Meanwhile in the Ivy League City, The PPFT Market...
Felix was sitting on a comfortable armchair while having two humongous holograms placed in front of him.
One of them was displaying the Wrist Webbing Artifact plus the Shield of Domenic while the other was showcasing the 100 randomized items in his Prize Pool.
Due to the two Artifacts, Felix's 'shop' was receiving quite a lot of attraction. Well, it wasn't just due to them only as the three unique Titles above his head were also helping him quite a lot!
]The Kraken Slayer![
]The Record Breaker![
]The Wealthiest of Them All![
They appeared in this exact order above his head while each one of them shimmering with a different color and having their own unique artistic style!
Yet, ]The Kraken Slayer[ Title had to be one of the best looking and badass titles to have ever been created.
It was written in dark red color while the letters were dripping in blood above Felix's head.
However, those drops of blood weren't touching Felix or any other title as eight tentacles were catching them continuously and in a specific pattern that was on repeat.
The players who were passing by the shop were always turning towards Felix to glance at it in awe before changing their vision to his Prize Pool after having their interest attracted!
This was the benefit of having titles as they truly add to the reputation of the player, making everyone want to buy from him or befriend him if possible.
After all, to actually have a single unique title was already an achievement not a lot of players would be able to do. Not mentioning, three at once!
Just like that, Felix's shop station was packed to the brim with players clamoring and outbidding each other to buy the auctioned Artifacts, drawing envious gazes from the other shops nearby.
"250 GP for the Wrist Webbing Artifact!"
"300 GP here!"
"350 GP!"
The bids kept on climbing and climbing until the last bid had reached 890 GP! Felix created a holographic gavel and hit it on the wooden part of his armchair, "890 GP going once! 890 GP going twice!..."
He paused to look at their reaction and after noticing that everyone was shaking their heads besides the last bidder, He smashed the gavel on the side of his armchair and shouted, "Sold to this fine gentleman!"
Clap Clap!...
Felix waited until the applause ended before snapping his finger and showing the 2nd Wrist Webbing Artifact that he bought!
If it wasn't for the players being dazed in the stadium, he wouldn't have emptied the Artifacts stock in the Prize Pool! Probably Miss. Mikasa and Golden Elixir were cursing him after realizing it!
"Shameless!"
"Greedy bastard."
"Thank god, there is another."
Meanwhile, everyone reacted differently to Felix's cunning ploy of showing only one in stock while hiding the 2nd to keep the price always high.
Felix shrugged his shoulders carelessly after noticing that few players walked away while huffing in anger.
He looked at the rest and said with a pretty smile, "Ladies, gentlemen, it's all yours."
Henceforth, another round of vicious bidding begin yet again and ended after the last bid reached 850 GP this time.
After so, Felix informed the winner to wait for a minute until the last item gets auctioned. Obviously, it was the Shield of Dominic.
This one was well received by the players since it was one of the best defensive artifacts in their integration level.
Although they couldn't use it in games, they could still benefit from its protection in the real world.
Thus, the final bid had reached a whopping 1300 GP!
Clap Clap!...
"Thank you all for attending my small and humble auction." Felix nodded towards the players respectfully and pointed at his Prize pool hologram, "Feel free to browse anything to your liking while I deal with those gentlemen."
After Felix said so, he stopped bothering the players and placed his attention on the three bidders. Without wasting time, Felix sent them three standard contracts to sign.
This was exactly like the one he signed when he first purchased in the PPFT Market.
When the players asked the Queen to check for loopholes and found nothing, they immediately signed it and wired him; 2390 GP, 2350 GP, and 4300 GP respectively.
In return, Felix sent them the serial code of the items and said with a polite smile, "Glad to do business with you."Likewise."
"I wish you die in your next game, greedy bastard."
"Thank you for the shield."
Although he got cursed by the one who bought the 2nd Wrist Webbing, Felix still smiled in satisfaction after seeing that had earned a total of 3040 GP pure profit from those transactions!
That was due to his 5% commission on each item plus the betted amount.
Those were just the three prepurchased items, Felix could still gain more if those players decided to buy something from his Prize Pool.
After seeing that everyone was engrossed in his Prize Pool list, Felix took advantage of the free time to check on his earnings from the game.
He still hadn't checked due to time constraints. After all, the moment he left the stadium he rushed here.
When he placed his shop, everyone gathered to buy those auctioned items. Only now was he somewhat free to see his gains.
