Chapter Forty-Four: The Ten Supreme Guilds!

Many countries went all out to develop the virtual gaming industry. For instance, densely populated and geographically compact nations like Japan and South Korea treated the virtual gaming industry as a pillar of their economies, with numerous unemployed individuals transforming into professional players and sharing a slice of this massive virtual pie.

The prosperity of the virtual industry naturally gave rise to more conflicts of interest and factional alignments. To ensure market stability, major powers united the nations of the world to establish an organized, disciplined, and legally backed entity known as the Global Players Alliance.

The Global Players Alliance was composed of multiple sectors, among which Lin Mu cared most about the Professional Players Alliance and the Global Professional Guilds Alliance.

The Professional Players Alliance represented the professional gaming circle, consolidating all professional players globally while sharing a wealth of experiences, techniques, and other data. It functioned as a communication network. Furthermore, the Professional Players Alliance housed a professional player trading battle-net space, accessible exclusively to professional players. It contained abundant information, such as high-end player techniques, sales and trades of various combat arts, player hiring, and professional training spaces. In his past life, Lin Mu had been extremely fond of browsing this professional player trading battle-net space and loved its atmosphere, which allowed him to absorb nourishment and grow like a sponge.

The Global Professional Guilds Alliance was a coalition formed by professional players who gathered into super guilds and large-scale guilds.

The Global Professional Guilds Alliance served as a comprehensive ranking index evaluating guild financial strength, resource volume, player quality, and global influence.

This guild alliance consolidated the top one thousand professional player guilds worldwide into a unified ranking list. The strongest guilds on earth were contained within this roster, which was recognized by global nations, renowned among worldwide players, and held immense authority.

Although the ranking list accommodated one thousand slots, players generally preferred to focus on the top one hundred. This was because every time the alliance published updates, the information for every one hundred guilds was consolidated onto a single page of announcements. Many players disliked continuing to turn pages, a habit that resulted in most people only knowing the top one hundred guilds while ignoring the rest. The guilds ranked further down suffered a truly tragic fate; therefore, they racked their brains to climb upward just to break onto the first page.

The China region held ten seats among the world's top one hundred super guilds on the global rankings. All players throughout China generally knew these top ten guilds, whose fame was exceedingly high. Any topics or events connected to them would become industry headline news, while other lower-ranked guilds were relegated to mere supporting roles.

Securing a spot among the top one hundred guild rankings was an honor—a global glory. Which of the top one hundred guilds was not backed by major forces, corporate conglomerates, or financial consortia? Their guild masters and vice masters were all wealthy elites, and the profits they reaped were exceptionally lucrative. This continually motivated ordinary players to strive upward and play their games diligently every day.

Desiring to become wealthy was the dream of countless ordinary people, and Lin Mu was an ordinary person as well.

In the past, those consortium-backed major guilds were the most envied conversational topics within Lin Mu's circle and the ultimate yearning of everyone in it. Yet now, Lin Mu had the opportunity to stand on the same level as them. When heroes contend for supremacy, who would ultimately emerge victorious remained entirely unknown!

The top ten super guilds of the China region, in sequential order, were Dragon City (3rd), Thousand Secrets Pavilion (9th), Carefree Corps (13th), Nine Heavens Dragon Glory (14th), God of War Guild (17th), Peerless Beauty (18th), Southeast Guild (26th), Qinglin Guild (34th), Heaven and Hell (47th), and Divine Glory Guild (57th).

Rankings came with positions: Dragon City ranked 3rd globally, while the final Divine Glory Guild ranked 57th. Considering these were exceptionally high positions, the overall strength of Chinese guilds formed an undeniable force and a clear current on a global scale.

Regions with prosperous global virtual gaming included China, South Korea, Japan, the United States, various European nations, and India...

While there were no explicit country-by-country rankings, competition among nations was exceptionally fierce. From a national perspective, achieving commendable placements in large-scale virtual gaming tournaments was a matter of bringing glory to one's country and boosting its international influence!

Much like the rankings in the Olympics of the old era or the martial arts tournaments of the new era, wearing the crown of glory brought both fame and fortune, honored one's ancestors, and brought prestige to the nation!

Numerous professional players in the China region yearned immensely for these top ten super guilds, aspiring to become their elites while harboring similar dreams: serving as a squad leader, ascending to legion commander, marrying a wealthy and beautiful heiress, and reaching the pinnacle of gaming! The mere thought of it was thrilling.

