Chapter 632: The next day
Serena’s announcement led a lot of people to start planning. If they catered to the needs of the Mermen, then they could get Sand Dollars in return.
And with those Sand Dollars, they could buy all the Soo drops they needed!
This applied to all companies, even those that weren’t in particular need of Soo drops. After all, they could either trade Sand Dollars or Soo drops to other companies who wanted them in exchange for something they needed.
Many foresaw Sand Dollars becoming the new trade within Metropolis.
And the best way to obtain those Sand Dollars was coming up soon.
The parade welcoming all tourists would be the best chance they had of enticing mermen to spend their Sand Dollars in their store.
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After the party, Serena and her Mermen were escorted out of the auction house and back to their temporary dwelling a few ways away from Metropolis. They needed sea water to sleep comfortably through the night.
The Duchess knew this, so she gave them a horse-drawn carriage to travel anywhere around the surface world as they pleased.
"Mistress Serena, looks like your plans worked," said one of her attendants.
"Yes," Serena sighed. "But this will be a long and arduous road for them. It won’t be easy for them to adjust to the needs and wants of a mermen so easily. I reckon it will take them a few months before any one of them could get enough Sand Dollars to purchase a single drop of Soo."
She really wanted to meet with Michael, but that couldn’t happen until she completed all her tasks.
"If only Fairies weren’t so rare in the surface world, then maybe they could have gotten the attention of Mermen a lot sooner," she mumbled. "We really need to meet with the Pixie Queen if we want to speed this up."
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Early next morning, when the sun had yet to break the surface of the skies, there was one person in the Daily Metro who was still furiously rechecking the words written in today’s newspapers.
Cronk, one of the main Editors for the paper, made one final check before publishing it.
"This is the biggest story of my life," Cronk tiredly said, with bags showing under his eyes. "This has to be perfect."
He had rushed out of the auction house as soon as the last game had ended, choosing not to participate in the after party.
Usually, that would have been the perfect opportunity for him to meet incredibly important people, like the leaders of the Major Factions, and conduct interviews with them regarding their opinions of the auction.
Getting a one-on-one interview with the likes of the Duchess, Alaric Goldstone, and the Tower Master was incredibly hard to schedule on a normal day. And the auction’s after-party was the only place he could get them all in one place.
Yet, he completely disregarded that and headed straight back into the Daily Metro to write his findings about what happened during the auction.
Metropolis would wake up to find that it wasn’t one of the Major Factions who earned prestige in yesterday’s event. It wasn’t even one of the Rising Six.
It was Michael Vanderbilt, the owner of the Reborn company.
The accomplishments he made in the auctions were legendary. It was unheard of. Even those who witnessed it with their own eyes could hardly believe what they saw.
What Michael did during the games was enough for Cronk to write a full front page article about him.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg. No one knew about the exploits of the Reborn company beyond Metropolis. No one knew how massive they were in the lower part of the Queens region, as well as in the Kings region.
Writing it all on one front page article wouldn’t be enough. He had to write an entire newspaper journal dedicated to Michael Vanderbilt and the Reborn company.
That was why he stayed up all night writing stuff down.
Metropolis had to know about Michael. It would be a necessity for them to realize the talent and extraordinary gift that this young man had or else it would be one of fate’s cruelest jokes.
Just then, his secretary peeked out from beyond his door.
"Sir Cronk. It’s ready. We’re replicating the newspapers as we speak."
Cronk immediately got out of his office and into the printing floor of the Daily Metro. Hundreds upon hundreds of specialized magicians casted their magic as they made copies of his newspaper article one by one.
By daybreak today, there would be tens of thousands of copies printed to be sold everywhere in Metropolis.
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A couple of hours later, newspaper boys burst out of the Daily Metro carrying baskets full of newspaper bundles.
"Extra! Extra! Hear all about yesterday’s auction right here from the Daily Metro!"
They knocked on doors, they screamed on the streets, and they did everything they could to get the attention of every single person in Metropolis.
Many were intrigued with the results of yesterday’s auction, so they quickly bought one copy and read its contents.
Immediately, their eyes were drawn on the first page.
There was a very accurate drawing of a young boy with golden hair at the very centerpiece of the article. His face practically took up half of the page.
"Hn? Who’s this young kid?"
They didn’t have to look further than the title.
{Michael Vanderbilt: Overwhelming Talent}
As they read through the contents of the newspaper, they couldn’t help but get engrossed with the story that Cronk had painted for them.
It depicted the auctions games as it happened from the perspective of the crowd.
Cronk was able to capture the shock and surprise that he had into words, allowing the readers to feel the same emotions they felt yesterday.
When they got to the part when he defeated Beau, they couldn’t believe it. They almost doubted whether they were actually reading a non-fiction article.
But when it came out that he survived against the Major Factions and even won a game against them, they couldn’t help but stare at the words in shock.
Pedestrians stopped in their tracks, creating traffic behind them. Horse riders got distracted, causing them to go off the roads and into oncoming traffic. Even the normal citizens reading the newspapers at the comfort of their own homes almost had a heart attack after reading about the results.
"Michael Vanderbilt? I thought the Vanderbilts were done for Metropolis."
"He’s just a thirteen year old kid and he defeated Alaric in a game?! That’s absurd!"
"He’s the one behind those monstrous metal vehicles?!"
As the word began to spread, it wasn’t long before people clamored to buy newspapers from every stand in Metropolis.
Daily Metro got flooded with a lot of people wanting to get a copy of the newspaper for themselves.
And since it was written by Cronk himself, the validity of the article was never in question.
Soon, the entirety of Metropolis knew the name Michael Vanderbilt.
Not even an hour after newspapers got published, the Reborn headquarters and shopping store in the Main Street of the Upperwoods District got flooded with thousands of people wanting to see Michael for themselves.