The Underground Auction Would Only Sell Half a Route

At Rogue Town's old underground execution ground, sixty oil lamps illuminated a circular stone platform.

Lorne handed the merchant guild's escort certificate through the window.

The gatekeeper checked it twice.

"Pirates aren't allowed inside."

Lorne pointed at Su Hang.

"I'm the steward of the Dawnbringer Merchant Guild, and he's an escort we hired. The auction rules only prohibit wanted criminals from registering as bidders. They don't forbid escorts from observing."

The gatekeeper's expression darkened.

"What if he kills someone?"

Su Hang looked toward the armed guards behind the stone gate.

"You can try making the first move."

Lorne pressed down on his arm.

"We'll enter by the rules."

The gatekeeper was unwilling to let them through, but he could find no clause to refuse them with. He could only toss out two black number plates.

"Seat twenty-seven. Escorts may not bid or touch the lots."

"Fine."

When the two entered the venue, Brand was already seated in the third row.

He rolled his two remaining fingers and smiled without the slightest shame.

Su Hang sat down beside him.

"The matter of the White Reef Torpedoes isn't over yet."

"Today, we're only auctioning things."

Brand lowered the brim of his hat.

"Besides, I was tricked too. The route the government gave me didn't mention Seastone Torpedoes."

"You took their final payment."

"Business is business. Your people didn't die, and the medicine arrived."

Su Hang turned his head.

"I said the same thing a few days ago."

Brand did not understand.

But Lorne glanced at Su Hang.

The auction hammer fell.

The host pulled away a black cloth, revealing a gray-white ancient shell within a glass case.

Lightning scars covered its surface, yet pale blue light still drifted within it.

"A High-Altitude Imaging Shell, excavated from the crash site of an East Blue Reverse Thunderstorm."

"Confirmed by three meteorologists, it contains a route leading into the sky. Starting bid: twenty million Beli!"

Bids immediately rang out through the venue.

"Twenty-five million!"

"Thirty million!"

"Fifty million!"

A man in a flamingo-patterned coat at the back raised his number plate.

"One hundred million."

The entire room fell silent.

Brand cursed under his breath.

"Belloc, Donquixote Doflamingo's agent. He isn't short on money. He came for you today."

Belloc turned around.

"Doesn't the Dawnbringer Merchant Guild want to go to the sky? Why aren't you bidding?"

Lorne opened the guild's financial documents.

"The guild can mobilize 4.7 million in cash. Even including contractual assets, it's less than ten million."

"You're this poor, yet you still dare touch an ancient route?"

Belloc leaned back in his chair.

"I can give you a discount. The original Hawk's Private Ledger can count for thirty million. Arlong's procurement list, twenty million. Hand over the Navy serial numbers for the White Reef Torpedoes too, and I'll let you keep bidding."

Su Hang looked at him.

"You're buying the route for Donquixote Doflamingo, yet you want to use evidence of the government's dealings with fish-men as a discount."

"The underground world accepts everything."

"What you want even more is a rope around the Navy's neck."

Belloc smiled.

"If you have no money, stop guessing what rich people are thinking."

"A rich man spending one hundred million on half a route? Of course I have to take a look."

The host raised his hammer again.

"One hundred million, first call!"

Lorne suddenly raised his plate.

"Seat twenty-seven requests to purchase public interpretation rights."

The venue fell quiet.

The host frowned.

"What is being auctioned is ownership of the imaging shell."

Lorne opened the auction regulations.

"Article Thirteen: for lots involving ancient writing, routes, and meteorological data, the core contents must be displayed publicly before the hammer falls, in order to ensure bidders are fully informed."

"Unsuccessful bidders may pay the minimum information fee to obtain on-site reading and copying rights."

The smile vanished from Belloc's face.

"That rule only allows verification of authenticity."

"How can we verify whether the route is real without seeing it?"

Lorne pressed the 4.7 million Beli proof of funds onto the table.

"The minimum information fee is two percent of the estimated sale price, capped at two million. We'll pay two million for one public projection."

The host looked toward the elevated private box.

The person behind the curtain gave no response.

The auction rules were printed on the back of every entry plate.

If they refused publicly, the credibility of the entire auction would collapse.

"Two million information fee. Seat twenty-seven is permitted on-site interpretation."

The lightning-struck shell was connected to a discharge device.

Crackle!

A blue curtain of light rose from the shell's opening.

A churning sea, a massive column of water erupting upward, and slanted cloud layers appeared in sequence, before the image finally halted before black clouds covered in lightning.

Mia had not entered the auction.

