Chapter One Hundred: It Takes One Trillion to Forge an A-Rank Awakened One

Yua had already shown Ye Chen around three of the four exhibition zones.

Just as the two of them were about to head to the exhibit for the City of Elements, the lights in the hall suddenly dimmed.

Beneath the booth for the City of Energy, a massive screen slowly rose from the floor all the way to the ceiling.

On the screen appeared, unmistakably, row upon row of inner-contained raw stones.

These raw stones were being kept in another heavily guarded room, and were presented to the crowd only through images.

Each stone had its own number, exactly like the ones Ye Chen had seen at the Supernormal Office.

The buyers had come to the Supernormal Office in advance to select their stones and record the numbers for this very moment.

Ye Chen knew that the day’s main event had arrived: the auction of inner-contained raw stones.

As for the exhibition zones they had not yet visited, attendees could always come back tomorrow.

After all, for merchants, it took time to inspect samples, confirm quantities, and place orders.

No one could possibly make such decisions on the spot without thinking.

But on the first day of the fair, there was no doubt, was when things were at their busiest.

Ye Chen roughly counted the stones on display and found there were at least fifty or so.

He thought, How long is this auction going to take? They probably won’t even finish by tomorrow morning if the staff keeps calling bids all night.

But his question was soon answered.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have now reached the most thrilling moment of this fair: the collective auction of the inner-contained raw stones.”

A beautiful hostess addressed the crowd.

“Next, let me explain the process of the group bidding.”

“Please look at the big screen.”

The huge display on the booth split into two halves, showing the item numbers along with a string of figures.

“There are fifty-five raw stones in this auction, and their corresponding numbers are all shown on the screen.

“The numbers after each item indicate its reserve price.

“Those who paid the deposit when entering the hall will each receive a bidding device.

“Enter the item number and your bid, and it will appear on the screen accordingly.

“The collective auction will last one hour, so everyone has plenty of time to choose and bid.”

After hearing the hostess, Ye Chen glanced at Yua and indeed saw her take a bidding device from her handbag.

“The collective auction begins now!”

As soon as the hostess finished speaking, a dense chorus of beeps filled the hall.

From Yua’s device came the sound of keys being pressed as well.

Every beep from the bidding device made Ye Chen’s heart tighten.

Because every number entered was money. Every additional beep meant another zero.

He was not surprised that Yua was bidding on inner-contained raw stones.

As the chief superintendent of the Supernormal Office, it was only natural for her to have another identity as an Awakened.

And since she was an Awakened, who would not want to become stronger?

Ye Chen leaned over a little to look. The number entered on the device was nineteen, and he compared it with the reserve price on the big screen.

Damn... it was actually as high as one million.

And the amount Yua had entered...

Hiss... it was already two million.

But before she could press confirm, Stone Number Nineteen had already soared to five million.

Yua frowned, deleted the figures on the device, and began to think again.

Ye Chen had never seen so much money in his life, and he was completely stunned.

So inner-contained raw stones were this expensive.

Then he suddenly thought, Damn, Little Baldy has one too. Isn’t he going to make a fortune? His father would probably wake up laughing in his sleep.

No wonder when Yuanzi heard that my friend had a raw stone, she immediately turned greedy. So she had wanted to latch onto a rich guy all along.

“Nineteen... which one is number nineteen? Let me see.”

Following the numbers, Ye Chen quickly found the stone.

It was about the size of a baby’s fist, with a narrow crack about a finger wide, from which a hazy glow seeped out.

What a pity. If the stone were placed here in person, I could use my Insight of Backward Vision to see how much treasure is hidden inside.

Then I could see what exactly makes it worth five million.

But in Ye Chen’s memory, the glow of most raw stones was not very strong, and could even be described as somewhat dim.

None of them could compare with the Number Seventy-Seven stone he had taken a liking to.

If the other stones were like fireflies, that one was a searchlight.

It was precisely because that stone had been so dazzling that he could not possibly ignore it.

Beep... beep... beep...

Just as Ye Chen was reminiscing, Yua entered another raw stone number.

This time she chose Number One and entered ten million directly.

To the wealthy, money was nothing more than a number.

Compared with the two hundred thousand she had just spent on that ring, this raw-stone auction was on an entirely different level.

“What exactly can usually be extracted from one inner-contained raw stone?” Ye Chen could not suppress his curiosity and asked.

Yua let out a breath, as if exhaling the tension brought on by the collective auction, and slowly replied, “That’s hard to say. It might only increase the inner value by a tiny fraction, but if you’re lucky, it could be three points, four points, or even five.

“The most I have ever seen extracted from a single stone was eighteen points, but that happened only once.

“Inner-contained raw stones are very mysterious. Even with the technology of the City of Steel, their exact content cannot be detected before extraction.

“It seems they come with a natural barrier, blocking all methods of prying!”

Yua’s explanation left Ye Chen in silent astonishment.

Why was something that seemed impossible to all of you as easy for me as eating and drinking?

The Back-Eye Insight that came with the beast-tier Breath Technique was actually stronger than every method this world possessed?

Ye Chen could not help feeling a little amazed inside.

“Oh, by the way, the Number One you just chose—how much do you think it can yield?”

Yua pondered for quite a while. She seemed uncertain herself.

“Number One is getting a lot of attention, and it’s fairly large. I think extracting five to ten points is still possible.

“But that’s only my experience talking. More often than not, it still comes down to luck.”

Ah. So in the end, this was just gambling.

Indeed, that was the very nature of human beings. Anything tied to gambling could awaken people’s instinctive craving for excitement.

Ye Chen did some quick math in his head. If ten million corresponded to ten points of inner value, then each single point would cost a full million.

Then if...

Hearing someone beside her muttering under his breath, Yua cast him a puzzled glance and saw Ye Chen counting on his fingers, as though calculating something.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m estimating how much it would cost to pile inner value all the way up to the top tier of A rank using inner-contained raw stones.”

Yua looked at him as if he were an idiot and said, “Next time we go out, don’t tell people you know me.

“And stop calculating. I’ll tell you the answer directly: one trillion.

“And besides, no idiot would use this method to stack inner value. Even if one did, he wouldn’t be able to collect that many stones.”