As the countdown concluded, Ye Yun was forcibly returned to Fengle Village. Ye Yun, who had been agonizing over the "Big Brother Mi Jia" mentioned by Mi Jia, was instantly stunned by the changes in Fengle Village.
At this moment, Fengle Village no longer felt like a village. Although all the buildings were still made of wood, they exuded an ancient and elegant charm, and the people wandering about gave one the feeling of a journey back to the Tang Dynasty.
Inside the Qingtian Tower, Ye Yun opened the attributes of Fengle Village, which he hadn't checked in a long time.
Fengle City—
Area: 400 square kilometers
Natives: 15,000
City Defense Forces: 3,000 (Level 30/Reinforced +1)
Public Service Natives (NPCs): 180
Players Online: 2.67 million
Joined Fengle City: 1.38 million
Buildings: 232
Affiliated Faction: Commandment (45%)
Current Treasury: 515.7 billion (jB)
Administrative Area (Safe Zone): 380 square kilometers
Wilderness Distribution:
Level 15, 20, 25, 30 monster areas, each occupying 5 square kilometers. Wilderness monster refresh rate: 1.0...
Ye Yun looked at the numbers, filled with a sense of accomplishment. This was an empire built entirely by his own hands, bit by bit.
Ascension Ladder—(Not yet open)
One tier, one realm. One tier, heaven and earth. Players can ascend the Ascension Ladder to improve and strengthen themselves! Upon reaching the first step of the ladder, players gain +1 free attribute point, the second step +2, the third step +3, and so on.
When the number of residents in this city who have reached the 10th step of the Ascension Ladder reaches 2 million, all native public service personnel in the city will be reinforced by +1 (including the guard team and city guards).
When the number of residents in this city who have reached the 20th step of the Ascension Ladder reaches 1.9 million, all native public service personnel in the city will be reinforced by +1.
30th step, 1.8 million,
40th step, 1.7 million,
...
1000th step, 10 people.
10,000th step, 1 person!
Ye Yun looked at the introduction to the Ascension Ladder with indifference. Even reaching the 10,000th step would only grant him attribute points that were negligible to him. The greatest benefit of this Ascension Ladder was undoubtedly the reinforcement of his native army.
Now, the guard team in the entire city had become the city defense forces after Fengle Village transformed into Fengle City. Given the system's nature, the city defense forces were truly for defense; they could not attack externally.
"System, I want to activate the Ascension Ladder, set it for permanent residents of this city, and set the fee to 5 gold coins per use!" Ye Yun began to set up the Ascension Ladder.
Ye Yun could foresee that once this was opened, its popularity would undoubtedly surpass that of the Divine Refining Tower and the Enlightenment Tower. Although reaching each step had certain requirements for players, what attracted them most was not this, but the glory!
As Ye Yun manipulated the system, a towering ladder that reached into the clouds suddenly appeared in the western part of Fengle City. Each step, half a meter in height, extended towards the horizon, its end invisible at a glance.
Beside the Ascension Ladder stood a giant stone tablet, a hundred zhang tall. The words 'Ascension Ladder Ranking' at the top of the tablet were exceptionally conspicuous. At the very bottom of the tablet were the usage rules for the Ascension Ladder.
"Holy crap, what's going on? I was just taking a nap here, and now I've been pushed aside?" A player rubbed his eyes, looking at the suddenly appearing ladder in a daze.
"Ascension Ladder? Reaching the first step grants one free attribute point? The second step two points, the third step three, and so on. For every hundred steps ascended, an additional reward of ten thousand attribute points?"
"Hiss... What kind of heaven-defying ladder is this! You just need to climb it to get attribute points?"
"What kind of beginner village has such a heaven-defying building? Ever since I came here, my worldview has been constantly refreshed."
"If you're not climbing, don't block the way! I'm going up now."
The appearance of the Ascension Ladder immediately drew a large crowd. After all, given the current population density of Fengle City, any slightly significant event would quickly attract onlookers.
"Permanent residents of Fengle Village cannot use it. For permanent residents, the fee is 5 gold coins per person?"
A person looked at the text, as small as a fly, at the bottom of the stone tablet, then silently withdrew from the crowd and immediately ran towards the newly appeared administrative center building. Taking advantage of the current sparse crowd, he quickly applied to become a permanent resident of Fengle City.
Unfortunately, applying to become a permanent resident was not that easy. Players not only had to apply in-game and sign a series of "unequal treaties," but they also had to register on the Dragon Palace's official website in the real world. Then, the local household registration department would verify it. Only then could they pass and become a permanent resident of Fengle City.
Of course, at present, there were still many loopholes in this system, but the Dragon Palace was not worried at all. As long as you became a permanent resident, the Dragon Palace would have strong control over individual players within the game.
