Chapter 101 - Auction (Part 2)
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Levs
After the first 3 items were auctioned off, Di Chen and Chun Shenjun both still haven't made a move, only patiently waiting.
"Now for our 4th item," in the hand of the auctioneer was a wooden doll, saying, "This is a substitute doll, letting the player revive once without any negative effects. Base price 100 gold, buyout 500 gold, please make your bids." The players were all perplexed, why would the system take out such a useless object. At this stage of the game, players will only lose a level when they die, why would they use such a doll.
Only Ouyang Shuo knew that this was a valuable item. A year later, when everyone is online, the system will change the death punishments and when they die, they will become level 0 and lose all their items. Such harsh punishments, the only way to avoid this would be such a doll.
"110 gold!" Someone held the thought of testing the market and made a bid.
"120 gold!"
"130 gold!"
"140 gold!"
All these players were holding the hopes of picking up some leftover scraps, since they couldn’t possibly compete with the strong players anyhow. However, for the system to classify the substitute doll as a rare item, it must have its own special uses, for example, it might be the key to trigger a hidden quest.
"180 gold!"
"190 gold!"
"200 gold!"
In the end, when the substitute doll reached 200 gold, very little people made bids. They were there to pick up scraps, not throw all their money in.
"250 gold!" Ouyang Shuo saw through all their intentions and added 50 gold, crushing their hopes.
"250 gold once, twice, 250 gold 3 thrice, congratulations number 76 for winning the 4th item." The hammer of the auctioneer landed, the lowest priced item in the auction went to Ouyang Shuo.
"Bumpkin!" Di Chen said condescendingly as Ouyang Shuo spent money like this.
The auctioneer was very focused on her job and she immediately started announcing the next item. This time it was another token. "The 5th item is a basic soldier token, changing 100 max rank militiamen into a rank 1 armoured cavalry, starting bid 300 gold, 1500 gold buyout, please make your bids."
The crowd was in an uproar as this token could be considered to be a big help to strong powers. If it was a normal soldier token, like the crossbowman cavalry that Ouyang Shuo had gotten, it would not have gotten everyone so excited. After all, all these people had grade 1 towns and to equip a squad of light armoured cavalry could be done.
However, armoured cavalry was a different case, a totally different topic. Regardless of the equipment or the good war horses, no lord was able to do so. Even Ouyang Shuo himself was searching for the qingfu horses.
"500 gold!" Sha Pojun made the first bid, ruling out most of the players who are here to enjoy the atmosphere.
Xiongba shouted, "600 gold."
"700 gold!" The one that joined in was Zhan Lang.
Di Chen did not want to be left out and shouted, "800 gold."
Of the original 6 tyrants of Handan, only Chin Shenjun, Feng Qiuhuang and Feng Qingyang didn't make a move, Feng Qingyang because he didn't have the money, while the first two for reasons unknown. Chun Shenjun had a large amount of capital but he just sat there and didn’t made a move. Feng Qiuhuang also didn't care and wasn't planning to make a move.
Di Chen felt delighted, thinking that he could win the token.
Little did he expect, Xiongba broke his daydream and announced, "1000 gold!"
Di Chen's expression became exceedingly ugly. He had searched hard for money, borrowing and begging other lord's and only got 950 gold, Xiongba's bid excluded him from winning the item, making him furious.
"1100 gold!" Ouyang Shuo chose this moment to suddenly join.
Ouyang Shuo's bid shocked everyone, no one expected him to have so much capital. He had already spent 900 gold on two items, with this, he had spent 2000 gold. Such huge amounts of fund was not what an ordinary lord would dare think about.
The Shanhai Town with so many funds, what kind of situation would that be? Shanhai Town was the most mysterious territory in china, how many more secrets did it hide? To be able to join the auction, you had to be one of the top few lords in the game. Thinking back to when Di Chen was so arrogant to Ouyang Shuo, all the players couldn't help but laugh. “Wasn't Di Chen very arrogant? Now, he can't even take out 1 thousand gold and still have the face to look down on Ouyang Shuo, how funny!"
