Ita Era

Chapter 98 The Second Half of the Auction

Little Sugar: "The fourth item up for auction, a sword-wielding weapon exclusive to the sword branch: Starbreaker Sword. Starting price: 60,000. Auction now begins."

"What is this?" asked the red-clad swordsman, whose expression was incomprehensible to Ding Shi and the others.

This sword is truly beautiful. It has twinkling stars on its blade. When Xiaotangtang picked it up and swung it a couple of times, countless starlight danced across the blade, like a constantly flowing galaxy.

Yu Yuan walked up to the sword, observed it for a while, then stepped back and said, "The Star Severing Sword is the exclusive weapon of Crios. Its blade can sever the body, spirit, and cosmos simultaneously, and even the Gold Cloth cannot withstand it. It can be used to unleash the Star Severing Light Wheel, Star Shield, and the Star Severing Circle Slash, which can destroy the memories of the opponent upon impact."

"What is it?" the four people present asked humbly.

Yu Yuan said, "Saint Seiya."

"What is it?" I felt so ignorant and so insignificant.

Yu Yuan: "Cartoons from the 80s. My grandfather had surgery and was bedridden for a month, so he revisited some of these childhood classics, and I watched some with him. Aside from being verbose, they were quite entertaining."

The woman in red asked, "Is the Star-Severing Sword very powerful?"

Yu Yuan replied, "In the animation, it is a weapon exclusively possessed by the gods."

The woman in red stood up and bowed to Ding Shi: "Grandpa, I will be very filial to you from now on. I will listen to you for the rest of my life and even give you an IOU."

Ding Shi: "Refuse."

The woman in red burst into tears and sat back down.

Ding Shi spent 60,000 yuan to buy the Star-Broken Sword and said to the woman in red, "I'll write you an IOU for 5,000 yuan, interest-free."

Ding Shi caught the sword and stepped out of his position. He swung it twice and could feel a powerful force contained within the sword.

The woman in red handed over the IOU, which Ding Shi glanced at. It stated that 50% would be repaid after each instance's settlement. This lacked sincerity; Wang Meng simply deducted 80% after each instance's settlement.

The woman in red set a condition: "If I want to find a boyfriend, I'll give you my first choice."

Ding Shi asked in surprise, "You are a beautiful woman, why did you become a thief?" Not only did you borrow money from Ma Yun, but you also wanted to seize Ma Yun's family property.

"what?"

Ding Shi said, "You promise you won't try anything with me. Otherwise, forget it." It's not the thief you should fear, but the one who has his eye on you.

The woman in red demanded, "Am I not pretty?"

Ding Shi replied, "The key is that I'm also very handsome."

After thinking for a while, the woman in red felt it made sense and said, "Okay, I agree. Let's make a deal."

Little Sugar pondered, "Why do I have this feeling of being an accomplice to a tyrant?"

Ding Shi reminded him, "Little brat, continue."

Little Sugar demanded, "What did you call me?"

Ding Shi reminded him, "I'm a super VIP at the auction, so please be polite."

Ignoring the fool, Little Sugar said, "The fifth item up for auction: a fusion card. It can fuse two suitable skill cards into one. The specific rules are as follows." Little Sugar then displayed the subtitles for everyone to read.

Little Sugar said, "The starting price is 20,000 yuan."

The four of them are still alive today, and they should have earned at least 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, but they are in despair in the face of Ding Fuhao.

Ding Shi was also considering his four item slots. He could discard the Wildcat Crossbow and the electric scooter, since he could always buy new ones. He also had a Fusion Card; should he try to get it? Who knew what treasures he might find in the remaining four days of dungeons?

Ding Shi quickly thought of a solution and said, "Give me 50 dollars each, and I won't participate in the fusion card auction."

Everyone glared angrily at Ding Shi, thinking he had gone too far.

Foolish Bone, unable to bear it any longer, said: "I won't give it to you, I still want to participate in the auction."

Ding Shi said, "I'll buy it first, and then sell it to the person who offered me the highest price, $50."

System notification: Yu Yuan has initiated a transfer of 50 dollars to you.

The woman in red is sending you a transfer: $50.

Wang Meng has sent you a transfer: 50 dollars.

Duan Pi has sent you a transfer: 50 dollars. Duan Pi is Sha Bi's real name, but he doesn't want the surname Duan because he hates everyone in his family equally. As for why, that's Sha Bi's story.

Ding Shi accepted the $200 with great satisfaction.

Wang Meng: "Twenty thousand."

Red-clad: "Twenty thousand one hundred."

Yu Yuan: "Twenty thousand one hundred and one."

Foolish Dagger: "Twenty thousand one hundred and eleven."

Ding Shi was too ashamed to look at the group of poor wretches. He reached out to Death, saying, "Tea and snacks, please."

Death beckoned with his finger, and several maids came out of the kitchen, bringing over a long table, on which tea and snacks were placed.

Half an hour later, Ding Shi finally understood why the system had given them two hours for the auction, and why the price of the fusion card had only reached 22,000. If he remembered correctly, Wang Meng had once revealed that he had 28,000. Judging from everyone's attitude, they were all prepared to throw all their money at it. Were they planning to skip tomorrow?
While drinking coffee and eating garlic toast, Ding Shi reminded, "Just state your bottom price. Just state how much you have."

