Amid the Fever, the Auction Begins
The auction began in the heat of a fevered hall.
"Hello, everyone! I'm Ray, and I'll be running today's auction. So glad to meet you!"
The host showed herself upon the platform: a young woman in a fox mask. From the look of her, she was human, not one of the other races.
Everything about the Black Market really does come back to foxes.
She didn't waste time on a long speech. The auction started at once.
"Allow me to introduce the first item."
At her words, two figures stepped up onto the stage—one who looked to be beastkin, and another who hid their identity behind a mask and a cloak.
"Wow, they're not playing around from the very first lot, are they? A Heroic-grade spear, with a level 350 equip restriction!"
The host gushed, laying it on thick. Anything short of Legendary grade rarely drew much of a response, but weapons were always in demand—and this one was Heroic or better, with a high level restriction besides. The hall heated up in earnest.
"As you all know, the seller sets the opening bid! Now then, Sir Shortrem, if you'd name your price."
The customer called Shortrem gave a nod.
"Let's open low. Five hundred thousand points."
"A sensible price!"
"It's going to sell for far more anyway. The opening bid doesn't mean a thing."
He said it with an arrogant air, and the hall had grown so feverish that the attitude didn't seem strange at all.
"If the first item's already like that... there must be something good today."
"Probably. They wouldn't crank up expectations for nothing. A lot of fine items must be waiting in the wings."
"Now I'm looking forward to this..."
The price of the first lot shot sky-high in an instant.
It's worth that much?
Yujun flinched when he saw the final figure. Honestly, he hadn't imagined a Heroic-grade weapon trading at a price like that.
Bit of a shock. That's complete junk-tier.
By his standards, the first auction item was utterly insignificant.
Did I put something too good up for sale?
He watched with the look of a man who had just slipped.
The second auction began, and once again the item was Heroic grade—this time not a weapon, but a full suit of armor. Next to the spear that had come before it, both the level restriction and the performance fell well short, and perhaps for that reason the second lot never caught on.
Even so, that's still a serious amount of money...
The mood in the hall rose and fell, and before he knew it, Yujun's turn was drawing near. The seventeenth lot.
"Finally."
Yujun rose from his seat. Yoric, who had all but attached himself as Yujun's personal broker, climbed the platform ahead of him with a buoyant step.
"This next item... Now, everyone, please don't be startled."
The host drew it out.
"Hey! Just say it already!"
"Legendary? It is Legendary, right?"
"Show us, quick!"
A hesitation rarely seen from her only fanned the players' curiosity.
"That's right! It's a Legendary-grade item!"
"And not just any Legendary item. A shield—the rarest equipment slot of them all! That is our seventeenth lot!"
The hall went wild.
"A shield? She said a shield?"
"They're not just baiting us, are they?"
"Make your money honestly, Black Market!"
Shields were enormously popular even at low grades. It wasn't merely that supply couldn't keep up with demand—a shield was something you simply couldn't get, no matter how you tried. In truth, you could make one yourself or commission an artisan, but a shield produced that way came with no options at all and virtually no defense to speak of. No one knew why. They didn't even drop readily from monsters, and when one did appear, the options and the grade were pitiful.
But a Legendary-grade shield? Everyone had no choice but to doubt their own ears.
Whether they did or not, the host lifted the shield high in both hands.
"The item information. Please look it over, everyone."
The shield's options were shared with every player in the hall, and for a while silence hung over the room. They were busy reading, yes—but the options themselves were genuinely shocking.
"Hah..."
"This is insane."
"An item like this actually exists?"
"The options themselves aren't exactly outstanding. But when you remember this is a shield... Has there ever been a better one?"
"I want it..."
The reactions ran in every direction, but they all arrived at a single conclusion: everyone wanted the Shield of Firm Will that Yujun had put up for sale. Even the host running the auction felt the pull. There was no need to explain further. A mage could use the shield, and so could a necromancer. With virtually no boundary between classes, it was only natural that everyone would want a Legendary-grade shield.
"Ten million!"
"Thirty million!"
The impatient ones shouted a price first and looked later.
"Now, now—the seller hasn't set the opening bid yet. We're not short on time, so please don't get too excited!"
"One hundred million!"
"One hundred fifty million, then! The rest of you, don't even think of challenging me with money. That shield is mine."
"Don't make me laugh. Two hundred million!"
A stunned hush rippled through the seats.
"Who's actually going to walk away with that?"
"Must be nice..."
Once the bids climbed into the hundred millions, most of the players could only watch with watering mouths. Even so, there seemed to be no shortage of people sitting on enormous fortunes. A fair number of them called out prices and threw themselves into a competition that showed no sign of ending, and as Yoric took in the way things were going, his grin stretched ear to ear.
