As the music rubbed his stomach, he took yet another bite of the fried rice he frequently had.

  Of course, it wasn't as good as the one in the ship but he really wasn't expecting much. Although his dad regularly cooks it for him, it wasn't a popular meal by any means. The recipe was invented in the eariler times and they were quickly lost to a few country trying to get them only to let the ship sink.

  Unlucky, that was the only place where the recipes were. The rest had to be made from memory so he wasn't really sure which is the closest.

  He was just grateful that they had it in the first place.

  His eyes slowly slide away from the meal as the music still made it hard to swallow. He scanned the entire room for any doors that would lead to the auction she told him about.

  And it wouldn't take that long.

  A door with bright employee only text reflected the light as it caught his eyes.

  Being at the far back of the back, he couldn't look at it briefly due to the texts being too small to read.

  However, his staring caused some suspicion.

  "You planning to go in there?" The bartender, noticing him, asked knowing full well of the place behind it.

  Flustered by the sudden interruption, he immediately tried to reply only to look awakard doing so.

  Well, that's what Julo thought.

  "Perhaps."

  'Perhaps huh. Crazy bastard.' Working as the bartender for a long time, he could pick up on subtle signals.

  After all, if he couldn't he wouldn't even be here alive.

  And seeing what she can do from last night, he decided that it wasn't worth peering into Julo's business.

  Not knowing the overthinking people were doing, he quickly paid the bill as he stood up before his legs faced the direction of the door.

  He could try to sneak around but that would make it extremely clear that he wasn't supposed to be there.

  And the solution he made was to walk over confidently.

  That way most people won't even consider the possibility.

  Well, it's most people.

  Smarter ones might be able to tell that he still wasn't supposed to be there but it wasn't like he was actually forbidden from coming inside the room.

  They probably would just ignore him like the bartender and just go on with their business. After all, most old smartie knew of the place behind.

  His hands extended as he reached for the handle.

  His soft hands touched the handle as the coldness of the metal slowly transferred into his hands.

  Still holding onto despite the almost unbearable cold, he blocked the small crack he just made and squeezed through without opening much of it.

  The freezing temperatures of the auction room almost made him sneeze with his nose slowly hurting.

  Yet he still had to go.

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  However, the view wasn't anything similar.

  The dark room with almost no lights made itself clear that this wasn't the roo.

  'This doesn't look like it.' Julo pondered at the fact why the room was soo small and dark to the point of resembling a cave tunnel.

  Immediately realizing what this room was for, his mind flooded with a certain memory of entering the black market.

  He felt a sense of familiarity even though he had never been to the place in the first place. And he didn't want to remember that.

  "Good enough."

  A voice rang out beside him despite him not sensing anyone.

  Startled by the voice, his eyes darted behind him with the cold air only visible.

  His head rapidly turned to find the source of the voice.

  To no avail.

  He felt like a bunny looking around for a lion in the forest with it playing with the bunny. He felt like he could die any second.

  The familiarity he sensed before immediately ceased to be.

  Before anytime to think on what he was doing was right, an almost blinding light shined into his eyes.

  With barely any time to think, he forcefully closed his eyes as hoping that he wasn't in any danger.

  Well, he clearly wasn't in any danger. If he was then why would she recommended him to come here? Maybe he was just wondering too much.

  'Wait no, I still need to be careful.' Removing these thoughts out of his mind, he carefully let his eyes adapt to the new brightness as the high ceiling was made visible to him.

  Several seats spread around the room evenly like the typical auction.

  Not only was there too much seats, there were also people waiting, sitting on these seats.

  And...

  All of them were wearing a mask or anything to cover their face.

  Noticing this, Julo's eyes twitched at the thought of breaking a rule or taboo on his very first visit.

  "You don't need a mask."

  The same voice from before echoed, bashing into his mind as if it was crawling it's way in, creepily reassuring him.

  Clearly not her.

  And like before Julo still couldn't find them.

  Pondering what he just saw, another unfamiliar voice dashed into his ears.

  "Take a seat will you?" Still recovering from the last voice, he flicked his head behind, seeing a masked person like anyone else. Strangely, the mask on their face were different from the rest of the people.

  He really couldn't describe the difference. The texture seems to be the same, the looks, the materials and everything looks no different from the usual.

  Despite this, Julo's eyes felt like there was something wrong with him. As if he was someone superior to him.

  Of course, he wouldn't think he was superior but no one else gave him that feel. The only person that had managed to do that was Wilson and he was a really high ranking compared to him.

  "Got an eye for me?"

  "Hm." Realizing the glaces he gave him, Julo sat down on one of the warm seats as his eyes shot forward.

  The view that entered his eye, was just a plain celling.

  Adjusting his eyes to the place down below, he coughed instinctively.

  The seats were a pleasure to sit in with the cold atmosphere but he couldn't show it on the surface.

  "You fancy any items?" They asked, clearly wanting more information out of him but Julo was already clear on ignoring him.

  "Not nice." Realizing the intent behind his actions, they formed a displeased expression.

  "If you tell me where you got that artifact, I'll pay you nicely."

  'Hm?' Confused by the statement, he turned to him.

  If he remembered correctly, there were no artifact. Unless he was talking about his gun but why would he want to know that?

  Julo didn't know anything about an artifact nor did he own any. The other person was mistaking him to have a special kind of weapon and it was obvious they wanted it.

  "Don't act like that. I can't see your face." Ah.

  Recalling the voice of the previous person, he managed to piece together that his face was blurry to anyone or at least unrecognizable.

  Not wanting to give out more information on an object he doesn't know, he let the ticking noise rang out inside his ears for a couple minutes.

  In time that seems instant, people with the same mask or with slight difference, rushed into the place from nowhere.

  Almost all of them seems to be experienced in this place with only a few being stunned by the sudden teleportation.

  The heats inside slowly rose.

  Noticing the rise in temperature, the master of the place blasted the cooler to the top.

  Now, every breath Julo took quite the effort even for his body.

  The temperature kept on rising until the room was full, which prompted the master lower it down.

  Unfortunately, temperature were still the same, only not rising like before.

  Not bothering to think about the cold, he looked down at the person walking with a microphone.

  Perhaps, he'll be the today's seller for all he knew.

  "The auction starts now."

  Saying only a few word triggered a silence that couldn't be broken by anyone else.

  Not even a few seconds later, multiple 6 feet men with an almost inhumane muscle carried an incredibly massive box that were 2 times their height.

  Even Julo was starting to question, how it was fitting in the room in the first place.

  Turns out, it was a box from the ancient times containing a diary of some sort. Julo wasn't really interested in this box but there was one thing he was interested in.

  That was...the price.

  'You gotta be fucking me.'