Volume 2 Chapter 5: Making a Fortune
After nearly a week of planning since I got the Monkey Wine, the first auction held by players in Fantasy, organized by the profiteer, finally started at 3:00 pm on Wednesday, June 14! The reason why it was not held during the prime time of the evening was because the profiteer only took out 1,000 participating number plates for this auction, which meant that only 1,000 people were allowed to participate in the auction. These 1,000 number plates had been sold out at the system auction three days ago. The players who bought the number plates had spent three days preparing, so they would definitely make time to participate now, so they were not afraid of a cold reception.
Not to mention the possible profits this auction may bring, just the sensational effect caused by being "first" and the huge reputation it brings to the unscrupulous businessman are enough to lay the foundation for him to become the number one businessman in the Cang Continent in the future!
After leveling up in the dark cave for a few days, I also planned to relax and have a rest, so as the security team leader (in order to protect the safety of the auction items, the profiteer rented 20 level 100 NPC guards from the system to act as security guards, but after all, NPCs have no intelligence, and players have to deal with some emergencies. Today, Jimo and Hanjiang are both busy. In addition to me, several other friends of the profiteer came to help with security work) came to the auction venue to see this auction that has caused a huge response among the players. The profiteer's publicity was too successful. In the past two days, whether it is the official website or the fantasy forum of other game websites, the topic talked about the most by players is this auction. In addition to the monkey wine, the profiteer also announced that he will take out three dark gold equipment to participate in the auction, which even exceeded the record of the system auction!
As time gradually approached three o'clock, bidders arrived at the venue one after another. Just like a real auction, there was an arc-shaped auction table on the podium, and rows of sofa chairs below. Each bidder was given an electronic display board, which they could use to enter the amount and then hold up to indicate their bid. Of course, the auctioneer would receive a system prompt and learn the number and specific amount of the highest bidder in the shortest time possible.
It is a little different from the system auction, because this is an auction organized by the players themselves. Although the information system support provided by the system is rented, the system is not responsible for guaranteeing the transaction between the two parties. In other words, someone may maliciously bid a sky-high price, and then slip away after bidding for an item, and not trade with you. It's really abominable. This is definitely unfair competition in the system. Of course, the shrewdness of the profiteers has already calculated this point and decided to use the on-site transaction method, that is, the transaction is immediately carried out after the item is auctioned. If someone maliciously breaches the contract, the item can be re-auctioned immediately. This is also one of the reasons why I want to come to this venue. With me, the number one master, sitting in the town, let's see who dares to make trouble. In this kind of occasion, as long as you apply to the system, if there is a legitimate reason, the security personnel will kill the troublemaker on the spot without punishment.
At 3:00 sharp, the auction officially began. First, the profiteer spoke on the podium. He briefly said, "I am very honored to organize the first player-hosted auction. I believe everyone is familiar with the item catalog of this auction. I hope that all friends can get the equipment that they are satisfied with." Then he stepped down. The auctioneer came on stage and announced the official start of the auction!
What's very funny is that Ah Wei heard from somewhere that for auctions held by players, he could rent a system auctioneer or have the gavel be held by the players. He became very interested and pestered the profiteer for several hours, insisting on trying his hand at being an auctioneer. The profiteer had no choice but to agree. In the past two days, Ah Wei has found a lot of information and tried his best to catch up on his knowledge of auctions. Now he is on stage, holding the gavel and with a serious expression, he looks pretty much like a real auctioneer.
Unlike the system auction, where the auction system for low-end and mid-range items will give all players data prompts, it is similar to the auction of high-end items. After the items are reported, the players bid, the auctioneer presides over the bidding, and the bidding takes turns. In this way, it may take a lot of time to bid for one item. In order to save time, and knowing that many players participating in this auction are representatives of groups, the profiteers made careful arrangements, and classified some relatively junk items into different categories, and combined several items together for a bundled auction. The first thing to be sold is a set of white armor for warriors, including five pieces of level 27 steel armor, three pieces of level 28 steel armor, four pieces of level 29 steel armor, and three pieces of level 30 chain mail.
