113 – The Auction House and Thieves (3)
112.
“Ladies and gentlemen! We sincerely welcome you to the Atto Auction House on the occasion of the Life and Auction season!”
A buzz fills the air.
The sound of people whispering lingers in our ears.
We have wealthy tycoons, famous celebrities, influencers, sports stars, pro heroes, and obsessive collectors, among others.
People of all types gather here.
This is the central A Hall of Atto Auction House, boasting the largest scale in Busan.
Countless seats, including VIP seats, are filled with people. Those in suits are looking towards the hosts and presenters.
As this is a large-scale auction event held once a year, there is a great deal of attention focused here.
Moreover, rumors have spread that various items obtained from high-level dungeons will be auctioned this year.
And among them, there are even precious artifacts.
“What kind of auction items are waiting for you all this year?”
Artifacts.
Mysteries that cannot be fathomed by human knowledge.
Simultaneously, they are divine creations that perform miracles.
The number of artifacts excavated directly in South Korea, a country with a population of tens of millions, barely reaches double digits.
Therefore, those who possess artifacts are an extreme minority among the minority.
In other words, obtaining an artifact is a testament to one’s own wealth, honor, and value.
“Is everyone ready?”
Therefore, most of the people participating in this auction are expecting artifacts.
“Very well, then let’s begin! The first auction of Atto Auction!”
Certainly, the artifact to be submitted this time has not yet revealed its conditions of use, so we cannot accurately determine the type of artifact it is. Nevertheless, the mere fact that it is an artifact is valuable enough.
“The first auction item is… “
So, people are eagerly anticipating.
Hopefully, the unidentified artifact, the highlight of this auction, will be introduced soon.
“It’s a mysterious ice crystal imbued with a pure cold aura!”
Just like that, right now.
The Atto Auction, the biggest event of the summer season in Busan, has begun.
***
“It seems like everyone is excited about the auction.”
A temporary storage warehouse behind the auction house.
“But what to do, almost all the auction items have already been replaced with fakes.”
A woman in her mid-twenties looks at the internal CCTV of the auction house, giggling as she spills some bismuth alone.
“The first auction item is the Ice Crystal.”
Her name is So Yoo-young.
Among the three people planning to steal items from the auction this time, she possesses a quite useful supernatural ability.
Her ability is duplication.
She can perfectly replicate objects touched by her for a certain period, whether living or non-living. However, if the target is an object with mystic properties, she cannot mimic its original functions.
Also, in the case of living beings, even if she duplicates them, they cannot move or live.
It’s like they’ve become a lifeless body without a soul.
Furthermore, Soyuyeong is not a combatant by nature.
Compared to the average hero, she is quite weak. However, her supernatural abilities are quite useful. Thanks to them, she was able to join places like Rebellion.
“Here, I have the Ice Jade. Take it.”
“……”
John Carter, who was standing beside her, silently handed over the Ice Jade.
He flicked his finger and passed the Ice Jade to one of John Carter’s avatars.
Disguised as an auction house employee, the avatar walked steadily towards the auction stage with the Ice Jade.
“No matter how you look at it, Avatar Abilities seem very convenient.”
“……Hmm.”
John Carter is an Avatar Ability user.
He possesses the ability to create avatars through shadows as a medium.
The avatars he creates can exert power at a level close to his original body, making them much stronger compared to the average avatar user.
Furthermore, John can summon more than 100 avatars at once, a number that is incomparable to the usual limit of fifteen avatars that most avatar users can create.
Therefore, it can be said that his supernatural ability is truly powerful.
Even if it was said that there were no avatar users in Korea with such potential, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
If he intentionally challenged the world in a battle of forces, not even the renowned Udahee Cho would be able to easily oppose him.
Of course, as a powerful ability, there were very fatal weaknesses.
However, it’s okay.
No one in this world knows his weaknesses.
Even the members of Rebellion were exhausted.
“Ah… I used my replication ability too much today. I’m tired…”
Having replicated all these auction items, the fatigue was overwhelming.
But Su Yeong’s replication ability wasn’t limited to just duplicating auction items. She had also replicated the appearances of the auction house staff.
As mentioned before, she was a replication magician.
If she could replicate, she could also overlay.
It was possible to copy only the appearance of an object and overlay it onto another object.
She had replicated the appearances of all the auction house staff, security guards, guides, and so on, and overlaid them onto the clones of Joon.
Thanks to that, most of the security guards, staff, janitors, guides, and even the presenters and hosts at this auction house were already replaced by Joon’s clones.
The real staff members were knocked out and locked up in the warehouse.
They’re probably sleeping, oblivious to what’s happening right now.
Actually, it would be much easier to kill them than to imprison them.
But well, I can’t kill them.
Because if the originals die or get damaged, the replication will be undone.
“Su Yeong, how far did you replicate the auction items?”
“Don’t rush me. It’s all done now.”
This old man, seriously.
He’s rushing me again.
Why did we even bother replicating all the auction items?
If we had just stolen them, we could have escaped easily, couldn’t we?
This is all because of Alex’s useless vanity, vanity.
Alex had planned to make himself disappear in an instant, spreading infamy about the villain effectively, only when all the replicas were purchased by bidders.
To achieve that, he had already inserted villain cards or the like into the replicas in advance.
A few days later, the auction items would vanish without a trace, leaving only the villain cards in the hands of the bidders.
Then, how would people react?
If they found out that the scarce and rare auction items, obtained at a very high cost, were all fake, wouldn’t they just lose their minds?
