23 chapter - The Auction House (2)
When we stepped outside, we saw that we weren’t the only ones moving in a line—other people were also walking in groups toward the same destination.
Seeing this, Lee Yuna leaned in and whispered cautiously into my ear.
“Oppa, um… do people not wear masks in places like this?”
“Masks?”
“Yeah. In movies or novels, when they go to places like this, they always wear masks.”
Her thought was kind of adorable, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“That’s only necessary if you’re trying to hide your identity. Like… if you’re doing something illegal.”
There was no reason to hide your identity at a legal auction.
“Unless you’re, like, a famous celebrity or a criminal or something…”
Just then, a woman wearing sunglasses and a mask passed by us.
“…Huh?”
Her petite frame and the hairstyle I’d seen recently immediately brought someone to mind.
“…Kim Jieun?”
The name slipped out of my mouth before I even realized it. The woman, her face completely covered in sunglasses and a mask, turned around at once.
The moment her eyes met mine, she visibly flinched, then hurriedly turned her head and speed-walked away.
Lee Yuna said,
“That was Kim Jieun, wasn’t it?”
“Looks like it.”
“Think we shouldn’t ask her for a photo or anything, since she’s hiding her face like that?”
“Yeah. She probably covered up in the first place to avoid that kind of thing.”
Hearing our conversation, Im Jin-sol reacted a beat too late.
“What? Kim Jieun the Summoner? Seriously?”
“Unni, shhh!”
Seong Yohan tried to stop her, but by then, everyone nearby had already heard.
“Kim Jieun’s here? Where?”
“There. I think she’s the one in the sunglasses.”
“Wow. Her head is so small.”
Since she was the only one hiding her face, she wasn’t hard to spot.
And frankly, her looks were so striking that even with her face hidden, she still stood out.
Kim Jieun hurried into the auction hall like she was running away.
Seeing that, Im Jin-sol scratched her head and said, a little sheepishly,
“Didn’t mean to call her out like that…”
The auction venue was simpler than expected.
Rows of metal chairs—honestly, it looked more like a plain seminar room than anything else.
The staff member who had guided us to the auction said,
“Feel free to take any available seat. We hope you enjoy your time here.”
We found a few open seats and sat down.
There weren’t five seats in a row, so Seong Yohan and Im Jin-sol ended up sitting separately.
Like a kid riding the subway for the first time, Lee Yuna looked around curiously, then whispered to me again.
“There are other people hiding their faces besides Kim Jieun.”
“Yeah?”
She pointed out a pair not wearing masks or sunglasses—but actual masks. Like, full-on theatrical ones.
They looked like a couple, but the man was especially eye-catching.
That was because—despite his absurdly massive build—he was wearing a cat mask.
“You think they’re celebrities too?”
“Not celebrities…”
There were almost no Korean celebrities who bulked their bodies up that much.
There was that one ex-basketball player who was pretty famous, but even he wasn’t this musclebound.
“He’s probably a Hunter. Just looking at that insane physique, he’s got to be in the body enhancement category.”
“Oh, come on. Celebrities and Hunters, they’re basically the same thing now. I mean, isn’t Kim Jieun technically just a Hunter too?”
To be fair, the line between Hunter and celebrity had gotten blurry.
All the high-level Hunters were practically celebrities anyway.
Still, that guy was massive.
Tall, wide-boned, muscles about to rip through his clothes.
“There’s only one Hunter in Korea built like that…”
Jang Taegyu—an S-Rank Hunter, widely known as the poster child for Predator-Type Traits.
But Jang Taegyu was so famous that the media reported on his every move.
“Wasn’t he supposed to be raiding an A-Rank Gate right now?”
I’d seen it all over the news.
Just yesterday, he’d entered an A-Rank Gate that had appeared in the Jeonnam region.
It usually took several days to clear one of those, so that guy here couldn’t be Jang Taegyu.
“Then who the hell is that?”
I thought about it for a moment, then let it go.
That’s when I spotted Seong Yohan sitting off to the side with Im Jin-sol.
“Right. Yohan’s huge too. If it’s some no-name Hunter, maybe I just haven’t heard of him.”
