The Tycoon at the Auction House | Bidding War at the Auction House

"After she finishes her honeymoon, she'll be back," Chen said. "She'll definitely return before you start school."

"Mm." That worked out perfectly. Xie Mingzhe planned to resign after this month and have that girl fill his vacancy.

At that moment, Chi Qing, Pang Yu, and Jin Yue also came downstairs. After everyone finished breakfast together, they logged into the game at exactly eight and were immediately dragged by Chen into a dungeon.

***

Over the next few days, Xie Mingzhe spent his days running dungeons and farming materials with the studio members. Whenever he had free time, he thought about how to make cards.

Instant-death judgment was only one type of skill in the skill database. Perhaps he could try making other cards as well.

He gradually began devising plans for other character cards in his mind, such as Three Kingdoms figures like Sun Quan, Liu Bei, and Cao Cao, or Journey to the West characters like Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Tang Sanzang. He put these plans on his agenda first—having a plan would give him more motivation!

Xie Mingzhe thought optimistically.

There were countless character cards he could make anyway, so there was no need to rush. For now, he would wait for the Auction House results and see whether his idea was correct.

If the Daiyu Card sold for a high price and made him, its original designer, famous at the auction, then once everyone knew Yueban as an original character card designer, he could open a Yueban Card Specialty Store. Would he still have to worry about lacking customers?

The economic foundation determined the superstructure. Whether he became a freelance designer in the future or competed professionally, without money, it would all be nothing but a fool's dream. For now, he needed to build up capital step by step. Opening a store and becoming his own boss was just around the corner.

Three days passed quickly.

For Xie Mingzhe, they were three peaceful days. He ran dungeons every day, made Daiyu Cards, and Chen even treated everyone to good food. Life was quite comfortable.

But for people like Red Candle and Huanyue, they were three agonizing days!

The system search showed that Yueban's card-making output was increasing every day, yet none of the cards he made could be found on the Black Market again. Red Candle worried that he would make a batch of Daiyu Cards and sell them to major clubs, while Huanyue worried that after realizing his talent for card-making, he would refuse to join the Judgment Guild.

The emails they sent vanished without a trace, receiving no response at all.

Xie Mingzhe had not yet developed the habit of checking his mail. The game simply had too many players, and in order to prevent them from being harassed by all kinds of advertisements, the officials had set it so strangers could not directly send voice or text private messages. They had to use email first, and only after adding each other as friends could they chat privately.

Every day after logging in, he went straight into dungeons with Chen and had no time to check his mail. After a full day of dungeons, he was mentally exhausted. Once he returned to his personal apartment, he buried himself in the study to draw cards as quickly as possible, leaving him even less time to deal with emails. He rarely went to the living room. Moreover, because he had found it too noisy before, he had turned off the living room's notification voice directly, so he never noticed the new-mail icon flashing either.

And so, Wednesday night arrived.

After dinner, Xie Mingzhe logged in early without stopping to rest. The evening dungeon began at nine, so he had an hour of free time. He went straight to the Auction House, wanting to see with his own eyes whether anyone would buy his Daiyu Card.

In a corner of the auction venue sat a young man with an ID made up of gibberish characters and the system's default Face No. 1.

Naturally, Xie Mingzhe did not notice him.

During the evening's prime-time hours, the five-story auction hall was packed to capacity.

Xie Mingzhe sat among the crowd, his eyes fixed on the LCD screen before him.

At exactly eight, the venue doors closed. The lights throughout the hall went out, and the NPC auctioneer stepped onto the center of the stage. Smiling, he said, "Good evening, distinguished guests. Tonight's auction is about to begin. First, let us announce the auction list..."

The screen listed nothing but cards: one max-level Level 70 seven-star card, two Level 50 five-star cards, and three Level 40 four-star cards.

There was also one initial "Level 1 one-star card."

Seeing this list, the surrounding audience became somewhat restless. Whispers arose around them. "Why is there a Level 1 card?" "How lazy is this person? Couldn't they level up the card before selling it?" "Why bring a trash Level 1 card to the Auction House instead of selling it on the Black Market?" "Maybe it's an exceptional initial card with especially good stats, so they brought it directly to auction?" "But the chances of getting an exceptional card are pretty low, aren't they?"

The host interrupted their discussion. "Next, we will auction this Level 1 one-star card first! The creator of this card is a newcomer, and this is the first time he has auctioned his work at the Auction House. His logo is also quite unique. Please take a look at the back of the card."

The back of a one-star card had no decorative patterns at all and looked extremely plain.

As a result, the logo in the lower-right corner stood out with exceptional clarity.

Yue, Ban.

The audience was utterly confused. What kind of strange name was that? Put together, did it not simply mean "fat"?

Tang Muzhou, seated in the corner, curled his lips slightly. After waiting for you for several days, you've finally appeared, Fat Uncle!

The moment they saw this logo, the card expert sent by the Judgment Guild to the Auction House immediately privately messaged Huanyue. "Guild Master, Yueban's card has appeared at the auction!!"

Huanyue replied decisively, "No matter the cost, get that card!"

The Fenghua Guild received the news as well. "Sister Red Candle, Yueban's card has appeared at the auction. What should we do?"

Red Candle hurriedly replied, "Tang God's alt is there. Just watch and don't make trouble!"

She felt extremely uneasy. Could that fat guy have taken the Daiyu Card to auction? Could Sister Xue's crow mouth really have come true?

Cards that appeared at auctions generally had decent stats. The Auction House charged a daily management fee of 500 gold coins, and the queue took at least three days. If a card failed to sell for a good price, not only would the seller make no money, they would actually lose money. Any player who brought trash cards to an auction was definitely a clueless newbie.

Therefore, when they saw the highly unfamiliar newcomer logo Yueban, most of the audience did not think much of it. They had little interest in this card and merely wanted the host to finish the process quickly so they could auction the more valuable seven-star card afterward.

The host continued with a smile, "Next, please take a look at the card's front-side data!"

The card on everyone's screen flipped over at the same time—