Ye Qing Getting Rich

Scar's laughter caught in his throat, eyes narrowing dangerously after that sense of alarm washed over him. It wasn't only Scar, everyone else was intrigued since every item on the weekly promotion list was already sold.

Were there any surprises, or last-minute products? Madam Ye also realized that she had almost forgotten about the online auction. Someone had indeed listed an in-game digital product on the Antique Night Auction website.

Madam Ye cleared her throat. "We have one last item from a member on the official website… They have deposited a digital content item for tonight's auction."

Madam Ye then switched the screen, even as her hands were sweating from nervousness.

Meanwhile, the people in the hall were a bit impatient. Sounds of grumbling and dissent quickly proliferated the venue as they had no idea how expensive or rare a digital product in a video game could get. In fact, upon reading the description as a faith contract with binding properties, they felt even more confused.

"No minimal bid? Is this some kind of a joke?"

The man who spoke was quite impatient. Thus, he placed a bid for 10 yuan. Feeling both generous and amused at himself. When the bid showed up on the screen, everyone couldn't help but laugh while increasing the bids by 10 yuan at a time.

Madam Ye clenched her small fists, feeling angry and humiliated. As for Zi Rumeng, the lass was already on the verge of crying and rushing onto the stage to hug Madam Ye. Ye Qing watched this whole farce unfold while itching the face of everyone who laughed tonight in his mind.

On the high floor in the technical support office, Maid Ya was staring at her screen, dumbfounded. Then, she immediately picked up her phone and with trembling fingers she sent a message to Madam Ye.

Ding!

Madam Ye's ringtone echoed in the room of hushed whispers and mocking smiles. She fished out the phone and checked the contents of the message, stunned. That expression of undisguised astonishment registered in everyone's eyes.

"Madam Ye, did the bidding range exceed your original estimate?" Scar looked at the bid of 160 yuan on the screen, taunting with a faint smile. Laugher burst out once more in the hall, only for this laughter to pause in its track the moment Madam Ye switched the screen once more.

It went from the auctioned item on display to the general membership feed of the Antique Night Auction website. At the moment, the membership list was constantly flickering and updating per the passing second; the rate of memberships was alarming. This had to do with the fact that only confirmed members can bid on the online site, and the confirmation process was very simple; you need to deposit a dollar in the website's vault.

Not CNY, but USD!

100 members…

300 members…

900 members…

1,356 members…

4,267 members…

8,214 members…

19,620 members…

Very quickly, the membership count reached the 50,000 active members threshold, which translates to 50,000 USD! Everyone in the hall was a shrewd businessman and they could put two and two together. They guessed that all of these people were attracted to the digital content auction.

However, where did Madam Ye get the time, energy, and resources to advertise this product?

Furthermore, if she truly did advertise it… how come they haven't had any idea about it?

"I know!" a middle-aged man suddenly jumped. "This game… this title… I heard about it from my son; this is currently the game with the most active player base globally! However, that is only when comparing the ratio of registered players with the active players, as the game is too expensive for ordinary people to buy, let alone play!"

This man quickly explained the origins of the new game, Clash of Titans Online, and its impact on the younger generation in the scene of competitive e-sports. Apparently, only second or third-generation rich young masters have the ability to afford to buy this game.

It had only been released for a little over two weeks, yet it had exploded with over 500,000 players already, and over 97% of the player base is active, daily. In the future, the prices would drop considerably when affordable immersive capsules for the middle class are manufactured, and even immersive headgear for the lower class of society.

Even as he finished explaining, the middle-aged man was shocked as he stared at the screen.

The membership count finally started slowing down and stopped. However, the active members online had stopped at nearly 120,000 members.

That's insane traffic! That's the equivalent of 120,000 USD in earnings for free! A little more and the income from the website to Madam Ye's international bank account would net nearly 1 million yuan in less than five minutes.

While everyone was shocked by these numbers… Ding!

Madam Ye's phone rang once again, everyone heard it clearly. Madam Ye didn't need to guess the content of the message and she immediately switched over to the bidding screen.

Even faster than Madam Ye, everyone checked their portable bidding devices. Screams of shock and alarm echoed in the hall while Scar's face went pale white, even as sweat poured like rain from his pores. Even Al-Father, composed as he was, felt shock ripple through his body.

The international biddings would be carried out in USD, but the devices and the live auction screen would automatically convert the currency back to CNY. Even so, these numbers were astronomical…

Zi Rumeng looked down at Ye Qing's device, face filled with shock.

"10 million yuan already!" she had never seen such an explosive price in an auction her entire life, not even in economic magazines.

Ye Qing gave her a look and said, "You've miscounted the zeros; that's 1 billion."

Zi Rumeng's eyes rounded, her cherry lips parting ever-so-slowly, looking as though she was blatantly offering some kind of an 'invitation' with that mouth of hers. Feeling awkward, Ye Qing turned his head to the side, reciting some sutras about warding evil thoughts.

"B-billion?" Zi Rumeng finally collected herself, gulping audibly. Ye Qing's words weren't soft by the least; everyone in the room who had gone silent after a loud, unprecedented gasp heard him. Ye Qing responded, "You look down on this game too much; we're slowly transitioning to a digital age, what's so weird about a realistic immersive game having such popularity and heat?

"Only those who had actually experienced the game could understand how groundbreaking this breakthrough in the field of simulative reality is. It put all the other simulation games to shame. Let alone 500,000 players; if the market price dropped by no less than 20% in the following months, the player database would most likely more than triple."

"This must be a joke! This is pure nonsense! It's just a game!" Scar couldn't hold his anger and frustration in, jumping to his feet even as he squeezed the portable device in his hand so tightly it cracked.

Ye Qing paid the man no attention at all, simply watching the numbers jump from 1 billion to 3 billion, then 9 billion, and eventually slowing down near 15 billion. Just how much was 15 billion yuan?

For what? An in-game digital product? Forget them, even Ye Qing was shocked as the price finally settled at 22 billion yuan. The auction house would subtract 20% of the money as a commission fee, almost 4.5 billion yuan.

This also means that Ye Qing would have 17.5 billion yuan in his international bank account on the Main Nterwork's server. Yes, the Main Network exists in real life too, as some form of intercontinental federation on the web, since the interests of Clash of Titans Online concern many governments.

He had long given Claudia permission to access, browse, and co-manage his online accounts related to the website, his international bank account included. After the fact, Ye Qing began to have these questions as to why would he provide a hyper-intelligent AI with so much authority over his online life, but these were fleeting thoughts.

Madam Ye was as astonished as everyone else, but her nature made it very difficult to tell what was on her mind; save for whenever she experienced such extreme emotions.

She was going through such an episode right this moment when Scar's sudden outburst brought the woman back to the present reality. Confused as she was, Madam Ye knew to not let this affect her.

She spoke flatly, "This concludes our auction for today; if you have any doubts, you can always check our official website for traffic and transaction reports. Thank you."

Knowing she had no way of answering any questions right now, Madam Ye immediately slipped behind the stage under the eyes of so many dumbfounded big shots.

Scar felt his world crumble around him as he wracked his brain on how to report back to his boss; he was frightened of what to come of severe punishment. As for Al-Father, he had long since disappeared from Scar's side and began to approach Ye Qing, feeling like he could get some answers from this child since even Madam Ye seemed out of it when it came to this new and uprising game.