The auction venue had five floors. With sharp eyes and agile hands, senior brother Qi snagged three tickets and sat down in their positions, together 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 were also clear. But n.o.body knew whether the virtual figures in the game were their real images in the real world.
Due to the increasing number of players, the tickets had been sold out, so the auction venue had been automatically upgraded by the game system, adding another two floors. Obviously, today, the auction was very popular.
In an instant, the seven floors were also filled with players, leaving no one seat.
A sea of people in the auction venue, there was busier than the cinema on New Year's day on earth.
When the clock's hands pointed at 3:30 P.M., time up, all entrances to the auction venue were closed.
The lights in the hall suddenly went out. One warm light was lit in the middle of the stage. On the back of the audience seats, 40cm wide virtual LCD screens appeared at the same time. The scene in the middle stage was enlarged and displayed on LCD screens. Even if one was sitting in a corner, he could see it clearly.
A hot belle, with curled hair and wearing 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 her words finished, a list of auction items appeared in the electronic screen.
The items for auction today were four cards and ten shops.
The concrete value of these cards was not referred on the list, just disclosing their patterns, colors and star rates on the back of these cards. There were two four-star cards, a five-star card, and a seven-star black card that seemed precious.
With a strong curiosity, Xie Mingzhe could not wait for the next good show.
"The first items for auction are shops. Please have a look at the planform of these shops on the screen." The auctioneer briefed us on these stores with a smile, "Ten stores are all located on the south of the newly opened commercial street, next to the black market. Each store covers an area of 50 square meters with convenient transportation and stable customer base. The starting price will be 10 thousand gold a month.
"Let's start with the first store."
There were no different zones in the game, which meant all the players stayed in one single large zone. Xie Mingzhe speculated it might be the cloud storage technology's strong ability to calculate that help the game ran smoothly even when thousands of players thronged the auction house. He could see everyone's face clearly. The server was exceptionally powerful. If there were such servers in the 21st century, the game would run smoothly even when there was a war between different a.s.sociations.
Because all the players were in the same zone and the number of shops was limited, new players would have no stores to rent, the game operators opened new commercial streets and rent stores out to players every month.
Players who sustained losses in business and didn't want to run their business any longer could auction their stores to others. The game operators regulated the rental of the store in accordance with the market demand, which could maintain a healthy and steady business environment in the game without experiencing a depression in which lots of stores were shut down.
Xie Mingzhe went over and asked senior brother Qi, "Stores next to the black market have a booming business, right? How much is the rent?"
Senior brother Qi replied, "You will have to pay at most 20 thousand gold monthly for a store like this that covers an area of 50 square meters, or you will run a business at a loss. The number of players who can a successful business in the game is small. In order to avoid running a business at a loss, many players set up stalls in the black market."
Understanding it, Xie Mingzhe nodded. The difference of running a store and setting up a stall in the black market was similar to that of running a 24-hour self-service convenience store and selling things in the night fair, each had its advantages.
Generally speaking, players who could run a successful business opened stores in the game. Xie Mingzhe wanted to open a store, since he was prudent and had made some money by opening stores in the online games before. However, he was a newbie with only two low-level cards in hands in the game of Star Card Storm. He still had a long way to go before opening a store in the game.
Maybe over a period of time, when he knew this game better and made a market research, he could try it?
Xie Mingzhe thought to himself.
The senior brother Qi, who had five-year experience in this game, knew the auction market very well. As he said, the 10 official shops were all sold at a monthly rental of less than 20,000. No one was willing to offer a higher price than 20,000.
The beauty auctioneer went on to say, "Shops have all been auctioned. Next comes to rare cards. The first to be auctioned 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 3600 points. The starting price is 1000 gold coins!”
Xie Mingzhe just saw [Flower Monster] when he was in the instance with Brother Chen today. This card at auction had much better attributes than the one Brother Chen got. Xie Mingzhe clearly remembered that Brother Chen's four-star [Flower Monster] had a base attack of only 3000 points, while this one had 3600 points. Base Attributes would continue to double as cards evolved. Cards with high Base Attributes were more valuable, no wonder it could be put up for auction.
This card eventually reached 3,000 gold coins.
The auctioneer said, “Next is still a card – five-star pet card [Nine-tailed Fox]!”
As soon as she finished her words, the card appeared before everyone's eyes, so did the corresponding star card hologram – a lifelike white nine-tailed fox. The furry fox had clear green eyes with its white tails 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 back home. But he didn't know this card's price.
The auctioneer said, “This card is allowed to be brought out the game and generate a star card hologram in the real world. The starting price is 5000 gold coins!”
“…” Newcomers with only 100 gold coins in the bag could only be a looker-on. 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 gold price in the game to currency in the real world?”
“About 10:1 recently,” senior brother Qi said.
“Ahh.” Xie Mingzhe calculated – 5000 game coins were equal to 500 crystal coins in the real world. And this was just the starting price. Some offered higher prices soon, and the price shown on the screen quickly increase. Finally it stopped at 8000 gold coins.
“8000 gold coins once! 8000 gold coins twice! Is there anyone offering a higher price? 8000 gold coins three times! Deal!”
The auctioneer dropped the gravel – a buyer got it.
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