NOVEL WEB Chapter 100
“A power amplifier, an Orb, used by some great mage.”
Even in its broken state, its value couldn’t be measured in money.
If it was a favorite of such a mage, you could bet its purity and performance were top-notch.
Besides, making an Orb from Earth’s materials and environment was downright impossible.
In other words, an Orb was a rare item that you couldn’t even casually stumble upon.
So, those who realized its identity and value couldn’t hide their excitement.
“Whoa…! I never expected to see an Orb in a place like this!”
“This definitely has collectible value….”
“If I have that, I could cast high-tier magic on Earth…!”
The audience’s fervent responses were bubbling toward the stage, particularly the non-human folks in their masks, who couldn’t take their eyes off the Orb.
Well, it wasn’t surprising they reacted that way.
Amplifying magic in Earth’s thin magical atmosphere was virtually impossible.
Even if it was broken and couldn’t perform properly for some reason, just a bit of magical assistance would surely make it an attractive item for mages.
‘But to find traces of an Invader in a place like this…’
Still, I couldn’t care less that the Orb was such a valuable item.
The only thing on my mind was that I felt a familiar sensation from the metal embedded inside it.
No way would something like that be in some random junk that people wouldn’t give a second thought to.
Why was it nestled within the much-coveted mage’s Orb of all places?
‘Hmm… It might make sense, but still.’
A great mage deserves the title for a reason.
They could wipe out armies with a flick of their wrist and wield high-level magic with ease.
So, the Orb they used wouldn’t have been easily damaged.
Could it be any other Invader that brought about world destruction?
Even knowing the reason, it still gave me a headache.
No matter how I thought about it, there was no way to acquire that Orb which bore traces of the Invader.
The junk from just moments ago had a price tag that would take me years of work to afford.
But this was a genuine artifact that had collectible value and could actually be used?
I couldn’t even begin to guess how much it might go for. In other words, buying it through the auction was virtually impossible.
So, should I steal it? Trying something like that in a hotel filled with Fixers would surely be a fool’s errand.
Even if I managed to pull it off, I’d probably have someone relentless hunting me down for all they’re worth. Yikes, just thinking about it is scary.
“Wow, this is amazing. I never expected to see an Orb here. I wonder how much it’ll sell for?”
“It seems like it’ll definitely be the most expensive item we’ve seen so far. Maybe worth several apartments?”
“Haha… It might be broken, so I doubt they’ll get that much?”
…
Alice and Sabrina, sitting right beside me, whispered to each other.
It seemed like even they, who were non-humans, rarely got the chance to see an Orb.
Hmm, so even they thought it would be expensive, huh?
I gently tapped the auction device attached to the armrest of my chair.
Without taking my eyes off the Orb, I quietly asked the Tesseract hanging around my neck.
‘Tesseract, do you feel a familiar sense from that item over there?’
[ Huh? …I don’t know! Only Mama can do that! ]
‘What about Echo?’
[ I, I’m not really sure…? ]
It seemed neither the Tesseract nor Echo had a clue.
Could it be that only I could hear this tickling voice in my ears?
It was indeed strange. I had sensed the Invader Fragment that had unknowingly been caught in Raven’s pants before.
How should I process this? Perhaps the curse hanging over me was….
“Then, we’ll start the auction for the eighth item, ‘The Mage’s Orb’! The starting bid is 100,000 credits!”
While I was pondering for a moment, the auction preparations seemed to be complete.
The large screen on stage displayed the bidder numbers and amounts.
As soon as the host finished speaking, the auction devices in the seats were activated, and the numbers started rising at an unbelievable speed.
This Enigma auction was an anonymous auction where masks were required.
Bidders were identified not by name but by their seat numbers.
Perhaps it was because now or never made it easy to snag it.
Especially the non-humans related to magic had a look that said they wanted this so badly they’d spend all their money.
“Wow, this is dangerous. We’ve already crossed 1 million. I guess everyone but us is rich.”
“At this rate, 10 million will be reached in no time.”
The audience was abuzz, murmuring about the speed at which the bids were soaring.
Not only had it already surpassed the highest bid of the auction so far, but it was still going up.
Eventually, it actually climbed past 10 million credits—enough to buy a top-tier sports car—and gasps of disbelief circulated.
‘Are there really that many rich folks? Well… whatever. I have my own business to take care of.’
As I watched everyone stare transfixed at the bid amount on the screen, I smoothly slipped my hand into my pocket.
Then, I discreetly brought out Echo and set it on the auction device.
‘Echo, can you hack the device to find out who ends up grabbing that Orb?’
