episode_0113

112.

“Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Atto Auction House in celebration of the Life and Auction season!”

Buzzing.

The sound of people murmuring fills the air.

Rich tycoons, famous celebrities, influencers, sports stars, pro heroes, manic collectors, and more.

A variety of people from all walks of life are gathered here.

This is the central A hall of the Atto Auction House, boasting the largest scale in Busan.

Countless seats, including VIP viewing seats, are filled with people. Those dressed in suits are looking towards the host and presenter.

As it is a large-scale auction event held once a year, all eyes are focused on it.

Moreover, rumors have spread that various items obtained from high-grade dungeons will be up for auction this year.

And among them are even rare artifacts.

“What kind of auction items are waiting for you all this year?”

Artifacts.

Mysteries beyond human knowledge.

At the same time, miracles performed by the gods.

The number of artifacts directly excavated in South Korea, a country with a population of tens of millions, barely reaches double digits.

Therefore, owning an artifact is a rare privilege among the rarest.

This means that obtaining an artifact proves one’s wealth, honor, and value.

“Is everyone ready?”

Therefore, most of the people participating in this auction are expecting artifacts.

“Alright, then let’s begin! The first auction item at Atto Auction!”

Of course, the artifacts to be auctioned this time have not had their usage conditions revealed yet, so the exact type of artifact is unknown. Nevertheless, the value of an artifact alone is enough.

“The first auction item is… a mysterious Ice Crystal imbued with pure cold!”

And so, the Atto Auction, the biggest summer event in Busan, has begun.

***

“It seems like everyone is excited about the auction.”

Temporary storage warehouse behind the auction house.

“But what to do, we’ve already replaced almost all the auction items with fakes.”

A woman in her mid-twenties is watching the internal CCTV of the auction house alone, with a mischievous smile.

“The first auction item is an Ice Crystal.”

Her name is So Yoo-young.

One of the three people planning to steal auction items this time, she possesses a very useful supernatural ability.

Her ability is replication.

She can almost perfectly replicate objects she touches for a certain period of time.

Whether living or non-living, she can replicate them, but if the target is an object imbued with mystery, she cannot replicate its original function.

And if it’s a living being, even if she replicates it, it cannot move or function.

It becomes like a body without a soul.

Furthermore, So Yoo-young is not a combatant by nature.

Compared to a typical hero, she is quite weak. Nevertheless, her supernatural ability is quite useful. Thanks to that, she was able to join places like Rebellion.

“Here is the Ice Crystal. Take it.”

“…”

John Carter, standing beside her, silently takes the Ice Crystal.

He flicks his finger, passing the Ice Crystal to one of his clones.

Disguised as an auction house staff member, the clone takes the Ice Crystal and walks towards the auction stage.

“It always looks so convenient, this clone ability.”

“…”

John Carter is a clone ability user.

He possesses the ability to create clones through shadows, and his clones can exert a level of strength close to the original body, making them incredibly powerful compared to typical clone users.

Also, John can create more than 100 clones at once.

While the average clone user can summon only about a dozen clones, John is capable of summoning an incomparable number of clones.

Therefore, it can be said that he possesses a truly powerful superhuman ability.

With such potential, it was safe to say that there was no one in Korea who could match him.

If he were to engage in a battle of numbers, even the legendary Yoo Da-hee would find it difficult to contend with him.

Of course, as with any powerful ability, there existed a very fatal weakness.

But that was okay.

No one in this world knew about his weakness.

Not even the members of the Rebellion.

“Ah… I think I’ve used my cloning ability too much today, I’m exhausted…”

Having replicated all these items, fatigue was overwhelming.

And Soyooyoung didn’t just replicate the auction items, she also replicated the appearances of the auction house staff.

As mentioned earlier, she was a duplicator.

If she could replicate, she could also overlay.

It was possible to copy only the appearance of an object and overlay it onto another object.

She replicated all the appearances of the auction house staff, security guards, guides, and more, onto John’s clones.

Thanks to that, most of the security guards, staff, cleaners, guides, and even presenters and announcers in this auction house were already replaced by John’s clones.

The real staff were unconscious and locked up in the warehouse.

They were probably sleeping, unaware of the situation.

In fact, killing them would be much easier than imprisoning them.

But, well, they couldn’t be killed.

Because if the original dies or is damaged, the replication will be released.

“Soyooyoung, how far did you replicate the auction items?”

“Don’t rush me, it’s all done now.”

This man is really something.

Always rushing, always.

Why did he replicate all the auction items one by one?

If he had stolen everything, couldn’t he just escape?

It was all because of Alex’s useless vanity, vanity.

Alex waited until all the replica items were purchased by the bidders and then disappeared in an instant to effectively spread the notoriety of the villain.

For that purpose, he had put things like villain cards in the replica items in advance.

A few days later, the auction items would disappear without a trace, leaving only the villain cards in the hands of the bidders.

How would people react to that?

If they found out that all the expensive, rare auction items they had painstakingly acquired were fake, wouldn’t they just collapse?

It would be quite amusing to see their reactions once they realized that all the notorious villains had been stripped away.

