Reincarnation Of The Strongest Sword God (Web Novel)

Chapter 397 – Newcomers and Veterans

Star Lake City, Star Lake Training Center:

When Shi Feng arrived outside the training center by car, the entrance was already crowded with people. Among these people, some were friends and families of those who had passed the selection, while some were the Star Lake Legion’s reserve participants and members of the Star Lake City’s various powerful families.

Shi Feng didn’t think much of this scene and simply squeezed through the crowd.

Every city legion would only recruit members once a year, and the day of the recruitment would be the liveliest day of the year for a city. It would also be a day when many people’s fates would change.

Apart from people who had passed a city legion’s selection, the city legion’s reserve participants and members of the city’s various powerful families would also be paying close attention to this annual recruitment. One could even say that the latter group was much more concerned over the city legion’s annual recruitment.

It was true that those who managed to get into a city legion selection’s top 1,000 would be guaranteed a place in the city legion. However, not all members in the city legion would be of equal position.

Upon joining a city legion, a person would, first and foremost, be put into one of two main groups: official participants and reserve participants.

Of the 1,000 people who passed the selection, the top 100 would be made into official participants, while the remaining 900 would be made into reserve participants.

Subsequently, the city legion was split into three tiers of official participants, and each tier would have numerous battle groups. Every battle group would receive different treatment from the city legion based on their importance.

Ace battle groups received the best treatment in the legion, which showed in the contribution points they received each month. Even without doing anything, an ace battle group member could pay their monthly residence contribution and have excess points that they could use to exchange for the city’s limited resources.

The city’s limited resources were items highly coveted by the various corporations.

An example of these limited resources would be the Stardew. Just one drop of Stardew could drastically improve the user’s nervous response system and let the user recover up to 50 years of their youth. If a person consumed one drop of Stardew every year, their mental strength would naturally rise from the one-star mental strength master standard to the one-star mental strength grandmaster standard within three to five years.

Even after a person became a mental strength grandmaster, consuming Stardew could still speed up the improvement of their mental strength, letting them reach the three-star mental strength grandmaster standard much more quickly. This would, in turn, give them a better chance at going beyond the grandmaster realm.

In addition, Stardew could let mental strength grandmasters better preserve their youthfulness. Typically, a mental strength grandmaster would have little to no chance of going beyond the grandmaster realm past the age of 100. However, if a mental strength grandmaster regularly consumed Stardew, they could extend this time limit to 150 years old.

Unfortunately, because the various conglomerates monopolized the technology to manufacture Stardew, the various cities needed to go to great lengths just to exchange for a small amount. So, most cities could only afford to allocate their supply of Stardew to the members of their city legion. Moreover, it would be at the price of one million contribution points per drop of Stardew.

It should be known that the average civilian living in Star Lake City’s suburbs only needed to pay a monthly residence contribution of 1,000 points. Even those living in the city center only needed to pay 3,000 points a month.

Meanwhile, the average official participant in the Star Lake Legion would only receive 2,000 contribution points a month if they didn’t participate in any city battles. If they completed commissions for the city legion, they would receive about 100 contribution points per commission. So, it was nigh impossible for the average official participant to exchange a drop of Stardew.

Only by joining an ace battle group and participating in every city battle available could a person have any hopes of exchanging a drop of Stardew when they reached the retirement age of 50.

Therefore, it was of great importance that one joined an ace battle group when joining the Star Lake Legion.

In the Star Lake Legion, each battle group could only have up to 50 members. Specifically, each battle group could have up to 20 regulars and 30 replacements. The regulars of each battle group would usually be the ones participating in city battles, and the replacements would take the place of the regulars if the regulars happened to be out of commission.

As only those under the age of 50 could be in a city legion, there would be people retiring from the Star Lake Legion every year. This meant empty slots would be available in the various battle groups every year.

While the minimum requirement to join a battle group was to be an official participant, reserve participants could try for one of these vacant slots. After all, the Star Lake Legion’s selection would only bring in 100 new official participants each year. Yet, the Star Lake Legion had nearly 200 battle groups spread across the three tiers. Thus, so long as a reserve participant could pass the basic test for official participants, they would be promoted into an official participant and qualify to join a battle group.

However, things were a little different for ace battle groups. Unlike normal battle groups led by two-star mental strength grandmasters, the Star Lake Legion’s ace battle groups were led by the legion’s vice commanders. In addition, ace battle groups only accepted 30 members instead of 50 to consolidate their resources.

Meanwhile, the way newcomers could join an ace battle group was by defeating one of the three worst-performing replacement members of an ace battle group.

