Scored a New Toy
A piece by Artisan Do had appeared on a public auction.
Once that post went up, Dokkaebibul was thrown into absolute chaos.
What drove people even wilder was the listing page itself.
[Lot 77. Artist Unknown, Blue Crystal Necklace]
[Date of manufacture unknown. Origin unknown. Good condition.]
That was the entire description.
No mention of it being an Eul-grade tool, no appraisal certificate.
There wasn't a single line trying to prove the item's value.
Since it was an auction geared toward the general public, it was only natural in a way, but to the eyes of the spiritualist community, it carried a completely different meaning.
An item that had thrown the entire spiritualist world into a frenzy just days ago was tossed out as casually and dryly as someone listing an unwanted item on a local secondhand market.
As if to say, those who know will know, so just buy it.
God Do: K, then I'll sell it where there is no verification ^^
Starting price: 3 million won.
It took less than a day for the necklace's bid to hit 100 million won.
A massive uproar ensued.
...However.
At first, people thought it was just a typical hate comment.
After all, where crowds gather, there are always a few wet blankets.
But then.
Similar posts began to crop up one by one.
The tones and arguments varied, but strangely, they all converged on the same conclusion:
The item was a fake, and the creator was a fraud.
No one knew who had started it.
However, as those posts piled up line by line, the frenzy that had soared so wildly during the Manbogak days began to cool down.
Clang. Clang—
"Ah, damn it... What is this?"
Jin Muyeong, who was sprawled on the sofa staring at his phone, suddenly scowled.
In one hand was a half-eaten chicken drumstick.
"These family bastards, seriously...! Do-hyeong, look at this! This is definitely their doing, I swear!"
"..."
I didn't know how many days he had been acting like this.
Ever since he saw my item listed on the forum and the auction started, he had been absolutely thrilled, showing up at the workshop every single day like clockwork.
"...Hey. You're one of those family bastards too. Go home already. Shoo. Shoo."
"Come on, Do-hyeong! That hurts! It's been ages since I cut ties with the family! How many times do I have to tell you for you to believe me? If you keep this up, I'm really going to get upset!"
Even as he whined about being hurt, he showed absolutely no intention of leaving.
...
I had learned well enough over the past few days that trying to kick him out was pointless.
The guy was like a puppy.
No matter how much you shooed him away, he would eventually come back, wagging his tail.
With the chicken leg in his mouth, Jin Muyeong shoved his phone screen toward me.
"Look at this! They're muddying the waters, calling it a fake and saying it's unverified! And these are the same guys who were worshiping you as God Do just yesterday!"
Unable to contain his anger, Jin Muyeong shook the chicken leg.
"They must have hired a massive troll farm! Otherwise, there's no way a perfectly fine forum would flip overnight like this!"
Listening to his fuss, I set my hammer down.
I could picture the scene.
I already knew the Great Families wouldn't sit idle.
Ever since they pulled the item from Manbogak.
Since they couldn't block it openly anymore, it seemed they had pivoted to manipulating public opinion.
"Do-hyeong, aren't you angry seeing this? My blood is boiling just looking at it."
"Why should I be angry?"
Well, I had expected this to some extent.
I figured it would sell on a public auction since I had gained some fame.
But at the end of the day, the ones who would buy it were still spiritualists.
So this public opinion manipulation wouldn't stop easily.
"...Let them do what they want."
Clang—
I picked up my hammer again.
Reacting to every single comment would only be my loss.
The lump of iron cooling in the forge right now was a hundred times more important than some trashy forum posts.
No matter what tricks the Great Families played.
The fact that the item was real wouldn't change.
Eventually, someone would recognize it.
It was just a matter of time.
In any case, I only needed to sell one.
The rumors would spread on their own after that.
In short, letting this distract me from my hammering would only hurt me.
"...As expected."
Jin Muyeong suddenly muttered, staring at me blankly.
"Wow..."
He let out a sound that was half-admiration, half-sigh.
"Is this the caliber of a true giant...?"
What is he even talking about now?
At the same time.
The monthly joint conference hall where the leaders of the 4 Great Families gathered.
Major agendas regarding the distribution of interests were being processed one by one, and the meeting was nearing its end.
Rustle—
Along with the sound of papers turning, an elder set down his teacup.
"Ah, right."
As if he had almost forgotten, the elder casually brought it up.
"So. How is that outside auction matter progressing?"
The item they had pulled from Manbogak had leaked into the outside market in just a few days.
No one in this room was ignorant of that fact.
"Do not worry," another elder opposite him replied leisurely.
"We have already sent word to all the families and the merchant groups under our command. No one from our side will bid. As for the general public, they won't even know it's a spiritual tool, so they won't pay any attention to it."
"I hear the rabble outside are making quite a fuss on the forums. They say bids are pouring in."
