Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
Such arrogant words appearing out of thin air was as tyrannical as a third party who suddenly barged in when a couple was having sex. Normally, when this happens, it would be like a stone thrown into a calm lake, giving rise to a thousand ripples. But the reality was that the bidders paid no heed to the man’s words at all and had already started making their bids.
“Seventeen virgins from planet Aphrodite, all with three breasts!”
“All territories from crosswalk H3 to H4. There are 70,000 people and 120 shops there, as well as three bars and six casinos!”
“An Arctic-class cargo ship with a mileage of only 2.8 light-years. It has ten-arm independent suspension, eight connecting rods plus air suspension. It also has three additional mounting interfaces and twelve plasma guns!”
“800 million Imperial notes with platinum marks, can be exchanged for cash at any bank!”
“…”
The initially orderly auction house instantly descended into chaos. Meanwhile, Sheyan asked Old Charlie with much interest, “Who was the first guy who spoke just now?”
It was reasonable to assume that anyone who dared to yell that kind of thing in a place like this must certainly have some power. For example, if the one saying that was Mungo, would the boss of the auction house dare not proffer the mech suit? But strangely, after the man cried out, not only did the auctioneer not take him seriously, even the bidders completely ignored him.
Logically speaking, a person who shouted something like this in a such a place without the corresponding power would surely be dragged outside and beaten to a pulp! But that man was simply ignored, and that’s very weird.
The man was in a box so Sheyan could only see his lanky silhouette. Old Charlie answered respectfully, “That person has a unique identity. Rumour has it that the reason this black market can exist here isn’t due to the influence of Lieutenant General Mungo, but due to the power behind a certain Imperial General. The General has already established a black market here when Mungo was still a Major General. This guy, Grant, is the representative that the power behind the General stationed here. He’s mainly responsible for supervising the transactions in the black market and preventing the black market’s commission from disappearing. Of course, the General probably has dozens of other similar businesses, so he’s only one of many representatives.”
“Grant has a strained relationship with the black market boss. He has to. Otherwise, the two of them can easily be suspected of colluding with each other to cheat on the accounting. It’s precisely due to this reason that he’d often deliberately do some strange things to cause trouble. All the regular customers know this and are used to it.”
When the auctioneer heard the bids, he smiled and said, “It appears you haven’t realised the true value of this item yet, esteemed customers.”
With a wave of his hand, two men in small cargo mech suits came clattering up the stage and lifted the small-sized solo mech suit up from both sides. They first smashed it with weapons to verify its toughness, and then pressed a button.
The solo mech suit had something which looked like a backpack on its back. After the button was pressed, the “backpack” quickly split and folded until it covered the entire mech suit. The small-sized solo mech suit was originally about 2.3 meters in height, but after it transformed into its attacking form, it turned into a large exoskeleton armour about three meters tall! Even if nobody was controlling it at the moment, it exuded a dangerous feeling!
Even more shocking was that, on two spots that had not been scraped on the exoskeleton armour, an emblem of a clenched fist could be seen!
That was the emblem of those the Empire considered to be rebels: the Interstellar Alliance! This kind of individual tactical equipment had never appeared on the battlefield before, which was to say, it was a powerful secret weapon of the Interstellar Alliance. But the enemy’s secret weapon had actually appeared in an underground auction at an important location in the Empire!
The auctioneer proudly looked around before he announced his real starting price.
“This is a new weapon type recently developed by the Alliance. At present, because of its high cost, it hasn’t been put into mass production yet, and only a few troops of elite Alliance special forces have been equipped with this weapon. However, two brave warriors from these elite troops have seen the errors in their ways and have returned to the embrace of our righteous Empire. Since they have no intention of becoming soldiers again, they entrusted us with the sale of this powerful weapon. To be honest, this mech suit is probably the only one of its kind in the whole Empire, so you don’t have to waste your time if you don’t have at least 8 billion Imperial dollars.”
The price had suddenly been raised by more than ten times, but the bidding became even more intense instead, now that the function of the weapon had been displayed, which showed that Sheyan’s previous remark that “the poorer the place, the easier it is to produce the rich” was completely true.
The competition soon became white-hot. The curtains of the boxes had all been lifted, the occupants showing their faces to the crowd and asking everyone else to give them face and let them have the mech suit. The atmosphere in the theatre was thrown into a chaotic frenzy.
Towards the end, those who were not strong enough financially and those who were not so determined to have the weapon gradually withdrew from the battle. Three bidders remained, all powerful figures who had major influence with both the authorities and the underground forces on Alps Base 7. The highest bid currently was two planets with rich resources.
