Luring Recruits

“Wow, quite a lot. This fifteen-person squad actually had nearly 8,000 Cosmic Crystal units.” Luo Feng smiled, tossing the two spatial rings he’d just acquired to Hong. “Big Brother, you keep this.” Hong reached out, caught them, and laughed, “The more of these small squads we encounter, the better.” “Indeed!” Luo Feng nodded with a smile. “With enough Cosmic Crystal units, we can even buy Cosmic-level slaves! That way, our Earth’s foundation in the cosmos will be more stable.” Currently, Earth, as an indigenous planet, was too fragile. Even a slightly larger storm could capsize it. So, the three of them had to fight hard! “Adding these 8,000 units, we have a total of…” Lei Shen counted on his fingers, muttering, “The first eight days, we dug 96,000 Cosmic Crystal units. During the nearly seven days of travel, we incidentally dug nearly 26,000 Cosmic Crystal units. Before, we counter-ambushed six squads, getting nearly 52,000 Cosmic Crystal units. Plus today’s 8,000 units, that’s a total of… haha, over 180,000 units!” “That number, a quick thought and you know the answer. Yet you’re deliberately counting on your fingers!” Luo Feng teased with a smile. “Second Brother, look at you, do you still look like the head of the Thunder Dojo? I think you’re just a tofu vendor counting his daily earnings.” “I’m just happy, what’s wrong with that?” Lei Shen blinked, rubbing his bald head. “It’s not like I’ve seen this much money before, right?” Over 180,000 Cosmic Crystal units! This was an enormous fortune. Even for the Nuolanshan Family, it was an astronomical sum! A normal life planet, selling for trillions of Black Dragon coins, was considered good. Trillions of Black Dragon coins was only about 700 million Ganwu coins. 1,000 life planets would be worth 700 billion Ganwu coins. And 180,000 Cosmic Crystal units were not far off from 700 billion Ganwu coins. “The Realm-within-a-Realm truly is a great treasure,” Hong couldn’t help but sigh. “Creating a Realm-within-a-Realm is ten times harder than a normal world,” Luo Feng said with a smile. “It needs to be more stable, naturally requiring more Cosmic Crystal units! Building a Realm-within-a-Realm is a huge undertaking even for a peak Sector Lord! For a Sector Lord, simply joining an empire can grant them a star system territory. A star system can have hundreds of thousands of life planets, and some even millions.” “The wealth of a Realm-within-a-Realm is no less than that of a star system.” “What we’ve gotten so far is just a drop in the ocean. It’s only equivalent to a few hundred planets.” Luo Feng said it casually, but he was very pleased inside. The Nuolanshan Family’s assets were only a little over a thousand life planets. So… when a new world was discovered, Cosmic-level experts would fight each other, and many would fall. This was because wealth moved hearts. If not for Qiniya’s firm obstruction of many experts, how would these Star-level youngsters have gotten these riches? “Only 180,000 Cosmic Crystal units! In the cosmic backwater of the Milky Way Galaxy, that’s super rich. But our wealth is probably only about a third of the Nuolanshan Family’s.” Luo Feng smiled. “Compared to a Domain Lord, it’s even worse! So, everyone still needs to keep working hard!” “Haha, yes, not enough yet.” Lei Shen laughed. “The opportunity of the Realm-within-a-Realm is rare, once in ten thousand years. If we don’t make a huge haul now, how can we face ourselves?” Hong also teased with a smile. “Let’s go!” Luo Feng waved his alloy battle blade, pointing it towards the core area. Under the sunlight, the alloy battle blade reflected a dazzling light. “Sanzi, that pose of yours has quite the flair.” “Can’t I be proud for a bit?” “Haha…” Luo Feng’s team was in high spirits, laughing and joking for a while, then continued to stealthily advance towards the core area. … By nightfall, Luo Feng and his team finally reached the core area. By then, their wealth had risen to over 190,000 Cosmic Crystal units. This harvest was due, firstly, to Babata’s reconnaissance and warning, and secondly, to the powerful combination of Aogu and the Crimson Copper Mother Fragment. … The core area of the Realm-within-a-Realm was a beautiful plain. The ground was covered with strange, low-lying flowers and grasses, about ten centimeters high, very even, as if trimmed. The terrain was gentle, with very slight undulations. “Oh my god.” “How many people have died here?” Luo Feng and the other four were utterly shocked on the plain in the dark night. In the darkness, faint white light occasionally drifted down from the sky, allowing Luo Feng to barely see a few hundred meters around him. At a glance, within just a few hundred meters, there were over thirty corpses lying there. There were men and women, some resembling beast-men, others resembling Earthlings, but all were dead, their bodies even broken apart. “Crunch!” Luo Feng’s alloy battle boot, its sole made of pure, hard alloy, stepped on a piece of white bone, making a sound. “This…” Luo Feng frowned slightly. “Sanzi, you were right. The fighting in this core area is indeed brutal,” Lei Shen said in a low voice. “We’ve only just entered the core area, and we’ve already seen over a hundred corpses! The entire core area is so vast, how many people must have died?” “Ninety-nine percent of all the Realm-within-a-Realm’s Cosmic Crystal units are in the core area, so of course, the fighting here is the most insane,” Luo Feng sighed. “If we were here, we’d probably be fighting too,” Hong mused. Ninety-nine percent of the Cosmic Crystal units were in the core area. This was because the core area was the ‘foundation’ of the entire Realm-within-a-Realm. Of course, the most central Cosmic Crystal units would be protected and couldn’t be mined; if they were, the entire Realm-within-a-Realm would collapse. When