“Might you be interested in undertaking the commission this time with the Tower Alliance, Guild Leader Black Flame?” Elven Knight Flanders offered this suggestion to Shi Feng after Maria had introduced them to each other. “So long as we complete Miss Frey’s commission, you will gain membership in the Galaxy Corporation and be awarded one million Star Coins on top of that. If you do not need the Star Coins, I can give you two hundred bottles of S-rank Nutrient Fluids or twenty bottles of Life Potion in exchange. I can also ensure that these items are delivered to your hands.”

Flanders’ suggestion greatly tempted and shocked Liu Wusheng, Galaxy Past, and Crimson Heart. Although they didn’t know what the so-called Star Coins were, nor did they understand the significance of the Galaxy Corporation’s membership, they did know the value of two hundred bottles of S-rank Nutrient Fluid and twenty bottles of Life Potion.

Life Potions, in particular, were a precious resource that the Green God Corporation sold in limited quantities. Meanwhile, aside from healing injuries, the Life Potion could preserve a person’s youth and increase their lifespan.

An ordinary person could live for an additional ten years and see a significant improvement in their physical fitness just by consuming one Life Potion. Even if master or grandmaster martial artists, individuals with longer life expectancies than the average individual, consumed a Life Potion, they could expect a minimum increase of five years to their life expectancy.

Meanwhile, a sum of twenty Life Potions was something even the corporations backing the Five Great Super Guilds could not take out on short notice. Some superpowers couldn’t even get their hands on twenty Life Potions in an entire year…

After hearing Flanders’ offer, Su Qianliu and Blackie hurriedly turned to Shi Feng, signaling him to quickly accept the offer with their eyes.

They could gain such a bountiful reward just by completing one commission. This was an opportunity they would never get under normal circumstances. Even the Green God Corporation would never offer such an astronomical compensation just for completing a single commission.

In the meantime, Maria couldn’t help but look at Flanders in astonishment. She never thought that her Vice Guild Leader would take the initiative to invite Shi Feng to participate in the commission this time. Not only that, but he had even offered to split some of the commission’s reward with Shi Feng.

“Since the Tower Alliance is being so sincere, there is no reason for me to refuse,” Shi Feng said while glancing at the Flower of Seven Sins’ members standing next to the Bright Dragon Guild’s team. He understood that it’d be impossible to touch the Flower of Seven Sins’ members in this place with Bright Dragon protecting them. In fact, his team was at great risk just by being here. Meanwhile, the safest way out of this situation would be to move with the Tower Alliance. “However, I’ll pass on the Life Potions. I’m quite content with the one million Star Coins.”

As soon as Shi Feng finished speaking, Su Qianliu’s and Blackie’s expressions instantly turned ashen.

Meanwhile, Flanders was briefly stunned before laughing and saying, “You are indeed a straightforward person, Guild Leader Black Flame! No wonder Maria holds you in high esteem! In that case, let’s establish a contract right away.”

Subsequently, Flanders took out a God’s Domain Contract and wrote the necessary terms. Then, both parties signed it after reviewing the listed terms. With that, so long as both parties remained in God’s Domain, nobody would be allowed to go against the listed terms.

“Guild Leader? Aren’t the twenty Life Potions better?” Su Qianliu asked in a whisper when she saw Shi Feng signing the contract.

Twenty bottles of Life Potion could solve many of Zero Wing’s problems. Not only could older generation experts like Shi Feng recover their youth, but they could also sell some of the Life Potions for money. The money they could get from just one Life Potion could cover the salaries of Zero Wing’s internal members for several months.

Star Coins?

This clearly wasn’t a currency of their world. They couldn’t even eat these so-called Star Coins, let alone exchange them for things.

“No, the one million Star Coins are much better,” Shi Feng quietly answered, shaking his head. “Moreover, the value of Star Coins will only go up in the future.”

Star Coins might be foreign to people who hadn’t integrated into the Greater World. However, it should be known that Star Coins were one of the main currencies used in the Greater World. Meanwhile, the value of Star Coins was far greater than the Credits used on Earth.

Once the passage leading to the Greater World opened in the real world, Credits would quickly start to lose their value. This was because only the Greater World’s currencies could be used to purchase items and maintain a living in the Greater World.

Hence, before the value of Credits crumbled completely, he needed to get his hands on as many Star Coins as possible. Otherwise, once their world thoroughly merged with the Greater World and people were forced to earn Star Coins to survive, Zero Wing would quickly collapse on itself.

Meanwhile, out of the various currencies used in the Greater World, Star Coins were incredibly valuable. The average person working in the Greater World would be fortunate to earn 500 Star Coins a month. A fortune of one million Star Coins was something the average person would never get to see.

