In a dark and dim alley, there was a reinforced rusty door hidden from the eyes of the public. If anyone had come here, they would have assumed that the door would mean bad business. However, that wasn't the case for a single man.
The man walked over to the door, knocked 4 times and than knocked 2 times and than 4 times again. As if answering to his patterned calls, the slider of the watch-hole was pulled aside. A scruffy voice asked "Whats the code?"
The man replied "Hex pentragon", the voice recited a pledge "We seek darkness, yet we seek the light."
"Therefore, we obtain both, for we are the holy of the blight and unholy of the might."
The man finished the verse and the rusty door creeked open. Behind it was never ending darkness, but light shone as a guide.
He entered through the door, if looked from afar, his figure was slowly vanishing.
Two transparent figures followed closely without making a sound. One small and the other even smaller.
As they went down the stairs with clopping sounds echoing, they reached an entrance illuminated with brightness. It was a large hall. Bones of extinct creatures to lost technology, was apparently shown in durable cases. There were many people with masks walking around admiring these exotic objects, whispers resounded everywhere. Waiters served cocktails and normal drinks, snacks were also provided.
The man, as if used to this, walked along the red carpet and entered a dim auditorium. He walked over to the left side and jogged down the stairs and entered through a side door. It lead to the backstage where all sorts of goods were held.
When the man arrived, he heard a greeting. He became nervous, anxiousness was taking over him. A figure appeared from the other side of the room. He wore a tophat and his face was wrapped in bandages, he was wearing a luxurious suit that had black and white strips. He wore a silver necklace with an eye at the center. He had a luxurious walking stick in hand.
"Mr Mitchel, I'd never expect to see you here again. Now, tell me what you have brought this time." The tophat man spoke. He walked over to the scared man.
"H-here, this is the key to the Myriad King, Livian's inheritence." Mitchel spoke in a weak voice, while he opened a case he had in hand. Showing it to the mysterious figure.
The tophat man came closer and inspected the artifact. Putting his hand on his chin, he nodded a few times. "Pleasure doing business with you Mitchel Keith. Once the auction is over we will wire you your appropriate returns, do note that we will be taking 20% as commision. Man, make sure this case in secured."
2 strongman with large builds secured the casing from Mitchels hand and guided him off the backstage. The tophat man waved goodbye while formimg a crescent smile. Mitchel was too afraid to face this man and dare not look back. He quietly exited the auditorium and made his way to an empty corner.
Our protagonist Cuojue, sat not far from Mitchel at an empty table. She was curious about where the case this suspicious man had had gone. She tried to probe him and only found him staring at the exit, and he seemed to be shivering. Whatever was inside the case, she wanted to find out, thus she stayed in the hall and was determined.
After waiting for an hour or so, the auditorium doors swung open. All the masked people paraded into the vast room, 3 sizes of a football field. All of them took their seats. Mitchel just took a seat closest to the entrance while Cuojue stood in a corner and waited in patience. She even had Pyun deploy an extra invisibility coating on her and so Pyun stuck to her like candy.
Hired gaurds stood at the entrance and near the stage. Cuojue was warry of them since she couldn't estimate their levels, meaning they were landmines. Moreover, her instincts had told her earlier that there was someone of greater threat reciding in the back. She thought to herself "Maybe I shouldn't have come here..."
But since she had stuck her feet in deep waters, she had no way out now. All the lights turned off, and spotlights were adjusted to face towards the centre of the stage. It was a mustached man hosting the auction.
"Ladies and gentleman, welcome to Nidas Auction. We thank you for your patience and desire to work with us. The names Elmor. Ill be your host for today. Now let the long awaited auction begin!" Elmor spoke with incredible enthusiasm.
Everyone clapped happily while some grumbled, obviously dissatisfied for making them wait for so long, soon whispers took over. On the other hand, Cuojue observed Mitchel and found him to be still nervous. "What was making him anxious?" Cuojue thought.
