“340 million gold.”
Zhou Ping the tamer raised her arm and upped her bid once more.
The fighter was speechless. A blue vein appeared on his face as he blurted, “Are you serious? Not even one of the Twelve Divine Armaments is worth this much! Forget it, I give up.”
The coal boss had fallen silent as well. His net worth was pretty high, but to pay 10% of it to purchase a virtual item? That was a bet he wasn’t willing to make.
The female fighter still wasn’t willing to give up, however. She raised her hand and tried again, “370 million gold.”
Zhou Ping gritted her teeth and uttered, “400 million gold.”
The female fighter stomped her feet in anger, but she finally fell silent as well.
Fei’er was an incredibly smart woman. She realized what just transpired and asked immediately, “Is there anyone else who’s willing to raise the bid? If there isn’t, then the Soul Scourge Whip will be going to player Chance Meeting.”
7 seconds later, the gavel rapped against the table, and the Soul Scourge Whip was finally Zhou Ping’s.
Zhou Ping was so happy that she let out a cry and jumped on her feet. However, Hugging Bears in Silence said worriedly, “How on earth are you smiling after spending so much money? That’s 400 million gone just like that. Uncle will surely criticize you for this.”
Zhou Ping simply hugged her guild member and assured her, “Don’t worry, Bear Bear. Heehee, it’ll be fine.”
……
There was another person in the VIP room who realized everything. He Yi suddenly looked at me and said, “You sent a message to Zhou Ping, didn’t you, Lu Chen?”
I raised an eyebrow. “No, I didn’t.”
“I dare you to say that again.” My beautiful guild leader put her hands on her waist and got ready to explode.
I caved and broke into a grin. “Fine, fine. After the bid went over 300 million, I promised Zhou Ping I would return half of the final price and told her to keep bidding. If she won, the Soul Scourge Whip would remain in the China server. If she lost, I would still be making a fortune. It was a win-win for me either way.”
“Mn. It all turned out well, so…”
Xinran was lying beside me and watching the seemingly endless crowd flooding out of the auction house. She said with a smile, “It’s been a while since I visited Sky City, but it really is one of the most populated main cities in the world, huh?”
I pointed a finger outside. “This is my haunt, Xinran, so why don’t you stay here from now on? Of course, you’re free to visit Violet Empire if they need you for something[1].”
“Sure, big brother.”
It was at this moment I received a system message:
Ding~
System Notice: Congratulations, the item you consigned for sale “Soul Scourge Whip” (Twelve Divine Armaments, Outstanding★★★★★★★★★) has been sold for 400 million gold. 2% of the total sum is deducted as the processing fee. The total of 392 million gold will be deposited into your account in 5 minutes.
……
I was overjoyed, of course. I had earned nearly 400 million gold in one transaction, and if I wanted to, I could call myself a tall-rich-handsome right now. Of course, I would be returning around half that sum to Zhou Ping, but 192 million gold was still a huge sum of money[2]. Most people grinded their own equipment either at instances of high-level leveling ground, so equipment sales were in a slump to say the least. To earn this much money from one transaction was practically a miracle in the business.
I purposely checked the auction sale records to confirm this. The highest single item transaction in the past month was a Lower Divine Armament sword that was sold for 17.9 million gold, and the buyer was none other than Blue Sky Scar. My Soul Scourge Whip was at least a dozen times more valuable than his sword.
Five minutes later, 392 million gold entered my account. I immediately converted them to RMB. Although Eternal Moon Corporation had been keeping a tight control over the in-game market, there was no telling if it would crash one day. It would be horrible if I held onto my gold for too long, and the price suddenly plummeted from 1 gold per 1 RMB to 100 gold per 1 RMB one day.
I sent a message to Zhou Ping: “Beauty Zhou Ping, where are you? I’ll come to you to return your 50%. You and I both know that that whip isn’t worth nearly this much…”
This was an insane sum of money, so Zhou Ping forewent the pleasantries this time. I saw her sticking out her tongue cutely at me in the dialogue screen before saying, “I’m waiting for you at the Holy Temple. Come trade me now.”
“Mn mn.”
……
After I bade He Yi, Lin Yixin, Beiming Xue and the rest of the girls goodbye, I held Xinran in a princess carry and flew out of the VIP room in an instant. A gust of wind later, I was hundreds of meters away from them. The girls could only stare at my vanished back in shock. “God damn, his movement speed is absolutely off the charts right now…”
Less than 10 seconds later, I descended at the Holy Temple with Xinran.
Rustle rustle…
I skidded to a stop in front of Zhou Ping, Hugging Bears in Silence, and the rest of the executive-level players of Twelve Musicians. Some of them were holding their breaths, and some of them looked incredibly nervous. Well, I could understand their feelings. This wasn’t a joking matter after all.
Still, I shot them a dissatisfied look. “Why are you all looking at me like that? You don’t really think I’m going to renege on my promise, do you?”
Zhou Ping shook her head smilingly. “Of course not. We all trust in your character. Plus, you’re a top player in the CGL Hall of Fame, and your name alone is worth 1 billion. You wouldn’t scam lil ol’ me…”
I walked up to her and opened the trade window. I made sure to make it visible so that everyone else could see it. Then, I traded 200 million gold back to Zhou Ping.