Why not eat minced meat?
Wang Meng and his group didn't have the Four Symbols Teleportation Card, but they could buy quite a few things in Ham Town. However, the good items were all quite expensive, so they didn't want to spend all their money, especially since they didn't have any cards to fuse yet.

System notification: The person in red has initiated a transfer of $50 to you to purchase 10,000 instance coins.

Ding agreed, received the money, and transferred it. The transaction was done directly on the bank card, and no one noticed.

Ding Shi gave each of the three, including Sha Bi, a knife, with the message: 50 knives can be exchanged for 10,000 dungeon coins.

So the other three people each bought 10,000 dungeon coins.

When the woman in red made her killer move, driving the price up to 30,000, everyone else followed suit without hesitation.

Little Tangtang started to get impatient: "Each time the price increases by no less than a thousand."

So the four of them bought another 10,000 dungeon coins from Ding Shi. After deducting the cost of the dungeon coins, Ding Shi's net income from this fusion card auction was $598.

In the end, Sha Bi obtained the fusion card for 39,000.

Only two items remain to be auctioned.

Little Sugar spreads out her left hand, and a delicate building appears on her palm: "Auction House."

To build an auction house, you must own your own land. Once built, a system auction will be held daily. All players can put items in the auction house and set their own starting prices. Every evening at 8 PM, the system will select the 20 items with the highest starting prices for auction.

Assuming the starting bid for an item is $500, a 10% deposit, or $50, is required. If the item fails to sell, the auction house owner receives $25, and the remaining $25 is reclaimed by the system.

Assuming the auctioned item sells for $5000, the seller will only receive $4750. Of this, $250 (5%) will be split into two parts: one for the auction house owner and the other for the system.

The auction house costs $1200 to build, and its daily operations are handled by the system.

As the owner of the auction house, one has no privileges other than receiving a share of the revenue and closing the auction house.

Once the owner dies, the auction house will be auctioned off for $1 to find a new owner. However, only the auction house card can be obtained; the already built auction house cannot be acquired. This is because even if a player dies, the land they own still belongs to that player.

Yu Yuan shook his head: "It's a waste of money. Who can afford to buy land these days?"

Ding Shi: "Me."

Yu Yuan looked at Ding Shi, who said, "I have a private estate of five square kilometers." Yu Yuan's mind raced.

Little Sugar: "Starting bid: 10."

Ding Shi glanced at his bank card; he only had 11 left. If he bought the auction house, he wouldn't be able to afford the seventh item. Ding Shi wasn't particularly interested in the auction house. Buying it was certainly an option, after all, it was a long-term income source. But losing the right to auction the last item would be a huge loss.

If the last item in the auction has no value to you, or the starting price is too high, it would be foolish to give up on the auction.

Ding Shi asked, "Little Sugar, beautiful lady, what is the seventh item up for auction?"

Little Sugar: It's a secret.

Yu Yuan asked in bewilderment, "It's a sure thing, you've even calculated the cost price for me, why don't you buy it?"

Ding Shi said, "What if the seventh item in the auction is my favorite?"

Yu Yuan said, "Usually, the last item in an auction is the highlight, so its quality is definitely not bad, but the price won't be cheap either. Currently, the most expensive item is the Sharingan..."

Ding Shi made a shushing gesture, sat down next to Yu Yuan, and asked in a low voice, "Have you noticed that the bottom price is directly related to emotional fluctuations?"

The starting price of 15 for the Sharingan reflects Wang Meng's attitude of sparing no expense.

The gold teleportation ticket held no appeal for anyone; the starting price was only five thousand yuan.

The Star-Broken Sword is very attractive to the woman in red, but she is far less persistent in her pursuit of it than Wang Meng, with a starting price of 6 yuan.

The Dugu Nine Swords, which everyone is familiar with, should be on the same level as the Sharingan, but because there is no internal energy profession, the starting price is only 1 yuan.

Ding Shi continued, "In other words, the base price isn't predetermined from the start, but rather determined after comprehensive analysis. After each product display, there's a pause to allow us to discuss it before giving the base price."

Ding Shi said, "I now strongly suspect that the auction house is targeting one of my items with the aim of taking away most of my cash and preventing me from participating in the auction of the seventh item."

Yu Yuan asked, "Isn't this a bit like a conspiracy?"

The woman in red standing behind Ding Shi leaned forward and said, "I agree with Ding Shi's point of view. However, the auction house is currently the most direct platform that all players can participate in. If you, Ding Shi, don't take over the auction house, I don't know how long it will take before it appears." There are many problems among players right now. The first problem is the lack of a communication platform; currently, the most advanced communication platform is the clan group chat. The second problem is the lack of a trading platform.

According to Yu Yuan's speculation, the communication platform needs to be unlocked through human instances. As the civilization level of the human instances increases, the communication platform will be upgraded step by step.

Ding Shi asked, "Is this considered moral blackmail?"

The woman in red explained, "No, it's just a bit of a regret."

