Chapter 295 Interstellar Journey: Buying a Planet

The young and beautiful female auctioneer first greeted all the guests present with a few simple words, and then got straight to the point.

"This auction features over 1,200 items, including gourmet food, jewelry, antiques, energy, aircraft, mechs, spaceships, and special items. The starting price is 100,000 star coins, and the maximum is 5 billion. I believe everyone is familiar with the specific auction rules. If you are not, you can ask the staff for a rules manual. You can also check the list of some items in the manual in advance. I won't go into details here."

"Time is precious, so without further ado, I hereby declare the annual auction of Gemini A Auction House officially open!"

[They actually managed to livestream the Gemini's annual auction! The host is amazing!]

[An auction with over a thousand items! That's a lot! How many days will it take?]

It's normal for large auctions to have thousands of items; they usually end in a day, not several days.

[Did you hear that? The highest starting bid is a billion! That's terrifying! With so many people gathered here, could they all afford such expensive items?]

Suddenly, I had this strange feeling that I was the only poor person in the entire Alliance. It was all so disorienting.

Of course, not everyone can afford it, but those who can get in are definitely not poor; their total assets must be at least 100 million.

[Actually, I've wanted to say this for a while. The Gemini Auction House can hold tens of thousands of people. If space pirates came to rob it right now, wouldn't they be ecstatic? And if they threw a firecracker or something in the auction house, killing a whole bunch of rich people, wouldn't all their businesses be in chaos?]

【What terrifying things are you saying?】

[Those above are overthinking it. If you can think of this, how could Gemini and those above not have considered it? To avoid this situation, Gemini's defenses are second only to the capital planet at this time of year. Anyone who dares to cause trouble will likely come with a death sentence.]

As Lu Xuan watched the comments, he thought to himself that there were so many level seven or eight ability users on the scene that he couldn't count them all on one hand.

If someone really causes trouble, the military won't even have to intervene; any disturbance will be quickly quelled.

While the audience chatted, the first item appeared on the auction stage.

To be precise, only a small number of samples were found.

A large gift package containing 1000 jin (500 catties) of natural food.

The gift package includes staple foods, vegetables, meat and eggs, common fruits and a small amount of processed foods, with enough variety and quantity to meet a person's natural food supply for a whole year.

The starting price is 1 million, and each bid must be at least 10,000 Star Coins.

Many buyers who attended the auction were there specifically for Lu Xuan, so it was not unexpected that the auction would start with items provided by him.

Although wealthy people don't lack natural food, there are very few people here who can buy such a complete variety.

Moreover, a thousand catties is indeed not a small amount.

Even though there were no mutated fruits among them that could improve physical fitness, many people still raised their paddles to join the competition after the auctioneer announced the start of the bidding, and the price rose rapidly at an extremely fast pace.

After five or six minutes of intense bidding, the package was successfully sold for 4.2 million.

The viewers in the live stream were practically drooling.

[I'm torn between drooling over the delicious food and the star coins. *slurp*]

"I wish I had so much food, but unfortunately I can't even afford a fraction of it."

[Waaaaah, a thousand pounds! That's so much! This much natural food could last me three to five years, let alone a year!]

Three to five years is nothing, I can live off this for ten years!

Lu Xuan: ? What are you guys arguing about?

The natural food gift package provided by Lu Xuan set a good precedent, and the other items that followed also fetched impressive prices.

The auction items include master-crafted custom jewelry, antique artworks unique to certain planets, limited-edition spacecraft, hovercars, the latest medical achievements of a private research institute, and high-end blankets made from the fur of advanced mutated beasts, among others.

In short, there are many different categories, and there's bound to be one that will interest the buyers participating in the auction.

To keep everyone's enthusiasm going, items provided by Lu Xuan would be interspersed every few dozen lots.

In addition to the initial gift pack, there are two more natural food gift packs available. One pack mainly consists of fruits and meats, with a slightly higher base price. The other pack mainly consists of grains and vegetables, with the same base price as the initial gift pack.

However, both of them ultimately sold for more than the first gift package.

After all, everyone knows that the chances of buying a ticket decrease as time goes on, so people will bid at any cost.

It's just a difference of a few hundred thousand. Truly wealthy people don't care about spending a little more; getting their hands on the good stuff is what really matters.

In addition to natural foods, Lu Xuan's own brewed sets of natural wines from different years soon began to be auctioned off.

There's also gene evolution fluid and mutated fruit gift packs.

These items are quite useful, but their market price isn't too high, so they're listed relatively early in the list.

