259 Bane Is Worried About You; It Has Brought You Its Favorite Misfortune
Two-thirds of the way through the auction, the people in charge of the auction noticed something was wrong.
"Is the frequency of premiums too high today?"
"Yes, especially after the halftime break, the number of premium bids increased significantly. It would be fine if it happened once or twice, but it's really strange that so many people are willing to spend any amount of money to buy the planet."
"I hope something's wrong."
Out of concern, they quickly contacted the Planetary Resources Department and told the responsible officials about the matter.
"Increased frequency of premium pricing?"
The Crystal Tower official pondered for a moment, then shook his head:
"What does this have to do with us? It's a good thing to collect more Ammonium Gold."
The auction manager was quite worried. "But those who participate in the auction are all wealthy and powerful. If we upset them, what if they take their anger out on us..."
"They can't possibly blame our Planetary Resources Department?" the official scoffed. "These workshops have made a lot of money in normal times. Now that civilization is facing a difficult time and has to sell state-owned resources, it's their duty to contribute more money to help us through this crisis. Many people want to buy planets but don't even qualify!"
"I see!" the auctioneer exclaimed in realization.
From the Planetary Resources Department's perspective, this operation was aimed at increasing foreign exchange reserves, emptying the factories' foreign exchange reserves, and preventing them from fleeing abroad.
Planets are like real estate; they are typical tied assets. Once purchased, they require long-term management and maintenance. Buying a planet is like being a mortgage slave who has made a down payment and needs to continuously make monthly payments. Therefore, civilizations are least worried about them fleeing.
On the contrary, most of the workshop owners who bought the planets will be more dependent on civilization due to the difficulty of early development. At most, they will have the idea of starting their own business when they become rich. Even if they fall into that situation, it will take a long time. The Ammonium Gold they collect will at least be enough to get through the current difficult days.
Li Aoz has precisely grasped this point.
"Your technique is not skillful at all."
Nikita curled her lip:
"If you keep bidding high for numbers 016, 190, and 122, aren't you afraid they'll gang up on you and force you to win the White Candle Star auction?"
"Of course I'm not afraid. The premise of making an offer is having enough funds in reserve; otherwise, it will be considered illegal and fraudulent."
Li Aoz interlaced his fingers and chuckled as he said:
"Although I've been acting as a shill, I don't just randomly raise prices. I only keep increasing the price when Nikita is certain that a planet is valuable. And the number of times I raise the price is not fixed. Each time I do this, I make the other party pay at least 30% more than the actual value. After doing this a few times, the other party probably won't have enough funds."
"But this way, everyone will know that Buyer 077, that is, you, are disrupting order." Nikita was somewhat worried. "Not everyone is short of money; there are always a few with large reserves of Ammonium Gold. What if they gang up on you and try to take you down..."
No, it won't.
Li Aoz opened the catalog, gazing at the planets that had been sold, his eyes slowly swirling with purplish-red nebulae.
"Soon, they will be busy dealing with more pressing issues at hand."
Nikita was puzzled, but seeing Li Aoz's confident demeanor, she didn't say anything.
Li Aoz also showed no intention of revealing his hand.
Sequence 77: Bane
After a five-year cooling-off period, [Calamity] returned to Li Aoz's control. This Aoneng possesses the ability to interfere with fate and amplify disasters, and has never failed Li Aoz's expectations.
The most crucial point.
[Calamity] is the one with the longest range and the widest area of effect among the Aoneng he possesses.
The description of the range of the "Calamity" as any object within the visible range is quite intriguing: what exactly is included in the visible range? Consider looking up at the stars, downloading an image from the internet, or having a remote video chat with someone—the microscopic world and particle surfaces we see...
These things, aside from the difference in resolution, are actually all within the 'visible range'.
However, [Calamity] is not a very precise Aoneng. For intuitive and rough targets, [Calamity] takes effect quickly, but for more detailed and subtle individuals, [Calamity] is difficult to detect and requires gradual accumulation to activate.
The person Li Aoz was referring to was not someone with a specific room number.
In short, he cursed the entire auction website, including himself. Everyone suffered the same misfortune.
This time, it wasn't the same predicament as when facing Crescent Moon. The fully-formed Crescent Moon was a [Dominator] type path, with high [Charm], making it more resistant to Aoneng. It took several mana bars from Li Aoz and the scourge to accumulate calamity power before they could finally defeat it.
Moreover, his goal this time was not to kill, but merely to make these internal academic clique workshop owners of the Crystal Tower suffer a small but significant loss—this was nothing more than a trivial retaliation for their abandonment of the three billion ordinary people on White Candle Star and their obstruction of Li Aoz's normal auction.
Misfortune does not directly affect one's fortune.
In fact, Li Aoz himself only had a slight understanding of the ins and outs of this Aoneng.
The process of inflicting harm is the continuous accumulation of disaster until it completely erupts.
The definition of disaster is rather broad, even abstract, and it is not easy for anyone to give a definitive definition all at once.
On a small scale, things like getting a toothache from drinking water, being late due to traffic, being checked up on by your boss, or a girlfriend who's usually indifferent suddenly deciding to check your phone... these can be considered disasters. On a larger scale, things like having your national civil service exam paper stolen, being killed by a meteorite on your way to school, or your bride suddenly turning into a fire-breathing monster and swallowing you whole while you're preparing for your wedding ceremony.
During his conversation with Nastisha, Li Aoz discovered this: the role of scourge is to continually inflict disaster.
For example, the first time, it might cause you to have a pollen allergy, but you put on a mask in time and stay away from the flower bushes. Then, it might send a bicycle to crash into you, but you are quick and dodge it with a turn. Then congratulations, the next scourge might be a dump truck coming to crash into you.
If I can't kill you in one go, I'll expand the scale until I completely destroy you.
When dealing with the Crescent Moon, the scourge kept calling for reinforcements.
At first, the scourge tried many times, such as delaying the remnant moon's implantation, causing physical malfunctions, and disrupting its mind, but the awareness of its strength prevented it from killing the opponent no matter how many calamities it accumulated.
Then, the scourge changed tactics: it intended to lure Barkomon directly over, but perhaps because Barkomon was too powerful as a Cappa (10) level strongman, its strong fate always returned to normal.
So the scourge began to settle for less serious matters, causing several smaller disasters that drew the attention of the powerful figures in other fortresses at the time.
However, perhaps due to insufficient charisma from Li Aoz himself, which was not enough to support someone with too much influence, it had to settle for second best and eventually selected Dean Nastisha through a rigorous selection process.
Dean Nastisha of the Ita Rank (7) is absolutely qualified to beat up Remnant Moon or eliminate Night Butterfly Federation support. However, Remnant Moon's strength is still too great, making it impossible for Nastisha to kill Remnant Moon herself, which led to a series of problems.