[ That’s not too hard of a task. ]
‘I’m not really worried, but make sure you don’t get caught. Be careful.’
[ I’ll keep that in mind. ]
My target was solely the suspicious object embedded inside the Orb.
So, I planned to take advantage of whoever won the Orb to sneakily pull out whatever was inside it.
However, to do that, it was important to first figure out who was going to end up with it.
Echo should be capable of hacking the device to uncover the identities of the anonymized bidders.
By now, all sorts of hackers were probably burning with determination to find the invader.
Curious as it was, I realized I made a great choice bringing Echo from the black market.
– 276 / 26.9 million credits.
– 1 / 28.5 million credits.
– 33 / 30 million credits.
‘Wow… this is insane. If I roughly calculate 1 credit as 100 won, that’s already 3 billion. And it keeps going without stopping, huh?’
But seriously, how much money do these people have? Am I the only poor one here?
The amounts were dizzyingly high, making my head spin.
Still, I wondered if there were limits to people’s wealth.
As the auction amount climbed closer to 300 million credits, it finally started to stall.
Perhaps if it was a fully intact Orb, it might not have hesitated. But it seemed a bit burdensome to buy an Orb with something broken inside it.
Once I’ve decided to use it, would I just break it after using it ten times, leaving me with nowhere to complain?
That being said, 300 million credits is no joke. Are they some kind of tycoon?
I shook my head in disbelief and quietly asked Echo.
‘Who’s the one who raised the bid to 300 million credits, number 33?’
[ Ah, let me check. …Got it. Rakia Olivier. 27 years old, female. The eldest daughter of Olivier, a top-tier arms industry entrepreneur. Since she’s human and not a non-human, I believe her purpose for the purchase is for her collection of rare items. Looking at her asset information, 300 million credits is probably her limit for now. ]
So, it turned out that it wasn’t a non-human but a human who was buying it for such a high price.
But hang on, Echo. How can you know that’s her limit for payment?
Just then, while I was marveling at how useful Echo was, the amount on the screen changed again as the bidder number flipped.
– 276 / 310 million credits.
“Ugh…!”
With a faint groan from a woman, the auction amount rose once again.
This was definitely a rich and powerful money battle. The sheer amount made my eyes widen in disbelief.
‘Echo. Who’s number 276?’
[ Yanagi Tamamo. 17 years old, female. An exceptional case selected as the next student council president in her first year at the International Academy. She boasts skills far surpassing even most adults as the strongest mage in the academy. The purpose for her bid might be her curiosity as a mage. Since she’s favored in the Yanagi family, she can certainly pay above 310 million credits. ]
‘What? She bid?’
I recalled the lavender-haired woman I’d seen in front of the hotel earlier.
A genius of magic, who was Alice’s childhood friend and had a complicated past.
With her outstanding skills as a mage and being a proper young noble from a modern aristocratic family, she would surely have both the means and motive to purchase the Orb.
‘Hmm, this is tricky. If that person gets it… how am I supposed to sneak out whatever’s inside the Orb?’
Tamamo was a monster whose talent as a mage was among the top-tier even in the world of Fixers.
Honestly, if she were just an ordinary person, I might consider sneaking in to steal it at night.
Sneaking into the room of someone who’s the student council president of an international school is just way too high-stakes.
“3, 2, 1… Sold! The lucky owner of the Orb at 310 million credits is number 276! Congratulations, number 276!”
👏👏👏👏
But there was no twist. Number 33 couldn’t afford to go any higher than 300 million credits.
So, the Mage’s Orb was auctioned off to Tamamo for 310 million credits.
What followed was just the loud applause filling the auction hall as if to say everyone had a good show.
Well, anyone with 300 million credits probably knew they had no real chance. It must have been fun to watch.
But to think that a high school girl could pay such a sum so easily…
I felt like reality was slipping away. Honestly, I was envious.
“Wow… incredible. Number 276, 310 million credits… What a wealthy person!”
Alice, oblivious that 276 was Tamamo, muttered to herself like that.
From my perspective, getting my hands on whatever was inside the Orb just became exponentially more difficult, giving me quite the headache.
But then, the situation changed in an instant.
Suddenly, a faint smoke began to rise from the auction hall floor, which was shrouded in darkness.
Is this some kind of performance? I thought naturally as I heard people slumping to the floor from various places in the audience.
“Ugh…! Gas?!”
“Aaaah!”
I reflexively rose to my feet, quickly darting my eyes around.
Then, I spotted a group entering without masks, seemingly from nowhere.
And I saw people collapsed on the ground, unmoving, and others screaming in confusion.
This was an unmistakably clear sign of something being very wrong.