This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 340: The Auction with Undercurrents!

Chapter 340: Chapter 340: The Auction with Undercurrents!

"Fuck!"

In the real world, somewhere.

Watching the two lines of announcements pop up on the official website, the trader sitting in front of the computer couldn’t help but curse.

Seeing his colleagues all turn to look at him, he coughed to cover his embarrassment and spoke quickly.

"The market is temporarily suspended... we can’t trade anymore."

The words set off a storm.

"Can’t trade?!"

"What’s going on?!"

"Is there a problem with the funds?"

"How can there be a screw-up at a critical time like this!"

The office was filled with an uproar, and an older man sitting at another desk immediately stood up, asking anxiously,

"Why can’t we trade? What exactly is going on?"

The trader pushed back his chair, leaning his head against the cushion, massaging his temples with a headache.

"The official site says it’s server network fluctuations... in any case, you can currently place or withdraw orders, but trades can no longer be executed."

Everyone: "..."

Server network fluctuations, huh?

What a lame excuse!

If the servers across the entire Earth were fluctuating, the Wasteland OL website would hardly be affected.

The square-faced man coughed.

"...That does seem like something he would do."

’He’ referred, of course, to Ah Guang.

Over the past six months, they had almost collected and organized every single post Ah Guang had made on the forum, every word, even every punctuation mark.

All of this was to not miss any critical information.

Like this auction.

If they missed this clue and let their competitors buy the technology.

Then they would really suffer a huge loss!

Getting up from his office chair, the trader paused before continuing,

"However, although the bad news is that trading is suspended, the good news is... the auction has been brought forward to now."

There was quiet murmuring among the people in the office.

The old man asked with a frown,

"Is that really good news?"

"Of course it is," the trader said matter-of-factly, "We have the first-mover advantage. Although we’re unsure of the number of our opponents’ bids and how much they have bought, judging from the proportion of our transaction volume in the total volume, our advantage is considerable!"

Hearing this, everyone finally relaxed their brows.

The old man who had stood up earlier also breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down.

After the meeting yesterday, he immediately went to Academician Liu Yiping at the Huake Material Technology and Engineering Research Institute and thoroughly sought advice about lithium batteries and lithium dendrites.

To understand the ins and outs, he had made several pages of notes!

According to Academician Liu Yiping, although solving the lithium dendrites issue in the short term was unlikely, once it could be overcome, the impact on the domestic new energy industry, and even the country’s energy strategy, would be staggering.

Even the usually cautious Academician Liu used the exaggerated term "staggering."

The importance of this could be imagined!

No matter what, they had to win this auction!

The square-faced man gave a light cough.

"Let’s not count our chickens before they... what I mean is, let’s not speak too soon. What are the rules for the auction?"

The trader touched his nose, staring at the computer screen.

"...The rules are the same as for other auctions, the highest bidder wins, and each bid increase must be no less than 1%. However, as the transaction is completed on the other party’s platform, with silver coins as the designated trading currency, the bid cannot exceed the account limit."

How many silver coins each account held was anonymous, but it was transparent to the operators of Wasteland OL.

In other words, inflating the bid price was impossible; the account balance was the limit of the bid.

The square-faced man frowned.

"... In other words, we can’t initially report a high price and wait to gather enough before the delivery date."

The trader nodded.

"Yes, according to the rules, delivery will take place immediately after the auction is completed... this is actually good news for us. Our bid only needs to be one ’minimum bid increment’ higher than the second-highest bid to win the auction."

The old man promptly asked.

"When does the auction start?"

The trader looked at the screen.

"It has already begun!"

More than just begun.

The competition from all sides had even entered a fever pitch!

An anonymous account took the lead with a starting bid of 1 million silver coins, followed by a second account that didn’t hesitate to raise the price directly to 2 million silver coins. Then, the bidding war began in increments of 100,000.

