The auction venue had five floors. With sharp eyes and agile hands, Senior Brother Qi snagged three tickets and sat down with Sisi and Xie Mingzhe.
Xie Mingzhe observed the surroundings curiously—the holographic scene looked extraordinarily realistic, and the appearance of the people sitting around was also clear. But no one knew if the virtual figures in the game were their real images in the real world.
Due to the increasing number of players, the tickets had sold out, and the auction venue had been automatically upgraded by the game system, adding two more floors. Clearly, today's auction was very popular.
In an instant, the seven floors were filled with players, with not a single seat remaining.
The auction venue was a sea of people, busier than a cinema on New Year's Day on Earth.
When the clock's hands pointed to 3:30 P.M., the time was up, and all entrances to the auction venue were closed.
The lights in the hall suddenly went out. A warm light lit up the middle of the stage. Behind the audience seats, 40 cm-wide virtual LCD screens appeared, displaying the scene on stage, enlarged. Even if one were sitting in a corner, they could see it clearly.
A hot belle, with curled hair and high heels, walked to the middle of the venue. She smiled and said, "Good afternoon, distinguished guests. The auction is about to begin! The list of products for the auction has been displayed on the electronic screen in front of you. If you find the product you like, pay attention in advance!"
As soon as she finished speaking, a list of auction items appeared on the electronic screen.
The items up for auction today were four cards and ten shops.
The concrete value of these cards was not listed on the screen; only their patterns, colors, and star ratings were disclosed. There were two four-star cards, a five-star card, and a seven-star black card that seemed particularly precious.
With strong curiosity, Xie Mingzhe couldn't wait for the next show to begin.
"The first items for auction are shops. Please look at the platform of these shops on the screen," the auctioneer continued with a smile. "The ten shops are all located on the south side of the newly opened commercial street, next to the black market. Each shop covers an area of 50 square meters, with convenient transportation and a stable customer base. The starting price will be 10,000 gold coins a month."
"Let's start with the first store."
There were no distinct zones in the game, meaning all players stayed in one large area. Xie Mingzhe speculated it might be the game's cloud storage technology that helped it run smoothly even with thousands of players in the auction house. He could see everyone's faces clearly. The server was exceptionally powerful—if such servers existed in the 21st century, the game could run smoothly even with wars between different associations.
Since all players were in the same zone and the number of shops was limited, new players would have no stores to rent. To address this, the game operators opened new commercial streets and rented stores out to players every month.
Players who had sustained losses in business and didn't want to continue could auction their stores to others. The game operators regulated the store rental market to maintain a healthy and steady business environment, ensuring that there would be no depression where lots of stores went out of business.
Xie Mingzhe turned to ask Senior Brother Qi, "Shops near the black market have a booming business, right? How much is the rent?"
Senior Brother Qi replied, "For a 50-square-meter shop like this, the rent will be at most 20,000 gold coins a month, or you'll run a business at a loss. Only a few players manage to run a successful business. To avoid losses, many players set up stalls in the black market."
Understanding this, Xie Mingzhe nodded. The difference between running a store and setting up a stall in the black market was similar to the difference between running a 24-hour self-service convenience store and selling items at a night market—each had its advantages.
Generally speaking, players who could run a successful business would open stores in the game. Xie Mingzhe wanted to open a store himself, since he was prudent and had made money from running stores in online games before. However, he was a newbie with only two low-level cards in the game of Star Card Storm. He still had a long way to go before he could open a store.
Maybe over time, after getting to know the game better and conducting some market research, he could try it?
Xie Mingzhe thought to himself.
Senior Brother Qi, with five years of experience in the game, knew the auction market well. As he had said, the 10 official shops were all rented at a monthly price of less than 20,000 gold coins. No one was willing to offer a higher price than that.
The beauty auctioneer continued, "Shops have all been auctioned. Next, we have rare cards. The first one is a battle card—four-star [Flower Monster]. The attributes of this card are great. Although it is a four-star card, its base attack reaches 3,600 points. The starting price is 1,000 gold coins!"
Xie Mingzhe had just seen [Flower Monster] when he was in the instance with Brother Chen today. This card at the auction had much better attributes than the one Brother Chen had. Xie Mingzhe clearly remembered that Brother Chen's four-star [Flower Monster] had a base attack of only 3,000 points, while this one had 3,600 points. Base attributes would continue to double as cards evolved, and cards with high base attributes were more valuable. No wonder it could be put up for auction.
This card eventually sold for 3,000 gold coins.
The auctioneer continued, "Next is another card—a five-star pet card, [Nine-tailed Fox]!"
As soon as she finished her words, the card appeared before everyone's eyes, along with the corresponding star card hologram—a lifelike white nine-tailed fox. The furry fox had clear green eyes, its white tails held high in the air. It looked so cute.
Xie Mingzhe saw such a beautiful fox for the first time. He wanted to buy one and take it home. But he didn't know the card's price.
The auctioneer said, "This card is allowed to be brought out of the game and generate a star card hologram in the real world. The starting price is 5,000 gold coins!"
"…" Newcomers with only 100 gold coins in their bags could only watch. But Xie Mingzhe was very curious about prices in the game. He couldn't help but lean over to ask Senior Brother Qi, "What is the ratio of game gold to real-world currency?"
"About 10:1 recently," Senior Brother Qi replied.
"Ah." Xie Mingzhe calculated—5,000 game coins were equivalent to 500 crystal coins in the real world. And that was just the starting price. Some people offered higher prices soon, and the price on the screen quickly increased. Finally, it stopped at 8,000 gold coins.
"8,000 gold coins once! 8,000 gold coins twice! Is there anyone offering a higher price? 8,000 gold coins three times! Deal!"
The auctioneer dropped the gravel—someone had bought it.