Chapter Forty: The Treasure of the House

When the price of two hundred thousand points reached Maragobi’s ears, he felt both furious and on the verge of madness.

Last time, it was Wu Hua who caused him to lose two levels in a row, and he had never forgiven him. Now, encountering Wu Hua again, this jinx directly killed his psychological price!

If he increased the bid, the price would become exorbitant and simply not worth it; if he didn't, he would have to watch a fine gun fall into the hands of his nemesis, and that was a bitter pill to swallow.

Beside him, Chrysanthemum Three Wrath whispered anxiously, “Big brother, are we buying it or not? If we keep going like this, won’t we end up perishing from our own folly?”

Chrysanthemum Three Wrath was a gunner and coveted this weapon immensely, eagerly hoping his big brother would spit out “two hundred and ten thousand points.”

Maragobi wasn’t short of money, but auctions were like gambling—the higher the price, the bigger the risk, the faster the heartbeat, the more hesitant the thoughts. A single misjudgment could mean losing everything.

He turned to look at Wu Hua, who stared forward with an air of inviolable dignity, auctioneer poised with the hammer: “Two hundred thousand points! Is there any higher bid?”

Maragobi let out a groan, suddenly recalling how not long ago, Wu Hua had finished him off with a mere whiteboard Mauser. With such poor equipment, Wu Hua would never let this gun slip away; his resolute expression said it all.

“Why fight with this brat? Forget it!” Maragobi waved his hand, and Chrysanthemum Three Wrath’s face immediately fell with disappointment.

Just then, the auctioneer struck the final blow: “Two hundred thousand points for the third time—sold! Congratulations to bidder 1999 for acquiring this deluxe AUG. May this famed gun find a worthy master!”

Wu Hua finally allowed a sly smile to curve his lips, flashing a V sign at Maragobi. He had gambled as well, keenly aware that two hundred thousand points was an agonizing price, leaving Maragobi torn.

When Maragobi saw Wu Hua’s smile and gesture, his fury erupted: “Damn it, we’ve been played by this kid. Shit!”

Wu Hua’s hearing was excellent; he caught every word from Maragobi with a smile and a nod.

Chrysanthemum Three Wrath now understood too: the righteous expression had been a ruse, a trick. Wu Hua had risked everything as well.

“Shameless!” Chrysanthemum Three Wrath’s eyes burned with frustration—such a golden opportunity wasted.

Wu Hua continued to smile and nod, as if to say, “Exactly. In front of you, I’ve never pretended to be noble!”

Maragobi was beside himself: “I won’t let him get away with the auction’s crown jewel. Think you can outwit me?”

After a round of applause, the auctioneer, his voice trembling with excitement, addressed the hall: “Tonight’s grand finale is the most expensive treasure of Shengu Auction House. Let me tell you, this equipment is a pair of boots.”

With that, the crowd’s interest was piqued anew. Everyone speculated that these boots must surpass even the AUG just sold.

A cheongsam-clad hostess carried a tray onto the display stage, this time covered with a red silk cloth, making the treasure even more mysterious. Excitement thickened in the air; as the auctioneer’s hand touched the silk, many attendees’ breathing grew rapid.

Maragobi ground his teeth: “I’ll go all out tonight. I must have this equipment.”

He could never have imagined the seller behind these boots was none other than Wu Hua.

The auctioneer whipped off the red silk, and before anyone could see the boots themselves, a blue glow flashed forth. Many exclaimed, “Blue-grade?”

The auctioneer’s face flushed with excitement: “That’s right, this is a cerulean-grade item.”

The hall was thrown into commotion; even the cheapest steel pipes in Star Wars, if blue-grade, were worth more than red-grade energy swords.

The hostess was skillful this time. The central screen displayed the item’s attributes, one line at a time:

“Boots of Flying Clouds, blue-grade equipment, level requirement twenty-five, strength requirement twenty, mana requirement thirty, defense two hundred, durability: seven hundred out of seven hundred, ordinary resistance ten percent, fire, water, and electricity resistance thirty-six percent, additional attributes: vision plus three, strength mastery plus eight, movement speed plus ten, hidden slot plus one.”

The hall erupted, for everyone saw the gem already embedded in the hidden slot.

In Star Wars, three auxiliary equipment types were hardest to obtain: tech chips, polyalloys, and gems.

Tech chips were tricky due to the need for a tech specialist’s appraisal, which was exorbitantly expensive. Thus, many chip warriors, though high-level, had poor gear.

Polyalloys came in binary, quaternary, octonary, duodenary, hexadecinary... The higher the tier, the harder, more complex, and defensively superior. Duodenary alloy sold for three thousand credits per kilogram, while hexadecinary had yet to appear on the market.

Alloy materials were easy to find, but smelting was complex and time-consuming, and high-quality crystal ores were rare. Without them, duodenary alloys couldn’t be produced.

Gems, though, were even rarer than chips, and came in seven color grades like regular equipment.

The gem embedded in these boots was a red-grade gem, and the hostess enlarged the screen to show its properties:

Soaring Eagle

Red-grade gem

Attack: twenty-two to thirty

Defense: plus thirteen

Ordinary resistance: plus nine percent

Additional attribute: movement speed plus eight percent

If one had to describe these Boots of Clouds, only the word “astonishing” would suffice.

Many in the hall quickly calculated their value.

Defense alone reached two hundred thirteen, equivalent to a purple-grade cuirass. This attribute alone left all purple equipment in the dust—even the “Celestial Silk Armor” from earlier paled in comparison.

The vision plus three meant an increase of thirty meters. Wu Hua’s green-grade sensor only granted plus one vision, already far better than average. Snow Night Fairy’s sniper accuracy wasn’t just due to optics.

Strength mastery plus eight was well understood by every warrior present, but the most outrageous was movement speed plus ten. Ordinary equipment showed percentage increases, e.g., plus ten percent, but these boots offered a true plus ten—ten meters per second faster. That was nearly the speed of a warrior’s charge skill, which had a forty-second cooldown, but the boots had none.

Now, all the questions about Snow Night Fairy’s agility at the demolition center, her lightning-fast leap onto the truck, were answered.

Wu Hua had his reasons for selling the boots: their thirty-point mana mastery requirement would disrupt his training plan and waste attribute points, so it was better to sell them, buy other gear, and later hunt for equipment again. Sell the egg first, then buy the hen that lays eggs—that was his logic.

“The starting bid is fifty thousand credits, with increments no less than five thousand credits!”

As soon as the auctioneer finished, bids erupted from every corner:

“Sixty thousand!”

“Seventy thousand!”

“Eighty thousand!”

“Ninety thousand!”

...

Wu Hua lounged comfortably in his seat, legs crossed, savoring the frenzy as bidders raised their paddles. The higher the price soared, the faster his crystal card balance grew.

As he enjoyed the auction, he imagined another scene: if Snow Night Fairy were here now, seeing this spectacle, what expression would she wear?

Undoubtedly, it would be something truly remarkable, Wu Hua mused.