It was early autumn at the beginning of September. The weather was turning cold while the heat from the summer was long gone. The sky turned completely dark before it was even 7 p.m.
After dinner, Lin Huang and Yi Zheng rushed to the Wanbao Auction together. The underground auction was not held there; it was just a hub.
A few staff welcomed them as soon as they entered the entrance of the auction.
One of them asked, “May I know if the both of you are participating in this together or do you want to be separated?”
“Let’s do it together,” Lin Huang answered.
“Please follow me.” The staff who asked the question led the both of them to an elevator as soon as he was done speaking.
“The elevator will take the both of you to a random vacant room underground. You can pick a mask and cloak that you like. Please go to Room B1 after the both of you put on the mask and cloak. Someone will bring you to the underground auction.” The staff tapped open the elevator doors after the simple explanation and watched the both of them enter.
Soon after entering the elevator, the doors opened again and they arrived at an exhibition hall that was more than 100 square meters in size.
There were hundreds of simulation models in the exhibition hall. Each of them wore a different mask and cloak.
Only a minority did not have any cloaks or masks. It was clear that they had been picked by people who arrived before they did.
Yi Zheng was dazzled by the choices at the moment and he had no idea which one he should go for.
However, it was not an issue for Lin Huang. Each and every mask and cloak became clear to him in his head as he scanned through them with his Divine Telekinesis.
He picked the mask and cloak that he desired in less than a minute.
The material of the mask was a light alloy with a silver base and there were not many patterns on it. It seemed extremely plain and simple.
For the cloak, Lin Huang picked a black, long robe. Just like the mask, there were no patterns or decorations on it while the hoodie covered most of his face.
Although he had put on the mask and cloak, Yi Zheng, on the other hand, had not even picked any.
“Aren’t you quick to pick?”
“I’m a psychic. I’d be able to see through all of the masks and cloaks with a scan of my Divine Telekinesis. Naturally, it’s easy for me to pick them.” Lin Huang only realized that his voice had changed after speaking. It must have been a function that came together with the mask.
“I’m dazzled by them. Maybe you should pick for me.” Yi Zheng did not bother to choose his own any longer. “Just get something that’s similar to yours. The simpler, the better. I don’t want anything with patterns or decorations.”
“Sure.” Using his Divine Telekinesis, Lin Huang soon picked three masks and four cloaks for Yi Zheng.
Yi Zheng picked a set among the shortlisted ones that Lin Huang had picked out for him. He selected a golden mask that had no decorations and a long, black robe similar to the one Lin Huang was wearing.
After Yi Zheng put the mask and cloak on, Lin Huang finished putting the remaining masks and cloaks back on the models.
“Let’s go!” The both of them then pushed the door open and left the room.
They lifted their heads and found out that the room that they were in was Room B18. The room numbers got smaller as they walked along the left side of the corridor.
After walking ahead for a moment, the door to Room B11 swung open suddenly. A person in a white robe and a painted mask walked out of the room. The person was skinny and one could not tell if the person was a man or a woman since the robe did a good job at shrouding the person.
The person was slightly surprised to see Lin Huang and Yi Zheng, but soon snapped back to his or her senses and walked towards Room B1 as he turned.
Lin Huang and Yi Zheng were less than 30 meters behind the person. They were following him all the way but were not in a hurry to catch up with him.
When they arrived at the entrance of Room B1, the white-robed person turned around and glanced at them before going into the room.
Lin Huang and Yi Zheng soon followed and entered the room.
The interior of Room B1 was similar to that of a meeting room. There were already 18 people sitting at the long table while there were still three vacant seats.
Among the 18 of them, 17 of them wore cloaks and a variety of masks including the white-robed man earlier. The man who sat at the main seat of the table was the exceptional one. He wore a mask that was as white as a piece of jade but donned a black suit. He did not fit in with the rest of them.
Almost everyone had their eyes on Lin Huang and Yi Zheng.
