Andrew looked at his bewildered and puzzled family members and said, "You wouldn't think that the current bidding is simply to win the favor of that person called Ming, would you?"
"Isn't it?" Everyone was even more confused after hearing this. Isn't the current situation about spending money to buy that kid's stuff?
Andrew laughed and didn't answer. His eyes fell on his most beloved granddaughter, Marie.
The latter smiled proudly, "In the beginning, we were indeed trying to win Ming's favor, but now, everyone will see that this auction is a great opportunity to showcase our family. To make our Andrew family a dominant force in this era, we naturally need to attract more people. Now, it's a publicity stunt."
"Exactly," Andrew nodded in satisfaction, "We want to win over Ming and let more people know about us... Then it will be our turn to choose."
"Sir, you really think far ahead."
"Yes, in this way, won't everyone around us want to curry favor with us and become our minions?"
"Exactly."
————
**9527: "omg...! The Andrew family directly added 200, now it has reached 1,600 apocalypse gold coins, being rich is really capricious!"
**34: "Special Zone Two has overtaken again, wow, I'm so excited watching this!"
**12: "Ah~ I always thought money wasn't important, and after the apocalypse, I thought it was even less important. But I was wrong, money is really important!"
**Duck: "I'm thinking, if I were Ming, I would be overjoyed by now."
**1: "Oh my god, added the price again, it's already 2,000, how can they all be so rich? I really want to join them."
**84: "I also want to join, can someone take me there? I really want to go, who wants me? I can do anything."
**22: "The Andrew family raised the price to 2,100. Although I'm not the one auctioning, I feel great."
**496: "Special Zone Two raised the price to 2,200, keep going!"
***9527: "Damn! The Strongest Honor Guild directly raised the price to 2,300 coins, amazing!!"
"..."
Ming stared at the screen, feeling a bit abnormal. He thought this staff weapon would top out at 1,500 apocalypse gold coins at most, but now it has directly broken 2,000, which is completely unexpected.
But thinking about it, all this money will eventually be his, which is very cool. Besides, Special Zone Two had previously been recruiting him publicly, so their bidding on his item is likely a gesture of recruitment determination.
The Andrew family is said to be a very large family, which was already huge before the apocalypse. With their large number of people, it's understandable that they want to bid and use it for themselves.
But why would the Strongest Honor Guild also get involved? Could it be that his staff really has such a big attraction?
That seems unlikely.
Ming touched the tip of his nose and thought. A second later, he understood. The Strongest Honor Guild might just be here for publicity.
———
J City, Strongest Honor Headquarters.
"Boss, we don't have much to our name. Are you really going to buy that staff? It doesn't seem to hold that much value."
A skinny young man with tattooed arms asked the young man sitting next to him, who was watching the screen and drinking. The latter was the president of the Strongest Honor, Taron.
He took another swig from the bottle before saying, "You don't understand. I didn't plan on bidding in the first place. I just wanted to join in the fun and promote our group, and incidentally increase the price to drain those big powers. In this era, if others are stronger than us, we will be in danger. Do you understand now?"
"I get it. But boss, what if those guys see us raising the price so much and decide not to bid? After all, 2,300 apocalypse coins is an astronomical number. We only have 2,500 coins in total."
The young man stared at the screen, his heart in a panic.
"They definitely won't." Taron was very certain. "Special Zone Two wants to win over Ming, they won't give up the bid. We naturally have to fulfill them. We are professionals at causing chaos, and I'm sure Ming will be grateful."
"Boss, Special Zone Two really raised the price again, it's 2,400 apocalypse coins now. Boss, everything you said was right, they really want to win the bid."
"Of course, I'm always right!"
Taron said this, then laughed evilly, "Since we're causing chaos, let's go all the way. Raise the price! I'm going to bankrupt them! Hahaha!!"
———
A certain mansion.
"2,500 coins!" Marie frowned, angry, "Is this Strongest Honor deliberately opposing us?"
