Chapter 420: Chapter 358 Brother, that’s Li Zheng!
"Let’s begin!"
As this private message was sent, another price appeared on the once silent live chat.
"Fifty-two thousand grams!" Tang Qianzang provocatively said, "Little Japanese, go back and eat your sashimi, these dishes are not for you to enjoy!"
"Fifty-four thousand grams!" Tanaka Junichiro raised the bid without hesitation. The dishes Li Zheng provided had an extra buff effect compared to others, and also had research value, so he certainly wouldn’t miss out.
As for Tang Qianzang’s provocation?
He didn’t care about it.
Cursing a bit doesn’t cost a limb, let them curse all they want.
Once the research results come out and High Celestial Plain’s power increases significantly, your two main organizations in Dragon Country will be nothing but a joke!
Tanaka Junichiro sneered continuously. He used to disdain Dragon Country’s "counterfeiting" behavior, secretly mocking Dragon Country as "Counterfeit Country" for not developing new technology independently but relying on copying other countries to progress.
But now, he began to knock off Dragon Country, via this auction, massively acquiring unique items, handing them over to the research team to analyze their formulas or blueprints.
"Fifty-six thousand grams!" Tang Qianzang was unyielding, looking as if he would fight Tanaka Junichiro to the end.
"Fifty-eight thousand!"
"Sixty thousand!"
...
The two of them went back and forth on the minimum bid increment, pulling back and forth for two minutes, successfully pushing the price to eighty thousand grams.
Tang Qianzang angrily cursed, "Little Japanese, you really have money, damn it!"
He actually stopped bidding.
"Mr. Tang overpraises me." Tanaka Junichiro smiled smugly, Nine Heavens? Not worth mentioning!
No one else raised the bid in the live chat. Li Zheng began the countdown: "Eighty thousand grams going once... eighty thousand grams going twice... sold!"
"Congratulations to Mr. Tanaka for acquiring a set of luxury dishes!" He listed the items, set the price, and completed the transaction.
The moment eighty thousand grams of Orichalcos was in hand, Li Zheng immediately transferred ten thousand grams to Tang Qianzang, with a message: Pleasure doing business.
Tang Qianzang replied, "If it wasn’t for fear of the little Japanese spotting any tricks, I would dare compete with him until the end of time!"
Indeed!
The reason Tang Qianzang frantically bid against Tanaka Junichiro was due to secret instructions from Li Zheng.
It wasn’t just Tang Qianzang, even Liu Qi and Wu Hao, Li Zheng had secretly contacted and offered different terms.
The request was simple.
Ensure Mud Furnace players don’t win bids on items, or raise the item prices.
If the final price is inflated and they win, Li Zheng would offer a reasonable discount during the transaction.
After all, point-to-point designated transactions aren’t visible to others, Li Zheng could play as he wished.
Tang Qianzang had asked Li Zheng, since he didn’t want Mud Furnace people to win items, why not just refuse their entry initially?
Li Zheng’s reasoning was: If representatives from other countries were present, except for Nihong Country, they would certainly smear us on the world channel.
It was not just about Li Zheng’s personal image, but how Dragon Country is perceived by players in the Matrix of nations.
Li Zheng privately messaged, "This is good, take your time, let’s strive to empty High Celestial Plain with this auction!"
Tang Qianzang asked, "Aren’t you afraid the little Japanese will find out and come after you?"
Li Zheng laughed, "When have we ever been afraid?"
Tang Qianzang also laughed, "You’re right, since when have we ever feared this bunch of little Japanese! If something does happen, you reach out to me, my leader just told me, Nine Heavens will fully support you!"
Nine Heavens, one of the two largest open organizations in Dragon Country, comprised entirely of public sector elites, with a vast number of members.
Such a large organization giving this kind of assurance shows how much Nine Heavens values Li Zheng.
Li Zheng replied to him, "Isn’t Nine Heavens not accepting players like me?"
Tang Qianzang said, "Didn’t say about recruiting you, just making friends, it’s reasonable for friends to help each other out."
Helping each other out.
Perhaps not quite.
Even brothers settle accounts clearly, Nine Heavens is using the guise of help to gain favor and build goodwill here.
Li Zheng pondered and didn’t refuse, "Then thank you."
"We’re compatriots, no need to be so formal."
Li Zheng had previously subconsciously refrained from too much contact with these organizations, feeling that their people weren’t plain in dealings, too self-interested.
Later, he realized that the most self-interested was actually himself with such thoughts.
After all, by befriending them, he would feel obliged to offer a discount in transactions, which wasn’t conducive to his development.
Actually, this was a misunderstanding he fell into.
Indeed, providing goods to such a large organization and giving discounts would result in significantly less profit.
But precisely because their scale is large, even with discounts, he could quickly gain a large amount of resources in a short time.
This is completely different from the usual slow sale transactions.
The former is a steady stream, continuous development, but is destined to rarely bring sudden wealth.
The latter, although offering a price concession, excels in quickly generating substantial resource gains, accelerating wealth accumulation, enabling direct circulation.
If during this period Luo Aiman is encountered, the former can only make small trades for minor items.
Whereas the latter can empty Luo Aiman’s reserves!