"Sir Wandering Knight. Just as we anticipated, the response is heated."
"Shields really are popular," Yujun said, forcing a calm he didn't feel.
"The rarer the item, the more a place like this loses its mind over it. A shield was quite literally the rarest piece of equipment there is, so a reaction like this is nothing strange."
Yoric stroked his handlebar mustache and went on.
"And that isn't all. The defense is high enough to make one doubt one's own eyes, and the options are considerable as well. Had I only the funds, I would long since have been standing up there, shouting right alongside them."
"Your level must be pretty high too, then. That shield's equip requirement is steep."
"I am far stronger than the ones who stand guard over this hall."
"Hm. You look it."
"In any case, allow me to congratulate you in advance. You will attain VVIP status in no time at all."
Yujun allowed himself a faint smile. The shield's price had already broken four hundred million points.
Everyone's loaded.
Then again, it wasn't as if the Tower of Infinity lacked its own breed of tycoon. If anything, the gap between rich and poor was worse here than it had ever been on Earth, so of course there were people who had piled up points like this.
Either way, this worked out.
Desperate to claim the shield he had put up, the players drove the price higher and higher.
Their levels must be pretty high, too.
The gear they wore was good enough to impress even him.
Two or three pieces of Legendary equipment apiece... Don't tell me the masters of the Four Great Guilds are here.
He had heard that famous faces passed through the Black Market in no small number.
"And we have five hundred fifty million points! The fifth-highest price on record! This item is certainly worth every bit of it!"
Once the host had finished, Yoric launched into a running list of the shield's virtues. Yujun doubted talk like that would matter much, but the moment Yoric started running his mouth, the competition caught fire even faster.
"Five hundred fifty-five million!"
"Five hundred sixty million!"
When the sum climbed that high, the field collapsed all at once to two bidders: a man of enormous build, and a woman who appeared to be human.
"Why don't you just give up?"
"You first. Don't think you can beat me with money, orc."
She sneered once, then spoke again.
"Six hundred million."
"...You've lost your mind."
"Then quit."
"You're saying you actually have that kind of money on you?"
"Of course. And this item is worth every point of it."
At that, Yoric beamed.
"Quite so! It would be no exaggeration to call this the finest shield in existence! No—it is, beyond any doubt, the finest! I have seen items of every kind, and never once have I encountered a shield with finer options or greater defense than this one!"
Around the hall, heads nodded in agreement. Its defense reached nearly ten thousand, and the options were excellent besides. There had never been a shield with performance like this. In short, this was the chance to claim the finest shield in the Tower of Infinity.
"Seven hundred million."
"Eight hundred million."
The woman matched the man's bid at once.
"...Tsk."
The hulking man clicked his tongue.
"That the end?"
"Petty to the bone."
"How is having money petty?"
Too irritated to answer, he dropped heavily back into his seat.
"Are there no further bids?"
No one spoke.
The Rabbit Queen, victor of the bidding war, wore a triumphant smile. Yujun's expression, by contrast, was harder to read—and not because of the fortune about to come into his hands.
That shield... isn't exactly the strongest.
He had several Legendary-grade shields better than that one, and even a shield of Mythic grade besides. The whole scene struck him as faintly absurd.
If I let a few more items out, this place is going to lose its mind.
Yoric came over.
"The hammer came down at eight hundred million. The fourth most expensive sale in history. My congratulations."
"Thanks. Do I owe you something for the trouble?"
"No. Under our Black Market's regulations, it is not possible to accept separate payment from a client."
"Not possible, under the regulations. Then we just have to not get caught."
Yoric smiled and said nothing.
"You will not receive that sum in full. There is a commission."
"I know."
As was true anywhere, the Black Market took its cut: ten percent of whatever an item brought in. The woman who had bought the shield paid the host and received the item, and the host in turn passed Yujun the remainder, less the fee. Exactly 720 million points came in to him.
It's been a long time since I've seen a number like this.
Back in War of the Gods, he had held points in the trillions.
That was a game, though... so it doesn't mean a thing.
What mattered was the money he would earn from here on. Satisfied, he came down off the platform with Yoric and, through a point transfer, sent the broker ten million. Next to what he had just made, it was a trifle—a tip for the trouble, nothing more.
"Thank you."
Yoric offered it in a perfectly flat voice, though he couldn't quite master the way his face trembled with joy.
Still, I wonder if anything that could actually tempt me is even going to show up.
The odds weren't high. Nearly every item worth having was already sitting in his inventory.
And right then—
An item that made Yujun's eyes go wide appeared upon the platform.