However, the top ten super guilds were not so easy to enter. Setting aside character requirements, just looking at skill—without possessing genuine martial prowess, how could one hope to join their ranks?

In his previous life, because Lin Mu possessed a territory with vast developmental prospects and had established it relatively early, he was absorbed into the Divine Glory Guild under the Ji Consortium. There, he served as a well-paid elite and a member of a million-player guild.

Having experienced ups and downs, he had worked as a gold-farming team leader, a pioneer team leader, a logistics manager, and had even been assigned to the guild's information resource management department and entered the vanguard legion. To his regret, after making a name for himself within the guild, he was used as a scapegoat for some dirty power struggles and vested interests. Although they did not publicly fire him, the guild's resources were completely withheld from him, and he eventually reduced to a pure logistics worker.

...

The top ten super guilds typically maintained a standing professional player scale in the millions, and those capable of drawing generous salaries were naturally no ordinary individuals.

Guilds were generally divided into core members, elite members, resident members, regular members, and peripheral members.

Members at the resident rank and above received salaries and functioned as guild employees, yet their freedom within the game world was entirely controlled by the guild.

As for regular and peripheral members, their degree of freedom might be higher, but the guild resources they enjoyed were vastly diminished. Some peripheral player members even had to pay guild maintenance fees or provide certain game resources—an exploitative arrangement indeed, yet countless players still scrambled and broke their heads trying to join.

What did a few game resources matter? Joining a major guild brought prestige. If people walking down the street knew you belonged to one of the top ten super guilds, there was no telling how many would burn with envy and jealousy!

In virtual games, the top ten super guilds were also immensely welcomed by game developers. With them came a massive player base, and where there were players, profits and revenues naturally followed!

Although the top ten super guilds acted domineeringly within the game world, they were not atrocious villains. Most of the time, they reasoned with others and valued their guild reputation deeply. Any black sheep discovered was immediately expelled, and severe offenders were blacklisted across the entire industry—a truly catastrophic downfall.

Those who committed atrocities within the game world were typically small, lower-tier guilds with low development potential, few members, and a dim future—only such entities would resort to cutting off their own nose to spite their face.

In his past life in Mythical Three Kingdoms, Lin Mu had also been plundered by rampaging guilds, suffering heavy losses. Of course, afterward, he had led his territory's army to destroy those bullying players' territories, returning blow for blow, engaging in pillaging of his own, and taking sweet revenge to vent his anger!

...

Lin Mu carefully examined the system announcement information on his attribute panel and realized that the six major consortia and ten major guilds had established territories either overtly or covertly, working with steadfast resolve and holing up in remote corners to quietly build up their strength for the future.

Lin Mu quietly made comparisons. Benefiting from his prophetic knowledge and experience, he understood most of the game's information and historical trends. Utilizing this knowledge, he had already accumulated substantial capital. He had no worries about finances, his population growth followed a clear plan, and his territory's development was proceeding in full swing with a deep foundation. The only aspect that currently worried Lin Mu was his own personal strength.

A fragile alien-worlder—that was the exact description for a player like Lin Mu. Skills: one, and it was merely a supportive spell for subjugating troops. Talent: not yet unlocked, with a hidden aptitude of Tier 4. Specialties: two, spearmanship and archery. The only thing he could proudly present was his relatively high level, having reached Level 32, which was only achieved thanks to的风仲's (Feng Zhong's) training multiplier exceeding ten times.

Various ranking boards within the game had not yet opened, so Lin Mu was unaware of the players' general level distribution, but they should not be very high. In the early stages, leveling spots for players were exceedingly scarce, and without large-scale campaigns, level progression was extremely sluggish.

Another day passed normally. During this time, Lin Mu went offline to eat. Using a gaming helmet necessitated going offline to replenish nutrition, though he only consumed fast food with very low nutritional value. Nevertheless, to seize time, Lin Mu silently endured it. He temporarily neglected physical training and had to let his physique idle for a while.

As a grand lord possessing hundreds of millions in copper coins, who could compare to him? Yet he was still eating low-nutrition food—it truly did not match his status. Once he had money and time, he would definitely lead a life of ultimate extravagance, heh heh...

Once he had leisure time, he must convert some wealth to improve his living conditions. It didn't have to be like some flashy nouveau riche, but at least he could move to a better environment, hire a domestic helper to cook and clean the house, and liberate himself from household chores to focus on major career undertakings.

Ah, if he happened to encounter a maid to warm his bed, that would be acceptable too!

