Chapter 23.1: Lord of Taranthan's Reputation

Yang Qiu had also considered allowing players to choose their own appearance and customize their characters; players that spent a lot of their time and effort into creating their own characters would have a strong sense of immersion and attachment to the game.

The reason this plan couldn't be realized was that the materials for alchemical puppets were too expensive. Setting aside the difficulty of finding a safe channel to purchase materials for Yang Qiu, who was currently wanted, filling a skeleton frame to make it presentable on the outside and stuffing it with random junk to pass off as a "poor-made" alchemical puppet would still cost at least ten gold coins in materials alone.

So.. such a plan was shelved. Anything that required extra money was a hassle for Yang Qiu. It was easier for him to focus on producing and selling items like the "Orb of Deception" and "Undead Horse" that he could create himself.

After having his cup of milk tea to alleviate the awkwardness, Yang Qiu once again immersed himself in the imprint matrix and observed the situation at the Knight Instructor's construction site.

The fifth player managing to achieve the "friendly" reputation with the Knight Instructor, Jerome, had emerged. He had just turned in a quest, and before he could express his joy, he was immediately surrounded by several skeletons and taken aside..

There was only one Undead Horse, but evidently, there was more than one person who coveted it. Before this player could react, a bag of copper coins was dumped before him. "Three hundred copper coins to give up your bidding rights, deal?"

"Deal!" the player answered decisively. "There's no need for copper coins. Let's settle it in RMB!" historical

"Using such tactics to eliminate competitors! How shameless!" Onlookers, who had no qualms about joining the commotion, immediately started jeering.

The bunch of skeletons, who had successfully eliminated a competitor, paid no heed to these passerby troublemakers and immediately had their companions drag away the fifth grinder that had achieved the bidding rights.

And so, when the Knight Instructor NPC announced that the official auction would take place in half an hour, there were still only three players with bidding rights on the scene.

Of course, these three players weren't the original reputation grinders but wealthy big shots that had bought their bidding rights.

While the participants of Orb of Deceptions' bidding had initially managed to come to a harmonious agreement, the interested parties of the Undead Horse couldn't do so.

However, these wealthy individuals had reached a unanimous consensus before the auction began—to contribute a small amount of money each and buy out the other player's bidding rights on the spot.

And this was only the later part of their plans. In the initial stage, these rich players had already seized the majority of the in-game copper coin sources, fundamentally preventing the emergence of new competitors.

That was the reason the final player who achieved the reputation requirement could agree so readily because he, among others who had spent quite a long time here, knew very well that no one could produce enough copper coins to compete with these wealthy individuals.

"It's still gonna be very difficult!" exclaimed one of the three wealthy individuals, the big shot who collaborated with Qin Guan.

The ID of this player was "Wild Geese Mound," and one could tell he was an artistic youth with quite a solid background just by looking at his ID. [TL note: Wild Geese Mound is a poem by an ancient Chinese poet Yuan Haowen.]

He originally had little interest in things like mounts, but he was amazed four days ago when he saw the Lord of Taranthan NPC riding the flashy Undead Horse. On the spot, he used the pocket money he had been saving for a camera and exchanged it for copper coins instead. With Qin Guan's help, he monopolized about 20% of the copper coins produced by the laborers.

"Let's do our best," Qin Guan comforted him. "Give Me Medicine only spent 900 copper coins and brought back the rest of the money."

To avoid further provoking Blossoming Strokes, Qin Guan had already returned the Orb of Deception. However, Blossoming Strokes still seemed quite affected and logged out early to go have a meal.

"Yeah, let's just try. We need to drive up the price even if we can't win the bid. Otherwise, we won't be doing justice to our hard work these past few days," Wild Geese Mound grumbled, shifting his gaze toward the competitor who had managed to recruit the most laborers and posed the greatest threat.

Qin Guan followed Wild Geese Mound and felt the twinge of a toothache..

The one who the two felt most threatened by was a player with the ID "Brother Lahong."

Brother Lahong wasn't a typical tycoon who solved everything with money. He was a charismatic and popular figure, a big brother sort of tycoon, with whom many would feel a strong sense of affinity with. When he entered the game, he brought along more than a dozen brothers he knew from another online game. Within just a few days of the game's launch, he had gathered over 50 players of varying types around him, more than what Qin Guan, an influential veteran of the closed beta, had.

