Chapter 193

Episode 193. Ships sometimes make for great stock market material. (2)

While the base upgrade was progressing “as planned,” it’s not like I could just laze around.

“New forces are absolutely necessary…!”

As I mentioned before, we now need a proper “high-class ship” or a “special ship.” Or maybe a support character.

I had to spend some serious time pondering how to get one of those two… no, three things.

“So, Jessica, come and share my worries with me.”

“Commander, honestly, you’re just bored right now, aren’t you?”

There was a minor issue of Jessica interrupting my serious contemplation, but since sages are often unappreciated by others, I forgave her rudeness and decided to join her in a worry session.

But this time, it seemed like my intelligence had risen a bit.

My IQ 100, Jessica’s IQ 200.

With a combined perfect IQ of 300, I soon felt a new idea rising in my mind.

“Wait, we have an auction house, right?”

“Yep.”

“Alright, let’s dig through the auction house this time.”

“Yep.”

Anyway, it was good to boldly open the auction window like that… but as soon as we opened it and saw the ‘prices,’ our confidence instantly crumbled.

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<Auction List> – <Ships> – <Cruisers>

– <Jupiter-class Electronic Warfare Cruiser, Starting Bid: 6,700 Gold>

– <Texas-class Heavy Cruiser, Starting Bid: 7,100 Gold>

– <Overseer-class Artillery Heavy Cruiser, Starting Bid: 6,500 Gold>

—————————————-

The cruisers we could immediately use required a starting bid = minimum price that was three times the gold we had.

—————————————-

<Auction List> – <Ships> – <Cruiser Battleships, Light Aircraft Carriers>

– <Mutsu-class Cruiser Battleship, Starting Bid: 10,250 Gold>

– <Korania-class Aircraft-Cruiser Battleship, Starting Bid: 15,110 Gold>

– <Invincible-class Cruiser Battleship, Starting Bid: 10,050 Gold>

– <Kuraba-class Armored Cruiser Battleship, Starting Bid: 13,200 Gold>

– <India-class Escort Light Aircraft Carrier, Starting Bid: 16,000 Gold>

– <Zuihou-class Light Aircraft Carrier, Starting Bid: 15,610 Gold>

– <Skyhook-class Aircraft Cruiser, Starting Bid: 10,000 Gold>

—————————————-

The cruiser battleships, light carriers, and for some reason, the aircraft cruisers, all had minimum bids of 10,000 gold each, like greedy pigs.

After checking this far, even though the ‘battleship’ and ‘aircraft carrier’ sections were still left in the auction window, I immediately closed it and spoke up.

“Alright, if I keep looking at this, I might go crazy.”

“Hahaha…”

Of course, just because of that, it didn’t mean we didn’t need anything.

I reopened the auction window and checked the market prices.

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<Auction List> – <Ships> – <Destroyers>

– <Willy-class Medium Destroyer, Starting Bid: 1,850 Gold>

– <Kazemaru-class High-Mobility Destroyer, Starting Bid: 1,700 Gold>

– <Anaphylaxis-class Anti-Air Destroyer, Starting Bid: 1,900 Gold>

– <Shimakaze-class Torpedo Destroyer, Starting Bid: 1,730 Gold>

—————————————-

“Jessica, let’s start from here.”

“Right, we should solve things step by step from the small ones.”

With the 2,100 gold I had, I planned to carefully play the market, aiming to eventually buy cruiser battleships, battleships, or even aircraft carriers.

The problem was, while I was burning with that determination, as soon as I started looking into it, I realized it felt more like watching the stock market than gambling.

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Title: Why the hell isn’t the price holding?

Author: ㅇㅇ

Content: [A graph showing the insane price drop of auctioned ships], [A screenshot of the price at the time of first purchase]

I thought I bought it at a decent price, but the next day it dropped by 100 gold, and then it kept dropping by 10 gold every hour.

I’m about to lose my mind.

I tried to defend the price by buying more, but the price just kept dropping. Damn it.

Comments:

– [So, you’re buying up all the cheap ones that others are selling?]

– [What?]

– [I don’t get it, isn’t buying cheap and selling high the way to profit?]

– [The OP is trying to buy low and sell high, but the more he buys, the more the price drops, so he feels like he’s getting screwed.]

– [Holding on is god-tier.]

—————————————-

Title: Please go up, please go up, please go up

Author: ㅇㅇ

Content: [A graph hitting rock bottom], [An image showing a -70% drop compared to the initial purchase price]

I’m going crazy, I’m going crazy, I’m going crazy, I’m going crazy.

Comments:

– [Go pour some water and pray, lol]

– [This guy’s loss is at -70%]

– [It’s turning blue, ahhh]

– [Haha, sweet]

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Before being forcibly dragged into this, it reminds me of a certain community I saw online.

Anyone can see that it feels like stock trading, and I’m wondering how I should take this.

‘What should I do? Can I really survive in this crazy ship stock market (?) filled with human madness?’

If it were 1:1 second-hand trading, my experience would boost my IQ from 50 to 100, but stocks are a different story.

So, I kept pondering what I should really do.

To seek advice, I went to the solo ranker chat room and casually brought it up…

—————————————-

– [What, are you thinking of investing in ship stocks?] (Indypatible)

– [Just thinking about it, for some pocket money] (Icarus)

– [Think carefully]

– [I went in without much thought and lost about 3,000 gold, now I just quietly buy and sell my own stuff] (Menaldu)

– [Ship stocks aren’t bad, but they’re tough] (Indypatible)

– [If you’re going to do it, it’s best to just make a few dozen to a few hundred gold profit with cheap small ships and then get out] (Menaldu)

—————————————-

With such lukewarm responses, I started to wonder if jumping into this was really the right thing to do.

But then again, I couldn’t just keep staring at the gacha that keeps blowing up.

After some deep thought, I finished my daily quests and came back, praising Smeragi who was nudging me for attention, and fiddled with her ears for a few minutes.

“Ughhhh.”

“Hmm… I’ve decided.”

As Smeragi made strange noises and her tail fur stood on end, trembling, I finally got up and made my decision.

“What are you going to do, Commander?”

“You know what they say, strike while the iron is hot. Once a man makes up his mind, he can’t back down.”

“Wow…”

Right after saying that, I opened the auction window again, scrolled through the destroyer list, and then, with the auction time almost up, I went all in with 2,100 gold on the <Anaphylaxis-class Anti-Air Destroyer>, officially declaring my entry into the ‘ship stock market’.