The Ultimate Evolution

Chapter 1450: A Bet

Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1

When the audience heard the starting price, their immediate reaction was to curse the seller out!

The seller had clearly set such an astronomical price for his item because he was trying to profit off the divine artifact. Many of the auction participants had sophisticated eyes, and based on their evaluation, the ‘Aladdin’s Magic Lamp Body’ was only worth around 500,000 utility points. Even if it would eventually be sold at a higher price because this was an auction, 700,000 utility points were more than enough to buy it.

The price of five million utility points would only be reasonable if all three of the lamp base, lamp oil and lamp body were sold together.

Hence, the cruel reality was that the ‘Aladdin’s Magic Lamp Body’ ended up not receiving any bids. The seller must be really disappointed, but it was only to be expected. Everyone participating in the auction was smart. Who would willingly be played like a fool by him?

Next, Sheyan saw two legendary equipment appear in the auction, one of which was something forged from the ‘Mysterious Forging Blueprint’, a unique reward of the Golden Main Mission that each person could only purchase 3 of. They were a pair of boots called the ‘Mysterious Boots’, and they were fiercely contested.

The finale item gave even Sheyan a shock. The thing looked black, dirty, and very common, but when the auction participants checked its description, it almost frightened them to death! It was also a divine artifact! And unlike the Black Arrow, which was not that well-known, this particular item was terribly famous. The divine artifact was the One Ring! The ultimate treasure of the Lord of the Rings world, the source of Sauron’s power!

If only its name in the description was not followed by the word “destroyed”....

The description of the artifact was: “During the Battle of Mount Doom, Frodo the Hobbit finally showed his evil side. He failed to resist the temptation of the One Ring and tried to take the ring as his own, but was stopped by the righteous Gollum. In the ensuing fierce battle, Gollum found to his dismay that he was not a match for the two evil Hobbits, so he resolutely jumped into the volcano together with the ring, thus destroying it. In order to commemorate the selfless deed of Gollum the courageous warrior, someone had searched the vicinity of Mount Doom carefully, because they thought that the violent eruption of the volcano might spill out the remains of Gollum. However, what they found instead was the remains of this ring.”

[ The One Ring (Destroyed) ]

[ Grade: Unknown ]

[ Properties: You must repair it before you can view its properties. ]

[ Description: A destroyed divine artifact is still a divine artifact, just as the king of beggars is still a beggar. ]

[ Note: We salute Mr. Gollum, whose heroic deed has been buried under the biased historical records! ]

***

As he read the series of distorted descriptions of the ring, which seemed to greatly contradict the original plot, Sheyan could not help but admire the fantastic creativity of the guy who managed to obtain the One Ring. He had truly carved out his own path. His entry point was actually Gollum, whom a lot of people had neglected. The contestant must have been plotting to obtain the One Ring by brainwashing or mind-controlling Gollum, attempting to make use of the fact that Gollum would have many chances to come in contact with the ring.

Most people would find this unthinkable, because Gollum was, in truth, under the control of the One Ring. If you wished to distort his mind and infuse your own will inside his brain, you would need a ridiculously strong charming power. It was not something that could be achieved with equipment alone. Only a really powerful innate ability could do this.

However, the guy ultimately failed. Gollum, whose mind had been infused with a strong sense of justice, did not manage to deliver the ring to the hands of the contestant who controlled him. Instead, he repeated history in a dramatic way. However, the guy’s scheme could still be considered a success, because he did obtain the remains of the ring as a reward.

The One Ring’s appearance silenced everyone.

It was a gamble. If you wanted to buy the ring, you must first ask yourself if you have the ability to repair it. Even if you did, you would definitely not have 100% confidence in fully repairing a peak-level divine artifact like the One Ring. However, as long as you could restore one of its properties, you would surely earn back the price you paid for it. Two properties, and you would have profited. Three properties, and you would have hit the jackpot. Four properties...might just be a pipe dream.

The price of the ring was not cheap at all. The starting price of 1.3 million utility points was enough to deter a lot of people. It must be known that the Philosopher’s Stone of Nicholas Flamel seen in the last auction was only worth 1 million utility points, and the Philosopher’s Stone was an extremely practical item. It was worth every bit of its price.

Most of the people who came to the auction were not lone wolves; they shouldered the responsibility of an entire party. The higher one’s position, the greater the restrictions. To spend over a million utility points on the ring, say nothing of the repair cost, was a very reckless move. Under normal circumstances, even if they won the gamble, no one would be grateful to them, but if they lost the gamble, they might very well lose their position in their party. Few people would do such a thing where the investment and return were so disproportionate.