According to public information, before the silver coin trading platform suspended trading, the highest transaction price for silver coins had already approached 600!

The average transaction price for the day was pulled directly from 50 to 80!

Based on the average price, those 2 million silver coins equaled 160 million!

It was madness!

However, everyone in the room was clear that compared to the value of the auction item itself, this bid of over 100 million was likely just a fraction.

A single painting could sell for several billion, let alone a key technology that could change an entire industry?

The reason there wasn’t an extra zero was simply that there was only so much currency available in the market.

Now, there were about 3,000 players in the game, and if you counted an average of ten thousand silver coins per person, it would only add up to 30 million.

Considering a few high-rollers with industries within the game, doubling the "total circulation of currency" to 60 million was already impressive.

Plus, there’s a large community of Backseat Drivers participating in the trading, diverting some of the silver coins, as well as the competitors on the trading platform making their moves.

Even though they went all out to buy, they managed to grab only about 10% of the chips in a single day.

Don’t be fooled by the 10% figure; it seems small.

As a non-issuer of the currency, holding 10% of the total circulation of the coin — nearly 6 million silver coins — was already a quite aggressive silver-buying strategy!

If the end result turned out to be an e-card with [Thank you for your patronage], everyone in the room would have to take responsibility.

In a sense, their fate was already tied to Wasteland OL.

Although most of them had never entered the game...

Staring at the laptop on his knees, the square-faced man clenched his fists, his palms seemingly sweating.

He was also a closed beta player.

Brother Guang never scammed his own people.

He believed Brother Guang wouldn’t scam him!

Time ticked by, and the auction price quickly rose to 3 million silver coins, with the pace of the bids slowing down.

The trader, who had been lying in wait, suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

"...4 million should be their limit," he said.

"The minimum increase must not be less than 1%. We just need to bump the price directly to 4 million. Considering the 40 thousand increments, we’re nearly guaranteed to win."

As he spoke, his index finger tapped on the keyboard, entering a string of numbers.

After carefully checking those zeros, he hit enter.

It was like hitting the pause button on time.

The moment the bid was sent, the auction window went still as if it had been paused, and not a single new bid popped up.

Then, the notification blinking every 3 minutes started.

[4 million once!]

[4 million twice!]

[...Sold!]

After a silence of a full 9 minutes, the office erupted with excited cheers.

"We did it!"

"Hahaha! We won!"

"Well done!"

The square-faced man finally relaxed his furrowed brows, releasing and then tightening his fist again.

Even the usually composed man couldn’t help but join his colleagues in a cheer of approval.

The old man, moved by excitement, walked over to the trader and leaned in close to the computer.

"Where’s the item? That membrane... how will they deliver it to me?"

It was obvious they had won the auction; there was hardly any suspense.

The vast majority of players traded in RMB; it would have been a real surprise if they had lost.

But the critical question now was, where was the item they had auctioned for?

The office quieted down.

The square-faced man suddenly stood up with a whoosh, tossing his laptop on the sofa, and hurried to the office door to pull it open.

The floor was empty, nothing there.

And thankfully so.

Having the helmet delivered right to his doorstep had been unnerving enough.

If it could be delivered here, that would be just too terrifying!

The reactions of others were different; they all gathered around the computer, staring at the screen with anxiety.

Soon, a notification popped up.

The trader said excitedly,

"...The other party has initiated a data transfer request!"

"Quick, hit that confirm button!" urged the old man, excitedly. "Don’t hit the wrong one!"

"I know!"

It was clearly impossible to hit the wrong button.

The hand holding the mouse was trembling but couldn’t possibly mistake the close button in the top right corner.

The transfer of 10 GB of data didn’t take long to complete, and to their surprise, it came down as a rar-formatted archive.

The storage form of the data wasn’t important, as the decompression was completed quickly.

Looking at the pile of documents lying in the folder, everyone gathered around the computer involuntarily held their breath.

