Everyone pointed fingers at and cursed the tycoon who had thrown out one hundred thousand Dragon Coins right away.
Although there were many people cursing him, there were still tycoons who raised their hands and said.
"I can give you one hundred thousand Dragon Coins, but I don't have that much right now because I can't open my storage ring. Can I give it to you after we get out?"
"Sure," Ethan directly extended his hand toward the elf man and said, "Sign a life-and-death contract with me, and that'll do!"
[Life-and-Death Contract: A type of contract that uses life and death as the punishment. As long as neither party goes against their own will, they can sign any terms they want, but once the contract is signed, if they fail to fulfill it, they will pay with their life to end the contract.]
[PS: If one party to the contract dies unexpectedly before fulfilling the terms of the contract, all of the deceased's possessions will automatically be settled, and the other party to the contract will receive a certain amount of compensation according to the terms of the contract.]
In other words, no matter whether this person could survive until they got out, Ethan was guaranteed to receive the money.
And the elf man seemed to be in no shortage of money at all. He simply gave a noble smile and gently placed his slender fingers into Ethan's hand, like an English nobleman, saying, "No problem. I'll give it to you as soon as we get out anyway."
"Pleasure doing business!"
After letting him onto the raft, Ethan immediately turned around, grinned at the tycoon, and transmitted to him, ["The fish has taken the bait."]
["That's all thanks to Lord Ethan's scheme."]
This so-called tycoon was actually the Lord of Region Two, David.
When David from Region Two arrived at the shore, he immediately greeted Ethan, and Ethan naturally noticed his ally too.
However, Ethan immediately transmitted to David on the shore, 'Don't make a fuss. Also, pretend you don't know me.'
Upon hearing this, David naturally lowered his arm at once and quietly waited for Ethan's next instructions.
Sure enough, Ethan continued: 'I need you to cooperate with me and put on a little show. Otherwise, these people won't pay, or they'll pay too little. What's the point.'
David didn't know how to use sound transmission, so he could only nod and respond to Ethan through body language.
'In a moment, just get a bag and put some money or stones in it. Either is fine,' Ethan continued instructing David, his plant, 'Then shout from the shore that there are one hundred thousand Dragon Coins inside and ask if you qualify to get on my raft.'
David continued nodding. Then he found an empty corner, took care of what Ethan had instructed him to do, came to the shore, and shouted according to Ethan's instructions.
Ethan immediately invited him onto the raft and even patted him on the shoulder, saying quietly into his ear, "Well done!"
And after Ethan's plant helped him open up the first wave of business, sure enough, quite a few tycoons signed life-and-death agreements with Ethan and bought tickets for the raft at a price of one hundred thousand per person.
However, in the end, the raft's seats still weren't completely sold.
There were three spots left that nobody bought.
There probably weren't enough rich people, or perhaps some people had money but were stingy and couldn't bear to spend it.
But it didn't matter. Ethan still had another trick up his sleeve.
"There are three spots left. Is anyone else coming? If not, we're leaving," Ethan shouted.
The people on the shore had long since been unhappy with Ethan, especially since he had made so much money using such a despicable method.
Therefore, countless Treants who had already built large wooden rafts immediately mocked Ethan sarcastically, "You're not the only one with a large wooden raft, you know? Hah! We Treants aren't as greedy as you. For just ten thousand Dragon Coins, you can get on our large wooden raft, and we'll guarantee you get across!"
"I only want five thousand Dragon Coins. Five thousand per person and I'll take you across the sea. Seats are limited, so hurry if you want one!"
"Three thousand Dragon Coins per person. I'll only take six people, and I'll leave as soon as they're filled!"
The Treants and wood-element mages who had made rafts all started competing with each other, desperately lowering their prices one after another.
But Ethan had no intention of lowering his price at all. He even spoke to everyone on the shore with a grin, "Although my price is more expensive than everyone else's, there's naturally a reason why mine is more expensive."
"I believe everyone should have already noticed that storage rings can't be used during the Magic Tree Climbing Race, right?"
"And none of us knows exactly how vast this red sea is."
"If we're lucky, perhaps we can cross the sea in a day. But if we're unlucky, has everyone considered that it might take ten days or half a month to cross this man-eating red sea?"
"You might be able to go one day without eating or drinking, but nobody can endure ten days without food or water, right?"
"Although there aren't many extra things on my Super Raft, there are enough oranges and water. Do you still think one hundred thousand Dragon Coins is expensive?"
"…"
Quite a few people immediately tried opening their storage rings, only to discover that they really couldn't open them.
The expressions of many people changed drastically.
Meanwhile, those who had brought dry rations and water bottles all breathed a sigh of relief.
Quite a few contestants who had already boarded the Treants' wooden rafts silently returned to the shore.
Because they had to admit that what Ethan said made a lot of sense…
If crossing the sea took ten days, how were they supposed to survive without water?
"I'll give you one hundred thousand Dragon Coins. Let me up!"
"I'll sign a contract with you!"
"Count me in!"
"Me too!"
This time, those tycoons who had originally wanted to get a bargain or had been watching from the sidelines could no longer hold back, and they all raised their hands.
In an instant, the number of people wanting to board the raft far exceeded three. There were even more than a dozen people fighting for Ethan's remaining three spots.
Seeing this, Ethan simply smiled at the corner of his mouth and said, "Since so many people want to come up, but unfortunately there are only three spots left, what should we do?"
"Let the highest bidder get them!"
"Starting bid: one hundred thousand!"
"Bidding starts now!"