Translator: ryangohsff Editor: ryangohsff
_4th month, 1st day, 9:50_ _AM_
When it was just 10 minutes before the auction, Ouyang Shuo went to the wooden shed in the Intermediate Market. He opened the auction platform, and a system notification popped up.
“System Notification: There is still 10 minutes until the first auction. Will you enter?”
“Enter!”
“System notification: Checking player’s entry credentials….”
“System notifications: Player must have more than 200 gold. Requirement fulfilled, starting teleportation!”
A white light shone across and Ouyang Shuo instantly appeared in the auction hall. The hall was like sitting in the galaxy. You were standing on stars and planets, and it was bright and magical, like the hall where Ouyang Shuo had created his character.
In front of the auction hall was a lotus platform, and on it was a female auctioneer with heavy makeup on. She was beautiful and looked fresh like the fairy from the character creation hall. At the back of the hall were lines of seats, and everyone sat in the hall with no VIP rooms or suites.
All the seats were chosen by luck. Ouyang Shuo looked around and found himself sitting in the middle of the 3rd row, a good position. His hands held two signs, one red and one white, with his number 76 written on them. In the last life, he didn’t join the system auction, so he didn’t know what the signs were for.
In the hall, most of the players were already seated. When they saw his appearance, they didn’t care and most people just kept silent. Only a few of them were close to one another and talked softly to each other.
Everyone in the auction hall had their looks and appearances fully exposed. The system did not waste time on any secrecy such as giving everyone a mask or something. In actual fact, when the players created their characters, the system would make little changes on their personal looks. In addition to the changes in their clothing changed the overall demeanour of the person. Hence, it was impossible to find out the identity of the person through their looks in-game, thus there was no need to keep it a secret.
In the time that passed, there were many white lights that shone, and groups after groups of people entered.
As the 200 gold entry requirement excluded many people, there were only 1000 odd people. Out of them, Ouyang Shuo saw many familiar people, enemies like Di Chen, friends like Bai Hua, and people like Xunlong Dianxue, as if fate had brought them together. Obviously right now only Ouyang Shuo recognized them, and they didn’t recognize him.
Ten minutes later, the auction officially began. The auctioneer said, “Everyone please calm down. Before the auction begins, I’ll explain to you the rules of this auction. There will be 10 items, each and every one of them are items of high rarity. Before an item is auctioned off, the next item will not be released. Every item will have a starting bid, and the next bid will be no less than 10 gold. Apart from that, to increase the excitement, each item will have a buyout price. In the entire process, everyone could choose to buy out the item. The white sign is to raise the price and the red sign is to buyout. Everyone please remember this.”
Ouyang Shuo listened intently, the system came up with something so special, not releasing details about the items and even setting up a buyout price. These rules were a huge test to one’s intelligence, and made things slightly more interesting.
Unexpectedly, after the rules were explained, everyone started discussing. Everyone felt a headache with such rules. The funds in each player’s hands were limited, and to take down one item would be a success. However, if one used all their cash to buy one item, but the next one was something they wanted more, then it would be a waste. What was worse was if one didn’t bid and the next item was too expensive, then they could leave here empty-handed.
The auctioneer didn’t care about the discussions and announced, “Now for the first item.” She took out a general class change token, letting any soldier regardless of rank become a basic rank general. The base price was 100 gold and the buyout was 500.
The system was certainly not simple, auctioning such a rare item as the 1st one. The general class change token was much rarer than the civil service one. They was even rarer especially to those with no ability to raise barracks to advanced or lacked generals. 500 gold was also the cost to upgrade to advanced barracks. Over 500 gold, obviously no one would be willing to pay.
Ouyang Shuo did not have any need for it, so those who bid were the small and mid-sized territories.
“110 gold!” Someone bid.
“120 gold!”
…….
“170 gold!”
…….
“220 gold!”
…….
After 200 gold everyone became more careful and started to weigh their choices. In the end, the token was sold for 240 gold.
The auctioneer revealed the second item, only to see her hold a scroll and say, “The second item is <Tang Sword Forging manual>. The base price is 200 gold and the buyout is 1000 gold, please bid.”
Ouyang Shuo was jolted awake. This was good. It could be used together with the Guangming armor. Others naturally knew this was a good product. As long as it had something to do with weapon making, it was something good. Hence Ouyang Shuo didn’t rush to raise the price, wanting to take a look before bidding.
“210 gold!” Someone reported.
“240 gold!”
……
“320 gold!”
…….
This bidding was more exciting than the first item, before long it reached 400 gold.
“600 gold!” The one that bid was Xiongba, he raised the bid by 200 gold, stunning everyone.
It wasn’t that other powers didn’t have the money to fight it out, but this was only the second item and they didn’t want to make it too heated, hence giving up.
Xiongba laughed in glee, his strategy worked. Just as he thought he won, Ouyang Shuo rose the white sign expressionately and said, “650 gold!”
Everyone was stunned. Xiongba was a famous player and one that many knew. Especially those powerful people, they knew each other. They thought that this auction would be controlled by their group of people, not expecting a random guy to pop out.
Xiongba froze up, looking at Ouyang Shuo and said uncertainly, “Are you Qiyue Wuyi?”
Ouyang Shuo had made plans of being recognized. A person with such money at this stage apart from the big powers there was only him, so he nodded his head. “Yes, it’s me. I finally meet brother Xiongba.”
“Haha, since it’s little brother, I’ll give up on this!” Xiongba laughed, not caring much about missing out. He was really an old fox, as it was obvious that it was he himself that didn’t have money to compete but he made it seem like he was letting Ouyang Shuo win.
As they say, people give me an inch, I give them a foot. Ouyang Shuo wasn’t a person that didn’t have manners and since Xiongba treated him politely, he did so too. “Little Brother accepts your gift.”
The 2 of them started talking like there were no one around. Qiyue Wuyi, he was the mysterious lord of the Chinese region, and he’d finally appeared. Even Di Chen and Chun Shenjun couldn’t resist turning around to take a look. The few of them looked like they were beasts staring at him. As for everyone’s greetings, Ouyang Shuo just nodded politely and didn’t want to talk to them.
Thankfully for him, the auctioneer got him out of the situation by saying, “Six hundred fifty once, 650 twice, 650 three times. Congratulations number 76 for winning the second item.” The moment she announced this, the item landed in Ouyang Shuo’s storage bag.
“Now onto the third item.” Now what appeared in her hand was a bead. She continued. “This is a Wood Soul Bead; it can raise territory agriculture production by 15%. The starting bid is 100 and the buyout is 500 gold.”
This was another good item, achieving the same results as the territorial specialty scroll. 15% might look like very little, but when the territory expanded, this was a huge amount and was more than worth it.
Ouyang Shuo hesitated on whether to enter. His main goal for entering was to obtain a weapon equipment making blueprint. The other items weren’t what he needed. Although he had enough money, he didn’t want to expose his financial strength.
Just as he was hesitating, the price had been pushed to 400. Ouyang Shuo raised his head. The last one who’d bid was Bai Hua. As she was his ally, he just gave it up. In the end, her 400 gold bid won her the Wood Soul Bead.
Bai Hua’s strategy succeeded. She knew that she had limited funds and couldn’t beat those strong powers. The goals of the big powers were the same as Ouyang Shuo’s, and they were all aiming for a weapon equipment making manual. They didn’t want to waste their money on items like the Wood Soul Bead.
