These Level 100 Black Lions were no match for the Level 180 Great Berserker Yallop. With only his bare fists, he pummelled the lions one after another into the ground. This patch of green was soaked deep red with corpses littering the area.
"Damn, he's a beast! If we fit him with a set of high level equipment, he'll be even more unbelievable." Bladelight and Smoke Stub were speechless. Even as a Champion and Sword Saint respectively, they were no match for Yallop. The level difference was too great.
Yallop was brave and powerful. His battle experience was extremely ample, not any inferior to that of a Master.
Nie Yan thought for a moment. If Yallop could become a Master, he would grow many times more powerful. NPCs could also take class advancement quests like players. However, for them it was an extremely dangerous affair. If they died, that was it. So, they were extremely cautious.
About 20 minutes later, the reinforcements Nie Yan asked for arrived. The 500 players separated into parties of 10 and spread out to clear out the monsters in the surroundings.
Yallop wore the equipment Nie Yan gave to him. It was a full set of armour. The best piece was Level 160 Dark Gold-grade. The rest was at least Level 150. This equipment came from when Nie Yan was treasuring hunting with Tang Yao. It'd been sitting in the treasury all this time without anyone having any use for it.
After completely clearing the area of monsters, Nie Yan took out an enormous crystal orb from his bag. It pulsed out with ripples of azure-coloured energy.
This was something Nie Yan had bought from an NPC shop for 1,000,000 gold, a City Source Crystal.
Nie Yan placed the City Source Crystal on the ground. A powerful wave of energy swept out. It molded the land, flattening everything within a several thousand meter radius. Magical ley lines lit up on the ground, forming an enormous runic formation.
This was the foundation Nie Yan would build his city on top of.
Building a city in Conviction wasn't as troublesome as it was in reality. All you had to do was throw sufficient funds at it. What mattered was if you had the authority. If you built a city without permission, you would be committing an act of treason and be swiftly dealt with by the troops of the Viridian and Satreen Empires.
It was a fact any illegally constructed city would be demolished.
Since the Abernathy Great Grasslands belonged to Nie Yan, he had the authority to construct whatever he wished.
Now where the money came in. Nie Yan glanced at his checklist. He needed a basic wall, an administrative hall, temple, mercenary hall, and so on to construct a small city. He had to spend at least several million gold just to get everything off the ground. It would be impossible for an ordinary guild to bear such an enormous cost. Perhaps Nie Yan was the only player in the entire game who had the funds available. On the bright side, after the city was successfully built and its population reached a certain point, the profits would be sky high. The amount he would make by collecting rent and taxes on shops alone would be astronomical.
Before long, buildings appeared out of nowhere. The gold came pouring out of Nie Yan's bag like a surging tide. His goals stretched far beyond developing just a basic city. So, the structures he built were of extremely high quality. In the future, he could slowly raise their tiers.
The city was quite imposing situated over the grassland, occupying an extremely large space. A basic city could hold at least 600,000 people, and a medium or large city could hold up to several million.
Nie Yan had Guo Huai, Smoke Stub, and the others help draw up the laws and decrees. As the city gradually took shape, a notification popped up.
Please name your city.
Nie Yan thought for a moment. Based on his understanding of the languages in Conviction, he thought of a name—Okoron. The word meant Glorious in Ancient Common.
Nie Yan's feats, including becoming a Great Prophet, obtaining a territory, and so on were the first in history. Even in the previous timeline, no one had accomplished this. Asskickers United's success was worth marvelling at. He hoped it would become even more glorious in the future.
Nie Yan constructed a guild hall and other buildings, including a residential district exclusively for the members of Asskickers United. Having a personal residence in a city was something only for the wealthiest. It had many uses, serving as a gathering place and personal storage. Even the most basic residences had at least 20,000 slots of storage space. Additionally, players could set their residences as return points, allowing them to return to it whenever they used a Return Scroll. Like this, it could become a hub for levelling.
Nie Yan made sure that every member of Asskickers United and the five branch guilds would obtain personal residences in Okoron free of charge!
Nie Yan had Guo Huai submit an application to the Elder Council to transfer the guild headquarters of Asskickers United from the Cripps Stronghold to Okoron.