As the fifteen pieces of armor were unveiled, Ah Wei announced: "The starting price for these fifteen pieces of armor is 200 gold coins. Please make your bids."
Immediately, a player made an offer: "250 gold coins!"
"300 gold coins!"
"350!" "I'll give you 500 gold coins!"
The price went up little by little, but there weren't many bidders and the bidding wasn't fierce. I glanced at the profiteer and saw that he looked calm, so there was nothing to worry about.
When a player offered 700 gold coins, someone suddenly called out a high price of 1,000 gold coins!
Although the levels of these fifteen pieces of armor are close to level 30, they are free equipment after all. Generally, monsters above level 35 will also drop them. As long as your own level reaches around level 30 and you have a little patience, you can get one in two days even if you don't team up with others. Therefore, they can be sold for 40 or 50 gold coins each at the system auction. 1,000 gold coins is obviously higher than its average price. Probably only rich people who don't want to waste any time and want to change equipment as soon as they reach a certain level will spend so much.
Sure enough, no one in the audience spoke. Ah Wei counted, "1,000 gold coins for the first time... 1,000 gold coins for the second time... No one offers a higher price? 1,000 gold coins for the third time!" He knocked hard with the gavel and announced, "Player 0357, congratulations on getting these fifteen pieces of armor. Please go to the backstage to make the deal. Now we are going to start auctioning the second batch of items. Everyone, please look, these are six broadswords for level 28 warriors, five broadswords for level 29 warriors, and five fine steel swords for level 30 warriors. They are all very handy weapons... The starting price for these sixteen weapons is 250 gold coins. Please make your bid now!"
Haha, Awei is a pretty good host!
After more than a dozen rounds of auctions, more than 200 pieces of white equipment around level 30 were sold. The process has been quite smooth and the final transaction prices are all within a reasonable range. Now the auction of attribute equipment begins, and this is the main part of the show.
In Fantasy, if you are not fighting the boss, the proportion of attribute equipment in the equipment dropped by the monsters is very small. If it were not for the high-level forgers who could forge attribute equipment and gold equipment in the middle and late stages, I believe that most players would not be able to get a full set of attribute equipment even at level 50. At this stage, attribute equipment is quite rare. The players participating in this auction are either rich or noble. They don’t like the white equipment in front. They probably bought them back to equip their younger brothers. Therefore, there is no competition between each other. Just bid at a similar level. But now when they heard that the auction of attribute equipment had begun, they all became more excited. Even... everyone exuded a strong momentum. I was so scared...
"...Sword of Wind, attack speed +15%, the best choice for swordsmen; Sword of Jade Water, additional water damage, 5% freezing chance, a good helper for fighting bosses. By the way, everyone, look at the emerald green color and the slender blade. What a beautiful sword! It is definitely the best gift for picking up girls (laughter from the audience)! Sawtooth Sword, with wound tearing effect. Is there an assassin friend here? Then he will definitely understand the power of this sword..."
Wow, it turns out that Ah Wei is so eloquent? Today, he performed very well as an auctioneer. Well, it seems that he will take this job as a part-time job in the future.
"The reserve price for these five pieces of attribute equipment is 500 gold coins. Please bid enthusiastically!"
"700!"
" 1000 gold coins! I'll give you 1000 gold coins!"
"Double it, I'll give you 2,000 gold coins!"
No way? The price has risen so sharply? It's completely different from the atmosphere just now! To be honest, I have only seen so-called auctions on TV in real life, and I only have an idea of this form of trade, but now I am in the scene, the tension and excitement are so intense that even an "outsider" like me who is not participating in the auction can feel my heart beating wildly, as if it is about to jump out of my throat. No wonder there are often reports that someone at a certain auction was too excited and had a heart attack and died on the spot...
