Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
When the bid of 500,000 utility points appeared, the crowd instantly went silent.
This price had far exceeded the market price of the weapon, even if it was being sold in an auction.
Was this gun actually worth 500,000? The answer was a definite yes!
But the crucial point was that more than ninety-nine percent of those who would use ‘Repentance’ were gunners.
Given the awkward position of gunners in a party in the later stages, even a gunner who was a core member of a party could only fork out 400,000 utility points for it, at most. That was already almost 50% above the market price.
Honestly, that was already the absolute limit even if the gunner himself was the party leader. Any higher and he might not be able to explain himself to his party members.
Let’s say, in the real world, the Department of Defense of the United States went to an Iraqi warlord and told him, “Our B-2 bombers are amazing! How about we sell one to you for only USD$100 million? Pretty cheap, right?”
The production cost of each B-2 bomber is $840 million, so $100 million is definitely super cheap, but the Iraqi warlord can only buy one for the price of $10 million. Why? Because he doesn’t have enough money.
Even if the deal went through in the end for political reasons, it would not mean that the real value of a B2 bomber was only $10 million. It was just that the buyer’s low purchasing power had forced the price to be lowered.
Sheyan had directly bid the price of 500,000 utility points in order to show his determination. He would use his unnaturally high authority in his party to suppress the reserve-duty General competing against him!
The reserve-duty General’s face turned pale when he heard the amount. He said sinisterly, “How dare you act so arrogantly in front of me? You tiny little Lieutenant Colonel.”
He suddenly pulled out a silver-storyline grade spear and enquired with the realm, “How much will I get if I pawn this weapon?”
A response was given immediately after a scan of the weapon was conducted.
[ 30,000 utility points! No extra charges will be incurred if you redeem the item before entering the next world. There will be a 10% service charge if you redeem it after one world (3,000 utility points), a 20% service charge if you redeem it after two worlds, a 40% service charge if you redeem it after three worlds, and so on. When the service charge exceeds the loan amount, the item will no longer be available for redemption. ]
The man did not hesitate to offer the weapon as collateral and then, gritting his teeth, countered Sheyan’s bid.
Sheyan merely laughed. He looked very calm as he said, “530,000 utility points.”
This amount was already close to Sheyan’s limit; all the more reason he had to remain calm.
The miner sitting next to him suddenly smiled and told him, “I can personally lend you 100,000 utility points, interest-free.”
“Why would you do that?” asked Sheyan dubiously.
“I heard some things from the Stockholm party….and, if I’m not mistaken, that glow on your gloves should be made by a liquid metal life-form, right? I think you’re worth investing in,” the miner answered seriously.
Sheyan smiled. “You have good eyes, I’ll accept your help.”
Facing Sheyan’s relentless pressing, the reserve-duty General was placed in a really awkward position. Fortunately, at that moment, a reserve-duty Lieutenant General stepped out and said in a cold voice, “I can’t believe you’re being forced into such a mess by a tiny Lieutenant Colonel, Chabar. You look so pathetic right now. Don’t worry, I’ll lend you 100,000 utility points.”
There was actually an underlying conflict between those with reserve-duty military ranks and those with official military ranks. Official rank Generals were sure to have an advantage over reserve-duty Generals. To put it bluntly, those with official ranks would feel a natural sense of pride in front of those with reserve-duty ranks.
The contestants with reserve-duty ranks naturally did not take too kindly to that. The relationship between the two was somewhat similar to the one between the FBI and the local police.
Of course, the reserve-duty Lieutenant General did not decide to lend Chabar 100,000 utility points for that reason alone. He and Chabar had a good relationship with each other. Chabar was something like an ally to him, so he naturally had to help.
Chabar accepted the offer and made a follow-up bid through gritted teeth. However, Sheyan’s response to that instantly caused an uproar among the crowd! He increased the bid straight to 600,000 utility points! That was like a huge slap in the face of the reserve-duty Lieutenant General who had just lent money to Chabar. It was obviously done with malicious intent!
So what if you lent him 100,000 utility points? I’ll still crush you two fools!
Chabar and reserve-duty Lieutenant General felt their faces heating up under the gazes from the crowd. Every person who could attend the auction was someone of importance, and they had just been humiliated in front of all these people.
Chabar started laughing hysterically. He forced the following words out of his mouth with his teeth gnashing.
“Great! Just f*cking great! You think you’re so rich?”
As Chabar said that, he took off a piece of dark gold equipment he was wearing and pawned it to the realm for 100,000 utility points. Now,the cash in Chabar’s hands far exceeded Sheyan’s. He straightaway made a bid of 700,000 utility points to take back control! He looked like he was determined to compete with Sheyan to see which one between them had more assets!
