Chapter 2158: Bidding

The message shook everyone.

Christos stood up, almost got ready to leave and only then did he remember what his purpose was and what he came to do.

He sat back down and looked at the Gambler academy members in askance. His expression, his shaking legs, and his fiddling fingers, all showed that he is anxious to leave.

This is an opportunity, he cannot let it go.

"How do we evaluate the value of the coin?" He asked.

Sam smiled and said.

"Tomorrow in the auction, the coins value will be decided. You need to pay the ransom based on that value."

Everyone froze. All the Zeus Academy members froze like they were thrown into the middle of a glacier. They couldn't even move his fingers and they even forgot to breath for a second.

"What did you say?" Christos asked to clarity. He was hoping that he heard Sam wrong.

"You heard me right. Tomorrow, we will know the true value of the coins. Based on that you can pay the ransom."

"That is unfair. Do you even know how much the coins value could go to?"

Christos yelled as he pointed his finger at Sam's face. His finger his shivering.

"How would I? We will only know it tomorrow."

"This... you are taking advantage of the situation. The coin price could reach sky high. You cannot do this."

"I thought you guys are going to be generous." Sam said with a smirk.

"That doesn't mean, we are ready to get fleeced. You better think of better conditions, because that is not going to happen."

"Of course, it will happen. But since you guys are acting constipated, I will ease it for you.

The lowest price that goes in the auction. He did say they are auctioning in packs. The value of the cheapest pack will be the value we will go by. Otherwise, you can forget about the exchange. I am sure the will enjoy their time in the Gambler Academy prison.

And if you don't agree to the conditions now, we are not going to hold another meeting until after the Inter Academy tournament.

After all, we need to prepare for the tournament as well and we cannot keep on having these stupid time wasting meetings."

Sam said and stood up. The remaining two also followed.

They got ready to leave and it didn't look like they were bluffing. Christos gritted his teeth and decided to take the call.

"I agree."

The deal was closed and the Zeus Academy students came back with a million questions haunting their minds. How did Sam know that something like this is happening? Did he just take advantage of the sudden message by thinking on his feet or did he really know that something like this is going to happen?

If he did, how did he know? What is his connection with Joker? What is his background?

These kinds of questions burned in their minds. And they shared this fire with their peers back in the Academy.

Everyone started speculating and of course, the initial questions broadly expanded and people started thinking.

Maybe a first grader like Sam didn't really have any connection? Maybe it was the Gambler Academy that forged the connection? Maybe it was even the Dean?

And that was the reason Sam was bold enough to execute the plan like that. Sometimes, he doesn't even have to give out excuses himself. People will do it by themselves and they will rationalize things.

That night the silent bids were placed. Of course, the silent bids were just a ploy by Sam. It was so that he could control the intake of the people. He will know all the bids and he will know all their goals. All he needs to do is send passes to the people that has goals that will align with his.

He did as he wanted.

The Noble league only got three passes out of the twenty five in the first grade. Two for the second grade, four for the third and only one in the fourth grade.

Christos was dumbfounded. He almost ran to the Hub and took it up with Icarus. He wanted to call that it was cheating. But he knew that it would be just asking for more trouble he was already in.

He cannot just blindly throw accusations.

The next day he went to the auction to see who exactly got the other tickets and when he went there, he is dumbfounded once again. Most of the people that got the passes were not exactly powerful people, but they had one thing in common.

They were all a bit against the Noble league.

Some that were humiliated by the Noble league, some that were surprised and some that were even tortured by the noble league.

This made him frown. But then he shook his head.

He cannot look too deep into things.

That is what he thought. Once again with the rationalization.

Everyone was directed to different virtual rooms and once they were there, they felt like they were being suspended in void. After some time, they realized that their consciousness or the virtual body they are projecting is in a virtual auction hall.

In the middle of it stood Joker with his own projection.

"Hello everyone, I don't want to waste a lot of time.

I will get straight to the point. My friend is giving out ten million coins to you guys in this auction. We are going to sell those coins in packs. A hundred thousand coins in each one. A hundred packs in total.

A person can but two packs maximum. If they did two, they are out of the auction.

And each grade has twenty packs reserved for themselves. The remaining twenty packs are open. That is where the instructors and elders can big along with the students.

We will start with the first grade.

How about we start the auction right away?"

Joker clapped his hands and a pack of coins floated in the air. One hundred thousand coins.

"A Nether-Copper Mine that spans for eighteen miles."

That was the first bid. It was done by a first grade student that came from Noble league. So, essentially it is a bid from the first grader. Everyone took a breath of cold air. He had an ugly expression on his face. Because Nether -Copper is a very special metal and it is no way inexpensive.

However, it is also not the most valuable metal there is.

But no one expected a first grader to go that strong with the first bid. It is an unspoken rule in auctions that they start small and slowly increase their bids with time.

That will allow them all to test each other's limits.

But this openly big offer can only mean one thing. He is throwing the gauntlet. He is telling that he is not ready for games and he wanted them to come on strong or back the fuck off.

However, what they don't know is that although Christos had those thoughts, there were bigger reasons for him.

The ransom payment.

After going back the day before, he sat down and started calculating their maximum limits. Then he came to a realization. There is a great chance that some families will go bankrupt if the bidding price is way too high.

He cannot afford that.

Even if the money comes from the treasuries of the families themselves and not the league. The moment these families are out of resources, they become targets and there would be imbalance in the league.

So, he fixed a limit. Based on those calculations, he could at least pay two such mines for a hundred thousand coins to get the captives back.

He needs to at least keep the lowest price close to that so that he could finish the exchange freely.

And he used a different tactic that most would.

He is bluffing.

He is showing them a side that will appear like he is willing go too far for the coins. That is why he gave such a high price. But what he believed is that the same people who thought that the price is high, will definitely pay a lot more than they originally thought and it would be a lot more than just two mines of rare metal.

"An Inferno Iron Mine, twenty-three miles." A different candidate from Apollo Academy said. He is not part of the Noble league. He is from an upstart family that rose to the power recently.

Inferno Iron Mine is also a higher grade metal and its value is more or less similar to Nether Copper. So, the larger mine obviously takes the bid.

Christos looked at that man and told the junior to increase the bid.

"Nether-Copper Mine, 25 miles long."

He increased the bid. His limit is 36. He needs to make sure that the lowest price stays within the limit.

"Inferno Iron, 28 Miles."

Another bid to counter it.

Christos gritted his teeth and he was about to tell the first grader raise the bid again, but his companion pulled his arm back.

"Why are going higher? I am sure that we can get it for lower in the other batches."

"Are you an idiot? There are twenty-five people in each grade and only twenty packs for a grade. And one person can bid two batches. They will go fucking crazy over it. The only chance we have is the first bid.

This usually is used to test the waters, but I don't want them to do that. We need to go strong and keep within our acceptable limits."

"Nether Copper, 31 Miles."

The bid was placed.