a world is established, the core Cosmic Crystal units form a supply cycle, naturally absorbing external cosmic origin energy, which leads to a large distribution of Cosmic Crystal units around the ‘core Cosmic Crystal units’. As for the distant peripheral areas, where Luo Feng and his team had mined before, those were scattered Cosmic Crystal units, small in quantity! “Birds die for food, humans die for wealth. It’s nature!” Luo Feng sighed. “Let’s go.” Luo Feng and the four others cautiously moved closer to the very center of the core area. Along the way, they occasionally saw deep pits on the plain, clearly pits for mining Cosmic Crystal units. Around these pits, they often saw the corpses of Star-level adventurers, their blood long dry. An hour later. “Down!” “Advance.” Luo Feng and the four others crawled, reaching the top of a slightly raised hill, looking into the distance. Faint lights were visible in the distance, along with many figures. “What’s that…” Luo Feng flipped his hand, pulling out a telescope. Luo Feng and his team hadn’t bought this telescope before entering, but later, after killing some squads, they found some special equipment in their spatial rings, which Luo Feng naturally kept. “So many people.” Through this cosmic adventure telescope, Luo Feng clearly saw individual figures hundreds of kilometers away. “Damn.” Lei Shen, holding a telescope nearby, muttered, “Must be over a thousand people.” “Quite a lot,” Hong also nodded. “I hear something,” Tienan River suddenly said. “Yes, I hear something,” Aogu added. Luo Feng, Hong, and Lei Shen all looked at Tienan River and Aogu. These two bodyguards were Star-level Ninth-tier, much stronger than Luo Feng and his team in terms of hearing and sight. “What are they saying?” Luo Feng quickly asked. “Master, you’ll be able to hear clearly if you advance another one or two hundred kilometers,” Aogu explained. “Alright,” Luo Feng nodded. Anyway, they were nearly 600 kilometers from the large group of people, so advancing another one or two hundred kilometers would still be within the safe zone. “Advance!” Luo Feng and the four others cautiously and quickly moved forward. As they got closer, they indeed heard the voices shouting. “Fellow adventurers! A single world can make Cosmic-level experts and Domain Lords envious. This Realm-within-a-Realm is ten times rarer and ten times more valuable than a single world! So now, on Canglan Star, at the exit of the Thunder World, there are already a large number of Cosmic-level experts, Domain Lords, and even great Sector Lords present!” “The two sacred lands, four organizations, and sixteen great families of our Black Dragon Mountain Starfield all have experts arriving!” “The treasures of the Realm-within-a-Realm are destined to be ours, the Black Dragon Mountain Starfield’s!” “Therefore, the major organizations and powers have already agreed that if you are not an adventurer from the two sacred lands, four organizations, or sixteen great families, once you exit the Thunder World, you will be immediately arrested and captured.” … The distant voice was very loud, spreading hundreds of kilometers, and Luo Feng and his team heard it clearly. It was obviously shouted intentionally. Luo Feng, Hong, and Lei Shen exchanged glances. They already knew these words from Domain Lord Mingyu. Then, Luo Feng and his team continued to listen. … “No matter how many Cosmic Crystal units you get, or even some special treasures. It’s useless! As long as you’re not from our two sacred lands, four organizations, or sixteen families, you’ll all be arrested. You’ll have worked for nothing!” “But now, you have an opportunity.” “As long as you join our North Dragon City, temporarily becoming an external member! Our North Dragon City guarantees, by its reputation, that when you exit the Thunder World and return to Canglan Star, you will be protected by our North Dragon City. You will not be arrested! As for the Cosmic Crystal units you obtained previously, no one will seize them. All you need to do is join us! Help our North Dragon City obtain the treasures!” … “As long as you join our Hundred Tiger Tower, temporarily! Then you will have no safety concerns!” “No one will care about the Cosmic Crystal units you obtained. All you need to do is obey our Hundred Tiger Tower’s command, join us, and help our Hundred Tiger Tower seize the treasures.” … One powerful, resonant Universal Common Language voice after another spread across the vast plain. Luo Feng and the four others exchanged glances. Yes! Hundred Tiger Tower, North Dragon City, Black Cloud Society, the sacred land Heilong Mountain, and the sacred land Ice Sea Divine Kingdom. They were all frantically trying to recruit ‘free adventurers’, all guaranteeing by their organizational reputation that they would absolutely not seize the adventurers’ ‘Cosmic Crystal units’. “That’s right, Cosmic Crystal units? Even all the Cosmic Crystal units in the Realm-within-a-Realm wouldn’t concern the four organizations and two sacred lands much,” Luo Feng nodded slightly. “What they care about are some of Sector Lord Kabu’s important treasures. Those are the true rarities!” “Now they’re recruiting free adventurers,” Hong also smiled. “That’s right, the elites sent by the four organizations and two sacred lands for the ‘Apprentice Mercenary Assessment’ won’t be too many. Probably only a few hundred to a thousand people per organization. The real numerical advantage lies with the tens of thousands of free adventurers!” Coming from different affiliated nations, different star systems, different races. A large number of adventurers without big backgrounds or powerful backing! They might be weak. But there were many of them! Together, their numbers far exceeded those of the four organizations and two sacred lands. “What should we do?” Hong frowned.