The nightmare realm was similar to the real world. Many of the tycoons in the real world may be worth tens of billions of dollars, but in reality, those numbers included hard assets, stocks and other kinds of assets. They likely only had millions, maybe tens of millions, of liquid assets on hand.
Chabar had obviously taken Sheyan to be someone who got lucky and had suddenly gained a large amount of cash. Therefore, Sheyan should not have much in terms of material assets. Considering that he had been in the realm for way longer, he decided to turn the competition into a contest of overall financial resources in order to scare Sheyan off.
Sheyan could not even be bothered replying to him with words. He did not even need to take off an equipment he was wearing. Instead, he threw out the Ukiyo-e. The most important function of this dark gold item, as far as Sheyan was concerned, was to let the teleportation array on Melody’s side lock-on to the coordinates on this side. It only needed to be done once.
Now that he had done that, and the teleportation array had successfully located the position of his nightmare realm, the Ukiyo-e had already lost its greatest value! Therefore, Sheyan did not care much about using the Ukiyo-e as collateral.
As soon as the dark gold item made its appearance, it immediately set off a storm in the whole venue. Although the crowd soon calmed themselves down, it still attracted the attention of quite a few major figures.
“Ukiyo-e? Is that really the Ukiyo-e?! The magical treasure that can be used to summon a boss figure to make it convenient to kill? If I recall correctly, it should be a special reward for Golden Side Missions!”
A reserve-duty General could not help shouting. After he checked the specs of the item, he immediately said to Sheyan, “Lieutenant Colonel, you don’t have to pawn it to the realm. If you’re short on money, you can sell it to me directly. I’ll buy it for 200,000 utility points.”
Another reserve-duty Lieutenant General snorted in disdain when he heard that.
“Do you take him for an idiot? A special reward for Golden Side Missions, and you want to buy it for only 200,000 utility points? Lieutenant Colonel, I’ll give you 300,000 utility points for it! With this much money, you can easily get the ‘Repentance’ you want!”
“You’re the idiot! Can’t you see that this Ukiyo-e only has two uses remaining? I’ll pay 350,000 utility points…”
The dark gold item Sheyan casually took out made waves in the auction house.
Chabar and his friend turned even more anxious. If Sheyan really managed to sell the Ukiyo-e for 300,000 utility points, they would stand absolutely no chance to win the bid for ‘Repentance’.
However, although Sheyan appeared really tempted, he sighed and shook his head in the end. He said a little timidly, “I…I think I’ll just pawn it.”
Sheyan’s weak attitude was immediately noticed by many people. They instantly deduced that this Lieutenant Colonel must be someone who enjoyed a good relationship with the party leader, or something like an accountant who managed the assets in the party. He must have privately made use of party assets to continue making bids out of ego or pride. If he pawned the item, it would still be possible to redeem it in time, but if he sold the item, it would be impossible to get it back. How would he explain himself to his party, then?
As a result, Sheyan loaned 100,000 utility points from the realm with the Ukiyo-e as collateral. Afterwards, he no longer fiercely increased the bidding amount like he previously did. Instead, he hesitated for a long time before he outbid Chabar with 700,500 utility points.
Chabar gnashed his teeth. With bloodshot eyes, he took off a pair of silver storyline shoes and a dark gold ring from his body, pawning them for 130,000 utility points. He looked towards his old friend with pleading eyes. As a result, the reserve-duty Lieutenant General also took off a piece of dark gold equipment from his body. The equipment turned out to be quite valuable; he managed to get a loan of 170,000 utility points with it. Chabar now had an additional 300,000 utility points in total!
Next, he increased the bid by only 500 utility points, leaving the rest as liquidity!
Right now, everyone knew Chabar held approximately 300,000 utility points of cash in his hands, which meant he could increase the bid to a million utility points anytime he wanted!
This was Chabar’s psychological warfare. First, he knew the limit of Sheyan’s cash amount. Second, he had a total of 300,000 utility points in his hands, which would put tremendous pressure on Sheyan and could potentially scare Sheyan off.
By now, almost all the people present were sure that there was no way Sheyan could win. Most of the reserve-duty General rank officers began to look at Sheyan with condescending eyes. Some were even openly mocking him, saying that this was a game for the big boys and he should not be here. A few official rank contestants were frowning, feeling like this little Lieutenant Colonel had embarrassed them.
None of them expected Sheyan to suddenly stand up with a sneer. He looked around at the audience arrogantly, seemingly enjoying the feeling of being the centre of attention. He then took off the ‘Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves’ from his hands, displayed their properties, and asked the realm, “Hey, how much is this junk worth?”
