Chapter 428 - Wang Yu Yan (3)

Jiang Li was a professional. He knew a 'master' like his soul-client was paid a large sum per session and the pay was directly proportional to how high the expected performance from him was. This was why no matter what garbage was presented to him for on-the-spot appraisal, he didn't hesitate to give a smile and exaggerate the worth of the item. There was only one goal, to make its price reach sky high. 

He was helping both parties this way. The auction house earns more, and he too would get a large commission, while the rich bidders' wallets would thin down, ridding them of the headache of worrying where to spend their surplus money. 

It greatly helped that 'Master Yue' had a dependable reputation, hence as long as he gasped, widened his eyes, and acted surprised or amaze, people downstage would fall for it and think whatever the auctioneer presented was awesome. 

Moreover, from time to time, he would talk loudly to offer his insight.

"Look! This is a product from Gilette!" He held up a safety razor, his gaze shining like that of a fanatic.

With his discerning eyes, he naturally grasped that it was an imitation. After all, without factoring the rusty edge and the fading coloration, the spelling was just incorrect. Most likely its bundle price a thousand years ago was not even two dollars.

Still, Jiang Li looked at it, so absorbed, as if it were a rare treasure. In fact, he even described it to everyone like it was a precious gem. 

"In my opinion, collectors of genuine antique should not pass on this item! It is as precious as the previous item, that hair-dryer once owned by Princess IU of South Korea! Because a splendid company produced it," said Jiang Li sincerely. 

Inwardly though, he was snickering. Everyone in the venue had access to the internet, yet none bothered confirming whether what he said he was true. Even if there was really nothing that could be found online, would it hurt to check even once? Were they really thinking auction houses were all run by honest people? How careless.

'Let's hope the fellows in the battlefield are not as moronic.'

"Alright, start the bidding," said the auctioneer in a booming voice, drowning the collective noises from the crowd. 

In just ten minutes, the heated bidding battle ended and the worthless item got sold for 1.46 million federal dollars, an amount that could have afforded a large amount of food, weapons, armors, and medicine. The others were sold off around that price too. Jiang Li, who was reminded of his time in the military, became more pissed.

So he spoke more and more.

"I'm very sure of it! This antique was what abbots of the 21st century used to hold their candles when conducting important ceremonies!"

As a result, even a cracked ceramic saucer fetched an exorbitant price after he pointed out the random Chinese characters below and said that it was a logo of a manufacturer exclusively supplying for huge temples all over the world. 

When the auction ended, he could see satisfied smiles from the faces of those who had successfully purchased something.

Jiang Li reverted to his calm and mature bearing, waiting patiently for the client to lead him away. Since the other party seemed to value him quite well, an employee was immediately sent to him, guiding him to a break room with a room full of dishes. The other party's attitude to him was similar to the first guy who guided him on stage. 

"Mr. Yue!" The moment he entered, a middle-aged whose face was full of smile greeted him. He was the manager of the auction house, surnamed Gao, and he looked extremely pleased because of the success of the auction earlier. As a regular collaborator of Jiang Li's soul-client, he was familiar with him and could have noticed Jiang Li's strange attitude towards the items if he was not drunk in exhilaration. 

"Please take a seat, Sir." Manager Gao pulled a chair open for the middle-aged appraiser. "You have really done a great job this time and I can't thank you enough for your contribution. We have prepared great dishes especially for you to sample."

Jiang Li shrugged and sat down. He was not polite when he began to stuff his mouth. 

After engaging in some pleasantries as they finished the food, he demanded his payment and asked to be escorted to a secure hotel where he planned to immerse himself in the plotline. 

"Now, what do we have here…" 

Once done marveling at the grandness of a high-tech room, he double-checked the lock, then frowned for a while upon catching sight of his slightly aged appearance in the mirror. 

"I look like someone with a family. Even though in reality, I'm still single."

"But I guess, I should be glad that the personality of my soul-client is not that agreeable." He shook his head, then laughed. 

He ordered the in-house robot to bring him something to drink, then he sat comfortably on the sofa. 

Finally, the actual plotline of this world played like a slide show. The fellow made sure to not miss any detail since almost everything was new to him. 

Contrary to what one would usually assume after learning the world's background, the female and male leads were not really humans. 

Why? Simply because there was a more wonderful species existing - the Fae race! They were more beautiful. More powerful. More intriguing. 

Moreover, that thing he called the plot was the world's consciousness which was obviously sentient. Even if its IQ was not as high, at least 'it' knew how to judge who treated it nicely and not. In other words, the world's consciousness chose the two Fae members not only for their physical appearance. But because compared to humans, the Fae race didn't do much damage when they were still the rulers of the world. 

So just like that, the race of the two leads was decided. 

Actually, the Fae race was not that bad. They had a reason to go back. 

Also, they only wanted to control humans to stop them from further destroying the planet. The members of the Fae race only looked haughty and without regard to human life due to their prideful bearings, but they did not really intend to wipe out humanity. In their opinion, the latter was only being too much paranoid. 

'Sigh. If only those stupid creatures would spy on the domed cities that are already captured. They would see we are not treating their fellow humans that poorly.'

'They are only punished when they cross the line or violate our laws. But in general, humans still have rights and are respected.'

