanism.

Evaluation of Zero City’s strength.

This was an automatic mechanism of Zero City. A value would be set as a benchmark. Then, the comprehensive strength of the resident guilds would be assessed. Simply put, it would add up the assessed score for all the resident guilds and divide the total by the number of resident guilds to get an average score

Then, this average score would be compared against the benchmark.

Naturally, Chen Xiaolian was able to spot the problem here.

Assuming that the seven resident guilds that were presently staying within Zero City had a total assessed strength of 70,000…

That would mean that the average strength of each of the guild would be around 10,000.

No problem, right?

Unfortunately, the automatic assessment of Zero City was not calculated in such a manner.

It would be calculated… by dividing the total by 33!

The denominator was not seven but 33!

As such, those nominal guilds would greatly pull down the average score!

Those nominal guilds still held a spot in Zero City. That meant the total value of 70,000 had to be divided by 33. As a result, the average score would be pulled down to around 2,100.

That was a huge decrease!

“Zero City has its own benchmark. We have no idea how this benchmark is calculated. We are not the owner, we have no way of getting the core authority.

“But the problem is, those guilds that exist only in name still holds a spot, causing the average score of the resident guilds to be pulled down. That causes a huge problem.” Qiao Yifeng smiled wryly. “Remember what I said earlier? There are two types of allocation for the resident guilds in Zero City. The first is the essential quota, which I have already explained to you.”

“Mm, yes.”

“The second is more critical. We call it the additional allocation.”

“Additional allocation?” Chen Xiaolian became very curious.

“The additional allocation refers to… quests such as the C11 mine. This type of special resources and some other benefits,” Qiao Yifeng slowly said. “Additional allocation can only be obtained by the resident guilds that still exists. At any rate, those nominal guilds no longer exists, so they won’t be competing for it.

“Generally speaking, additional allocation has a higher amount compared to those in the essential quota. It is more, better, more beneficial. The resident guilds have to compete against each other for it. The strong will obtain it while the weak will fail. That is how it works.

“But here is the problem. This additional allocation has a rule.”

“What rule?”

“It’s simple. The stronger Zero City is, the produced resources will be more and better!” Qiao Yifeng said in a hushed tone. “On the contrary, if Zero City’s strength declines, the resources and benefits from the additional allocation would be reduced and become worse!”

Chen Xiaolian was quick to understand. “In other words… the average score?”

“Yes, that is where the problem lies,” said Qiao Yifeng with a sigh. “Every once in a while, Zero City will automatically execute an assessment. If the average score of the guilds’ strength is lower than the benchmark set by Zero City’s system… the quests it issues, the resources and benefits available would be reduced!”

“So, this is Zero City’s system. It is forcing you to be constantly on the move!” Chen Xiaolian was quick to latch on to the crux of the issue. “Stopping you from resting on your laurels and stop accepting new guilds into Zero City! Take your present situation as an example, only seven of the 33 resident guilds in Zero City are still in existence. Thus… there are only two ways for you to pull up the average score.

“The first is to enhance the strength of the existing guilds!

“The second… is to accept new guilds!”

“The first one is very hard,” said Qiao Yifeng who shook his head. “All the existing guilds had been developed to a certain bottleneck. The development of each super powerful guilds would exhaust a great deal of resources. Once the resources becomes lacking, the guild would instead fall into decline. To enhance even a little would be difficult and would require a great deal of resources. To take another step further after having achieved a lofty position is simply too difficult.”

“I understand.” Chen Xiaolian nodded. “It is just like the exams. To push the marks up to around 70 or 80 is considered fairly doable. However, to push the marks from 80 to 90, that’s where things get really hard.”

“Thus, in order to pull up the average score, the best method would be to accept new guilds – this is Zero City forcing us tenants to not monopolize Zero City for ourselves. We cannot choose not to accept new guilds and occupy all of Zero City ourselves for our selfish desires. That is the only way to strengthen Zero City. The stronger Zero City becomes, the better and the more resources it can produce.”

This was a mathematical problem, a very simple mathematical problem.

As mentioned before…

Assume that there were seven existing resident guilds inside Zero City. They have a total strength score of 70,000. Each guild has an average of 10,000 strength score. However, if the total score were to be divided by 33 instead, the average score would amount to only slightly more than 2,100.

Considering the situation, in order to pull up the average score, they could accept a new guild whose strength score was over 2,100. That way, they would be able to pull up the average score!

For a guild whose battle strength had reached a score of 10,000, any further increase would be extremely difficult!

It would be easier to find a guild that can raise its battle strength from 0 to 2,100.

That was the general logic behind this issue.

“And therein lies the problem. I’ve said it earlier, but every addition of a new resident guild would represent a huge risk!

“Firstly, we have no way of knowing if this guild would bring in any negative elements.

“Secondly… the number of spots available. We do not know what the capacity of Zero City is. But we can be certain that it is not infinite! It is limited!

“Once again… the guild that will be entering will have to go through a thorough assessment – if, after they become a resident guild, they end up quickly getting themselves utterly exterminated while still holding a spot, that would mean increasing the denominator once again! That would mean pulling down the average score once more!

“Thus, the addition of any new guild as a resident guild in Zero City would represent a huge test and decision for the Board of Patriarchs!”

…