Chapter 285: Ch-285: Finale

"Beads?" Ruby furrowed her eyebrows when she saw her holding small beads, but her body trembled when she opened the lid.

"Wait... these—" Ruby’s pupils contracted to the size of needles as she leaned forward and recognized the beads. "These are attack beads."

"Yes, everyone, these are attack beads, and not only that, they contain Tier 3 attacks," the host said.

VIP Box

"What? Tier 3 attacks?" Ryan shot to his feet, and even Regal had the same reaction as they looked intently at the beads. The moment they heard this, they already abandoned any plans for the dungeon and wanted to get the beads at any cost, as they would be invincible with such a trump card. If it were not an auction, they would have jumped in and grabbed the beads.

"The bidding will begin now," the host announced, and everyone jumped in like hungry sharks that had smelled blood.

VIP Box Number 8

"I must get this at any cost." Mathew, who heard the host, shot to his feet and glared at the beads on the stage like a hungry madman.

"But Master Mathew, the head of the family said to acquire the S-rank dungeon," the butler said with a somewhat hesitant look on his face.

"Call my father and explain the situation. He will understand that getting the beads is more important," Mathew said as he shot a glare at the butler, who nodded his head.

---

Suddenly, the host, who was about to start the auction, frowned as the communicator in her ear buzzed and her expression changed.

"I apologize, everyone, but I received instructions that the price of the last two items has been adjusted," the host said with a pause before continuing.

"The last two items are very special, so we will use the internal credit system of the auction hall, and only the VIPs are allowed to participate. If you want to exchange any item for points, you can tell the attendant who will be assigned to you," the host said, and there were some grumbles from the non-VIP section, but no one complained, as they knew the subsequent dungeon was something they were not qualified to participate in, whether in terms of money or status.

VIP BOX

"Victor, your beads are going up for auction," Valerie said, looking at Victor, who just nodded calmly.

"You’re selling them?" Amber said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, I have no use for them, you know," Victor said with a shrug.

Creak.

Suddenly, the door to their booth creaked open, and a beautiful woman stepped in.

"Oh, are you the attendant assigned to us, Athena?" Valerie looked at the familiar attendant with a raised eyebrow.

"Indeed, Miss Valerie. If you want to exchange any item, I can directly appraise it for you on the spot and assign you credits," Athena said with a polite smile.

"In that case, appraise these." Valerie said as she gave her a few equipment items, which she took.

After she appraised the item, which was some kind of developmental equipment, Athena looked at Valerie and said politely, "We can give 5,000 credits for this."

Valerie nodded and handed her the item.

"A billion dollars only gives 5,000 credits?" Amber was quite a bit surprised upon hearing the conversion rate, while Victor just shrugged.

"Do you also want to exchange some items for points?" Athena said, looking at Victor.

"Maybe later, but first, let’s see how much those beads go for," Victor said, looking at the stage.

"As you wish, Mr. Vanglory. I will be right here if you want to exchange items for credits," the attendant said as she stood to the side.

The host cleared her throat before speaking.

"I hope you’re all prepared, because the auction for the attack beads starts now! To start off the bidding, 5,000 credits, with increments of at least 500 credits!"

"She started the auction at almost a billion dollars?! I definitely underestimated this auction! Severely, at that!" Victor cried inwardly, and he realized that he never had a place in this auction from the very beginning.

"What do you expect? Not everyone is as rich as you, Face—" Valerie paused when she noticed Athena was still here.

As for the others, they did not hesitate to bid.

"5,500 credits!"

"5,500 credits!"

"7,500 credits!"

"10,000 credits!"

In just a few minutes, the highest bid reached 20,000 credits, which was roughly equivalent to 4 billion US dollars. It was a record in the history of all auction houses in the USA, shattering the previous record by over 15,000 credits.

"21,500 credits!"

"23,000 credits!"

"30,000 credits!"

