21-40 · 023
Chapter 22: Raking It In
The usual tower apartment, top floor, 35 stories up. Beyond the soundproof glass, Tokyo’s glittering night view stretched out, but inside my room right now, the atmosphere was even more intense, charged with an abnormal heat.
“…Current price, 8.5 billion yen! The Arab oil tycoon just placed another bid! Seriously, these people tack on another billion like it’s nothing—what is wrong with their sense of money!?”
At the massive L-shaped desk in the corner, in front of six multi-monitors lined up in a row, my excellent slave… correction, business partner Rin Sakai was hammering away at the keyboard with bloodshot eyes. Her normally immaculate hair was disheveled, and the collar of her tailored suit was slightly undone. That was how intense tonight’s auction had become.
“Now it’s the master of a major American explorer guild! 9 billion, new high! Ahh, the European nobles aren’t staying quiet either—they’ve pooled funds and raised the bid to 9.5 billion!”
Today was the ‘Master_Eye Exclusive VIP Online Auction’ that Rin had organized, inviting only the world’s ultra-wealthy and top explorers. On offer were about twenty Mythic Level and Legendary Level items I’d bought for a pittance from online flea markets over the past few days and then washed clean in my own bathroom and kitchen.
“You’re amazing, Rin. The bids are really shooting up.”
I lounged on the plush sofa, sipping a rather expensive drink, murmuring in admiration. The auction screen displayed each item with lavish 3D model visuals and poetic (slightly exaggerated) product descriptions that Rin had worked through the night to write. Not only that, she was deftly juggling multilingual chats in real time, cleverly stoking the buyers’ pride and intensifying the bidding war.
“Of course! The more we earn, the bigger my cut becomes! When I stirred them up with ‘Everyone who lost out to Japan’s Sword Saint last time, now is your chance to show your true strength,’ they bit like fish on a line… Ahh, here it comes! The Great Sage’s Staff sold for 12 billion yen!!”
Pop! Virtual confetti burst across the screen.
“Yes! Today’s total sales have easily surpassed 50 billion yen!! Even after fees, what we’ll keep in our pockets is… Ufufu, ahahahaha!!”
Illuminated by the monitors’ glow, Rin’s face was that of a femme fatale completely possessed by greed. But thanks to her delirious excitement, the digits in my bank account kept swelling like a glitched game.
Fifty billion yen. The days in Goda’s party—berated over potions that cost just a few hundred yen each—now felt like a distant memory from a past life. Though it was a strange twist that the very woman who’d joined in the berating was now earning that money.
“…With this much money, my sense of money is going numb.”
I sat up from the sofa and idly opened my phone. Using the sourcing account I’d set up the other day, I accessed the general flea market page of D-Market. Even after becoming this wealthy and establishing a VIP business, the alchemist nature in me—buy cheap, sell high—hadn’t changed. Lately, my little pastime had been sorting by ‘Price: Highest to Lowest’ and checking out the outrageously overpriced items that nobody else looked at.
“So, what’s languishing unsold today… Hm?”
My eye caught a listing that had been sitting at the top of the search results for days, still unsold.
[Item Name: Mysterious Giant Stone Pillar (Huge and in the way. Pickup only. Buyer pays shipping.)] [Starting Price: 100,000,000 yen]
“A 100 million yen stone pillar…?”
The photo was taken in some dim, dusty warehouse. It looked about three meters tall, maybe a meter square on each side. It was just a massive rectangular block of stone, completely covered in thick moss and a strange black sludge. According to the description, it had been found in a hidden room in the middle layer long ago, but had been appraised as “just a stone pillar.” Looking at the price negotiation history, it seemed the seller had incurred enormous transport costs just to bring it back, and was now stubbornly asking for 100 million yen to recoup their loss.
The comment section was naturally a battlefield.
‘No one’s buying this for 100 million lol’ ‘It’s just a garden rock. Nice ripoff.’ ‘It’s so heavy that moving it costs millions. Pay for your own bulky trash disposal.’ ‘If it’s pickup only, you clearly don’t actually want to sell it.’
“Well, that’s the normal reaction. They’re honestly calling it just a stone.”
Out of pure curiosity, I focused on my right eye through the phone screen and activated ‘True Appraisal.’ If it was genuinely trash, I’d just laugh and scroll past.
—Thrum.
My vision warped slightly, and a system window unfolded over the image of the pillar. The moment I saw the text displayed, my heart nearly leaped out of my chest.
====================
[Name] Divine Stele of Universal Transfer
[Rank] Mythic Level
[Condition] Severe moss contamination, magical circuits in complete hibernation
[True Value] Function to instantly transfer registered items to any designated person or coordinates. Completely ignores distance and obstacles.
By synchronizing with the Ring of Subspace, items in inventory can be individually transferred to any coordinates or specific individuals.
[Repair Conditions] Surface cleaning with a high-pressure washer and highly concentrated alkaline detergent, followed by infusion of a large amount of magical power.
[Estimated Market Price] 2.8 billion yen
====================
“…!! Cough, hack!”
I choked on my drink, sending me into a violent coughing fit.
“Hey, Toru-kun. What’s wrong? That’s disgusting.”
“Cough… Rin, look at this.”
I held up my phone screen to Rin between coughs.
“Huh? A 100 million yen pillar? What’s this, it’s the typical overpriced junk. No one would buy—”
“No! My eyes see it. This thing’s true identity is the ‘Divine Stele of Universal Transfer’… a super-class artifact that can warp items to any location, ignoring distance, in an instant.”
“…Huh?”
Rin’s typing hands stopped abruptly. She slowly turned her head, looking back and forth between my face and the phone screen.
“Items… teleported instantly? Anywhere on Earth?”
“Yeah. The appraisal says ‘Absolute Logistics System.’ Probably, if I combine it with my item box, I’ll be able to instantly deliver products to the VIPs overseas who just won our auction, without even leaving this room.”
“Wha—!?”
Rin kicked back her chair and shot up. She was a genius when it came to business. In an instant, she grasped the overwhelming advantage this meant.
“Skip all the hassle and deliver immediately…? That means…!”
“Exactly. No more expensive overseas shipping costs, and we can skip all the tedious procedures. I’m buying it!”
With trembling fingers, I firmly tapped the ‘Buy It Now: 100,000,000 yen’ button. The screen switched, displaying the message: ‘Purchase Complete.’
On the night we pocketed 50 billion yen from the auction, we acquired ‘the ultimate piece of junk’ worth even more than that, and on the top floor of the tower apartment, we shared a frenzied high-five.