Second World

"25 gold coins!" Jack immediately shouted.

The two remote players turned to him under their hooded coats. Jack's gaze stayed on them as well. Both parties staring at each other in silence as the auctioneer made another count.

"30 gold coins," the other player, whose voice was male, announced.

"35," Jack countered.

"50 gold coins!" The remote player made a huge jump in the bid.

The NPCs were awed. They never expected these two groups of outworlders would be making such a high bid competing for a seemingly useless piece of paper. They started to reexamine the data of the item on their red gem consoles.

"60!" Jack was not dismayed.

"75!" The other player seemed firm in getting this item.

Jack pondered for a bit before going all the way, "100 gold coins!"

The NPCs around made a gasp. This was the highest bid amount since the start of the auction.

Jack and the other player stared at each other again after that last bid.

Please don't bid anymore, Jack prayed in his mind. Still, despite how sincere he was in his praying, he couldn't prevent the other guy's hand from lifting up.

"120 gold coins," that player uttered.

Damn it! Jack cursed in his mind. The announcer started counting, he was not as slow as before anymore. After all, the bid had reached an amount that far surpassed his expectation.

After giving a thought on the matter, he decided to go all out. "132 gold coins!" He shouted. He had even put his own private coins into the stash. After all, this item was not only crucial for his faction quest, it was also the target of the chain quest he got from the duke. On the other hand, he had always been curious about this Fragment of Map ever since he first got them from Gilbert.

That's all the coins he had. That should be enough, right? If those players still–

"150 gold coins!" Before Jack's thought was even finished, his hope had been squashed already as the other player upped his bid.

Motherf**ker! Jack cursed in his mind. He turned to Dylan. "How many gold coins do you have?" He asked without ceremony.

Without waiting for Dylan's answer, he also asked marquess Fernando, "what about you? How many gold coins you bring?"

The marquess looked at him with a sheepish smile. "I don't bring any gold coin," he said.

"Are you f**king kidding me? You come to an auction with an empty pocket?"

"I simply enjoy watching. I never buy things in an auction anyway," he answered.

Jack didn't even pay attention to the marquess' explanation, he had already turned his attention back to Dylan. "I will pay you back," he said with a serious tone.

Dylan's impression of Jack had increased ever since he found out about the number of gold coins he possessed. He was not impressed by those players who had high levels or being a member of a large guild. To him, the most important thing, whether in real life or this game world, was still wealth. Everything else was secondary. Hence, he couldn't help but respect Jack.

After thinking further, he thought that he should have realized from the first time they met. He knew it was not easy to gain access to noble quarter, and even harder to befriend a noble, but Jack had done both. Furthermore, he had even joined this country's kingdom faction. He had information from his Trade Association contact that one required an invitation to join. And at this stage, the rumor was the kingdom was still observing the outworlders before making any attempt in recruiting them. He had even hoped that he would get the chance at being invited by befriending a noble when he received the quest to attend this auction. But Jack was already ahead of him, every fact pointed out that this player that he had just met was not simple.

"Hey! Answer me, will you? Jack was panicking as he saw Dylan being unresponsive and the auctioneer was already starting his count.

"I want 10% interest," Dylan uttered.

"Deal! Give all your gold coins to me," Jack said without hesitating.

Bloody heck, maybe I should have asked for more, Dylan thought. He took out the gold coins in his possession and gave them all to Jack.

Jack dumped all the coins into his bag. His inventory system automatically calculated the gold coins that were entered. When he saw the total number, he went and yelled, "169 gold coins!!"

He heard a bang from his side. He turned and saw the player who was competing with him had smacked the table by his side.

Yes! Jack uttered in his mind. The gesture the other player showed highly likely meant that the amount he bid was already over their limit. That would be best, if this current amount was still not enough, he would not know where to get more coins.

The auctioneer started his counts, "going once… going twice… going thrice… sold!"

Jack was staring at the other players and praying all the time the auctioneer was counting. This time fortunately his prayer didn't disappoint. He could finally relax as he slumped back into his seat.

The two players that failed to win the bid stood up. They both stared at Jack under their hoods. Jack couldn't see their expressions due to their hoods but he could imagine that they might be pretty pissed. The two then turned around abruptly and disappeared.

They left? Jack was bewildered. Come to think of it, they never made any bid apart from this Fragment of Map, and they did not hesitate to throw such a large sum. Wait, did that mean they knew this item's worth. From the look of it, they had attended this auction specifically to get this Fragment of Map. To know about this item's value and to know that it will appear in this auction, those players' intelligence network was implausible. How did they know? Even he who had a fairy guide was not privy to such information. Additionally, the duo had managed to collect 150 gold coins. Were they from a large guild?

Jack didn't think too much about it. Both he and the other players were wearing concealment coats. None of them knew each other. Besides, those players were in another city. Even if they came and look for him, they would need some time to traverse the wilderness. And he was never afraid of people coming to trouble him. He would just smack them back to where they came from.

The auction continued. There were still some things that caught Jack's attention, but there was nothing he could do anymore since his pocket was completely empty already. He even owed Dylan some coins, with interest. He had never felt poorer. Still, he did not regret it. That Fragment of Map pieces could finally be completed.

The auction closed with the bid on the main exhibit, which was a piece of unique grade equipment, a light armor shoulder piece. Still, the coins bid for this main exhibit paled in comparison to the bid for Fragment of Map. The unique equipment sold for 126 gold coins, which made the NPCs wondered, exactly which one was the main exhibit?

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In a city far away from Capital Thereath, two players were seen coming out of a building. They were wearing black concealment coats. At this time, the two of them took off their hoods. Both of them were males. Their features revealed that one of them was a young man, while the other was more mature. On the right eye of the older male was a strange rectangular-shaped monocle. If Jack saw the device, he would recognize it as the God-eye monocle which he was also wearing.

"Who the heck was that player? Are you sure they are players?" The younger man spoke.

"The God-eye indicated so," the older man replied.

"What should we do now? We were told that the most an NPC would bid for an item below Unique grade was 100 gold coins. That's why we have prepared fifty percent more just in case. Who would have expected that a player was also targeting that thing? And how did they amass so many coins? Are they from one of the top guilds?"

The older man did not answer. He was deep in thought.

"Could it be that girl?" The young man uttered as he came to a thought.

"No, couldn't be her, didn't you hear the sound of the one who bid was a man?" The old man refuted. He didn't need to ask to know who the girl his younger colleague was referring to.

"She could be the other player that sat beside the one who bid. You said there were two players shown in your God-eye, weren't there?"

"It still couldn't be her. The last intel said that she was in the Dorwin region a few days ago. It was impossible for her to be in capital Thereath in such a short time, not at this stage of the game."

"So what should we do now?" The young man asked again.

The older male was quiet for a while, before saying, "we can only request the Cult of Phobos to gather intelligence again."

The young male's face was full of worry when he said, "the Master won't be happy…"