"We've... taken care of Dokkaebibul in advance."
The elder caressed his teacup and smiled faintly.
"We made sure rumors would naturally circulate that the authenticity is doubtful and that the item hasn't even been verified. Thanks to that, the frenzy that was soaring wildly during the Manbogak days seems to have cooled down a bit."
"And the current bid?"
"It's still fluctuating around a hundred million won. It falls far short of the Manbogak days."
"Only that much?"
"Leave it be. The starting price was a mere three million won. It's just people who have never seen an Eul-grade tool in their lives excitedly throwing pocket change at it. Once it reaches a certain point, they will tire themselves out and drop off. Who in their right mind would buy an uncertified item for that kind of money?"
A sinister smile played on the elder's lips.
"Once the bidding stops, we can just swoop in and buy it for a pittance."
"Buy it?"
Low laughter leaked from the crowd.
"We should take a slow, thorough look inside it."
"Eul-grade, my foot. Once we open it up, it'll probably be nothing. A single statement saying, 'Upon verification, it was found to be a crude Byeong-grade item,' will instantly pop the bubble of this 'God Do' they've been worshiping."
"Hmm."
The elders slowly nodded.
"However... the outside market is a place beyond our reach," a low, heavy voice echoed from the head seat.
"What if, by some chance, some blind money suddenly buys it?"
"If that happens... how about we notify the Spiritual Management Bureau?"
One of the elders leaned forward.
"On what grounds...?"
"To block the transaction entirely. By claiming that releasing a spiritual tool to the outside world so carelessly is too dangerous."
"That will not do!"
An immediate counterargument flew from the opposite side.
It was a core executive of the Suzaku family.
"Is it a day or two that talismans and famous painting spiritual tools have been circulating outside? You know how many of those items our Suzaku family releases in a single year. If we start making an issue of that now, we will all get dragged down together. Are you planning to burn down the entire house just to catch a few bedbugs?"
"Come now, but this is supposedly an Eul-grade tool!"
"Officially, it lacks verification."
"..."
"Did we not make it so?"
Han Ye-rin watched the scene in silence, keeping her mouth shut.
...
They had overturned the board using verification as an excuse.
But the other side had simply moved to a board where verification wasn't even needed.
In a way that the very excuse they had used now held them back.
The moment they tried to move the Bureau by claiming it was a highly dangerous spiritual tool, wouldn't they end up requesting an appraisal with their own hands?
...Whoever planned this move is no ordinary person.
Although the old men were currently agreeing that the price would drop and they could just pick it up slowly.
For some reason, she kept getting an ominous feeling that things wouldn't go so smoothly.
"...Let us wait and see for now."
At the end of the tedious debate, someone spoke up, taking a step back.
"Since everyone seems suspicious, we can just quietly buy it cheap before the auction ends. No need to stir up unnecessary trouble."
Just as the meeting was heading toward a conclusion, at that very moment.
Buzz.
Han Ye-rin's phone vibrated briefly.
She stealthily checked the screen under the table.
"..."
And.
"...It seems we are already too late," Han Ye-rin said, putting her phone down.
The eyes of everyone in the room gathered on her at once.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Just now," she slowly opened her mouth, "it was sold."
The buyer did not show themselves.
Neither their name nor their identity.
With nothing revealed.
As a few days passed like that, the hot topic gradually began to die down.
The fact that an unverified item sold for 1 billion won briefly stirred people up, but since the buyer remained completely silent, everyone eventually lost interest.
Just like that.
Right when everyone thought Dokkaebibul was settling down again, a post went up.
"Returned. Eating first."
No Jin-hyeok.
An independent, Special-grade spiritualist.
Without a single drop of noble blood, he was a monster who had climbed to the very peak of the spiritualist rankings solely through his overwhelming strength.
A man who dismissed domestic requests as boring, choosing only to take on major cases from overseas heavyweights.
Although the 4 Great Families had sent him love calls for nearly a decade, he had never bowed his head to them even once.
"Why should I? You guys come under me."
He was perhaps the only person in this field who could utter such words in an interview and still remain perfectly fine.
His skills were overwhelming, and his personality was utterly arrogant.
He was also a lunatic who poured all the astronomical wealth he earned into collecting rare spiritual tools.
And he always referred to the spiritual tools he bought as:
"Toys."
A man who didn't care about the families, the Association, or anyone else.
That was why people called him the Emperor.
And that night.
Ding.
A short video was uploaded to No Jin-hyeok's account.
The screen shook violently once.
Along with the rustling sound of him getting into a car, the face of a grinning man came into view.
He held something up to the camera.
A necklace, with a moon-like blue spirit stone embedded right in the center.
And below the video, a short line of text was attached.
It took less than a minute for the forum to explode again.
And not long after.
Another post went up on the same account.
It was just a single line.