Chapter 296, Fact
< Day 2: Tokyo Artifact Auction >
The waiting hall was noisy from the morning. Japan had tried to keep things quiet, but with foreign guests and unrestricted internet access at the event, how could they possibly expect to keep everything a secret?
"Did you hear? Apparently there was an explosion sowhere in this building before we even got here."
"Oh, that."
"Where?"
"It's probably about the east section, where it says 'exhibition closed.'"
It's currently around 3 PM, just before the highly anticipated highlight auction in Tokyo.
"Anyway, I don't care, as long as there's no problem with [Triana]."
France. China. India. And so on.
In a way, items with abilities more dangerous than a tank were being traded, so today's auction followed a direct collection policy. Because of this, 5-rank hunters from all over the world flocked to Haneda Airport starting around lunchti on the second day, to avoid wasting ti. Contrary to Japan's concerns, a fair number of 5-ranks participated.
"So, there are three competitors in total."
Compared to a typical market, the number of bidders might seem small, but...
"I really hope I can manage to buy sothing... but for so reason, that Chinese guy I saw at the airport is bothering ."
"Chinese?"
"On the surface, they drew a line, saying their guilds were unrelated."
Energy is money. In such an energy-driven society, how could an Awakener, who constantly acquires magic stones—a new resource—have little wealth? 5-rank hunters are all capitalists with imnse assets, so there was no way the auction price would end at a trivial figure.
"Friend, this is obvious and boring. That hunter from China is probably a proxy for Zhan, and she'll be handing over the gear she bought to the Heavenly Demon back ho."
Hahaha.
The young hunter from France laughs loudly. He speaks to his acquaintances from France, who entered the country with him.
"You know as well as I do—China's IHT was clearly rigged with all sorts of setups."
"Oh, that reminds —the necklace that just wouldn't break no matter how many tis it got hit."
"But they even manipulated it and still lost to Enzo Ciano. So Zhan probably didn't want to co buy that item directly, even if she needed it, because her pride was hurt."
Since Japan had announced that one of the main items up for trade was the [Triana], it was only natural that a particular topic kept coming up in conversations among the foreign hunters gathered at the venue.
"This really has turned into a ridiculous ss, hasn't it?"
The French hunter passed the ti with idle chatter while waiting for the auction to begin. And as the conversation wandered from topic to topic, the sa question that had once crossed the mind of a certain Japanese hunter naturally ca up again.
"By the way, why did Hunter Enzo win first place, even though he enjoys drinking [God's Droplet] so much?"
Everyone knew the Arican from the Spectrum Guild was a heavy drinker. It seed odd that he deliberately won first place when the second-place prize was a whopping 20 bottles of [God's Droplet].
"Hmm."
Of course, Enzo Ciano himself had never said, "My goal is second place." And if you had the skill to back it up, selling the first prize and exchanging it for alcohol would definitely be more profitable in a capitalist sense.
"..."
As expected, could it really be because of Spectrum's boss? That's the most imdiate guess, but without concrete evidence, it's just a rumor circulating among people. A baseless rumor that the U.S., its prestige having fallen after losing Brooklyn Morgan, pressured its own guilds to demand results. Anyway, what's the point in paying attention to such gossip?
Just then, an announcent ca over the venue's speakers, stating that the auction was about to begin. Hearing this, the hopeful auction participants began rising from their seats one by one, getting ready to head into the auction hall.
.
.
.
And a few minutes later—inside the auction hall, now perfectly set up and ready to begin.
"Namaste (Hello!)"
Those who had taken their seats were checking the minimum bid prices and bidding incrents displayed on the monitors. It was then that sowhat stiff-sounding Hindi could be heard from sowhere in the room.
"I apologize for the late greeting. I only just heard the news that you've arrived in Tokyo."
It was a greeting from Hunter Iori, spoken through a PolyCorp translator device. Just monts ago, Iori had been on edge, focused on protecting the epic-grade items. But now that he had finally switched shifts with another 5-rank hunter, he figured it wouldn't hurt to relax a little—and maybe even exchange greetings with a few familiar faces.
"Sonakshi, have you been well?"
"Yes. I've been fine every day."
An older woman calmly acknowledged the greeting. The person Iori had addressed was none other than an 5-rank hunter from India.
"I'm glad to hear you're doing well. It was a rare connection we made all the way over at that party in the U.S.—I hope we can both stay healthy and see each other for a long ti!"
Haha.
By the way, in an auction hall that could easily seat around 200 people, was it really going to be just four hunters competing over the items?
