Ch.163163. China vs America

The auction wasn’t something I had high expectations for.

Maybe it was because I made so much money last time.

With the S-rank Madness Greatsword +3 and the Corrupted Ogre Elixir.

From my perspective, while the Five Senses Fan was quite a useful artifact, it wasn’t enhanced and didn’t provide permanent stat increases, so I considered it lower tier than those items.

That was only natural.

If it could be used for free, that would be one thing, but it consumed a whopping 100 mana at once. To use the additional option, you’d need to use 200 mana, which most hunters without exceptional magical stats couldn’t even handle.

Just like how I have an SS+ rank Demon Blade but can only use half its potential since I can’t properly utilize two of its options.

So it wasn’t an item that could sell for a high price.

Still, I had some hope based on a dinner conversation with Kellin a few days ago, where one of her party members, an SS-rank debuffer, really wanted this fan.

I could probably sell it at a decent price.

If there happened to be some competition, it might sell for quite a bit, though not as much as the Madness Greatsword.

That was about what I expected.

The price I had in mind.

It couldn’t be helped.

It was a fan that buffers or debuffers could use, but other hunters would face significant risks using it. Unlike the Madness Greatsword, which many hunters could use.

But contrary to my expectations, the competition became fierce as soon as the auction started.

Minimum bid: 10 billion.

From there, the price increased in increments of 1 billion, quickly breaking through 100 billion.

“110 billion. 120 billion.”

Everyone must have come with some idea in mind.

The item options would be visible as soon as the auction started, so they’d have a rough idea of what kind of item it was.

They’d have decided how much they were willing to bid and so on.

Seeing the fierce competition after the item options were revealed in the blind auction format, it seemed many people thought the fan was of a much higher grade than expected.

Just passing 100 billion already made this Five Senses Fan a huge win.

I had made several hundred times what I paid for it.

If the person who sold it to me for 50 million won saw this, they’d probably be so upset they couldn’t sleep properly.

But it didn’t end there.

“200 billion. 220 billion. 240 billion.”

From 200 billion, the bids started increasing by 20 billion at a time, and the bidding continued non-stop until it reached 400 billion.

“Just how many rich people are there in the world?”

Curious, I checked who these two competing people were.

One was, of course, Kellin.

There’s no need to mention Kellin’s wealth, and besides, this wasn’t her personal purchase but an auction for the SAINT Guild. But I wondered who the other person was, and it turned out to be a Chinese person.

“Wow… it’s Wang Lin.”

Kim Soo-jung, who was watching beside me, informed me with surprise.

“He’s a Chinese SS-rank hunter. He has illusion abilities, known for using weather. He has a YouTube channel, but since he’s from China, not many videos get uploaded, so information is limited.”

“I heard there are only a few dozen SS-rank hunters in total, so why do I keep seeing so many?”

“…That’s because you keep bringing items that attract all the SS-rank hunters.”

Fair point.

If an item I desperately needed appeared at an auction, I’d rush to that country barefoot and spend my entire fortune to buy it.

The same must be true for other hunters.

These people earn obscene amounts of money, but finding the items they want is like catching stars from the sky.

In this dimension called Earth, resources don’t come out easily from dungeons, and rare resources are even harder to find. High-grade dungeons that produce high-grade items have few hunters capable of clearing them.

As someone who brings items from the Rift Dimension, I inevitably monopolize these people’s overflowing wealth.

“This is good.”

I suddenly felt better.

Honestly, I thought a selling price of around 200 billion would be good.

It is S+ rank after all, so a price in the tens of billions would have felt a bit disappointing.

But the bidding had already surpassed 500 billion and was now increasing in increments of 50 billion, following the same pattern as Jo’s legendary auction last time.

Both bidders seemed to have abandoned any price limits they might have set, continuing to bid with a strong determination to win this competition.

“750 billion!”

When the bid reached 750 billion, Wang Lin from the Chinese side stood up, shouting something, and I was certain of Kellin’s victory.

