The Auction

"Doesn't seem like that's going to work."

If that was how it went against the B1 boss, the first-floor boss would only be stronger. Sure, I could weaken it a little…

But only a little.

I'd count myself lucky if it just got food poisoning. Part of me wanted to say that out loud. But I had my own problems to deal with. What I really wanted to tell them was that they were probably going to die out there. And if the buyer of the Wyvern meat ever came asking for a refund—

"I'll just give it back."

Right now, getting off this floor was the priority. Which meant I needed points.

The reply from LocalUniResearcher came back almost immediately.

Oh damn. Big spender customer. Time to prep the premium Wyvern meat.

Hell if I knew. I'd never even seen this "Great Warrior" thing. But the sweet lure of those points was starting to get to me.

I've been self-employed long enough to know—trust is the lifeblood of business.

So figuring out how to answer took about half a second.

Trust could be built over time. And if the Great Warrior ate it and got food poisoning—well, that meant it worked, right? I wasn't exactly lying.

Please, please be an even bigger spender than I was hoping for.

LocalUniResearcher finished up and went off to handle business. Then, a few minutes later—

The act-the-second-you-think-it type, huh? I hadn't expected a reply that fast. Following his instructions, I pulled up the auction house.

What? Did I misread that?

The price had skyrocketed in an instant. Stocks didn't even climb that fast.

It's only been a few hours and it's already this high?

Curiosity needed answering. I shot off a quick message.

That clicked immediately. In other words, they were fighting over the gold medal.

Grateful was grateful. Nothing in this world was free. If we ever met face-to-face, I'd have to pay him back properly.

Would ten café coupons do it?

And with two parties locked in a bidding war, this was the perfect setup to exploit. To keep the scarcity intact, I'd leave it listed for a while longer.

We wrapped up the conversation.

"Anyway, how high is this going to go?"

Were they getting points from other Awakeners? Even if they were, everyone was barely scraping by—there couldn't be that many points to go around.

"Well. Not my problem."

They'd started competing because they needed to. All I had to do was sit back, enjoy the show, and collect my free rice cake.

That night.

With only a few minutes left until the decisive auction closed, I'd finally found a lead on Blood Coagulation.

"Hoo… got it! A little ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠more and I'll have this down."

I applied Blood Coagulation to a palm tree. A hiss, then a grinding crack—the moment the decay mana met the wood, a fist-sized lump of solid matter formed. Mana handled inside a body and mana handled outside were clearly different beasts.

Why is pulling mana out this hard?

Extracting a thread-thin strand of mana. That was all I'd needed to pull off—and I'd finally done it.

"For actual combat… not ready yet."

No need to rush. Magic didn't work on deadlines. What was urgent right now—

was the auction.

Thirty-four hundred points. I never saw that coming.

"Do these people have points to spare?"

And then—

The number shot up hard.

"They're locked in."

Someone tossed on another two hundred.

Then another three hundred on top of that. And before long, a new message filled my vision.

"WHAAAAAAT?! What the hell is this?!"

What on earth was happening up on the first floor? Even when I'd checked in the middle, it hadn't been this high. In the end, the auction's winner was GoldenApple.

"Heart, calm down. How much even is this?!"

Four hundred and sixty-eight loaves of bread…! Feeling embarrassed about converting everything into bread units, but who cared?

"Insane…."

A hot thrum beat through my chest. A good kind of pounding. If I sold just one more chunk of meat like this—

"That's the quest ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠done, right?"

Of course, the price wouldn't climb this high every time—but even this much was enormous. What I'd thought might take weeks, maybe even months, had fallen into my lap as pure windfall. GoldenCarriage, they'd called him… Right now, in this moment, that man was a diamond carriage to me.

"Tonight's a fried chicken night!!!"

I'd earned so many points already—what was fifty points going to change? For the first time since entering the Tower, I decided to splurge a little.

"Wonder if GoldenCarriage's team is heading out to kill it tomorrow."

Please, please let my poison work on that Goblin Great Warrior. Waiting around wasn't going to give me answers, so I might as well take it easy tonight.

Chomp, chomp, chomp.

Early afternoon. Midway through magic practice, a message popped up.

Ding!

"Oh! That was fast."

Did the poison work? They hadn't gotten that much stronger overnight, that was for sure. Nearly a month into the Tower, and someone had finally cleared Floor 1.

But—

Do I not get that skill proficiency boost?

B1 seemed to keep triggering First Discovery effects, but I had no idea what those effects actually were.

"Even if I head up, I might as well keep practicing magic. No point just sitting around."

Thanks to LocalUniResearcher, I never had a dull moment.

A portal? Like the space-travel kind?

So it was GoldenCarriage's team after all. Which meant the Wyvern meat had done its job.

Is that so? Whoops… that came out the wrong way.

I closed the chat and jumped straight into the community. Business meant rowing when the tide came in.

Clean and simple. The system announcement had already done plenty of advertising, and anyone in the know already understood what poisoned Wyvern meat could do.

And if it doesn't sell, so what.

I'd just eat it myself later. Most food couldn't pierce my Mandokbulchim anyway. Bonus Poison Human reinforcement on the side—not bad.

Comments stacked up fast on the post.

Naturally, I had no intention of answering any of them. I was cool Ttokatsu, after all.

The auction opened at pt 100.

Alright. Let's wait and see. Word had already reached everyone who needed to hear it.

Here we go.

pt 1000. The bid shot up from the jump. Ten minutes was more than enough to make people sweat. pt 1200, pt 1500…… Just watching the auction window, I could've gone through a few bags of popcorn.

"This is fun."

Who would've thought a boring deserted island could host ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a competition this entertaining? And every one of those points was mine.

"Was the Wyvern meat that effective?"

Meat poisoned with my toxin. People were shelling out points for it, so it had to work, right? What kind of effect had it even had? Maybe they'd dogpiled the boss while it was poisoned.

"I'll have to ask GoldenCarriage later."

I'd find out eventually. While I was thinking that, the countdown hit the final stretch.

10. 9….

"Oh! They're going at it!"

2000, 2300, 2600. As the points leaped higher near the end, someone landed a killing blow.

1.

The auction-end message. And then a result I never saw coming.

"Oh shit!!! Are you kidding me!!!"

The Wyvern meat's effect must have been no joke. And the winner—ThisIsTheGovernment. The Korean government.

"They must've pooled their affiliated Awakeners and built up a mountain of points."

I'd expected FirstMage's team to take it, but the government walked off with the meat. For eight thousand points, no less. So they were the ones who'd dumped the price past the five-thousand range.

"They're basically card sharks."

Slapping three thousand points on top with one second left. Nothing could possibly be more thrilling than that.

"Ahh, delicious."

The fake mage impersonating me was having a rough go of it. Earning points was a joy—but watching that guy lose was its own kind of joy.

Ding!

Huh?

"So you're giving me this whole island, Master?"

And the final gift my master had left behind—

◈ B1 Gate.

The moment I checked that last reward, a whooshing crack split the air, and a small tremor rippled from behind the house.

Rumble… shhhhhh!

"What the—!"

I sprinted toward the anomaly to figure out what was going on. And what I found was something I had never once seen in the real world.

Gwooooo—.

"Don't tell me… this is a Gate?"