Therefore, although there were two divine artifacts up for auction, the crowd still fell into a strange, awkward silence. However, the auction house did not think much of it. They had seen much stranger things than this. When the auction concluded, more than half of the bidders received a private message which asked them to stay. The official notification of the auction house stated that they would like to deal with the few valuable unsold items in an appropriate manner.

At this time, all the valuable unsold items were placed on a large circular table. The two divine artifacts were naturally right in the centre. In truth, the Black Arrow had only remained unsold due entirely to Sheyan’s high demand. If he was willing to accept utility points, it would surely have been sold for an astronomical price, because the big shots participating in the auction this time had all been informed beforehand that there would be a big surprise waiting for them in the auction, so they had all prepared a large amount of funds.

The unsold items were shown again to the bidders, one by one. The auctioneer once again stated a price, but he would keep decreasing it until someone made a bid on the item. For example, the previous starting price of ‘Aladdin’s Magic Lamp Body’ demanded by the seller was 5 million utility points, with a minimum increment of a million utility points for each bid! But now, its starting price was 4 million utility points. If there was still no bidder, the price would further decrease by another million. When the price fell below one million, it would decrease by 100,000 utility points each time.

When the price was slashed to a million, it had apparently reached a price that the buyers could accept. Someone started to make a bid.

“One million.”

But someone else obviously did not want to miss out either. They immediately bid for 1.1 million utility points. And after that, the bidding turned into the regular auction process. The auction house was quite confident that with the existence of the Black Arrow, there was simply no way ‘Aladdin’s Magic Lamp Body’ would remain unsold.

After a round of competition, the price finally stagnated at 2.2 million utility points. The mysterious No.7 bidder had previously won the bid for some precious minerals with 240,000 utility points; he seemed determined to win the Black Arrow. To be honest, the Black Arrow was most powerful when it was shot as an arrow. Sure, it could be used as a melee weapon too, but that would not be utilising its potential to the fullest. The mysterious No.7 bidder must have a powerful archer in his party, or maybe he was one himself. Otherwise, he would not be trying to obtain the Black Arrow at all costs.

Of course, in Sheyan’s eyes, the fact that he was trying to obtain the Black Arrow at all costs made him a fat sheep to be slaughtered. Therefore, when the mysterious No.7 bidder successfully won ‘Aladdin’s Magic Lamp Body’, Sheyan was already thinking of how he could maximise his own profit. Sure enough, the mysterious No.7 bidder soon requested to meet with Sheyan. He had obtained the items specified by Sheyan and had met the requirements, so he could now do so. It was impossible for Sheyan to turn down the request because the auction house would never allow such a thing to happen, as it would severely tarnish their reputation.

When Sheyan met with bidder No. 7, he went straight to the point. The price Sheyan quoted for the Black Arrow was ‘Aladdin’s Magic Lamp Body’ + all the precious minerals bidder No. 7 owned + the damaged One Ring + 500,000 utility points. In truth, Sheyan’s asking price was not that ridiculous. The normal price of ‘Aladdin’s Magic Lamp Body’ was around 500,000 utility points, and the damaged One Ring could only count as a legendary equipment at most, so it was worth around a million utility points. The total value was thus 2.3 million utility points.

However, because Sheyan had specifically asked for ‘Aladdin’s Magic Lamp Body’ in the auction, its price had skyrocketed this time. This was the main source of the disagreement between the two sides. After all, it was a fact that bidder No. 7 had spent 2.2 million utility points for it. Therefore, to him, Sheyan’s asking price was completely unreasonable.

Fortunately, both parties were sincerely trying to reach a deal. Under that premise, negotiations were definitely possible. In the end, bidder No.7 had lost the patience to keep haggling. He suddenly stood up and stared at Sheyan as he said, “Since your party can get a divine artifact like the Black Arrow, you must be very powerful, so how about we make a bet?”

“What kind of bet?” asked Sheyan indifferently.

“I think you’re determined to get ‘Aladdin’s Magic Lamp Body’ and the damaged One Ring. We’ll make the trade with these two things first,” said bidder No. 7. “The remaining precious minerals and 500,000 utility points will be used as wager! If a member of your party can defeat a member of my party in a 1-on-1 duel, the minerals and utility points are yours, but if you lose....”

“Then we’ll write off the minerals and utility points?” Sheyan smiled. “You’ll be able to use a divine artifact in this duel, so your chances of winning this bet is huge.”

Bidder No. 7 refused to fall for Sheyan’s provocation. “If you’re scared, then forget it,” he said flatly.

But Sheyan smiled instead and said, “It’s a deal.”