194: Auction

Su Ze followed closely behind the deacon from the Beast Tamer Association, quickly heading up to the second floor and arriving in front of a room.

"This is the SVIP room the President had me prepare in advance. Captain Su Ze, please come in," the deacon invited as he opened the door.

Su Ze walked inside and took a look. The room was large, roughly 50 to 60 square meters. A large, curved pane of one-way glass at the front made the space feel even more spacious.

Through the glass, the auction stage was visible not far below. One could clearly see the auction items from above, yet the interior of the room remained invisible from the outside.

In the center of the room stood a marble-topped coffee table, laden with various fruits and snacks.

As for red wine and cigarettes, Yu Shenghuo hadn't brought any up, considering Su Ze's age.

On the table was a button and a microphone, used for placing bids during the auction.

"It feels pretty nice. Alright, sorry to trouble you. You can go back to your work now," Su Ze said, turning to the deacon.

"No trouble at all! I'll be on my way then. If you need anything, just press the bell by the door to call me," the deacon said, pointing to a button behind the door.

Su Ze nodded, and only then did the man leave.

Sun Hao remarked, "Tsk tsk, so this is what a VIP room at the auction house looks like? These deacons weren't nearly this polite when we came before."

"You guys have attended auctions in Beishan City before?" Su Ze asked.

He had heard Sun Hao say he wanted to come and see the world, so he assumed they hadn't attended an auction, but now it seemed that wasn't the case.

Sun Hao scratched his head and said, "We came once, but back then, we sat over there."

He pointed toward the very back of the crowded seats below.

Aside from the VIP room Su Ze was in, almost everyone else was seated in the rows below.

The closer the seats were to the auction stage at the front, the more spacious the arrangement.

Conversely, the further back they were, the more cramped they became, to the point where people were practically sitting on top of each other.

Sun Hao continued, "There weren't this many people when I came last time, but the back seats were still very crowded."

"And in the end, we couldn't afford to bid on anything and just left. The people sitting in the front kept raising the prices higher and higher; it exceeded my budget in no time."

Su Ze smiled at the words and said, "It's fine. This time, I'll leave the bidding to you. You can enjoy yourself."

"No problem!"

After waiting a while longer, the seats below were nearly all filled.

Su Ze sensed people entering the VIP rooms on either side of him, and finally, the auction began.

President Yu Shenghuo, whom Su Ze was familiar with, personally walked onto the auction stage.

Usually, auctions were handled by specialists—preferably beautiful women—and it was rare for Yu Shenghuo to take the stage himself.

However, seeing him made the attendees even more excited.

This indicated that there were extremely valuable items in this auction, requiring President Yu to preside personally.

This also gave the families who had bought information in advance a sense of reassurance, confirming the rumors.

One had to understand that many of them had sold off parts of their family assets just to raise enough capital.

After Yu Shenghuo took the stage, he didn't waste time with pleasantries and directly announced the start of the auction.

The early items weren't anything that caught Su Ze's interest—just some low-level monster beast crystal cores, herbs, quenching thought beads, and the like.

But soon, Yu Shenghuo brought out something that made Su Ze's spirits lift.

It wasn't that he wanted to bid on it, but rather that the first of the ten gold-rank monster beast eggs he had provided finally appeared.

"Our next auction item is a gold-rank monster beast egg! Furthermore, it is of the extremely rare dark-attribute. Everyone, don't miss out!"

The crowd below instantly erupted into an uproar, with the noise mostly concentrated in the middle and back rows.

"A Gold-rank demon beast egg is appearing this early? Didn't these used to be the grand finale items in previous auctions?"

"It seems this auction is definitely extraordinary!"

"If a gold-rank monster beast egg is appearing this early, then what on earth will the finale be?!"

"I suggest you stop dreaming and just focus our capital on trying to win this gold-rank monster beast egg."

"Exactly. Those great families are definitely here for the later items and won't compete with us for this. Whoever wins it will make a massive profit!"

...Once the clamor gradually died down, Yu Shenghuo raised his gavel and shouted, "dark-attribute gold-rank monster beast egg, starting bid: thirty million!"

Thirty million was the standard price for a gold-rank monster beast egg, but generally, there would be a high premium during a transaction, especially for one with a rare attribute.

Sure enough, the price was quickly pushed to thirty-eight million. Gradually, some people couldn't keep up and began to withdraw.

At that moment, a bid of thirty-nine million came from a lower-tier VIP room adjacent to Su Ze's.

Having someone help drive up the price was naturally good for Su Ze, but the problem was...

"Why does that voice sound a bit familiar?"

The room next to his belonged to the Zhu Family, the most prominent family in Beishan City.

They had no actual relation to the Zhu Family, one of the Three Great Families in the Imperial Capital, but they had always branded themselves as a branch of that family to the outside world.

It wasn't until recently, when the Great Xia Spirit Guards began suppressing the Three Great Families, that they scrambled to distance themselves.

However, the Imperial Capital's Zhu Family was primarily focused on business and lacked the strength to interfere with the Great Xia Spirit Guards or the organs of power, so they hadn't been suppressed too heavily.

This was evident from the fact that while the top three students at the Imperial Capital Beast Tamer University were from what were then the Four Great Families, no one from the Zhu Family had even made it into the top ten.

As for the Zhu Family of Beishan City, Su Ze had actually had dealings with them before.

He was the one who had snatched the spot from the Zhu Family's young genius, Zhu Zhi, to participate in the Beast Taming Grand Competition.

That was why the voice sounded familiar, though he couldn't quite place it.

Zhu Zhi only called out once and didn't raise the bid further.

He simply didn't want those individual Beast Tamers below to get the demon beast egg at too cheap a price.

Ultimately, this demon beast egg was auctioned off to a Beast Tamer for thirty-nine million five hundred thousand.

As for the others, they were still waiting and watching.

After all, since a gold-rank monster beast egg appeared so early, there would likely be more later.

With this demon beast egg as a turning point, the subsequent auction items seemed to move up a level in quality.

Su Ze understood now. Yu Shenghuo had split his ten gold-rank monster beast eggs into sets of one, one, one, two, two, and three. He wanted to ensure there were highlights at every stage of the auction.

This way, he could maintain the auction's momentum while also maximizing Su Ze's profits.

Soon, the second demon beast egg was brought out.

The competition for this egg was even more heated. Yu Shenghuo had auctioned some other items first, giving the bidders time to feel regret.

Consequently, those who hadn't bought the previous egg gritted their teeth and raised their bids, determined to secure this one to avoid missing out later.

In the end, this egg surpassed the previous one, selling for forty-one million.

However, the third egg that followed was not as successful. As the saying goes: the first blow is powerful, the second is weaker, and the third is exhausted.

With three demon beast eggs appearing in a row, it only made people feel there would be more chances later, so they weren't in a hurry.

Ultimately, it only sold for thirty-eight million.

Yu Shenghuo had anticipated this, and so, a bundle of two gold-rank monster beast eggs appeared!