A look of surprise appeared on the Half-elf administrator’s face when she saw the ancient scroll in Shi Feng’s hands. However, she quickly reverted to wearing her cordial smile, an additional hint of respect appearing in her eyes.

“Please wait a moment, Sir. As you are using a Bronze Cross-Border Guild Promotion Order instead of the standard promotion procedure, I will need to have the Association’s elders verify your Promotion Order before I can process the promotion for you,” the administrator explained as she took the ancient scroll from Shi Feng.

“No problem.” Shi Feng nodded, unsurprised by this situation.

The promotion of a Cross-Border Guild was different from the promotion of standard Guilds. It represented the recognition of all Adventurer’s Associations in God’s Domain. At the same time, it was also a recognition of status in the Greater God’s Domain.

Normally, a Basic Cross-Border Guild seeking promotion would need to fulfill two conditions. Firstly, the Guild would need to accumulate one million God’s Domain Popularity Points. Secondly, the Guild would need at least one hundred members to become certified Advanced Adventurers, which also meant they needed to reach the World Tower’s second-floor standard.

In addition, ordinary cities did not possess the qualifications to test players. Only Adventurer’s Association branches in the Greater God’s Domain or Holy Cities situated in the junctions between God’s Domains were qualified to conduct the certification test.

Meanwhile, the so-called adventurer certification test was essentially a test of a player’s combat standards. Players were required to challenge the World Tower during the certification test, and there were four levels of certification players could aim for: Basic Adventurer, Advanced Adventurer, Superior Adventurer, and Top Adventurer. These four certification levels corresponded to the World Tower’s four floors.

Only players who had successfully cleared the Basic Adventurer Certification would be recognized as first-floor experts. After reaching this standard, one would also become officially recognized as an expert in the Greater God’s Domain.

As for players who managed to pass the Advanced Adventurer Certification, they’d be recognized as second-floor experts in the Greater God’s Domain. They’d also be treated as mid-level mainstays in the Greater God’s Domain’s various Guilds, and they’d be qualified to challenge the Large-scale Crisis Quests issued by Adventurer’s Association.

Meanwhile, Crisis Quests could be considered one of the main sources for Cross-Border Guilds to raise their God’s Domain Fame. Among them, Large-scale Crisis Quests required a minimum of 100 players to challenge. This was also why one of the conditions to become a Bronze Cross-Border Guild required 100 second-floor experts.

Shi Feng took a big shortcut by using the Bronze Cross-Border Guild Promotion Order, so it was understandable that the Half-elf administrator would try to verify his Promotion Order’s authenticity. After all, NPCs had already started to behave no differently from real people after the Main God System had undergone several upgrades. It was just that NPCs normally wouldn’t interfere in the matters of players.

Afterward, the Half-elf administrator quickly left with the Promotion Order, leaving Shi Feng by himself at the front desk.

Unlike the quiet front desk, the nearby quest area for Guilds was filled with chatting players.

“Did you guys hear? The various superpowers had to abandon their territories and join forces just to occupy a few small cities. Even the Five Great Super Guilds have only managed to occupy a medium city after banding together, none of them daring to set foot in large cities,” a Level 109 Assassin said, sighing. “I don’t even know what first- and second-rate Guilds like us are supposed to do…”

“No surprises there. Have you guys seen the players from those foreign God’s Domains? They’re absurdly strong. Even though I’m a Refinement Realm expert, I feel no different from an ordinary player in front of those people,” a Level 110 middle-aged Berserker said. “I also heard that most of these players are only the younger members of their respective powers. You can say that our Miniature Ancient World has become a training ground for the various God’s Domains’ younger generation.”

“I heard about that, too. Our Miniature Ancient World is one of the few places where they can compete from the same starting line after all. I also heard that the youths who perform well might have a chance at getting recruited by the Greater World’s conglomerate to become reserve executive members. This has stirred the competitiveness of the various God’s Domains’ youths, and they are now duking it out at the Colosseum,” a Level 110 Elementalist said, nodding. “It’s a pity that our local powers are too weak. In our God’s Domain, youths that are peak experts are incredibly rare even in the Five Great Super Guilds, but even the weakest among the foreign God’s Domains’ youths are at the level of peak experts. If only our youths were a little stronger. Then, we wouldn’t be looked down on by the other God’s Domains so much, and we wouldn’t have to be called natives.”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” the Level 109 Assassin said. “Have you seen the battles taking place in the various NPC Cities’ Colosseums? Do you know about Nature Hall’s One-eyed Ghost? He’s one of our God’s Domain’s Eight Sword Meisters, yet he lost to a seventeen-year-old Swordsman in less than a minute in Rock Devil City’s Colosseum. To make matters worse, he didn’t even manage to reduce the boy’s HP by one-third before he got taken out.”