However, as long as players did not do anything detrimental to the Dragon Palace and Fengle City, the Dragon Palace had no time to bother with them. After all, the Dragon Palace was now a vast enterprise.
"Haha, what are you guys hesitating for? Look at me, I've already reached the first step. I'll gladly accept this attribute point."
A player pushed through the crowd, paid 5 gold coins, and stepped onto the Ascension Ladder. Then, looking at the changes on the Ascension Ladder leaderboard, he laughed triumphantly.
"Holy crap! This is a sneak attack! I wasn't even ready!"
"Exactly! You wait. I'm going to apply for permanent residency right now! You're already so arrogant after just one step!"
"Hey, buddy, are there any requirements for the first step?"
"You'll know when you come up yourself, right? It's only five gold coins, five bucks, which is better than spending a hundred thousand gold coins to buy an attribute point, isn't it?"
Some players retorted angrily, while others sought advice. This made the first person to step onto the Ascension Ladder extremely smug. He then turned around and continued climbing, his expression still relaxed. However, those who observed carefully could clearly feel his shoulders sinking slightly.
As this person entered the second step, the onlookers instantly became restless. Players who were permanent residents scrambled onto the steps with high priority, while others could only stare enviously, grit their teeth, and then rush towards the administrative center.
Ye Yun followed in the crowd of players, wanting to experience the Ascension Ladder for himself.
Upon stepping onto the first step, Ye Yun felt nothing. The only restriction was flight. Ye Yun did not stop and walked up step by step.
"Buddy, you look relaxed. You're quite strong, aren't you? Want to team up?"
A player was also moving at a good pace. Seeing that Ye Yun was moving at a similar speed, he smiled and greeted him.
"Excuse me, thank you." Ye Yun replied coldly. Having experienced Xiong Zai of the Zha Tian Gang before, Ye Yun was not fond of such overly familiar individuals.
"Hmph, what's with the attitude? I'll just see how many steps you can climb." The player was quite displeased with Ye Yun's cold expression, so he followed behind Ye Yun and climbed slowly.
"Congratulations, player, for reaching the tenth step. The current gravity is doubled. For every step ascended, the gravity increases by 0.1 times. Please ascend within your capabilities."
When Ye Yun reached the tenth step, a system prompt sounded in his ear. At this time, the player ranked first on the 'Ladder' leaderboard had already reached the twenty-third step!
"So, it's calculated by gravity. This means the Ascension Ladder tests a player's defense and health."
"Wrong, you've only spoken of one aspect. The height of each step is forty centimeters, and the width of each tread is fifty-eight centimeters. This means it's a huge test for a player's endurance and mental fortitude." At this moment, a burly man carrying a giant iron hammer on his shoulder spoke.
"Damn, buddy, how do you know the height of this step is forty centimeters and the width is fifty-eight?"
"Heh heh, I'm telling you, after you've measured something for a long time, you become sensitive to it." The burly man grinned, then couldn't help but glance down at a certain spot.
"What else have you observed?"
"Look, for every step we ascend, there's a countdown. If we exceed this time, we'll start losing health points per second. After exceeding the time twice, the health points lost per second will double."
A whole row of people, over a hundred in total, were stopped above the tenth step, filling the less than sixty-meter-long platform. At this moment, quite a few people had '-10' damage values appearing above their heads.
"Holy crap, buddy, you're really a prophet. How do you know this?" Everyone was shocked and then asked.
"I tested it myself!"
Hearing everyone's words, Ye Yun couldn't help but want to curse. Wasn't this just setting a reinforcement threshold for his army?
Furthermore, Ye Yun discovered a problem from the number of steps on each tier. Each step of the Ascension Ladder was set to allow a 2-second rest time. If a person did not rest, this time could accumulate. For example, now, three seconds after Ye Yun reached the tenth step, a countdown of 20 seconds appeared above his head.
If, as Iron Hammer Bro said, he exceeded 20 seconds on the tenth step, he would start losing 10 health points per second. After exceeding 40 seconds, it would be 20 health points per second. So, if he were on the twentieth floor, wouldn't it be 20 points per second? Exceeding twice would mean 40 points per second?
Ye Yun was determined to try, so he climbed again quickly. He directly reached the thirtieth step and then sat down. After three seconds, a countdown of 40 seconds appeared above Ye Yun's head.
After 40 seconds, his health began to drop at a rate of 30 points per second. After another 40 seconds, the health consumption per second reached 60.
"Buddy, your health is impressive. You've lost over a thousand points and haven't even taken a scratch. What's up? All your stats are invested in health?" At this moment, a player, panting, lay on the step and looked at Ye Yun with admiration.
The thirtieth step had already reached four times the gravity. The number of players who could reach this point was very small. Under four times the gravity, one still had to climb a forty-centimeter-high step. Although it was in the game world, it made one feel incredibly strenuous.
