Chapter 531: Crop dust
Right after the uproar Michael caused due to his insane spending, the auction continued on at a normal pace. More items were shown, but not a lot of them got the attention of the big companies.
At this point, none of the Major Factions had even submitted a bid yet. Even for important and rare items like Mithril Relics or cultivation pills, they never knocked on the tinted glass walls.
But of course, everyone knew that Major Factions were on a completely different level than most companies. Rare items may be just common for them.
"Okay, our next item up for bid is something most, if not all, had yet to see," Barnaby said, as he commanded a platform to rise up from the stage.
The item shown this time around was encased in a black resin box the size of a pencil case.
"This, ladies and gentlemen, is something that is mythical in nature. They came from creatures rarely seen from our eyes, but always ever present where emotions run high."
Barnaby approached the black box and began to open it.
Meanwhile, as Michael heard his description for the item, he couldn’t help but feel that it was familiar.
It’s not about her, is it?
"I present to you a vial of Pixie Dust!" Barnaby announced proudly. "This Pixie Dust will allow you to attract the attention of the very elusive Fairies. If you ever want to feel their presence close, then you need this item!"
Michael immediately looked back at his crew, who were still playing games to pass the time.
"Hihihi! UNO! I won!" Vivi exclaimed, buzzing around and rubbing her win in everyone’s face.
The Dragonborns shook their heads. They weren’t even playing Uno anymore.
Michael signalled for Vivi’s attention and called her over.
The self-proclaimed Pixie Queen fluttered her wings and obediently landed on Michael’s palms. "What is it, Mr. Reborn?"
He pointed at the stage, towards Barnaby who was presenting the vial containing golden dust that floated around and never settled on the bottom.
"Oh, that’s Pixie Dust," Vivi said nonchalantly.
"You don’t care that they’re auctioning it off?" Michael asked. He thought that she would be a little mad since the Fairies considered their Pixie Dust as their own body.
"Meh," Vivi shrugged. "Michael, do you care about your own waste?"
Michael was speechless. For him, her comparison didn’t make any sense. Pixie Dust had the magical ability to make anything as light as a feather! It certainly couldn’t be compared to human waste.
"Okay, maybe back then, I would have been a lot more conservative about our Pixie Dust. After all, we need sustenance to keep producing it. But now that we have your Roller Coaster, we can have as many emotions as we want! We don’t have to worry about not having enough to produce Pixie Dust."
Now he understood why Vivi made that comparison. Pixie Dust really was just the waste of a Fairy.
Wait, is that why they call it crop dusting?
Michael shook his head of all silly thoughts and. looked back at the auction. He noticed that not a lot of companies were even bidding for it.
"100,000 coins...do I hear 110?" Barnaby appealed, trying to get the companies to bid more.
This was perhaps one of the lowest bids that happened in the auction, which wasn’t that surprising given that it was small in quantity, not enough to even make a boulder weightless.
The only ones who were bidding were collectors who simply wanted the Pixie Dust as their decoration.
"123,000 coins... going once...going twice...—"
And just as Barnaby was about to declare the final bidding, a knock resounded from one of the top VIP suites in the entire auction.
Barnaby’s eyes widened. He became flustered. This time, it wasn’t because the bid amount was too high.
It was because he wasn’t expecting them to bid!
"150,000 coins...from the Mermen of Atlantis!" Barnaby shouted, his voice still having a hint of disbelief.
As soon as he said that, the whole auction was once again set ablaze with discussions and murmurings.
Just hearing about their name awed some of the people watching from the crowd. The infamous Mermen, the creations of the Ocean King, were here and for the first time tonight, they had made their presence felt through this bid.
The amount wasn’t too big. But the fact that they bid at all was a point of surprise for a lot of people. Some people didn’t even think that the Mermen would make a bid, let alone bid for a relatively worthless item.
"They bid on this? It’s just Pixie Dust..."
"They didn’t want the Dwarven armor or the Mithril Relic. Why would they want Pixie Dust?"
And because of their participation, the knocks just kept coming in.
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
Companies began submitting their bids for the Pixie Dust. Just the fact that the Mermen considered it as something worthwhile meant that they considered it worthwhile as well.
It wasn’t long before the bids went up as high as 500,000 gold coins, which was five times its original value!
"Do I hear 510? Does anybody want to bid higher than that?" Barnaby asked.
There was another knock. And this bid once again came from Mermen’s VIP suite.
"1,000,000 gold coins! The mermen take the lead!" Barnaby exclaimed.
This time, the other companies truly started to take this seriously. At first, they thought that the Mermen simply wanted the Pixie Dust for vanity’s sake.
But the fact that they were willing to offer 1 million meant that they were more than desperate to buy this for themselves.
This got a lot of companies thinking. Was there something that they missed about the Pixie Dust?
Even Michael started to doubt Vivi. "Are you sure it has no other properties other than making things levitate? Why would the Mermen want Pixie Dust?"
Vivi was clueless as well. "I don’t know. Don’t ask me. I just know that Pixie Dust definitely isn’t worth 1 million."
Michael seriously started to wonder if Vivi truly was the Pixie Queen or not. How could she not know the worth of her own Pixie Dust?
Or wait...maybe it’s not the Pixie Dust they want. ChatJK4, can you recall Barnaby’s exact words when he described the item?
[Understood...preparing audio file now.]
[I present to you a vial of Pixie Dust! This Pixie Dust will allow you to attract the attention of the very elusive Fairies. If you ever want to feel their presence close, then you need this item!]
Michael listened to the tape and realized something.
Maybe the Mermen were trying to find the Fairies!
And it seemed that he wasn’t the only one who noticed that.
On the second level of the private rooms, the Rising Six all collectively decided to speak amongst each other and coordinate.
One of the features in Barnaby’s auction private rooms was that companies could choose to speak to other companies through connecting their rooms via Pocket Dimensions.
Beau, Reena, and the other Rising Six, stepped into their room’s Pocket Dimension and arrived in a dimly lit room with a circular table in the middle.
They all sat down on their respective seats and faced each other equally.