Chapter 422: Chapter 360: Unreasonable Tier Suppression
The connection between Li Zheng and Wu Hao started with an unassuming material.
It was one of the essential materials for making the Radium Light Repair Device—Radium.
This Radium Element is completely different from the radioactive elements on Earth, but it has equally broad applications and can be used to repair damaged Power Cores.
At that time, Wu Hao was the only one in the entire Matrix selling Radium Elements, but his asking price was so excessively high that even Li Zheng couldn’t afford it.
The most critical point was that Wu Hao refused any bargaining, insisting on the price, resulting in Li Zheng still being unable to purchase the Radium Element.
From this, it’s clear that Wu Hao is very greedy, extremely greedy!
When Li Zheng was discreetly in contact with some players from the Dragon Country, he mentioned his plan to scam the Nihong Country, to which Wu Hao eagerly agreed.
The agreement was that, apart from helping to counter the Nihong Country’s bids, the final sale price of other normal auctions would also be discounted to sixty percent for him.
In the end, Li Zheng negotiated it down to eighty percent.
"What if I accidentally win the bid? How would the price of the auction item be calculated this time?"
Even though Li Zheng already negotiated with him, any excess bids would be waived, and the deal would be made at the initial winning price, with an additional ten percent discount.
But Wu Hao was still uneasy, sending a private message to confirm, fearing that Li Zheng might turn around and scam him.
Li Zheng reassured him, "Don’t worry, even if you win the item and don’t need it, I can find another buyer, so you won’t suffer any loss."
"I’m relieved then." Wu Hao sent a private message, and a number—200—appeared on the live chat screen.
Damn!
Li Zheng was shocked on the spot.
I asked you to scam the little devils, but not so obviously!
The other party only added the minimum increment, and you directly raised it to two hundred?
Even a fool could see something was wrong, right?
If you’re going to do this, I might as well go directly to Tang Qianzang!
Gah!
As expected, Wu Hao’s bid seemed to arouse Tanaka Junichiro’s suspicion, and no new bids appeared on the live chat screen for a long time.
Tang Qianzang sent a private message: "Where’d you find this fool? He can’t even scam properly!"
Li Zheng was speechless; how was I supposed to know this guy was this foolish?
Originally seeing him selling Radium Elements, sticking firmly to his prices, I thought he was a shrewd businessman.
Now it seems, he’s just a reckless fool!
Li Zheng’s face darkened a bit, but since things had come to this, he had nothing more to say; just don’t involve him again in similar situations in the future.
As the live chat remained silent, Liu Qi was somewhat gloating: "This bid is falling apart, you might as well transfer those three usage rights to me, I’ll patch you up for ninety Active Cores."
Wu Hao also sent a private message: "Did I mess things up?"
Li Zheng remained silent: "..."
So you actually realized it yourself?
I thought you had no idea!
You fool!
At that moment, an unexpected turn of events occurred in the live broadcast room.
Just above the live broadcast screen, a notification suddenly popped up:
[Player "Tanaka Junichiro" has left the live broadcast room.]
This left everyone stunned, even Banquan Longma from the High Celestial Plain didn’t expect Tanaka Junichiro to leave midway.
He hurriedly tried to contact the other through private messages, but received no response for a long time.
"What do we do now?" Wu Hao sent a private message asking.
What to do?
What else can we do?
Sell it to someone else and patch things up!
Li Zheng steadied his emotions and started to take control: "It seems Mr. Tanaka realized he lacks the financial means and has voluntarily exited this auction in advance."
"Given that no one is continuing to bid, this auction item has been successfully claimed by Mr. Wu Hao at the price of two hundred Platinum Level Power Cores!"
"Let’s congratulate Mr. Wu Hao!"
A few ellipses drifted across the live chat screen, and Wu Hao pretentiously sent a few humble messages.
Li Zheng quickly executed a series of operations and reached an agreement with Liu Qi for a transaction at the price of ninety Active Cores.
Liu Qi, having signed the agreement with Li Zheng, felt apprehensive: "This deal won’t fall apart midway, right?"
The last agreement with Li Zheng was voided in less than half a day, leaving him distrustful of system agreements until now.
"Rest assured, there won’t be any unexpected incidents this time!" Li Zheng assured him confidently.
Liu Qi still felt uneasy: "After the auction ends, send me a coordinate, and I’ll send a few Warriors over to use up those three usage rights. Prepare yourself."
"No problem." After Li Zheng confirmed, the auction continued.
Although Tanaka Junichiro’s sudden departure caught Li Zheng off guard, the live broadcast room was not devoid of other Nihong players.
If he couldn’t scam him, he could still scam others, couldn’t he?
Although this approach was quite dirty, Li Zheng was more than willing to do it.
"The next item in the auction, you must be seeing for the first time."
"I won’t keep you in suspense; let me directly reveal the attributes!"
Li Zheng raised his hand to fetch a piece that looked like a fragment cut from some kind of fur, allowing everyone to check its attributes.
"This is an Equipment Fragment with special properties, only obtainable when fully dismantling equipment, and it’s incredibly powerful."
Li Zheng gave everyone some time to look before continuing: "The trait contained in this fragment is ’Telekinesis System Ability Amplifier,’ and its use is very simple, just stitch it onto your worn equipment for it to be effective. If you don’t have a suitable tailor, I can help with the stitching for free."
This fragment is only Gold Level and was a leftover from Li Chun’s practice attempts. Since no one he knew specialized in "Telekinesis," Li Zheng decided to include it in the auction.
The fragment itself wasn’t incredibly valuable, but its rarity made it expensive since such items were basically exclusive to Li Zheng, and there was no second one in the Matrix.
The logic of scarcity increases value is something everyone understands.
So many people are planning to bid on this fragment, and they’ve also decided to get in touch with Li Zheng afterwards to secure an exclusive supply channel and monopolize it directly.
Some people, however, aren’t bothered by it.
They’re more curious about why Tanaka Junichiro left suddenly, paying extra attention to the reports gathered by their subordinates.
Meanwhile, Li Zheng’s auction continued as usual.
On the other side, Tanaka Junichiro was practically losing his mind.
"The second one!" Tanaka Junichiro looked at the research players, whom the High Celestial Plain considered treasures, with a stern expression.
Sweeping his gaze over the innocent-looking faces of these research players, Tanaka Junichiro asked in a deep voice, "Who can give me a reasonable explanation for the second exploration machine being damaged in succession?"
"Um..."
The research players exchanged glances, all looking troubled.
They couldn’t understand why a Diamond Level device, simply exploring two Gold Level items, would end up breaking itself.
From the perspective of tier suppression, this didn’t make sense at all.
They figured no one in the entire Matrix would believe it, not to mention Tanaka Junichiro himself, who supplied the exploration machines and knew their design and performance.
But the truth was just that bizarre.
It didn’t make any sense.
They were just as bewildered...