Chapter 5801 The Grand Auction Begins 5801 The Grand Auction Begins The upper hall descended into darkness as the fluorescent plants and fish slowly retreated from sight. That was until a pair of bright blue eels entered from above! The beautiful eels swam with perfect coordination as they formed a double helix. The genetically engineered creatures soon reached the bottom where they subsequently exposed the presence of a handsome man. Nobody noticed how the fellow managed to sneak up on the center of the main stage, but now that he became visible, the entire audience took note of his exceptional allure. The man was handsome. His face and body proportions sculptured to perfection. He wore a fashion-forward outfit that tastefully exposed his physique. There was an invisible glow to him that enhanced his attractiveness and made it difficult to ignore his presence in a crowd! Many people present in the upper hall were either high-tier galactic citizens or followers who were accustomed to the presence of powerful figures. However, the auctioneer that captured everyone's attention possessed a substantially greater pull in spite of the fact that he was probably under 100 years old and not that famous. More and more fish that glowed in different colors began to enter the upper hall again. They began to light up the main stage and entrance people's eyes. "Welcome to our humble auction house on Ector V." The unnaturally beautiful man spoke with a voice that sounded like pure magic. "I am Orion Leeds, and I have received the distinct honor of guiding you through our greatest grand auction in the Red ocean to date. Estaban Leeds is honored to receive several hundred familiar guests as well as many more first-time participants. We have done our utmost to scale up this grand auction and endeavor to serve everyone's varied needs." As Orion Leeds began to explain the basic rules for the benefit of the newcomers, Ves finally understood why the man appeared so damn attractive. The auctioneer was a cultivator. Not only that, but he did not restrain his extraordinary characteristics like most of his kind. Now that cultivation became public knowledge, it was no longer taboo to show unnatural traits in the open. Ves was not familiar with the cultivation method practiced by Orion Leeds, but he bet that it was a combination between a qi cultivation and body cultivation method. Blinky's sharp senses collected more information. Orion's domain primarily centered around charisma. Being so damn handsome was the main point of practicing this method! So that was why Orion's appearance reminded him of his kids. As nascent primordial humans, they possessed a similar kind of extraordinary charm, though theirs were a bit more subdued as they were a lot more natural. Orion on the other hand practiced a technique that deliberately amplified these traits far beyond any other characteristics. The extreme specialization made Orion weak in every other aspect, but that was not a problem so long as his job matched his acquired talents. Ves started to pay attention again when the auctioneer explained the goods put up on auction. "Estaban Leeds has received a glut of items, many of which are rare and desirable enough to be added to our highest list. We have applied stricter criteria than before and filtered out many submissions that have just fallen short of the mark. The goods fall into the following categories." A projection appeared that displayed a straightforward list. [Raw & Intermediate Materials Personal Equipment Mechs and Mech Parts Starships and Starship Parts Human Cultural Items Alien Cultural Items 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂 Living Organisms Knowledge Repositories Corporate Assets Ancient Cultivation Relics] That was impressively diverse. Practically everyone would be able to find what they needed today. The only question was whether they had enough wealth to place the winning bids. That was anything but certain. Payment was another big topic. "There are different currencies in the Red Ocean." Orion continued to explain. "The standard unit of value used in our grand auction is phasewater. That does not mean you literally have to pay with physical quantities of phasewater. We readily accept MTA credits and CFA credits at the prevailing exchange rates rounded up. If you are short on cash, you may also contact one of our appraisers in private and exchange illiquid assets for liquid currency that you can use to place your bids." Ves winced. The use of phasewater as the standard currency was a definite sign that this was going to be an extravagantly expensive auction. The market price of phasewater had skyrocketed in a few years. The Great Severing had worsened the problem as the inability to conquer more territory and the rapidly rising demand for transphasic mechs and starships had made phasewater more expensive than ever! It hadn't been too long ago where Ves could buy 1 gram of phasewater for 200 MTA credits. Nowadays, he needed to cough up around 3,650 MTA credits to buy the same quantity of phasewater! The problem wasn't abating at all. The market price kept rising because people kept building stuff that incorporated a lot of transphasic parts. If not for the fact that the Larkinson Clan was able to fulfill its own internal demand by plundering phasewater from the aliens, the Larkinson Army wouldn't have been able to field as many transphasic mechs! The inflated price level of phasewater had practically made it unaffordable for most second-class forces. Only state-backed militaries could afford to employ it in their high-ranking mechs and most important starships. The remaining phasewater available for sale always got absorbed by one of many first-class powers. Their continued willingness to pay large sums of money for literal drops of phasewater had enriched a lot of alien hunters, but also turned phasewater into the near-exclusive resource of first- raters. It was a sad state of affairs. Many analysts regarded the market price of phasewater as an indicator of how well red humanity was doing. The fact