Seeing this, people started murmuring among themselves.
"It looks like Daniel is picking a fight with Joseph Thompson."
"He's only raising the price by a thousand each time, it's clearly intentional."
"I bet Daniel will give up bidding after a couple more rounds."
"Originally 30,000 StellaCoins would have been enough, now it's doubled, it might even double again."
"Paying that price for a bunch of burnt goods, tsk tsk."
The man saying this smacked his lips, making a face that said more than words ever could.
Hearing these comments, Joseph Thompson's face darkened even more.
Just because of Daniel's deliberate antagonism, he was now the fool in everyone's eyes.
Damn it!
Want to play dirty with me?
Let's see who outplays whom!
Joseph Thompson, face as dark as thunder, waved his hand and shouted, "60,000!"
Daniel immediately followed: "61,000."
Joseph Thompson: "100,000!"
Daniel: "101,000."
Just as everyone thought Joseph Thompson would fly into a rage and continue raising the bid,
Joseph Thompson instead showed a strange smile, grinning, "Betting 100,000 on a pile of ashes, you idiot!"
Then, looking at Robert, he said, "Daniel, this moron, bid too high, I withdraw my bid."
Damn it, this guy actually backed out!
Everyone was taken aback.
Subsequently, all eyes fell on Daniel.
In their view, Daniel was intentionally making things difficult for Joseph Thompson, planning to give up after inflating Joseph Thompson's bid.
But who would have thought that the first to give up would be Joseph Thompson.
According to the port authority rules, anyone who wins a bid and then regrets it must pay 10% of the final transaction price as a penalty.
Otherwise, they will be expelled from the port and forever banned from participating in the auction.
10,000 StellaCoins to Daniel, although insignificant,
Who would willingly toss 10,000 out into the water for no reason?
Daniel probably feels worse than if he'd eaten shit right now.
Everyone was watching Daniel quietly, curious to see how he would react.
Robert didn't care.
Regardless of whether Daniel wanted the container, Robert stood to make a profit.
So, he looked at Daniel and asked, "Mr. Daniel, the final price for this container is 101,000 StellaCoins. Are you taking it?"
At this point, Daniel looked genuinely taken aback, as if he had been tricked by Joseph Thompson.
"Joseph Thompson, you actually gave up, what a coward!" Daniel's face turned red with anger.
Joseph Thompson looked smug, taunting, "Playing mind games with me, you incredibly foolish guy!"
As his words echoed, Daniel was fuming, ready to punch Joseph Thompson.
Durant quickly intervened, calming him, "Don't act rashly, you can afford this loss. There's no need to continue this mistake."
Thankfully, Durant was astute enough to stop him.
Daniel sighed with relief, glared fiercely at Joseph Thompson, and reluctantly said, "We can only proceed this way now. Let's open the box and see!"
The spectacle was enough; it was time to retrieve the prize.
What kind of treasure could produce such an unusual appraisal result from the system?
Daniel was excited.
The laborers huddled at the container door, wrinkling their noses and looking disdainfully inside.
Nobody wanted to go in first.
It was only when Daniel offered to double their pay that they begrudgingly got to work.
The burnt items were much lighter.
In less than ten minutes, four men had cleaned everything out and arranged it neatly on the ground.
Even the ashes were swept out, bagged, and set aside.
After all, they were precious items bought for 100,000, and they had to be accounted for completely.
Everyone looked at the arranged goods, and except for Durant, everyone else had mockery in their eyes.
There wasn't a single intact item.
Not even a single object that could be identified.
It seemed these 100,000 StellaCoins were destined to be wasted.
Joseph Thompson in the crowd finally heaved a sigh of relief.
Regardless of whether the collectibles were there, they were now reduced to ashes, and he didn't feel the loss.
He looked at Daniel with a gloating expression, raising his eyebrows, "Mr. Daniel sure has an eye for treasure. Spending 100,000 for so many treasures. I wonder what Mr. Roberts plans to do with them. Do you want me to call the garbage buyback station staff for you? For my sake, they'll give you a 60% discount!"