She decided to keep a close eye on him for now, but suddenly she had an idea. Using Pyun as a medium to prevent detection, she called Jake. She was wary that the auction house people had high end security systems and can monitor what was happening here. Thus, Pyun was her bypass key. It was mostly thanks to Pyun that she had override the systems and infiltrated successfully.
Although it was successful, she was still cautious and dared not on her braze.
"Yes, young miss, are you looking for me?" Jake answered the call.
"Mn, Jake here is your first job. I will need your help to kidnap someone. I will send you the details of his appearence and my location where you will begin the job. Get some man to monitor the situation 1km around the location, I get the feeling that something isn't right. Be here ASAP, if not ill expose your browser history! Also, do it quietly!" Cuojue gave her instructions before suddenly feeling uneasy.
Jake who was originally tired felt his adrenaline spike. "Y-yes young miss! I'll do it right away!" And the connection cut off. Jake was fighting with his life on the line to keep his shame. Now Cuojue also felt anxious.
(I bet that something will happen during this auction like what I have read in novels! A perfect cliche.) Cuojue prayed hard in her mind that nothing would go wrong like she predicted.
The host, elmor announced the first item,
"Here is a rank 4 pill made by an ethrus chemist in the borlack system, Ethrus Rejuvination pill! A life saving pill for Star Forging State experts starting at 100 million ariz!"
One of guests raised up his number and bid 105 million. And others followed suit.
"Going once! Going Twice! And sold!"
400 million was presented behind him, indicating that the item was sold at a rocking price of 400 million Ariz.
The next item was then brought out, it was a blue scimitar with a sapphire gem in the handgaurd. "This is a weapon used by the Saber Saint 100 years ago. A weapon used by a Tier 1 Protostar warrior and ravaged the Hirlhelm Theater. Starting bid at 500 million Ariz!"
This time, the hype was crazy, a bidding competition continued non-stop. Pumping its price to a whopping 14 billion!
Cuojue was in awe of whats happening. However, she wasn't interested in weapons she wouldn't be able to use and pills she couldn't consume. In the end, she just decided to play games on pyun. (Hey, this one looks like fun Star Fighters: Glorious Fisting. Hehe, Sir Fisticuffs is meta, gonna reck noobs.)
Cuojue laughed maliciously in her mind. A character that resembled deadpool was doing an infinite uppercut combo, before being comboed into a KO. (Damn! Again!)
While Cuojue was playing around, a certain dark figure crept through the crevices at the top of the auditorium.
"Tyri, I'm in position, the key hasn't been brought out yet."
Pzzt, "Kita, the key isn't in the back either, I'm heading to position."
"Alright, I'll let Rondo and the others know." The dark figure replied.
Kita then pulled out a cube and touched the surfaced like a keyboard.
(We can't find the key, Rondo...)
Kita paused abit before typing the rest.
(Do we go with plan B?)
In a second, a reply came back.
(Yes, go with plan B, get ready to snatch it, the men are stationed outside to provide support.)
Kita replied a quick "Yessir" and spoke through his earpiece.
"Tyri, get ready to put the detonation charges and the dc jammers. Rondo says its plan B."
Tyri who was on the other side of the conversation had mixed feelings.
"Kita...is this right? Are we really doing the right thing? I...I don't want to kill people Kita."
Tyri, who knew the plan felt her resolve wavering. She thought that what she was doing was for the sake of a brighter future for her people, but isn't what they are doing right now the same as "Terrorism"? Something that bad guys would do.
"Tyri, you don't have to worry about that for now, all you have to do is to do your job. Although our actions will not put us in a good light, if it is for the sake of our salvation, I believe this is a worthy cause. Besides, you have me! What you can't do, I'll do it for you.
So for now leave the rest to me and worry about the smaller things, trust me." The confident youth spoke to support Tyri.
"Mn. I trust you Kita." She suppressed her worries before cutting the call and plan B was set in motion.
Kita smiled before frowning, his eyes burned brightly with vigor. For their people's sake, and for Tyri's, Kita was willing to surrender himself to bloodshed.