Infinite wealth In A New World-Chapter 362: Black Auction
[One Week Later.]
[Star Nation — The Abyssal Auction Hall.]
The air inside the secret hall was thick with the scent of expensive incense and the metallic tang of hidden intentions. At the front of the room, a man stepped onto the stage. He wore an ivory skull mask that gleamed under the magelights, his eyes twin voids behind the bone.
"Welcome everyone!!"
"Ahh! Lord Jovial is here!!"
"Welcome, Lord Jovial!!"
"Lord Jovial, I want to renew my miracle drugs!!"
"Same here!!"
The audience, composed of the elite from the Nine Nations, erupted in a fervor that bordered on religious worship. These were the pillars of society—dukes, merchant kings, and high priests—all reduced to addicts begging for their next dose of the "Miracle Drug."
"Don’t worry friends, everyone will have his or hers... But you know the rules: auction first," Jovial said, his voice smooth as silk. "As you know, we only sell forbidden skills and artifacts here. They will greatly boost your powers until you are invincible amongst your peers!"
Jovial’s gaze swept across the room, lingering for a fraction of a second on Sir Alex, who gave a nearly imperceptible nod.
"So let’s get the auction started... We have three items today. The first is a forbidden skill." He gestured to the side. A hulking attendant walked forward, his arms encased in heavy lead-lined armor to protect himself from the volatile energy radiating from the scroll he carried. The man was visibly trembling.
"Wow! Look at the attendant, he is shaking!" a noblewoman whispered, her eyes wide with greed.
"This must be a very powerful skill!! Truly worth its title as a forbidden skill!"
"I can’t wait to wield it!"
"Calm down everyone," Jovial chuckled. "If you’re below the Celestial rank, you won’t even be able to open this scroll without losing your mind." He reached out and casually plucked the scroll from the attendant’s hands as if it were common parchment.
"...??!"
The room went silent.
"Wow! Lord Jovial is so impressive!!"
"Even a forbidden skill bows to his will!"
"The starting bid is One Billion Galaxy Crystals," Jovial announced. "Any bid added must be above one million."
"1.5 billion!!!"
"2 billion!! I must have this!!"
"You?!! I will have it! 2.4 Billion!!!"
At the back of the hall, shrouded in shadows, Sunny leaned back in his seat, his eyes narrowed behind his hood.
’Something is definitely wrong with this host...’ Sunny thought, his internal alarms screaming. ’Even with my strength, I can’t sense his rank. Even the System is showing me an ERROR when I try to scan him.’
He watched Jovial’s effortless movements. ’I thought Matilda would be responsible for this, but maybe she is just an accomplice. Someone else is pulling these strings.’ He glanced at Alex, then tapped the eyepiece discreetly tucked into his ear.
’Even with the Mercenaries I placed with Arthur and Casey... I’m getting nothing. Do I have to force him to reveal himself?’ He focused his gaze on the scroll.
{System Scan Initiated...}
{Item: Soul Sucker}
{Rank: High Grand Class Forbidden Skill}
{Effect: Devours the soul of a target to permanently boost the user’s energy and life force.}
’Soul Sucker. Truly a forbidden art,’ Sunny mused. He tapped his earpiece again. "How is it going there?" he whispered.
___
[Star Nation Borders — Eldorian Vanguard.]
Jinx stood on a cliff overlooking the shimmering border shields of the Star Nation. She tapped her own earpiece, her dragon-slitted eyes scanning the horizon.
"We are all in position."
"Good," Sunny’s voice crackled through the comms.
"Hey... when are you planning to help me break through? It has been a week now!!" Jinx yelled, her frustration boiling over.
"You will know when the time is right," Sunny’s voice replied, calm and maddeningly detached. "Stop asking that now. Focus."
The line went dead.
"I should focus? Is this even a battle?" Jinx looked over her shoulder, and even she felt a chill at the sight. Behind her stood tens of thousands of battleships and hundreds of massive warships, their hulls etched with Eldorian runes and insignia.
"The drones alone are enough to level the Star Nation," she muttered. "But he is using seventy percent of Eldoria’s military strength. Why?"
"Oh, sister."
Ellen walked up beside her, the wind whipping her hair. She looked at the horizon with a maturity that seemed to grow by the day.
"What? Am I missing something?" Jinx asked.
"It’s not that... The Star Nation has a secret weapon," Ellen explained, her voice low. "Although only the true Royal Bloodline can activate it, we don’t know the extent of its destruction. That’s why we brought this much firepower—to suppress it before it can fire."
"Oh, so if they can’t use this secret weapon?"
"Then we won’t even need these ships," Ellen added. She looked back at the sea of soldiers.
"Each of the commanders has one hundred million Grand-Class Mercenaries under their commands. We won’t lose this battle. For now, we wait."
Jinx finally nodded her head, her dagger in hand.
___
[Back at the Auction Hall.]
"Sold!! Congratulations to the family from the Dragon Nation for winning the Forbidden Skill for ten billion!" Jovial shouted, his voice ringing with theatrical joy.
He hovered his hand over the scroll, and a black, void-like case manifested around it. "Once you pay, it will be yours." He set the box aside and signaled for the next item.
"Up next is the Forbidden Ring... It has the power to prolong your life indefinitely, so long as you feed it virgin’s blood!"
".....?!!"
A collective gasp went through the room.
"If you are bonded to it, you are free to wear it or keep it in a vault. Either way, you gain the benefit as long as it is fed the fresh blood of a virgin boy or girl!"
The attendant brought out a crimson ring that seemed to pulse like a beating heart. Jovial held it up, the red light reflecting off his skull mask.
"For this treasure! The starting bid is Five Billion!!" Jovial yelled. As he spoke, his gaze drifted toward the back of the room, fixing directly on Sunny for a split second before sweeping back to the hungry crowd.
