At a secluded alley in a deserted part of the capital city.
I and Jess walked into a wall, an hidden entrance, at the other side of the wall is another entrance but this entrance is protected by two bouncers.
The two bouncers, over seven foot tall, were dressed in complete black, like ninjas trying to blend into the shadows, with beast mask on.
I can tell both these bouncers are at level 3. For the black market to be allowed to station level 3 personnel in this side of the civilization shows how influential they are.
"I am sorry esteemed guest, the dress code for all customers is black and you are required to wear a mask too." One of the bouncer said to us politely.
There are two entrances in the capital city, one is the general entrance and this entrance. This one we came to is for the guests with higher value or influential people from the society. Hence the bouncers at the entrance and him referring to us as 'esteemed guest'.
I side-eyed Jess, who is still wearing her blue dress without any masks on, to pass the message 'I told you so'.
She turned to me and said "I have only one black dress and I am definitely not wearing it. And you are not wearing a mask too so why put this on me alone?"
"Okay, okay. I won't bug you about the dress code anymore. "But you see, due to my majesty, we don't need to wear masks or follow the dress code." I said as turned to the bouncers and showed them the virtual special pass I bought on our way there. "I am only here for the auction."
The bouncers whose name are Rim and Prim, according to their name tags, inspected the pass before looking at each and nodding.
"Welcome to the black market esteemed guest. I, Rim, would guide you to the Black Auction." Rim said as he motioned for us to follow.
"Is he serious? You got us into the black auction?" "Jess said, fidgeting like a kid who had just been given her favorite toy.".
"Yes, do you give in to my majesty now?" I asked with a smug smile on my face.
"Hm." Jess placed her index finger on her lips, then asked after two seconds of contemplation. "who are you, Neon?"
Locking my eyes with hers, I said "I don't know either. But I must be pretty dope right?"
She kept the eye contact with me for a few seconds before breaking it. She turned around and followed after Rim before replying. "I guess."
________
The black auction is a once in a decade event in the black market in general. It is hosted by the Sigla family for the younger generation ( 20 years old to 500 years old). The auction is meant to attended by the younger generation of the big families, nobles, giant organizations and stand-out military families in and outside of the civilization.
The auction is hosted physically in a separate mini dimension. This is the reason for the decade wait, creation of enough pass and its distribution is already time consuming, adding on the the expense and power needed to transport thousands of youths to the venue, it is a miracle that it isn't held once every century.
To get a pass to such a event even though me and Jess are severely not qualified required only 40 million CCC. It is the special VIP pass too, its quite cheap.
Either my sense of value of money is distorted or getting a pass isn't that hard.
_______
We followed Rim as he lead us through the entrance into a huge hall designed with ancient antiques like oil paintings, ceramic statues and weird 3d arts. The room had four different doors at the its four sides. One was the one we came through and another with the sign "Black Market" another with "Executives" and the one Rim lead us to was with the sign "To Outside".
Rim took out a special card and placed it on the door for it to be scanned and had me display the pass to the doors AI before it was unlocked.
Entering the "To Outside" we were greeted with a massive lab-like room with multiple active and inactive teleportation gates.
Rim lead us through the room to an active teleportation gate.
"This is where we part ways esteemed guests. Inputting the coordinates on your pass on this gate would take you straight to your VIP room in the black auction. There you can decide to have either complete privacy or request the our workers over there for their services." Rim said as we arrived in front of the gate.
"Thanks Rim." I said before turning to look at Jess whose excitement is written over her. Extending my hands to her, I asked "My princess, shall we?"
She paused, looked at my hands for a second then taking it she replied "We shall, my knight."
'Yes.'
Holding her soft hands I walked straight to the gate inputted the coordinates before stepping into it with the beautiful girl I just met, barely two days ago.
Other side of the gate.
We arrived in a huge white room with a curtain wall, a black center piece with black couches around it. Above the center piece are holograms of some items to be sold, and the time left to auction start.
[ 00:00:00:39 ]
Looking out through the curtain wall, we see an elevated black themed stage with a podium on its left side. Under the stage are seats stretched straight to the end of the whole building, all the seats are filled already. The three rows at the front are white seats meaning the next lower level to the VIPs.
"Welcome to the black auction my princess." I said as I gently dragged Jess to the couches and made her seat.
[ 00:00:00:35 ]
"My pleasure to be here my knight." Jess said before turning to look at the filled seat outside. "Woah! there are so many people here. Plus they are all important youths in the universe."
[ 00:00:00:25 ]
"In this civilization, you are more important than 99.9% of the people here, they just don't know it. After all, In the human empire there are just five unique+ starred known to the public. If they knew you were a unique+, you would have gotten a VIP room yourself." I said to Jess. "Besides, everyone present here is poor compared to me. So my princess, whatever you see and like, tell me, I will get it for you. No matter the cost."
"No matter the cost?"
"No matter the cost."