But she had given Lorne a transparent tracing sheet in advance, marked with basic symbols for air pressure, tides, and thunderstorm layers.

Lorne spread the sheet beneath the projection and quickly traced the angle of the water column.

Belloc abruptly rose to his feet.

"Turn off the projection!"

The host raised a hand toward the technician.

But Su Hang pressed the Bronze Compass against the edge of the stone platform.

The needle first tilted upward, then spun wildly before the thundercloud projection.

"Why the rush?"

Belloc spoke coldly.

"The verification period is over."

"The authenticity hasn't been verified yet."

Su Hang pointed toward the end of the projection.

"The image only recorded the ship charging into the first layer of cumulus clouds. There's no image showing where to go after crossing the thunderstorm layer."

The host offered an explanation.

"It's normal for high-altitude routes to be obscured by cloud cover."

"Normal?"

Su Hang turned the compass.

Whenever the needle neared the right side of the projection, an invisible force pushed it off course. When it moved left, the tip plunged straight downward.

"The Rising Current can only send a ship upward. It can't guarantee that it will reach the White Sea. What truly kills people is the thunderstorm layer after the water column ends."

A meteorological merchant stood up.

"Why has the compass lost its bearings?"

Lorne held up the public reference number from the Rogue Town Weather Observatory.

"Observation records from twenty years ago show that the Reverse Thunderstorm has two layers of wind direction. The lower layer blows west, while the upper layer blows east. This lot only preserved footage of the lower layer. There is no exit from the upper thunderstorm layer."

Another bidder spoke grimly.

"So even if we charge up along this route, we still won't know where to go once we reach the thunderclouds?"

Su Hang put away the compass.

"Choose the wrong direction, and the ship will leave the rising water column and fall from ten thousand meters back into the East Blue."

The auction hall instantly exploded.

"This is supposed to be a complete route?"

"I just bid eighty million!"

"Return our deposits!"

"The auction house has to explain itself!"

Belloc kicked over his chair.

"Shut up! An incomplete route doesn't affect the value of an ancient shell!"

Su Hang looked at him.

"Then go ahead and spend one hundred million on it."

Belloc's cheek twitched.

"One hundred million means nothing to the young master."

"Then why were you so eager for me to hand over Hawk's Private Ledger, Arlong's procurement list, and the torpedo serial numbers?"

Su Hang stepped forward.

"You've been driving up the price since the beginning. You wanted to force the Dawnbringer Merchant Guild to discount with evidence, then use a shell that recorded only half a route to trade away the proof that could nail the Navy branch and Arlong's entire deal chain."

Brand sprang to his feet.

"Belloc, you knew the route was incomplete?"

"Sit down!"

"I paid a deposit too!"

Several bidders rushed toward the stone platform, and the guards raised their guns at once.

Two oil lamps were knocked over, and the front-row tables and chairs shattered one after another.

The host desperately hammered his gavel.

"Auction suspended! Everyone return to your seats!"

No one listened anymore.

Lorne rolled up the copied map and tucked it close against his body.

"We've already obtained the first half."

"Was it worth two million?"

"It was. Mia can use the meteorological records to fill in part of it."

Su Hang turned and headed for the exit.

Belloc blocked the stone gate, two nearly transparent thin threads sliding from his palm.

"You exposed the young master's auction house, and you still think you can leave?"

Su Hang lowered his gaze to the threads.

"Donquixote Doflamingo didn't even come himself. He only sent a hand to test the waters for him."

"To kill you, the young master doesn't need to appear personally."

"If you truly dared to kill me, you wouldn't have tried to trade evidence for the route just now."

Su Hang pointed at the enraged bidders around them.

"If you make a move now, they'll believe the auction house is preparing to kill witnesses. Will the one hundred million Beli you saved Donquixote Doflamingo be enough to compensate for the entire East Blue underground trade route?"

Belloc's fingers stiffened.

Brand approached with several guards.

"Move."

More and more bidders blocked the stone gate, every gun trained on Belloc.

The agent's face turned livid. In the end, he withdrew the threads.

"You may get out of this auction hall, but you won't get out of Rogue Town."

Su Hang passed by his side.

"Get the refund ready first."

The stone door opened.

There were no Marines outside, nor was there an ambush.

Only a figure in a gray cloak stood in the rain, holding another Seven-Tier Cloud-Pattern Recording Shell in one hand.

Inside the shell, lightning spun in reverse.

The figure raised his head, revealing half a face covered by a white bone mask.

"I have the other half of the route, but you'll have to trade Nika's secret for it."