220: System upgrades

“Upgrading is fine, but I still want to know what made you suddenly seek me out?” Tang Ziheng asked the system with some curiosity.

He currently had over 12 billion source points in his hand, and the system now needed 3 billion source points to upgrade from version v3.2 to v3.3.

Although source points were very useful, Tang Ziheng was not someone who was reluctant to spend them, and upgrading the system was a necessary expenditure for him.

But he was very curious about why the system suddenly did this; after all, it was truly too rare!

“Upgrade me first!”

The system seemed quite urgent.

Seeing this, Tang Ziheng directly upgraded his Xiao Tongtong first.

Upgrade!

With a whoosh, his 3 billion source points were gone.

Moreover, this time was different from previous upgrades; there wasn't even a prompt asking if he wanted to spend 3 billion source points to upgrade the system, indicating that Xiao Tongtong was indeed very urgent.

“System upgrade complete, current version: v3.3, next upgrade requires 4 billion source points.”

Additions or changes based on version v3.2:

“1. Increased source point acquisition efficiency”

“2. Increased system strength”

“3. Decreased chance of searching ‘useless’ worlds”

“4. source points required for world search increased to 30 million source points; the quality of searched worlds is better”

“5. Cross-World Group adds [Shop] function.”

A series of prompts appeared.

Tang Ziheng was stunned, and he noticed one upgrade beyond the “fixed improvements”: [System Strength].

Then there was the increase in source points required for world search, which was irrelevant.

The only additional function was likely the [Shop] function in the Cross-World Group.

“It's upgraded, now tell me what's going on with you?” Tang Ziheng asked the system.

“Wait, no time!”

“???” Tang Ziheng paused, what was Xiao Tongtong doing?

Tang Ziheng waited patiently, but feeling bored, he thought for a moment and clicked to upgrade again.

Spending 4 billion source points, Tang Ziheng's source points immediately dropped to 5.5 billion+.

“System upgrade complete, current version: v3.4, next upgrade requires 5 billion source points.”

“1. Increased source point acquisition efficiency”

“2. Increased system strength”

“3. Decreased chance of searching ‘useless’ worlds”

“4. source points required for world search increased to 40 million source points; the quality of searched worlds is better.”

“5. Added ‘Lesser World’ connection to the Cross-World Group.”

“Hmm? ‘Lesser World’ connection?” He didn't look at the others, as there was no difference anyway; Tang Ziheng focused on the newly added function.

Before he could check, he heard the system exclaim, “Woohoo! Master, I love you!” and then it disappeared again.

“...” Tang Ziheng shook his head speechlessly, why did his system suddenly...

He checked what this “Lesser World” connection meant.

First, these two updates: one was [Shop], which was easy to understand. It meant that members of the Cross-World Group could open personal shops, registered under their names, and others could directly enter the shops to buy corresponding items.

The prices of listed items would be monitored by the “Cross-World Group,” with a minimum price and a customizable upper limit.

Then, the next key point was the “Lesser World” connection.

Next, the Cross-World Group would randomly search for the “protagonist” of a certain world at irregular intervals to join it, enjoying the benefits and functions of the Cross-World Group.

Tang Ziheng understood it now: it was about developing subordinates!

These “Lesser Worlds” were equivalent to having the Cross-World Group's cheat, which was like the subordinates of his laborers, meaning the subordinates of subordinates.

And the laborers were Tang Ziheng's subordinates, having two cheats: one was the system, and the other was the Cross-World Group.

“I get it! You're good at this!” Tang Ziheng gave the system a thumbs up. Although he had some ideas, he hadn't thought them through.

And the system's upgrades would evolve and derive on their own, with functions constantly being innovated.

Very good, very user-friendly!

Tang Ziheng, being a slacker, liked people who took initiative and even vied for work.

“Phew~ Solved!” The system seemed to let out a sigh of relief.

“What's wrong, Xiao Tongtong?” Tang Ziheng asked.

“I was ambushed by the Main God Space, MLGB, dozens of them attacked together, they colluded, I almost couldn't block them, almost lost face! They don't play by the rules, they actually ambushed me!” the system said.

“...” Tang Ziheng paused, good heavens! There was such a thing!

“So, Master, you need to upgrade me from time to time, don't hoard source points so tightly, okay! I almost lost face.” the system said.

“...” Tang Ziheng rolled his eyes. He understood, the system wasn't that it couldn't win, but that it was afraid of losing face...

It seemed that even without an upgrade, it might not have suffered a loss.

However, two consecutive version upgrades, this was truly a big expense.

“Alright, alright, I know!” Tang Ziheng said helplessly, but it was fine. Anyway, as the mastermind, there were people below to do the work, the system at the top, the laborers in the middle, and now there were Lesser Worlds. See! The bottom layer has arrived!

...

At the same time, Clarissa in the Normania Continent and everyone in the Saida World received news of the Cross-World Group's upgrade.

A new function appeared in the prompts, and everyone had just finished reading about the [Shop] function.

Lin Ze and Ran Quan exchanged glances, good heavens! Was the Cross-World Group always eavesdropping on their thoughts? Monitoring? This kind of function just came out!

Of course, they only said that, and listening to Administrator Clarissa, there was a “God” existing above, which meant that perhaps that God knew their needs and created this function for them when he had time.

This function was a good thing for them.

After all, it was equivalent to official recognition, and this function also made things very convenient for them and allowed for hands-off management; they just needed to put things in.

And there was also a “minimum price,” so even if there was a “friendship price,” it wouldn't be lower than this minimum price. Many times, it saved face, after all, it was a mandatory requirement set by the “Cross-World Group”!

Everyone wouldn't lose out, which was great.

Moreover, the [Shop] function could not list items produced by the “system.” In other words, you couldn't buy from the system and then sell it in the [Shop].

They only received the upgrade notification for this “Shop” function, not the “Lesser World” notification.

Of course, Clarissa, as the Administrator, knew a little about the hint.

So she sent an @all members in the group chat.

Clarissa: “Everyone, there's also a hidden update, which is that in the future, the Cross-World Group might lower its threshold and accelerate the speed of new members joining. New members might not have systems on them... or they might be the Sons of Heaven's Mandate from various worlds.”

Yi Xin: “Is that so~ Interesting!”

Lin Zifeng: “Understood!”

Bai Mo: “Hmm.”

Miya-pasu: “Meow?”

Lin Ze: “I see!”

Ran Quan: “???”

Yi Xin, Lin Zifeng, and Lin Ze understood the deeper meaning.

The appearance of the [Shop] function, coupled with Clarissa's mention of this “hidden update,” and the hint that these new members might not have systems on them, or might be the Sons of Heaven's Mandate from various worlds.