Calamity Is Worried About You. It Brings You Its Favorite Misfortune
Two-thirds of the auction had passed when those in charge sensed something amiss.
"Isn't today's premium bidding happening too often?"
"Yes. Especially since the midpoint, the number of bids with premium pricing has shot up. If it were once or twice, fine—but so many people are buying planets at any cost. That's suspicious."
"I hope nothing's gone wrong."
Out of concern, they quickly approached the Planetary Resources Office and informed the official in charge.
"An increase in premium bids?"
The Crystal Tower official thought for a moment, then shook his head:
"What does that have to do with us? Collecting more Anjin is a good thing, isn't it?"
The auction manager was worried: "But the attendees are all people of wealth or status. If they're upset, might they blame us—?"
"They'd point fingers at our Planetary Resources Office?" The official scoffed. "They've made plenty from their workshops. Now, in our time of hardship, we have to sell state-owned resources. Paying extra to help us through is their duty. Lots of people want to buy planets but don't even qualify!"
"I see!" The auction staff caught on.
In the Planetary Resources Office's view, the whole operation was meant to boost foreign exchange. Squeezing out the workshops' foreign reserves also prevented them from fleeing abroad.
Planets are like real estate, a classic form of tied-up assets. Once you buy, you must maintain it long-term. Owning a planet is like a mortgage—constantly paying monthly dues. So the civilization needn't worry about them escaping.
On the contrary, those who purchase planets—faced with the initial development hurdles—will rely even more on the civilization. At most, once they're wealthy, they might seek independence. Even if it came to that, it'd be far down the line. Meanwhile, all the Anjin collected can tide them over immediate difficulties.
Li Aozi had precisely seized on this.
"Your tactics aren't all that subtle."
Nikita pursed his lips:
"When #016, #190, and #122 prepare to bid, you raise the price a ton. Aren't you afraid they'll band together later to block you from winning White Candle Star?"
"Of course not. To place bids, one needs enough reserves. Otherwise, it's deemed unlawful or fraud."
Folding his fingers together, Li Aozi chuckled:
"Though I've been acting like a shill, I'm not spouting random numbers. I only ramp up the bidding on planets you, Nikita, confirm to be valuable. And I vary the number of times I do it. Each time, the other side at least overpays 30% of the planet's actual value. Repeating that a few times will probably leave them short on funds."
"But this way, everyone knows bidder #077—that's you—is disrupting the order." Nikita fretted: "Not everyone's short on money. Some must have large Anjin reserves. If they gang up later—"
"They won't."
Li Aozi opened the list, gazing at the completed sales, while purple-red nebulae slowly spun in his eyes.
"Soon they'll be busy handling more urgent issues."
Nikita didn't understand, but seeing how confident Li Aozi looked, he didn't push it.
Nor did Li Aozi reveal his trump card.
[Sequence Seventy-Seven • Calamity]
After five years of cooldown, [Calamity] was again under his control. This Omega Energy that interfered with fate and magnified disasters had never let him down.
The most crucial point:
Of all the Omega Energies he possessed, [Calamity] had the farthest reach and broadest scope.
Its range is described as "any object within visual range," which begs interpretation: what counts as visual range?
Lifting your head to see the stars, downloading an image online, video chatting from afar, observing a microscopic world of particles…
Granted, differences in resolution aside, all those are "within visual range."
But [Calamity] isn't precise. For direct, coarse targets, it takes effect quickly; for finer, more minute things, it struggles to latch on and requires time to build up.
Li Aozi's target wasn't any specific user ID.
Put simply, he cursed the entire auction website—including himself. Everyone shared the same misfortune.
Unlike his predicament with Remaining Moon back then, facing a complete version of Remaining Moon—who was of the [Domination] path, high in [Charisma], and quite resistant to Omega Energy—had cost Li Aozi nearly all his "blue bar" (mana). He had to stack up calamities to pull off that kill.
Besides, this time he wasn't trying to kill. He only wanted those internal academic clans and workshop owners of Crystal Tower to bleed a little. It was small payback for abandoning thirty billion ordinary people on White Candle Star and interfering with his lawful bidding.
Calamity doesn't directly affect finances.
In truth, even Li Aozi only partly grasped the trick to this Omega Energy.
The process is incremental, layering catastrophe until it fully erupts.
And the definition of "catastrophe" is broad—maybe even abstract. Nobody can define it all at once.
On the small scale: choking on water, getting stuck in traffic and arriving late, a boss suddenly checking on you, or your usually indifferent girlfriend suddenly deciding to investigate every unknown woman in your phone… That can count as a disaster.
On the large scale: a stolen national exam paper, dying from a meteor strike on your way to school, or having your fiancée mutate into a fire-breathing monster mid-wedding, gulping you down in one go.
Discussing it with Nastisha, Li Aozi discovered this:
Calamity's role is to keep piling up misfortunes.
The first attempt might trigger pollen allergies, but if you wear a mask and stay away from flowers, next it might try having a bike crash into you. Maybe you dodge. Fine—then it may line up a dump truck.
If it can't kill you once, it escalates until you're wiped out.
That's how it kept calling reinforcements against Remaining Moon.
At first, it tried small ways—causing Colonial Gear delays or bodily glitches, mental confusion. But no matter how many disasters piled up, it couldn't kill him outright.
Then, Calamity switched tactics: it wanted to lure Balkomon out. But perhaps as a Kappa-tier (10) powerhouse, Balkomon was too strong, his destiny snapping back on track.
So Calamity downgraded, setting off smaller disasters to get the attention of other fortress elites.
Possibly restricted by Li Aozi's insufficient [Charisma]—unable to conjure truly top-tier assistance—it eventually settled for Nastisha, the academy head.
With her Eta-tier (7) power, she could definitely fight Remaining Moon or repel support from the Night Butterfly Federation. Even so, Remaining Moon was too tough for Nastisha to kill outright, leading to the subsequent chain of events.