When Qin Guan glanced over, Brother Lahong noticed his gaze and waved to them.

"He's showing off before even getting the horse. How rude," Wild Geese Mound grumbled resentfully.

Qin Guan: ".."

Qin Guan thought Wild Geese Mound was slightly overthinking it. In fact, he actually knew Brother Lahong. In real life, the latter was a small business owner named Liu Shuang and had the same flamboyant style both online and offline. The earlier gesture was simply a friendly greeting.

It was just the harsh reality that artistic youths and businessmen couldn't be friends.

After half an hour, Knight Instructor Jerome walked directly to the center of the players and raised his hand to announce the start of the auction.

The bidding process was quite simple since there were only a few players with the rights, so simply shouting out their bids was fine.

"3000," Wild Geese Mound was the first to bid, instantly raising the starting price threefold.

"4000," another rich wallet warrior called out.

Businessman Brother Lahong casually threw out a figure that shook the entire venue, "10,000."

The onlooking crowd immediately burst into a frenzy.

"What the heck!"

"Is this f*cking for real?!"

"I've been playing for days and only have several dozen copper coins, and someone can easily produce 10,000!"

"That's not surprising. Can't you see he has more than 10 money bags (backpacks)?"

Wild Geese Mound turned to Qin Guan who shrugged helplessly.

After all the hard work and effort to qualify for the auction, they now couldn't even produce enough to raise the bid.. No one could have anticipated this.

.

The money made by Xiao Zhou's studio as well as other players that were roped in by Vanilla Pudding, on top of copper coins Wild Geese Mound had collected from others combined, wasn't even close to this amount..

Wild Geese Mound wasn't the only one affected. The other remaining bidder was frustrated as well and cursed multiple times. After nervously discussing with his companions, he reluctantly made a bid. "10,100."

Brother Lahong raised his hand. "11,000."

"F*ck!" the other bidder cried out. "Are you even leaving any room for others to participate, Lahong?"

Brother Lahong chuckled. "Don't get so worked up. I'm just saving everyone some trouble by quickly closing the deal on this horse."

"I also want this horse. I've farmed over 2,000 reputation points with the Knight Instructor!" the other bidder resorted to pleading.

"Well, if it's not possible, you can come to our side. I can't give the horse to you alone, but we can negotiate when there's a need, like for completing missions and such. We're all brothers and sisters here, so it's all good," Brother Lahong said with great generosity. "Besides, this horse won't be the only one available. Next month, when more mounts are released, we can all support each other."

"Whoa?!" All of the other players in the vicinity were astonished. The two sides were still engaged in fierce competition, yet Brother Lahong was already extending an olive branch.

"Was the game supposed to be played like this?!"

The other bidder was also stunned. "W-what the.. Are you saying that if I don't join your group, I can dream on when it comes to getting the next horse? Is that a threat?"

"Hey, hey, don't overinterpret. It's just not fun that way." Brother Lahong hurriedly put his hand up to calm the situation. "I was just considering how difficult it must have been for you to raise so much money and still not be able to buy a horse. The tasks in this game are so hardcore, and I bet the job change at level 1 is going to be quite challenging. Who knows, maybe the Knight Apprentice's job change requires a horse or something. If you were an outsider, it wouldn't be easy for me to lend you the horse that our brothers and sisters worked hard to obtain, right?"

"Fine! You win!" the other bidder immediately gave a thumbs-up. "Okay, you convinced me. If I can't beat you, then I'll join you. Does Brother Lahong need more followers to serve him tea?"

"Whoa! What the heck?!" All the bystanders were once again astonished.

When two armies faced off, cutting down the enemy's general with a single blow was nothing compared to persuading the enemy general to switch allegiances on the spot. That was the epitome of true cunning!

Wild Geese Mound, the artistic youth, had probably never seen such cunning tactics in his life. He stiffly turned his head and looked blankly toward the only person he could still trust, Qin Guan.

Qin Guan felt a twinge of heartache..

As cunning as he was, he couldn't match the methods of a popular businessman adept in the ways of society. Just being a popular live streamer who played female characters wasn't enough.

And thus, less than two minutes after the auction for the game's first Undead Horse that was sold for a winning bid of 11,000 copper coins, the two groups of players who were once enemies now gathered together, ecstatically celebrating and taking screenshots with the magnificent horse. Only the bystanders and the third group who were left out stood in a daze.