Auction houses were normally relatively grand locations. After all, items varying in diversity and rarity were purchased here leading to a great number of wealthy individuals showing up.

The same was true for the Covan auction house. Because it was only a hamlet, though, the grandeur of the building was significantly less than what Jisha was used to seeing in her past life. The building was made of sturdy wood and resembled a fancy mountain cabin.

"Wow, this is pretty cozy."

"It's got a nice atmosphere!"

"It makes me feel like I'm on vacation, haha!"

Most ordinary players had never witnessed such a building before. In modern Etmos, wooden cabins were seen as a novelty.

The soft, white lighting was not harsh on the eyes yet lit up every part of the singular room with ease. The room somewhat resembled a theater where seats were lower and lower the closer you got to the stage. There only appeared to be about 10 rows, so it was likely to hold a maximum of 400-ish people.

The auction house was getting crowded, but did that mean there were 400 players in the building? Not quite. After all, NPCs could also participate in auctions! In fact, more than half of the current population of the auction house consisted of NPCs.

*>Name: Arvinter*

*>Level: 9*

*>Name: Buster Chatley*

*>Level: 7*

*>Name: Quex Chet*

*>Level: 8*

...

In order to prevent infinite inflation in a virtual economy, it was important for there to be ways to virtually "throw away" money. At the end of the day, virtual currencies could be created on a whim by the world or the developers. If there was no way to delete money on a whim, the amount of money in the world would increase forever.

NPCs in auction houses were one way of keeping Synergy's inflation in check. The fact that you would have to outbid not only players but NPCs meant that more and more money would have to be thrown into a figurative hole effectively destroying the money. The new players who hadn't participated in the beta phases were surprised when they saw this.

"Wait, are we competing against NPCs too?"

"Uh, isn't this unfair?"

"They're a much higher level than us! Of course it's unfair!"

Jisha disagreed with these new players. The levels of NPCs in auction houses were usually fair. If you saw NPCs of a certain level gathered around an auction house, you could generally expect what types of items and rarities would appear. Unfortunately, level 1 players weren't designed to participate in auctions. It was simply too early in the game for an individual to have enough money. The players from the beta test had apparently done their research which was why they had tried as hard as possible to gain capital to snag a couple of items from this "level 8" auction.

*Hmmm... Where's a good place to sit down?*

Though Jisha would ordinarily strategically select a seat, in this case, it wouldn't matter too much. With the Jiel and Dharr at her tail, she found some empty seats next to some of the organization leaders and Brookie who was waving her down.

But before sitting down, there was one more thing she had to do.

"Save my spot. I'll be right back," she told them.

Jisha took the stairs down towards the stage area. On the right side of the stage, in a dark corner, there was a door that led backstage. She knocked on the door twice and waited.

"... What do you want?"

A female voice spoke from the other side of the door.

"I have something I'd like to sell..."

A few seconds passed and nothing happened.

"Um... I'm a Beyonder so I couldn't make this decision beforehand-"

When Jisha said this, the door opened a crack and the woman peeked out from within the room. "I'm truly sorry about this. If I could have, I would have made the arrangements in advance, but it was simply impossible..."

"Hmm... I guess if you're a Beyonder it can't be helped. Come in."

The woman opened the door to allow Jisha to enter. What greeted her was a typical room behind a stage. There was a prep room and stairs that led to the stage which was currently hidden to the audience behind a curtain.

*I guess that worked.*

Typically, if you wanted to sell an item at an auction, you would have to send it to the auctioneer at a set time beforehand. However, this obviously wasn't possible for this auction since players had just arrived in the game less than two hours ago.

Judging by the Covan banker's response, though, Jisha noted that Beyonders, or NPCs' name for players, were treated favorably here.

*The banker knew I was the first Beyonder customer, so it's possible for there to be other player-related perks in this hamlet.*

This is what Jisha thought, and she was correct. Similarly to how the banker acknowledged and gave Jisha a benefit because she was a player, the auctioneer gave her some time in the back of the stage.

NPCs held many different opinions on players, and those in a community usually held similar opinions. For example, a town with NPCs that treated players favorably would usually hold benefits, whereas a town with hostile NPCs would... be unsafe for obvious reasons.

"Ḑ̷̡̰̳͓̺̭̗̥̤̔̀̔̆̇͂̎̔̍͒̀̈̈́͆̌̋̔̋̋͂̄̉̆̈́̂̀̂̄̓̀͌͘͘͝͝͝ͅͅL̵̨̧̯̙͙̲͇̯̠̫̲̲̲̥͇͈̠̯̙̗̟͎̯̼̗̰̝̩̘̯̮̘̱͍͈͇̜̐̋̄̃̓̌͑̃̈́͒̂͛̄̎̈͌͗̏̍̉̋̾͂̊͐̽̓́͘̕͠͠Q̶̧̪̹̮͚̟̱̝̩̭̫̀̾̿̾́̽̀͛̊̍͐̎̉͐̌̓͗̒̀̄̋̕͜͠͝͝ͅ told me you were coming... So this is what a Beyonder looks like up close, huh? You're really interesting. Is it true that you never die in our world? Isn't that a bit unfair? The synergy project isn't a game, you know."