As for S-rank Nutrient Fluids and Life Potions, these were items commonly seen in the Greater World. So long as one had enough Star Coins, one could buy an endless supply of these potions. With the Galaxy Corporation’s membership, one could buy potions of even higher grades without limit. So, exchanging Star Coins for S-rank Nutrient Fluids and Life Potions was no different than putting the cart before the horse.

Moreover, Flanders’ offer was also a kind of test. The other party was testing him to see whether he was an ignorant native or someone who truly knew about the Greater World.

…

On the other side, after Flanders returned to the Tower Alliance’s team, he turned to look at Shi Feng with a look of interest and confusion.

“Miss Frey is asking for you, Vice Guild Leader Flanders,” Maria reported.

“Okay, I’ll head over right away,” Flanders said, nodding. Then, he looked toward Maria and asked, “Maria, why did you initially assume that Black Flame isn’t a player from an isolated world? What is the basis for your assumption?”

After thinking for a moment, Maria answered, “It’s because he knows much more about the Stratified Abyssal Realm than the Tower Alliance. This information simply isn’t something that you can find in an isolated world. So, Team Leader Blood Hammer and I felt that Mr. Black Flame might not be a player from an isolated world. Moreover, Mr. Black Flame is a fourth-floor expert. It is exceedingly difficult for an isolated world to give birth to an expert of such caliber, much less let this player abandon his progress and enter a Stratified Abyssal Realm.”

“He understands more about the Stratified Abyssal Realm than we do?” Flanders fell silent for a moment. Then, he smiled and said, “This is truly interesting. Even though he comes from an isolated world, not only does he know about the Stratified Abyssal Realm, but he also knows the value of Star Coins. He can even bring players out of the Stratified Abyssal Realm. Guild Leader Black Flame is definitely hiding many more secrets we do not know. It seems it’s not a loss to help him out this time.”

After saying so, Flanders made his way toward a beautiful female Elementalist standing in the distance.

Meanwhile, after conversing with the woman known as “Miss Frey” for a moment, Flanders gathered everyone in the plaza.

“Firstly, I would like to thank everyone for accepting my personal commission. As for compensation, I have already had the Tower Alliance inform everyone present. So long as we complete the operation according to plan, I will pay everyone half of the agreed compensation even if the operation fails. If we succeed, I will offer additional rewards based on your individual performances,” Frey, dressed in a silvery-gray mage’s robe, said as she scanned the crowd gathered before her. “However, if I find any of you deliberately messing up, I will let this person regret living in this world! If nobody has any questions, let the Legendary Crusade begin!”

Frey’s offer was incredibly hard to refuse. Moreover, there were so many Tier 6 God-ranked experts gathered. Even if they were tackling a Legendary Crusade Quest, completing it wouldn’t be too difficult. So, nobody present voiced any objections. Most of the gathered players were even eagerly awaiting the start of the operation.

After seeing that everyone was in agreement, Frey nodded and retrieved a bronze-colored wooden staff from her bag.

The instant the wooden staff appeared, everyone in the plaza could feel their souls trembling in fear and trepidation. Even Beyond Domain Realm experts like Menghao and Flanders wore somber expressions on their faces.

Isn’t this…the Nethersoul? Shi Feng was indescribably shocked when he saw the wooden staff in Frey’s hands.

A Divine Artifact!

An item that far surpassed Legendary Weapons and could cause even Tier 6 Gods to fight for.

According to rumors, a Tier 6 player wielding a Divine Artifact could go up against even Ancient Gods.

Meanwhile, Nethersoul was even one of God’s Domain’s Nine Great Divine Artifacts, an item capable of shattering an entire God’s Domain’s soul in one hit!

However, Shi Feng quickly snapped out of his daze as he realized that the staff in Frey’s hands wasn’t the real Nethersoul. Specifically, it was only a fragment of Nethersoul. Otherwise, there was no way Tier 3 players could withstand its presence. Even a God-ranked expert who had reverted to Tier 3 would instantly lose consciousness if they stood within the presence of a true Divine Artifact.

At the same time as Shi Feng had snapped out of his daze, Frey had also finished chanting the last verse of her incantation.

Immediately, a 60-meter-tall Door of the Dead appeared in the middle of the plaza. Then, the doors made of gigantic bones gradually opened and released a terrifying aura. Sensing this aura allowed everyone to understand how scary a scene was behind the doors.

Before everyone could recover from the Door of the Dead’s intimidation, a 20-meter-long skeletal arm reached out from the other side, the aura the skeletal arm released causing everyone to hallucinate the descent of death.

When Shi Feng looked at the gigantic skeletal arm, the Eyes of Reality revealed all of its data.

A Nether King?

…

TL Notes:

The Greater God’s Domain and Greater World are two different things. The Greater God’s Domain is a virtual world, while the Greater World is a real world.