Furthermore, there were more competitors than with simple food gift packages; in addition to buyers in regular seats, many people in the private rooms also made bids.

Further on, there are the spoils of high-level mutated beasts that were collected during the escape after the appearance of the Sorenson beast tide, as well as the level 5 crystal cores that were placed at the front because they were of slightly lower level.

Without exception, each of these auction items generates a frenzy whenever it appears.

While everyone else was excited about these items, Lu Xuan, as the seller, didn't just sit idly by.

Occasionally, when an item catches his eye at an auction, he'll join the bidding.

For example, limited edition aircraft.

Lu Xuan has no shortage of flying machines, but what man would complain about having too many cars?

If it performs well, looks cool and attractive, and you like it and can afford it, then buy it!

...

In the midst of fierce bidding, hundreds of lots were snapped up in the blink of an eye, with not a single item failing to sell, and the first half of the auction came to a temporary close.

There is a one-hour break during which lunch will be provided at the auction.

Guests in regular seating areas are served a set meal of four dishes and one soup, along with juice.

The private rooms and VIP rooms are filled with a whole table of food and drinks, and the drinks are more plentiful and expensive than those for guests in regular seats.

The cost of this lavish lunch alone must have been at least tens of millions, which shows the Gemini Auction House's immense wealth.

The viewers in the live stream enjoyed the food with Lu Xuan while discussing the first half of the auction.

I feel like I shouldn't watch these kinds of auctions too often. The more I watch, the more I feel poor, and I'm almost ashamed to live in this world.

It's not that bad.

[It's really outrageous. It feels like money isn't money anymore. They just casually throw away tens or hundreds of millions without batting an eye. Even though it's not my money, I still feel sorry for the people who spend it.]

I didn't dare to breathe deeply the whole time.

Has anyone calculated the final sale price of all the lots auctioned this morning?

[I haven't calculated it, but I know it's an astronomical sum I couldn't earn in ten lifetimes (smile).]

It should be over 10 billion.

[Hiss! Terrifying!]

[That's it? This is nothing! The first half is just a warm-up; the real heavyweights are in the second half. Any random item might even fetch a higher price than the morning's highest price.]

I predict the total sales value of the afternoon's auction might exceed 100 billion.

[It's not just a possibility, it's a certainty! Forget hundreds of billions, two hundred billion or three hundred billion is entirely possible.]

Is it really that exaggerated?

[Where's the exaggeration? Did you forget the auctioneer mentioned a starting price of 5 billion? The higher the starting price, the higher the value of the item; isn't it normal for the final price to increase three to five times? If there were a few more top-tier items like this, the final price would exceed 100 billion.]

Now that you mention it, it's true...

[Poverty truly limits my imagination; I feel a bit suffocated.]

...

An hour passed quickly, and the second half of the auction continued.

The first item up for auction, as usual, was one provided by Lu Xuan.

It was the military spaceship I bought at a super low discount during the holiday flash sale.

Originally priced at 7 billion points, Lu Xuan acquired it for only 2.1 billion points through a flash sale and discount coupon.

The price displayed on Star Alliance is the same as the price shown on the holiday flash sale.

The starting price at the auction was 70% of the market price, which is 5 billion.

This spaceship is far superior in performance to civilian spaceships, making it a good choice for S-class mercenary groups and others with exploration needs.

Therefore, as soon as the bidding started, more than a dozen buyers began competing in the private rooms on the fourth floor and some of the VIP rooms on the fifth floor.

Each bid was no less than 100 million, but after a dozen or so people bid in a round, the amount quickly exceeded the actual price and was still rising.

Finally, the spaceship was acquired by a private room on the fourth floor for 10.8 billion.

While seemingly less expensive than other commodities that often exceed the reserve price by three to five times, Lu Xuan's net income actually reached 8.5 billion after deducting the auction house's 2% commission and the cost of purchasing the spaceship.

A huge profit!

Fortunately, not all of the more than 600 lots in the afternoon were priced so outrageously; there were still quite a few lots with starting prices in the millions or tens of millions.

However, the value of Lu Xuan's auction items has indeed increased considerably.

The crystal cores that appeared later were upgraded to level six, and even level seven.

The seeds of advanced mutant plants have finally begun to appear.

Many buyers who came specifically for these items perked up, knowing that the main event of the day had finally arrived.

Those wood-type ability users who hadn't used their abilities much before, and level 5 and 6 ability users who needed to level up, immediately began to exert their strength.

Each auction features a minimum of five standard Five Elements system crystal cores for each Level 6 crystal core, with a minimum transaction price of 200 million and a maximum of 380 million.