... But this behavior was a bit strange and left Jisha bewildered. This was not ordinary. Though the NPCs had alluded to the fourth wall in the past, they never explicitly broke it. Why was the game different this time around?

*A̶͈͇̍̾ḧ̸̞̒,̸͔̍͐ ̶͈̼̐́ȉ̶̲̂ͅt̶̬͆'̸̧̳̉̌ṡ̵̡͖ ̵̲̽͝p̵̪͐̾r̷̳͛o̶͚̮͌b̸͈̭̄ą̶̯͐b̶͔̌l̴̹̿̓y̶͉͐̐ ̷̢͉́̾n̴̖̹͒̇ő̷̢̃t̷̙͎̐̉h̴̥̙͆́i̴̼͓̾̄n̸̙̓͝g̴̨̖̅̋.̵̪̊͂ͅ*

"Look, I'm just here to sell these items. Can you do that much for me?"

Jisha hastily changed the subject. She pulled the level 5 Wooden Dagger and level 5 Wooden Slingshot from her inventory and showed it to the auctioneer.

"I apologize for my rudeness. Yes, it will be simple to sell these. Since you are the first Beyonder to sell at our auction, the Covan Auction House will charge you a 0% service fee on your items!" the woman said as she accepted the items.

Another perk of being the first "Beyonder" in Covan was brought up in the form of a waived service charge. The service charge was the way for all auction houses to make money whether they were run by players or NPCs. For example, with a 5% fee, If Jisha's item were to sell for 100 Copper, she would receive 95 and the house would receive 5. But of course, this time all the proceeds would go directly to Jisha.

"Thank you very much. Also, I'd like to remain anonymous if you don't mind. I hope you have wonderful items in store for today. I might be purchasing a lot."

"Of course, that will be no problem. You won't be disappointed. Enjoy the show!"

With that, Jisha left backstage and headed up the stairs towards her seat.

"I'm back. Anything interesting happen?" Jisha said as she approached the posse. "... Where's Dharr?"

"Uh... He left out of shame. He said he wouldn't be participating in the auction," Brookie said. "I don't even think he wants his money back."

"Haha... About that, I'm truly sorry about trying to betray you, Fae, but your plan didn't seem like a good one. It's reassuring to know you had hidden cards up your sleeve," Jiel apologized.

"Don't worry about it. You've just proven to me that you can use your brain. So everyone's settled?" Jisha said as she sat down in her saved spot.

"... Yeah. Looks like everyone's finding their seats so they can watch the show. I don't think everyone here will be participating considering the level of this auction is quite high," Jiel replied.

Jisha nodded as she sat down next to them.

It was like Jiel said. Most players here wouldn't be participating in the auction. The average NPC level looked to be around 8, so it was safe to say the auction would offer items around that level. The players, on the other hand, only looked to be around levels 1 and 2. There were a couple of level 3s, but they appeared quite rare. Those who had reached level 3 were most likely the leaders of the orgs who had completed the quests they had planned for ahead of time. Since the auction level was so much higher than the player level, it was natural that most orgs would have to gather the buying power of multiple people to be able to contest for a couple of items. Of course, it wasn't as if NPCs couldn't do the same, but in the lower levels, the game wasn't that rude to players.

Jisha opened up the group chat to confirm whether everyone was on the same page.

*>Fae Sol: Alright, here's how this'll work. If you see an item you want, place the bid in chat. If multiple of you want the same item, feel free to bid among yourselves. Of course, I reserve all final judgement to place the final bid. Is that clear?*

*>Dolphin Killer: Understood.*

*>Fae Sol: Try not to go overboard with the bidding. There isn't an unlimited amount of money in this pile.*

*>Hutian Crest: ... How much is there? You never told us.*

*>Fae Sol: That's a secret, but don't get too greedy! ^.^*

This secret was kept on purpose. When a rare item showed up, sometimes people would lose their sense of reason for a brief moment while chasing a high. The organization leaders/branch leaders were all aware of how much money they put in, but they didn't know how much money the others had put in. In effect, they didn't know the total amount in the pot. This could lead to greedy bids since they knew all of their money was in one place. Jisha was sure they didn't trust each other fully. This distrust would probably show during the auction.

*Their greed could lead to their downfall...*

Jisha smiled when she thought about this. It would be the nails in their coffins if they realized they could bid much more than they originally planned for...

*I haven't even told them the conditions of this alliance. Hopefully they're stupid enough to forget that.*

With an evil-looking smirk, Jisha sat back in her seat and waited for the auction to start.