Chapter 1778 - Famous Frozen City, Central District:
After Shi Feng got his team away from Hecate, he split the surviving Asura members into small groups and had them enter Frozen City while wearing cloaks, to start collecting information regarding the city.
As for Shi Feng himself, he and Yan Ya made their way straight to Frozen City's City Hall.
"Commander, this city is flourishing! It can already rival the capitals of kingdoms back on the continent of God's Domain!"
Yan Ya was very surprised as she looked at the street outside through the advanced horse carriage's windows.
As they made their way to the City Hall, she saw plenty of players hawking their wares on the sidewalks. Unlike Cold Wind City, though, the majority of these hawkers were Lifestyle players. These players sold Level 50 weapons and equipment, and the weakest piece of equipment was Bronze rank, while the better ones were even Secret-Silver rank. Such a scene could not be found in Cold Wind City. Also, plenty of player-operated Shops lined the streets. Frozen City's prosperity could definitely rival that of a kingdom's capital.
Moreover, compared to the level and equipment standard of Cold Wind City's players, the players here were obviously superior. Most of the players on the street were Level 52 and were fully geared in Level 50 Mysterious-Iron Equipment.
There were also quite a few Level 53 experts sporting multiple pieces of Level 50 Secret-Silver Equipment. Yan Ya even spotted some independent players in Level 50 Fine-Gold Equipment.
"This place is indeed weH-developed If comparing purely in terms of Lifestyle player standards, Frozen City is far superior to the capitals of kingdoms." As Shi Feng looked at the Lifestyle players on the sidewalks, he discovered that these Lifestyle players were not wearing any Guild Emblems. Despite not being a member of a Guild, they were capable of producing Level 50 Secret-Silver Equipment The forging standard of the Lifestyle players in Frozen City was much higher than that of the Lifestyle players on the main continent. For example, inside Star-Moon Kingdom, only the Lifestyle players of the Candlelight Trading Firm could produce Level 50 Secret-Silver Equipment at a feasible cost. "By the looks of it, Frozen City should be one of the Ice Crystal World's main cities."
"Main city?" Yan Ya repeated. This was her first time hearing this term.
"That's right, a main city. You can think of Otherworlds as a kingdom or an empire. Although Otherworlds have not been unified, some cities are the counterparts of kingdom capitals and imperial capitals. These cities are known as main cities. They function as an intersection for neighboring regions. However, Otherworlds do not have only one main city. Depending on the size of an Otherworld, it can have around three to seven main cities. A city as large and as prosperous as Frozen City should be a main city," Shi Feng explained.
Based on the investigations Asura's members had conducted, Frozen City's player population exceeded 8,000,000, which was much higher than Cold Wind City's. In fact, Frozen City's player population exceeded even White River City's slightly, which was simply impossible for an ordinary city. In addition, Frozen City had opened a path to two other cities just a little while ago. At the same time, the Frozen City region had multiple maps leading to other regions. All this proved that Frozen City was a main city in the Ice Crystal World.
Originally, Shi Feng had expected to arrive at an ordinary city similar to Cold Wind City. He had never imagined that he would actually land himself in a main city. This came as a pleasant surprise.
The importance of an Otherworld main city was much greater than that of a kingdom capital or imperial capital on the continent of God's Domain. The reason for this was access: players in most ordinary cities in Otherworlds had to transit a main city in order to travel to other ordinary cities. On the other hand, players on the continent of God's Domain could teleport freely between cities belonging to the same kingdom or empire.
Moreover, regions housing ordinary cities had access to only one main city. One could travel to other main cities only via the main city they were connected to.
Due to these reasons, the main cities of Otherworlds were very important. At the same time, the difficulty of taking control of a main city was also much greater. However, once players successfully seized control of a main city, they could monopolize a sizable portion of an Otherworld's resources—which also made main cities prime targets for the various large Guilds.
