The design inspiration for "Auction King" came from the blind box auction mechanics of shipping containers and the treasure-hunting style of "Search, Loot, and Evacuate" gameplay.
With such a simple concept, paired with the cheap AI-generated art and UI available at the time, it somehow managed to pull in a staggering 20,000 concurrent players during the testing phase alone.
This just goes to show the potential of this type of gameplay.
When Lu Ze included "Auction King" inside "Operation Immortal Abyss," his goal wasn't just to borrow the popularity of the latter. He also had another purpose in mind.
That was to drain the spirit stones from the players' warehouses.
In Lu Ze's previous life, the infuriating game directors kept adjusting prices round after round just to burn through the players' Huf Coins, leaving ordinary players miserable.
Now, with "Auction King" added as a casual mode supplement, the players' spirit stones clearly had a new place to go.
The transfer between the two modes was one-way.
Cultivators could only exchange spirit stones earned from the treasure-hunting mode for those used in the auction mode when they went bankrupt.
The reverse, however, was not allowed.
Otherwise, it would negatively affect their demonic path income.
That's because, in theory, as long as a cultivator played it safe enough, they could always turn a profit in the beginner auction maps.
Take Zhong Yi at this very moment, for example.
After grinding through two beginner-level maps, "Blind Box Pile" and "Air Freight Crate," for half an hour, Zhong Yi's assets had grown steadily and were about to break the million mark.
His strategy was simple: rely on Mai Xiaowen's abilities to gather information, assess the value of items, and never take reckless risks.
As long as he secured the cargo hold, he would rarely see red numbers.
And even if he occasionally overestimated the value, his losses wouldn't be too severe.
This time, the shipping container was especially packed, and a red item appeared—a rare sight.
By now, the livestream chat was more anxious than Zhong Yi himself.
[Only offering 500,000? Are you stingy or what?]
[Smart Little Zhou across the hall made a million in one round. Can you show a little ambition, Zhong?]
[One red, four gold, and you won't even gamble? Where's your nerve?]
[Raise the bid, raise it, raise it!]
[You've already used your items, so why not commit to this cargo?]
...
At the start of the round, the public information showed that the container held three gold-tier items.
Using Mai Xiaowen, Zhong Yi detected a red-tier item in the first turn.
In the second turn, he didn't hesitate to use a green-tier item, the Four Symbols Peek, and by sheer luck, he caught a glimpse of the red item's outline—it was a two-slot horizontal piece.
From there, Zhong Yi roughly estimated the total value of the container.
Despite the chat making fun of him, Zhong Yi stuck to his guns and calmly keyed in a bid of 500,000.
"Don't rush, fellow cultivators. Allow me to explain," he began.
"The value of red items in auction mode is generally lower than in treasure-hunting mode, so don't lose your heads just because you see red. Most red items are only worth about 100,000."
"There are only four types of horizontal two-slot red items. The cheapest is worth 100,000, and the most expensive is 500,000. There's no need for us to gamble on that slim chance of the 500,000 one. If it fails, we'd lose everything, right?"
"I'm estimating this as 200,000 for the red, 150,000 for the three gold ones, 50,000 for items below purple, and 10,000 left over for a possible red..."
"Crunching the numbers like this, 500,000 is the rough value of this cargo. Any higher, and even winning the bid wouldn't yield a profit."
Just as he finished, the countdown ended.
The other three players placed bids of 380,000, 420,000, and 800,000.
The cargo was snapped up by the player who bid 800,000.
"800,000? Even if that two-slot red turns out to be a High Sacred Vibration Dagger, it'd still be a guaranteed loss!" Zhong Yi sneered.
As the bidding ended, the game entered the settlement screen—the most intense part of the whole match.
Items from the container popped up one by one, just like in treasure-hunting mode when you scan with divine sense.
As cheap blue and green junk filled the warehouse, Zhong Yi grew smugger by the second.
Especially when that two-slot red item spun out to be a Wild Large Yellow Croaker worth 120,000, he couldn't contain the smirk on his face.
"I told you, any bid over 500,000 for this cargo wouldn't be profitable," he boasted.
"If he actually makes money on that 800,000 bid, I'll livestream myself eating Illusory Tower!"
No sooner had he spoken than
a four-slot item at the bottom of the container spun for a long time before settling on a red one: Yongle Encyclopedia: Incomplete Edition Volume Two.
The total value of the cargo instantly jumped by 1.55 million!
Net profit: a million!
Zhong Yi's face dropped, looking worse than if he had just eaten something foul.
The chat immediately burst into laughter.
[Haha, you just had to say it]
[As soon as I saw him open his mouth, I knew he'd have to eat something]
[Still in denial?]
[What flavor of Illusory Tower do you want?]
[It's just the price of a ticket, no big loss, right? Why the long face?]
...
Lu Ze, lurking in the livestream, couldn't suppress the grin spreading across his face.
In theory, as long as a player was steady enough, they could keep winning indefinitely.
But that was only on paper.
Because the most brilliant thing about this game was—
Seeing someone else make money hurt even more than losing your own!
So, as long as a player kept playing, they would inevitably turn into a gambling addict.
"How can you play it that way?!" Zhong Yi was now deep in self-doubt.
He had deliberated and calculated for so long, only to earn less than 800,000.
Someone else gambled on a red item and made a million in one go!
"I get it now! This illusion demands... what was it?"
Zhong Yi struggled for a moment before recalling that new term from the bidding screen: All In.
"Yes! I need to go all in!"
Zhong Yi gritted his teeth.
Just as Lu Ze had designed, seeing someone else make a million felt worse than going bankrupt himself!
That could have been his life!
Zhong Yi decided to abandon caution and start playing aggressively and recklessly.
He started another match.
"Haha, red on the first reveal again! I'm all in this time!"
[Auction Result: -234,213 Spirit Stones]
...
"Dammit, I didn't see a red item after four rounds, but I feel like it's hiding in there..."
[Auction Result: -81,227 Spirit Stones]
...
"Holy crap! I'm unbeatable! I see a red worth 1.5 million right away... What do you mean I don't have enough spirit stones???"
"..."
"Ah!!! Not having enough spirit stones to bid is worse than watching others make money!!!"
...
"Fine, one more round. I'll definitely turn things around..."
[Entry Fee: 100,000 Spirit Stones]
[You cannot enter at this time.]
"?????"
Zhong Yi stared in disbelief at his now-empty warehouse.
"Wait... Where did all my spirit stones go???"
[I've been in a bad state lately, unable to shake off the shadows, losing sleep night after night. I'm just keeping up writing for you whenever my emotions settle a bit. I'll try my best not to miss updates, but if I really break down and can't write one day, please wait for me to come back.]
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
villain is the number one simp for the book's leading female protagonist, Shen Wan'er. As expected, he later becomes a tool for the main character to show off and slap faces, ultimately meeting a tragic end with his family ruined and his life in shambles. Fortunately, he awakens the [Universal Pure Love System], which allows him to earn points by performing acts of pure love. To change his fate, Gu Yan makes a decisive choice to seek warmth and companionship with the book's biggest villain—Cold Qingqiu. ........... My name is Leng Qingqiu. To find the murderer who killed my parents years ago, I deliberately blinded myself so that everyone would lower their guard around me. Just as I was secretly accumulating power and capital according to my initial plan, a man walked into my world. "Lengleng, Qingqing, Qiuqiu, which nickname do you prefer?" I don't like any of them. You'd better leave quickly! "Why aren't you saying anything? How about I call you my baby wife?" Leng Qingqiu thinks to herself, this man is truly annoying! (Stubborn pure love warrior + single female lead + true pure love + 1v1)
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