It would be quite amusing to see their reactions once they realized that the infamous villain had taken everything.
…Looking forward to such things subtly, it seems that, like Alex, villains are villains.
“Is it still far off?”
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“Almost done, really.”
In response to Alex’s urgency, Soyounge pushed her lips forward.
Since yesterday, she had relentlessly kidnapped some auction house employees, imprisoned them, extracted information, replicated appearances, taken hostages, seized control rooms, and secretly attacked the storage warehouses – continuously working without rest, yet Alex kept pushing.
They had faced considerable hardships due to the overly strict security measures for the auction items.
Moreover, the level of the security guards was exceptionally high.
There were quite a few individuals with mid-ranking hero-level skills.
Especially, there were a few mercenaries originating from top-ranking heroes, requiring careful actions.
Although using the replication ability to approach and stealthily ambush their comrades was an option, one wrong move could lead to exposure.
Hence, more time was spent than expected.
“This is the last… it’s done, all finished.”
“Really?”
Sooyoung, who had replicated all the auction items up to the last one, finally stood up from her seat.
Alex, with a satisfied expression, took out a small leather pouch that could have been used in the medieval era.
Unexpectedly, Alex opened the entrance of the leather pouch and swept all the remaining genuine items into it.
Countless objects endlessly entered the small leather pouch.
That leather pouch was one of the artifacts owned by Alex.
It was an extra-dimensional pouch.
True to his reputation as a rogue, Alex had many precious items, including a few artifacts.
Of course, most of them were stolen goods.
“Did you get everything?”
“Yeah.”
They had collected all the auction items.
Now, they just had to safely escape from Busan.
The task of the auction house would be handled by the clones disguised as employees.
They were already familiar with the necessary information and knowledge through the auction house employees.
They would probably be safe during the auction. Of course, there was a concern that the fact that the auction items were fake might be exposed, but what did it matter?
By the time they were caught, Alex and all the others would have already escaped.
“Now, let’s get out of Busan quickly.”
“It’s fortunate that nothing went wrong this time.”
“John? You do know that saying something like that is a jinx, right? Don’t let your guard down until we’re all out, seriously.”
Alex, John, Sooyoung.
The three of them sneaked out of the auction house in disguise.
Leaving behind the auction house, where a fervent heat surged, they moved leisurely.
With heightened caution, they took careful steps, wary of possible pursuit and surveillance, moving forward.
Alex had an exceptionally keen sense.
Beast-like instincts had kept him alive until today.
Especially sensitive to others’ movements, gazes, miracles, and more, Alex could not help but react sharply in such a vigilant situation.
If someone were to tail or watch them in a situation this guarded, it would undoubtedly be noticeable.
Moreover, Alex possessed artifacts that escaped observation.
Although the effect was somewhat diminished, with observational skills comparable to Yuzabel, ordinary surveillance would undoubtedly fail to monitor Alex and his companions.
Therefore, Alex’s group… huh?
“…!”
In an instant.
“…What’s this?”
People disappeared.
Could you call it as if a trick to deceive the eyes?
Without lowering their guard, the scene of the bustling street, which was teeming with people just a blink ago, vanished into thin air. The landscape of a deserted Busan street.
It evoked the image of a ghost town.
Not a single human nose was in sight, and only the empty street welcomed Alex and his companions.
Amidst the confusing situation.
Alex raised his guard as much as possible.
What on earth is going on? It’s suspicious. Clearly, someone is behind this.
It must be some kind of barrier.
A barrier that separates reality and space. It seems like a spatial separation-type barrier.
Then, who, why, and for what purpose would someone create a barrier for Alex and his group? And without any hint or clue. Not even a glance, a feeling, nothing.
“John!”
“Yeah.”
Alex called out John’s name.
I don’t know what the situation is right now, but until I can come up with a countermeasure, it’s inevitable that I have to buy some time, considering the high possibility of a trap.
Therefore, Alex called John, who could be a sturdy shield and spear in any threat.
Because John’s extraordinary abilities were extremely useful in any situation, whether it be attack, defense, escape, and so on.
“Today, I’ve used my abilities quite a bit, but… there’s nothing I can do.”
John immediately used his abilities.
His shadow wriggled and rose up.
The sticky and slimy shadow gathered together and gradually took on the shape of a person.
Like that, one person, two people, three people, four people…
More than thirty clones of John were created.
John has a formidable power that can defeat a high-ranking hero alone.
With thirty individuals who possess similar powers to John, it’s inevitable that they will be able to take down a high-ranker.
Inside the wall of multiple people, Alex felt a sense of security.
No matter who launched the attack, it was clear that they couldn’t penetrate all these clones at once.
And then, at that moment?
A flash grenade rolled through the crowd of clones with a loud thud.
Suddenly, BOOM! A powerful explosion engulfed the world with blinding light, spreading in all directions.
The clones of John who were caught off guard by the sudden flash lost their form and scattered.
Their bodies dissolved weakly like mud soaked in water.
John was surprised to see this sight.
Light, the only weakness of John’s shadow cloning ability.
Exposure to intense light caused the clones to lose their power and return to their shadow form, a fatal weakness they possessed.
But how did someone know John’s weakness?
No, they just threw the flash grenade to blind him, was it just a coincidence that they hit his weakness?
But looking at the fact that they only threw flash grenades, it feels like they knew in advance. But that can’t be right. Even the Rebellion members wouldn’t know an unknown weakness like this…
“Alex, John, So You-Young… right?”