260, You've Been Played

After five years of cooling down, Li Aoz began to continuously research the secrets of this Aoneng.

Even now, Li Aoz himself cannot fully control the Calamity. He can only roughly guide the disaster to occur in a relatively specific area. Moreover, the Calamity is a typical 'cannon to kill a mosquito' type of Aoneng. The higher the precision, the more outrageous the mana consumption.

If it causes a fire or flood, the damage doesn't consume much energy. But if you have requirements on the direction of the fire and the scale of the flood, the amount of mana can be ridiculously high.

However, in Li Aoz's hands, apart from the echo effect of [Gravity], [Calamity] remains the only ability that can achieve long-term influence on others across time and space. As a fate-type Aoneng, its special effect is unparalleled.

Perhaps only by obtaining the true arcane Aoneng [Destiny] can I understand the mechanism of [Calamity].

While pondering, Li Aoz continued to control the Aoneng to interfere with the auction.

Of the 360 buyers, more than 170 have been affected, a considerable number.

Some people might have seen unpleasant news while scrolling through their phones, which disrupted their strategic thinking and affected the auction.

Some people may just be having a run of bad luck. One minute they're annoyed by their child's unreasonable tantrums, and the next they're swayed by their lover's coquettishness. They're blinded by romance and want to show off in front of the beauty, so they wave their hand and no longer care about the premium.

These people are actually quite innocent; they are simply caught in the crossfire and may not even be familiar with Li Aoz himself.

But this time Li Aoz had no intention of letting Crystal Tower off easy, regardless of whether they were innocent or not.

When you can't tell who the hostages are and who the terrorists are, the best option is to eliminate all the uncooperative targets.

As for numbers 016, 190, and 122, these three companies have received special attention from Li Aoz.

Because Li Aoz not only cursed them, but also remotely cursed the planets they had won at auction.

At first, there were only some natural fires and lightning storms, but then they turned into earthquakes and tsunamis. With the earth undergoing tremendous changes, the civilizations on it were also affected, and then various man-made disasters broke out.

Those three buyers, if they weren't shills, were either academic workshops with some shady dealings behind the scenes.

For Li Aoz, harming such people was a completely unfeeling experience.

"In any case... the grand finale is coming soon, and we should prepare our methods."

Nikita was completely baffled. In fact, his initial plan was to help Li Aoz elevate the status of several outwardly strong but inwardly weak planets, so that these people would regret it when they took over and inspected them.

However, Li Aoz a step further, making all the buyers at the auction feel like they had lost out.

Even Li Aoz himself.

As a result of the scourge, Li Aoz's own armor malfunctioned seven or eight times, the most serious being a myocardial infarction. If he weren't in an armored body, everyone from White Candle Star would be here for a feast right now.

"Most people probably don't have much money left, and they probably won't compete for White Candle Star, which is actually not very significant anymore."

Li Aoz slowly withdrew the effects of the scourge. Unfortunately, he wasn't a [Gambler] Deified Person of the [Plunder] type, so he couldn't see his luck value. However, judging from the fact that he had choked on his pizza twice, his luck value was probably a bit low at the moment.

"We still need to be prepared, after all, there are still two families that haven't made a move yet."

Nikita pulled up the data and pointed to the screen. "Numbers 99 and 210."

"Really."

Li Aoz touched his chin:

"These two companies haven't bid even once since the auction started."

Since they hadn't bought anything, and it was difficult for Li Aoz to track them down, he used [Calamity] to make them lose a small amount of money.

"Of course, it's also possible that they don't care about the planets that appeared this time and are just here to join in the fun—but after all, White Candle Star is the final grand finale, so they might be willing to pay any price for White Candle Star."

Nikita reminded him:

"It's best to be cautious."

"That's true." Li Aoz nodded. "I've been driving up the price all along, which may have already attracted a lot of hatred. White Candle Star is the grand finale, and the auction will be the last one. That will definitely expose my true purpose."

"When it comes to that, people will be coming after you," Nikita warned.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," Li Aoz said. "I'll be more careful from now on."

A planet went up for auction, Li Aoz immediately placed his bid. "56.2 million!"

"Wait, didn't you say we should be careful? Why are we bidding again?"

Nikita was stunned.

"Just spreading some smokescreen."

Li Aoz has already prepared to mortgage his assets, and he must acquire White Candle Star this time. "Right now, I have 120 million in cash and 37 million in assets, and 157 million in Ammonium Gold reserves, which is almost twice the starting price of White Candle Star. To be honest, there is still some uncertainty."

"I haven't applied for notarization for these assets yet. The Crystal Tower officials don't know about it, so naturally, the people who participated in the auction don't know either."

"But the others have already been swindled out of all their money."

