MMORPG: Birth of the World's Luckiest Player

Chapter 486: The Dark Horse of Blaze Fire

The celebration continued well into the evening. By the time three more hours had passed, everyone was pleasantly drunk, and as the banquet finally wound down, people gradually began heading off to take care of their own business.

Just as Marcus and the women accompanying him were preparing to leave, Tactical Drunkard suddenly called out, "Stone!"

"Yeah?" Marcus turned around.

Tactical Drunkard slapped his forehead. "Almost forgot. I’ve already made arrangements with the bank. Just head to the main branch in your city tomorrow and ask for the branch manager. Tell him I sent you, and he’ll handle everything personally."

"Awesome!" Marcus nodded immediately. That solved one of his biggest concerns, since tomorrow he could finally cash out his gold.

At the moment, his absurd 8.2 billion gold still sat firmly at the top of the Wealth Leaderboard, attracting attention from the entire player base. Just thinking about how many people were staring at that number with envy was enough to make him shake his head.

Still, he had to admit that Tactical Drunkard’s connections were impressive. One conversation and everything had already been arranged. The branch in Marcus’s city wasn’t just an ordinary branch either. It was the provincial headquarters, a place that carried significant authority. The fact that they were sending him directly to the branch manager showed just how seriously they were taking this.

"Alright, we’re off then." After exchanging a few final farewells, Marcus and his group left Magnolia Restaurant and headed toward Old Vine Auction House to settle the earnings from the previous auction.

He had been so focused on reaching level fifty that he hadn’t found time to visit Old Vine. Since he planned to withdraw his gold tomorrow anyway, tonight was the perfect opportunity to sort everything out.

Besides, after trying it earlier, Marcus had to admit that the Thousand-Year Grain Wine was genuinely excellent. It was easily one of the best drinks he’d ever tasted.

Old Vine had treated him to drinks more than once in the past, and Marcus wasn’t the type to forget favors. Before leaving, he had even asked Jennifer to reserve fifteen portions of Crispy Drunken Lobster specifically for this visit.

The moment Old Vine saw him, his face lit up. "Stone! Congratulations! Level fifty already. You’ve completely left everyone else behind."

The group walked together toward the rear courtyard. Old Vine laughed and said, "I’ve got some good wine prepared too. Tonight we’re celebrating properly."

Marcus chuckled. "Save it for another day. Tonight’s on me. I’ve got Thousand-Year Grain Wine, and I brought Mythic-grade cooking too. Crispy Drunken Lobster made by a master chef. You won’t find many chances to taste something like this."

Old Vine’s eyes immediately brightened. "Excellent!" He gave Marcus a firm pat on the shoulder. "The number one player on six different leaderboards really knows how to live. I can’t wait."

The moment the wine and lobster appeared, Old Vine stared for a few seconds before laughing. "Stone, you’re ridiculous." Still, as someone who appreciated good food and good alcohol, he didn’t bother pretending to be reserved.

As they ate and drank, Old Vine began reviewing the auction results. "That tenth Guild Creation Token caused absolute chaos," he said. "The competition was every bit as fierce as the first token. A lot of mercenary groups had been preparing for it. Gold has become much easier to acquire recently, and everyone came ready to spend."

He paused, recalling the scene. "At least a dozen major mercenary groups were bidding against each other. Even Black Dragon Guild and Inferno Clan joined in because they wanted to establish a second guild. The price just kept climbing until it finally stopped at nine hundred and fifty million gold."

"Nine hundred and fifty million?" Marcus nearly choked. That was dangerously close to a billion gold. Converted into real-world currency, it was approaching a hundred million dollars. The amount was completely insane.

For a moment, Marcus couldn’t help feeling that there were simply too many wealthy people in the world. Then he looked at his own balance and quickly corrected himself. Compared to ordinary players, he was rich beyond imagination. Compared to the truly powerful families and organizations behind many of these guilds, however, he still had a long way to go.

If he wanted to stand among the genuinely wealthy, he’d need to keep moving forward.

His eyes drifted toward the guild rankings, where the tenth guild established in Dominion was now officially listed: Blaze Fire Guild. It was another dark horse, one that had spent a hundred million dollars for a guild token and a name in a virtual world. Even Black Dragon Guild, Inferno Clan, and that arrogant Hexium probably wouldn’t have thrown around money that aggressively.

What Marcus didn’t know was just how shocking the auction had actually been. When more than a dozen mercenary groups were still battling around the three-hundred-million mark, Blaze Fire Mercenary Group suddenly entered the bidding and raised the price directly to five hundred million gold.

The entire auction house had gone silent. Then things became even crazier. Inferno Clan increased the bid to five hundred and ten million, but Blaze Fire responded with seven hundred million. Shadowfall raised it again to seven hundred and ten million, and Blaze Fire’s answer was immediate: nine hundred and fifty million.

One bid, one crushing blow. Every competitor was forced out on the spot.

From that moment on, Blaze Fire Mercenary Group officially transformed into Blaze Fire Guild and became the biggest surprise in the entire game.

"Who exactly are these Blaze Fire people? Where did they come from? How are they this rich?"

Those questions quickly became one of the hottest topics throughout Dominion. Most players agreed on one thing: Blaze Fire was almost certainly a powerful organization that had entered the game later than everyone else and missed the initial rush. If a group with this level of financial strength and determination had arrived earlier, they could have dramatically changed the game’s landscape.

’Blaze Fire Guild...’ Marcus rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ’I’ve never heard of them in any game before.’

Whoever they were, they clearly had enormous ambitions, and more importantly, they had the resources to back those ambitions up.

Fortunately, that wasn’t his problem. He was still guildless, happily minding his own business. The headaches belonged to the major guilds.

As for him, thanks to this unexpected dark horse, another nine hundred and fifty million gold had landed in his pocket.

’Beautiful.’

Marcus couldn’t hide his satisfaction. The people from Shadowfall were probably regretting their decisions right about now.

He still remembered telling Shadowfall_Two that he would sell them the token for one billion gold. If they had accepted back then, they might actually have saved money.

Old Vine continued reading through the records. "Besides the token, all of your gold-grade equipment sold extremely well. After deducting the auction house fees, your total earnings come to nine hundred and seventy-five million, six hundred and eighty thousand gold." He handed over a gold card along with a detailed statement.

"Everything’s listed here. Have a look."

"Perfect." Marcus accepted both items and checked his balance. In an instant, his total wealth rose to 9,228,890,000 gold. A smile immediately appeared on his face.

Tomorrow, he would withdraw more than 9.2 billion gold. And with his dungeon recordings continuing to sell every day, this certainly wouldn’t be his last payout.

Curious, he opened the Wealth Leaderboard. The player in second place was no longer Merchant Alliance leader CryptoWarlord; instead, a new name had appeared: Doomsday, Affiliation: Blaze Fire Guild, Current Wealth: 2.3 Billion Gold.

’Holy crap.’

Even Marcus couldn’t help blurting it out. There was little doubt now: Doomsday was almost certainly the leader of Blaze Fire Guild.

After spending nearly a billion gold on the Guild Creation Token, he still had 2.3 billion gold left sitting in his account. That meant Blaze Fire had just moved hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of assets in a single operation. No matter how Marcus looked at it, that level of spending was downright terrifying.