'Hopefully, I earned quite a large sum from the streaming revenue.' Felix rubbed his hands in anticipation and requested from the Queen to show him his gains.
//
]Winning Wish (Double value)
] Nomination to The Yearly Best Low-Elo Player in the Galaxy. (It will be hosted at the end of the year. For more information please click here)
] Unique Title: The Kraken Slayer
]Total Streaming Revenue (0.01% from game points/1% from popularity/3% from victory): 4.6 Billion SC.
]Game Points collected solo: 9500 GP //
"Holy shit!" Felix couldn't help but exclaim out loud, startling the players around him.
However, he didn't give a shit about the weird looks he was getting as he simply kept gazing in shock at the streaming revenue he obtained.
He knew that he was going to earn quite a lot since he had secured a win but he didn't expect that it would be this much!
'Queen, can you calculate how much I earned from just my fans?' He requested.
'3.6 million individuals had chosen you as their reason for spectating.' The Queen paused, 'Based on the price tickets they paid, you have earned 1.2 billion SC from them only.'
'Heheh, thank you Queen.' Felix chuckled foolishly after hearing that his cute fans had gotten him a billion SC alone.
He never managed to get so much support from his fans in his previous life. Well, although he was technically in gold, he was still one of the players who were struggling to reach peak-tier in it.
Hence, he was always having 100,000 fans coming to watch him and help him earn some money after he loses.
'Things are truly different. I should probably check on my cute fans website.' Felix smiled faintly and closed down the earning hologram. He already knew of the rest.
"Bro, I want to buy x7 little Kraken suckers."
Felix's thought process was broken by a player demanding a transaction.
Felix nodded his head and sent him the standard contract, which was signed in a heartbeat. After getting the payment, Felix gave him the serial code and sent him away.
'I should probably buy the elemental material before they get sold out.' Felix straightaway clicked on purchase ]5 Purity Fountain Drop[ and ]5 grams of DarkFly Dust[ from his prize pool.
Since Purity Drops cost 1200 GP each and Darkfly Dust 1000 GP for each gram, Felix had ended up spending 11k GP on them.
He was left with only 10k GP or so and Felix didn't want to waste it all on Purity Drops since he might get a chance to buy them with Supremacy Coins later on.
After all, his reputation was going to explode after the 4th game and he was expecting some auction invitations from renewed establishments.
He could finally be considered somewhat of a high leveled player worthy of invitation!
With his current 11 billion SC capital that he had and was still increasing on a daily basis from the stream recordings getting sold and his investments bringing him profits, he believed that he could start competing against the whales in those auctions now!
Who knows, he might even find a decent body armor artifact in them or a good weapon to use in real life.
Or even better, he could finally start buying illusion stones and tier 3/4 bloodlines to harvest the Illusion Primogenitor essence.
It would be tough and might take him months to years but he could at least start now without feeling the brunt on his capital by such an expensive side-project.
Upon seeing that no one was bothering him, Felix decided to open his profile interface and check on his updated information as well as the game coupons that he won since he maintained his winning streak.
Name of the participant: Unpaid Landlord_6996
Age: ???
Address: ???
Integration Level: ???
Rank: Mid-Tier Gold (Placements are finished)
Games Played: 004
Wins: 004
Loss: 000
Win streak: 004 (click to obtain rewards)
Loss Streak: 000
Eliminations: 047 //
Felix nodded his head in satisfaction at his rank. Before, there was always a 'temporary' placed next to his rank, which entailed that he would go back to silver if he lost.
Thankfully, he won and now his rank was fixed as gold.
If it wasn't for the game being a placement game instead of a normal one, he would have been actually at low-tier gold.
In other words, the rank skip coupon had made him jump three tiers and after he won the game, he got an extra tier added since placement games win gave two tiers.
But from now on, he would be winning just one tier in each win unless he had some special coupons to help him out.
'Let's see what coupons I lucked out on.' Felix rubbed his palms in anticipation and pressed on the ]Win Streak[ button.
Immediately after a hologram emerged before him:
//1) Surrender Coupon: Allow the user to be teleported outside of the game in a split second. The user will still lose a tier and all the rewards obtained in the game. (One use/365 days before expiring)
2) A Tier Lose Exempt Coupon: Allow the user to avoid the tier loss penalty. (One use/365 days before expiring)
3) 30% Discount Tickets Coupon x3: After activation, any spectator choosing you in the next game will have a 30% discount on any ticket price. (One use/365 days before expiring) //
'Hehe, not bad at all.' Felix was quite satisfied with his luck as those two first coupons could be used as a combo!
