Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 136: Joint Ventures

The only explanation Zac could find to the weird behavior of his axe was that the stone in front of him was something it desired. He knew since long ago that it needed to absorb various materials to improve to E-Grade.

However, the only thing he’d found so far that it actually wanted to absorb was blood. And not any blood either, since it was completely uninterested in both the humans and the ants he’d killed since acquiring it. The only thing it had actually drunk was the supercharged mink in the forest.

He had tested various things that were lying around in Port Atwood but with no luck. Unfortunately different Spiritual Tools craved different materials, so there was no guide lying around. However, it seemed that at least some of the ingredients would need to be E-Ranked in order for it to upgrade, as that was the same with all Tools.

Zac had the money and decided to purchase the stone. Who knew when another chance would crop up. He surreptitiously glanced over at the Gnome, but he only slightly shook his head while looking unsure, indicating he didn’t know what the stone was.

“One hundred thousand,” a voice from the back said, once again starting a bidding war.

It was a bit more heated this time, as perhaps the prospect of creating a weapon that could suck the lifeforce out of their enemies was quite intriguing.

“One million,” a voice suddenly came from the front, quickly silencing the bidding.

It was Thea Marshal, holding up her paddle with an indifferent face. Zac frowned as he glanced over. She had just upped the bid by a whole 700 000 Nexus Coins, and it felt like she wanted to close it out.

“One point one million,” Nigel said as he held the arm of Billy.

“One point five,” Thea said as she threw a glance over at Nigel.

“One point six,” Nigel followed up without hesitation.

Zac felt there currently were two possibilities. Either they both knew what the stone and its approximate value was, or they both received a clue in the same way that he did. That would mean the both of them had a Spiritual Tool. The felt that the first option was a bit unlikely, as there shouldn’t be anyone more knowledgable about precious metals compared to Calrin on Earth as of yet.

Since both were high rankers the second possibility was by no means impossible. The Tutorial gave out all kinds of good things, and these two were clearly at the top of the Tutorial. It seemed not only possible, but almost likely, that they were given proper weapons. And if it wasn’t from the tutorial, then perhaps from some sort of quest.

But if that was the case he felt it was a bit odd that all three weapons wanted the stone, as the weapon’s appetites should vary more than that. Perhaps it was something else, some sort of treasure that all tool spirits wanted. When he came to that conclusion he didn’t wait any longer and entered the fray.

“Two million,” he said as he held up his paddle.

“Two point five,” Thea answered after throwing a glare at him.

“Three million,” Zac unhesitantly responded.

From there the bids started to get smaller, and at 4 million Billy dropped out with a disappointed sigh. However, Thea was adamant.

“Five million Nexus Coins,” she said, now keeping constant baleful glare at Zac.

“Six million,” Zac answered with a helpless smile, uncomfortably scratching the back of his head.

He finally found something that was quite valuable, and he had a huge amount of wealth at the moment. He might only have 17 million in pure Nexus Coins, but he also had mountains of crystals. He wasn’t first on the wealth ladder for nothing, while Thea had dropped down to the 17th spot recently.

When Zac reached six million she finally relented and sat back in her chair with an angry harrumph.

“Wow, six million Nexus Coins. Congratulations to the handsome Mr. Monk on the front row,” Emma said with a wink, seemingly unaffected by the tense atmosphere.

As the tray with the stone was rolled toward Zac various murmurs erupted through the hall. Zac felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up after being stared at by hundreds of people, but it couldn’t be helped. Six million for a stone was beyond extravagant, and by far the largest bid so far in the auction.

“What the hell, why does she know you?” Ogras suddenly asked from next to him with a glare, obviously referring to the movie star.

“How should I know? She works for the government, they might have told her,” Zac said with a shrug.

He quickly put the stone into a different pouch than the one that held Verun’s bite. Zac wasn’t sure if something odd would happen if he brought them together, and wanted to wait until he was back on the island.

The items kept coming out one by one, and quite a few were natural oddities. There were various roots and flowers, stones and metals. It seemed that the Government had put everything they found that was weird and without an apparent use in the second half of the auction, hoping to at least make some money.

The interest was quite weak, apart from a few groups who bid a surprising amount. There was one group of people that sat a few rows behind that bid on many of the various plants. Zac guessed that they had an alchemist in their ranks, or at least an apothecary or herbalist.

The modern Ishiate bid for many of the metals, perhaps wanting to use them in metallurgy experiments. But the absolute foremost force in the bidding was Calrin, who flexed his muscles.

“How are you actually paying for all this?” Zac finally had to ask after the gnome snatched his tenth item in the second half.

The Gnome had been destitute when he arrived on the island, and he shouldn’t have made enough profit from the demonic warriors to afford all these purchases, as the amount the spent was over ten million by now.

“You are, of course. And the demon to a certain extent,” he said with a shrug.

“WHAT?” both Zac and Ogras screamed, drawing quite a few glares by the people in the room.

