37: Chapter 37 Disaster Intensification

The comfort of the polar night lasted only two days.

In the early hours of the third day, without any warning, this "polar night Winter" bared its exceptionally brutal fangs.

There were no system notifications, nor were there any signs of churning clouds.

In the darkness, a deeply muffled sound rang out, as if the heavy firmament had been torn apart by some immense force.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

Immediately following, the sound of dense, heavy impacts exploded against the energy shield of Cloud Top Fortress.

Each collision stirred up a ripple of pale blue, and the vibrations echoed within the empty hall.

Zhou An sat up straight from his chair instantly, his eyes fixed coldly on the vast patch of dense red dots that had suddenly appeared on the radar.

Those were not monsters, but giant hailstones covering the sky!

These hailstones had condensed in the extreme cold of the high altitude, where temperatures dropped to fifty or sixty degrees below zero.

Each one was the size of a basketball, crystal clear yet as hard as iron.

They were mixed with violent cold air currents, striking like heavy machine gun bullets descending from the sky, smashing madly into all vehicles along the flight path with terrifying kinetic energy.

The air was filled with sharp, piercing sounds.

"No system broadcast? What is this? A random bonus in the polar night package?"

Zhou An frowned.

Although the momentum of this hail was extremely violent, for a composite energy shield that had already been upgraded to Tier 3, it was merely consuming a bit of energy.

He glanced at the energy storage bar.

Under attacks capable of shattering armor, the energy value did not even fluctuate by 1%.

The massive amount of energy in the warehouse could top it up at any time.

However, for other survivors in this sky, this was a sudden, apocalyptic disaster.

The regional chat channel was flooded with desperate screams the moment the hail began to fall:

"Help! My fuselage has been smashed through! The engine is on fire, I'm falling!"

"Someone save me! The hailstones are too big, my windshield is shattered, it's so cold outside... My hands have lost all feeling..."

"System, may you die a horrible death! There wasn't even a warning; this is nothing but a slaughter!"

Just as everyone was still screaming for help, several uniform, cold-toned messages dominated the channel.

[Tianqing Guild Recruitment Department]: "The polar night is hard to endure; fighting alone is a dead end! The Tianqing Guild is now opening emergency recruitment for the polar night! All who join will be protected by the Sky Engine Joint Shield! Base membership tax rate: 40% of daily earnings! Location: Coordinates (772, 109), those who meet the conditions, come closer quickly!"

[Four Seas Chamber of Commerce]: "Join Four Seas and be free from the suffering of natural disasters! We possess the most perfect internal trading system.

Let's give the solo players the bottom line: Four Seas internal price, Tier 2 materials exchanged for Tier 3 materials only require a 2.2 to 1 ratio!

Furthermore, our joint fleet covers the front, middle, and rear sections of the flight path. Whether your speed is 60 or 100, there will be carrier formations to meet you!"

[Hongyan Pavilion]: "Hongyan Pavilion Joint Haven is now open.

Limited to female survivors only.

Sisters helping sisters, free from bullying by men.

Base tax rate 45%."

...

Once the recruitment advertisements from The Five Great Guilds appeared, those solo players struggling on the verge of death seized them like a last straw.

"40% tax rate? Isn't that just signing a deed of indenture, working for you forever?!"

"A deed of indenture is still better than freezing to death in the sky! Staying alive is the hard truth! As long as I can get inside the shield, I'll pay!"

"Sky Engine, take me! My speed is 80, I'll hand over all my possessions, I've already sent my location privately, please come and meet me quickly!"

As the major guilds released messages of "confirming support," the originally desperate solo players began frantically reporting their coordinates, forced to turn into an incredibly massive torrent of resources that continuously poured into the pockets of these The Five Great Guilds.

Just as Zhou An watched this grand harvest of population and resources with cold eyes, a private message popped up abruptly.

The golden-bordered dialogue box highlighted the sender's impressive status.

[Divine Domain Guild Vice President Chen Feng]: "Brother Zhou An, the polar night is hard to endure.

I wonder if you have any interest in coming to sit with us at Divine Domain? The Guild Leader appreciates you very much."

Zhou An raised an eyebrow slightly.

Divine Domain Guild? The behemoth ranked second in the entire region, actually took the initiative to find him?

[Zhou An]: "Vice President Chen is too kind.