"...Improved artificial SEI membrane!"

"Not just research papers... even the manufacturing processes are included!"

The old man standing in front of the computer said eagerly.

"Quick! Send the data to Huake Material Engineering Research Institute right away!"

The man in the green shirt nodded solemnly, replying crisply,

"Yes!"

An assistant also pulled out his phone, which had been turned off, from his pocket.

"I’ll go outside and call Academician Liu Yiping!"

The old man quickly responded,

"Let me talk to Academician Liu!"

"I just consulted with him yesterday about that lithium dendrite issue. I can explain it more clearly to him."

Because of that 10 GB of data, the office sprang into action both inside and out.

This technology critical to the national energy strategy naturally couldn’t be sent via cloud storage or email.

Soon after, a series of cars with white plates left the compound one after another, heading in different directions.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean,

in the office of a certain project team at the CIA,

Phillip watched helplessly as that auction item was snatched away by a mysterious buyer and swore, kicking the table.

"Fudge!"

It was the third time he’d done this today.

The leg of the table was almost broken from his kicking, yet it did nothing to ease the frustration in his heart.

million silver coins.

Where on Earth did such a huge bid come from!

"There’s just not enough time, and to make things worse, there was an unexpected trading suspension... A single day doesn’t leave any room for maneuvering," lamented the trader sitting in front of the computer, his expression one of agony.

He had been working overtime for nearly 24 hours, and now he was faced with such a crappy situation, which had left him thoroughly exhausted in both body and spirit.

His colleague sitting beside him shook his head.

"...We’ve almost bought up all the chips from the speculators. No matter how much we push up the price, it’s useless without transaction volume."

"The battle is over before we’ve even run out of ammo... Shit, I’ve never dealt with such a frustrating deal!" the trader said, scratching his head.

"The most fucked up thing is that it’s not just us placing orders in dollars! Someone’s competing with us in the same market for the chips!"

"Damn it, can’t these bastards wait a bit? We’d be selling to them after the auction ends anyway! Why are we competing with our own people?"

A chorus of complaints filled the office.

Twenty-four hours of work for such an outcome was more than anyone could accept.

The trader turned to Phillip, who was in charge of this case.

"What do we do now? The auction is over, and we’ve spent a fortune on a pile of useless paper... Should we sell it all off once trading resumes?"

Phillip’s face was grim as he crossed his arms and pondered for a long time before suddenly speaking up.

"No need to rush into selling... the auction might not be a one-time event."

Spending tens of millions of dollars on a pile of worthless paper could get anyone fired, even if they had a powerful backer.

Not winning this auction was at most a tactical defeat.

But if he chose to cut losses now and dump the silver coins, it would be the same as admitting a strategic failure.

Even if he reduced economic losses for his financiers and superiors, it wouldn’t save his career.

Now he had only one way forward, which was to prove that the string of numbers in the account was not worthless.

How to prove it?

Simple.

All it would take was for the buyer who won the auction item to post their "buyer show."

Whether voluntarily or otherwise, as long as his superiors and financiers saw that silver coins could indeed buy valuable items and that they simply did not win due to insufficient high-level support, he wouldn’t demote for a tactical loss. Instead, he could gain even greater support from headquarters!

The truly valuable items couldn’t be hidden.

By keeping an eye on related industry news, it was always possible to find clues.

With this thought, Phillip gradually calmed down and regained his confidence.

A single defeat meant nothing.

They still had 3 million silver coins in their account!

There might be a chance in the next auction.

"...But when is the next time? That website has no new announcements," the trader said softly.

Everyone in the office exchanged glances, murmuring amongst themselves.

"When the next time is, is not important!"

Phillip raised his voice, interrupting the whispering crowd.

"...What’s important is that we should establish a regular mechanism for purchasing silver coins."

"Not only must we not sell the chips in our hands, but we also need to continue buying at the right prices to ensure we have enough reserves of silver coins in our accounts."

