Chapter 1441: Antique Space Hoverboard
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
It was just past noon, so Xia Fan left the Red Fort and headed out to the large lawn outside.
Many of the employees of the trading company were busy preparing food and drink for the customers, and they were also doing the prep work for the chest opening that would be held at 4 PM.
Xia Fan saw that a hundred tough alloy tables had been set out on the lawn. These tables were all used for opening the treasure chests. As there were an enormous number of chests, many employees were needed to open them all at once.
It had always been the case in the past that all the treasure chests would be opened between 4 and 6 PM, after which dinner would be held.
The customers taking part in the treasure hunt would all enjoy their host’s generous hospitality, whether they received a treasure or not.
!!
The banquet was held from evening all the way to midnight, like a grand party being held monthly. Besides eating and drinking, a lot of business deals were also sealed during this banquet. For example, the people who got lucky could sell what they had obtained if they didn’t want it.
Thus, the treasure chest activity wasn’t just about gambling. It was also a social activity where businessmen could make connections. Many people who didn’t live in Beacon City would fly over to take part, their reasons quite understandable.
The two major companies of Beacon City truly did know how to do business. In the complicated society of the Outer Frontier, one needed strength, but one also needed connections and friends. The two companies had many friends and a good reputation entirely because of the diligent way in which they ran their businesses.
Of course, this banquet wasn’t actually free. Anyone who participated in the treasure chest activity had to bid on and buy at least one chest. Since each chest started at ten gold coins, the minimum revenue from this event would be fifteen million gold coins!
Xia Fan sat down at the free bar. He didn’t drink any alcohol, instead asking for some watermelon juice while he waited for Tony and Traveling Buddha to come out.
He had chosen three chests for himself. Besides that extra large chest with the core, there was one medium chest and one small chest.
Xia Fan wasn’t sure what was inside those other two chests, but they had strange odors that contained scent particles Xia Fan had never encountered before.
One of them was clearly some metal object, and the one in the small chest was probably a bottle of alcohol, a very strange alcohol with a unique scent. There seemed to be the scent of a high-ranked beast about it, though Xia Fan couldn’t tell exactly what kind of beast. After all, he only had superscent, not x-ray vision!
As a cover, Xia Fan randomly chose twenty other chests. Otherwise, if he only chose three chests that all contained treasures, other people would start to be suspicious of him.
—
Xia Fan ended up drinking three cups of fruit juice. It was only twenty-fiveminutes until 4 PM when Traveling Buddha and Tony finally rushed out of the Red Fort. Xia Fan waved at the two and called them over.
“I’ve got a good feeling that I’m going to open a treasure today!” Traveling Buddha said excitedly.
“I wish all of us good luck,” Tony nodded.
Such was survivorship bias. Almost all humans felt like they were different from the rest and were the luckiest, but that was absolutely not the truth.
This was just how society was constructed. The vast majority of people wouldn’t accomplish anything in life, one of many in the mass of common people. If everyone was lucky, if everyone was successful, society would have fallen into complete chaos.
Thus, it was normal for a person’s life to be mediocre. It was just that most people weren’t willing to accept the fact that they were ordinary people.
Xia Fan asked in curiosity, “How many chests did you pick?”
Tony confessed frankly, “Traveling Buddha chose a lot, but I only chose two. After all, I don’t have much money.”
Traveling Buddha laughed and slapped his chest. “This young master chose 108! An auspicious number, no?”
Xia Fan was startled and said in amusement, “My good friend, do you even have the money to buy all those chests? I don’t remember you exchanging money. All the money you spent yesterday came from me.”
Traveling Buddha rolled his eyes. “What would I need money for? Don’t I have you? When the time comes, you can pay off the bill for me, right? If I get any treasure, we can split it fifty-fifty.”
It was as if Traveling Buddha was really going to get some treasure. Xia Fan was rendered speechless.
But this guy really didn’t pay much attention to financial matters. He had a bank card from his family and swiped whenever he needed to buy something, not even looking at the price. He lived his life like a spendthrift young master.
In truth, Traveling Buddha was just opening treasure chests for fun. He didn’t care about any treasures. After all, as the second young master of the Holy Buddha Clan, what did he lack for?
Traveling Buddha’s signaller beeped, and he immediately paled. “Oh no! Someone outbid me! A treasure is about to be stolen from me!
“I have to get it back!”
At the final moment, the other customers finally began to move. Xia Fan looked around and found that more than ten thousand people had gathered on the lawn, almost all of them quiet as they stared at their signaller screens. The beeping grew more frequent and their eyes started to turn red as they entered furious bidding wars.
The employees all had understanding smiles. They saw scenes like this every month and were used to it.
