Chapter 136: Central Auction House

As Mystic Moon had not yet been released for very long, the Money Exchange System between the real world’s currency and the virtual world’s currency had not been opened yet. Thus, due to the lack of funds in the virtual world, many large powers were unable to accomplish things that they wanted to. Whether it was an individual or a large financial group, at the current stage of the game, everyone was in dire lack of money. The Ling Chen who now owned a considerable fortune knew what this meant… it meant that before the Money Exchange System opened, he could do many things that other people, even large financial groups could not do.

Ling Chen tapped his chin and thought for a while. He made sure there was no one around him, then opened his communication device. He contacted the other person, and asked in a low voice, “Gui Ya, when will the Money Exchange System open?”

“…”

“Got it.”

After this short exchange, Ling Chen turned off the communication device, and strode forwards. Walking on the streets of Azure Dragon City, he walked from the Markets to the Entertainment District, to the Administration District, to the Residential District… by the time it was 2-3AM, he had walked around and carefully observed the central areas in Azure Dragon City. He imprinted a place into his memory, then took out the Azure Dragon City map, and marked its position on the map. As he closed the map, a light flickered in his eyes. Afterwards, Ling Chen began to walk directly to the Mayor’s residence.

The Mayor’s residence and the area surrounding it was still a restricted area for players. However, as Ling Chen had a special pass, he was able to enter unhindered, and directly entered into the reception hall. Not too long after, the Azure Dragon’s Mayor strode in.

The current Azure Dragon’s Mayor had undergone drastic changes. His face was ruddy and full of health, and had a spring in his step. Evidently, he was in a very good mood. Ling Chen smiled and asked, “Mr. Mayor, how is your son?”

“Hahaha!” The Azure Dragon’s Mayor let out a cheerful laugh, “The Flaming Black Grass is as effective as described in the legends. After giving some to my son to take, half of the snake poison was dispelled within one day, and was fully dispelled within two days. Although he hasn’t made a full recovery yet, that’s in the foreseeable future, so I’m not worrying about it anymore. Ling Tian, this is all thanks to you. Otherwise, my son would have lost his life a long time ago… do you have anything you need my help with? Haha, if there’s anything, just let me know. As long as it doesn’t violate any ethics or morals, I will help you as much as possible.”

Hearing the Azure Dragon’s Mayor say this, Ling Chen did not beat around this bush anymore, and straightforwardly said, “Since Mr. Mayor has said so, then I won’t be courteous anymore. The reason I came this time is to ask a big favour of Mr. Mayor.”

Ling Chen walked forwards and stood in front of the Azure Dragon’s Mayor. He opened the Azure Dragon City map, and pointed at a location he had marked, “I want the ownership rights to this area of land… I only need it for half a year!”

The place Ling Chen had pointed to was a spacious undeveloped area. It was a long plot of land, and was about four or five thousand square metres… not only was it extremely large, but the location was very good as well! The Azure Dragon City’s Market was situated at the west side of the Central Square, whereas this plot of land was on the East side of and right next to the Central Square. Why such a good area of land was empty, Ling Chen had no idea, and did not care… he only knew that once the Money Exchange System opened, and power started flowing in along with money, this plot of land would become a place that would be fought over.

Such a good location, with such a large area, even offering millions of gold was impossible to buy it. As such, Ling Chen could only use the gold he currently had to rent it for a short period of time.

The Azure Dragon’s Mayor looked at the location where Ling Chen had pointed to, and shook his head after a short while, “Ling Chen, it’s not that I don’t want to help you… it’s just that this area is our Azure Dragon City’s last prime area. Every inch of land is worth gold… No, every inch of land there is worth diamonds! We were planning to construct a Luxury Residential Area, and then sell each house or unit for astronomical prices!”

“I only need the ownership rights for half a year!” Ling Chen repeated.

“Choosing this place, you should already know that this area is extremely valuable, even if it’s for half a year…”

“One million gold!!”

“One million?!” The Azure Dragon’s Mayor stared at Ling Chen, then started cursing at him, “This area is directly facing the Central Square, Azure Dragon City’s last prime area! One million gold? Are you joking?!!”

Ling Chen knew that even if it was for half a year, one million gold was far from enough. He thought for a moment, then continued to test the waters, “How about, 1.3million…”

“No!”

“1.5million gold… 5 months of ownership rights!!”

“Absolutely not!”

“Two million… three months!!” Ling Chen gnashed his teeth.