Ye Yun looked at the almost crawling person in front of him. Seeing the hidden ID above his head, Ye Yun immediately thought of Xiong Zai and shuddered. He gathered his strength and ran upwards.
"Hey, buddy, help me, no go!" The guy lay on the ground, watching Ye Yun leap away, and immediately became anxious. Unfortunately, his cries only made Ye Yun run faster.
"Damn, how many members does this Zha Tian Gang have? Why do I keep running into them?" Ye Yun complained as he ascended.
Flight was impossible within the Ascension Ladder. Whether it was flight skills or flight equipment, all players could only rely on their own two feet, one step at a time. Of course, you could also crawl.
"Holy crap, who is that guy? He's already on the fifty-something step and is still moving as fast as lightning?" Ye Yun's actions instantly attracted the attention of a group of people. At this moment, his ranking had directly become first, while the player ranked second was still steadily moving on the forty-fifth step.
"Damn, one step is over fifty attribute points! That's equivalent to over five million gold coins! If you walk all ten thousand steps, how many attribute points would that be?" Soon, someone began calculating the economic benefits for Ye Yun.
"Gold coins, gold coins, you only think about gold coins when you wake up. Isn't it better to be strong?" Some people held opposing views, as after all, no matter how much money you had, if you didn't use it to improve your strength, you would eventually run out.
"Alas, brother, you've never been poor. Have you ever lived on 10 yuan for three days? I have. I drank thin porridge every day and sang 'Chrysanthemum Remnant' every morning."
...
"System prompt: Congratulations, player, for stepping onto the 'Ascension Ladder' 65th step, gaining 65 attribute points."
"System prompt: Congratulations, player, for stepping onto the 'Ascension Ladder' 66th step, gaining 66 attribute points."
...
System prompts sounded in Ye Yun's ears one after another, but Ye Yun seemed not to hear them, continuing to ascend one step at a time. At the same time, he initiated voice communication with Uncle Long Ning (Zhou Ningdong).
"Boss, you're finally out of seclusion?"
"Hmm, I just returned. I have two tasks for you."
"Please speak." Zhou Ningdong immediately became serious upon hearing Ye Yun's words.
"The first is to relax the restrictions for players to become permanent residents of Fengle City. The current population limit is around five million, and then it will be gradually restored." The second is to recruit 200,000 city guards for me now, and also recruit twenty city commanders! Then, all of them are to be reinforced three times, and the commanders four times!"
As the City Lord, Ye Yun could recruit players to defend the city, or he could recruit unique in-game city guards. However, recruiting one city guard cost a thousand gold coins, and their attribute points were generally around 100.
The gold coins for recruitment were not many, but after recruitment, it didn't mean you could rest easy. These city guards required military pay from the city. Normally, the monthly military pay for one city guard was two thousand gold coins.
The three thousand city guards in Fengle City, after being reinforced once, had their monthly military pay increased from two thousand gold coins to two thousand two hundred gold coins. However, their attribute points would also double after the reinforcement.
"Okay, but won't recruiting so many city guards be too much now? After all, maintaining a city guard is not cheap." Zhou Ningdong couldn't help but exclaim, hearing Ye Yun's words. The boss truly acted on a grand scale.
Two hundred thousand, the recruitment cost alone would be two hundred million. Coupled with the previous three thousand city guards, Fengle City's monthly military pay would reach over four hundred million! And this was before reinforcement. If reinforcement was involved, the cost in gold coins would be even more terrifying.
First reinforcement for a city guard doubles attribute points, costing 100,000 gold coins. Second reinforcement, attribute points double, costing 400,000 gold coins. Third reinforcement, attribute points double again, costing 1.6 million gold coins! And so on.
The reinforcement cost for commanders was three times that of city guards, but the base attributes of commanders reached about 120.
If calculated according to Ye Yun's requirement of three reinforcements, then these 203,000 city guards would require over 420 billion gold coins. Fengle City's gold coins would once again drop below one hundred billion.
"It's fine, money is meant to be spent. Besides, given Fengle City's current scale, the speed of making money will only get faster and more abundant. Also, try to get more people to climb the 'Ascension Ladder'."
To be honest, even if Ye Yun climbed the entire Ascension Ladder, the attribute points he would gain would be no more than 51 million. However, Ye Yun's primary goal in climbing this Ascension Ladder was the last step. As long as one person reached the final step, all native public service personnel in Fengle City would be reinforced by +1, and most importantly, this included the city guards!
Perhaps many would ask, why not spend so much money to reinforce multiple times at once?
But Ye Yun didn't want to. He felt he had already invested enough in Fengle City. Spending more money on this was no different from directly piling it onto his Dragon Palace members, which was useful in both reality and the game, and much better.