Level 7 is even more outrageous.

Each item was auctioned separately based on its different attributes, with each item fetching a price no less than 1 billion, and the highest price approaching 2 billion, more than ten times the actual market price.

However, market prices are inherently subjective. While possessing a level-seven crystal core might not guarantee a level-six ability user will reach level seven, it does offer at least a 30-40% success rate.

Once you become a level seven ability user, a few billion star coins is nothing. You can probably break even by making two trips around the Central Region of Sorenson.

The prices of high-grade mutant plant seeds are naturally not low, and there is a wide variety of types available.

Control-oriented vine-type; pure attack-type; lethal-kill type; hallucinogenic type; special effect type...

The grades range from level five to level seven, with the lowest transaction price being 50 million and the highest even breaking the record for level seven crystal cores, reaching 3 billion.

After a series of highly competitive bids, the auction house interspersed some other items to allow the enthusiastic buyers to calm down.

The overly enthusiastic atmosphere inside the venue finally calmed down a bit.

But this doesn't mean that other items are unpopular.

For example, Lu Xuan discovered a special auction item, which was not a physical object, but the coordinates of a star system where the bidding star beast had appeared.

The so-called Star Beasts are a peculiar creature that can live in the vacuum of space. They appear once or twice every few years or decades in various star systems controlled by the Star Alliance.

The Starry Sky Beasts come in various sizes.

The smaller ones might be only the size of a mech, while the larger ones are even bigger than the largest habitable planet in the Covenant.

Some of them are extremely aggressive and will actively attack any spaceships they encounter, and will even eat the humans on board.

Some are docile and will not attack humans unless they show malice.

Others seem to lack intelligence, completely ignoring humans, feeding on energy minerals, and once full, they drift endlessly in space.

Legend has it that some Star Beasts can freely traverse black holes, and some colossal Star Beasts even feed on planets, destroying civilizations wherever they go.

In short, it's both amazing and terrifying.

One thing is universally acknowledged: the carcass of any Star Beast is priceless, and any rumor of a Star Beast's appearance will attract countless powerful explorers.

This time was no exception.

A single sighting record and coordinates from just over a year ago fetched a price of hundreds of millions of Star Dollars.

Lu Xuan was also very curious about the Starry Sky Beast, but without enough knowledge about the creature, he felt it wasn't worth buying just one coordinate, so he didn't participate in the auction and just watched the excitement.

When there were only about fifty items left to be auctioned, Lu Xuan's items reappeared.

This time, it was the suckers and tentacles of an eighth-level octopus that he had retrieved from Sorenson.

Each suction cup weighs over 100 kilograms, and each tentacle weighs up to ten tons. They are full of energy and have extremely high research value.

The price of the suction cup reached over a billion, and the price of the wrist was even more outrageous.

A whopping 15 billion!

This breaks the record for all lots sold today.

The viewers in the live stream were drooling.

Then, just thinking that Lu Xuan has more than a dozen of these wrists, with hundreds of suction cups... hiss!

Level 8 mutated beasts are indeed priceless.

If they didn't still have some sense of their own limitations and remember that the beast tide in Sorenson had only recently subsided and the forest was still in turmoil, many people would have wanted to rush into the central area and divide up the escaped octopus.

However, the highlight of today's auction is undoubtedly the most important level-eight crystal core.

There are only three in total.

They are fire, wood, and wind elements, respectively.

The starting price is 1 billion, and each bid must be at least one million. Bids below 10 billion will result in the auction failing.

When the dazzling level-eight crystal core, powerful enough to destroy half of the Twin Stars, appeared before everyone, Lu Xuan clearly felt that many level-seven and level-eight auras in the VIP room began to stir.

Level 8 crystal cores can be used by level 7 ability users to level up, and can also be used by level 8 ability users to replenish their energy in critical moments, making them a lifesaver.

As soon as the auctioneer announced the start of the bidding, the dozen or so top-tier superhumans in the VIP room, who rarely bid before, began to compete and call out their prices.

These people's abilities may not perfectly match the attributes of the crystal core, but even if they don't, level eight crystal cores are rare. If they get their hands on one first, they can easily find a way to exchange it for treasures of equal value with others later.

There were many wealthy people in the private rooms on the fourth floor who could afford the price, but none of them spoke up to compete with those upstairs.

Whether or not they can actually get the footage, what if they offend one or even several level seven or eight superhumans? No matter how much money they have, they might not even have the life to enjoy it.

