Chapter 593: Simultaneous event
At this point, everyone in the Rising Six had their eyes directed towards the ongoing auction for the automobiles. The only one that wasn’t was Reena, who looked at Michael and noticed that he seemed to be concentrating on something.
"Michael?" she asked, nudging him.
Michael opened his eyes and looked at the auction stage. "Sorry, I was just resting for a little bit. What happened?"
He realized that the players on the stage were discussing amongst each other with hushed tones. This was highly irregular, as most players during a game would simply keep to themselves for the entire duration. If there were some interaction, it would only be limited to some small talk.
This seemed different. Alaric, Aerith, Bobby, and all the other leaders of the Major Factions were gathered in a circle, talking amongst themselves, seemingly discussing something important.
It wasn’t long after that did they all nod at each other, as if unanimously agreeing with whatever they just decided on.
Alaric then approached Barnaby and whispered in his ears.
Barnaby looked surprised upon hearing this, but quickly turned professional and nodded.
Then, all the Major Factions players walked back up to the backstage to return to their VIP suites.
Seeing this brought on a lot of confusion from the crowd.
Barnaby quickly announced to the entire auction room to clear up the air about what was happening.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have just been informed that the Major Factions have decided for the games to be a simultaneous event."
Once he said those words, gasps and looks of shock propagated around the crowd. They clearly didn’t expect the Major Factions to agree to this, given how it could backfire on themselves.
"I wonder why they all agreed to this," Erlos said curiously.
Michael was the only one who was clueless, given that this was his first time participating in this kind of auction.
"What’s a simultaneous event?" he asked them.
Beau quickly turned around and explained to him. "A simultaneous event is a game that happens right after the other.
In this case, the game to fight over the automobile bidding will commence as normal. But after that, they will immediately go on to the next game, which is the fight for the 15 drops of Soo, without any break or rest."
After finding out the truth, he was also surprised just like them.
"Why would they do that? It looks like they’ll just exhaust themselves if games are done consecutively," he asked.
"It’s probably because they want to ensure that they’ll be able to secure at least one of those prizes for themselves.
Since there would be no time for rest, that means that players would have to be careful about using up their energy too early in the games.
So, if one company decides to go all out for the automobile, then the others could ensure that they’d be much weaker during the next game, therefore giving them a better chance to get the Soo drops for themselves."
Since most of the players were in the 7th to 8th stage of Body Formation, this meant that their fights would be a lot more intense, needing a lot more energy.
This change in the game would ensure that not just one company could hoard all of the prizes and give a lot of way for strategy and planning.
He could finally see why the Major Factions agreed to this.
"Then what happens now?"
"The auction will continue," Beau answered. "They’ll be bidding for the Soo drops next, and only after that will the two games start simultaneously."
And just like she said, Barnaby set up the stage again, allowing fifteen different small vials of Soo to ascend from the underground.
Each one contained a single drop.
Since the drops are separated, this means that more players would have a chance to get at least a single drop. This is good for me if I want to compete against them.
Barnaby then showcased the vials to the crowd and began the bidding.
"You guys already know how important these Spirit of Old drops are. Now, we have fifteen of them ready and up for sale! Let me guys remind you that this is the last bidding of the night! If you have money to spend, then spend it now!
Let’s start bidding for 1 million gold coins!"
And strangely, even though the Soo drops were so famous and needed by every company in the world, there weren’t that many knocks coming in.
Usually, companies would still bid in the lower numbers even though they knew that they wouldn’t be able to win it. They were banking on the small chance that the Major Factions wouldn’t be interested in it.
But this time, not a lot of companies were even trying to bid for the Soo drops.
"Haha, look at everyone being a coward," Reptar joked. "They’re afraid of that simultaneous event. They know that they can’t possibly win against the Major Factions in two consecutive games."
"What are you laughing at? You’re not bidding too!" Phim retorted.
This time, the Minor Factions knew their limits. Just from the money aspect alone, they knew that they couldn’t hold a candle to those Legacies and organizations as old as time.
"100 million gold coins, coming from the Gilderaan company!"
"200 million, courtesy of Sinclair’s Elixir!"
"The royal family enters the bidding with 500 million gold coins!"
Just the fact that they bid so high so fast was a stark reminder to the Minor Factions that they were still so far off from the companies on top of Metropolis.
The bidding continued to rise, with each increment going up by a hundred million with each knock.
Eventually, the bidding reached up to 1.5 billion gold coins!
Divided by 15, this would mean that each drop was worth 100 million gold coins!
Seeing this price only made it more apparent that the five drops he received were priced way under market.
By comparison, the 5 drops that he obtained were worth only 300 million, which came up to only about 60 million per drop. That was a huge discount.
"Going once! Going twice! DECLARED! Alaric and the Gilderaan company get the honor of the top bid!" Barnaby announced, getting cheers from the crowd.
"Now, who wants to match the bid of 1.5 billion gold coins?"
As soon as he asked that question, the same six VIP suites knocked on their tinted windows.
Cheers and adulations for the Major Factions were spread aplenty during this time. Seeing such wealth being flaunted so easily fascinated the crowd. This was one of the reasons why they attended the auction in the first place.
"Seeing how rich they are really gets me all fired up!" said Reptar. "Hopefully I’ll be able to participate in that auction in the future!"
"Yeah, but spending that much will seriously deplete all of my money. I’ll have to save up first before I can contend with them," Erlos commented.
While everyone in the Minor Factions were talking about how they wished they could have participated in the game, Michael stood up and faced the tinted glass.
KNOCK!
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