Okoron was going to become the capital of the Abernathy Great Grasslands. An Intermediate Stronghold had no way of comparing. Furthermore, the laws and decrees in Okoron were set by Nie Yan. For Asskickers United, this was an enormous advantage.
By moving the guild headquarters here, Asskickers United could also evade the frantic assault of Qin Han's skeleton army.
Qin Han's skeleton army was eyeing the Cripps Stronghold like a tiger in ambush. No matter the final outcome, the stronghold would face with an enormous calamity. If Nie Yan moved the guild headquarters to Okoron without Qin Han noticing, Asskickers United would be a cicada shedding its carapace; a crafty escape.
「For the time being, don't announce we've moved our guild headquarters to anyone, including our members,」Nie Yan said.
「How is that possible?」Guo Huai knitted his brows. The guild headquarters had already been moved. Completely concealing this information from the members of the guild was impossible.
Nie Yan thought for a moment.「The final step of moving our guild headquarters requires me to sign off with my name. I can delay this for about a month. We'll use that time to stealthily transfer all our guild assets to Okoron. If we can't hold onto the Cripps Stronghold any longer, I'll sign off on the move.」
「It takes at least a day to process a change in the location of the guild headquarters. When you're going to sign off, make sure to prepare in advance,」Guo Huai reminded.
「I understand.」Nie Yan nodded.
Guo Huai went to work. Moving the assets of the guild wasn't all that difficult. A few hundred trusted aides was all he needed.
The initial construction of Okoron was almost finished. Nie Yan checked his bag. He had spent roughly 7,000,000 gold. He still had another 9,000,000.
"How much gold did you spend?" Bladelight asked.
"About 7,000,000," Nie Yan replied. "Raising Okoron to a medium sized city will probably cost at least 15,000,000 gold. We lack the funds right now. We'll have to wait a few days for our gold to accumulate."
Bladelight and the others gaped in shock. 7,000,000 gold gone was gone just like that, and even more would have to be poured into the development of the city.
"Is it worth it?" Smoke Stub asked. If they failed to make an acceptable return on investment, they would lose big.
"Don't worry. If we can develop Okoron into an Intermediate City, we can make at least 20,000,000 gold just by selling shops and plots of land. Not to mention taxes. I estimate we'll rake in 1,000,000 gold in taxes every day," Nie Yan chuckled.
Bladelight and the others weren't too knowledgeable about the operations of Asskickers United. Even though they knew the guild had monopolized the potion market and was plenty rich, they were still shocked after hearing such a large figure.
Asskickers United's strength was steadily rising. Financially, Nie Yan had used the knowledge of his past life to create an enormous commercial empire, which was capable of fulfilling any of the guild's needs . They were far ahead of the pack.
With the completion of Okoron, the transfer points were also opened up. More and more players from Asskickers United and the five branch guilds entered the city. It became much more lively, with people moving about on the streets.
Ordinary strongholds could only hold two transfer points. Meanwhile, Okoron already had six. They were linked to all the cities in the Viridian Empire and Satreen Empire. The transfer fee was about 100 gold, of which Nie Yan received half. In the future, when the Abernathy Great Grasslands grew in popularity, he would make a killing on transfer fees alone. The only thing that left him feeling dissatisfied was how expensive the transfer fee was, stifling the city's growth.
Nie Yan planned to bring over some flying mounts to create a flight point in the heart of Okoron. Like this, there would be a cheaper alternative for travelling from here to other cities.
News of Okoron spread like wildfire on the forums.
This was the first player built city. It immediately attracted everyone's attention. Many players wanted to go there for a visit. However, the expensive transfer fee was an obstacle for ordinary players. Travelling to Okoron by land mount also wasn't feasible. It was simply too far away, with many high level maps on the way.
After finding out about the construction of Okoron, the players from Asskickers United were excited beyond belief. Before long, they received information that all of them would receive a personal residence in the city. This was an extremely generous benefit to ordinary players.
No other guild in both the Viridian Empire and Satreen Empire provided this kind of benefit to their players.
Asskickers United players from all over wanted to head over to Okoron and take a look.
「The Boss says he's planning to build a flight point. All guild members will get to travel to Okoron for free!」
「That's great! The boss really is awesome. I hope the flight points get built quickly.」