Five Elements Card Game (Card and Chess Player) Chapter 165: A Fortune Cast in a Single Throw

Auctions frequently appear in various stories.

It is a quite ancient industry, and the final prices of transactions concluded at auctions are often somewhat inflated.

Sometimes it is for money laundering, where the seller and buyer collude, leading to natural inflation. Sometimes people have high hopes for the future appreciation space of a collectible, and paying a higher price is akin to gambling.还有一些，则是有几方竞争，你顶一下我顶一下，价格自然就高了。
There are also times when multiple parties compete, bidding against one another, which naturally drives the price up.
At times, shills might even be involved to help artificially raise the prices.

Ren Yin was still thinking about her previous game all the way to the auction venue. No matter which angle she used to think and deduce, she could not change the final outcome.

Where exactly did she make a mistake? Or was this a destined-to-lose game?

If she wanted to reverse the situation, surely it shouldn't be a level-five difficulty? What on earth did it mean?

"This item is quite suitable for you." Wu Hui pointed at the auction brochure for Ren Yin. "Your sniper rifle is due for an upgrade."

She had obtained her current sniper rifle back at level one. Now that Ren Yin was already level four, it was indeed time for a replacement.

Her two pistols, however, packed quite a punch. She had acquired them during her time at level three, though their range was insufficient.

Ren Yin possessed three types of abilities: marksmanship, the Solomon series of magic arrays, and sonic waves. The latter was primarily used for reconnaissance nowadays, while the combination of the first two was less frequent. However, Ren Yin had already conceived a way to integrate them.

By engraving magic arrays onto bullets, a direct summoning using the enemy's soul and blood as a sacrifice would trigger upon impact. However, engraving such an array onto tiny bullets would probably have to wait until she became an intermediate player.

"Mhm." Ren Yin looked at the Nightingale sniper rifle listed above—a transcendental-grade weapon with a starting bid of two thousand points.

After all, this was an auction targeted at junior and intermediate players; it was impossible to feature items that required tens of thousands of points to purchase. Such items would undoubtedly fail to sell.

Li Xiaojing had nothing she wanted to buy. Neither she nor her sister currently lacked equipment. Over the past couple of days, Li Xiaojing had followed Wu Hui as a bounty hunter and acquired numerous items, and her baseball bat had already been reinforced.

As for Li Xiaoyue, she had the Fairy Tale Grimoire, the Book of Yin-Yang Breath, the Book of Life, the Falling Stone Book, the Flame Book, the Lightning Book, the Ice Book, the Shield Book...

With so many magic books, there was truly no need to pursue other items. Her recent appearance involved carrying a school backpack and wearing a school uniform, making her look just like a high school student—prompting her younger sister to tease her mercilessly for desperately trying to look young.

Then again, is there really any external difference between a college freshman and a high schooler?

Next week, the twins would become sophomores, while Wu Hui and Ren Yin would immediately become juniors. They would not continue pursuing higher degrees; Wu Hui would likely take up a position at a Spider branch, whereas Ren Yin had yet to decide whether to join the Tribunal.

The auction had already begun, and Wu Hui ignored all the preceding items. His target was a Nightmare Chess Piece with a starting bid of one thousand points.

This was a rather special Nightmare Chess Piece.

According to the rules of Nightmare Chess, there was a designated position on the chessboard known as the Throne. If an enemy stepped onto your Throne, you were considered defeated.

Generally speaking, people would choose a chess piece with high health to stand on the Throne and block it. However, there were also unique chess pieces that could only be summoned from the Throne and received special bonuses while stationed there. These pieces were all classified under the Lord category.

As for the effects of these chess pieces, using them directly empowered the user themselves, differing from those typical summoned minions.

The level and price of such chess pieces were usually quite high, yet there were still some that intermediate players could manage to secure.

For instance, the one featured this time.

Black Knight Lord
Faction: Darkness - Wraith Cult
Type: Knight / Lord
Health: 15
Mobility: 5
Attack Power: 7
Attack Range: 1
Price: 20 Gold Coins
Special Skill: Blood of the Black Knight (All friendly Black Knights on the field cease losing health)
Lore: Having defeated the Lich and become the lord of the Black Knights, he holds the life force of all Black Knights in his grasp. Once these soldiers stray far from him, their life force will continuously drain away. Knights, offer your loyalty to your Lord!

The attributes of the chess piece were as stated above. Once acquired by a player, the effect transformed the user into a Black Knight Lord.

The Black Knight itself was a chess piece with an exceptionally high cost-performance ratio, boasting decent stats across the board; the only issue was its self-depleting health. The skill of this Black Knight Lord was highly targeted, completely useless for other chess pieces, yet entirely worth its price.

The transformed attributes roughly resembled those of a level-five player.

Wu Hui possessed four Black Knight chess pieces, making the Lord an ideal fit for him. The next game was the Dominator match, and he had to prepare himself to slaughter everyone else. The required combat power for this might even exceed that of the Gladiator match.

Wang Xiaodie was murmuring quietly beside him. The Seal of Insect Song, which she intended to buy, was about to come up on stage; she hoped nobody would compete with her.

Come to think of it, an item that could only empower insect-type printed beasts wasn't very suitable for an auction, was it? It would be more appropriate to keep it in stock and quote a high price whenever someone in need came looking...

Wu Hui turned his head to glance at Wang Xiaodie. Aside from entering into a contract with him, everything about this fellow felt as though someone had orchestrated it behind the scenes.

Only, it remained unclear whether this arrangement was intended to raise a daughter or fatten a pig for slaughter.

"The Seal of Insect Song, starting bid: two thousand points."

"Two thousand five hundred!" Wang Xiaodie increased the bid by five hundred right off the bat, demonstrating her determination to win. Yet, she genuinely lacked any competitors; currently, there were very few local players, and even fewer who both needed this item and possessed the points. After a couple of random bidders raised the price slightly, Wang Xiaodie easily secured it.

Three thousand points... not a bad deal for you, all things considered. Wu Hui glanced at Wang Xiaodie without saying much more. Having borrowed five hundred points from him, she would still need to serve as Wu Hui's maid for the next few months.

He had a lingering feeling that, judging by her approach, she would end up staking her entire life on this.

"Hehe, I got it." Wang Xiaodie was thoroughly delighted, and did not forget to rub against Wu Hui a couple of times. "Big Boss, let's come to events like this more often in the future~"

Ren Yin: "Ahem. Don't act as if you've been taken as a kept woman. Have some dignity."

"Alright, alright." Wang Xiaodie instantly straightened up, presenting herself with utmost elegance. Suddenly, a thought struck her: Ren Yin seemed to be in the exact same position as her, having also signed a contract with Wu Hui. How was it that Ren Yin could maintain such a vastly superior posture compared to her?

Ren Yin's contract was purely motivated by her fear of losing control and wanting Wu Hui to restrict her—completely different from someone like Wang Xiaodie, who had lost down to her last pair of trousers.

The next item was the sniper rifle Ren Yin wanted to buy. With sufficient points of her own, she had no need to borrow from anyone.

Converted, a few thousand points roughly equated to several million. Calculated based on internal player exchange rates, it could easily reach tens of millions—a price that made Wang Xiaodie feel a pang of heartache just thinking about it. Human Alliance currency remained quite stable, and tens of millions were enough for a person to live a lifetime and live it exceptionally well.

Even living off bank interest at that amount placed one in the millionaire tier.

Yet now, it was traded for a tiny item held in the palm of her hand, tucked away into a pocket because looking at it right in front of her caused too much distress.

Those accustomed to poverty could never shed their old frugal habits, even after suddenly acquiring wealth.