After the transaction was complete, Zhou Ping pressed a hand to her chest and let out an obvious sigh of relief. “You just saved me one hell of a scolding from dad…”
I laughed. “I wasn’t expecting to see such a side from you, Zhou Ping. Is your father the type to reprimand you if you spend too much money?”
“But of course. Who do you think I am, Roaming Dragon? I don’t have it in me to spend a couple hundred million without batting an eye.”
Zhou Ping turned her waist a little and replaced her existing equipment with a much shinier one. It was of course the Soul Scourge Whip. She gave it a couple of tentative swings and caused a couple of loud, crisp cracks. Combined with her attire, she looked like quite the regal queen.
“Roar roar…”
Next, Zhou Ping summoned two pets. She stared at her two tigers with a bright smile on her face, “Wow! My Purple Gold Rank pets have become Immortal Rank. It’s amazing.”
I advised, “A tamer has 3 tamer slots, and the Soul Scourge Whip added three more. Be sure to fill them with high-rank pets to maximize its effect.”
“I know, that much is obvious.”
Zhou Ping chuckled before speaking to Hugging Bears in Silence, “Bear Bear, keep a close attention on all the auction houses in the three main cities, okay? Inform me immediately if a boss pet egg above Spirit Rank is on sale. At least pet eggs aren’t too expensive.”
Hugging Bears in Silence replied smilingly, “Will do.”
I added, “Oh, one more thing. The Soul Scourge Whip is strong, but it mostly buffs your pets. You, the tamer, are still incredibly vulnerable to top-tier assassins, cavalrymen and so on. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you how many people will be coming after you for your equipment.”
Zhou Ping nodded with deep agreement. “What should I do then?”
I smiled. “It’s simple. All you need to do is to gather a party of cavalrymen and archers to be your bodyguards and have them accompany you at all times. This way, few would be able to sneak up on you without resistance. This party of yours has to be powerful though.”
Zhou Ping pursed her lips for a second before asking, “So, are you interested in becoming my bodyguard, Lu Chen? I can pay you 1 million a month…”
I laughed. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m a great fighter, but I’m really not qualified to be a bodyguard…”
“Can you introduce someone to me then?” Zhou Ping continued with a frown, “To be honest, our Twelve Musicians guild is extremely lacking in talent in terms of cavalrymen and archers, and as you said, I have offense in spades but not enough defense…”
I thought for a second before replying, “I can summon the guild leader of Bloody Mercenaries and have him introduce you to some high-level players to be your bodyguards. Is that okay?”
Zhou Ping looked overjoyed. “Of course it is! Anyone from Ancient Sword can only be great!”
“Got it.”
I immediately sent Du Thirteen a message, “Thirteen, come to the Holy Temple of Sky City, will you? I got you some business.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Less than three minutes later, Du Thirteen appeared looking like he had just returned from battle. He greeted me, “Yo, brother! What is this business you were—wow! I wasn’t expecting to see so many beauties here! You truly are a bro, Lu Chen…”
I rolled my eyes. “Control yourself. You have Xue Lu already, you know. Anyway, the business relates to them.”
“Okay, what is it?”
After I explained everything to Du Thirteen, he clapped his chest once and promised, “Don’t worry, Beauty Chance Meeting! I will select 500 high-level Dragonlight Cavalrymen and 500 Dragonlight Archers from Bloody Mercenaries and have them join Twelve Musicians. No one should be able to sneak up on you, and in the case of an ambush, you should be able to hold out until reinforcements arrive.”
Zhou Ping giggled. “That’s wonderful. I see that the brothers of Ancient Sword are all more lovable than the next.”
Du Thirteen opened his palm. “I have a condition though.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“I want Twelve Musicians to send 100 of their prettiest ladies to our Bloody Mercenaries…”
“Shameless,” Zhou Ping and I said in unison.
……
It was at this moment Du Thirteen noticed Xinran beside me. He exclaimed in excitement, “Oh, she’s Xinran, right? You finally found her, Lu Chen!”
He then held out a hand to her and said, “Hello, Xinran. I am your brother’s best brother, Du Thirteen. I’m still single…”
Xinran stared at his hand for a moment before pulling my arm. “Big bro, are you sure he’s your brother? He doesn’t look like a good person no matter how I look at him…”
I replied, “Don’t worry. He might have the face of a villain, but he’s kind-hearted on the inside.”
Du Thirteen jumped. “You’re the kind villain, fucker…”
The girls of Twelve Musicians laughed brightly at our antics.
……
After that, I gave Du Thirteen the equipment I had replaced such as the Guardian Dragon Armor and the Cyan Dragon Shield. I might not have to use them anymore, but they were still some of the best equipment at the current stage of the game. Du Thirteen might be terribly unskilled still, but the equipment would make up for it. An expert who could only attack like a maniac was still an expert if he killed his opponent and refused to fall.
I logged out of the game when it was nighttime. It had been a very tiring day after all.
1. T/N: poor Violet Empire, man ☜
2. E/N: Dude, you did HER a favor, she should eat the processing fee and get 192m, not you. xD ☜