"This way, when there’s another such opportunity, we won’t be caught off guard like today!"

As he spoke, he changed his tone.

"So, after all... the reason for this defeat isn’t that we didn’t try hard enough, but rather the support from headquarters wasn’t strong enough!

"If they had heeded our advice and started buying silver coins a month ago, none of this would have happened today!"

Looking around the office, his voice was resolute, even passionate.

"Gentlemen, this is a gift from an extraterrestrial civilization, and the frantic bidding is proof of that. The value behind it is far beyond what money can measure! And it’s not only us who’ve realized this!"

"I will immediately write a report, make proposals to our headquarters, and fight for the support of Congress to increase our budget!"

"No matter what, we absolutely cannot fall behind others in this competition!"

The office buzzed with noisy discussions, and the expressions on people’s faces varied.

Some nodded in agreement, while others thought he had gone mad.

Staking his career and even his entire professional future on something so uncertain.

Not to mention them, Phillip himself felt he must have gone mad!

Similar scenes were unfolding around the globe.

It wasn’t only intelligence agencies watching this auction, but also industry giants with vested interests.

This included darlings of the new energy industry as well as the behemoths who sold oil and natural gas.

Although the auctioned item’s final price was less than a piece of art in their homes, it could potentially move markets worth hundreds of billions or even trillions.

It could even completely transform an industry!

At the very least, they needed to figure out what exactly the auctioned item was?

Who bought it?

And how they intended to use it?

Intelligence agencies of different countries were working overtime like ants on a hot pan.

Everyone was racking their brains to investigate the identity of that mysterious buyer.

And that mysterious buyer wasn’t idle either, equally working overtime, attempting to restore that mysterious thin film in the laboratory...

...

Meanwhile, in the Waste World.

The Dawn City Square, decked out in lights, had completely embraced the night.

As the clock struck twelve, the stalls supplying beer and delicacies began to close up one after another.

Those who had their fill of drinks stumbled home arm in arm, while those who had passed out lay simply on the pavement, waiting for the guards to drag them to the police station to sober up.

Just by looking here, where was the slightest sign of a Wasteland!

This was simply paradise!

Not far from the square, in the banquet hall, the clinking of glasses and plates gradually came to an end.

Gazing at the banquet table that looked like a typhoon had swept over it, Chu Guang hummed a little tune he couldn’t remember where he heard, enjoying the afterglow of the party’s end.

And the last bit of good times.

Looking at his laid-back appearance now, no one could link him to the "puppet master" stirring storms in another world.

"Master, the auction has ended," Xiao Qi whispered in his ear.

Chu Guang replied in a casual tone.

"Ah, got it."

After waiting for a while without a follow-up, Xiao Qi curiously asked.

"Eh? Aren’t you curious about who got that item in the end?"

Chu Guang smiled.

"What’s there to be curious about? I know exactly how many silver coins they have in their pockets, better than they themselves do."

Kidding.

Ever since the Alpha 0.1 version, he had developed a good habit of "auditing" the players’ warehouses.

Now that it was the Beta version, the digital management of the New Alliance had deepened further; there was no reason to discard such an excellent tradition.

This wave not only directly retrieved 4 million silver coins but also indirectly locked up at least 30 million silver coins in liquidity.

By locking up a portion of the excess liquidity, more could be released to industries in need of funds.

Otherwise, inflation would occur.

If you really don’t understand, you could think of the silver coins in the Backseat Drivers’ pockets as fixed deposits without interest.

The New Alliance’s treasury gained 4 million silver coins, and the League Central Bank had an extra 30 million silver coins’ credit balance.

The former could be used to invest in public services, build new settlements, and offset the fiscal deficit caused by war, while the latter could offer loans to businesses in need of funds, helping the supply side to expand production.

Whether it’s businesses run by players or NPCs.

As for the ordinary players whose pockets were emptied, they didn’t lose out either.