that the price continued to go up with no signs of flattening out was a powerful clue that people desired greater strength! They were so insecure about their positions that they were willing to abandon many luxuries in order to strengthen their security. Ves personally thought that 3,650 MTA credits for a single gram of phasewater was still a steal. The budget for a typical first-class multipurpose mech was around 50 million MTA credits. That meant that a basic application of phasewater hardly took up a significant chunk of the total cost. Yet it was that kind of thinking that kept driving up the price of phasewater. Every major power wanted to field transphasic mechs, and there was a lot of other tech that could make use of this exotic substance as well. Ves shook his head. He didn't have to worry about this problem for the time being. His finances had become a lot more flexible and he still had a bit of phasewater in reserve. Once Orion Leeds got all of the basic rules out of the way, the grand auction finally kicked off when a pair of fish dragged in a transparent cage that held a chunk of ore! "For the first item put on auction, I am happy to present 25.7 kilograms of a newly discovered exotic material called Norio Dellerite. It is an unrefined metallic ore that does not possess remarkable properties in itself, but possesses the distinct ability to harden hyper materials by a large factor. This makes Norio Dellerite ideal for fortifying the most delicate hyper tech components of a high-quality mech." A projection came to life that displayed a lot of technical data. Ves quickly skimmed through the numbers and graphs and soon lost interest. Norio Dellerite was definitely useful for ace mechs and such. It could increase their fault tolerance and allow them to retain their functionality even after they had suffered several serious blows. However, the quantity available for auction was rather meager to a mech designer like Ves. An even greater problem was that no further samples of Norio Dellerite had been discovered as far as he was aware of, so it was nearly impossible to produce replacement parts if a mech that incorporated the material ever suffered heavy damage. "700 grams of phasewater." "1 kilogram of phasewater." "1.05 kilograms of phasewater." "1.20 kilograms of phasewater. Just as he expected, not many people showed a willingness to place a bid. The initial round of bidding was fairly tepid as only a modest group of mech designers and researchers desired the exotic ore. Mech designers probably wanted to incorporate Norio Dellerite into their mechs right away. Material scientists wanted to study it in order to figure out whether they could imitate it or use it as the basis for a more powerful exotic alloy. "Going once… going twice… sold to Professor Ereewa- Crenshaw for 2.25 kilograms of phasewater!" That was effectively over 8 million MTA credits for a chunk of ore that a random outfit likely picked up in an asteroid belt one day! Was it worth the price? That was difficult to determine as there was no objective way to determine the value of the piece of exotic ore. The pair of fish soon towed the Norio Dellerite away before another pair of fish brought in a different consignment. The item clearly belonged to a different category as it looked like an advanced technological product. "Assassinations are on the rise. Tensions are growing and enemies are lurking in the shadows. It has become more important than ever to protect yourself against attacks near or far. You can never expect your hidden enemies to play fair. Not only will they strike you when you least expect it, they will not hesitate to employ weapons far beyond what a simple killer on foot can carry. This is why the renowned boutique Rzeon & Sons has combined its deep understanding of personal shield generators with hyper technology and other disciplines to put together their strongest protective device to date." The information panel displayed a lot more interesting information to Ves. He immediately became impressed by how much damage the custom personal shield generator could resist! "The masterwork bearing the name of Bubblestorm is capable of projecting three layered azure energy shields around a single human-sized individual. Although each individual layer is slightly weaker than a standard shield generator, the Bubblestorm can be trusted to block multiple powerful attacks in rapid succession. What further makes it unique is that it can be set to release a powerful physical push in any direction upon impact. If teleportation or alternate means of relocation are inadequate, the Bubblestorm can effectively leverage the attacks of your adversaries to launch your protected body in the opposite direction, but only if you wish! These features make the Bubblestorm perfect for evading a myriad of assassination attempts." Ves actually developed a serious interest in the Bubblestorm! Every personal shield generator that he came into contact with only formed a single energy barrier around a person. He never imagined that a small development firm managed to miniaturize one of the characteristic technologies of the native aliens and stuff it inside such a small package. The bidding immediately began after Orion Leeds ended his explanation. "5 kilograms of phasewater!" "7 kilograms of phasewater!" "20 kilograms of phasewater!" "Don't bother to flaunt your meager wealth, Terran. I bid 30 kilograms of phasewater!" Personal safety ranked high in everyone's priorities, so a lot more people participated in the bidding! Ves was so taken aback by the aggressiveness of the bidders that held back from adding his own voice. His demand for personal shield generators was not as great because he could also count on the protection of his true body. While it would be nice for him to acquire additional layers of insurance, Ves would rather save his money for more strategic goods. He briefly thought about making a bid anyway in case he wanted to gift the Bubblestorm to his wife or one of his children, but he ultimately deemed it to be a wasteful course of action.