Surrender and activate tier lose exempt to avoid the penalty! This would lead to avoiding death or any trouble inside the game while also maintaining the tier.
This Tier Lose Coupon was quite common and sometimes it might appear as a hidden prize in the Prize Pool, allowing the players to purchase it with game points.
The Alliance did so to facilitate the climb a little for the players. There was also another coupon that had the opposite effect, making the players climb two tiers instead of one.
Meanwhile, the discount coupon was also quite useful to him since many more fans would be willing to attend the stadium and contest for tickets when they see the 30% discount.
Felix wasn't surprised that he had gotten an extra coupon than last time since he knew that for each win he obtained, he would be getting an extra coupon.
As long as the win streak continuous, he would keep getting more and more coupons to help him in his climbing journey!
Felix had no intentions of stopping his winning streak now!
Who knows, he might actually surpass the longest recorded win streak in the history of the SG platform!After a while...
The area around Felix was being emptied noticeably after most noteworthy items had been either purchased here or some of the players in Felix's 4th game had gotten them.
Whatever it was, the Prize Pool list was now trash since no one bothered to buy common items that were usually found in most Prize Pools.
Upon seeing so, Felix decided to close down his shop as he was more than satisfied by the total amount gotten from his run.
Now, his points had been increased to 15k GP from 10k! This meant he had actually earned 5000GP+ from all of his transactions!
This number wasn't normal or doable since thousands of gold players just like Felix had placed their shops in the area.
So, there was a vicious competition on whose items were going to be sold faster.
Those three titles had provided immense help to Felix so he could excel above most gold players' shops.
After he closed his shop, Felix went to the parking lot of the PPFT Mountain and rode on a silver thin car that he purchased to be used in the Ivy League City.
Whoosh!
The moment he pressed auto drive to a preset destination, he had to wait a couple of minutes before he got permission to lift off. Then, the car drove in a specific line away from other hovercars, mounts...etc.
It took him 10 minutes to reach the newly added Residential Mountain where he bought a room in a shared apartment.
He parked his car in the parking lot and walked through the packed pedestrian sidewalk towards the complex.
Any transportation method wasn't allowed in the residential area since the roads had been shortened to leave more space for lodging.
A few minutes later, Felix reached the complex and took the ground elevator.
His apartment was on the middle floor of the complex. Yet, it took the elevator more than five minutes to reach it since the building was exceedingly tall, reaching almost two kilometers in height!
Naturally, every residential building was as high as this one to milk most of the players' game points during the residential auctions.
Although there was possibly more than 800 floor in this building with tens of apartments in each floor, it was still fully packed without a single room to spare.
After all, the Ivy League was a galaxywide organization that was open to all the players worthy enough to join.
Ti-ring!
After the elevator stopped, Felix walked on a long hallway that was leading to his apartment.
As he was walking, he kept appreciating the scenery of the Ivy league from this height.
The hallway's right side had glass windows, making it possible to stand and enjoy the city's magnificence.
Meanwhile, the left side was packed with rooms stacked next to each other...literally! There were barely two meters between each door.
On his way, Felix met with players entering and exiting through these doors without any signs of discomfort.
This was due to the space manipulation done to the apartments, making them spacious inside while saving space to add more apartments.
One could only revel on the Organization's profits from selling those apartments as each room cost from 1500 GP to 2500 GP.
Two months ago, Felix had joined hands with three players and secured an apartment for themselves with 8000 GP in the auction.
The amount was split into four, making Felix pay 2000 GP for a single room. But it was worth it since there was a lot to do in the Ivy League than the eyes could meet.
Peep!
After a long walk, Felix had finally reached his apartment door and scanned his bracelet to open it up. However, before the scan was completed, the door was opened on its own from the inside.
"Oh? Welcome back Mr. Landlord."
Felix was greeted by a clean-cut man with black boxing-like gloves on his hands and a black bandana on his forehead. He appeared like a boxer who was heading to the gym.
"Thank you, Sir Fury." Felix nodded his head politely and entered the apartment.
However, before he went far, he heard Sir. Fury congratulate him loudly, "Good work on the game! I have watched some highlights and you have truly shone in it."
Felix waved his hand without turning his head and continued on his way.
'Tsk, it's going to be hard to befriend this blockhead.' Sir Fury didn't show any unusual reaction but his thoughts were quite different.
Seeing Felix was out of sight, he shrugged his shoulders and closed the door after he left.