…Seeing that she was subtly looking forward to such things, Soyooyoung, like Alex, seemed to be a villain at heart.

“Are we almost there?”

“We’re almost done, really.”

Instead of rushing Alex, Soyooyoung pursed her lips.

Since yesterday, she had been working tirelessly, kidnapping some of the auction house staff, interrogating them, replicating their appearances, taking hostages, taking control of the control room, and secretly attacking the storage warehouse, among other things.

The security around the auction items was stricter than necessary, so she had quite a hard time.

Moreover, the level of the security guards was very high.

There were quite a few mid-tier hero-level experts among them.

Especially, there were a few mercenaries who were former top-tier heroes, so caution was necessary.

Using her duplication ability to approach them as if they were allies and then secretly attacking was the plan, but one wrong move could lead to exposure.

So, she had to spend more time than she had anticipated.

“This is the last one… it’s done, it’s all over.”

“Is that so?”

Su-yeong, who had copied all the auction items, stood up from her seat.

Alex, with a satisfied expression, took out a small leather pouch that could be used in medieval times.

Suddenly, Alex opened the mouth of the leather pouch and swept the rest of the genuine items into it.

Numerous items endlessly entered the small leather pouch.

This leather pouch was one of the artifacts owned by Alex.

It was the pocket of the other space.

As befitting his reputation as a thief, Alex had many valuable items, including a few artifacts.

Of course, most of them were stolen goods.

“Did you get everything?”

“Yeah.”

All the auction items were gathered.

Now, all that was left was to safely escape from Busan.

The auction house work would be taken care of by the clones disguised as employees.

They had almost all the necessary information and knowledge through the auction house staff, so they would be safe during the auction. Of course, there was a concern about the possibility of the auction items being exposed as fakes, but who cared?

By the time they were discovered, Alex and all the others would have already fled.

“Alright, let’s get out of Busan quickly.”

“It’s fortunate that nothing happened this time.”

“John? You do realize that saying that is like a flag, right? Don’t let your guard down until we all escape, really.”

Alex, John, and Su-yeong.

The three of them, disguised, secretly escaped from the auction house.

Leaving behind the bustling auction house, they leisurely walked away.

They walked cautiously, on high alert. They moved forward carefully, watching out for any possible pursuit or surveillance.

Alex had a very keen sense.

His animal-like instincts had kept him alive to this day.

Especially sensitive to others’ movements, gazes, and intentions, Alex would surely notice if someone was following or watching them in this guarded state.

And Alex had an artifact that could not be observed.

Although it was a somewhat less effective artifact, with observational abilities on the level of Yuzabel, it was certain that with normal observational abilities, Alex and his group could not be monitored.

Therefore, Alex’s group… huh?

“…!”

In an instant.

“…What is this?”

The people disappeared.

It was as if they vanished in the blink of an eye.

The bustling street scene had disappeared without a trace, leaving only the empty streets to greet Alex and his group.

In the midst of the confusion.

Alex raised his guard as much as possible.

What on earth is happening? This is suspicious. It must be someone’s doing.

It seemed to be a barrier.

A boundary spell that separated reality and space. It seemed to be a space separation type barrier.

Then who, why, for what purpose, had cast this barrier on Alex’s group? And without a single trace of their presence. No gaze, no movement, nothing was felt.

“John!”

“Yeah.”

Alex called out John’s name.

Although he wasn’t sure of the current situation, as the possibility of a trap was high, they had no choice but to stall for time until they could come up with a countermeasure.

Therefore, Alex called on John, who could serve as a sturdy shield and spear in any threat.

Because John’s extraordinary abilities were very useful in situations like attack, defense, escape, and more.

“I’ve used my abilities quite a bit today, but… there’s nothing we can do.”

John immediately used his abilities.

His shadow flickered and rose upwards.

Mud-like, sticky shadows gathered together and gradually began to take on the shape of a person.

And so, one person, two people, three people, four people…

More than thirty clones of John were created.

John possessed a formidable power that could defeat a high-ranking hero alone.

With thirty clones possessing similar power to John? They would undoubtedly be able to take down a high-ranker.

Within the wall of the crowd, Alex felt reassured.

No matter who attacked, it was clear that they wouldn’t be able to break through all these clones at once.

And then, suddenly?

With a loud bang, a flash grenade rolled through the midst of the clones.

Instantly, with a loud bang and a blinding flash, the world seemed to be swallowed up by the light spreading in all directions.

The clones of John, caught off guard by the sudden flash, lost their form and scattered.

Their bodies melted away as if they were wet mud in water, powerless.

John was taken aback at the sight.

The only weakness of John’s shadow clone ability was light.

When exposed to intense light, the clones would lose their power and revert back to shadows, a fatal weakness.

But how did someone know about John’s weakness?

No, they just threw the flash grenade to blind him, but was it just a lucky coincidence that they were caught off guard?

However, the feeling that someone knew in advance was strong, just by seeing that they only threw the flash grenade. But that couldn’t be possible. Even the Rebellion members wouldn’t know a weakness that others didn’t know…

“Alex, John, Sooyoung… Am I right?”