Li Aoz crossed his legs and curled the corners of his mouth upward.

"Since we've already become the target of everyone's attacks..."

Upon hearing this, Nikita's eyes lit up. "I see! You want to find a planet in advance, attract people to concentrate their firepower, drive up the price, and then take it over by force, thereby reducing the burden of the final siege of White Candle Star!"

"Nikita, buddy," Li Aoz, "Finding such a suitable 'smoke bomb' shouldn't be too difficult for you, right?"

"Hmph, do you think I've been fighting in this universe for so many years just for a paid vacation?"

Nikita flipped through the catalog and quickly found a suitable object:

"That's it!"

"Still can't figure out 077's purpose?"

Nalia asked coldly.

Auctioneer No. 077 had already driven up the price 26 times in a row, but its financial resources were actually able to keep up, so the auctioneers turned a blind eye.

After all, the Planetary Resources Department came with a political mission this time. They wanted to extract as much Ammonium Gold as possible, and the more foreign exchange reserves they had, the better for the Crystal Tower Civilization in its current situation.

Although Nalia didn't care about the small amount of money, her fiancé's weak attitude and incompetent performance left her feeling extremely disappointed.

While it's perfectly normal for a Dragonborn to have hundreds of partners in their lifetime, they still have very high standards for quality.

Nalia crossed her legs and stepped on her fiancé Andyfa Morodia's head. Her slender heel gently pierced his scalp, and blood trickled down his hair, staining Andy's purplish-blue cheeks red.

"Yes, we're looking for him. He's very likely not a genuine buyer, but rather a plant by the authorities..."

Andy lay on the ground, struggling to operate the auction, trying to use data analysis to find the real key information.

But no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't figure out the other party's purpose.

"Could it be... an AI account planted by the authorities?"

"Then you will become the first workshop successor to be scammed out of 236.2 million by AI, my dear young master Morodia."

Nalia spoke bluntly, her golden Dragon Eyes offering no sign of assistance.

"The other party cannot be a bot account. Investigate thoroughly, otherwise you'll have to figure out how to fill in the 236.2 million Ammonium Gold yourself."

As a member of a legitimate Narrative-level Civilization, Nalia herself has no material needs. She simply strives to fulfill the will of the narrative in order to contribute to the Grand Narrative.

This includes the idea of guiding other civilizations, so that others also become believers in the "United Company" narrative and are willing to work with them to practice and depict this narrative.

The "United Company" can tolerate ugliness, dullness, apathy, criminals, and madmen, but it cannot tolerate those who are mediocre and unable to make a profit.

What Nalia did was to help the other party put the narrative into practice. Only by completely changing Andyfa Morodia and making her a profit-savvy capitalist could she achieve her life's pursuit. In this way, she fulfilled her duty as Narrative Citizen.

Even Wendy Destis, who was watching from the sidelines, was horrified by the brutal scenes.

"Um, Mr. Andy."

Out of concern for her mental health, Wendy couldn't help but remind him, "The other party has been throwing out smokescreens. I think they're probably trying to demonstrate their true purpose. Perhaps soon, their real auction target will be revealed."

"—Yes! That's exactly right!"

Having been driven mad by the sudden disaster, Andy suddenly regained his senses. He tried to calm himself and carefully watched bid number 077:

"According to the official information I received, the other party's assets are at most 120 million, which means that his target will not exceed that level. Besides, he has been recklessly raising prices before, and he will definitely be taken down by someone else."

"Since that's the case... it will definitely be exposed. There are still 12 items left to be auctioned, and his target is definitely around 120 million."

"Only three meet the target criteria: Polis Star, Rainbow Shadow Star, and White Candle Star."

The prices of the three are 99 million, 110 million and 80 million respectively. With the Ammonium Gold exceeding 100 million, it is highly unlikely that anyone will bid higher. Therefore, the lowest priced White Candle Star is likely the other party's target.

No! Andy suddenly remembered.

Although he didn't experience it back then, White Candle Star was ravaged and tormented by Canyue, and was even massacred by the [Machine World Society]. According to his inside information, White Candle Star has been doing academic resource migration work for the past few years, and doesn't have that much value at all.

It's worth at most 30 million.

Number 077 has been driving up prices, and it's definitely not for this planet.

"It's Polis Star!"

Andy said excitedly:

"Polis Star has 30 million high-quality soldiers suitable for training as Zeta-rank soldiers. In the future, the Crystal Tower Civilization will definitely need to recruit soldiers. Give them five years, and they can be trained into qualified mercenaries. At that time, we can not only make back the cost from the Crystal Tower, but also greatly increase our goodwill."

"Without a doubt, 077's target is the Polis Star!"