49 The Setup of the Great Auction

The one month that the eight of them had to practice together was quite the bonding experience.Meng Tian and Meng Yi had mainly been in each other's presence for the better part of the last few centuries. They had long since forgotten the joys of having great battles with new brothers.

It was an exhilarating experience for everyone involved. All of them got used to each other's fighting style and although the Meng duo was still far above even Guan Yu, all of them were improving at a steady pace. The month quickly flew by and the Great Auction had officially started. They rushed over to the building that held this grand event a day before the event started.

(BM) "This is quite the fancy place that holds this event."

(MT) "You haven't been here very long, so I can understand why you don't know who this belongs to. This building is a subsidiary HQ that the greatest faction, the Sun Coalition, uses to host events."

(BM) "This is just a subsidiary HQ? This place is bigger than ours by at least 20 times! And I thought our HQ was already quite roomy. The Sun Coalition sure has quite a lot of money to spend."

(BC) "This HQ is second in size only to the Sun Coalition's main HQ. The other factions can't even compare. This shows you just how big the disparity is between the three great factions."

(BM) "Who decides who gets to host such a big event?"

(GY) "It's just the biggest faction is the one that's permitted to host. There are huge benefits to this too. Networking, charging rent from the sellers, even taking a cut of all profits made. Every other faction can only drool at the thought of it."

(BM) "That's amazing, no wonder the Sun Coalition is the mightiest faction. I had not thought of this before. Can we set up anywhere?"

(GY) "No unfortunately. We will have to get our blueprints inspected first. There are five places where we can set up shop. Location one is for vip's and super expensive items are. You need to get approval from someone in the Sun Coalition if you aren't very well known to sell blueprints there. All the way to location five where the most common blueprint is fairly rare."

(BM) "Oh I get it. You have to be serious in making profits since this event will likely have many rich strategists looking for a bargain."

(GY) "Exactly, on a good day auctioning off a rare blueprint might take a couple days. That time gets reduced to nothing since you are selling yourself here."

(BM) "So where should we go now? To get our goods checked out?"

(YF) "Precisely, there should be quite a lineup though. It's just over here, I've been to quite a few of these. There is always something that catches my eye. Follow me."

The Meng duo, Baron, Han Xin, Guan Yu, Ban Chao, Yue Fei and Xu Da made their way to line up in one of over 100 lines. There was an endless flow of bodies waiting to get their goods checked before they were allowed to go to their determined location. An endless chattering filled the air for hours. The eight of them that belonged to Under 1 Banner stood in line for a couple minutes before Yue Fei realized something."

(YF) "Wait, what is the most advanced blueprint that are we going to sell?"

(XD) "Repeating crossbow along with a few other lesser inventions."

(HX) "I'll be selling quite a few of my Mark 1 tanks since Baron has given me the Mark 7 tank also...."

(YF) "That's it! Follow me everyone." Xu Da got out of the line and headed for another room with 2 burly men standing there looking menacing.

(BM) "Wait what are you doing! Yue Fei."

(YF) "We will be able to bypass the line if at least one of our blueprints are advanced enough. A Mark 1 tank definitely fits that bill."

The rest looked at each other and followed Yue Fei closely behind. They got to the 2 guards and Yue Fei began talking to one of them.

(YF) "Ah, little Ming. How are you?"

(LM) "Oh? Elder Yue Fei, and is that elder Guan Yu behind you? I thought he doesn't ever come to these things."

(YF) "We managed to get him to come this time, listen. Can you inspect this blueprint and determine which location we can get to?" Yue Fei said while nudging Han Xin to give his tank blueprint for Little Ming to inspect.

(LM) "Elder Yue Fei, you are an old friend of mine. You helped me when I had to defend for myself. I would do anything to repay your kindness. Let's see here... Wow, this is quite the high tech blueprint that you guys got here."

As little Ming said this, the other guard took notice and looked over to see what kind of blueprint that little Ming was praising. He saw and just scoffed and then turned to look away. Baron was the only one that saw what happened and dismissed it quite quickly. After all, he didn't expect the Mark 1 Tank to be that high tech either.

(LM) "This is quite good. With this type of blueprint I can allow you to go to the second location. You are selling more than just this one blueprint right?"

(YF) "Yes of course. Some of the others are even better than this one that we just showed you."

The other guard's ears perked up.

(LM) "Good good, come over here while I do all the necessary paperwork."

Little Ming did everything in a matter of minutes and gave each of them a little badge with L2 on it. Proof that these guys were allowed to be in location 2.

(LM) "I just need to know which faction you guys belong to."

(YF) "We aren't part of an official faction yet."

(LM) "I'm sorry then, for location two and location one you must be part of a recognized faction to enter."

(YF) "Oh that must be why I've only ever been allowed into location 3,4, and 5 before."

Meng Tian heard this and grabbed into his coat to reveal a little badge that had the letters M.O.M on it. He handed it over to Little Ming without a word, Little Ming understood exactly what Meng Tian had intended and just gave him a little nod.

(LM) "Alright. Everything is all set. You may enter into location two now."

(YF) "Uhhhh, thank you. It was nice meeting you again little Ming."

(LM) "It's always a pleasure to help you out."

They said their farewells and started walking towards location two when Yue Fei couldn't take it anymore.

(YF) "What did you show him back there Meng Tian?"

(MT) "It's nothing."

Yue Fei was curious, as was everyone else. However, prying any further when someone says they didn't want to talk about it would just spoil the mood. So, Baron decided to change the topic to something else.

(BM) "How are we going to do this? Half of us will man the stall and the other half wander around looking for useful blueprints?"

(YF) "In my experience it would be best if we have 2 people man the stall while the others comb location 2,3,4, and 5 for anything that is eye catching. We don't have access yet to location 1 since our badge only says location 2."

(BM) "Yea that's smart actually. This event goes on for 4 days, and even with that amount of time we won't be able to look through everything. Going for quantity here is the best strategy in my opinion."

(BC) "Yes,but who will man the stall at what time?"

(MT) "I propose that we split the remaining six into 2 groups of 2 and 2 groups of 1. One will go looking in location 2, 1 will go looking for location 3, 2 for location 4, and 2 for location 5. This is the best way since location 4, and 5 will have the most blueprints for sale."

(BM) "Yes, that's a great idea."

(YF) "This place will no doubt have some unethical people around. However, they won't dare to mess wiht any masters or elders. That's why I say at least one of the Meng duo, Guan Yu, or me will have to stay and man the stall at any given time. This is the safest way."

(BC) "You sure know how this works. Glad to have you on our side."

The eight of them all agreed and split up into 4 groups that would each man the stall for 24 hours each. The first day would consist of Yue Fei and Ban Chao, the second day would be Meng Tian and Xu Da, the third day will be Meng Yi and Baron, and the last day will be Guan Yu and Han Xin.

They all went into location 2 and set up the booth that had been provided to them and lay out the blueprints that would most likely attract customers. Now all they had to do was wait for the event to officially start. They couldn't wait.

Off in the distance a group of greedy eyed people began to look around location 2. Thinking about the profit they would make once the event officially started.