After being informed of the monster wave that seemed to be approaching in the direction of Star Falls City, Xu Feng was rather calm.
He had anticipated that to happen ever since he left Paradise Plains.
The people residing in Paradise Plains might have fended off the invasion, but there definitely should be more monsters according to his recollection.
Therefore, when those monsters realized Paradise Plains was not possible, they became nomads-like, constantly traveling and searching for viable cities.
And without a doubt, Star Falls City was the easiest city to target. Sure, it might have revitalized due to the appearance of the Arcane Mine supplied by him, but that wasn't enough.
The revitalization of Star Falls City was merely at its beginning phase, and the defenses were still relatively weak when compared to neighboring cities such as Skyland City and Greendale City.
Had these monsters emerged prior to his advancement to the Hidden Class, then Xu Feng would have been worried and filled with headaches.
However, times have changed. He was now a Tier 1 Origin Cleric. Not to mention, he even got the greatest trump card yet: a Town Certificate.
With the Town Certificate, he could construct a town on a neutral map that would generate an insane amount of coins for him daily. Of course, the only thing stopping him was money.
It was easier said than done to construct a town on a neutral map. The money required was so high that even he dreaded thinking about it.
That was until he realized the Divine World seemed to have finally implemented a new update.
'No wonder the other guilds are catching up to our progress despite the headstart I achieved.' Having found a table to sit on in a random tavern, Xu Feng glanced at the Exchange Currency.
The option to top-up was finally here, meaning those who had a ton of financial wealth could easily garner a lot of coins by exchanging real-world currency.
Despite this, the exchange rate was still a complete scam— in which only a few social class people could afford it.
To exchange for one gold coin, players must pay a whopping 500,000 dollars, with tax not included.
In other words, for someone to complete the exchange transaction, they needed to pay around 520-530 thousand dollars or more.
Based on previous prices of how 50 silver coins were equivalent to 50,000 dollars, or 100,000 dollars for 1 gold coin. The price that the system offered was blatantly exorbitant.
'How nice it would be if I could be the system…' Xu Feng smiled bitterly. He worked so hard to earn his current wealth, but the system could easily just implement a new feature and raked in way more than he could ever earn in a matter of seconds.
Without a doubt, the exorbitant price didn't hinder any of the top guilds with huge financial wealth from purchasing and exchanging it for an abundant amount of gold coins.
While he enjoyed a cup of tea, Xu Feng heard some gossip from new players who entered the tavern.
"Hey, did you hear about the global guild leaderboard ranking? It's finally been posted."
"They did? Let me give it a check. I want to see if Vanguard Guild is listed on it. They only post the top 10,000 but we all know it's not enough."
Hearing them, Xu Feng became curious as well and wondered about his guild ranking.
As he opened the Game Forum, there was a post that listed Global Guild Leaderboard Ranking by Miracle Pavilion. Miracle Pavilion was quite the influential figure or company in the real world.
Its standing could be comparable to those of the Super Guild due to the numerous relationships it had established through its Miracle Chamber of Commerce.
Nevertheless, their words were quite credible, so most players would acknowledge whatever was listed by them.
'As expected, most of the guilds in the top 10,000 were those super and first-rate guilds.' Xu Feng wasn't surprised at all that the top 10,000 places were already taken by those well-known in the real world. They were veterans with a ton of resources, so it was only natural for them to hoard the ranking.
However, he was indeed surprised to see his Vanguard Guild placement.
Although it barely managed to stick itself in the top 10,000, standing at 9,992, that was considered a great feat already in his mind. After all, they managed to slip in because of the recent profit they earned through the auctioning done by Veronica and Carmen.
He might have been pleased to even be able to slip in due to knowing more than the average folk, but the same could not be said for others.
Some might call this placement ranking nonsense or ridiculous, given how much publicity the Vanguard Guild had garnered yet only ranked at 9,992.
They failed to comprehend that publicity wasn't the only thing calculated in the list constructed by Miracle Pavilion.
Since the comments were heavily flooded by the questioning of Vanguard Guild's placement and why they were ranked so low despite beating Lethal Corp, Xu Feng raised an eyebrow at a new development.
In just a few minutes, there was actually a response to the criticism of the post.
Miracle Pavilion went ahead to clarify their stance, which came as a surprise, given they usually won't care much about the disagreement to their hard-researched list.
Miracle Pavilion: Vanguard Guild only ranked at 9,992 because of their recent achievement in the auction, large-scale raid, and their current in-game wealth. However, with the implementation of top-ups, their advantages were no longer much. Additionally, the defeat of Lethal Corp was unrelated to the Vanguard Guild's strength itself, but rather with the help of NPCs. NPCs' strengths are not calculated in the current ranking, henceforth their ranking.
With the Miracle Pavilion declaring their reasoning, the criticism also lessened, which was soon followed by sneering and mocking comments from players who loved to enjoy ruining others.
Meanwhile, Xu Feng was more curious about the Miracle Pavilion intelligence network.
'I didn't expect them to know that the Lethal Corp's defeat came from NPCs.' Xu Feng smiled coldly. He had tried his best to conceal the matter, but it appeared that the information still managed to slip through the crack.