Chapter 588: Car unveiled
Soon after his announcement, a platform from below suddenly rose up into the air, revealing a pristine four-seater automobile colored with black paint and had silver lining.
The appearance of this automobile stunned the audience into gasped silence. They had heard rumors about the automobile, and about how they were like metal monsters from another world, but this car wasn’t anything like that. It was sleek, it was cool, and overall, it was stylish enough that enamored everyone’s eyes.
They all thought that automobiles had to be this gigantic monster that could carry thousands of kilograms. They never thought it could be this small and compact, about the same length as a normal carriage with a horse.
“For all of you unfamiliar with automobiles, they are a form of vehicle or transportation that requires no horses, no magic, and no funny business whatsoever to operate.
They simply need fuel—oil that can be purchased quite easily. This means that even the average man can drive it through the streets of Metropolis and even beyond!”
This pitch was interesting, but it wasn’t enough to get everyone’s attention. So what if it didn’t need a horse or magic?
They were all looking for the automobile truck, which was rumored to be able to carry tons of ore in a single trip.
As for this sedan car, there wasn’t that much interest about it as of yet.
But as soon as Barnaby listed off its specs, that quickly changed.
“Now, will you all believe me if I tell you that this car right here can go from Metropolis to Angora City within just a single week?”
This time, everyone was surprised and immediately got up off their seats out of pure shock.
Metropolis to Angora in a week? That was absurd! Even teleportation would take longer than that, given how a wizard had to recover after teleporting large distances.
“Is that true?! How can it go that far so fast? It’ll even beat the best horses in the world by a large margin.”
“If it can travel that far, then does that mean that it has magic?”
“It has to be. There must be a magic circle hiding under all of that metal.”
People simply couldn’t believe that a vehicle, operated through nothing but ‘oil’, could even beat wizards in a game of ‘who travels the fastest?’
Of course, Barnaby addressed all of their concerns by opening the hood of the car, showing off all its internal machinery including the engine.
“This is what powers everything. As you can see, it just looks like a bunch of metal parts with strange shapes. But I can assure you that they are specially designed to transform a simple oil into a force powerful enough to send a human flying.”
He gestured for one of his assistant butlers to get on stage and enter the car.
“We will show you a glimpse of its power. Bear in mind that the sound is not made by an animal, a monster, or a magic spell. It is simply the same as the howls of tornados or furious winds.”
The butler turned on the engine, creating that mechanical rumbling noise that made everyone flinch.
Soon after that, the butler pushed on the acceleration pedal, forcing the car to rev up its engines even harder.
The high-pitched sound of the engine pistons shooting up and down thousands of times per minute echoed through the auction, drowning out any gasps and sounds of surprise from the audience.
“Tower Master, can you detect any kind of magic from the automobile? Knock once if you do.”
Silence.
The Guild of Arcana basically confirmed that there wasn’t any magic in the automobile. They would be the first one to protest if they saw any kind of deceit.
“I can already guess what you are all thinking. How does it work? Well, that is a proprietary secret from its makers. You only need to know that as long as you have fuel, you can get this car running forever.”
Barnaby then gestured for the wizards around the stage to start their presentation.
The stage suddenly split in half, making way for a portal to a Pocket Dimension to appear.
Down below was just flat grasslands with a straight stone road going from one side to the other.
“If you don’t believe my words, then you better believe your eyes,” Barnaby said, clapping his hands and teleporting the automobile down to the Pocket Dimension.
Everyone had their eyes locked on the automobile, with Barnaby’s butler on the driver seat.
It wasn’t long after that did the car suddenly accelerate from its starting position, reaching speeds previously thought impossible to achieve.
The car sped through the straight stone road at maximum speed, with the driver never letting his foot off the pedal.
The speed at which it traveled through the flat plains made people flabbergasted.
“THAT FAST?!”
“I thought it was just a little bit faster than a horse but this…it’s just like an arrow!”
“So the Metropolis to Angora City in seven days isn’t an exaggeration…it’s a generous estimate!”
It wasn’t long before the driver reached the end of the road. He quickly pushed on the brake pedal, letting the car screech into a stop.
“As you can see, this automobile is fast. Too fast, one might even say. So whoever obtains this car would be put in a mandatory class about safety and rules of the road.”
After seeing its speed with their own eyes, everyone was convinced. They needed this.
Its speed and the fact that it didn’t need a lot of maintenance like a horse or a magic spell made it very enticing to a lot of people.
They now understood why Barnaby hailed it as an innovation that would change the world.
And since this auction was filled with a lot of competent companies, they immediately thought of its uses in business.
Transportation and delivery, for instance, was a big factor.
This would be an investment worth spending all of their money for.
“And that isn’t all. This is not just the automobile that is being sold tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, please feast your eyes upon the behemoth that we call a truck!”
Another platform floated up in the air and revealed a much bigger automobile to the public.
This truck was only a four-wheel white truck, with a large container on the back. This type of automobile was very similar to a famous trope of anime and media in Michael’s previous world called ‘truck-kun’. And given that he, himself, was reincarnated, he decided to use that generic white truck as his design.
And unlike the automobile, this one fit the rumors of the metal monsters that the automobiles were famous for.
“Now this truck is not as fast as the sedan car. But, as you can all see…”
Barnaby had one of his assistants open up the back of the truck, showing the large space inside.
“There is enough room inside to fit an elephant!” he joked.
Still, the description was fitting. The container was way bigger than any of the carriages that they were all familiar with. And since it was made out of metal and was encased, it meant that the products being transported could be protected from outside intervention.