“You went in as external investors in The Thayer Consortia. When we spend money you spend money. See it as a cash infusion into your business,” he said with a widening smile. “I’m on your planet as a mercantile business owner. I’m not allowed to spend my own money on business ventures, since us merchants are usually wealthy enough to destroy the economy of a baby planet. If you didn’t enter as co-owners I would never be able to get this quest.”

Zac was having a bad feeling and quickly brought up his status screen.

He immediately turned back to the gnome, ready to strangle the little bastard. Eight million Nexus Coins were missing apart from those he spent himself.

Ogras wasn’t looking much better, even though he should’ve only lost two million or so.

“YOU LITTLE BASTARD!” he roared, completely ignoring the guns that were suddenly pointing at them from the balconies.

Roar completely stopped the auction, and Emma backed away a few steps, warily looking at Zac’s party.

“You better cough up my money real quick or I’ll poke you full of holes you greedy little shit,” he growled as the shadows beneath them were starting to shudder.

“You brutes, don’t bring attention to us. Why do you think I’m buying all these things? To make money. My quest is to make a profit, not a loss, you imbeciles. Just smile and open your wallets, and we will all walk away happy men,” he said, not caring in the slightest about the frothing demon.

“You know Port Atwood’s situation. You can’t spend an endless amount of money,” Zac said with a glare, having no intention of stopping Ogras this time.

The gnome had gone crazy with greed and was using their money to satiate it.

“You still have all the things you prepared for the ants, right?” he protested, but still looked a bit deflated from having both Zac and Ogras stare down at him.

“Fine, fine. I’m sorry, ok? Write down a spending limit and I’ll stick to it!” he said as he handed over a paper.

Zac once again felt the veins on his forehead throb when he saw that the gnome had already written seven zeroes on the note, and Zac unhesitantly scribbled over the last one to the Calrinʼs dismay. As they were arguing a man in a suit walked up on the stage with a microphone.

“Gentlemen, please remember the rules of the auction. This is your first and only warning,” he said with a somber expression.

“Sorry sorry. How about I take Miss Emma out for dinner to show my contrition?” the demon said as he smoothed his hair and shot off a winning smile.

The hall immediately exploded on boos and demands to throw them out, but Emma only smiled in response.

“I don’t know, judging by the bidding your blue little friend is the one to go to dinner with. He seems quite generous,” she said wiat ha wink.

The comment made Calrin proudly stretch his back, and even Zac couldn’t stop himself from smacking the gnome in the back of his head.

“It’s easy to be generous with other’s money,” he muttered in a low volume. “Five million, that’s your limit. And I expect to make quite some profit from your escapades. Otherwise, I’ll hand you over to Ogras.”

With that the auction continued and kept going unimpeded. Zac hade somewhat large hopes that the final items would be something exciting, but was disappointed to see that they were high-grade gear. He had hoped that there would be some stat or Dao-improving fruits for sale, but Zac guessed that they wouldn’t go on sale even if the Government had them.

Of course, the others in the audience didn’t have the same reaction, as there were harsh bidding wars for the last pieces of items. None of the items were Spiritual Tools though, but Zac felt it wasn’t anything odd. Any truly good piece wouldn’t be put up on auction this early into the integration, and in general he was actually surprised the government was willing to part ways with so many interesting items.

Perhaps it could be considered a display of power as well, the capability to sell so many treasures. In addition they made quite a bit of money, and the total value of all the items in the auction should approach almost 70 or 80 million.

With that amount of Nexus Coins they could do some quite large upgrades to New Washington, provided they had unlocked enough options in their Nexus Node.

“As for this final item of the evening, I present to you the [Sword of Storms] an E-Rank sword fitting both wind and water cultivators,” she said.

Sap Trang looked quite interested for a bit but soon shook his head.

“You want it?” Zac asked as he looked over

“Thank you, but no. It is a fine weapon, but sword fighting isn’t really the point of my class in the end,” he said.

The Marshall Family didn’t seem interested either, and in the end it went to a strong-looking cultivator for the whopping price of 2 500 000 Nexus Coins.

“Thank you all for coming and bidding today! I hope to see you all again at our next event. With this I give you Thomas Fischer,” Emma said as she quickly left the stage followed by applause and hooting.

Thomas Fischer came up to the stage soon after and was followed by multiple officials who stood in a row behind him. Zac recognized Julia, but the rest were unknown to him.

“Welcome all. I have already had the pleasure of meeting many of you, but for those who do not know me, I am Thomas Fischer, the leader of New Washington. I was once the Deputy Secretary of Defense for the American Government, but today I stand before you as a representative for The New World Government.

“The arrival of the System and the Incursions have resulted in extreme upheaval to our society, and I am sad to say that there are only approximately 1.5 billion humans left on Earth,” Thomas began.

“Six Billion. Over six billion dead in just above 5 months. Every day our brothers and sisters fall due to either the harsh environment we have been thrown into, or the invaders who aim to take our land for their own,” he continued, somberly looking over the subdued audience.

“It is time for humanity to unite.”