However, since the masks and cloaks had the function of blocking out detection, nobody could find out anything about the both of them.
Lin Huang glanced through everyone present and his eyes landed on the man in the suit. He figured that man was the staff of the underground auction.
“Take a seat.” As expected, the man in the suit spoke after observing them for a little while, “The dimensional portal can transport 20 people each time. We’re only lacking one more person now excluding me.”
Lin Huang and Yi Zheng then sat down in the vacant seats that were close to them.
The room with 20 people soon fell into a dead silence.
None of them knew each other. Moreover, since their bodies were completely covered, not only were their personal details blocked, but their trust towards each other had dropped to the lowest. so there was nothing that they could talk about.
Although they would check each other out, their eyes usually would not stay on the same person for too long because they could not see anything from just looking. Secondly, some hot heads would treat that as a provocation and that would bring unnecessary trouble to oneself.
Everyone knew that people who were invited to an underground auction were not ordinary people, so none of them wanted to make enemies.
Fortunately, the dead silence did not last for too long as a newcomer came in.
The man in the suit stood up when there were a total of 20 of them. He then brought out a white Dimensional Portal and got everyone to walk through it after activating the transportation coordinates.
As the Dimensional Portal shut slowly, Lin Huang and the rest realized that they had arrived in a hall as a flash illuminated before their eyes.
Lin Huang looked around after hearing chattering.
There was an auction stage not far away. A lady wearing bunny ears was standing on it and she was looking at Lin Huang and the rest of them.
“To the guests who have just arrived, please take a seat wherever you like.”
Lin Huang turned to the other side and found that most of the seats were vacant, but around 100 of them were taken. There seats on the first two rows were almost occupied.
The chattering came from there.
Lin Huang glanced over and saw a few pairs of people talking to each other. He figured that they must have come together.
The 20 of them scattered and found their seats after listening to the lady on the stage.
Noticing there were no more seats in the center zone on the third row, Lin Huang found two vacant seats in the middle of the fourth row and sat down with Yi Zheng.
“This venue’s so small. There are only a total of 1,200 seats,” Lin Huang said through Voice Transmission and smiled.
“The underground auction’s usually small-scaled. Moreover, Wanbao City’s under the ruling of the Union Government. They’d need to give face to the Union Government, so they have to keep it low,” Yi Zheng explained, “The more people they invite to auctions like this, the more trouble there might be.”
They were chatting out of boredom since there was still time before the auction began.
More and more guests were transported to the venue while the seats became occupied.
When it was almost 7.50p.m., the 1,200 seats were all filled at the venue as all the invitees arrived.
The lady in the bunny ears finally spoke again when it was 8 p.m. sharp, “Good evening, our honorable guests. Welcome to the auction. I’m the auctioneer of the current auction, Bunny Ears. There’s no need to suspect my name. It’s obvious that it’s not my real name. I hope we can have an enjoyable evening today and that everyone will purchase something that they desire.”
“Let’s cut to the chase and send the first collection to the stage!” She corrected herself as soon as she was done speaking, “To be exact, this is the first set of collections.”
As she spoke, 20 naked men walked onto the auction stage and stood in two rows. The opening act caused many of the guests to discuss among themselves.
“Are they human slaves who have been castrated?” Lin Huang frowned while Yi Zheng looked displeased.
There were no traces of genitals on the lower half of the 20 naked men.
“Isn’t the surgery pretty darn clean-cut?” The gray-robed man who sat behind Lin Huang could not help but say out loud.
“It seems like I must explain myself,” Bunny Ears spoke again, “These 20 men aren’t human slaves like what all of you are thinking. Although they look exactly like humans, they’re actually artificial men made with genetic technology. This batch is just the first whereby they’re small-scale tests. All of them are on the combat level of immortal-level rank-9.”
“There are 20 of them and the opening price will be 100 million Life Crystals each. The bidding increment has to be at least five million Life Crystals. We’ll begin the auction with No. 1!”