Xia Fan stared at his own signaller, but he didn’t try to compete. Instead, he was calculating Traveling Buddha’s bill.
This extravagant young master had no bottom line when it came to spending money. If he wanted something, he cared nothing for the price he had to pay.
Fortunately, Eastsea Eagle had given them one thousand Tier 3 energy crystals, and each energy stone was two hundred gold coins. All together, they had two hundred thousand gold coins, which was probably enough to cover Traveling Buddha’s bill.
Xia Fan had eaten Tier 9 energy crystals while growing up, so he didn’t really care about the crystals that were so rich in energy.
Xia Fan still had 47 Tier 9 energy crystals in his spatial ring. He hadn’t eaten any of the enormously expensive crystals after becoming an adult, so he still had a stockpile that could be used at a crucial moment.
The crystals made Xia Fan think about the Disasters who had raised him. They had invested everything they had so that he could live to this day!
When Xia Fan was little, he was just an ordinary person who didn’t even have his seventh brain region opened yet, so the Disasters fed him Tier 9 energy crystals like they had gone mad so that Xia Fan would have a tough body!
Xia Fan’s body was worth a lot of money! Every strand of hair was worth ten thousand gold coinsthanks entirely to Tier 9 energy crystals!
At the last moment, Blind Grandpa had ultimately used his life to open up Xia Fan’s seventh brain region.
Now, Xia Fan had already soared into the heavens. His priceless body, which had been strengthened to such an absurd level, had proven extremely useful. In less than a year, Xia Fan was already approaching the Star Region Rank!
The Speed lineage, the most difficult in the universe!
Speedsters become Celestial Sovereign at the Star Domain!
Xia Fan was only one step away from that legendary rank!
Even Traveling Buddha, the second young master of the supreme Holy Buddha Clan, wasn’t more powerful than Xia Fan. Among the younger generation of warriors, there were few in the Starcloud Union who could match up to Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha.
All of this had been given to Xia Fan by the Disasters. They had not shared any blood relation to Xia Fan, but they had still treated him like family.
“Oh no oh no! I’ve been outbid again!” At the last minute, Traveling Buddha was so frantic that he was jumping around.
This guy had just been too greedy, choosing 108 treasure chests. That meant he was bidding against many people at once, and he was so busy that he was starting to sweat. Not even in lethal battles had Xia Fan ever seen Traveling Buddha so nervous, his hands flying across the terminal as he kept increasing his bids.
“Ten!”
“Nine!”
“Eight!”
“Seven!”
“Six!”
“Five!”
“Four!”
“Three!”
“Two!”
“One!”
As the countdown reached one, Xia Fan faintly smiled as he swept his right hand across the signaller. In a flash, all his bids were sent out.
Those of the Speed lineage had always been better at bullying others, and Xia Fan’s hands moved so fast that nobody here was worthy of competing against him.
He looked again at Traveling Buddha and Tony. Tony was fine, but Traveling Buddha’s back was drenched with sweat, and he was so frantic that he was on the verge of smashing his signaller.
As the bidding had gone poorly, Traveling Buddha had only managed to get 41 of 108 chests. Most of his chests had been taken by other people!
“My babies! They were all stolen away by others!” Traveling Buddha exclaimed tearfully.
Tony was better off, ultimately managing to get his one chest. He had little competition, but he had still ended up spending 25 gold coins, which was almost half a month’s income for him.
“It’s time to open the chests now. Any time a high-value treasure is opened, it will be displayed on the screen,” Tony told them excitedly, pointing at the screen on the lawn.
A middle-aged man wearing traditional clothes had appeared on the platform. Tony explained that he was the Jiang Clan’s steward.
Jiang Chunyun’s status was too extraordinary for him to come personally. That he had sent his most trusted steward was enough to see that he placed a high value on this activity.
The steward introduced himself as He Jinting. “Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is the moment you’ve all been looking forward to: time to open the chests!
“This time, there are three treasures among these chests that are worth more than one hundred thousand gold coins, twenty that are worth more than ten thousand golden coins, and one hundred that are worth more than one hundred gold coins. Finally, there is one priceless treasure!”
Everyone’s eyes glowed at the mention of the priceless treasure.
He Jinting smiled. “Everyone must be wondering what this priceless treasure is, yes?
“In truth, I wish to know, too, but my master personally selected this priceless treasure from his treasury and placed it in the chest, so I do not know what it is.
“Thus, let us all look forward to it! Let us see which lucky friend is able to obtain this priceless item!
“Open the treasure chests!”