“I’ve heard about that Swordsman. Aside from him, a little monster has also appeared in Red Obsidian City’s Colosseum. She’s a seventeen-year-old Berserker, and she took out Warring Tiger, one of the Five Blades, in only nineteen moves. Even when Warring Tiger used his trademark move Seven Tigers, the girl blocked the attack completely and lost less than 20% of her HP,” the Level 110 middle-aged Berserker said, sighing deeply. “Many more of such little monsters have appeared in other cities. Unless the God-ranked experts on our side make a move, I doubt anybody can go against these little monsters…”

When the various Guild players in the hall talked about the battles taking place in the various NPC Cities’ Colosseums, they couldn’t help but be shocked by the foreign God’s Domains’ strength. At the same time, they also despaired when they thought about how the outcome of these battles would be deciding a portion of the various NPC Cities’ management rights.

The management rights one could earn through the Colosseum would not only give one the right to manage the city’s Auction House, but one could also decide the city’s entrance fee.

However, the problem of the entrance fee was only secondary. What really worried everyone was whether they could even enter the various NPC Cities. After all, now that so many more players had flooded into the Miniature Ancient World, the various NPC Cities were no longer enough to accommodate all players.

Every NPC City could only accommodate a limited number of players. Meanwhile, once an NPC City reached full capacity, subsequent players that sought to enter the city would have to wait in line.

However, players with an NPC City’s management rights could give priority to certain people to enter the city. Once the various foreign powers took control of the Miniature Ancient World’s NPC Cities, it went without saying that they would give this priority to their own members. Then, they would give second priority to their allied powers and players from their God’s Domain, while local players of the Miniature Ancient World would receive the least priority.

In this situation, there was almost no way local players with the least priority would get a chance to enter the various NPC Cities.

However, NPC Cities were essential for players to rest and conduct trade. Even leveling up would become a problem if players couldn’t enter a city to rest. They also couldn’t sell the resources they obtained, resupply on daily necessities, or repair their weapons and equipment.

Although trades could still be conducted in the fields, doing so came at great risk. After all, areas outside of NPC Cities were considered combat zones. The risks that came with robbing other players were much lower. Moreover, even if players could create a space outside where trades could be conducted safely, any trades that took place there would most likely involve a lot of price gouging.

Even the Greater World’s conglomerates are paying attention? Shi Feng couldn’t help but be surprised by these Guild players’ discussion.

Shi Feng wasn’t surprised that the Miniature Ancient World’s local powers were having difficulty getting by after the myriad worlds’ descent. After all, their God’s Domain had developed for only ten years. How could it possibly compete with God’s Domains that had developed for multiple decades or centuries?

This was also why he was in a hurry to promote Zero Wing into a Bronze Cross-Border Guild.

Once Zero Wing became a Bronze Cross-Border Guild, its members would have priority to enter the various NPC Cities. Although a Bronze Cross-Border Guild would only have 30,000 priority slots to enter an NPC City, which was a pitiful amount considering large Guilds tended to have hundreds of thousands or even millions of members, this amount was enough for the current Zero Wing.

The only thing Shi Feng did not expect was for the Greater World’s conglomerates to be paying attention to the Miniature Ancient World. This was a very rare situation in the Greater God’s Domain.

It should be known that any corporation in the Greater World capable of being considered a conglomerate held considerable power in the Greater World. A conglomerate was like a gigantic alliance of powers. Meanwhile, any player or power that received even a little bit of support from a conglomerate would have a much easier time getting by in the Greater World. Otherwise, they’d only be taken advantage of by the Greater World’s various powers and have great difficulty achieving greatness.

This was also why people from Elementary and Intermediate God’s Domains all sought to join a conglomerate.

While Shi Feng was in a daze, the Half-elf administrator returned to the front desk with his Promotion Order.

“We have verified the authenticity of your Guild Promotion Order, Mr. Black Flame,” the Half-elf administrator said respectfully. “Now, all you need to do is pay a 10,000-Gold processing fee, and Zero Wing will be promoted into a Bronze Guild.”

“Alright. Here is the money,” Shi Feng said as he took out the 10,000 Gold he had prepared beforehand.

“I have verified the payment. I will take care of the promotion procedures for you right away,” the Half-elf administrator said after verifying the payment amount.

Around thirty seconds later, a system announcement was sent to every player in the Miniature Ancient World.

…

System Announcement: Congratulations to Zero Wing for getting promoted into a Bronze Guild and becoming the first Bronze Guild in the Miniature Ancient World. Rewarding 100,000 God’s Domain Fame Points. All Guild members will have their death penalties halved, and EXP acquisition is increased by 100% for the next ten days.

System: Congratulations! Your Guild, Zero Wing, has become the first Bronze Guild in the Miniature Ancient World. Rewarding one Legendary Legacy Scroll, one Overtier Spell Book, and three levels.