...
"Ah-choo!" Luo Aiman lifted his head from the magazine, wiped his nose, and stared into the void solemnly: "There is malice!"
...
"The next auction item is Healing Black Water. It can be applied externally to treat open wounds and taken internally to stabilize internal organ damage. Its only downside is that it’s not very effective on bone injuries."
Li Zheng raised his hand, summoning a whole bottle of Black Water from Xiao Siyuan, a full 500 milliliters.
This type of medical equipment has an awkward value.
If this auction could have started a week earlier, then Black Water would undoubtedly sell for a sky-high price!
But now, various major organizations have already collected plenty of healing items, and the demand for this is not as urgent as it used to be.
Therefore, in the barrage, everyone showed little interest, and few people were excited.
Seeing this, Li Zheng quickly understood, his mind raced, and he thought of a good idea. He contacted Xiao Siyuan to get the attributes of that medical bed and displayed them: "Together with Black Water, there are also three occasions of using this medical bed up for auction. This bed comes from the special merchant ’Blacksmith,’ with boundless uses. I suggest everyone carefully consider its value before bidding."
The proceeds from this auction, Li Zheng would only take a small portion as a handling fee, the rest would be given to Xiao Siyuan for him to handle personally.
Xiao Siyuan’s request was simple, he directly wanted the universal currency "Power Core," and let Li Zheng decide the tier.
Li Zheng was still considering what starting bid was appropriate when someone on the barrage already asked questions.
"Mr. Li, are you afraid to auction off this medical bed?"
"Three times of usage rights is too little, why not just auction off the medical bed itself?"
"Yes, yes! Hundreds of people are petitioning, begging Mr. Li to auction off the medical bed!"
The urgency of the barrage’s demand for the medical bed was something Li Zheng did not expect.
He just saw that people had little interest in Black Water and temporarily discussed with Xiao Siyuan, asking for three times of usage rights to be added.
Unexpectedly, these people were so bold as to set their sights on the actual medical bed.
"Not for sale!" Li Zheng didn’t even think about it and decisively refused: "This medical bed is not owned by me, I’m only responsible for auctioning off the three usage rights, and don’t ask me who the owner is, he even less agrees to sell it, just give up!"
Li Zheng didn’t quite understand, it’s just a medical bed, there are lots of medical equipment in the Matrix, this bed at most speeds up the recovery of injuries, how could people fixate on it?
Inexplicable!
...
"That guy has so many good things in his hands!" Tanaka Junichiro’s eyes were full of greed as he watched Li Zheng on the screen, wishing he could take his place.
"But it’s fine, as long as the R&D team can crack the potion and cooking recipes, the gap between High Celestial Plain and Dragon Country will significantly narrow, even stand shoulder to shoulder with them!"
Everyone in the Matrix knows that Li Zheng is not to be messed with.
He’s a lone wolf player with an almost endless hand of cards, staying offensively or defensively against any foes.
Even if Tanaka Junichiro was envious of Li Zheng, he didn’t dare to have thoughts of attacking Li Zheng and taking all his stuff.
He could only use this method of buying and cracking to indirectly affect Li Zheng’s business.
"What’s going on with the R&D team? A few small potions, and they still haven’t cracked the formula after such a long time?" Tanaka Junichiro suddenly frowned.
At this moment, a private message came over.
It was from the R&D team.
Tanaka Junichiro’s frown relaxed immediately as he opened the private message to check.
After reading the information, Tanaka Junichiro became furious.
"Useless!"
"All useless!"
"Not deciphering a potion formula is one thing, but to destroy the analyzer too!"
The analyzer is a Diamond Level device. Just putting a finished item into it could potentially analyze the corresponding blueprint or formula.
This analyzer is incredibly expensive, even High Celestial Plain could only gather materials for two devices.
As a result, today, due to a Genetic Potion bought at Li Zheng’s auction, one exploded and became completely unusable, irreparable.
How could Tanaka Junichiro not be angry?
After venting his anger for quite some time, Tanaka Junichiro calmed down, sending a message to his subordinates: "Put the other analyzer to use, reanalyze the potion."
"No! Wait!" He thought for a moment and sent another message to stop them.
"First, study those meals to figure out why they provide buffs!"
Failure to analyze the Genetic Potion could be due to the potion’s overly complex components, causing the analyzer to overload and break down completely.
Surely, those small meals couldn’t be that complex?
If the analyzer blows up again this time, Tanaka Junichiro feels it might not be a problem with the analyzer but an internal mole in the High Celestial Plain R&D team!
"In any case, only three uses of the medical bed will be up for auction at this sale. Does everyone understand?" Li Zheng coldly looked at the barrage, feeling a little impatient from being pestered.
Despite saying numerous times that the medical bed is not for sale, these people kept on asking, becoming incredibly annoying.
With a cold face, Li Zheng’s inner rage was triggered, and his eyes revealed infinite killing intent.
Everyone watching the live stream suddenly felt a chill, snapped back to reality, and immediately regretted it.
Dammit, what got into me to provoke Li Zheng?
Screw it, life’s really being taken for granted.
That is Li Zheng!
The Li Zheng who kills without blinking!