In the quiet reception room, Shi Feng stared at the final line on the shop list in disbelief.
Two-star shop!
There were indeed some two-star shops in Thunder Axe City, but they were not something players could buy whenever they wanted. Even barons of Thunder Axe City could not necessarily purchase one, let alone viscounts—it depended on luck and accumulated standing.
"Could this be a reward for being the first to purchase an advanced shop?" Shi Feng pondered it. He did not believe Bronze Inheritors held enough status to directly purchase a two-star shop. The reward for being first seemed far more likely.
In other large neutral cities, one-star and two-star shops hardly mattered. But Thunder Axe City was different. The gap between a one-star shop and a two-star shop was like the gap between a town and a city.
The reason was entirely due to their differing appeal to NPCs. Two-star shops held greater value and credibility in NPCs' eyes, so when conducting business, they would choose shops with higher ratings.
Then there was the difference in scale. This scale did not merely refer to the shop's physical size; it also represented the maximum amount for each transaction with NPCs. This was another reason NPCs preferred higher-star shops.
A one-star shop could only conduct transactions below 50 gold with NPCs each time, whereas a two-star shop could handle transactions below 300 gold—a sixfold increase. Coupled with the greater number of NPCs willing to trade, the disparity was obvious.
This was why two-star advanced shops in Thunder Axe City were so precious. In his previous life, countless guilds had dreamed of buying one, but very few succeeded. They could only invest vast amounts of resources and time to slowly promote one-star shops into two-star shops.
But one step behind meant