Even though the auction was already at 30,000 credits, which was worth 6 billion dollars, the atmosphere there did not quiet down and remained as tense as ever. In fact, it was only getting more intense.

"32,000 credits!"

"34,000 credits!"

"35,000 credits!"

When the attack beads reached 35,000 credits, someone there suddenly increased the bid significantly.

"80,000 credits!"

Many bidders there turned to look at the person who had just spoken, their eyebrows raised.

While nobody there doubted for a second that the bid wouldn’t reach that price point, they didn’t want such an exciting auction to end so early. After all, they could simply bid their maximum budget at one go and call it a day.

However, that would be boring, and such actions were frowned upon in auctions, sort of like an unspoken rule.

"Slow down, Mathew. I know you want the attack beads very badly, but let’s enjoy ourselves in this unprecedented event that might never happen again. Furthermore, you wouldn’t want the auction to end in an instant, do you? This might be your last chance to look at the Flood Dragon’s scale so closely, after all." Regal’s voice rang out from his booth, mocking Mathew.

"If you don’t shut up, I will increase it by tens of thousands," Mathew said in anger while the butler was sweating nervously, as his father had instructed him to get the dungeon instead of the attack beads.

"100,000 credits!" Regal said arrogantly.

"You..." Mathew’s hand clenched into a fist as Magical Energy went berserk around him, and the butler hurriedly tried to calm him. "Master Mathew, if you lose control, we will be banned from such events permanently."

Hearing that, Mathew calmed down, but the attack beads went to the Roshfields, who snagged them for 150,000 credits.

Roshfield VIP Box

"Mr. Roshfield, here is the item you won," a beautiful woman entered their booth with a silver tray, and on top of it were the attack beads.

Regal and Ryan took the beads and used their detection skills, and their pupils contracted to the size of pinpricks.

"Holy, such power," Ryan said with his eyes gleaming, and subconsciously clenched his fist.

Drip. Drip.

Regal, on the other hand, felt a mortal threat from the beads and instinctively turned into lava out of reflex, as he knew that these harmless-looking beads could directly kill him without leaving an intact corpse.

"Great, if I see Faceless..." A smile full of malice appeared on his face as he thought of something.

"Not bad, I don’t care about the dungeon anymore," Ryan said with a smile, but then he started to feel dizzy.

Thud.

"Huh, Father?" Regal snapped out of his reverie and looked at his father, who had just fainted.

"What’s going on? Fuck, why am I feeling dizzy?" Regal said as he also lost consciousness.

Step. Step.

The attendant, who was wearing a polite smile, walked forward and bent down to pick up the beads while also taking their storage space.

"Not bad, they really are carrying treasures," the attendant said with a smile before speaking into the communicator. "I am done on my side."

"Good. We will start the main show soon," a rough voice sounded from the communicator.

---

"Damn, I could not get the beads," Valerie said with a bitter look on her face as she turned her head towards Victor with a pleading tone.

"Sigh, fine. I will get you some attack beads later," Victor said with a sigh, and Valerie’s expression immediately brightened upon hearing his words.

"Holy shit, I made a lot of money!" Victor exclaimed, seeing the final price, and then looked at Athena and said, "Can I get the credits for the beads now?"

"Of course. I will immediately transfer the fee after the cut of the auction, which is 145,000 credits," Athena said with a smile as Victor nodded and then saw the credits had been transferred to his current auction account.

Victor took the tablet back and then turned his head back towards the platform.

"Now, without further ado, let us begin the finale of the auction."

"For the final item, we have the S-rank dungeon, which is unexplored. That means the treasures of the dungeon are still untouched."

"Finally, the item has arrived," Victor said with a smile.

"The starting bid of the auction will be 10,000 credits, with bids increasing by no less than 1,000 credits." The host paused and then said, "Let the auction begin."

Before anyone could even place a bid, Victor pressed the button and shouted, "70,000 credits!"

Everyone’s eyes widened in disbelief as every pair of eyes locked on the booth he was staying in.