"Hmph! Raise the price, let's see how much money a small guild has!"
"Right, we can't lose this momentum!"
"Our Andrew family has never lost in an auction!"
The Andrew family members were all angry. A small guild dared to challenge us?
Looking for death!
"No! We're not bidding anymore." Andrew laughed.
"Not... not bidding anymore?"
"So we're just giving up?"
"Doesn't that mean we lost the grandeur?"
Everyone was confused and looked at the head of the family.
"Hehe~" Andrew was still smiling, "Our goal to let everyone know our existence has been achieved. There's no need to continue. He wants to buy it? Good, let him challenge Special Zone Two. Isn't it better for us to watch them drain each other?"
"Sir, you're really smart!" Everyone suddenly understood and turned their attention to the auction, waiting to watch the excitement.
———
"That little brat from the Strongest Honor has made a bid of 2,500 coins~ General, it's one thing for the Andrew family to compete with us, but this little brat from a small guild is also competing with us. He's deliberately causing trouble."
Robert slammed the table, feeling quite annoyed. It was supposed to be a win-win situation, promoting Special Zone Two while getting a perfect weapon for his proud 'disciple'. He didn't expect a small guild to emerge halfway.
"He's here to cause trouble." Simon tapped his pipe and laughed:
"After this round of bidding, most people know about us, there's no need to continue. Let him and the Andrew family exhaust each other. Anyway, Ming should be thankful to us, after all, we helped raise the price for him~"
"Good! Let that little brat play by himself. There will naturally be weapons for Ina in the future. This time it's going to be enough to shake them up."
"Hahaha!"
"Hahaha!"
The two laughed loudly together.
———
**9527: "2,500 coins!! Awesome, really awesome! Strongest Honor is really going all out."
**34: "Look at them, casually pay thousands of coins, I can only watch with my few dozen coins and dare not speak."
**12: "You have dozens of coins? I only have 10 so far, what am I supposed to do? Just give up living?"
**Duck: "Why aren't Special Zone Two and the Andrew family raising the price??"
**1: "Hmm? True, they haven't raised the price. Are they planning to wait until the last second of the auction to make a surprise bid?"
**4: "That's very possible. There are three minutes left until this item's auction ends. They're definitely waiting to ambush."
"..."
Ming had a smile on his face. 2,500 apocalypse coins, after he bought the purple quiver at a 20% discount later, he would still have almost 1,000 left. Today, with a green equipment, he not only exchanged for a purple one but also earned 1,000 apocalypse coins.
It was so cool.
Honestly, he was very grateful for the support of these big shots. They were all good people, regardless of their intentions. As long as the outcome was good for him, that was enough.
Now, he was just waiting for the money to come in with a 'ding'.
———
J City.
Strongest Honor Headquarters.
Everyone was staring at the screen in silence. 2,500 apocalypse coins, that was the money they had painstakingly saved up as a guild of dozens of people, even at the cost of several of their comrades.
If the Andrew family and Special Zone Two really gave up, they would be sent straight back to the stone age.
Taron, the guild leader, was filled with rage at this point. He hadn't expected things to turn out this way, completely different from what he had envisioned and planned.
"Boss, perhaps they'll try to snipe the auction in the last second. We've seen this kind of trick a lot."
"Do I need you to tell me? They definitely will try to sneak in a bid!" Taron's anger was increasingly evident on his face. He felt miserable, but he had to keep a tough facade.
Auction countdown.
5
4
3
2
1
[Congratulations to Strongest Honor for winning the auction item (C*snow* Staff), please collect it as soon as possible]
"..."
Silence. The entire Strongest Honor headquarters fell into a deathly quiet.
Taron's face began to contort, alternating between red and white.
"Bastards! A bunch of bastards! I've been played by you all!!"
"Ah~ I'm in so much pain!"
"Ah!!"
"I can't stand this!!"