Chapter 578 - District Five

Chapter 578 - District Five
Time passed little by little. Before he knew it, Shi Feng had spent over an hour inside the bar already.
Although he had not done anything in particular, he had gained an enormous harvest.
The bar was somewhere players often conversed and exchanged information with each other, so collecting information was effortless, particularly information regarding District Five.
After going through the information he had, Shi Feng finally understood what kind of place District Five was.
He could not help but admit that it was similar to the real world.
To put it simply, District Five was a simple Shelter that allowed players to stay at a close distance to high-leveled monsters, removing the need to waste large amounts of time on travel.
As there were no teleportation arrays here, players had to rely on their own two feet to get anywhere.
Due to the large number of ferocious monsters in the area, players would generally form parties when venturing into the fields, not daring to go solo. Any player capable of moving solo in the fields was an expert among experts. These solo players were known as Mavericks, and they were the definition of strength. Hence, they were admired by many players.
Besides that, Shelters also served as a defensive measure against monster assaults because the nights in this place was extremely terrifying.
How terrifying were they?
At nighttime, monsters would group up and actively assault players. Even a 100-man team would not survive without the protection of the Shelter.
Moreover, even if players were inside the Shelter, they still needed to face the tsunami of monsters. Hence, the players here had no choice but to work together to fend off these monsters.
If the Shelter were compromised, then the activity range of players would be similarly affected. They would have no choice but to move their base of operations to a lower-level region. In the future, if they wished to grind high-level monsters, they would have to waste a lot of time traveling from a low-level region to a high-level region.
Meanwhile, the nights here were longer than days. Out of the 48 hours in each day, 30 hours consisted of nighttime with only 18 hours of daytime. The time available for players to level up and improve themselves was much more limited.
This situation further emphasized the importance of Shelters.
After all, if players were to waste eight to nine hours on travel every day, how were they supposed to level up? Nevertheless, it was this dire situation that allowed the players here to have very high levels.
District Five was one of the Shelters located in a high-level region.
The players here did not have to waste a large amount of time on travel to encounter high-level monsters, go to high-level Dungeons, or take on high-level quests.
As the players here had to face the assault of a monster army every night, not only could they gain a considerable amount of EXP from killing these monsters, but they could also take the opportunity to complete high-level quests, obtaining significant sums of money and equipment.
Meanwhile, the most precious resource for a Shelter was the Soul Crystal. This item could be used to strengthen the magic array enveloping the Shelter, significantly weakening the monsters within the magic array’s range and giving players an easier time pushing back the monster armies. If players donated Soul Crystals to the Shelter, they could receive large amounts of Contribution Shares in return. Contribution Shares were equivalent to money in Shelters, and players could use these points to purchase some specific items to strengthen themselves.
For example, the Tier 1 Curse that Ironwrist’s party wielded was one of the good items acquired using Contribution Shares.
Hence, the players here had a great desire for Soul Crystals.
Only, this item was truly useless to Shi Feng. He would not be living in this place. He was only going to stay here as a guest until he completed his quest.
Although the Soul Crystals are useless to me, it won’t be a bad idea to exchange them for some Gemstones. Shi Feng suddenly thought of a good idea to make money as he looked at the three Soul Crystals inside his bag.
Compared to the outside world, Gemstones were much more easily obtained in this place.
During the monster attacks at night, there was no lack of Chieftain and Lord ranked monsters. Chieftains had a high chance of dropping Tier 1 Gemstones, while Lords might even drop Tier 2 Gemstones. Hence, the supply of Gemstones here was much higher.
In the outside world, players very rarely had the chance to inlay Gemstones into their equipment. In here, however, it was very normal for players to have all the equipment on their bodies inlaid with Gemstones. As a result, the Basic Attributes of the players here were much higher than those of players in the outside world.
Meanwhile, the prices of Gemstones here were also much cheaper.
Outside, each Tier 1 Gemstone sold for 10 Silver, whereas Tier 2 Gemstones sold for 90 Silver to one Gold per piece. In here, however, five Silver could buy a Tier 1 Gemstone, whereas Tier 2 Gemstones only cost around 40 Silver.
As for Soul Crystals, each piece could sell for up to 40 Gold. Even then, players would still fight to buy it. The drop rate of Soul Crystals was abysmally low, and only Chieftains that were Level 40 or above had a slightly higher drop rate. This was also the reason why Ironwrist’s party had gone hunting for Chieftains over Level 40.
By the time Shi Feng was done compiling the information he had gathered, Ironwrist had also entered the bar together with a silver-armored Guardian Knight.
The instant this bearded man with thick eyelashes entered, the bar fell silent. Every player inside the bar immediately turned to look at this Guardian Knight one after another.
“What’s the party leader of the Third Party, Discipline Paradise, doing here?”
“Is Discipline Paradise here to recruit members?”
“How could it be? That’s the Third Party of our District Five. Even if he were recruiting more members, he would choose from their list of available candidates first. Why would he come to a bar looking for members?”
“I heard that the six official members of the Third Party have all learned Tier 1 Curses and Taboo Skills. They can go out to grind without fear even during the night.”
“That’s right. The Third Party’s strength is currently the closest to the First Party. It is highly possible that, after the next ranking battle, Discipline Paradise will become the leader of the Second Party.”
Everyone inside the bar looked at the silver-armored Knight with gazes of admiration and reverence.
In a Shelter, the higher ranked a party was, the more resources they could obtain. In addition, they would also gain greater access in the Shelter, allowing them to purchase items that were not available to regular parties. That way, their party’s strength would improve even faster.
Soon, Discipline Paradise and Ironwrist arrived before Shi Feng, who was currently seated at a corner of the bar.
“Brother Expert, let me introduce you. This here is the leader of our District Five’s Third Party, Discipline Paradise. He’s quite knowledgeable about the Dark Den you spoke of,” Ironwrist said, smiling.
“Hello, you can just call me Discipline.” Discipline Paradise smiled.
Although Discipline Paradise was one of the powerhouses of District Five, he did not display any form of arrogance. On the contrary, he was a very kind and straightforward man.
When the surrounding players saw Discipline Paradise, the leader of the Third Party, and Ironwrist, the leader of the Seventh Party, actively greeting a Swordsman that none of them had ever seen before, every one of them was stupefied.
“Who is that person? Why haven’t I seen him before?”
“Is he one of the top ten party leaders of some other District?”
“I don’t think he’s just limited to being in the top ten, right? Didn’t you hear Ironwrist calling that person an expert? That person might even be one of the top three party leaders of some other District. Otherwise, why would Discipline Paradise personally come over to meet him?”
Everyone began guessing at Shi Feng’s identity one after another.
However, Discipline Paradise’s next words instantly shocked everyone inside the bar.
“Brother Ye Feng, would you be willing to join our District Five’s crusading army?”