God's Imitator

The crowd became restless, but soon players began to compromise.

”I want to buy!”

Chen Guangming nodded. ”Alright, come with me.”

The two quickly came to the auction terminal in the hall. After Chen Guangming confirmed that all the 1,000-point ‘Equipment Forging’ room chips priced at 1,499 were listed by himself, he signaled for this player to purchase.

After confirming the transaction, Chen Guangming brought this player back to the room and signaled for one of the players occupying a game station to step aside.

While this player was using the game station, he continued standing behind them to hold the position, preventing other players from squeezing in.

He Xiaojun couldn’t help but be shocked. He roughly understood what Chen Guangming’s plan was all about.

The auction terminal in the hall had real-time transactions. Although it didn’t display the names of the trading parties, it was completely possible to complete transactions between two specific players by agreeing on specific amounts.

Even if other players listed items at the same price, it wouldn’t matter, because Chen Guangming could change the specific number at any time. For example, changing 1,499 to 1,496 or 1,599 would still allow him to conduct targeted transactions with other players.

Chen Guangming had found six players willing to cooperate with him unconditionally. He had these people constantly occupy the game stations, only giving up their positions to players who had purchased chips from Chen Guangming.Chen Guangming could use the same method to share profits with these six players.

He just needed to switch the buyer and seller and the specific selling price of the chips.

Of course, this required Chen Guangming to establish sufficient prestige among these players and build mutual trust.

He Xiaojun wasn’t clear on how Chen Guangming had accomplished this. After all, everyone came from different communities and hadn’t known each other before.

But clearly, during the previous game time, Chen Guangming had successfully achieved this.

After these six players gave up their positions, they immediately queued up behind them. The game prohibited any violent behavior, so forcefully pushing or pulling was naturally not allowed either.

This way, it eliminated the possibility of other players cutting in line.

The final risk was that the player who bought usage rights would stubbornly refuse to leave.

But clearly, this possibility wasn’t high.

Because to stably obtain profits from the ‘Equipment Forging’ game required a lot of practice and developing muscle memory. For most players who didn’t have this ability, the profits from continuous play weren’t high.

They were better off earning profits in other rooms.

These players purchasing game station usage rights basically only wanted to convert a small number of Death Immunity Cards in their hands to other types. After successful conversion, they would leave.

Sure enough, the first player who purchased game station usage rights from Chen Guangming was very lucky. He completed the forging in one try and left very satisfied.

Chen Guangming looked at the other players who were still hesitating. ”Still haven’t decided?

”The price has gone up now. It’s already become 1,699 minutes of visa time to purchase 1,000 points of chips.”

A player angrily said, ”Do you think we’re idiots? We can completely go use the ’Auction Terminal’ in the game hall to complete transactions!”

Chen Guangming quietly sighed. ”If you want to go, of course you can. I don’t have the ability to stop you.

”But you don’t need to act out of spite. Think carefully, is doing that really cost-effective?”

Seeing Chen Guangming’s confident appearance, He Xiaojun’s heart sank. He quickly figured out where this confidence came from.

Because purchasing game station usage times was still more cost-effective than using the ‘Auction Terminal’ for transactions.

Most rooms in this hall had hidden their specific transaction taxes, and from the current situation, they were basically around 30% to 50%.

This meant that if players listed Death Immunity Cards for 10,000 minutes of visa time, they could only receive 7,000, with the remaining 3,000 taken by the God’s Imitator.

Because most players had the need to trade cards, this loss was basically shared by both buyers and sellers.

Chen Guangming’s current asking price was 1,699 visa time to purchase a game station usage opportunity plus 1,000 points of chips.

The 1,000 points of chips from the ‘Equipment Forging’ room could roughly be valued at 800 to 1,000 minutes of visa time, so no matter how you calculated it, it was much more cost-effective than paying transaction taxes.

Even after the price increase, it was still cost-effective.

Of course, there might be some exceptions. For instance, some players’ cards might not have high transaction taxes, or some players just couldn’t stand Chen Guangming’s behavior and would go to the ‘Auction Terminal’ to trade no matter what.

But the existence of these exceptions didn’t mean much.

Because when most people chose to use ‘Equipment Forging,’ their duplicate cards wouldn’t circulate at all in the ‘Auction Terminal’ market.

This was also why He Xiaojun found that there were fewer and fewer cards being auctioned on the auction terminal.

Because there were too few Death Immunity Cards circulating on the market, these minority players, whether wanting to buy or sell, would find it difficult to find suitable trading partners.

They would ultimately have to compromise as well.

He Xiaojun fell into hesitation, but soon more players were already compromising.

”I want to buy!”

”I want to buy too!”

”I was here first! Hurry, sell to me first!”

Chen Guangming was very satisfied with this situation. He smiled and reassured the players, ”No need to rush. Everyone will have their turn.

”Come, follow me to queue at the ’Auction Terminal,’ one at a time.

”All six game stations can be used. As long as everyone purchases early, you won’t need to worry about not getting your turn.”

Many players surged toward Chen Guangming, heading to the ‘Auction Terminal’ to purchase the chips he had listed.

Clearly, through this plan, Chen Guangming had essentially used the special mechanism of ‘Equipment Forging’ to successfully ”steal” the ”transaction taxes” that originally belonged to the God’s Imitators from other rooms.

The portion that was stolen had partly become his own profits, and partly become the profits of the God’s Imitator who designed ‘Equipment Forging.’

He Xiaojun’s heart gradually sank. He realized his current situation was quite dire.

Because cards produced in the ‘Auction Tycoon’ room would have a 100% transaction tax. Even if he sold this duplicate card, he wouldn’t get any profits, so naturally he couldn’t purchase another card either.

If he wanted to go purchase game station usage rights from Chen Guangming now, it was already a bit too late. There were many players queuing ahead of him.

Moreover, the reason He Xiaojun was hesitating was also because he didn’t want to be manipulated by Chen Guangming. He instinctively resisted and disagreed with this gaming style from the bottom of his heart.

”What should I do? Continue going back to ’Auction Tycoon’ to earn visa time and hope that the subsequent Death Immunity Cards happen to be chest armor and leg guards?

”No, that probability is too low...”

He Xiaojun took out the cards from his pocket, his hand unconsciously clenching them tightly.

The cards were two helmets, one armguard, and one pair of boots, which could only provide a 60% immunity probability.

Now he had three different options.

The first was to wait at the ‘Auction Terminal.’ When the cards he needed appeared, as long as the selling price wasn’t too outrageous, he would directly buy them with visa time.

The second was to purchase ‘Equipment Forging’ game station usage rights from Chen Guangming.

The third was to give up and gamble with his life. If among the cards produced next there was one ”chest armor” or ”leg guards,” then he would tough it out with a 20% death rate. If there were neither, he would tough it out with a 40% death rate.

...

At the same time, Cheng Wen quickly ran back to the ‘Auction Tycoon’ room, saying somewhat frantically, ”Brother Lin, this is bad!

”I found that more and more players aren’t using the auction function in the hall at all. They’re all going directly to the ’Equipment Forging’ room to exchange duplicate cards!

”That gold-rimmed glasses small group has actually taken control of this room and is stably obtaining profits!

”So what do we do?

”Even the auction house outside isn’t being used. This room’s auction house will have even fewer people using it!”

Lin Sizhi shook his head, unconcerned. ”It’s fine. This auction house will have people using it.

”They just need a little bit of help.”