'Of course, they mine the mines, wait upon their rulers, plow the arable fields, man the factories, and raise the livestock.' 

'But it's not that unreasonable, right? Look, they are mere captives, yet are still allowed to enjoy the privilege of being close to the descendants of their deities. Naturally, they have to reciprocate our goodwill.'

These words were what the faes would converse with each other when in a high-class gathering at opulent mansions taken over from humans. Their mindset was different from the latter since despite being forced by the situation to land back on Earth, they still thought highly of themselves. The Fae race's concern over nature was genuine though. This was what drove them to think that they had to control and look after humans. 

On the other hand, no matter how noble the Fae thought of themselves, in every human's eyes, they were merely aliens and butcher. There was just no way humanity would forget how these arrogant creatures led their dinosaurs into a surprise attack and used their weird weapons to annihilate their army. The civilians were spared? So what! Millions of lives were lost and still being lost on the battlefield. The deep-seated grudge was impossible to wash away. 

Even though humans were weaker, since the hatred was so strong, they resorted to creating a very potent virus that would be thrown at the cities conquered by Faes. 

This was where the two leads came in... 

…

Everyone lived in troubled times. However, large-scale wars don't really break out frequently because of many factors such as provisions and troops. Perhaps conflicts were taking place somewhere, but the number of people involved should not be large. Plus, both parties were reluctant to use high-grade war weapons in fear of damaging nature further. 

It was by considering these and connecting them to the lackadaisical attitudes of the attendees of the auction that Jiang Li deduced that it was a rare moment of peace. At least, for today, there was no need to fear that getting some rest would result in him missing out on something important.

Once done with reviewing the new set of memories in his brain, Jiang Li briefly browsed the web to confirm how deep he was into the plot before going to bed.

It was a few hours later that he woke up, and the first thing he did after checking out of the hotel, was to throw away his smartwatch. 

'The two Faes will screw humanity in a few days. Yet you want me to obediently continue being a strange old man who dabbles in the appraisal of useless artifacts all day long?'

'Dream on!'

The emotionless mechanical mode of the system took over to remind him that his soul-client didn't want to lose his job and wish to become the best in his field. However, Jiang Li disregarded the warning and charged into the nearest battlefield with a completely changed appearance caused by donning an awfully expensive high-tech mask.

"Can't you be helpful for once and add my name to the list of new recruits? Preferably of an expert who's been promised a high position in the get-go?" Jiang Li was slightly distressed thinking how he would approach the villainess who was a high-ranking female tactician of the military. 

Sadly, the system was not a good thing that would do things for free despite the bond they had shared for more than a millennium.

When he unmuted the system, it pretended to not hear him asking. The middle-aged guy then rolled his eyes, aware that he could only count on himself. 

A day was wasted on researching and executing a plan. But in the end, he only managed to legally enter the tightly guarded headquarters by hypnotizing a recruiter stationed outside and making this person add him as a special soldier. 

As abilities exist in this world, every soldier must be with a useful ability before they could enlist. This proved to be of no hindrance to Jiang Li since the magical abilities he possessed before could be used here. 

"Your talent is Ice, Sir?" The emotionless soldier holding the data sheets looked up to examine the scholar-like person. 

Jiang Li wordlessly nodded. There were other people in the open field where one would be able to smell the odor of metal and gas.

It seemed the other party was a no-nonsense type, so no more question was asked. Jiang Li shrugged and joined the others as they received a briefing from the veterans in charge of educating them on how serious and perilous the battlefield was. 

'So where's that Wang Yu Yan?' His eyes roamed the place for the 5th time.

At the training room where the instructors brought them next, Jiang Li tapped on his smartwatch and tried to hack the network in the base, only to feel annoyed as the whole thing was very tough to invade. Well, what to expect when his skills were limited to 21st-century computer tech. Of course, he would only be met with a defeat. 

However, Jiang Li was also not one to give up easily, so when his numerous attempts did not work, he threw a few points on the system to make it report the villainess' location and current situation. Alright, that was not what happened. The man knew to consult the system only when all options failed. But that was not yet the case as he was already inside the base and could just search for a non-combatant commander and hypnotize the person. That was precisely what he did.

"Mr. Jiang. Major Wang Yu Yan is the prized strategist of General Wang Wei. She's at this camp too and her quarters' on the southeast side. If Major Wang brought her communication device with her, then she's currently at the periphery, probably patrolling with a squad," said a logistic officer he had bumped into at the cafeteria.

"Patrolling, huh?" Jiang Li fell into deep thoughts, reminded that today was when that woman would encounter the male lead and fall in love with him at first sight. 

So far, everything coincided with the plot. 

"What does she look like, by the way?" he asked curiously. For some reason, the system could not give him any picture of the leads and the villainess and the plot was not as detailed as before. He only knew the general direction of things and the names he had to pay attention to. Yet oddly, he did not have the same problem when accepting the memories of the appraiser. 

"Wait a moment, Sir. Let me share it with you." 

Under hypnosis, the old commander projected an image before him. Jiang Li did not wait long for the face of a person to show there.

However, upon seeing the girl, Jiang Li's eyes involuntarily rounded in surprise.