Mark took out his pocket watch and started the timer. The majority of the bidders were silent while some merchants were discussing with their partners whether it is worth bidding for the buyout or not.
The price of the machine pistol is only 35 gold coins but its buyout price is 10,000 gold coins. Even if this amount isn't much for these wealthy merchants, they will still have to worry about the profits they were gonna make by selling these firearms to people living in faraway places.
The clock is ticking but no one raised the paddle, making Song Yue a bit nervous. After all, this is the first item and she wants to go everything smooth despite the fact that the machine pistol, Tigon-1 can only be useful for civilians or low-level adventurers.
On the other hand, Mark was calm. After registering all 8 weapons and earning about 30,000 credits, which is equivalent to 150,000 gold coins, he can afford to buy a model with his own money but through Chang Bo or Song Yue. So, whether they are sold or not, it won't bother him much as long as the big vehicles were sold at an exorbitant price.
The countdown reached the last ten seconds and no one raised it yet with merchants deciding to go with the bidding.
Mark also thought the same and he was waiting for the countdown timer to finish.
However, when there were only 3 seconds left, a paddle with blue token number 3 was raised.
"Hmm?" Mark's eyes fell on the princess who bid for the buyout. A trace of surprise appeared on a few merchants who were eyeing the machine pistol but wanted to go for the bidding to acquire the rights for a lower price.
But, before they got the chance to discuss further, the time is up and Mark pressed the little button on top of the pocket watch, "The buyout time is over."
Song Yue's face changed and a pleasant smile appeared on her face as she strikes down the hammer. "Sold. Congratulations, No. 3 on purchasing the rights to buy Tigon-1."
Alina, who was on standby until now, made her move. She walked to the table where the representatives of Western Moon and Kun Empire were sitting together and handed a contract. Before starting the auction, Alina has already distributed dip pens and inks to each table. So, it would be easy for the bidders to think until the end and sign whenever they wanted to.
While Mark took out the second item from the inventory and placed it on the table, Princess Shen Ling read the contract. The deal costs her an overall amount of 11750 gold coins to which she will receive the first batch of Tigon-1 and 1-year rights to purchase them again.
She signed the contract and placed it aside. It needed Mark's signature too for the contract to come into effect and that will only happen after she handed him the money and he handed him those 50 machine pistols. But, as this won't be the last time she will bid, she decided to deal with everything at the end of the auction.
Back to the podium, Song Yue became a bit more excited as she announced the next product.
"Now, it's time for the second weapon of the Tigon series to be auctioned. Also known as the executioner, this big-sized revolver can shoot shotgun pellets that are powerful enough to take out even a 3-circle Spirit Warrior if one's aim is perfect.
You can say that it is a compact version of a Shotgun, which was a level-2 exclusive weapon of our store. Due to its considerable small size despite its high firepower, it can be hidden in sleeves and is a perfect weapon to protect oneself in case of a sudden ambush.
The price of Tigon-2 is 75 gold coins a piece and the number to be sold on the spot is 100. The minimum assured order is about 5,000 in 1 year. The starting bid is 1000 gold coins and the buyout price is 10000 gold coins.
You have 30 seconds to make the decision."
Mark pressed the button once again. This time, the bidders didn't waste time like before, especially the merchants.
The first one to raise the paddle was a merchant named Wang Ping, who deals in alchemy products like potions and pills.
As soon as he showed interest, the other merchants who wanted to wait until the end had to raise their respective paddles too.
Ouyang Zen and some of the major clan leaders showed interest in the weapon. As for Emperor Shang, he was only interested in three things. Until the auction gets to that point, he planned to stay as a spectator.
In the meantime, he was cursing Mark inside his head for pouring the water on his hard work.
Shang Fu tried to eliminate the competition and reduce the possible bidding price by making deals amongst them on who will bid on what product.
Grand Secretariat Li also planned to use the clan leaders as proxies on different items so that the good ones would fall into the hands of the Imperial Palace. Since Mark had already sent him a list of the auctioned items in the special invitation letter, Shang Fu thought that he can make full use of this information.
But, how in the world could he expect that Mark would not only invite the Eastern Sun kingdom but even a Prince of Kun Empire will also crash at the event? Now, only Western Moon Kingdom isn't the only thing that Shang Fu needed to worry about.
Adding on top of that, Mark put high starting bids and buyout prices for every item.
All these things added up and only made it tougher for Shang Fu. But, since he could do nothing about it, Shang Fu proceeded to discuss things with the Grand Secretariat who joined him alongside Bai Xun.
As for the second prince, he didn't tag along with them as he wasn't comfortable with playing mind games. An auction isn't a place where people throw money to get what they want. It's all about playing smart to acquire the items at a price that's worth paying for it.
Anyway, back to the bidding, one after another, a paddle was raised every three to four seconds even for the buyout, indicating that there was going to be tough competition between them.
Mark couldn't help but smile in excitement. His eyes wandered all over the place to identify the bidders.
And when he was done with the scanning, his eyes fell on the princess of Western Moon who appeared to be grabbing the paddle but not raising it.
Mark stared at his pocket watch and there were only ten seconds left. Just like previously, he expected her to participate in the bidding but sadly, she put the paddle down on the table in the end.
Upon witnessing it, Mark stopped paying attention to her and focused on the bidders.
Meanwhile, at table no. 3;
"Why? That weapon looks worth procuring." King Shen Niu was confused by the princess' decision to not bid for the item.
Shen Ling shook her head and replied, "They are worth the price but it is considered foolish to spend so much on them."
"Eh?" Prince Qin Yu couldn't understand her. He said, "Just now, you bought those worthless things for 10,000 gold coins."
"You will have to wait for a while, Prince Qin." Shen ling let out a mysterious smile and then shifted her attention back to Mark.
As the 30-second timer is over, Song Yue found 11 bidders.
She spoke, "Okay, the buyout timer is finished. The further bidding will only be participated by numbers 1, 6, 8, 12, 15, 19, 26, 28, 32, 41, and 59.
The bidding will start at 10,000 gold coins and each bid is raised by 500 gold coins. Now, you may raise the paddle to increase the bid."
As soon as her words ended, a paddle was raised. Mark took a glance in the direction. He saw Ouyang Zen raise the paddle but his attention was quickly stolen by the girl sitting beside him.
Since he missed the chance earlier to identify her, Mark inspected her details through Sage's eyes.
"What the…" A trace of surprise appeared on his face as he stared at the holographic screen that is floating in the air. "Mari? Lyra? What the hell is going on?"
