MSC: Chapter 28 Part 2

The two of them attended the auction at 3:30 sharp.

Today’s auction featured large stores, all 200 square meters in size with two floors. One of them, located near the central square, was in a prime location. It was likely brought back for auction by a player who couldn’t keep their business afloat. Such stores were truly rare finds.

Xie Mingzhe remembered attending an auction with Senior Brother Qi, where a 50 square meter store had fetched a monthly rent of 20,000. This store had an excellent location and was four times the size. The monthly rent would surely exceed 80,000.

Such enough, a bid was placed, quickly raising the price to 80,000.

Xie Mingzhe had 660,000 gold coins in his bag, which was more than enough. He really liked this store and Brother Chen also thought the location was exceptional. He whispered in Xie Mingzhe’s ear, “Your business will definitely grow larger in the future. Rent a larger store from the start, so you don’t have to move later when you can’t store all your cards.”

Xie Mingzhe nodded. The price hovered around 80,000 for a moment. Then once the host started the countdown, he finally bid 85,000.

Someone else in the audience tried to compete with 90,000.

Xie Mingzhe calmly continued to raise the price to 100,000.

-110,000!

-120,000!

-130,000!

-150,000!

The feeling of personally pressing the bidding button was truly different. Xie Mingzhe never imagined that he would one day become a wealthy person who could bid at an auction instead of sitting in the crowd as a spectator. This day had come so quickly.

A monthly rent of 150,000 could easily lead to losses if not managed well. The player competing with Xie Mingzhe probably considered this and gave up bidding.

A 200 square meter store in the commercial street, 150,000 gold coins per month, sold!

The hammer fell and the right to use this store was transferred to Xie Mingzhe.

The excited Xie Mingzhe and Brother Chen went backstage to complete the formalities. Then the two of them went to the commercial street to see their store.

Xie Mingzhe could enter directly since he had management rights. He brought Brother Chen in as well.

The interior of the auctioned store had been cleaned out. It could be seen as a bare shell from Earth’s era and was very rudimentary. The store’s location was excellent, facing south with plenty of natural light. The first floor could be used for a card display area, customer message area and store announcement area, while the second floor would be dedicated to selling cards.

Chen Xiao suggested, “Let’s redecorate the store. Chi Qing is good at this, so let her handle it.”

Xie Mingzhe naturally trusted a woman to handle the renovation. Chi Qing was called down by Brother Chen and found out she was going to help Xie Mingzhe renovate a store. She didn’t ask many questions and simply asked, “What style do you like? Something luxurious or something simple?”

Xie Mingzhe answered, “Simple and elegant. You can decide on the rest, Sister Qing.”

Chi Qing suggested, “How about a warm beige color scheme?”

Xie Mingzhe nodded. “No problem!”

Chi Qing quickly started the renovation.

“You have to pay for furniture in the game, right? Sister Qing, keep track of the expenses and I will transfer it to you,” Xie Mingzhe said.

“Consider these furniture items my congratulatory gift to you,” Chen Xiao said readily. “Ah Qing will withdraw directly from the studio’s account. This is Xiao Xie’s first time opening a store and we will be working together to make money in the future. I should at least offer something.”

“Thank you, Brother Chen.” Since it was a collaboration, Xie Mingzhe didn’t want to be stingy. He said, “Brother Chen, I’ll give you a share of the store’s revenue. How much do you think is appropriate?”

“How about a 2% commission for each of us?” Brother Chen didn’t stand on ceremony and said directly.

Brother Chen wasn’t a greedy person. Xie Mingzhe also liked dealing with straightforward people, so he immediately agreed. “No problem.”

This amount of money wasn’t a big deal. The key was having a team to help him. He could focus on making cards in the future, and he wouldn’t have to worry about the materials for card upgrades and enhancements. This would greatly save him time and energy. Moreover, once he went to compete in the future, all his cards would need to be upgraded to the maximum level. This might require a lot of enhancement materials. He would be exhausted if he did it alone.

Xie Mingzhe watched as Chi Qing bought furniture from the system store and quickly decorated the store.

Sister Qing was truly a home improvement expert. In less than half an hour, the entire store was transformed. It was decorated exactly according to Xie Mingzhe’s design. There was a card display area on the first floor, along with a store notice board and a customer comment area. The second floor featured a dozen or so neat rows of display cabinets.

Xie Mingzhe changed the store name to ‘Half Moon Card Specialty Store’ and started displaying the cards.

He thought for a moment and suggested, “I want to upgrade two cards to seven stars. They won’t be for sale, just for display. This way, customers can see the card’s stats after it is fully upgraded. What do you think, Brother Chen?”

“That’s a good idea. What are the card’s attributes? I will get you the upgrade materials.”

“One is wood type and the other is water type.”

Since the fragments had just been delivered to the boss, Brother Chen brought a bunch of useless cards that the studio had accumulated from dungeons for Xie Mingzhe to disassemble. Xie Mingzhe quickly separated hundreds of fragments and upgraded Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai to level 70, evolving them into seven-star black cards.