Ding Shi made a decision: not to buy.

Little Sugar waited for a long time: "10 for the first time, 10 for the second time."

Just when everyone thought the auction would fail, Xiaotangtang said, "The auction house has now adjusted the starting price to 9. 9! This is a facility that can produce Ita coins in the long term."

Little Sugar started enthusiastically promoting the idea, even using a PowerPoint presentation to show that daily income could reach at least $50, resulting in $1500 per month, and $20 per year without lifting a finger. She further claimed that with monetary easing, earning a million a year was not a dream.

"9 for the first time, 9 for the second time..." Little Tangtang flew in front of Ding Shi, not looking at him, and shouted, "It's the second time, and it'll be the third time soon!"

Ding Shi remained unmoved.

Little Sugar: "Okay, I'm happy today. The bottom price has dropped to 8. What are you still hesitating about? This is the first interactive facility in the world of Ita, a facility that can be recorded in history."

"8 million the first time, 8 million the second time..."

Once again, when everyone thought the item would go unsold, Yu Yuan said, "8."

Little Tangtang was taken aback and looked at Yu Yuan: "You want to buy it?"

Yu Yuan nodded.

Little Sugar asked, "Do you own land?"

Yu Yuan countered, "Can't we buy land if we don't have any?"

Little Sugar: "Okay. But..."

Yu Yuan interrupted, "Thank you."

Little Sugar resubmitted her bid three times before finally saying, "8, sold."

The auction house item flew into Yu Yuan's hands and turned into a card.

Little Sugar was confused, so she put up the last item for auction: "Human Body Optimization Card".

Apart from Sha Bi, the other four sat quietly with expressionless faces.

After observing for a long time, Xiaotangtang put up the introductory subtitles.

Some people have insufficient lung capacity due to smoking. Using the Human Body Optimization Card, their lungs can be optimized to achieve lung function comparable to that of non-smokers.

The Body Optimization Card can comprehensively enhance the user's physical qualities, but it cannot break through human limits; it can only approach them infinitely.

Little Tangtang observed Ding Shi, who chatted listlessly with Yu Yuan beside him: "This card is just a gimmick. It can indeed enhance your abilities, but the enhancement is limited. Originally, you would wet your shoes when the wind was blowing, and no matter how much you enhance them, you can't fly three zhang against the wind. At most, you can just stop wetting your shoes."

The man in red on the left said, "Every little bit helps."

Ding Shi said, "Don't be fooled. There are still many goods to buy in Ham Town, which can be brought to the villa and then brought into other instances."

Wang Meng asked, "You brat, what's the bottom price for this thing?"

"You brat?" Little Tangtang glared at Wang Meng resentfully, then regained her composure: "Starting price: 6."

Ding Shi raised his hand: "6." He bought it instantly. He then high-fived Hong Yi, Wang Meng, and Yu Yuan.

Silly Bike couldn't understand: "What are you all so happy about? What does this mean?"

Ding Shi said, "I originally wanted to buy it, and of course I'm happy that I was able to buy it for 6."

Foolish Bone said, "I'm asking them what they're happy about?"

Yu Yuan said, "We bought the auction house; we raised the money to buy it."

A silly question.

Yu Yuan said, "Wang Meng, Hongyi, and I pooled our money to buy an auction house and built it on Ding Shi's land. The weekly profits from the auction house will be divided equally among the four of us."

Yu Yuan still didn't understand, so he explained further: "If Ding Shi spends 8 to buy the auction house, the starting price for the optimization card might be 10."

Sha Bi raised his question: "No, I know you can pool your money with each other, is it really necessary to act like you've won a great victory?"

Yu Yuan further explained, "Auction houses can be investment assets, but optimization cards cannot. In other words, we can pool our money to buy auction houses, and the profits will be shared according to the amount invested. But we will not pool our money to buy optimization cards, because an optimization card can only be used by one person."

Yu Yuan: "Ding Shi bought the auction house and then borrowed money from us to buy optimization cards. It's like he ate the meat and drank the soup, leaving us with nothing. No matter what, it's a bit uncomfortable."

Ding Shi has over a thousand dollars in the bank, but currently lacks places and projects to spend it. Ding Shi is not very sensitive to money.

Wang Meng and his companions were not only penniless but also in debt, making them desperately need the auction house. However, without Ding Shi's land, acquiring the auction house would be futile. The final result satisfied all four: Ding Shi contributed his land as equity and received an optimization card that others couldn't afford. Wang Meng and Hongyi acquired their desired items at the auction and gained a long-term income, freeing them from debt worries.

Yu Yuan, despite being a weakling in combat, successfully united everyone, recruiting the red-clad woman with outstanding fighting abilities into their ranks, and binding everyone's interests together through an auction.

As the chieftain of the Fire Seed, Yu Yuan can spend 50 dollars to invite the Crimson Robe to join the tribe. That's right, adding people costs money. And the tribe is the prototype of the future guild.

Ding Shi, Hong Yi, Yu Yuan, and Wang Meng all made significant gains in this auction, while Sha Bi only obtained a fusion card.

(End of this chapter)