**
An uncommon body type, paired with a cat mask.
It was a combination that naturally drew attention.
Sitting right beside him was a woman with a slender frame—also wearing a cat mask.
Hers actually suited her pretty well.
She squirmed under ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) the attention, visibly uncomfortable, and finally spoke.
“Zhang Wei-nim. Are you sure this is okay?”
She was speaking in Chinese.
The giant man, Zhang Wei, answered in Chinese as well.
“Don’t act rashly. Sit still, Wang Fang.”
The woman—Wang Fang—corrected him.
“It’s not ‘don’t act rashly,’ it’s ‘don’t act carelessly’…”
“Ahem.”
Wang Fang let out a quiet sigh and muttered,
“Everyone’s staring at us. This is exactly why I said we shouldn’t wear the masks…”
“Even without masks, the result would be the same. Wherever I go, this glorious physique captures the eyes of peasants. At least the mask hides my face.”
“Which is why I told you we should’ve just stayed in the room and had someone else buy the item!”
“As I’ve already said—I don’t want to.”
“Why not?!”
“Because sitting in that room alone is boring.”
Wang Fang grabbed her cat mask with both hands and sighed deeply.
“Please, Zhang Wei-nim. We are internationally wanted criminals!”
“And that’s why we’re wearing masks, aren’t we?”
“AAARGH!”
Zhang Wei calmly raised a finger to his lips.
“Shhh. You’re drawing even more attention.”
At that, Wang Fang immediately clamped her hands over her mouth and looked around nervously.
Just as he said, everyone was watching them.
“Don’t worry. As the saying goes, ‘preparedness averts disaster.’ I’m always ready to fight—no need to worry.”
“It’s not ‘preparedness averts disaster,’ it’s ‘if prepared, there is no danger’…”
“Silence. Don’t get hung up on such trivial matters. That’s not very manly of you.”
“I’m a woman… And the point is that fighting is the problem here! How many times do I have to say it?!”
Unfortunately, Wang Fang’s desperate plea didn’t seem to reach Zhang Wei at all.
“Ooh. Look at that. The auction’s starting.”
“Haaah…”
Whether Wang Fang pulled her hair out or not, the auction had begun.
A man walked onto the stage and gave a brief introduction to kick things off.
“My name is Choi Jinseok, and I’ll be your auctioneer today! Let’s get things rolling. We’ll start with something light!”
The first item revealed was a sleek, engraved dagger.
“A dagger crafted by none other than Korea’s own artifact artisan—Mr. Baek!”
A soft murmur of awe passed through the auction hall.
At the same time, a short sigh came from behind Zhang Wei’s cat mask. He turned to Wang Fang and asked,
“Wasn’t the item from Master Baek supposed to be a spear in this auction?”
His voice was full of disappointment.
Wang Fang answered,
“That’s the highlight of today’s auction. It’ll probably come out last.”
“Yeah? Then what’s with this dagger?”
“It’s just the appetizer. Since the main item today is something by Mr. Baek, they’re starting off with a related piece.”
Zhang Wei responded with more energy than before.
“Mm. I see. So it’s a thematic opening-to-closing presentation.”
“…You mean a consistent narrative structure.”
Wang Fang corrected him without much hope. Zhang Wei ignored her and continued examining the dagger intently.
“Hmph. Looks pretty plain. Guess the hype was overblown.”
“No need to be disappointed. Mr. Baek’s work tends to have huge variance. It’s because of his unique Trait.”
Artifact Trait.
It’s the ability to imbue magical properties into weapons he personally forges. Depending on the abilities that get attached, the weapon’s quality can vary drastically.
Master Baek released his works in public under categorized rankings—but the reason he gained international recognition was because of a single legendary-grade item.
The dealer began introducing the dagger now up for auction.
“This is a high-grade piece! It retains its sharpness without needing maintenance!”
Baek’s artifacts are ranked in five tiers: Common, High-Grade, Epic, Unique, and Legendary.
This dagger was just the second tier.
But that didn’t mean it was cheap.
“Starting bid is 5 million won!”