The materials were definitely expensive, but Brother Chen was willing to help him. Therefore, Xie Mingzhe didn’t mind. He figured he would get a share after the card sold out.

Once everything was settled, Xie Mingzhe looked at his store and a slight smile appeared on his face.

Being a boss felt so good!

Brother Chen said, “What time do you plan to open? I’ll promote it on the forum. Also, set the store to ‘unlimited traffic’ mode in the backend. On the first day, there will definitely be a lot of people coming to join the fun, and the store will be overcrowded.”

“Okay, let’s open at 7 p.m. tonight.” Thanks to Brother Chen for reminding him or he wouldn’t have known about the ‘unlimited traffic’ mode. In this mode, if thousands of people flooded into his store, the store would quickly generate countless copies, synchronizing the data to allow even more players to enter. Everyone would see the same replicated scene. AS for who could buy a card… that depended on hand speed and Internet speed.

A moment later, a post appeared on the official Star Card Forum, personally posted by Brother Chen. “The original card maker, Half Moon’s card store will open tonight at 7 p.m. sharp. The location is the Aquarius star region’s commercial district, behind the auction store. Store number 1-315, the south section of Xiushui Road. Welcome everyone!”

Many people downstairs replied, “What type of cards will Chubby Uncle sell?”

”Is it Lin Daiyu again?”

”What grudge do you have against people who collect flower cards? Does your ex-girlfriend particularly like flowers?”

”Are you going to publicly sell Daiyu cards in bulk? I feel sorry for God Tang!”

”I will definitely go to Chubby’s store!”

”What is your real name, Chubby? You’re not actually chubby, are you?”

Everyone was extremely curious about this card maker and expressed their intention to visit the store.

Soon, Chi Qing, Pang Yu and Jin Yue all learned about Xie Mingzhe opening a store. Pang Yu’s eyes widened. “Wow, I never expected my roommate to be a card-making genius! Am I coming to benefit from Xiao Xie’s success?”

Jin Yue smiled and said, “You can get extra income while being a gamer. Not bad!”

Chi Qing’s voice was calm. “If you need any materials in the future, just say the word and we will farm them for you.”

Brother Chen concluded, “Starting today, the studio will temporarily stop taking orders but everyone’s wages will still be paid. We’ll save the materials we farm for Xiao Xie to upgrade his cards, and help him get the store up and running first.”

Xie Mingzhe was very happy. “Thank you, everyone! Let’s all make money together!”

At 7 p.m. that evening.

Xie Mingzhe was surprised to find that the first people to enter his store were many familiar IDs: Canyang, Huanyue, Hongzhu… and some unfamiliar IDs with titles like ‘Vice President of XX Guild’ or ‘Manager of XX Guild.’

How many guilds had come?

Fortunately, he listened to Brother Chen and enabled the unlimited traffic mode. In the game, his store was quickly filled and he had already created more than ten duplicate spaces. Besides the major guilds who found out about the situation and rushed to grab Daiyu cards, countless passersby also came to watch.

The moment the onlookers entered the store, they all thought the decorations were particularly beautiful. The off-white wallpaper and floors gave people a warm feeling of ‘walking into a home.’ The first floor was very spacious, with a row of card display cards. It was just that most of them were empty, with only the two in the middle displaying cards.

The warm light from the ceiling lights shone on the cards, and the max-level cards looked extremely exquisite.

There were two level 70 max-level black cards. One was Lin Daiyu’s ‘Daiyu Burying the Flowers’ which caused instant death to flower-type cards. The other was Xue Baochai’s ‘Baochai Catches Butterflies’, which caused instant death for butterfly-type cards. Next to the display cases was a sign that said: Max-level card display. This card isn’t for sale.

Players who didn’t want to buy cards were curiously watching the two beauties, while those who wanted to buy cards rushed upstairs like madmen.

The second floor was completely different. A dozen or so neatly arranged display cases looked impressive, but most were empty. Only the first row contained some cards, all level 1 cards. There were ten Lin Daiyu cards on the left and ten Xue Baochai cards on the right.

The onlookers couldn’t help exclaiming, “They are all distant death cards!”

”Can he really sell so many at once?”

However, while the onlookers were still wondering…

A terrifying scene unfolded.

The ten Daiyu cards and ten Baochai cards in the display cases were almost instantly swept away!

The onlookers stared in shock at the sight, thinking they were seeing things.

At the same time, in the professional league player group.

Ye Zhu: D*mn, how did this Chubby guy make a butterfly-type instant death card? It is also a 30 agility beginner card, with 100 agility at the max level!

Shen An: I told you not to laugh at my master. Now you are being targeted too, hehehe!

Tang Muzhou: Smile.

Everyone: God Tang, what are you smiling at?

Tang Muzhou: I’m looking forward to him making even more instant death cards.

Everyone, “……”

Then someone else said, “Half Moon’s card store has specially set aside an announcement area with a sentence. Everyone should take a look. It says: Today’s cards are sold out, thank you for visiting. In addition to Daiyu and Baochai, I will release new cards tomorrow. The store opens at 11:#0 a.m. See you there.

Everyone, “………”