"By the way, I don't know if you've heard, but actually, there's sothing we need to apologize for..."
Iori was about to bring up a certain topic, but the Indian hunter gently interrupted him.
"You an the cancellation of one of the epic-grade items from the auction, right?"
"Aah, yes."
"We never actually saw it in person anyway. But yes, we've already been inford that the artifact went berserk yesterday afternoon and was pulled from the sale... so no worries."
"But Hunter-nim, you were only planning to buy that unreleased item..."
"Again, there's no need to apologize. I just ca out for so fresh air because I was feeling a bit lonely."
In both tone and appearance, the Indian hunter gave off a strong sense of lancholy.
"I ca to watch the auction of my own free will, so please don't refund my plane ticket...it's starting now."
Before Iori could respond, a cheerful voice rang out from the auctioneer standing at the front—announcing the start of a special event within the event. It was the long-awaited auction of the [Triana].
"We will now begin accepting bids!"
However, it was only about a minute after the auction began.
"Excuse..."
The Indian hunter, who had been sitting at the very back of the dimly lit room, turned around. She intended to speak to the event staff standing against the wall.
"Yes, Ms. Sonakshi. Is sothing the matter?"
"Seeing how fast the bidding price is rising, I was wrong. If I join this fight, my precious property will just get crushed by those people's weed-like money."
"Ah."
"I seems I won't be buying anything, so I'd just like to chat with you."
That's a quick decision. After all, an item that started with an initial bid of 20 billion KRW doubled in price in just a few seconds. Anyone would probably want to give up when they see that kind of competition.
Hunter Iori glanced over at the hunters from China and France, who were fiercely exchanging bids like sparks flying. Then, with an understanding expression, he nodded and took a seat beside the Indian hunter.
"Yamasaka."
However, he hadn't expected that the small talk the middle-aged woman wanted to share would be about sothing like this.
"This might be a rude question, but is that person still inside the Tokyo event hall?"
"Yes?"
"I an the 5-rank from an Asian country who appeared last year."
The Indian hunter nad Sonakshi turned on her phone and showed a profile of soone. The result of her secret search revealed a familiar-looking hunter standing there.
Golden hair. Sambagean eyes, with the whites fully visible beneath the irises.
The other person was looking for a Korean who wasn't there.
"So you're talking about Mr. Kim Giryeo."
For reference, the current minimum bid for the [Triana] auction is 200 billion KRW, so soone has already dropped out...
"Mr. Kim Giryeo is probably still in Japan, though he's not participating in the auction."
As with the conversation from the day before, the Imaban side found it difficult to approach the Korean man easily, since after the Dragon Raid, the security guard terror incident caused a huge nuisance. Therefore, the Japanese couldn't imagine that Kim Giryeo gave up due to lack of money; instead, just like when he entered the country, they assud he simply "wasn't interested in the Triana."
"Is that so..."
However, upon hearing that Kim Giryeo was still in Tokyo, the Indian hunter on this side began to show a curious reaction.
"Why would he do that?"
Is sothing wrong, perhaps? When Iori asked in that way, the Indian hunter hesitated for a mont. Even at that very mont, hunters in the front rows were fiercely bidding against each other. At the far end of the exhibition hall stood Moritake Ito, guarding the Triana up close. Like soone who had just secured a lucrative deal, the Japanese representative hunter had been proudly glancing down at his own pocket for a while now.
"Yamasaka."
After waiting a little while, the Indian hunter spoke again.
"We recently completed a transaction between two equal-ranked 5-class hunters."
"Yes?"
"Beast. We've beco acquainted with each other. Let's share any information we get about that beast later on..."
A na he hadn't heard in a long ti. But it was a promise that remained clear in Iori's mory. Back when the "Beast" had been rampaging through the world, countless hunters—worried they might beco its next target—had launched full-scale hunts to track it down.
"Oh, yes. That was definitely the case."
The two hunters, eting again through the auction, were in very similar situations. Iori had pursued the Beast out of concern for the top Awakener talents in Japan, while the Indian hunter was wary of the Beast as a precaution, to protect her beloved family.
However, now that this mysterious Awakener has completely ceased their activities, it seems so results have finally erged. After much deliberation, the Indian woman revealed the information she had.
"There's a new research paper from India."
"What paper?"
To be precise, the Awakener they're wary of is, in fact, already dead.
"After running various statistics on Awakeners, it turns out that most hunters with 'teleportation' skills also show an aptitude for 'telekinesis.'"
"...?"