Now that Shi Feng had managed to arrive at Frozen City ahead of the Black Dragon Empire's various large Guilds, he had a much better chance of taking control of the city.
After riding on the horse carriage for about 20 minutes, Shi Feng and Yan Ya arrived at Frozen City's City Hall.
Currently, merchant players crowded the main lobby. Some of these merchant players were standing before the front counter and browsing through the Shops available for purchase in the city. Others were sitting in the lounge and chatting while waiting for their turn.
"Did you hear? Hecate ambushed an adventurer team in the Snow Rift just recently. In the end, however, not only did Hecate lose several thousand elite and expert players, but it even let nearly half of the adventurer team get away."
"Of course, I've heard about it. I also know that the targeted adventurer team is called Asura and that it's an adventurer team that came from Cold Wind City, a city that Hecate is trying to occupy."
"This Asura adventurer team sure is amazing. It actually managed to deal such a grievous blow to Hecate."
"I also heard that Asura's commander is an absolute monster that's three meters tall and has arms several times thicker than my thighs. He managed to wipe out the Vultures and kill several thousand elite and expert members of Hecate all by himself. Even Tier 2 experts are like tofu before him."
"What a monster! It's no wonder even the Vultures got annihilated."
"Commander, they seem to be talking about you," Yan Ya, who overheard the conversation of some resting players, giggled as she sneaked a glance at Shi Feng.
"Am I that gigantic?" Shi Feng could not help being flabbergasted by the conversation of these players. The rumors about him were growing increasingly ridiculous.
Hecate's ambush this time had indeed dealt a severe blow to Asura's expedition team. However, Asura had also gained a considerable harvest from the ambush, and this harvest came in the form of free promotion. After all, Hecate had caused quite a commotion when it dispatched an army of 40,000 players to hunt a single adventurer team. The fact that the Guild returned in failure only served to garner even more attention from the general populace. At this point, practically every player in Frozen City had heard about the Asura adventurer team already.
After Shi Feng arrived on the second-floor hall of the City Hall, he revealed his City Protector title.
"Lord Protector, how may I be of service to you today?" An NPC senior administrator promptly walked over to greet Shi Feng.
"I wish to purchase a plot of Land in the city," Shi Feng said.
"Alright These are the available Lands in our city right now," the senior administrator said as he took out a map of Frozen City. Green and red markers dotted the map, with the green markers signifying ownerless Lands, and the red markers signifying owned Lands.
Looking at the city map, Shi Feng could not help but smile.
Sure enough, the Lands around that street are still untouched, Shi Feng thought as he looked at a section of the city that was all green. Labeled the Old City District, this section was located in the outer area of the city, and it would seem that nobody was interested in purchasing the Lands there.
After all this time since the launch of God's Domain, the important Lands of NPC cities, whether on the main continent of God's Domain or in Otherworlds, had already been bought by the various Guilds. No good locations would be left unclaimed.
However, the NPC cities in Otherworlds were slightly different, particularly the Old City Districts of the main cities.
In Otherworlds, only main cities had access to other main cities. This was like how teleportation between countries was limited to the capitals. Players needed to travel to the capital in order to teleport to another country.
However, the way this access was gained wasn't by opening up a path in a particular map but by activating the air routes between cities. Once the air routes were activated, players could then ride a Flying Ship from one main city to another. These Flying Ships would dock at the main cities' Old City Districts, where the main cities would construct an airport.
In the past, the various large Guilds had been ignorant of this fact. As a result, some merchant players that had gambled their money on the Lands of the Old City Districts ended up making a fortune for themselves.
Currently, practically all the Lands around the area reserved for the future airport were ownerless. This was a massive business opportunity for Shi Feng.
"Lord Protector, may I know which plot of Land you wish to buy? I can also give you a detailed introduction of the Lands available here," the senior administrator asked when he saw Shi Feng remaining unresponsive for quite some time.
"No need for introductions. I want every plot of Land in this area," Shi Feng said as he pointed at the several streets of the Old City District.