Death Game: Starting as a Trickster, Pretending to Be a God

Chapter 967: Inside the Auction House, Watching from the Shadows

“We finally made it inside.”

Mountain Sparrow removed the “medal” from his chest, folded the metal-looking badge in half, and slipped it into his pocket.

Of course, Mountain Sparrow had drawn the badge himself. He didn’t have a membership at the Sea Demon Kingdom’s auction house.

But as a comic artist whose Class was Painter, and who had even reached Second Tier, Mountain Sparrow’s drawing skills were certainly “excellent.”

His excellent artistry was more than enough to create a sticker of a “membership badge” that looked so real it could fool anyone, complete with shading and whatever this detail was. He stuck it to his chest.

A closer look would still reveal the truth, but it was more than enough to fool the not particularly strict guards at the entrance.

After all, this was only an auction house, not a royal palace or a secure government facility.

Crazy Blade’s clash with the Sea Demons just now had also been meant to buy Mountain Sparrow some time.

As they walked through the auction house and looked at the “precious exhibits” displayed in glass cases on either side of the hall, Crazy Blade couldn’t help marveling.

“As expected of the top auction house in the Sea Demon capital. They’ve traded in quite a few good things here.”

The items displayed in the hall were basically reproductions of top-tier treasures traded there in the past, made by Sea Demons using ancient techniques. They had only the appearance of the originals.

But even as “reproductions,” the craftsmanship and materials used in them made them expensive to produce and valuable in their own right.

Mountain Sparrow’s gaze passed over one fake after another, and he nodded slightly. “The Sea Demons are the most troublesome of the Outer Sea’s races, after all. They’re always up to something, so it’s only natural they have plenty of good things.”

The two stood in the hall. The auction hadn’t started yet, and most of the attendees were resting in their private boxes. The hall itself was practically empty.

Only a few nobles, apparently visiting the Sea Demon capital for the first time like Mountain Sparrow and Crazy Blade, were wandering around and looking at the displayed imitation pieces. They were humans, Sea People, and Sirens.

After all, humans and the Sea People had terrible relations with the Sea Demons, while the Sirens had little contact with them. Unless it was a festival or celebration like the Tide Summoning Festival, they had no chance of visiting the Sea Demon capital, let alone entering this auction house.

So they were curious about the “treasures” the Sea Demons had at their disposal. Most of the valuable things in this world were either top-grade ingredients or small artifacts excavated from the ruins of ancient civilizations.

Neither kind was like “antiques” on Earth, which were valuable only for their appearance. These all had considerable practical value.

Ingredients could be traded, used to build ties with the Divine Favored, or given to a skilled chef to prepare into dishes that could increase the strength of top experts.

And most of the small artifacts from ancient civilizations had their own special uses.

The most famous were the “Nine Great Treasures of Pure Abyss.” They had once been the supreme treasures of their respective races, but by now, every one of them had been lost.

So, with this rare opportunity, the humans, Sea People, and Sirens could get a look at the exhibits and assess the Sea Demons’ strength. The items on display certainly wouldn’t be anything secret, but it was still good to learn what they could.

Mountain Sparrow and Crazy Blade, however, had no interest in the local attendees or the fakes on display.

After all, their main goal was still to stop the Marauders from collecting the Mermaid’s Tear.

Even the “Lost Treasure,” the item required to clear the dungeon, wouldn’t be displayed here.

Though the “Lost Treasure” was not as valuable as a “Present-World Treasure”-grade artifact or delicacy, it was still a rather rare item.

That was because only special artifacts produced in the ruins at the heart of the “Lost Kingdom,” which were suspected to be where the Mu Continent had once stood, could be called “Lost Treasures.”

The ruins of the Lost Kingdom were not open to the public. Such artifacts usually appeared when spatial disturbances were triggered by chance, inexplicably carrying them out of the ruins on currents and tides until they washed up on the seabed.

In other words, most of these things could only be found by chance. Though time had passed, and quite a few had been handed down over the generations, spread across the vast waters of Pure Abyss and among the numerous populations of its eight races, they were still rare enough that any noble who obtained one would boast about it.

At an ordinary auction, a “Lost Treasure” would certainly be a headlining item. Since today’s auction was being held for the Tide Summoning Festival, there would naturally be several more than usual.

Chris’s “Lost Heart” was one such item.

So although Crazy Blade and Mountain Sparrow stood in the exhibition hall, they only swept their eyes over the handful of people present, checking whether any of the humans matched their target. They all looked like locals at a glance.

The two Marauders weren’t in the hall, which was more or less what they had expected.

Mountain Sparrow shook his head and said regretfully, “Looks like those two are probably in their private box…”

Crazy Blade frowned. “Then what do we do? There are so many boxes. Are we supposed to search them one by one?”

“Of course not. We snuck in, so if we do something that suspicious, we’ll definitely get thrown out,” Mountain Sparrow analyzed. “The best thing to do is wait. Once the auction starts, they’ll show themselves.”

“We don’t have much choice. When the time comes, are we going to make a move at the auction, or what? They seem to have deeper pockets than we do,” Crazy Blade said, rubbing his chin. “If we bid by the book, we definitely can’t outbid them… Unless you draw some Counterfeits to sell?”

“Forget it. They have a Senior Appraiser. The people in Pure Abyss aren’t fools, and my little tricks won’t fool a professional institution like this,” Mountain Sparrow said. “Besides, it wouldn’t be convenient to make a move inside the auction hall. We should wait until we’ve spotted those two at the auction, follow them outside, and then look for a chance to act.”

“Heh heh, tail them, catch them off guard, and steal their stuff? Sounds like we’re more like the Marauders…” Crazy Blade rubbed his hands together. “Well, they do say, ‘Turn their own tricks against them!’”

Mountain Sparrow didn’t comment on Crazy Blade’s inexplicable excitement. He only shook his head. “All right, let’s have a look around first. Don’t draw too much attention.”

“Got it!”

The two began studying the descriptions beneath the glass display cases, copying the other humans around them.

Just as Mountain Sparrow and Crazy Blade had blended into the crowd, a Sea Demon dressed in extremely elegant clothes, apparently a department head at the auction house, emerged from a side corridor, escorting two human women.

Mountain Sparrow and Crazy Blade glanced at the two women, then discreetly looked away and lowered their heads, pretending to study the exhibit in front of them.

“Mountain Sparrow, those two…”

Crazy Blade asked in a low voice.

Mountain Sparrow nodded.

“Yeah. It should be them.”