TWO Chapter 99- Prelude
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Levs
For the following 3 days, the territory was very calm and quiet. In the blink of an eye, the system auction was nearing in and Ouyang Shuo started to gather funds in his territory.
……
3rd month 29th day, Shanhai Town's second sale of sea salt.
The Northern Saltworks had been expanded twice since the last sales. The third expansion of the salt pans on the 2nd month 26th day, its scale was 2000 mus. The expansion on the 3rd month 3rd day expanded the salt fields to 5000 mus. With an average of 500 units of salt per acre, minusing the time taken to build and expand the saltpans, the production of salt reached a staggering 3.5 million units.
The market sold each unit at 20 copper so 3.5 million units of sea salt would sell for 7000 gold, with the 20% trade tax, he would receive 5600 gold. Further deducting the costs of running the salt pans, the earnings were 5000 gold. Ouyang Shuo thought about the heavy taxes and it felt like his heart was bleeding.
……
3rd month 30th day, Langshan mining field presented its gold to the camp.
The Langshan Mining field currently have 1500 miners, 1000 of which were in charge of mining, the other 500 were involved in transporting and extracting the gold. The mining field could mine an average of 100 tonnes of gold ore, extracting out 2000 grams of gold which was at least 100 gold.
Deducting the costs of running the mine, in half a month, the earnings would be 1500 gold coins.
One mustn't look at the fact that the profits from the gold mine was lower than the salt pans and think that the salt pans had an advantage. The mine was set up for a shorter time of only half a month. The mines only had 1500 people as compared to the 2500 in the saltpans.
Using the average profits of each worker, one salt pan worker made 2 gold every month while one miner made 3 gold. This added with the fact that the Langshan mine didn't need to pay 20% tax, making it more profitable than the saltpans.
As for the financial income of the territory, ever since the wine brewery was shifted under the Finance Department, the financial situation got a positive improvement. However if one wanted to talk about profits, now wouldn't be the right time. One reason was that the territory was still in constant building and needed injections of money. Secondly was the Business Division using methods to stimulate the economy, hence needing cash to sustain it. Hence, as long as the Finance Department could maintain balance, Ouyang Shuo would be delighted.
After all calculations, Ouyang Shuo had 7570 gold on hand, making him confident for the upcoming system auction. At the current stage, even the richest Chun Shenjun wouldn't have over 1000 in gold. It wasn't that they weren't rich but their territories needed constant injections of gold, even only the military also needed huge amounts of gold. Only Shanhai Town, with the two golden gooses of the salt pans and the gold mines could have so much gold.
……
3rd month 31st day,
Gaia finally announced the system auction and real life exchange system.
"System notification: to celebrate three months of the game, the system will organize the first system auction on the 4th month 1st day. There will be many rare goods available so look forward to it! Reminder: players must upgrade market to intermediate grade before they can join."
The moment the notification went out, all the lords from the strong powers wanted to fight for the best goods. They rushed all the men under them to get more gold no matter what the price.
……
Handan Town, Di Chen asked Juedai Fenghua, "How much funds can we move now?"
Juedai Fenghua frowned and said, "After we upgraded to grade 3 town, we spent so much on buying building blueprints and upgrading to advanced barracks. The military doesn't have enough funds to expand, how can we have any money that we can move?"
"Then how? According to my family news, a rare weapon and equipment making blueprint will appear and we mustn't miss it. I'll go offline and try to gather some gold, since there's one day left maybe I can gather enough." Di Chen shook his head helplessly.
"That's the only way." Juedai Fenghua didn't have any other better method.
……
Pill Sun Town, Chun Shenjun called the financial butler of the territory and asked, "How much gold have we gathered?"
The butler laughed and said, "Lord, don't worry, after two months of building up, we can move 2 thousand gold and I believe no one else can compare."
Chun Shenjun nodded his head, obviously pleased, "Seems like not upgrading to a third grade Town was a right decision. Ever since the family got the news about the auction, we have prepared for 2 months, it's finally time to taste the fruits of our labor. Di Chen that fool, he extravagantly upgraded to a grade 3 town, he must be regretting so much now."
"Lord is smart!" The butler said.
……
In Swordsman Town, Feng Qingyang looked at his sister and asked, "Little sister, is there really no way?"
Feng Qingyue said, "Big brother, although we have gotten large amounts of money from Qingyang Sword sect, but these funds were used to buy secret techniques. In tomorrow's auction, we can only give up. We can only blame the family news from being too slow and not being able to find out about the auction early enough."
Feng Qingyang was not willing, originally he had thousands of gold but because of the lack of information, he used it in the wrong area.
"Why don't we sell some of the secret techniques to gain funds for the auction?"
"We definitely cannot do that, selling to the market will incur 20% tax, it's not worth it." Feng Qingyue rejected.
"Okay, I'll listen to you." Feng Qingyang could only accept his fate.
……
Xiongba sat in the King Town, asking impatiently, "How? Have you discussed with Wandering Magic?"
An old man who sat opposite Xiongba nodded and said, "Lord don't worry, negotiations have went well. They agreed to lend all their gold to us, the conditions being after we create the equipment with the blueprints, that Fallen Leaves Village would have the priority of buying."
"Good, he is a good brother, I can count on him on crucial times. How about this, we can't treat them too badly, tell them when we create the equipment we will give them 100 sets." Xiongba happily said, he was an old fox and managed to think of such a method to raise funds.
"Lord is a genius!" The old man said respectfully.
"Haha, to be the best, we need to be smart." Xiongba said with glee.
……
In Consonance Town, the four sisters gathered.
"Elder sis, tomorrow's auction, what strategy are we using?" The one who asked was Zi Luolan.
Bai Hua shook his head and said, "We have only 600 gold so we can only adapt to the situation."
"That's right, tomorrow let's focus on one or two goods and items that no one wants and get them. As for the popular ones then let the big powers fight."
"En, fourth Sister's suggestion is good, let's follow it."
……
The various powers tried to find gold, and the balance was broken, the price of game cash rose. From the original 1 copper to 2 credits it rose to 1 copper for 5. In the end, it actually went up to 10 credits, meaning 1 gold for 100 thousand credits.
If Ouyang Shuo sold all his gold, he would have instantly had 700 million credits. There was a period in time where he couldn't resist and wanted to sell a portion of his gold and buy it back when the price dropped, but in the end, he managed to resist.
One reason was that he didn't know what would be on the auction and secondly, it used a lot of energy which wasn't worth the time.
"System notification: To control the gold and credit trading, the system will open an item exchange platform on the 4th month 1st day 2pm. Players could exchange real credits and items. the system will take 2% as fees."
The opening of the item exchange could expand the trades and dealings in the game. Those powerful players could more conveniently buy more game coins through the platform.
Ouyang Shuo knew that the various powers would want to directly exchange credits to game coins but as it affected the game balance, the authorities declined. This item exchange platform was the end product of both sides taking a step back.
Listening to the system report, Di Chen and Chun Shenjun's faces turned green. The system lacked morals, purposely owning the system after the auction, not allowing them to sweep up all the game cash.
Chapter 100 - Auction (Part 1)
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
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
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.