Chapter 57: Chapter 57

Chapter 57: The Starting Price Is 1 Billion Yuan!The Starting Price Is 1 Billion Yuan!

Jiang Chen sat in a private room on the second floor of the auction venue. By pulling open the curtain, he could overlook the entire situation below.

Because he was the seller of the final item in this auction, he received such distinguished treatment. Normally, these seats were reserved for high-ranking dignitaries of the main city — even players with money couldn’t buy them.

So sitting here came at no small cost.

To be seated here as a seller, the item being sold had to be an extraordinarily valuable treasure. Originally, a simple Level 1 Guild Founding Token wouldn’t have qualified Jiang Chen for this level of treatment.

It was all thanks to the Level 3 Guild Founding Token.

The system’s auction house had the benefit of being safe and reliable, but the downside was the exorbitant handling fee.

At the end of the auction, 5% of the final amount would be taken as commission. Given that Jiang Chen’s Level 3 Guild Founding Token was preliminarily estimated to be worth at least over a hundred million, the fee alone would be staggering.

Jiang Chen never thought he would one day be this extravagant.

Still, the money wasn’t entirely wasted — at the very least, it bought him a server-wide announcement. Many wanted the opportunity but had no chance.

At this moment, the auction had officially begun.

The auction host, a senior elder, was carefully explaining the effects of the auction items.

But the early phase consisted of low-tier, ordinary items — mostly bronze gear and the like — so the bidding was sparse and scattered.

Though Jiang Chen had opened the curtain, he didn’t pay much attention to the auction below. Instead, he pulled up the current level leaderboard, curious to see what had changed after being offline for nearly twenty hours.

[Yunhuang City Level Leaderboard]

Jiang Chen let out a surprised sound.

Just now, Han Gongque — originally level 22 — suddenly leveled up to 23, seemingly about to catch up to Jiang Chen himself.

“Looks like another liver emperor* has emerged.”

[*Liver Emperor: Internet slang referring to someone who grinds games for extremely long hours with high efficiency. “Liver” comes from “grinding your liver away”, a humorous exaggeration about the toll it takes on one’s health. Similar to a hardcore gamer or no-lifer.]

Jiang Chen rubbed his chin.

There was no sign of Han Gongque at the auction, suggesting he was out grinding in the wild. That kind of commitment was truly admirable.

Actually, if it weren’t for his physical condition, Jiang Chen would have liked to spend more time in Hope World as well. His level advantage had all but disappeared due to delays in real life.

And with the recent mutant beast attack, he was even more anxious — time was of the essence.

Time passed swiftly, and now half of the auction had elapsed.

“Next, we will auction a special potion: [Life Elixir · Supreme] — a batch of 100 Level 2 red-and-blue potions. You may view the effects yourselves. Starting bid: 100 gold.”

The previous few items were unremarkable, and even the auction elder felt a bit helpless. Fortunately, the next batch of items was rare and unique. Though they might not fetch sky-high prices, they could at least heat up the atmosphere.

Initially, everyone paid little attention upon hearing it was just a Level 2 potion, but the moment they opened the attribute panel, the crowd instantly erupted.

“Holy crap! This is a Level 2 potion? Gotta be fake!”

“Two thousand HP? This outperforms even normal Level 4 potions — top-tier stuff!”

“No idea which freak crafted this, but I’m bidding 100 gold!”

“This potion’s amazing — perfect for boss fights. I bid 120 gold!”

Everyone present was basically a representative of a major guild, all fully aware of how valuable this potion was. Right now, guild elites were mass-raiding bosses, and what they lacked most were high-end potions.

Watching the players enthusiastically raising bids, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but feel a wave of joy. Though the profit wasn’t huge, as the saying goes — even mosquito legs are still meat*.

[*Even a mosquito’s leg is still meat: A Chinese idiom meaning that even the smallest gain is still a gain; better than nothing. Often used to justify minor profits or advantages.]

For some reason, this sort of “price range” really hit the sweet spot of Jiang Chen’s current mindset.

Sometimes, when the amounts get too large, people lose that sense of excitement. For example, Jiang Chen had made tens of millions in one go, but it didn’t feel like much when it just sat in his account — just a string of digits. But now, seeing tens of thousands rolling in felt much more satisfying.

Perhaps it was because he hadn’t yet adapted to his new identity as a “rich man”…

After several rounds of bidding, the final price was set at 350 gold — not bad at all.

Next came a batch of Level 3 potions, refined to perfection — also 100 in total, starting at 500 gold, which worked out to 2,500 yuan per bottle. Definitely expensive.

But that still didn’t stop the tycoons below from fiercely competing. One by one, the wealthy raised their bids boldly.

From the starting price of 500 gold, the number climbed steadily to 3,000 gold — a sixfold increase — and finally landed in the hands of Chaoge Zhou Wang.

These potions were mainly meant for Liuli Zhan. As long as his healing could keep up, Zhou Wang, as a Shield Guardian Knight, could become an immovable mountain. This would drastically reduce pressure when pushing bosses.

After successfully winning the bid, Zhou King’s lips curled into a smirk. “Once I’ve taken down a few high-level bosses, let’s see who still dares strut around in front of me!”

Especially that damned bastard — Lone Ranger! If I don’t use your face to polish my boots, I won’t rest easy!

Someone up on the second floor sneezed and then grinned cheerfully.

A few more rounds of “street stall” items were auctioned off. Just when everyone was tuning out, the most anticipated moment finally arrived.

A tool covered by a crystal glass dome slowly rose from beneath the stage — inside was a gleaming, silver token.

It was the item everyone had been waiting for — the Guild Founding Token!

Even the elderly host, who had been struggling, became visibly excited. He banged the gavel and announced loudly:

“Now we will auction today’s finale item — the Guild Founding Token!”

“Starting bid is 200,000 gold! Each increment must be no less than 10,000 gold!”

“Let the bidding begin!”

In Hope World, players could exchange game coins for real-world Chinese currency, but not the other way around. 200,000 gold was a massive amount that only large guild organizations could afford.

But today’s attendees were basically the representatives of the world’s top guilds — all loaded with gold. Tens of thousands of gold coins was nothing to them.

After the announcement, the elder host waited for bids, but though there was chatter below, no one made the first offer.

“What’s going on? A starting price of 1 billion? That’s insane.”

“Exactly. Even for the first Guild Founding Token, the starting bid should be around ten million at most!”

“Is the system auction house scamming us now?”

“Totally unexpected. I thought the final price would be around 100 million. Now it looks like I was completely off.”

Since the system-wide announcement didn’t state that this was a Level 3 Guild Founding Token, it completely exceeded everyone’s expectations. But soon someone noticed the item’s detailed information — and their eyes almost popped out.

“Holy sh*t! This thing’s actually a Level 3 Guild Founding Token?! No way!!”