'He seemed extra friendly, don't you think?' Asna said while narrowing her eyes.
'No?' Felix denied while walking towards his room, 'If he truly watched my highlights that's just a polite reaction to do. I would have said the same as well.'
'First, I doubt you will do the same you lying asshole. Second, I don't know.' Asna placed her hand under her chin and said, 'Something feels off about him, I can feel it.'
'Huh? Did you turn into an expert in human behaviorism after watching dramas or what?' Felix laughed, 'Don't kid yourself.'
'F*ck off.' Asna insulted lazily.
Just as Felix wanted to respond, he was met with the sight of a girl, showing a bit of her skin as she laid on a couch while watching a hologram.
She was quite attractive, especially when she was exposing some of her assets.
The moment Felix saw the way she was dressing, he knitted his eyebrows slightly, 'Okay, that's a bit weird.'
Alas, the weirder part had yet to come as the girl exclaimed in delight the moment she saw Felix, "Loordy! Welcome back!"
"Thank you?"
Felix was quite confused by her friendliness which she had never exhibited before not to him or any roommate in this apartment.
He knew that she was just like him, quite distant and detached unlike the other two players with them. She always wore decent clothes when she was outside of her room.
So, he was pretty bewildered by the situation. However, after being reminded of what Asna said about Sir Fury, he started sensing that something didn't add up.
The girl patted the side of the couch and requested with puppy eyes, "Can you please tell me how it felt to slay the Kraken? I always wanted to do something like that but I never muster the required courage to pull it off."
"It felt like shit." Felix smiled faintly and said, "Hope that satisfied your question."
Then, he went to his room and opened it up with his bracelet without giving crap to the dumbfounded girl.
He didn't lie though as he still could taste the blood of the Kraken in his lips after literally penetrating his entire head.
Slam!
'Bastard!' The girl cursed the moment she broke out of her daze.
She glared at his room for a second and snapped her finger, changing her clothes back to normal.
'Did it work?' A message abruptly was sent in her mind.
'No.' The girl started biting her nails, 'Sir Fury, you are the smart one, try to figure something out to bridge the distance between us. Otherwise, the payers would take back their money if we didn't give them any useful information.'
'How about Salma?' Sir Fury inquired, 'Was she bought as well?'
'I think she didn't receive the message since she is still in a game.' The girl said after glancing at her bracelet.
Alright, no need to rush things out.' Sir. Fury said, 'We were given three months to make progress.'
'Okay!'
While they were conversing behind Felix's back, he was lying on a bathtub with his eyes focused on a hologram that was displaying the Bounty Hunter website.
After he entered his SG ID, Felix found that there were three pages just concerning him only!
'I will be damned.' Felix's eyelids twitched at the sight of the missions ranging from asking for his head to useful information about his private life.
Some offered only 50 million while some were offering up to 1 billion SC for his real-life location!
Although this website was for hunting heads in the games, it had already branched out to accepting other missions since it wasn't that easy to cheat the clients.
With the Queen's existence, the website didn't need to do anything but place the missions and receive a symbolic fee from those transactions.
Felix entered the website straightaway after realizing that his roommates were acting oddly as Asna said.
Naturally, he couldn't avoid a big fat 'I told you so' from the smug Asna.
Felix numbly accepted it and started wondering if his roommates' extra friendlessness was due to those missions or someone else had straightaway bought them since they were the closest ones to him.
Whatever it was, nothing much would change because Felix never had any intentions to befriend them.
All of their efforts were bound to be wasted and he was happy to see them jump around him like monkeys.
That's if they actually managed to see him as those private rooms were big enough to have their bedrooms, bathrooms, and even a dining table. He didn't need to leave his room at all unless he was heading outside.
'Hehe, as long as I don't use sand and utilize the new poison abilities set that I created for the PSG, I will be off the suspect list.' Felix chuckled as he closed down the website.
However, the moment he noticed his tail, he started feeling a bit nervous that Olivia and the rest of his cousins would notice the similarity!
After all, they had already suspected him once due to his poison abilities relation but still removed those thoughts after noticing the different abilities used.
But if they managed to watch the 4th game and saw that he had the same tail beside the different color, slight suspicion was bound to raise again in their minds.
At the end of the day, what were the odds of a coincidence happening twice in a row?
However, Felix believed that their suspicion would be overcome by everything else that he showed in the game which had zero relation to his real self.
But belief wasn't a certainty and there was always a slight chance that something might go bad and derail from his expectations.
Weren't most of Felix's plans and expectations known for derailing?