As He Jinting spoke, Xia Fan saw large numbers of drones flying out of the Red Fort. The drones used miniature magnetic levitation engines and had alloy arms, firmly grasping the chests and moving them out of the Red Fort to the one hundred tables on the lawn.
Each table had four people and a large screen. When a chest was opened, the item inside would be displayed on the screen, along with some information on it. The drones would then return the chests to their places in the Red Fort and bring new chests out.
The entire process was automated. Through the signallers, everyone could clearly see what was inside the chest they had chosen.
Most of the chests contained souvenirs from the Jiang Trading Company: T-shirts, dress shirts, pillows, toys, tableware, knives, forks, and so on.
These souvenirs weren’t worth anything, as a pile of them probably going for only a single gold coin. A customer could buy them at the Jiang Clan’s company stores or on holidays.
Those who got the souvenirs could only bitterly smile. The vast majority of people silently threw them away. After all, a T-shirt was basically worthless, and anyone who was taking part in the bidding wouldn’t care about such things.
Of the tens of thousands of chests, 99.9% of them contained souvenirs. What truly attracted people were the high-value items, particularly the priceless treasure.
As more chests were opened, Xia Fan occasionally spotted a lucky soul.
A very young man managed to get a Keller Alloy dagger worth one thousand gold coins andshouted out excitedly. Nearby, an old gentleman had received a statue worth one thousand coins, but he remained composed and elegant, merely raising his cup in celebration.
And as more and more chests were opened, Traveling Buddha grew more and more disappointed. Servants moved through the lawn, offering drinks and snacks to the guests.
Traveling Buddha took several cups of wine, downing alcohol as he watched his remaining chests being opened.
“A pity, the chest only had an umbrella.” Tony’s chest was opened, and he found it hard to hide his disappointment as he chuckled bitterly.
He had spent half of his and Joe’s income for a single umbrella. He was in a terrible mood.
As for Traveling Buddha, he had gotten two shirts, a pair of beach shorts, an insulated cup, two sets of children’s toys, a deer pillow, and other such souvenirs. As more chests were opened, his pile of souvenirs only grew larger.
“It’s appeared! A high-class treasure worth one hundred thousand gold coins!” someone next to Xia Fan shouted.
Xia Fan looked at the screen and saw an electronic key being displayed.
It wasn’t an ordinary key, but a brand-new key produced by the Republic Alliance’s Grand Commercial Group. It was the key for an all-weather luxury hovercar with a value of one hundred thousand gold coins, placed in a small chest.
The lucky man who obtained the hovercar was an Outer Frontier merchant wearing glasses. His friends had lifted him up in celebration.
Xia Fan chuckled. A key only smelled of carbon fiber and electronic circuits, the same smell as any other wireless device. If there had been a car inside a chest, Xia Fan naturally would have been able to identify it, but identifying a key was impossible for his Scent special ability.
“The second treasure is worth one hundred thousand!” It wasn’t long before the crowd grew excited again.
This time, it was an ancient hoverboard, black and round. It had a diameter of 42 centimeters, just large enough for one person to stand on it.
He Jinting shouted, “The hoverboard has been popular in Ashen Moon for a long time now. A person standing on a hoverboard can fly around freely. The gyroscope inside will ensure stability while the magnetic system ensures that the user doesn’t fall from the hoverboard. It is a small transportation tool.
“Normally, a hoverboard will sell for several million gold coins, but this hoverboard is different, for it is a rare space hoverboard!
“Everyone knows that flying inside the atmosphere and flying in space require completely different systems. A hoverboard that can fly in space is far superior to an ordinary hoverboard, whether it’s in terms of materials or design standards.
“More importantly, this space hoverboard is an antique, coming from such a distant era that it’s no longer verifiable. The metal used in its construction is one that even the material scientists of our company do not recognize, and the engine is several times stronger than that of an ordinary space hoverboard.
“Thus, our company believes that this antique hoverboard is worth at least one hundred thousand gold coins, and we have classified it as a high-class reward!
“Congratulations to the friend holding Terminal No. 7361. This antique space hoverboard is now yours!”
Papapa!
The crowd clapped warmly. Everyone was talking about how the Jiang Company had really made things interesting, classifying this antique space hoverboard made of special material as a high-class treasure worth one hundred thousand gold coins. It was definitely an underestimation. This antique hoverboard could easily be auctioned off for anywhere from several hundred thousand to one million gold coins to a collector.
Some businessmen were already starting to ask around for the holder of Terminal No.7361 to purchase this hoverboard.
At that moment, Xia Fan turned his head and saw Traveling Buddha looking at him with a very annoyed expression.
“Your signaller is beeping. Are you the one who got the hoverboard?” Traveling Buddha pointed at the vibrating device in Xia Fan’s hand.