"Telekinesis' is a difficult ability to control, even if soone obtains a skill stone—without sufficient talent, it's nearly impossible. But the fact that a specific group manages to overco it with nearly a 99% success rate suggests that these two attributes it requires must share similar foundational elents."
"...?"
"What ability do you think is required by both 'Teleportation' and 'Telekinesis'?"
"..."
"The answer is superhuman depth perception."
The Indian and Japanese hunters currently engaged in conversation have no way of knowing the true nature of the incident, as the public—and even Brooklyn Morgan has been officially declared missing, as far as the public is concerned, the Beast is still very much alive.
Therefore,
"At this point, sothing becos suspicious, doesn't it? Yamasaka. This didn't co from you, but I bought so circulating information while a ago and heard this."
"What kind...?"
"During the Black Dragon raid, I heard so Korean hunter used [Binding]."
"...?"
"[Binding]... it's the ability to freely restrain sothing using bands of light, and it's already been revealed that telekinesis also plays a role in it. And as it happens, the one who used that power during the raid was that powerful figure from Asia whose awakened attribute remains unclear."
They soon began to talk in a serious mood.
"Is all of this really just a simple coincidence?"
At that very mont, the sound of the Chinese female 5-rank hunter winning the bid echoed. By the way, the research results that ca out of this conversation were really just coincidences.
***
...How much ti had passed since then?
"Kim Giryeo is the Beast? That's ridiculous."
Gulp.
Instead of a caffeinated beverage, Iori drank a stamina recovery potion through a straw.
"Of course, this world is full of people who change their attitude depending on who they're dealing with. But that Korean hunter didn't seem like soone two-faced like that to ."
It was the second night of the event, after the highlight auction had ended.
'Probably not. After all, today's achievents are all thanks to Kim Giryeo. No matter how many tis I think about it, if the incident in Building A had escalated, the entire auction would have been cancelled...'
But even though it was ti for everyone to head to bed, she still had quite a bit of work left to do. In fact, for Iori—who had been stuck in place guarding the artifacts—this was when his real shift was just beginning.
"Maybe I should start by contacting that awakened errand center."
He didn't want to rely solely on the authorities—he genuinely wanted to investigate the previous day's attack using his own strength.
"If higher-ups are involved, will the police try to cover up the information again like last ti...?"
Iori opened his phone and began writing a business-style email. But as he spent the night alone like this, his eyes suddenly drifted toward his item box.
[??? ]
[Rank:???]
[Function:???]
In a way, the legendary item was the root of all this trouble. And yet, not useless in his possession—no different than a decorative piece now—yet the neighboring country—completely unresponsive and with none of its functions revealed, just a burden in his pocket.
"Haa."
Once a mber of the Imaban Guild, Iori had gained the right to borrow the item through a contract with its original owner, Moritake. And now, with many 5-rank hunters present in the country for the event, he had been reasonably safe. After all, it was a legendary item—there was little chance of it being damaged. So he had kept it on him throughout the entire epic-grade security mission.
"This just... an unbreakable club, isn't it...?"
Anyway, just looking at this thing makes my blood boil. They couldn't even figure out how it works, so it's practically a decorative piece now—yet the Japanese side scrambled to keep it from being taken and ended up suffering all kinds of losses because of it.
'Co to think of it, Mr. Kim Giryeo once said he wanted this.'
Auh.
'Now that I think about it, he didn't even ntion the word "Legendary" at all after arriving at the venue...'
Just a passing thought, but...Could it be that the Korean hunter recognized the uselessness of this item from the very beginning?
'Ey, it can't be.'
Iori pretended to hesitate for a mont, then refocused on writing his email. After all, the Korean hunter was scheduled to depart tomorrow. He needed to wrap this up quickly—there were preparations to be made to send him off in style.
'That person and I have similar tis when it cos to [Appraisal] skills.'
But this ti, his judgnt wasn't a misunderstanding. In truth, the mont Kim Giryeo first saw the item, he had vaguely sensed that the Legendary artifact itself was generating vibrations.
[Master, Master, Master, I'm lacking magic power right now.]
[I think you need to sharpen the blade with a magic stone.]
[ㅇㅅㅇ]
[Seriously, it's way too dull now—hasn't it long passed the ti for a good sharpening?]
[Master, what are you doing?]
[Master, I'm telling you—the magic power inside that cylinder is completely gone!]
[Master, it seems your auditory system's durability has significantly deteriorated. If you input a command, I'll proceed to remove any unused organs for you.]
And so, Japan spent another quiet night, holding a treasure no different from a ticking ti bomb.
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