The crowd erupted into a chaotic buzz of conversation.

  “A hundred mil? Did I hear that right?”

  “My god. I don’t even know if I’ve earned a hundred million XP in my entire playtime.”

  “Six of them… that’s six hundred million XP! Is that enough to get to level 30?”

  “No way. Godpath has an exponential XP curve. Six hundred mil should get you to level 23, but you wouldn’t even be close to 24.”

  “I knew it scaled, but how do you know the exact numbers?”

  ...

  On stage, Elon simply smiled, letting the excited chatter wash over him without any rush to explain. After a moment, he raised his hands for silence.

  “Alright, settle down everyone. I know what you’re all thinking. You want to know exactly how far six hundred million experience points will take you, right?”

  Elon gestured to the side of the stage. “To answer that, let’s give a huge welcome to a special guest! She’s a level 25 player, the number one Protection Warrior of Crimson Bloom, and the galaxy’s most adorable tank… Hazel!”

  A spotlight snapped on, illuminating a small girl walking toward the center of the stage. With her pigtails swaying, she lugged a tower shield so massive it was almost as tall as she was.

  It was Hazel.

  She reached Elon’s side and set the shield down on the stage floor.

  BOOM!

  The entire platform shuddered, and Elon nearly lost his footing. Hazel then peeked out from behind the shield, bracing herself against it with one hand while flashing a peace sign to the crowd with the other.

  “Aww, she’s so cute!”

  “Hazel, look over here!”

  Hazel happily obliged, striking several different poses for the audience.

  Click. Click.

  The sound of thousands of players taking screenshots filled the air. If not for the system-enforced barrier, a mob of fans would have likely stormed the stage for a photo-op.

  Ahem. Elon stepped forward to regain control of the event. “Hazel, first off, congratulations on another victory in the siege. Did you get any good loot this time?”

  Hazel patted the massive shield beside her. “Yup! This thing. It’s a level 25 Ascendant shield with 2,500 physical defense.”

  “Twenty-five hundred?!” Elon exclaimed, his eyes widening. He stared at the shield, a greedy glint in his eye. “Most players don’t even have 2,500 attack power! You should put that shield up for auction, too.”

  Hazel’s eyes went wide, and she threw both arms around her shield protectively. “No way!”

  “Er…” Elon realized he had overstepped. Force of habit. Occupational hazard.

  ”Just kidding, of course. Hazel, the audience doesn’t have a good sense of what 600 million XP is worth. Could you explain for everyone what level that would get them to?”

  Seeing that her shield was safe, Hazel relaxed. She turned to the audience.

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  “Okay, so most of you probably know that up to level 20, the XP requirement doubles each level. To get from level 20 to 21, you need fifty million XP.”

  Many in the crowd nodded along.

  “From 21 to 22,” she continued, “it jumps to one hundred million. After that, the requirement increases by another twenty million for each subsequent level.”

  “Wow, so it really does take over a hundred million XP for every level up there!” Elon interjected dramatically. He began counting on his fingers.

  “So, 100 million for 21 to 22; 120 million for 22 to 23; 140 million for 23 to 24; and 160 million for 24 to 25. Add the 50 million to get out of level 20, and that’s a grand total of 570 million experience points to go from level 20 to 25. Is that right?”

  Hazel nodded.

  Elon leaped to the center of the stage, pointing theatrically at the crystals. “There you have it, folks! Six of these crystals is enough to take a player straight to level 25! And after watching Hazel’s performance in the Siege of Starlight Village yesterday, I don’t think I need to tell you how powerful a level 25 player is.

  I won’t waste any more of your time. The bidding for all six Experience Crystals starts at 300,000 US dollars! For buyers from other planets, you may convert your local currency to Dogecoin, then settle the final payment in USD through the galactic standard currency system.”

  Fired up by Elon’s pitch, the bidders went wild.

  “$500,000!”

  “$1,000,000!”

  “$2,000,000!”

  The initial bids came fast and furious. Everyone knew that earning 600 million XP could take ten days of non-stop grinding, if not longer.

  “$10,000,000!”

  The first eight-figure bid came from Cole. After being jailed for two days by Kael’s dual wanted posters, he had fallen hopelessly behind the server’s top players. He was bitter after losing both the Blackwind Brotherhood and Starlight Village sieges and was determined to catch up. He knew the Sunfire Bell was out of his reach, but he was dead set on winning these crystals.

  His ambition was immediately crushed by a heavily accented voice.

  “$20,000,000!”

  A collective gasp went through the hall. The bidder’s server tag showed he was from Vesperia.

  Before anyone could recover, another bid rang out.

  “$25,000,000!” This time, it was Cinder from the Khorthul server.

  On the main screen, Eclipse_Raven and Cinder glanced at each other’s broadcast windows and exchanged looks of mutual contempt.

  “$30,000,000!” Magnus of Sovereign placed his first bid.

  His lieutenant, Roland, leaned in. “Sir, are you sure about this? Committing this much capital now might impact our ability to bid later.”

  Magnus’s eyes never left the stage. “It’s fine. I know what I’m doing.”

  No sooner had he spoken than the price shot up again.

  “$40,000,000!” The bid came from a well-known whale on the Lyra server.

  “$50,000,000!” Eclipse_Raven countered without a moment’s hesitation.

  The other top bidders looked on, confused. Did this mean he was giving up on the Sunfire Bell?

  Cinder hesitated, then threw in a smaller raise. “$55,000,000.”

  Eclipse_Raven’s paddle went up instantly. “$60,000,000.”

  Cinder shot a venomous glare at Raven’s window. “You win this round,” he seethed. “We’ll settle this later!”

  Elon watched from the stage, sensing that Eclipse_Raven’s aggressive bidding had intimidated the remaining competition.

  “Sixty million dollars going once…”

  “Sixty million going twice…”

  “Sold, for sixty million dollars!”

  The gavel fell. Instantly, the six Experience Crystals materialized in Eclipse_Raven’s inventory. He didn’t use them himself. Instead, he immediately traded them to the player beside him, Eclipse_Blackthorn.

  “Blackthorn, take them. The entire guild will help you level up your [Domain of Torment] skill.”

  “I will prove my worth,” Blackthorn declared, his hands trembling as he accepted the crystals. “I’ll show everyone that your investment in me was the right one!” He popped the crystals into his mouth and swallowed them. A series of brilliant golden lights flashed around his body. When the light faded, he had reached the coveted level 25.

  Back on stage, Elon gestured for the next hostess. She walked forward with a tray covered by a yellow cloth. Elon unveiled it, revealing a single, yellowed envelope.

  He held up the letter for all to see. “Now this… this is something special. It comes from a mysterious location, a place that, once cleared, can never be entered again. This letter is called [Van Tassel's Dream]. It is a Class Advancement letter of introduction for the Blacksmith profession, and rumor has it, it offers a chance to advance to the legendary class… Godsmith!”

  In the audience, Hazel scratched her head. “Van Tassel? Rena, that name sounds really familiar.”

  Rena turned to her with a knowing smile. “Of course it does. That was the name of our first Hidden Realm, remember?”

  “Oh, right!” Hazel slapped her forehead. Then a confused look crossed her face. “But wait, didn't we already clear the Van Tassel Hidden Realm? We took all the treasure. How can there be something left?”

  “I don’t know…” Rena shook her head. She opened her friends list to ask Kael, only to find that he wasn’t online. Not only that, but their guild leader, Lila, was offline as well.