“Now I understand why she invited us to take part in this banquet. This woman wants to get us to join the exploration.” Big Pineapple’s head suddenly appeared beside Feng Luo’s group, his face, which had become darker without any lights, showing an expression of realization.

He seemed to have thought of something and extended a small plate serving a crystal-like dessert to Feng Luo, saying “Oh, that’s right, you guys should try this dessert. You’ll have quite a decent stat boost for half an hour eating this. Heh, it’s going to be useful in the battle later.”

“Of course it is like that.” Phoenix’s voice came from the side. After going around the hall, she had also come back.

The environment was very dark but the special agent eyewear had a location-detection function for teammates in the dark, so it was easy for her to find Feng Luo’s group.

“But Captain Feng, do you think we should participate?” Phoenix asked Feng Luo with inquisitive eyes and a gentle smile.

Although Zi Wei’s offer was very tempting, those with clear eyes still knew of the hazards and dangers.

There was at least a 90% chance that such a large-scale abandoned ruin would have a Boss monster. In addition to that, there were tons of Elite and Commander Grade, maybe even Quasi-Boss Grade monsters. For only 500 players, even if it were all the top experts of Storm City, a successful exploration was not guaranteed. Not to mention there was also a group of competition with the same number of players vying for the same prize.

A duel between the top players of two main cities, it was hard to say who would achieve the ultimate victory. The Quasi-Boss chip was the spoil of the ultimate winner.

Feng Luo shook his head as he thought that this was not something for him to decide alone. “Whether or not to participate, this is a personal decision. However, if we were to participate, we’re bound to have a spot if we go to Zi Wei.”

Although inviting guildless players to participate in the event was a “political” move by the Nine Star Guild, since SK Guild and the players from North City were also taking part, the Nine Star Guild would definitely try to ensure that their overall strength was above SK Guild during the exploration.

The three of them performed excellently in the arena today. Feng Luo displayed amazing strength while Phoenix’s pet Jelly showed that it was ridiculously powerful. Even if Big Pineapple’s performance was not all that shocking, his insane defense made him comparable to the top 50 superstar players in the game.

With such strength, they were bound to obtain spots to take part in the expedition.

At least in terms of Feng Luo and Phoenix, the Nine Star Guild was probably hoping they would join them.

Feng Luo was a Sniper who could one-shot people while Jelly was a Quasi-Boss Grade pet. Both of them had incredible damage output. In a mid-sized group battle in the abandoned ruins, their presence would be immense and they would provide a lot of guarantee to the guild achieving victory in the end.

“However, I am confused about one thing. Isn’t Onishi a player from North City? Why did she also invite Onishi?” Big Pineapple scratched his head and looked toward Onishi who was wearing his shades on the side and did not speak.

“That is because the player, who was defeated and was ‘slapped in the face’ by Onishi during PK three days ago, was the Number One Master of North City for only half a month as well as the SK Guild signature top superstar player. That superstar player is also the son of the main director behind the SK Guild.” Digital Cat’s sound appeared from the comms channel.

She was certainly busy with something, as she needed to stay in the room to monitor and infiltrate the surveillance system of the two emperor suites and provide support to the upcoming operation.

From a certain point of view, Digital Cat’s role as a genius-type Chip Master during such missions was one that was irreplaceable by any combat type player.

If the Nine Star Guild were to understand her strengths, their hopes of her joining would probably be even higher than Big Pineapple, as abandoned ruins were typically equipped with intelligent defense systems.

Nonetheless, Digital Cat’s words helped Big Pineapple understand why Zi Wei did not hold back in inviting Onishi to the night’s dinner banquet.

“Defeated the signature superstar of the SK Guild…”

Apart from not recognizing Onishi in the beginning, the other reason Zi Wei invited him was probably because of the reason Digital Cat mentioned.

After defeating the guild’s “Signature” as well as the son of the director, there was no way the SK Guild would invite him to take part in the operation. The Nine Star Guild naturally did not have to worry about Onishi being from North City anymore.

One might even say that the Nine Star Guild would try to pull Onishi, the Number One Master in North City, into their expedition team, which was why they were inviting so enthusiastically.

However, the difficulty was probably quite high.

The exploration now involved competition between the players from two main cities. Additionally, a fight had already been going on since forever between North City and Storm City.

The Federation in War had 33 main cities. However, the strength between the main cities also differed.

Storm City and North City were both behind the top five heavyweight main cities of the Federation in the game; moreover, one was a military center of the Federation while the other was an economic center of the Federation.

The NPCs in both cities looked down on those from the other city. This created a situation where, though not enemies of each other, the players from both cities constantly hiding a sense of hostility against each other.

And for superstar players, the fanbase was one of the most important factors.

As the Number One Expert of North City, at least 50% of Onishi’s fanbase came from players from North City.

If he were to really join Storm City and news of that got out, he would probably be cussed and be coined a “City Traitor” and his popularity would most certainly drop.

As such, even though Onishi might really want the Quasi-Boss Grade pet biochip, he may not be able to take part in this operation.

“Hey, Onishi old pal, you can relax. By the time I come back, I’ll prioritize selling this Quasi-Boss Grade pet biochip to you.” Big Pineapple said, patting Onishi’s shoulder while smiling sleazily.

The money-loving person had clearly zoomed in on the value of the Quasi-Boss Grade pet biochip and had already decided in his mind to take part in the expedition.

Feng Luo was still considering if he should or would take part in the exploration operation this time.

He had not yet filled the 200 million credits gap. Although he had thought of an idea earlier, there were still some complications and it was not easy to operate.

If he were to join this expedition and obtain a Quasi-Boss Grade pet biochip, the money he would get would definitely not be lower than the Force Awakening Solution. In that case, the 200 million credits gap would no longer be a problem.

Feng Luo looked at the time on his terminal and saw that it was already 7:55 pm. “Yeah, but for now, the most important thing is this mission. It is almost time. Let’s complete this special agent mission before discussing anything further. Cat, what’s the situation? Has the target appeared?” Feng Luo asked Digital Cat through the Special Agent channel.

“At the moment, there are two suspected targets… One of the targets is headed towards Emperor Suite number two. He’s a 30-year old male wearing sunglasses and carrying a password-protected suitcase. It is probably him.” Digital Cat’s voice could be heard by everyone in the channel.

Feng Luo nodded to the other three. “Alright, then let’s begin the operation.”

Everyone taking part in the banquet was focused on the 200 spots taking part in the Storm City exploration alliance and they were fervently discussing about ways to obtain the spots among themselves.

In addition to the noisy environment, the cover provided by the dark made it so that no one noticed Feng Luo and the other three were headed towards a hidden balcony outside the main banquet hall.