Threat From Hackers

The world went colorless and silent in Scar's perception the moment Madam Ye left the stage. In her wake, only the screen with a glaring bid in the billions stared back at him.

For the longest daze he had ever experienced, these numbers laughed at him.

A soft nudge to the arm woke Scar up from his desolate reverie as one of his subordinates, no less shaken up than he was, spoke while stuttering, "T-the boss called two hours ago… H-he wants to see y-you…"

Two hours…

Scar's bleak face swept the hall after he blinked once. It was already empty— the screen was also long turned off.

The shock was so great, even his perceptive senses were lost in the moment of shock, lagging behind. Scar's face twitched, the wounds on his skin wriggling like earthworms even as his sweat raced through them like irrigated waters.

The subordinate who nudged Scar looked down at his hand— it was soaked in sweat. Then, he looked at Scar's back and saw a sticky handprint indentation in the man's clothing. The subordinate gulped, feeling his world spin and fall down in a spiral.

Scar gathered himself and asked, "What about Al-Father?"

The subordinate replied, "Al-Father talked with that high school student for a bit, then left after giving out his name card…"

Al-Father got very interested in the game after watching the auction for himself. To make 22 billion yuan in exchange for an in-game digital item sounded like a bargain, and if he could have a host of players under his control who search for treasures and sell them to the die-hard gamers through similar auctions, he would make a lot of money.

It wasn't only Al-Father, as many of the business big shots who witnessed the auction began to fester similar ideas.

However, they were clueless that the players had long since streamed this auction online as the very first player who made an auction that crossed both game and real life.

The game forums offered an auction feature but people can only buy things using the in-game currency provided in the auction thread. Even if they don't have any Holias, they can exchange real currency for limited Holias, but these Holias aren't functional in-game.

That aside, the exchange rates are also pretty high. Players would rather barter in person for a good deal or a worthwhile exchange than go to the auctions on forums.

This is the issue with online marketing, everyone wants to profit. It could be said that Antique Night Auction's website is the first and only active online auction at the moment to have hosted an in-game digital item.

At this moment, Ye Qing stood together with Maid Ya and Madam Ye, all three of them were observing the number of registered members climbing through the roof on the computer screen.

Zi Rumeng left on her own long ago, despite her reluctance to do so. She understood that she wasn't part of the family, hence, she couldn't accompany Ye Qing into staff-restricted areas.

Ye Qing suddenly asked, "Will the identity of the member who auctioned the item be revealed to the public?"

Maid Ya subconsciously shook her head. "No; only the mods on the website can get that detail— which means only myself and Madam Ye… Are you curious to know who petitioned the item?"

Ye Qing shook his head. "No need to tell me, I was the one who put the item out for auction." Ye Qing heaved a sigh of relief. He didn't wish to advertise his identity as Mortal to the whole world since he would be joining the Floating Academy soon, and if he was discovered to have sold two lesser binding talismans, it would spell endless trouble.

Moreover, his friends were already quite familiar with his username, and he wouldn't claim to have trusted them completely yet.

Madam Ye started at Ye Qing in shock. Maid Ya laughed and said, "Sorry, I can't disclose the identity even if you're now Madam Ye's younger brother…"

Maid Ya's voice went softer and softer as she slowly registered what Ye Qing just said. He said it with such a straight face that she reflexively answered in rejection, but very quickly she was left gaping at the young man.

"What did you just say? You… You're joking, aren't you?"

Both Maid Ya and Madam Ye were staring at Ye Qing, making him feel a little uncomfortable. Thus, under their inquisitive gazes, he simply sat on the computer and entered the website, proceeding to log in with the username and password.

The two watched in disbelief as Ye Qing checked the inbox for a notification about his item netting a pure profit of 17.5 billion yuan, and despite their shock, Ye Qing thought for a bit before going to the profile page and changing the username from 'Mortal' to 'Kaiser'.

'Better safe than sorry,' this was Ye Qing's thought.

He said lightly, "Now it won't be a problem to make the identity public. Actually, it would help you get more traffic to make it public, and make me an admin even. This way, people will think that even though Young Master Ye left the country, he would be supporting the auction by listing in-game items… Gaming is what he does best anyway, right?"

The silence in the room was disturbing, to say the least.

Concerned, Ye Qing turned his head from the screen only to find Madam Ye and Maid Ya staring at him silently.

The latter's expression was much, much more exaggerated than any shocked expression Ye Qing could have imagined. Her mouth hung open, body stiff or perhaps trembling from excitement. Her big eyes sparkled like ruby gemstones, on the verge of exploding with mirth.

Maid Ya felt too excited, and almost immediately, she lunged forward with the intention of occupying Ye Qing's chest. Two steps into her sprint, however, the image from the gaming cabinet flashed in her mind. She paused, the flush on her face taking an alternate version of red.

Maid Ya suddenly found herself in the motion of going for a hug, but she couldn't for the love of god follow through with it. Embarrassment suddenly got the better of her, and those gemlike eyes moistened from distress.

Luckily and before she broke into tears, Ye Qing snapped out of his daze and took the initiative to stand up and wrap his arms around her petite frame, patting her head in the process.

"Little Ya had it hard these few days," Ye Qing comforted, realizing how nerve-wracking it was for this little thing to lurk the statistics for the auction house fall day after day.

'She must have been in a rush of excitement and forgot her manners,' Ye Qing thought to himself. What Ye Qing hadn't expected though, was that Maid Ya's thin arms would coil around his waist, even as her little fists clenched his shirt tightly, she suddenly started crying.

Her sudden burst of excitement was suddenly washed away with fatigue and relief, and the bout of weakness together with overwhelming embarrassment finally caused her mental defenses to collapse.

It seemed as though Ye Qing's words were no different than the final straw to break the camel's back.

Madam Ye was also surprised, not having expected Maid Ya to be under so much pressure for her sake. Suddenly, there was a hint of warmth in her eyes.

She waved her hand, an invisible force striking Maid Ya unconscious in Ye Qing's arms. It was but for a moment, but Ye Qing's white shirt was already soaked from the front, and his jacket was still with Zi Rumeng.

"She will anoint you an admin or a mod tomorrow, she can rest for the night. Furthermore, I want you to tell me a little more about this game and whether selling its digital content items would have any legal representations I should be wary of."

Ye Qing thought for a bit and said, "Don't worry about anyone taking legal actions against you, you need to be more concerned about hackers instead."

Madam Ye creased her brows. "Why would anyone want to hack the website?…"

She immediately went silent through her sentence as she had realized how stupid her question was. Someone just became a multi-billionaire within minutes on her website, if anyone could find their identity, that would be easy money. From this aspect, if the hackers succeeded in their attempts, no one would trust the security of the website for large deals and vice versa.

Credibility and security had always been and would always be an auction's golden sign and protective talisman. If an auction house didn't enjoy both, it might as well stick to low-value auctions.

Although these things were very difficult to secure in the real world, they weren't that impossible online, you just needed to have the proper staff to monitor the servers and databases while counter-hacking 24/7.

However, where could they find the proper staff within so little amount of time? Thinking about the situation, Madam Ye's expression went dark.