Auction House
Auction House
A villain's life is busy, to say the least.
Especially for someone like me, with the grand dream of forming a villain alliance.
Just planning one terrorist attack takes a massive amount of time, and then recruiting other villains on top of that? Damn, even ten bodies wouldn't be enough.
Terrorist attacks themselves aren't any easier. Once the sun sets, a hero with the insane ability Shadow Walker shuts down attacks within minutes, so being limited to daylight is another big problem.
Not that night isn't a time for villains, mind you.
"Haaah..."
A dark street in Seoul.
There, with no one else in sight, I waited for a car.
Right at the appointed time, headlights appeared around the corner.
A black limousine was approaching me.
It stopped right in front of me.
A man in a suit and a mask straight out of a masquerade ball stepped out. He bowed to me.
"Good evening, sir. Please confirm your identity."
I handed him the black-and-gold ticket from my pocket.
The VVIP ticket I'd harassed Lee Seol-ah to get.
He checked it briefly, then bowed again with renewed politeness.
"Thank you, sir. You're confirmed. Please, step inside."
He opened the rear door for me, and I got in.
The interior was covered in red leather.
I sank into the seat. Nice and plush.
"We'll be on our way."
The man in the front spoke, and the car glided off silently.
As we picked up speed, I leaned back. The man offered me a mask as well.
"Your mask, sir. Please put it on."
I took it—something straight out of a drama about medieval nobles at a ball.
...As far as I knew, everyone here already used Perception Inhibition by default. Did the mask even matter?
The limousine raced down the empty roads, heading somewhere outside Seoul.
I just stared out the window, zoning out.
My destination was an auction house.
A world-class illegal auction house holding its first event in Korea.
...I didn't know why something like this existed in twenty-first-century South Korea. But this world had its flaws, so I decided not to overthink it.
After a long drive, we arrived at a deserted abandoned building.
The car descended into what looked like an underground parking garage.
"You may get out now."
I stepped out of the limousine.
With a staff member's guidance, I followed along.
A new scene opened before my eyes.
A vast open space, dazzling chandeliers, gold-embroidered wallpaper.
And all kinds of people in elaborate masks.
Bursting with life far beyond anything above ground.
Wearing a mask and suit myself, I strode in without hesitation.
This was Excal Auction House, where people with obscene amounts of money gathered from all over the world.
At the same time, it was the tragic place where a certain villain would be born at this very moment.
I had come to stop that.
'...'
I walked toward the main auction hall with a solemn look.
...Well, it's all just a money-wasting spree anyway, so whatever.
*
I found my seat and sat down.
The place was dark, with tiered seating arranged in a circle around a central stage—basically a musical theater layout.
I plopped into one of the seats and yawned.
When's this thing starting?
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome."
Ah. It was starting now.
The stage lit up, and the auctioneer appeared.
He went on about something—the long history and tradition of the auction, the refined aesthetic sensibilities of our distinguished guests, how exceptionally rare today's items were... I half tuned it out.
Then the real auction began.
"Our first item of the day! A candlestick from the Baroque period, exceedingly difficult to find today. We start at three thousand dollars!"
"Thirty-two hundred! Thirty-two hundred, do I hear more? Three, two, one. Sold to number 127. Thank you!"
"...A truly precious item. A blacklist leaked from the Egyptian government. I'll take opening bids."
"A rare item with only a few copies in existence—a photograph of the S-rank villain Kellus, whose records have been expunged. We start at ten thousand dollars!"
As the stage came alive, items began selling in earnest.
This was Excal Auction House, where every valuable item that could be sold away from the eyes of the government and Hero Association changed hands.
True to its reputation for selling anything profitable—from ancient relics to the latest government documents—it really offered every kind of bizarre item imaginable.
More surprising was that people bought them. Did they all have money to burn?
Anyway, none of this useless junk interested me.
I sat calmly and waited for the item I wanted.
How much time passed?
Finally, the item I'd been waiting for appeared on stage.
"A ring that the B-rank hero Swordier always wore during his lifetime. We acquired it after he lost it in his final moments. We start at six thousand dollars."
Yes.
That ring.
I had to seize that ring here—the root cause behind the future birth of an S-rank villain.
Before anyone else knew its value.
"Seven thousand dollars! Do I hear more?"
"Seventy-five hundred! Seventy-five hundred. Eight thousand! Eight thousand. Any further bids?"
The bidding heated up.
Then, a burly man on the other side gave a tiny nod of his fingers.
"Ten thousand! Ten thousand! Any more? Going once... three, two..."
Just as the auctioneer was about to call it—
His eyes went wide as he checked something.
"Fifty thousand! Fifty thousand dollars!"
The sudden fivefold jump sent the auctioneer into an excited shout.
The other spectators, who had been watching without much interest, reacted the same way.
Everyone suddenly wanted to know who the lunatic burning money on something so useless was.
The person who had bid fifty thousand was, of course, me.
A real man knew how to bid big.
I glanced sideways and saw a man in a suit trembling with rage.
That was the guy who'd bid ten thousand and nearly won—and who, in the original story, would have succeeded.
Ryu Jin-taek, CEO of VK Corporation. Also one of the future S-rank villains.
In the Original Work, he bought the ring on a whim, discovered its power, and used it to commit all kinds of atrocities.
The immense strength it gave him also made him a major obstacle to Lee Seol-ah's mergers-and-acquisitions project.
Of course, since I now had the ring, that future would never happen.
Still, having it snatched away seemed to annoy him, even if his original bid had been casual, so he made a timid attempt to resist.
"Fifty-one thousand! Fifty-one thousand!"
Yeah, fuck off.
"One hundred thousand! One hundred thousand dollars! Any more bids? Then going once, twice, three... sold for one hundred thousand. Thank you!"
I could feel the people around me murmuring as they watched me burn a hundred million won on a B-rank hero's old ring.
The auctioneer was positively beaming, thrilled to have bloated the price so successfully.
Looking at the commotion, I just smirked.
Out of every item that appeared today, this one was the most valuable.
If people knew the truth about this ring, its value would have risen past the billions into the trillions. It wasn't something money could really buy in the first place.
And every person here probably had at least hundreds of millions in capital.
Anyway, I'd done what I came for, so I got up. Nothing else to see.
I smirked at the man trembling beside me, then went outside and collected my purchase first.
A very ordinary-looking ring, with only a purple pearl-like thing embedded in the center.
I put the ring, still in its case, into my pocket and headed out.
Haaah. One objective accomplished.
...But how the hell was I supposed to get home?
***
After somehow making it home, collapsing into bed as soon as I arrived, and sleeping, the next day.
"Big bro, what was so important that you made such a fuss and went out at night?"
Seo-eun asked, clearly bursting with curiosity as I sat in the living room polishing the ring.
"A Sealing Ring."
"What?"
"Our next terrorist attack will use this."
"...No, seriously, what is it?"
"You'll see."
The purple stone embedded in the center of the ring.
I turned the purple stone in the center twice clockwise, then once counterclockwise.
And in that moment—
The ring flashed with brilliant light.
[...Hm? Who woke me?]
A semi-transparent figure in medieval-style knight armor burst out of the ring.
"...What is that?"
Seo-eun was aghast, and the black-armored figure still looked utterly bewildered.
In the midst of the confusion, I just said flatly:
"Death Knight."
[Hm? Do you mean me? My name isn't that. It's Saint Petr—]
"No. From today, your name is Death Knight."
Death Knight sounded cooler.
From now on, your name was Desik.