Di Chen felt the eyes of all the players land on him, his face turning as black as charcoal. His hatred for Ouyang Shuo intensified and he wished he could eat him. He thought to himself: That stupid bumpkin, I, Di Chen will teach you a lesson.
"1200 gold!" Unexpectedly, Xiongba didn't want to give up.
Ouyang Shuo had underestimated Xiongba and didn't expect him to have so much capital. He thought back to Xiongba's kind intentions and his original plan which was to rebuild the old Tang Dynasty heavy armoured troops with the mingguang armor and green horse, the class change token seemed a lot more useless and unnecessary.
Ouyang Shuo looked towards Xiongba and said, "Congratulations brother Xiongba, I forfeit!"
Xiongba laughed and said, "Thank you Qiyue Wuyi Brother!" He didn't expect that his kind intentions will be repaid by Ouyang Shuo, and thought that he was a worthy person to make friends with.
In the end, the token was sold to Xiongba for 1200 gold and was the highest item sold so far. Xiongba was happy but bitter. He had borrowed money from his ally Piao Linghuan to buy the weapon and equipment making blueprint, but now he used it to buy a soldier token. He had to explain when he goes back, he couldn't lose an ally because of this.
The first half of the auction ended and the auctioneer announced a break of half an hour.
Using the rest time, Ouyang Shuo found Baihua and said hi to her. Ever since they made the alliance, this was the first time they met.
Baihua saw Ouyang Shuo and she proactively rose her right hand, smiling and said, "Hearing your name is not as good as seeing you in person!"
Ouyang Shuo politely shook hands with her and said, "Lord Baihua's big name I've envied and looked up to for a long time. To see you today, you are really beautiful."
"I didn't expect the mysterious Qiyue Wuyi to be a humorous man." Baihua teased.
Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, "Such a fair lady, all men would want to chase."
"Cough cough!" Baihua laughed, her beauty shocked Ouyang Shuo. "I haven't congratulated you for getting two items, seems like you are financially strong!"
"Same, same!" To Baihua's strategy just now, Ouyang Shuo admired it.
Baihua was very happy with her gains this time. The only thing that she wanted most was the weapon equipment making manual which she had no chance of getting, feeling a little regretful. She looked at her ally and joked, "Consonance Village wouldn’t be able to get the weapon and equipment manual, so we must depend on Shanhai Town to help us!"
Ouyang Shuo nodded and casually said, "What help? As allies, I can promise that if we get the manual, and reach an industrial scale, we will definitely sell it to Consonance Town."
Baihua was delighted and sincerely said, "This little sister will thank you for that!"
Little did she know that developing military production and selling to allies and obtaining high profits was originally Ouyang Shuo's intention. The salt pans had a max capacity and the mines had a day when they wil be mined out. Ouyang Shuo would not wait and die. Military production was the best chance, not only could it help the territory businesses to upgrade, it could also help increase the strength of the allies, it’s like killing two birds with one stone.
When the two of them were causally taking, two male players came near Ouyang Shuo and said excitedly, "Little Brother is from Xunlong Dianxue and greets brother Qiyue Wuyi!"
Ouyang Shuo realized that these two were people who backed Ouyang Shuo when Di Chen had provoked him. Ouyang Shuo held his hand and smiled,"Oh it's you two brothers, for what happened last time, I thank you heavily for it!"
"Brother Wuyi is too polite, you are the flagbearer for us common players. Di Chen is only a clown." Gong Chenshi had a direct personality and did not care about Di Chen who was standing nearby, saying loudly.
Ouyang Shuo was in deep conversation with both of them. They were the leaders of the civilian players, their knowledge weren't simple and looked very direct, however, they were scheming people. Ouyang Shuo still remembered the post that Gong Chengshi had posted when the servers were just opened.
Because of time constraints, Ouyang Shuo did not have a long conversation and instead just did a simple introduction of Baihua to them, arranging to discuss an alliance after the auction.