Guild Base

After teaming up with the players led by Apple Feather, they soon arrived before their destination, Novas Aetir.

All he could see were thick thunderclouds and raging storms, with no sign of the maze entrance whatsoever.

Seemingly noticing Higashino Makoto's confusion, Apple Feather offered an explanation at just the right moment.

"To see Novas Aetir, you have to enter through the eye of the storm below! It took us a lot of effort to discover it!"

Using flight magic, they followed the main group inside, and the view suddenly opened up.

Seven floating islands were almost entirely concealed within the enormous thunderclouds. He could vaguely make out that they were arranged like steps. Other than the faintly visible small entrance on the lowest island, there were no other entrances.

Based on the memories in his mind, he concluded that these thunderclouds were meant to stop players from skipping the maze and leaking its secrets, making them part of the maze as well.

Not only that, since Novas Aetir had taken so long to be discovered, it was probably the kind of maze that could only be found under specific conditions.

"So this is Novas Aetir? It looks pretty good."

He had originally been worried that the guild base would simply float in the sky, making it troublesome to defend.

He then used his spending power in the group chat to fire everyone up while issuing a warning—

"By the way, cash shop Items are pretty cheap right now, so please bring plenty of them. Let's try to clear the maze in one go. If we do, I'll send everyone another red packet."

"If we can't clear it within two attempts, I'll have no choice but to give up. The servers shut down at midnight, so don't blame me if you don't get paid."

Higashino Makoto could not accept spending too much time here. At worst, he could choose a guild base with fewer NPC points. Novas Aetir was excellent, but a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush.

Rather, Higashino Makoto already had a Guild Base Ownership scroll prepared. It only had 1,950 NPC points, which was why he had not used it yet.

Guild Base Ownership scrolls were generally rewards for being the first to clear maze instances. Aside from some particularly good resource sites that were kept, players who already owned a base would sell any extra ownership rights.

However, bases with high NPC points were highly sought after. Higashino Makoto had spent one hundred thousand on this 1,950-point Guild Base Ownership scroll as a backup plan.

"Don't worry, Boss. This isn't our first time clearing this maze. Since we know the mechanics, we even brought all the cash shop Items we had left from before. Nothing will go wrong!"

"Exactly. Just relax. We're professionals."

"That's right. We memorized the boss's move list ages ago. There's absolutely no way we'll fail."

"Memorizing move lists is basic training, isn't it? Is that really something worth bragging about? You're embarrassing our guild."

Seeing their confident replies, Higashino Makoto calmed down as well.

The closer they got to the end, the more worried he became, but after thinking it over carefully, nothing should go wrong.

Looking at the Ring of the Eternal Serpent on his hand and the large number of World Items in his inventory, he finally felt relieved.

At worst, I'll flip the table!

"Good. I believe in you."

After saying that, everyone used either Flight or Items with flight effects to fly toward the entrance.

Including Higashino Makoto, there were thirty people in total. Five fully armed squads flew toward the entrance using magic.

After passing through the entrance surrounded by storms and thunderclouds, the five squads were completely separated. The five people teamed with Higashino Makoto moved forward in perfect coordination, while Higashino Makoto had no intention of taking action at all.

The people who had chosen to team up with Higashino Makoto were undoubtedly the five strongest members of the guild. They did not need damage output from a player like him, who had yet to reach the level cap.

Moreover, he kept Dove Carrying an Olive Branch equipped at all times to guard against accidents.

Although it was YGGDRASIL's final day before shutdown, and others would gain nothing from attacking him, the chances of that happening were not high.

But humans were not the sort of creatures who would refrain from doing something simply because there was "nothing to gain." There were plenty of people willing to hurt others for no benefit to themselves.

Better safe than sorry. With a bright future right before him, Higashino Makoto naturally chose to play it safe. Whenever he teamed up with others, he never removed Dove Carrying an Olive Branch.

Furthermore, he had not taken down the forum post about buying a guild base. As long as Apple Feather and the others were not the sort of idiots who went looking for trouble, no one should know that he had already made his choice.

Evil-Slaying Slash

Dragon Lightning

Greater Heal

Hellfire

Vermilion Nova

Super-tier Magic: Descent of the Heavenly Host

In the blink of an eye, the five of them had efficiently cleared out the monsters in the first room.

"Boss, keep up!"

Higashino Makoto followed without hesitation. They had already begun dealing with the room's miniboss, and their efficiency was astonishing.

"As expected of professional gold farmers!"

Their seamless cooperation made Higashino Makoto sigh in admiration. Most of their equipment might not have matched that of the people who had leveled him before, but the coordination between them was something those hastily assembled teams could not compare to.

Aside from the long hours needed to build up teamwork, the effort gold farmers put into the game was also beyond what ordinary players could match.

Perhaps this was what people meant by not challenging someone's livelihood with your hobby?

He should have chosen professional gold farmers earlier instead of those players ranked highly on the leaderboards.

Just one short hour later, the final bosses—"Lv. 95 Fallen Valkyrie Jieluoluer," "Lv. 90 Gravely Wounded Valkyrie Xilude," and "Lv. 92 Bewitched Valkyrie Gelei"—all fell.

The drops were one scroll and three Items.

The Items did not matter. What mattered was the scroll representing ownership of the base.

He reached out and caught the scroll in midair.

At the same time, Higashino Makoto heard the announcement that the maze had been conquered.

"CONGRATULATIONS! Because you have conquered the floating city Novas Aetir, you have obtained ownership of the guild base: Novas Aetir."

He opened the scroll and saw the exact same 2,450 points from his memories, then let out a long breath.

Good. Next, all he had to do was spend money building up the guild and its guild weapons. At eight tonight, he would see how much money he had left and use all of it for a massive shopping spree.

He would try to finish everything before ten, then shut down communications to keep as many players as possible from staying until midnight.

If too many players remained until midnight and a whole crowd of them got transported over, that would be troublesome.

There would definitely still be consequences even if he shut things down at ten, but ending the purchases earlier would surely reduce the impact.

He could only hope the high-pressure cyberpunk environment would make those people go to bed early.

In this world that ruthlessly exploited workers, staying up late was not good. People could really drop dead from overwork!

If there were more people like the Six Great Gods, that would be fine. Higashino Makoto would not really mind.

But if they were all like the Eight Greed Kings and the Sorcerer King, he would have to constantly guard against being wiped out for no reason.

All things considered, fewer transported people would be better.