The auction was getting better and better. The crazy bidding of the players simply shocked me. I didn't come back to my senses until the attribute equipment auction was about to end. After careful observation, I found that the profiteer's analysis was correct. In the later period, it was basically a contest between the three bidders 0045, 0388 and 0862. Among the nearly 200 attribute equipment (I fought more bosses, and the attribute equipment I gave to the profiteers was more than the white equipment. I guess the profiteers also tend to focus on attribute equipment when collecting equipment through other channels. After all, the profit of white equipment is not much. Although the investment in purchasing attribute equipment is large, the profit is relatively much higher), more than 2/3 were bought by these three people. They bid the most fiercely. Often, they would increase the price even when the price was ridiculously high, vowing to overwhelm their opponents. If they were just for their own use, why would the three people need to buy so much equipment? It seems that they represent different power groups, and the competition between them is fierce. Otherwise, as long as these three people join forces to lower the price, the income of today's auction will probably be reduced by half.
After the auction of attribute equipment was over, the next was the auction of gold equipment. The profiteer was really powerful. I couldn't figure out how wide his channels were. This time he actually got more than 20 gold equipment! You know, I worked so hard to fight the boss in the deep mountains and old forests, and with the gold equipment I had accumulated before, I only got 5 pieces of gold equipment in the hands of the profiteer. Other players might not even be able to get one piece. The power of the profiteer is obvious.
The golden equipment set off the first climax of this auction, and each piece was sold at an unimaginable high price. Alas, nowadays players are really rich and idiotic. These equipment are treasures now. When a high-level forger appears, the cost of forging a piece of golden equipment will only be a few dozen gold coins. Is it worth spending such a high price to buy them? Do you want to fight for them until your head is broken?
When the three dark gold equipment "Mad Storm Sword", "Priest's Hat" and "Moon Mark Ring" appeared, the atmosphere of the auction reached its peak.
The first item to be auctioned is the Crazy Storm Sword, which is 3 levels higher than my Bloodthirsty Demon Spear. This sword has a stronger attack power than the Demon Spear. Among its additional attributes, the most important is the wind damage, which has a certain chance to fire the automatic skill "Wind Blade" in battle. From my professional point of view, if I can choose, I still prefer to use the Demon Spear, as its blood-sucking attribute helps me a lot. However, players whose attack power is not as abnormal as mine must be more optimistic about the Crazy Storm, because if the attack power itself is not strong enough, the damage to the monster is less, and the blood sucked is only a pitiful little, which is not very useful.
Sure enough, as soon as Ah Wei announced that the reserve price for Kuang Lan was 1,000 gold coins and started bidding, someone immediately offered a staggering sum of 2,000 gold coins!
Perhaps the bid was too high, and everyone was stunned for a moment. No one responded. Ah Wei hurried to save the situation: "Excellent! This gentleman bid 2,000 gold coins! No one else is bidding? This is a rare dark gold equipment! Then, No. 0642, 2,000 gold coins for the first time... Oh? Someone bid 2,200 gold coins... Ah, sir, you really have a good eye, 2,500 gold coins!"
A Wei's inflammatory words aroused the passion of the players, and they began to offer prices, and the price of Kuang Lan soared like a rocket.
"3800 gold coins! 3800 gold coins! Gentlemen, this is a staggering price. However, as far as I know, Kuang Lan's ranking on the item rankings is even higher than the Bloodthirsty Demonic Spear equipped by the current top expert! Isn't there anyone willing to pay a higher price to own this weapon that surpasses the top expert's equipment?"
Good guy, he actually dragged me out to serve as a foil? You know what, this trick of Ah Wei really worked. The bids that had just been quieted down immediately rose again, and the price of Kuang Lan was raised to 6,500 gold coins! Surprisingly, I found that the buyer No. 0594 who bought Kuang Lan was actually the long-lost brother Bage. Haha, it's time to replace his golden hand axe. I have been busy with various things recently, and I forgot to contact him. Maybe I should talk to him after the auction.
The Priest's Hat and Moon Mark Ring that followed, although not as high as the price of Kuang Lan, were still sold for more than 3,000 gold coins. I won the Moon Mark Ring and sold it for 4,800 gold coins, which means that I made more money from this ring alone than from the last system auction!
Next, the grand finale was the auction of Monkey Wine. Five small crystal bottles, about two inches high, were placed on the auction table. Inside the crystal clear bottles, the amber wine reflected a charming light. Ah Wei unscrewed the cap of one of the bottles, and immediately, the intoxicating fragrance filled the entire hall.