Even ignoring performance, all of Master Baek’s creations contain imbued mana thanks to magical processing.
Like mana stone–treated gear, that means the item can be taken into Gates.
On top of that, the Baek name carried immense branding value.
Even a simple dagger with minor abilities was guaranteed to start in the several-million-won range.
“Five million! We have five! Five-point-five, six, six-point-five! Seven million! From here we’ll raise by one million increments!”
The dagger’s price climbed fast, and the mood in the auction hall heated up with it.
“Ten million! We have ten million!”
The bidding quickly surpassed ten million won, finally stalling out around thirteen million.
“No more? Thirteen million going once, going twice, sold! Congratulations to bidder number 68!”
A quiet wave of sighs rippled through the room.
Even for a Baek artifact, that had gone for cheap. You could flip it on the open market right now and get at least fifteen million.
If the auctioneer had stretched it a bit longer, the price could’ve gone up. But he’d deliberately kept the tempo brisk.
In doing so, he sent a clear message to the audience—keep up or miss out.
That put pressure on people. It was psychological warfare.
Watching all this, Wang Fang grew uneasy.
“This auctioneer knows what he’s doing. We’re gonna bleed money today.”
“I don’t care how much it costs. As long as the item is worth it.”
“Easy for you to say! I’m the one managing our budget!”
The auction continued at a breakneck pace.
Except for that first dagger, everything else was selling for well above market price.
A sign that the hall had reached a fever pitch.
Just then, the auctioneer spoke.
“Things are getting a bit too heated, aren’t they? Which is why we’ve prepared a little something to cool your heads—a fun mini-event!”
At his words, a monster corpse was brought up to the stage.
“These are newly discovered monsters from a recent D-Class Gate! They’re called Great-Beak Crows! Their beaks are extremely hard!”
As the dealer said, the audience immediately calmed—as if someone had splashed cold water on them.
“New monster species?”
“It’s D-Class. Can’t be anything special.”
In fact, out of everything shown so far, this was by far the least impressive.
“As you can see, this one’s a standard monster. And over here, we have the boss monster. Despite being a first-time discovery, the condition of the corpses is excellent!”
But then the dealer dropped a bomb.
“Turns out, the beak of this new monster isn’t just hard—it’s got incredibly high mana conductivity. A whopping 62.7 percent!”
That was all it took.
The sharp ones in the crowd immediately caught on.
“Right. Rumor has it Master Baek’s got a thing for new materials, doesn’t he?”
“And mana conductivity is the holy grail when it comes to artifact crafting.”
In other words, this was a shot at getting Master Baek to take on a custom commission.
“And these are the only corpses currently available on the market. We’ll be auctioning both the regular and boss monster corpses together. Starting bid is three million won!”
The tension skyrocketed again.
This wasn’t a monster corpse anymore—it was a lottery ticket for a Baek artifact.
“Seventeen million won! Sold!”
Seventeen million. For a D-Class monster corpse.
It made zero sense.
That was nearly double the going rate.
“Next up, we’ve got something even more special. Take a look at this!”
A large, ostrich egg–like object was placed on a red cushion.
As murmurs rose in confusion, the dealer made his announcement.
“This is none other than the egg of the boss monster just sold—yes, it’s a monster egg!”
The auction room erupted in chatter.
“Seriously?”
“A monster egg?”
“Can you even bring that out of a Gate?”
Everyone was intrigued—but none more than Wang Fang.
This was directly tied to her Trait.
‘A… a boss monster egg…!’
Of course her mouth was watering.
Zhang Wei, sitting next to her, said,
“You want it?”
Wang Fang turned to him, nodding furiously.
“I’ll get it for you.”
Just then, the auctioneer launched the next round with a surprise strike.
“Starting bid: twenty million won!”
And immediately after—
“One hundred million.”
The giant man bellowed in clumsy Korean.
“O-one hundred million?! W-we have a bid!”
Everyone turned to stare at the behemoth in shock.
There was no way the egg could be worth that much.
And yet—
“Two hundred million.”
A woman in sunglasses calmly raised her hand.