The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

"The cable car was still circling around the city. Watching those things fighting below, I had a feeling something was going to hit me on the head any second."

"What's the use of your worrying? We can't go down, and even if we did, it would just be suicide. At least we're protected by a layer of metal on the cable car."

"It might not be safe either. Didn't you see some small things flying in the sky? They haven't come down to our altitude yet, but they could be soon."

"What can we do? There's nothing we can do now, we can only wait."

"It's not like we can't do anything. Didn't you guys see the new features?"

This sentence was like a match thrown into a pile of embers that hadn't completely died down. The direction of the discussion in the channel instantly shifted.

"The instance is grayed out, with a message saying it's temporarily unavailable due to the siege battle, which is probably related to the current situation."

"Forget about joining a guild. Creating a guild requires a hundred Ghost Crystals, and I don't even have ten. Besides, even if I joined someone else's guild, what use would I be at my level?"

"Then that leaves only the arena?"

"The arena... I glanced at the rewards. The first place winner gets eighty Ghost Crystals and 1200 points every day. If I could get that, wouldn't I be set for life?"

"What are you dreaming about? Look at the monsters guarding the 10,000th pass—level 3 common monsters, and their stats are even stronger than the level 3 monsters outside. I can't even get past the 10,000th pass."

"Even if you can't get through, you still get a reward: one point and one Ghost Crystal. Five attempts a day will give you five points and five Ghost Crystals. It's not much, but at least it's a stable source of income."

"Five points and five Ghost Crystals? What can that do? It's not even enough to buy an iron ingot. The rewards those people ahead of me get in a day are equivalent to what I earn in a year."

"If we fall behind at the first step, we'll fall behind at every step. If they get stronger and stronger, we'll be stuck in their dust forever."

"What can I do? They have professions and equipment, I have nothing."

Complaints and frustrations mingled in the channel, but some were taking concrete actions to improve their rankings. A message popped up, followed by a series of screenshots.

"I ranked over 8,000th, got 2,000 points and 200 Ghost Crystals, enough for me to buy supplies for a few days."

The screenshot shows his ranking interface and reward record. Immediately, a string of replies followed... Some congratulated him, some were envious, some said sourly, "You were just lucky to encounter an easy monster," and some even asked directly, "What class and level are you?"

The person who posted the screenshot didn't hide anything and openly revealed their stats: "Level 3 green class, basic weapon, mainly because I gained a lot of experience by following the military."

Then another person posted a screenshot, ranking over 7,000th, with even more rewards than the previous person. "Over 7,000th place, the monster was a level 4 green one, it took almost ten minutes to kill. But the reward was worth it, 3,000 points and 300 monster crystals, better than grinding monsters outside all day."

Another round of discussion, a mix of amazement and bittersweetness, erupted in the channel.

Some people started to seriously study the arena's matchmaking rules, some were asking which gatekeepers were easier to beat, and some were calculating how many points they could get if they used all five free attempts each day to challenge others.

But most people are just watching... those numbers are too far away for them; they can't even get into the top 10,000, while these people are already discussing strategies for those in the top 7,000 or 8,000.

Su Mu looked at the messages but neither replied nor participated in the discussion.

He noticed a detail... even those who failed the challenge still received 10 competition points. With five free attempts each day, even if you lost all five, you'd still get 50 points.

Although 50 points is a small amount, it can at least allow those who can't even get into the top 10,000 to see their accounts slowly growing every day.

A month's earnings are 1,500 points, enough to exchange for 15 research materials. This amount is negligible for those at the top, but for ordinary people who are struggling to even gain a foothold, this may be the only channel they can slowly accumulate.

But at the same time, he also knew that the speed of this accumulation was far from keeping up with the speed of being eliminated.

Those who can break into the top 10,000 receive a guaranteed reward of five Ghost Crystals and fifty points every day, which adds up to one hundred and fifty Ghost Crystals and one thousand five hundred points per month.

The initial difference is only five times, but what creates the gap isn't the multiplier itself... but rather that those at the top will exchange their earned Mystic Crystals for equipment and upgrade materials, thereby achieving higher rankings in the arena and obtaining more rewards. Those who can only secure the minimum rewards will never accumulate enough resources to break through to the next level.

"If you're slow on one step, you'll be slow on every step." He repeated this phrase that someone had said in the channel under his breath, and then turned off the channel.

The communicator vibrated at that moment. Lin Yuwei's profile picture lit up.

"Have you seen what's happening in the arena?"

"I saw it."

"That saves me the trouble of explaining it again. With your skills, climbing up shouldn't be difficult."

Su Mu neither denied nor explained what position he had reached, simply replying, "Hmm."

Lin Yuwei didn't seem to intend to dwell on this topic any longer, and immediately asked, "So, do you have any plans to join a guild?"

"No."

"In that case, I suggest you open one?"

Su Mu's brow twitched. "Why?"

"I've inquired around, and the guild shop has a much wider selection than the arena. There are blueprints, materials, equipment, and some items not available in the arena. Plus, you gain guild contribution points much faster than arena points; daily quests, dungeons, and member activity all contribute. If you don't want to manage it yourself, you can register a name and let someone you trust take care of it."

Su Mu thought for a moment, then paused his finger above the screen. "What's in the guild shop?"

"There are many. But I think you'll only be interested in two things... research materials, and large-scale combat equipment."

Su Mu's attention lingered for a moment on the words "research and development materials".

He just used up all one hundred research materials. If the guild shop had the same items, his research progress would be more than twice as fast.

Moreover, he had never seen the term "large-scale combat equipment" before, but it didn't sound like something that could be covered by ordinary arrow towers or animal traps.

"Can research and development materials really be replaced?"

"I've specifically checked. Also, there's no weekly limit on exchanges in the guild shop; as long as you contribute enough, you can still exchange up to 100 per week."

Su Mu remained silent for a few seconds.

"You're telling me all this... so you want me to start a guild and bring you in?"

Lin Yuwei replied quickly. "Yes. I don't want to go to other places; there are too many rules. If you open one, I'll join. No one will bother me, and I can help you with some miscellaneous tasks. It's a win-win situation."

Su Mu thought about it and realized it was indeed a good deal. He didn't need to manage the guild himself; Lin Yuwei was willing to handle it. He only needed to be the guild leader to gain access to the guild shop's exchange privileges. Most importantly, research materials were currently his highest priority resource, even more important than blueprints and equipment.

"Okay, I'll open it and pick you up."