The noisy auction venue immediately quieted down, and everyone was conquered by the magic of this peerless wine! However... looking at the horrible distorted faces of those people, they must be trying very hard to restrain themselves, right? If it weren't for the 20 NPC guards standing in a row in front of the stage, I'm afraid they would have rushed over!
This time, Ah Wei did not make any introduction - the unscrupulous merchants had already promoted Monkey Wine enough before - the only thing he said was that each bottle would be auctioned separately, and then he directly announced the start of the auction, with no reserve price!
"2000 gold coins!" a player roared!
Faint! The price limit I had originally estimated was reached as soon as I sold it. Is this monkey wine really that expensive? Although each bottle increases the upper limit of HP and MP by 150, it does not increase the defensive attack ability. Basically, its only function is to reduce the possibility of you being killed instantly. Therefore, even if drinking a gourd can increase 1000 HP and MP (it can be divided into 10 bottles, each bottle +150, but a person can only drink it once to be effective), I don’t think it is very useful - if I encounter a monster that can cut my blood by 1000 in one blow, I will run away regardless of whether I drink monkey wine or not. Of course, for professions such as magicians and archers with high risk factors, a bottle of monkey wine is still very important. And unlike equipment, no matter how good the low-level equipment is, it must be replaced when the level is higher. Drinking monkey wine to increase blood is to increase blood, no matter what level you drink it, it is the same, but the blood itself is long in the later stage, and the performance effect is not so obvious. Therefore, it is reasonable for monkey wine to be auctioned at a high price, but it is unreasonable to be higher than 2000.
It’s just that there have been too many unreasonable prices in the previous equipment auctions, so it’s not that hard to understand why the Monkey Wine is sold at a higher price, right?
The first bottle of Monkey Wine was bought for 5,600 gold coins. After that, the price kept rising. Seeing the number of Monkey Wine bottles on the table decreasing, players were getting more and more anxious. Many people started to think: "There is still wine, no hurry, wait until the rich people's bids are almost the same, the funds will be used up, then there will be no one to compete with me, and I can buy it at a relatively low price." Who would have thought that for the real rich, thousands of gold coins are nothing? In real life, treating your girlfriend to a candlelight dinner and opening a bottle of 1884 brandy may cost hundreds of thousands of RMB. In order to taste the taste of Monkey Wine that is better than any other wine in the world, it is not too much to waste one tenth of the price of a bottle of brandy, right?
As a result, I was the one who laughed the happiest. I sold four bottles of Monkey Wine at the prices of 8,800, 9,800 and 10,000 gold coins respectively. Seeing that there was only the last bottle left, the auction entered its climax. As Wei raised his hammer and banged it, "12,000 gold coins for the third time, deal!", the last bottle of Monkey Wine set the highest record for the transaction price of a single item in the game so far!
I don't quite understand why the unscrupulous merchant only put up half of the 10 bottles of Monkey Wine for auction. I asked the unscrupulous merchant, but he just smiled and said, "You will understand later."
However, the fact that 5 bottles of wine could be sold at such a high price was definitely beyond my expectation, and even beyond the expectations of the unscrupulous merchants!
However, the action of one player explained why the Monkey Wine was auctioned at such a high price: the winner of the last bottle of Monkey Wine, after the transaction was completed, could not wait to open the cork, and poured the wine down his throat. Then he closed his eyes and savored it for a while. Suddenly, he burst into tears and said, "I finally tasted the delicious Monkey Wine. It turns out that what that person said was true! From now on, I am afraid I can't drink any wine in real life!"
Shit! I see! As a professional gamer, I always focus on the actual effect of Monkey Wine, which is to increase HP and MP, and use this to calculate its price, but I forget that there are many drunkards in this world who will do anything to taste good wine!
Forget it, it's none of my business if you get drunk. The most important thing is that the tens of thousands of gold coins are safe. The profiteer who is in charge of the transaction in the background must have hundreds of thousands of cash on him. He must be escorted to the bank to deposit it immediately, otherwise it will be bad if he is targeted by thieves. Speaking of thieves, I think of Miss Qianqian Wanxing again. Alas, it seems that it is time to find her to resolve the grudge between us.
