"Server Announcement: The Bronze-tier weapon [Glimmering Dagger], ranked 8th on the equipment leaderboard, has been listed at Frostwatch Auction House starting bid, 30 gold."
"Server Announcement: The rare Warrior skill book [Fiery Slash] (D-Rank) has been listed at Frostwatch Auction House starting bid, 50 gold."
Ascension’s auction house ran on a simple enough rule: list something the system judged valuable enough, and it earned a free server-wide shoutout.
More eyes on the listing meant a hotter bidding war, which meant a better final price.
Kael’s dump of gear that morning had apparently cleared that bar over a dozen times in a row.
The sky lit up announcement after announcement, practically back to back, blanketing the entire server in free advertising for several straight minutes.
The forums didn’t just react. They combusted.
"Did he seriously just list the ENTIRE top-ten equipment ranking at once?!"
"Has to be him. Who else would even have this much high-tier gear four hours into launch?"
"I don’t own a single piece of Iron gear and this guy’s auctioning Gold."
"A Gold drop off a Silver boss. That luck isn’t real, that’s a glitch."
"Forget glitch, that’s a full-blown miracle. Someone check if the RNG servers are even working right."
"That sword’s the single best weapon on the server right now. Whoever wins that auction is starting three steps ahead of everyone else alive."
"Every serious guild is about to throw their entire war chest at this listing."
"Somebody get the treasury moving, NOW we are not losing this sword to another org."
"At this point I genuinely think this guy’s hacking. Nobody gets this lucky."
"Or maybe some people are just built different and the rest of you need better excuses."
Kael read through the chaos with a raised eyebrow. He hadn’t expected a routine gear dump to detonate quite this hard.
Every major guild on the server just got a personal invitation to fight over my leftovers.
Not that he minded.
More eyes meant a fiercer bidding war, and a fiercer bidding war meant a fatter payday when it all settled.
"Free advertising," he muttered, grinning at the listings ticking upward in real time. "I could get used to this."
He logged off right there at the auction house counter. Back in reality, Kael peeled the rig off, dealt with the several hours’ worth of bodily neglect that came standard with an all-nighter, and wandered back out to figure out breakfast.
His phone rang before he’d made it as far as the kitchen.
Incoming call: Sweetheart <3
He stared at the screen for a second before it clicked that was still saved under his ex’s contact name.
Ashley Monroe. Small-time streamer once, until she’d hitched her rise to his own profile and ridden it hard for two years straight.
The moment his standing in the club started slipping, so did her interest. By the time he’d been shuffled off to the second team, she’d already found her next headline some rapper with a bigger following and a shinier car.
He answered without much thought, mostly out of habit.He didn’t even get a word out before her voice cut through the line, sharp and accusatory.
"Kael. You terminated your contract with Ironclad? What happened?"
"You couldn’t have talked to me first? Do you have any idea what this is doing to my stream numbers right now?"
Something cold settled behind his eyes.
His ex-girlfriend. Fresh off learning he’d blown up his entire career, and her first instinct wasn’t concern it was damage control for her own follower count.
Of course. Should’ve expected exactly this.
Two years of effort, genuine effort, poured into someone who’d never once cared about anything past what he could do for her platform.
He’d been an idiot not to see it the first time. He wasn’t going to make that mistake twice.
His voice came out flat, cold enough to strip paint."Not my problem. What I do with my career is none of your business."
"Excuse me?" Her tone spiked, genuinely thrown. "You’re talking to me like that? I’m a girl."
"We’re done. Don’t call this number again."
He hung up before she could get another word out, and had the number blocked and deleted inside of ten seconds.
One less loose end.
Back in her own apartment, Ashley hurled the phone onto her bed hard enough to bounce, chest heaving with rage.
Her roommate Jenna, curled up on the other side of the room mid-stream-prep spun around at the noise.
"Whoa. You’re actually breaking up with him?" He’s dead weight now. Ashley’s voice was pure venom.
"Cut from his own club, no team, no leverage why would I keep dragging that around?"
Jenna hesitated. "He’s still got a name on the server, though. That’s still content."
"Please." Ashley waved her off, smug confidence sliding back into place. "I know exactly how he works. He’ll be groveling back at my door inside three days. He always folds first."
It had been true for two years running every fight, every cold shoulder, Kael had been the one to bend first, always convinced that being the bigger person meant giving in. It had made her careless. Made her certain she’d never actually lose him.
"But this time?" She smiled, eyes gleaming. "Even if he crawls back on his knees, I don’t know if I’ll bother forgiving him."
She pulled her phone back up, thumb already scrolling.
"Ascension is the biggest launch this year, and there’s already a player running away with the whole leaderboard. Four server-first achievements in one night. Unrivaled. If nothing changes, that name’s about to be the biggest thing in gaming."
Her smile sharpened.
"Get me in front of him. Kael Mercer can go be irrelevant somewhere else."