Anyone with a clear head wouldn't be foolish enough to try and make their presence known at this time. Most people were watching with great excitement and interest as they observed this rare and intense competition among top-tier superhumans.

Finally, the level 8 fire-type crystal cores were sold for 21 billion, the wood-type for 22.5 billion, and the wind-type for 23 billion.

The one who snapped up the fire-type crystal core was an eighth-level ability user, while the wood-type and wind-type users were seventh-level. Their uses were obvious from their levels.

That's why the latter two are priced higher, because no one wants to give up the opportunity to go further.

All three final lots were successfully sold, and with the final sound of the gavel falling, the annual auction came to a successful close.

Once the successful bidders have paid and received their items, they can leave.

On Lu Xuan's side, the person in charge of the auction house came over in person to hand over the items he had won and to confirm the transfer amount.

The morning trading saw only minor transactions, with the majority of the transactions occurring in the afternoon, except for the relatively high price of Level 5 crystal cores.

Level 6, 7, and 8 crystal cores, advanced mutated plant species, level 8 octopus tentacles, etc., brought Lu Xuan more than 80 billion in revenue after deducting his share.

It's several times more than the wealth he accumulated from live streaming and recycling large quantities of goods over the past five years.

Even Lu Xuan was taken aback.

He had become numb to the fact that his points kept accumulating in the system backend.

In retrospect, he is far from being rich enough to look down on everyone.

His wealth still has a lot of room to grow!

After the handover was completed, the person in charge said, "Many guests in the other VIP rooms left their contact information and asked me to pass it on to Mr. Lu. What do you think...?"

Lu Xuan raised an eyebrow, not particularly surprised.

"Can."

Although he is very strong, he is not so indifferent to other level seven or eight ability users.

This was a rare opportunity to make connections, which also made it easier for him to integrate into the Star Alliance's top expert group.

When funds are insufficient in the future, we can sell some of the things these people need separately. This will bring in money and indirectly do them a favor. Why not?

So when Lu Xuan left the auction house, his personal terminal suddenly had more than twenty new contacts, more than 80% of whom were level seven or eight ability users.

Among them, the other ability users of his level simply greeted him reservedly, gave brief self-introductions, and said nothing more.

The level seven ability users, on the other hand, were quite enthusiastic.

However, in order not to be disliked, I maintained a certain level of restraint and didn't talk too much nonsense.

After Lu Xuan marked the names according to their instructions, he didn't pay any more attention to it.

With such an astronomical sum coming in all at once, I need to figure out how to spend it.

The viewers in the live stream were excited after witnessing a top-notch auction, but also puzzled as to why he would offer so many good items at once when he clearly had plenty of money.

Back at his temporary hotel, Lu Xuan said leisurely, "Naturally, it's because I want to buy something." However, his original assets were insufficient to purchase properties whose value far exceeded that of ordinary real estate.

For example, planets.

The Covenant discovers several or even a dozen new planets every year.

These planets may be home to many mutated organisms like Sorenson, or they may be rich in minerals, or they could be transformed into new habitable planets with a little modification.

Of these, the most valuable ones are naturally controlled by the government, but there are also some small planets that are too small to accommodate a large population and do not have particularly valuable minerals.

The exploration team also incurs costs in discovering planets. In order to recoup their investment, these small star planets are sold to the public through various channels. Ultimately, the person who wins the bid pays out of their own pocket to transform them into a private planet.

In the modern world, people can only spend a small amount of money to buy the naming rights to a star, but they do not have ownership of it.

However, as long as you can afford it and don't violate Star Alliance laws, you can truly own a planet of your own.

Lu Xuan's first goal upon arriving at the Star Alliance was to own his own planet.

According to his previous inquiries, the price of a small, unclaimed planet usually ranges from tens of billions to hundreds of billions.

He only had about 20 billion points left over from redeeming them, which wasn't even enough to buy the smallest planet.

However, after today's auction, there was a glimmer of hope.

Gemini B Auction House is a dedicated auction house for large companies, land, mining rights, and small planets.

If he's lucky, he might be able to acquire a small planet at the next auction and experience what it's like to be a planetary owner.

As for what to do in the six months leading up to the Gemini B auction...

Let's go to Sorensen again and explore the mysterious figure deep in the forest.

This idea seems a bit too reckless.

Or maybe...

"You want me to be a mentor at the Academy Star?" Lu Xuan looked at the distinguished middle-aged man on the other end of the communication screen with surprise.

-----------------------

Author's Note: jjlx threw a landmine on 2025-09-11 at 00:27:36

Reader "Yan", irrigated with nutrient solution +12 2025-09-10 18:36:10