Of course, the veterans of an ace battle group would be required to limit their strength so newcomers would more or less have a chance at winning.

However, this “chance” would still have to depend on the strength of the three worst-performing participants. If a certain ace battle group’s three worst-performing members were too strong, newcomers would have to choose another ace battle group or a normal battle group. After all, every participant only had three challenge attempts each year. If they failed all three of their attempts, they could no longer join a battle group for the rest of the year, and they would lose out on the opportunity to earn a large amount of contribution points from city battles.

…

When Shi Feng arrived at the training center’s top floor, he came upon a spacious arena that could easily accommodate 100,000 people.

Currently, there were a little over 20,000 people crowded in the middle of the arena, and every one of them was a member of the Star Lake Legion. Aside from the 1,000 people who had passed the selection this year, the rest of these Star Lake Legion members were either reserve participants from previous years or former official participants who had been eliminated from their old battle group.

Unlike the newcomer participants, these veteran participants carried a hostile gaze that instilled fear into the various newcomers. Moreover, many of these veterans had already reached the one-star mental strength grandmaster standard, and their mere presence caused the newcomers around them to feel uncomfortable.

Shortly after arriving in the arena, Shi Feng successfully grouped up with Gentle Snow and Hidden Soul.

At this time, Gentle Snow was dressed in white, while Hidden Soul was dressed in black. However, while Gentle Snow wore a sports outfit that revealed very little skin, Hidden Soul’s outfit consisted of a short-sleeved shirt and a pair of short pants. When the two of them stood together, they were like the sun in the darkness. Many participants in the arena couldn’t help but be drawn by their beauty and temperament.

“Are you alright, Guild Leader?” Gentle Snow worriedly asked when she saw Shi Feng’s haggard face. “I heard that you and Commander Laura have caused a huge commotion while we were in the trial. Not only did an Ancient God appear, but the system has even forced those of us inside the trial space to go offline.”

Hidden Soul also looked at Shi Feng with eyes full of curiosity. Just what kind of battle had taken place on the floating island for the system to forcibly log players out of the game? It should be known that even those challenging the Void Saint Legacy’s trial were not spared.

“Don’t worry; I’m just a little overspent mentally. I’ll be fine after a few days of rest,” Shi Feng waved his hand. “The situation outside has already been dealt with, so just focus on the trial and come out when you’re done.”

While Shi Feng and Gentle Snow were talking, several veteran participants nearby could be seen laughing and talking to each other.

“This year’s number one doesn’t look like much. Not only is he nearly the same age as me, but he’s also only a two-star mental strength master,” a muscular man in his early thirties said as he looked at Shi Feng, his voice full of contempt. Despite his age, the muscular man was already a one-star mental strength grandmaster. “How lucky of him to become an official participant with such low standards. If I had known this year’s selection would be so easy, I would have waited two more years before trying for the city legion.”

Standing next to the muscular man, a young man, who was similarly a one-star mental strength grandmaster, nodded and laughed, saying, “I know, right? The standard of this year’s newcomers is terrible. They get to become official participants without facing any competition. But this is where their luck comes to an end. They’ll get to learn how cruel reality is in a moment.”

The two veteran participants’ banter irritated many of the newcomer participants nearby. However, there was nothing these newcomers could say to refute these veterans.

The gap between mental strength grandmasters and mental strength masters was far too wide. The mental oppression of a one-star mental strength grandmaster alone was enough to interfere with a three-star mental strength master’s ability to control their body.

Fortunately, they would only be competing with each other through virtual battles. The difference in their mental strength would also only reflect in their weapons and equipment.

While a one-star mental strength grandmaster could manifest up to six Fragmented Legendary items and one Legendary item, which was a lot more than the four Fragmented Legendary items that a three-star mental strength master could manifest, the difference in equipment standard wasn’t overwhelming. It was still possible to make up for this difference using combat standards.

Not to mention, not all one-star mental strength grandmasters could necessarily manifest six Fragmented Legendary items, let alone a Legendary item.

While the participants in the arena were talking among themselves, a group of people arrived on the arena’s second floor. The group was led by a woman with a wild but stunning appearance, and following this woman were about a dozen or so other people. Of the people following the woman, every one of them was a vice commander of the Star Lake Legion and an existence known by all in Star Lake City.

“I don’t like to spout nonsense. Since everyone is here, let’s begin the enrollment test!” the woman in the lead nonchalantly said after stepping onto the podium on the second floor. “Whoever scored first place in the selection, step forward! We’ll start with you!”