Bam!! The Azure Dragon’s Mayor pounded his fist onto the table, “Deal!!”

Ling Chen: ⊙﹏⊙b

Half an hour later, Ling Chen walked out of the Mayor’s residence with a Title Deed bought with two million gold… The Title Deed clearly stated that the area of land was Ling Chen’s for three months.

“Three months, so be it.” Ling Chen was not worried in the slightest, “With Xiao Hui and Xi Ling, that money-making pair, sooner or later that entire piece of land will be mine. Plus, with three months… that’s entirely enough time, heh heh…”

Azure Dragon City Auction House

The Azure Dragon City Auction House was only open to players, and auctioned various items sent in by players. Although many players had entered into the Azure Dragon City, the Auction House had never held an auction yet.

Entering the front hall of the Auction Hall, the receptionist was an old man of sixty or seventy years of age. He looked at Ling Chen, yawned, then straightened up and said in a bored voice, “Greetings, otherworld traveller, welcome to the Central Auction House. My surname is Li, and my name is Fu, you can call me Lord Fortune. [TLN: Fu/福 means riches/fortune]. Is there anything you would like to consign for auctioning? I need to remind you though, our Auction House only auctions things that are rare or interesting. If it’s something ordinary, then I suggest you put it in the delivery store as we will not be accepting it. And even if we accept the item, we decide the auction time… After all, we need to have enough things to auction… moreover, the auction entrance fees belong to us, and we take a commission of 3%-10% of the total amount received for an item. Of course, if the item is especially rare, and gives us a substantial amount of fame and entrance fees, we can decide not to charge a commission… even the auction time can be decided by you. So, young man, show me what you have to offer.”

It was not easy listening to the man ramble on and on. Ling Chen took a step forward and took out three items, “There are three things I want to auction, not sure if these three things are satisfactory for auctioning.”

Ling Chen took out a grubby black bean, a gold chain and a black token.

These three items caused Lord Fortune’s old eyes to brighten. He reached out and picked up the grubby black bean which looked like sheep dung. He sniffed it to confirm that it wasn’t sheep dung, then examined its attributes… this was the sheep dung that Ling Chen had bought from the Underworld Merchant Qian Gun Gun… no, it was a mysterious bean that could give the user 100 SP. He had originally wanted to give this to Shui Ruo to eat, in order to upgrade her skills, but after considering that it was an object of suspicious origins, and had been tainted by Qian Gun Gun’s grubby hands… he was not quite willing for the pure Ruo Ruo to be dirtied by such a thing, so he could only auction it off.

“Gives the user 100 SP… Heavens!! What am I looking at… I’m actually looking at an item of the legends!”

Holding the grubby black bean, the originally bored and lacklustre Lord Fortune let out a passionate cry, “To an adventurer, this is a priceless treasure! Young man, can you tell me where you bought it from?”

Ling Chen: “……”

“Oh, please excuse my rudeness.” Ling Chen’s expression caused Lord Fortune to come back to his senses, and he quickly regained his composure, “Seeing such a legendary item, I actually forgot the ‘do not ask the origins of an item’ rule. Young man, rest assured, when your items are auctioned, I will not ask you any unnecessary questions, and keep your identity strictly confidential.”

“That means, this bean is satisfactory for auctioning?” Ling Chen asked while smiling.

Lord Fortune nodded, “Absolutely, absolutely! Not only you players, all experts in the Forgotten Continent would be excited by such an item… describing it as a priceless treasure would not be an exaggeration at all. This item, we’re definitely auctioning.”

Because of this bean, Lord Fortune became more interested in the other two items. He picked up the gold bracelet, and looked over it. All of a sudden, his eyes became extremely wide, a stood up with a ‘whoosh’, “Gold… Gold grade Lunar Chain!!”

“Young man!” Lord Fortune intensely stared at him, gripping the Gold chain that Ling Chen had acquired from the Greedy Giant Toad, “Do you know the value of a Gold Lunar Chain? A Gold Lunar Chain is much more valuable than any other equipment of the Gold grade. A Gold Lunar Chain can be used by an expert for their entire life, and is something that many experts can only dream of but can never acquire in their entire life! Young man, you’re simply too amazing. You’ve come here for such a short period of time, and yet you’ve already acquired a Gold Lunar Chain… I can already tell that this Gold Lunar Chain appearing at an auction will cause a great sensation… trust me, this is definitely the first Gold Lunar Chain to be discovered by a player. The drop rate of high grade Lunar Chains is too low, way too low!”