“The auction for this dagger orb will start now. I beseech for all guests to follow Shin Warehouse’s rules, and use their seats to auction.” Ryu Shin said and was about to start the auctioning, but a person rose from his seat and coughed lightly.

Ryu Shin turned to look at the person and asked, “Does Mr. Holmes have anything to say?”

The person who rose from his seat was none other than the leader of the Holmes family, Nicholas Holmes. The Holmes family owned the banks in Unity and were quite rich, but they were also extremely clever.

“I do have something to say,” Nicholas said with a light voice that could be heard by everyone. “We humans are a united entity against our common enemy, monsters. We created Unity with our bare hands for that purpose. So, seeing such a tragic thing saddens me to no end.” He said with a sad face.

“Holmes family has an offer,

Let’s not spend an extravagant amount of money on something supposed to be presented to the government for the advance of the people. This self-claimed the Marooner should have donated the orb as soon as possible, so humanity would find a way to replicate or create more such orbs to strengthen our cause against humanity!

But here we are, pitted against each other to allow this traitor of humanity to sell his ware with our hard-earned money, so he could thicken his pockets.

I suggest we should not be part of this farce, and end it among us. Let’s not bid and buy the item with the minimum price, after that, the Holmes family promises that every family will have a chance to study the orb. And any family that discovers its secrets will share it with others.

What do you say?” He finished his speech righteously and looked at other families.

“He is not wrong. We shouldn’t spend too much money, fighting among ourselves.”

“But who will acquire the item and study it first?”

“Does it matter? Whoever acquires and cracks its secrets, will share with the rest.”

“Are you really that gullible? What is the study time, how long can a family hold it? And what if they deny they had cracked it?”

People argued between themselves. Miles looked at them without any emotion on his face. He already predicted this to happen and had a counter for it. It just had to be shown. But even if he didn’t, it wouldn’t matter much.

“We disagree!” One of the representatives spoke from the backmost seat. “We will participate in this auction and bid to win. If you want to keep it low, then it will fall into our hands. I doubt you would share the orb with us, nor would you share the secrets behind it. To be honest, neither would we.”

“Hmph, how much liquid do you have to spend anyway? Your coins don't work here, so do you really think you can outbid us?” Nicholas Holmes put the nail on their coffins. That was true. Criminal parties rarely used UD and would make use of their coins. But if the selling party refused coins, they would have no alternatives.

“Does Mr. M—” the same representative wanted to ask if Marooner accepted criminal coins, but Ryu Shin raised his hand and the room descended into silence once again. “How silly of me. Mr. Marooner wanted me to play a record before we started, but I forgot. Please forgive me.”

Ryu Shin looked at Nicholas Holmes with a smirk and walked to the side of the stage. The screen once again lit up, and Marooner in his armor appeared on the screen.

“Hello, esteemed guests. I am thankful for your interest in my little orb. You honored me by showing up in this auction held by the Shin Family.

I know there are some families among you dissatisfied with my actions of selling the orb instead of donating it. They may think I should have presented it to them, instead of trying to make a profit from it, because it is the right thing to do. For humanity, for our cause against monsters, for free Earth!

“Desi family? Bach family? Maybe the Holmes family. Doesn’t matter really, whoever thinks like that, I have a counter offer. You can prove your thoughts right here right now. I am presenting you the chance to show your honor, your willingness to help humanity, and help our cause against monsters!

Donate half of your assets. Money, orbs, weapons, techniques. Half will do. Donate them to people who can't afford them. Donate them to orphans, not the orphans you raise as weapons, but orphans outcast by your families because their powers are not rare or they have no power. Donate them to slums!

Prove it! Prove that humans shouldn’t be selfish! Prove that we wholeheartedly share what we have because we are one single entity. Give away your hard-earned treasures and prove them to me, and I promise, I will donate this orb to the science team of the army with everything I know.

If not, go wild and bid more and more and make me richer and richer. Because I will not let you buy this orb with your little schemes! My bid is five hundred million UD for this orb. If the price is any lower, I will pay compensation to the Shin family, and keep the orb for myself.

Have a good evening!”