Chuckles and laughter erupted from the crowd.
They didn't like seeing others profit more than they disliked losing money themselves.
Conversely, they enjoyed seeing others lose more than they enjoyed gaining.
Such was the nature of gamblers.
The ones who felt sorry for Daniel, apart from Durant, were the netizens in the live stream room.
"Darn, that's a huge loss!"
"100,000 StellaCoins, that could buy a house!"
"Streamer, don't be sad. We'll be less impulsive in the future."
"Just take it as buying an experience, you'll earn it all back."
Seeing the reactions from his online followers, Daniel felt somewhat touched.
They had met by chance online, and the fact that they didn't kick him when he was down was already a great thing.
Daniel gave a mysterious smile and said softly, "Who said I'm losing money?"
Paying 100,000 StellaCoins for this pile of junk didn't seem like a loss?
"Streamer, are you okay?" one follower asked.
"You're a man who has made over 50 million before. If you get sick over this 100,000 loss, it would be a waste."
Daniel didn't respond.
Under the puzzled gazes of many followers, he walked to the end of the lined-up items and stopped.
In front of him were about a dozen palm-sized stones.
The material of the stones wasn't anything special, just ordinary rocks.
But each one had been manually polished into an irregular round shape, and they all had different symbols etched onto them, which Daniel couldn't understand.
He was a bit confused, "What are these?"
His mind stirred slightly, and the next second, a system appraisal screen appeared in his mind.
[Item]: Rune Stone
[Age]: 3 billion years ago
[Condition]: Slightly worn
[Details]: Born from ordinary rocks from the Karman Mountains of the Western Continent, the top is a ceremonial rune stone carved by a branch of the Maya tribe around 1400 BC. With proper use, it can generate revolutionary energy.
[Appraisal]: Possesses indescribable research value!
[Market Price]: 0
[Buyback Price]: 10 million StellaCoins.
Daniel had the system appraise all the stones one by one.
All twelve stones were ceremonial rune stones used by the Mayans.
The buyback price for each stone was 10 million StellaCoins, and the total for the twelve was still 10 million.
Daniel thought it over, figuring that the energy researched from each stone must be the same.
And the market price being zero made sense too.
People nowadays lacked the ability to research these stones, and would just treat them as ordinary rocks. Hence, the market value was zero!
Durant walked over, squat down, and picked up a stone for a close examination.
He wanted to help Daniel recoup some of the loss.
But soon, he put the stone down, shook his head at Daniel, and said, "Mr. Daniel, give it up. These things have no value. At most, collectors who like odd and bizarre stones might be willing to pay a few hundred dollars to take them."
A few hundred dollars?
Daniel chuckled.
He wasn't mocking Durant's ability, but he couldn't help laughing at his plentiful gains.
If he wanted, he could throw these stones to the system for buyback and get ten million in cash instantly.
Of course, he wouldn't do that.
The mystery of these stones complemented well with the book "Qi Origin" that he had bargained for at the antique city earlier.
Even though he didn't know their exact uses yet, Daniel believed their value would exceed his imagination.
After all, if even the system could exist, it wouldn't be strange for other supernatural forces to exist in this world.
"So, streamer, what's the use of these stones?"
"Since Durant said they aren't valuable, they must not have any other uses."
"Let's stop pressing him for answers, give the streamer some face," someone commented online.
Daniel did not answer his viewers' questions.
Similarly, he paid no heed to the many treasure hunters taking pleasure in his misfortune.
Soon, the auction for the last container began.
After the situation with the previous container, the enthusiasm for this last one had noticeably cooled down.
Those so-called collector's items of the wealthy could very well have been burnt to ashes along with the other items in the previous container.
Everyone seemed less lively.
Robert looked a bit sullen, but he could only helplessly proceed with the auction.