However, I am used to being laid-back and don't like being restricted by others."

[Chen Feng]: "Brother Zhou, don't be in such a rush to refuse.

With your strength, joining Divine Domain definitely won't require paying that 40% base tax.

We will give you a core elder position directly, allowing you to enjoy the top-tier material allocation within the guild, and even intelligence sharing at the vice-president level.

In this sky, no matter how strong an individual is, they cannot resist the general trend.

Moreover, we value that combat power rating you had back then, which topped the entire region."

[Zhou An]: "Thanks for the kind offer.

But I have sufficient supplies here, and my spaceship is sturdy enough; I have no intention of living under someone else's roof for now."

After sending this message, Zhou An closed the private chat directly.

Just kidding—he, a "cheater" holding three million Tier 3 supplies, possessing a Tier 3 body, and sitting on legendary-grade armaments, go be a hired thug for others?

...

Meanwhile, about a thousand kilometers away from Cloud Top Fortress, deep in the extreme high altitude.

A heavy warship with a volume so large it was suffocating—the "Divine Domain"—was floating quietly in the darkness.

It was like an island forged of steel, its dark gray hull covered with menacing electromagnetic turrets.

Around the "Divine Domain," hundreds of warships of various sizes were clustered in layers, like an imperial guard protecting a monarch.

They formed a complex array, and the guild's shared "Joint Shield" propped up a massive golden light screen spanning several kilometers.

The hailstones falling from the sky hit the light screen, only to uselessly turn into splashing ice crystals.

Around the fleet, the clouds and mist frozen by the extreme cold appeared in an eerie, deep blue under the strong searchlights, reflecting a cold metallic luster.

Inside the warship, the corridors were spacious and bright, the floors polished spotlessly clean.

Members wearing uniform attire walked with hurried steps, each performing their duties; radar monitoring stations, fire control centers, logistics dispatch departments... everything was orderly, completely lacking the sense of panic and precarious existence that solo players had.

In the extremely luxurious captain's quarters, Divine Domain Guild Vice President Chen Feng stood respectfully to the side.

"Guild Leader, he refused."

Chen Feng reported, "This Zhou An seems extremely confident in his own strength; he is completely uninterested in our elder position."

Standing before the floor-to-ceiling window was a man with a slender build and eyes as sharp as a hawk's.

He was the absolute ruler of the Divine Domain Guild—Guild Leader Lin Xiaotian.

Guild Leader Lin Xiaotian gently swirled the crystal red wine glass in his hand, the dark red wine leaving a thick trail on the glass wall.

He lowered his head slightly, glanced at the sparse information about Zhou An on the floating screen in front of him, then took a sip of wine and let out a meaningful cold laugh.

"No rush."

Guild Leader Lin Xiaotian set down the wine glass, his tone calm and indifferent.

"Solo players, you know.

They get some top-grade items early on by luck, so it's inevitable they'd be arrogant.

When they truly endure to the latter half, and those hidden high-tier monsters and natural disasters descend simultaneously, he will know how foolish it is to face this firmament alone.

By then, he will be begging us to take him in."

Guild Leader Lin Xiaotian turned around and looked at Chen Feng, his eyes instantly becoming incredibly fiery:

"What I value in him is his combat power rating, which reached fifteen million.

This indicates that the individual armaments or his own enhancements in his possession have definitely reached an extremely terrifying tier, which will be very useful for our Divine Domain to conquer high-difficulty sky islands in the future.

However, he is not the most critical thing right now."

"How are the preparations for the Level 4 upgrade materials going? Have those two wonder items been gathered?"

Chen Feng straightened his body immediately and answered with extreme excitement:

"Guild Leader, the supplies collected at the risk of our lives during the fire rain are all in place!

[Heart of the Firmament] and [Quantum Matrix Hub] have also been brought out from that Abyss Temple at the cost of sacrificing ten fully-crewed Level 2 warships!"

"Very good."

Guild Leader Lin Xiaotian waved his hand abruptly, his chest filled with immense ambition.

"Notify the entire fleet to activate the highest-level defensive posture!"

"Today, our Divine Domain is going to push for the first Level 4 fleet in the entire region!"

"City Lord Zhao Tianyu, wait until the next settlement; our Divine Domain will definitely trample you Sky Engine under our feet!"