The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5801

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

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.

"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.