Chapter 184: The Million-Coin Seller
When Walfred turned his attention to the auction for the [Legion Commander’s Baton], he doubted his own eyes for a moment.
He couldn’t help it.
Barely a few minutes had passed since he’d seen the bidding open at 100,000 coins, and yet the current bid had already shot up to a staggering 500,000.
’When did it climb this high?’
Walfred’s eyes went round.
What was even more surprising was that the bid was still climbing at this very moment.
His curiosity piqued, he looked over at where the bidding war was raging.
"520,000!"
"I’ll go 540,000."
"Ugh! Th-then 550,000!"
"I’ll go 570,000."
Two beings locked in a fierce contest.
The first was an elf woman hung all over with ornaments made of bone. Judging by her dark skin, she was probably a dark elf.
’And the other one...’
That one wasn’t even human.
It was the silver alloy humanoid robot he’d noticed the instant he walked into the waiting room. It kept placing bids in a mechanical voice.
And as a result.
The bid broke 700,000.
’Is the thing really that good?’
Good enough for the price to climb that far?
Watching the price explode in real time, Walfred was simply amazed.
And then.
"Hey!"
The elf woman suddenly shot out of her seat.
She glared at the humanoid robot like she wanted it dead, then jabbed a finger at it and shouted.
"What the hell have you been doing this whole time?!"
The instant the words left her mouth.
The humanoid robot turned its head to look at her. Then it answered in that distinctive mechanical tone, without a trace of emotion.
"As you can see, I am placing bids. Has an error occurred in your visual information processing?"
"I’m asking why you’re bidding on that thing! That’s for necromancers like me. A hunk of scrap like you has no use for it!"
The elf woman snapped at it, seething.
She’d probably lost her temper over the bid climbing sky-high. The robot, unbothered by the insult, went right on talking.
"Correction. That item is valid for us as well. The item details specify that ’creations’ also satisfy the activation conditions."
"Like a tin can counts as a creation!"
"Our model is compatible with every munitions factory system within the Alliance. Mass production of drones is possible, and therefore we satisfy the special skill’s activation conditions."
The robot answered evenly.
Then it spoke to the elf woman as though offering advice.
"As your information processing capacity appears to be substandard, I recommend that you cease voice transmission, if only for the sake of energy efficiency."
"You damn tin can! What did you just say?!"
The elf woman’s face twisted with rage.
She looked ready to attack on the spot, but no fight actually broke out. The auctioneer, Root, held her back.
"Our Dimensional Auction House does not permit any act of violence."
"But he started it!"
"Please be advised that a violation of this rule results in a permanent ban from the Dimensional Auction House."
A stern warning followed.
At Root’s words, the elf woman ended up sitting back down, doing nothing but glaring at the robot.
The bidding continued afterward with no sign of stopping, and at last a winner was decided.
"As no additional bids have been placed in the minute since the last one, the [Legion Commander’s Baton] is sold to customer number 85."
Customer 85. The humanoid robot.
Having lost the contest, the elf woman let out one heavy sigh after another and glared at the robot as if cursing it.
Walfred was watching all of it with a fascinated look when.
Ding!
-----
[The item you registered has been sold.]
[Final winning bid]: 1,295,000 coins
[Auction fee]: 259,000 coins
[Final sale proceeds]: 1,036,000 coins
[The proceeds have been deposited.]
-----
A fortune in coins had landed in his hands.
Even after the 20% auction fee, it was a staggering sum of over a million. With his holdings now up to three million coins, Walfred wore a dazed expression.
’...Is this real?’
It was real.
He pinched his cheek just in case, and it definitely hurt. A moment later, Walfred let out a long breath of relief.
’Good thing I didn’t enter a price.’
If he’d set a buy it now price expecting to get only 100,000 coins, he never would have earned this much.
Just as he was feeling relieved all over again.
The humanoid robot that had bought the [Legion Commander’s Baton] walked right over to where Walfred was sitting.
"Thank you, seller."
"...?"
"Thanks to you, our Alliance has moved a little closer to victory. Truly, thank you."
The robot bowed at the waist to Walfred.
It sounded as though a single [Legion Commander’s Baton] might turn the tide of an entire war.
After thanking him one more time, the robot returned to its seat. Julian and Li Xiaoqing turned to Walfred with stunned faces.
"Good grief, a million coins..."
"Y-you were the one who put that up?"
Walfred nodded without a word.
In an instant, every trace of composure vanished from Li Xiaoqing’s face. And not only hers. The other hunters from Earth were the same.
Naturally so.
They’d just watched him rake in a million coins right in front of their eyes.
’Looks like they’re all on guard around me now.’
An obvious enough reaction.
The fact that he was holding far more coins than any other hunter was out in the open for the whole world to see.
For all he knew, they might start deliberately driving up the price on every item he bid for, just to keep him in check.
So he spoke up immediately.
"Let me say one thing in advance."
The hunters’ stares poured over him.
Walfred met those stares, full of suspicion and wariness, without looking away. Then, in a low, level voice, he said calmly.
"There’s one thing in this room I want."
"...?"
"Anybody who bids just to spite me or gets in my way had better be ready to go home empty-handed today."
"...!?"
The moment he finished speaking.
The hunters’ faces stiffened. Most likely because nothing about his words sounded like a bluff.
After laying down that hard warning.
"We will now begin the next auction."
The auction carried on from there.
Legend rank artifacts turned up more than a few times, but nothing caught his interest.
Walfred watched at his leisure, and every time a new item appeared, the hunters were too busy reading his face to focus on anything else.