“Woohoo! Sister Kellin won!”

“…Why are you so happy? It would be better if the price went higher.”

“Ah, right. Still, if someone’s going to take it, better America than China!”

“What era are you living in with that China-America rivalry?”

“Hey, oppa. Don’t forget that America is still our ally.”

“The world now revolves around Korea.”

Anyway, I couldn’t hide my emerging smile.

Kellin really seemed to be a lucky charm.

Maybe I should pretend to give in and serve her at night.

She keeps heating up these auctions and ensuring high bids, so as someone who brings items from the Rift Dimension, I can’t help but prepare more diligently.

Well, this item was something Kellin really needed, so that’s why she invested so much money.

This auction only had the Five Senses Fan, so it concluded with that.

It ended sooner than expected, so there was still some time before the omakase dinner.

Kellin received the item and headed to the hotel briefly, while Kim Soo-jung went straight to the restaurant where the omakase would be held.

I used that free time to return home.

Now that I knew suspicious assassins were targeting me, I needed to prepare my own countermeasures.

Currently, I have no way to detect the assassins’ stealth skills.

With SS-rank reflexes, I could react like a ghost when killing intent flies toward me, but I can’t keep my nerves on edge 24/7, constantly watching for incoming threats. I needed a more reliable countermeasure.

There were several options.

First, I could use my remaining SS-rank ability selection card to learn assassination abilities.

Then I could learn detection skills using my farming ability points and keep them active, which would be the simplest solution.

But I held off on that option because I didn’t want to learn SS-rank abilities.

If I had wanted to, I would have already learned them as sub-abilities when I learned my SSS+ rank abilities.

While SS-rank ability selection cards are lower tier compared to SSS+, they’re still not low-grade.

If I casually gave one to Lee Ji-hyun or Kim Soo-jung to learn some magic, Korea would immediately have another hunter with SS-rank abilities.

The reason I hadn’t learned SS-rank abilities was that I wanted to fill all my combat abilities with SSS+ rank.

For lifestyle-related abilities, it wasn’t necessarily a problem if they weren’t SSS+ rank, and since I had been stuffing F-rank abilities from the tutorial into my mouth, there was no aesthetic need to match everything to SSS+. But for combat abilities, I had been collecting only SSS+ rank from the beginning.

Both abilities and skills.

Everything was SSS+ rank, and if I learned an SS-rank ability now just because of urgency, I’d eventually have to replace it with an SSS+ rank, essentially wasting the SS-rank ability selection card.

Of course, if there were no alternatives, using the SS-rank ability selection card would be better than risking danger.

But there were other methods.

Moreover, better methods.

With the SSS+ rank elemental ability I just learned, I couldn’t use all 350 remaining elemental points after contracting with Unir.

I had planned to teach Unir necessary abilities to use her as my main elemental.

But I had enough leeway to contract with one more elemental.

I used the elemental summoning skill to summon an elemental.

I had already decided which elemental to summon this time.

“A wind elemental. Highest grade.”

Thinking about the highest grade… and considering my remaining elemental points.

If it takes 150 like before, I’d have 200 points left.

That’s a bit awkward.

“…High grade of the highest grade. Like Unir.”

I wasn’t sure if such a specific request would be accepted, but as I made it, 300 mana was drained.

And this time, transparent energy rippled and whooshed—

A strong wind blew as the elemental appeared.

[Summoning High-grade Wind Elemental ‘?’.]

[Required elemental points for contract: 100 > 30]

Clearly, dropping to high grade significantly reduced the required elemental points.

Unlike Unir, who had a clearly visible human form, this elemental was semi-transparent, closer to wind in appearance.

It also had no name.

Names that come with highest-grade elementals can be assigned by me after contracting.

I went ahead with the contract.

The stats were good, and the grade was fine.

This elemental had a specific purpose, and as long as it fit that purpose, it was acceptable.

“From now on, you’re Poong-poong.”

Another elemental family member was born.