Chapter Forty-Four: The Guild Headquarters

Everyone teleported together to the front of the new guild headquarters, where Storm Over the World stood at the entrance.

Before them lay a rather ordinary courtyard, with a plaque above the gate bearing the gilded inscription “Storm Guild.”

The headquarters itself looked far from luxurious, at least by the game’s standards. Compared to the city’s main NPC buildings, it was much less ornate. However, despite its plain appearance, the site was spacious enough to accommodate future guild facilities and activities.

“A bit disappointing, honestly. I was hoping the guild building would be as grand and magnificent as the Lord’s Mansion.”

“Dream on—if it were fancier than the Lord’s Mansion, where would that leave the city lord?”

“Well, it is a bit plain, but our guild is only level one for now. Once we level up, the headquarters should get fancier, right?”

“Leveling up the guild isn’t easy.”

“Exactly. To reach level two, we need a hundred thousand guild contributions. That’s no easy task.”

“Each member can donate a gold coin per day, which counts as one contribution. A level one guild can recruit up to a thousand members, so at most you get a thousand contributions per day. That means, even at the fastest, it would take a hundred days to reach level two. That’s absurd!”

“Look more carefully—besides donating gold coins, you can also donate materials.”

“I saw that, but the materials needed for guild contribution are so cheap. You need to donate dozens or even hundreds just for a single contribution. Where are we supposed to get that many materials?”

“If we rely only on what we loot ourselves, it’s not enough. But if we buy from the auction house, those materials are dirt cheap now. A hundred gold coins can buy a ton.”

“Haha, that’s right. People don’t realize these materials are needed for guild leveling, so they’re selling them for next to nothing. I’ll just sweep them all up.”

“Sounds good. Secretary, go to the auction house and buy whatever usable materials you can find. Don’t worry about the cost; these will probably go up in price soon anyway.”

“Let’s go inside and have a look. This will be our home in the New World from now on, haha.”

“Wait a second—look at the pillars on either side of the gate. Looks like we can put up a couplet.”

“You’re right! The guild name was set when we founded it, but they left space for us to add a couplet. The game designers really know how to have fun.”

“Let’s think of one together. It has to be impressive and fitting for the occasion. If we mess it up and can’t change it later, it’ll be embarrassing.”

Riding Alone for a Thousand Miles said, “No need to overthink it. Let’s use that line from the old poem: ‘Heroes arise from storm and cloud; once in the world, the years hasten by.’”

“That works—it fits perfectly with our guild name. Kid, you’ve got talent.”

Everyone agreed it was quite fitting.

But Windchime disagreed.

“‘The years hasten by’ sounds awful. We’re still young—I don’t want to grow old too quickly. Change it, this one won’t do.”

This young lady was not easy to please; her standards were high.

So everyone had to keep racking their brains, dredging up the last bits of their knowledge, but after a long discussion, they couldn’t come up with a more suitable couplet.

Zhang Shan also wracked his brain.

“Well, how about this: we use the same verse but switch the order—‘Heroes arise from storm and cloud; once in the world, we shatter the years.’”

“Nice. The parallelism isn’t perfect, but who cares? It’s catchy and cool.”

“It is cool—if we can shatter even the years, what could possibly stop us? Let’s go with this one—definitely cool enough.”

Storm Over the World nodded. “This couplet’s good. If there are no objections, I’ll write it up.”

“No objections, let’s use this.”

Windchime had no complaints either; switching the order suited her, and she was too pleased to object.

Storm Over the World stepped forward and began to write.

A golden brush appeared out of thin air, and with elegant strokes, the couplet was written in an instant.

The golden couplet, together with the plaque bearing the guild’s name, made for a truly magnificent sight.

“Now the entrance to our guild headquarters finally looks the part—it really adds the finishing touch.”

“Let’s go in. The boss still hasn’t drawn our guild facility. The first guild to be established gets a chance to draw a facility as a reward. Boss, go ahead.”

Once everyone stepped inside the headquarters, they were stunned.

“Whoa, it’s this bare? There’s only a main hall, and nothing else—so empty, it looks terrible.”

“I guess we have to build all the guild facilities before the space fills up.”

“True, but right now it looks really bad.”

“Take it slow. Let’s draw the guild facility first. I wonder what options we have?”

Under Storm Over the World’s lead, everyone went to the main hall.

A stone stele stood in front, recording the guild’s history and outlining future development.

“So you need at least one facility to upgrade to level two. Good thing we get to draw one for free—that’ll save us a lot of time.”

“Leveling up to two is fine, but for level three, you need two facilities. And each one costs a ton of contribution. Tough work.”

“It’s fine. A level two guild can have ten thousand members—many hands make light work.”

After checking the draw options, Storm Over the World said, “We can only draw a facility for a life profession. Doesn’t seem too useful for us right now.”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s free, and we’ll need it eventually.”

“Alright, I’m drawing now.”

Once the draw was done, a workshop appeared instantly in the southeast corner of the headquarters.

“We got an engineering workshop. From now on, guild members who learn engineering can craft items here instead of paying to rent workbenches in Dangyang City.”

“Engineering’s a bit niche—don’t think many people will pick it up.”

“Some will. Hunters will need to craft bullets later on, so they’ll have to learn it.”

“Six-Barrel, are you planning to learn engineering?” Stormcannon asked.

“Of course. We can’t stick with regular bullets forever. For now it’s fine, but at higher levels, no way.”

“I want to learn too. When my life profession hits Grandmaster, I’ll craft my own legendary firearms, haha.”

“This fool’s gone mad.”

“Craft your own legendary gear? Better get your apprentice certificate first.”

“Enough nonsense—did you guys notice? You can bind your return point to the guild stele, so when you cast Return, you’ll come straight back to the headquarters.”

“Huh, so you can. But does it really matter? With teleportation in the city, it’s all the same.”

“You never know. I’m binding my return point here—can’t hurt.”

Zhang Shan did the same. As others said, it couldn’t hurt.

“Alright, the guild’s established. From now on, it’s up to everyone to keep building it up. Go level up, especially those who aren’t fifteen yet—hurry up, or tonight’s monster siege event won’t be much fun for you.”

“I’m logging off now. Haven’t slept for a day and a night,” Zhang Shan said.

“Go get some sleep, boss. You’re ruthless—even to yourself.”

After tossing his unused purple gear and other equipment onto the auction house, Zhang Shan logged off.

Once offline, he uploaded his solo boss kill video to the forums, starting from when he used the Silence Scroll, all the way until the boss fell—a clip just over four minutes long.

As for the six or seven hours of grinding before that, he didn’t upload those—too long, and he didn’t want others learning his strategy.

Let them guess—someone clever will figure it out eventually.