She's Playing You!

The Azure Dragon represented the flourishing and prosperity of Eastern civilization. It was an auspicious, sacred, and inviolable mythical creature.

But now it was merely a mutant transformed from a human.

Mutants had no right to live, much less the rights and freedoms of human beings.

Now it had been reduced to an underground commodity, to be sold at whatever price was set.

"As you can see, today's first auction item is a fully transformed Azure Dragon. According to ancient legend, the Azure Dragon represents power and fortune..."

The man in the tailcoat was pleased with the audience's reaction. As he spoke, he pressed a button in his hand. The Azure Dragon in the cage, its pupils narrowed to vertical slits as it roared in fury, immediately jolted as if struck by lightning.

It struggled and roared under the electric shocks. Its claws, coursing with a powerful current, struck the cage and sent sparks flying. Its once sacred, resonant roars were now filled with overwhelming fury and pain.

A minute later, the Azure Dragon collapsed weakly, the blue whiskers on either side of its nostrils drooping lifelessly to the ground.

Its abdomen rose and fell faintly, as though it might die at any moment.

The man in the tailcoat did not even glance at it. Instead, he flung his arms wide with great fervor, the smile on his face growing ever more manic.

"Everyone, perhaps the Azure Dragon itself isn't enough to convince you of its value. But what if it were also the former commander of the East Tower in District K1?"

The former commander of the East Tower in District K1?

How could someone of that standing have ended up transforming into a mutant, then being captured and put up for auction?

Xin Lan was still pondering the question when the buyers went completely wild. The man in the tailcoat announced an exorbitant starting price of two billion star coins.

The price was outrageous: the starting bid alone was high enough to buy several other auction items. Yet bids rang out one after another from the audience, with no sign of stopping.

Xin Lan: ...

Damn rich people.

Although she was rich too, she had to put every penny to good use.

As for the Azure Dragon, she'd wait and see.

Xin Lan, who had never been that wealthy, had no intention of competing with this bunch of rich lunatics. But the bidding for the former East Tower commander of District K1 did not finally stop until the price had climbed past ten billion.

Good grief.

If she hadn't confirmed that this world's currency had only inflated tenfold, which wasn't particularly severe, she might have thought more than ten billion meant more than a million.

Even so, more than a billion yuan was a lot of money.

After all, these fanatical buyers weren't taking the Azure Dragon home to worship it as a divine beast. They just wanted to abuse it to satisfy their twisted tastes.

"Fifteen billion. Any higher bids?"

The man in the tailcoat was very satisfied with the price of this auction item, and he kept smiling.

"Fifteen billion going once, fifteen billion going twice..."

He struck with his gavel twice, each blow louder than the last, but none of the buyers present was willing to bid any higher.

The excessively high price had forced everyone to calm down. Only the man who had bid fifteen billion had flames of anger burning in his eyes, a look of determination on his face.

Du Ke had originally had little interest in the Azure Dragon, but when he heard who it had been as a human, the flames of hatred were instantly ignited in his heart. Ignited along with them were the billions in assets he had painstakingly saved.

Du Ke had been a native of District K1 until he came of age, and his family had considerable influence. So after he differentiated into a sentinel, he could have easily used his family background to become the exclusive sentinel of an A-rank guide. After all, his SS rank was highly compatible with an A-rank guide.

But the A-rank guide with whom he had the highest compatibility had taken a fancy to Yu Yuan, the commander of the East Tower in District K1 at the time.

He did not resent the guide for unbinding from him because of Yu Yuan. After all, guides all preferred sentinels of higher rank and standing. He had lost because he wasn't strong enough and his rank was too low.

But he had never expected Yu Yuan to reject the olive branch the guide extended to him.

In anger, the guide blacklisted Yu Yuan and also took it out on several sentinels who had been matched with him.

They all lost their chance to become other guides' exclusive sentinels.

Afterward, his family declined because of him, and his clan members fell out of favor with guides because of his past disgrace. One after another, they failed to keep their rampage values in check, mutated, and were executed. Afraid of death, he had no choice but to slink away to K9 District...

Now that he had a chance to torture and personally kill the enemy who had destroyed his family and wiped out his clan, Du Ke could hardly wait to take Yu Yuan home, tear open his flesh with his own hands, and drink his blood straight!

For that, he was willing to spend every last bit of the wealth he had worked so hard to save over the years!

But just as the man in the tailcoat was about to bring down the gavel for the third time, a cool female voice suddenly rang out from the audience.

"Fifteen point one billion."

Everyone looked toward the voice and only then noticed that an unfamiliar face had somehow appeared among the buyers.

Although her palm-sized face was almost entirely hidden by a mask and a low-pulled baseball cap, her cascading long black hair and clear black eyes were still highly distinctive.

Noticing their strange reactions, Xin Lan clicked her tongue. A cold, deep blue light instantly lit up in her eyes.

The next second, the expressions of those who had been wondering how a strange Eastern face had turned up here all changed.

They were no longer surprised by her appearance. Instead, they all began guessing why she was deliberately going against Du Ke.

Du Ke was also very displeased.

He was already spending a fortune by putting up fifteen billion for his enemy's life. He hadn't expected someone blind enough to cause trouble even after the bidding had gone so high.

A flicker of excitement passed through the tailcoat man's eyes. He didn't care why the two were at odds; the higher the price, the more they earned.

"Fifteen point one billion going once!"

Because the starting price was high, the minimum raise each time was at least one hundred million.

But people generally didn't bid that way. Those who truly wanted something usually raised by five hundred million or a billion. Raising by a hundred million at a time, as Xin Lan did, was embarrassing to them and served little purpose.

Du Ke held a grudge against her, but he still gritted his teeth and continued bidding.

"Sixteen billion!"

He raised the price by another nine hundred million in one go.

Generally, anyone without substantial resources wouldn't dare bid higher, nor would they dare compete with someone like Du Ke, who was clearly bidding with a purpose. It was easy to incur retaliation.

But Xin Lan remained expressionless and raised her hand again. "Sixteen point one billion."

Du Ke: ?!

Damn it!

This damn woman was deliberately going against him, wasn't she?

When had he offended her?

Du Ke couldn't figure it out, but he still didn't want to give up. Gritting his teeth, he raised the price to seventeen billion.

But Xin Lan really did seem determined to compete with him.

"Seventeen point one billion."

Once again, she raised it by only a hundred million.

It was as though she were toying with him, or perhaps she was a shill, deliberately bidding against him to drive up the price.

But Du Ke felt this might be his only chance for revenge in his lifetime. After thinking it over and over, he finally decided to go all out.

"Twenty-five billion!"

That was more than half his fortune!

If this damn woman raised the bid again, he wouldn't compete with her. Yu Yuan had already completely mutated and lost his human consciousness anyway. There was no need for him to spend so much more just to get revenge.

But Xin Lan, who had been bidding against him all along, had apparently been held up by something. She lowered her head to look at her wristband, showing no intention of bidding again.

The man in the tailcoat smiled as he brought the gavel down for the third and final time. Du Ke had finally won the Azure Dragon.

But he couldn't feel happy at all.

Because of that damned woman, he had spent a full ten billion more when he could have bought the Azure Dragon for just fifteen billion!

Ten billion!

Of the considerable wealth he had originally possessed, less than ten billion was left!

Bitch!

Once the auction ended and he got outside, he'd make her pay!