They could spend RMB or US dollars in the Real World and also work harder on quests to earn silver coins.

Whether it’s the New Alliance, the players, or even the Backseat Drivers who didn’t participate in the game, all benefited.

Because no one really lost.

So, of course, this round was a win-win situation!

As for how many times they won specifically, Chu Guang was too lazy to count for now; he just wanted to enjoy the banquet.

It had been a long time since he had relaxed like this.

Ever since announcing the start of the Northern Expedition two months ago, he hadn’t had a moment’s rest.

Now, the tight string in his brain had finally relaxed a bit.

As for troublesome matters.

They could wait until tonight was over.

Watching the last player staggeringly leave the banquet, Chu Guang raised his glass to his retreating figure.

"Enjoy to your heart’s content!"

"Honor belongs to you!"

"This is the reward you deserve!"

Don’t blame me for pausing the silver coin trading platform.

It’s for your own protection.

After taking a shallow sip of the wine in his glass, Chu Guang put the glass aside.

If it weren’t for today’s special occasion, he wouldn’t drink at all.

The clumsy and alcohol-loving Boss Xia was already slumped over the table, grinning in a silly smile.

Little Fish was eating the cake on her plate with a blissful expression, nibbling away happily.

Sitting beside her, Pai wasn’t quite as ladylike.

Tasting such lavish delicacies for the first time, her mouth was covered in cream and chocolate crumbs, and before swallowing what was in her mouth, she excitedly exclaimed.

"Oh, oh, oh! What is this? Damn, this is so delicious!"

Little Fish slightly curled her lips in pride.

"Cream! And chocolate! Desserts are a specialty of the City of Dawn!"

"What about that one, that one?" Pai, holding a fork, looked eagerly at another dish on the table.

"That’s a charcoal-grilled deer leg... but it’s best not to eat grilled meat with cake, it’s too rich!"

Although Little Fish was seriously imparting her experience of tasting delicacies, Pai wasn’t listening and couldn’t wait to stuff a large piece of carved meat into her mouth.

Struggling to swallow the delicious food.

Rubbing her slightly bulging belly, perhaps finally unable to eat more, Pai finally put down the cutlery she held in her hand and leaned back in her chair.

"Wuwu, I don’t understand, why do you have so much delicious food!"

Little Fish asked curiously.

"Don’t you have any where you’re from?"

Earlier, when the two were chatting, she learned that Camp 101 was a place similar to Bet Street.

However, they didn’t have an exploitative old town mayor there; instead, they had many people even more knowledgeable than Grandpa Charlie. They invented many useful things and led a peaceful life.

To be honest, Little Fish was a tad envious.

Especially when she heard that from a very young age, there would be someone to teach them to write and do arithmetic, and when they got slightly older, they could learn even more impressive knowledge.

It was an experience she had never had.

If it weren’t for Brother Chu, she would probably still be worrying about how to carry the cumbersome iron pot to the stove and wouldn’t have learned so many interesting things.

"Ah," speaking of home, Pai sighed, "although synthetic food is edible... don’t expect too much from its taste."

"Is it a nutrition paste?" Little Fish asked curiously.

"It’s not as bad as nutrition paste... We do live a bit better than the average Survivor Settlement, but energy and resources are still not plentiful."

As they talked, Pai suddenly remembered the large gift the Manager had given them.

That truck seemed to be loaded with a lot of delicious food!

Thinking that the people in the camp could also share these tasty delights, Pai felt as sweet as if she had eaten honey, indescribably happy.

Her master was right.

Sharing with others makes even the simplest food taste delicious.

Not to mention such fine cuisine!

Stealing a glance at the Manager who was leaning back in his chair, pretending to sleep and nearly dozing off, Pai made up her mind.

As a representative of the visiting group, she was determined to sign a beautiful agreement to take back home!

So that everyone could enjoy such delicious feasts at every meal!