This price had obviously far exceeded the value of a new exoskeleton armour.
But the person who made this bid had some inside information. He knew that the Imperial Big Ben Research Institute was eager to acquire the key technology of this hybrid assault prototype armour called Prometheus! To raise his nobility title further was a difficult feat, but if he could establish a relationship with the researchers in Big Ben, it would not be a problem at all! He was determined to get this item.
By now, the bids were only slowly rising in value like a tug-of-war. The auctioneer’s countdown was getting closer and closer to the word “Sold!”. There were a few times when the auctioneer was about to drop his hammer for the final time, but someone always increased the bid at the last second.
Suddenly, an old man who looked withered and seemed to be huddling behind his coat and hat stood up and walked towards the auction stand.
No one expected a dark horse to suddenly spring out of nowhere so late in the game. He instantly attracted a lot attention.
Many people actually recognised him. They started mocking, “Well, well, isn’t this the great Marquis Charlie? Oh, no, the former Marquis Charlie. I heard that you became a Cyborg because you’re scared of dying. What are you doing here? Don’t you have somebody’s ass to kiss today?”
“Stop wasting our time and get off the stage, or I won’t let my servants take care of your family anymore!”
“Look at me, Lord Marquis! I’m trembling with excitement all over! I look forward to you giving us a surprise!”
“Your granddaughter’s doing well. I heard she’s become a third-rate prostitute in a brothel. Since you dare to pollute my eyes here, I don’t mind letting my servants patronise her business later!”
“Hey broke-ass Marquis, come lick my boots a hundred times, and I’ll give you a dollar. Then you can scram!”
“….”
Sheyan stared at Old Charlie’s back in shock as the old man walked forward silently. He was actually a noble of the Empire, and a high noble at that! Sheyan could never have imagined.
Old Charlie came up to the auctioneer who seemed ready to call the security. He took out a ragged, dirty cloth sack with patches on it – it was more appropriate to call it a worn-out sock – and threw it to the auctioneer, then said indifferently, “My master wants you to pack the mech suit into a suitcase. The suitcase must be blue, because that’s his lucky colour.”
Facing the dirty sack flying towards him, the auctioneer immediately showed off his impressive skills. He shrank back with an agility that was completely disproportionate to his obese body, as if the object flying over was a grenade or a spit…
Just as he was about to curse and ask the guards nearby to pry Old Charlie’s head from his body and stuff it into the toilet at the back, he suddenly saw what was on the ground. The man instantly froze.
“This… This… ”
The mouth of the sack that Old Charlie threw was not fastened. Because no one caught the thrown sack, its contents naturally spilled out when it landed on the ground. A few items inside fell on the ground tinkling.
The sound was light and crisp, like two pieces of metal clanking against each other, but it had a charm that penetrated deep into those who heard it, making them shiver. But what was even more bizarre was the glow from the objects. Even though the auction hall was brightly illuminated, the objects shrouded the surroundings in a faint layer of alluring, gentle light as soon as they appeared. A light mist seemed to fill the whole theatre, turning it into a scene of ethereal beauty!
Those who were mocking and insulting Old Charlie before instantly turned quiet, as if their throats had been slit. Their faces were flushed, as if Old Charlie, who was standing there leisurely, had given them a hard slap!
“Hey, hey, what’s wrong with you guys? They’re just a bunch of garbage gemstones.” The leader of a certain mafia gang asked in confusion.
The auctioneer’s voice was trembling as he said, “These… Are these high purity Pi element particles? I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Mr. Charlie, Lord Charlie. Please excuse me. I’ve never seen these things in person before. I’ll have to find an expert to evaluate them. Please wait for a minute.”
The auctioneer, while speaking incoherently, bent down to pick up the Pi element particles and the sack he so despised a moment ago.
Because his hands were trembling violently, he did not succeed in picking them up even after a few tries. In the end, because bending down with his large body was too tiring, he simply knelt down on the ground and picked them up one by one while his face and forehead were covered in sweat.
Upon hearing the words “high purity Pi element particles”, the mafia leader immediately shut his mouth as his face turned pale. He quickly slipped out without a word. Someone who could so easily take something like this out could not be simple. Even if Old Charlie was only his dog, a fart from the dog was enough to make a guy like him fall down. Of course the smart thing to do was to run.
The boss behind the scenes had been keeping an eye on everything that happened in the auction, so as soon as the auctioneer placed the last scattered Pi element particle back into the stinky sack, an expert immediately came over.
