Chapter 40: One Advantage At A Time

Players who had been preparing to sell their materials cheaply to those ’long-term buyers’ immediately stopped.

After all, when faced with such a massive difference in price, even a fool would know which buyer to choose.

@DefinitelyNot_Rich: "Holy crap! Anonymous tycoon! Are these prices for real?!"

@Damnation: "[Void Amethyst Powder] is actually worth 50 silver coins?! I was about to sell mine for 20!"

@Need_Money_ASAP: "Hurry! Put those few sets of [Star-pattern Steel Ingots] in the warehouse! Sell them to the anonymous tycoon!"

@BrokeSince_Level1: "Who the hell is this anonymous buyer? They’re ridiculously rich!"

The player forum and auction house channels instantly erupted into chaos.

Aiden’s anonymous purchase orders were like magnets, attracting the attention of every player currently holding one of the three materials.

Almost immediately, materials that had previously been sitting unnoticed in player inventories, storage warehouses, and scattered auction listings began flowing rapidly toward his anonymous purchasing account.

The low-price acquisition operation that had been proceeding quietly was instantly disrupted.

And Aiden hadn’t even begun spending seriously yet.

...

Meanwhile, Damien Bale’s procurement team was completely dumbfounded.

Their carefully arranged low-price acquisition channels had been cut off almost instantly.

Sellers who had already agreed to prices were backing out, some demanding higher prices on the spot while others simply canceled their transactions altogether.

"What’s going on? Who the hell is that anonymous buyer?"

"Check! Check quickly! How dare they snatch our goods!"

"Boss, the other party is offering far too much. Should we still follow?"

"Follow! We have to follow!" An ID that appeared to belong to the team leader issued an order through their private channel. "This batch of materials is extremely important. Raise our purchase prices to... ten percent below the anonymous buyer!"

The order was quickly carried out.

Before long, Aiden noticed that the purchase prices offered by those "freelance" buyers had quietly increased.

[Void Amethyst Powder], 45 silver coins.

[Star-pattern Steel Ingots], 90 silver coins.

[Dragon Blood Wood Shards], 70 silver coins.

They wanted to stay just below his prices, relying on their established reputation as "long-term" and "reliable" buyers to retain some of the sellers.

Aiden sneered.

His fingers tapped lightly against the interface.

The anonymous purchase orders changed once again.

[Anonymous Purchase: [Void Amethyst Powder], 55 silver coins per unit!]

[Anonymous Purchase: [Star-pattern Steel Ingots], 1 gold coin 10 silver coins per unit!]

[Anonymous Purchase: [Dragon Blood Wood Shards], 85 silver coins per unit!]

Always one step ahead.

No matter how much they raised their offer, he would simply raise his again.

It was like a predator stalking them from behind, matching every move and striking the moment they tried to escape.

"Damn it! This bastard is deliberately targeting us!" someone in the procurement channel cursed.

"How much money does he have? Is he trying to burn it all?!"

"Boss, what do we do? The price has already far exceeded our original budget!"

"..."

The other end of the channel fell silent.

Clearly, even the team leader had been caught off guard by the sudden price war.

After several seconds, his voice finally came through.

"Continue to follow! We can’t let him swallow everything! Raise our price to match his!"

They decided to stop staying below Aiden’s offers and instead match them directly, hoping that their visible identities and established reputation would give them an advantage over an anonymous buyer.

It was a reasonable strategy.

Unfortunately, Aiden had no intention of giving them the opportunity.

The moment their prices were adjusted, three new notifications appeared.

[Anonymous Purchase: [Void Amethyst Powder], 60 silver coins per unit!]

[Anonymous Purchase: [Star-pattern Steel Ingots], 1 gold coin 20 silver coins per unit!]

[Anonymous Purchase: [Dragon Blood Wood Shards], 90 silver coins per unit!]

The gap widened once again.

The message behind it couldn’t have been clearer.

No matter how high you bid, I’ll always bid higher.

And I have more than enough money to keep going.

This silent war of numbers unfolded before the eyes of every player watching the auction house.

The cold figures told the entire story.

Everyone could see that the mysterious anonymous tycoon was deliberately targeting those ’long-term buyers.’

And naturally, the player community exploded.

"Awesome! Which tycoon is this?!"

"The Dragon Sovereign Guild finally kicked an iron plate, huh? Hahaha!"

"Serves them right! I hate it when those huge guilds monopolize resources!"

"Yeah, it hasn’t been long since the apocalypse descended. Thanks to the Manual of Eclipse I read online, I was able to survive. But this Dragon Sovereign Guild... they’ve practically monopolized everything."

"Hurry! Sell whatever you have to the anonymous buyer!"

Public opinion overwhelmingly swung toward the anonymous buyer.

Aiden had not only crushed the other side economically, he had also seized the moral high ground.

For Damien Bale’s procurement team, the situation had become a nightmare.

Follow? The anonymous buyer’s funds seemed bottomless. Continuing to raise the price would push their acquisition costs far beyond what they had originally planned.

Don’t follow? Their mission would fail, and they would have no idea how to explain the situation when they returned.

They were caught between a rock and a hard place.

In the end, after Aiden casually raised his purchase prices once more, the purchase orders belonging to those freelance buyers quietly disappeared from the auction house.

They had finally given up on competing in the open market.

Aiden leaned back in his seat, a faint smile appearing on his face.

The first round... He had won.

...

On the auction house, every newly listed batch of [Void Amethyst Powder], [Star-pattern Steel Ingots], and [Dragon Blood Wood Shards] flowed into Aiden Cross’s anonymous warehouse like rivers returning to the sea.

Although the prices he had paid were far higher than their current market value, compared to the astronomical prices these materials would command in the mid-to-late stages of the game, his current investment was practically negligible.

More importantly, he had successfully disrupted Damien Bale’s plan to stockpile these resources at rock-bottom prices.

As he watched the materials accumulate rapidly inside his anonymous warehouse, a satisfied smile appeared on Aiden’s face.

His revenge plan was proceeding exactly as he had expected.

"Damien Bale..."

A cold glint flashed across his eyes.

"This is only the beginning."

"Every ’adventure’ and every piece of ’foresight’ you rely on to get ahead..."

"I’ll crush them before you even have the chance to benefit from them."

"Resources. Talent. Reputation..."

"Bit by bit, I’ll turn everything you rely on into stepping stones for myself."

With that, Aiden closed the auction house interface and stopped paying attention to the ensuing uproar.

The Rezvani SUV had also arrived at its destination, the small trading post established inside an abandoned factory complex.

His first economic snipe had been a complete success.

But that was merely one piece of the larger plan.

The dungeon clear rewards were still waiting for him.

And once those were collected, it would be time to find the two people who would become his most important partners in the future.