Well, the domestic helper had to be presentable in the living room and capable in the kitchen—cough, cough, and her figure had to be nice as well. Just for aesthetic pleasure, purely for aesthetic pleasure, heh heh...

Lin Mu's thoughts slowly drifted from major factions to his idle fantasies about a better life, accompanied by soft chuckles...

Lin Mu arrived at the council hall and saw Gouwa sitting on the hall steps playing with a small white puppy.

"Gouwa, is Uncle Changyin around?" Lin Mu asked with a smile.

"Ah, it's Lord Uncle! Uncle Changyin is inside. You can go in and find him; I won't lead you there because I want to play with Xiaobai!" Gouwa said with a grin, stroking the little white dog's head.

"How many times have I told you, call me Lord Brother! Am I really that old?" Lin Mu said, feeling somewhat depressed. Ever since they had grown close, Gouwa no longer maintained the initial stiffness in Lin Mu's presence. With a child's innocent and lively temperament, despite Lin Mu's young age, Gouwa always insisted on calling him uncle. Although this placed him in the same generation as Changyin and the others, in private, Lin Mu still wanted Gouwa to call him brother. He was dashing, in the prime of his youth, showing his budding brilliance, and a generation's lordly master—cough, cough, anyway, he was simply young! Yet he was being called uncle, sigh...

"Haha, Father instructed me to call you that. I'm a good child and listen to my father!" Gouwa giggled, looking as though he were truly a good child rather than a mischievous imp.

"Hmph, you call yourself a good child? Last time you went to Aunt Hong's house and coaxed her daughter to the small riverbank outside the village to play with mud, making her covered in dirt and causing her to get several swats on her bottom from her mother! Now Aunt Hong's daughter won't even talk to you anymore, haha!" Lin Mu gossiped.

"Hmph, I was just taking Xiaohong out to see the world. How boring is it to stay home all day? Learning tailoring and embroidery is boring to death. I'll still go find her to play in the future," Gouwa said with a depressed expression.

When his father and mother found out about the incident last time, although his father had merely chuckled and scolded him a few times without hitting him, his mother had been overjoyed. She said it would be best if he brought Xiaohong back to be his wife. Although he didn't know what a wife was, Mother's words were always right, and he was determined to bring Xiaohong back as his wife.

"Hahaha, aren't you afraid Aunt Hong will chase you all over the village with a stick?" Lin Mu laughed.

"I'm not afraid. Aunt Hong can't run as fast as me! Hehe..." Gouwa stroked the little white dog's head and smiled gigglingly at Lin Mu.

"Hahahahaha..." Lin Mu patted Gouwa's head and asked, "Did your father tame this little white dog for you?"

"Of course not! Father is always so busy, taking care of so many big cattle and meticulously tending to the pretty little chicks—how would he have time to mind me? I met this one in a small grove outside the village. It seemed to understand my words, and I seemed to understand its words; it's so much fun! After that, we became good friends, and now Xiaobai follows me every day to keep me company and play," Gouwa said happily.

As expected, like father, like son. From Gouwa's words, Lin Mu deduced that Gouwa undoubtedly possessed an extremely high beast-taming talent. At such a tender age, he was already able to tame wild beasts and even communicate with them—truly extraordinary. It seemed his territory would never lack beastmasters in the future, haha...

"Good, good, Gouwa is truly amazing. Here is a piece of candied hawthorn as a reward!" Lin Mu retrieved a snack he had bought from the trading market from his backpack and handed it to Gouwa.

"Wow, wow! Candied hawthorns! I haven't eaten these in so long. Mother used to buy them for me often, but our village doesn't sell them. I've dreamed about them so many times!" Salivating, Gouwa swiftly snatched the candied hawthorn from Lin Mu's hand.

"Mm, mm, so good, delicious, so sweet! I'll save some for Xiaohong later, and for Xiaobai too, mhm-mhm..." Gouwa said in high spirits.

"Haha, and you even know how to share! Well, Lord Brother won't be stingy—all these candied hawthorns are yours." Lin Mu had bought a dozen strings of candied hawthorns from the market, each costing one hundred copper coins.

However, Lin Mu didn't take this to heart; it was mere pocket change. His territory lacked many material resources and products, and candied hawthorns were just one of them. Numerous products still needed to be purchased from the outside, and currently, the goods in players' hands were also quite low-end, while middle- and high-end products were monopolized by the upper strata of native inhabitants. To achieve comprehensive development, he had to step outside! The revolution was not yet successful, and comrades still needed to work hard!

Lin Mu let Gouwa run off to play and walked straight into the council hall.