Chapter 151: Auction
The next day, the three of them met in the lobby.
"Mr. Bai, your luck is truly excellent. The entire casino knows you hit the jackpot last night," Ji Xuan said with a smile.
"Three hundred thousand doesn't even compare to a single bet in the VIP lounge."
"Hahahaha..."
The atmosphere suddenly grew a little awkward.
"The auction house is just ahead. We'll be in a private box on the second floor. Please."
The private box was equipped with entirely modern facilities. All bids were placed via manual buttons and processed by a computer program, a stark contrast to the scene many years ago when one had to manually raise a paddle and shout out prices.
"This setup guarantees the privacy of each bidder, avoiding most issues of 'innocent person, guilty of possessing jade.' Each person has an independent private box, and in the end, no one else can even know who successfully bid on an item," Ji Xuan began to explain.
"Each private box is equipped with a large screen where you can view detailed information and high-definition close-up videos of all the day's auction items. The effect is far clearer than observing the actual items displayed on the auction stage with the naked eye.
"Before the emergence of Ability Users, these considerations weren't necessary. But now, with many Ability Users appearing who possess terrifying destructive power, capable of easily demolishing buildings, most of them can be described as power upstarts. They all adhere to the principle of 'Why talk reason when you can just grab what you want with your fists?'"
"Under these circumstances, minimizing conflict within the auction house becomes crucial. If both parties in a conflict are Ability Users with astonishing destructive power, even a few casual clashes could cause devastating damage to the venue. More importantly, if incidents keep happening, who would still come to such a dangerous place? After all, most wealthy individuals are still ordinary people."
"Then why not hire a few masters to guard the place?" Bai Mo recalled how novels he'd read used to handle such situations.
"Currently, the value of Ability Users is extremely polarized. Those at Spirit Animation Stage one or two, who aren't much stronger than ordinary people – unless they possess very unique abilities – are completely dirt cheap. Yet, Ability Users of this level already account for over seventy percent of the total. Their combat power is essentially equivalent to an veteran soldier equipped with a personal weapon."
"How do you seem to know everything?" he said, smiling.
"Not at all, it's just that working in this business requires constant access to first-hand information to seize business opportunities."
"However, truly strategically significant Ability Users, those capable of single-handedly defeating a regular army battalion or more, are generally high-level Ability Users at Spirit Animation Stage seven or above. There are only about one to two thousand such individuals in the entire Huaxia Federation. To genuinely secure the venue, Ability Users of this caliber are indeed needed, but their appearance fees are exorbitant, making it even less cost-effective."
"This isn't something an ordinary businessman would know, is it?"
"You're only in your twenties, yet you're one of the managers of this underground market. There must be someone backing you. If your surname is Ji, is Minister Ji Guangping your grandfather?"
"Yes, Mr. Bai. Last night, I called my grandfather to report the situation, and he told me to absolutely cultivate a good relationship with you."
"An easygoing enforcer and research coolie who isn't power-hungry, like me, is probably rarer than a panda," Bai Mo murmured to himself.
"What's wrong?" Ji Xuan asked.
"Nothing."
"How much do you know about me?" Bai Mo said, running a hand through his shoulder-length hair. "Speak freely, I don't mind."
"My grandfather didn't tell me much. He said that any true information related to you is mostly top-secret, and there's a lot he can't disclose. So I could only search online, and then I discovered that the online slanders targeting you, which had been buzzing for two days, had almost all been completely deleted. In their place were many conflicting versions, making it impossible to distinguish truth from falsehood," Ji Xuan said, spreading his hands in helplessness.
"All the information only states that you are a senior researcher at a Spirit Energy Research Institute, but as for your specific responsibilities or research direction, that's truly a matter of widespread speculation."
"Oh, by the way, are you connected to the Four Young Masters case?"
"Four Young Masters?"
"The espionage case involving Hua Wenwu and the other three."
"Don't ask too much about that. If you know too much, be careful, they won't even spare you," Bai Mo didn't respond directly, merely smiling as he gave Ji Xuan a slight scare.
"The auction will now officially begin. The first item is a multicolored stone discovered in the Death Desert Secret Realm of Xintu Province. Its use is unknown, and preliminary tests indicate it doesn't belong to any common known substances. The starting price is three hundred thousand, with increments of no less than fifty thousand." The voice from the large screen interrupted their conversation.
"Chen Xi, please bid on items number one, five, eight, and thirteen for me."
"Understood."
After giving his instructions, Bai Mo simply sat to the side, continuously organizing the knowledge he had learned from the mental crystal, expanding his knowledge system. Simultaneously, he began to compare the differences between his already spirit-energized brain and brains that were essentially not spirit-energized, attempting to find a universal method for spirit-energization that transcended empirical laws.
Ever since his avatar appeared, he felt like a dual-core processor, naturally capable of handling two tasks simultaneously. This ranged from simple actions like drawing a circle with his left hand while drawing a square with his right, to more complex ones like reviewing data uploaded by Contribution Point System users while studying knowledge from the mental crystal, or performing Spirit Hub dissection on incoming prisoners.
Chen Xi, busy with the computer bidding nearby, suddenly felt as if someone was staring at her. However, after looking around, she found that the two people behind her were either staring blankly with closed eyes or looking down at their phones, so it didn't seem to be them.
"My brain is... and Chen Xi's brain structure is... and Ji Xuan's here is..." Bai Mo closed his eyes, slowly using his divine sense to seek out the fundamental differences between the three.
...
"Next up is the fourth auction item: a Xuanhuang Fruit. I don't believe I need to elaborate on its effects and related information; after consumption, ordinary people have a high probability of transforming into Ability Users, while Ability Users have a high probability of gaining a new ability. Furthermore, the Xuanhuang Fruit can significantly boost the consumer's immunity, making it especially suitable for children who are prone to illness," the host on the large screen painstakingly tried to ignite the desire of the various buyers.
"If one begins cultivating abilities from childhood, they are very likely to grow into a powerful Ability User. Although the production data for the Xuanhuang Fruit has been leaked, the next true output time is still distant. One step ahead, always ahead – seizing the opportunity to become stronger now is the key. The starting price is one million, with increments of no less than fifty thousand."
"Mr. Bai, aren't you interested in this?" Ji Xuan asked from the side.
"Pfft," Chen Xi, who knew some of the truth, couldn't help but stifle a laugh upon hearing that.
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