After a while.
As the guests gradually arrived, the auction officially began.
The auctioneer appeared to be very professional, holding a small hammer and eagerly introducing various items with enticing and thrilling words to encourage others to bid.
To Baimu's surprise, those celebrity autographed photos and used items seemed particularly popular, attracting many bidders.
Does the Ore Region have their fans too?
Quite ironic.
Soon, batches of Deino were also brought onto the stage by the staff, their lively and energetic demeanor in the cages impressed many attendees.
Seeing their energetic appearance, Baimu wasn't sure if they were truly healthy or if they had been fed some kind of stimulants before going on stage. It was really difficult to distinguish from a distance.
As the auctioneer introduced these Pokémon, what he claimed was naturally—
"From the mysterious Unova Dragon Land, the powerful and fierce initial form of Hydreigon, a total of six Deino! Please take a look!"
The reputation of Dragon Land was indeed extraordinary, and upon hearing this, many people around became excited.
Of course, there is a difference between those born in Dragon Land and the main Pokémon personally trained by Trainers from Dragon Land, so after the bidding reached fifty million, the pace of raising bids slowly decreased.
When it reached sixty million, only two people were left competing.
The final price was locked at sixty-five million.
Each Deino was worth over ten million!
Baimu silently clicked his tongue, thinking this amount could have bought that Arcanine he once saw, with a Manager Level starting directly at a sky-high price, who would buy a Dragon-type Pokémon that's difficult to evolve at Level 20 or 30.
A Quasi-God must evolve to its final stage to be called a Quasi-God.
However, "mature" Pokémon with high levels and ages have a drawback; their personality and specialized ability values are already fixed, similar to a Pokémon with messed-up Effort Value distribution that also missed many important moves.
The key is that there's no way to revisit a memory NPC to recall them, nor can they rely on Tree Fruit and NPC to reduce effort, giving an impression of a wasted training effort.
With the level of the Trainers in Pyrite Town, it's hard to cultivate them to the next stage.
Switching direction.
The planned auction of the Pokémon——the combination of Solrock and Lunatone appeared, reportedly the "Split Body" of the two from Hoenn Lvling City Gym Leader Xiaofeng and Konan.
What is a Split Body? It is a special breeding method for some genderless Pokémon in certain egg groups and mineral groups, after all, there aren't that many Ditto for them to breed sort of thing naturally finds its own special reproductive method.
This thing is probably only visible in the backdrop of the animation, like the Pokémon clone offspring born as a Nidoqueen in the Mewtwo Strikes Back, and the Divine Beast Lugia that wasn't supposed to breed but did anyway.
Baimu participated in the bidding on behalf of "Shanren," keeping a blank expression as people looked over, looking like a subordinate.
"Shanren" sat with a smile at the corners of his lips, wearing sunglasses, exuding an extraordinary aura, as if everything was under control.
However.
What surprised Baimu was that no one dared to bid against him after he made his offer. After all, even with the worst Pokémon, usually more than one person would bid, especially for the "Split Body" of Gym Leader's Pokémon.
The prestige is too great.
Just as he was thinking this, "Shanren" suddenly changed his expression to one of anger.
He was startled, and then he saw someone else raise a bid.
What is this?
What's the meaning?
"The organizers saw that I was upset and let a plant bid against me," Shanren's voice, with a hint of laughter, reached his ears, "It's not for nothing that I've been displaying a haughty image all these days."
Baimu listened while watching "Shanren" turn sideways, covering his mouth as if saying something.
In reality, he didn't say a thing.
Shanren in the earphones continued, "Just abandon the bidding, pretend as if you're throwing a tantrum."
Marvelous.
Baimu felt an urge to applaud but held back.
Shanren: "Do I need to repeat your duties again?"
He couldn't respond.
"The antiques segment will begin shortly, the pace will quicken, and the host will stir up the atmosphere to the point where the bidders can't keep up, and the backstage will become hectic. That's our best chance to make a move," Shanren kept talking to himself.
"At that time, you don't have to do anything, just follow Ditto outside, then go find trouble with the person in charge, curse along with those people."
As he finished speaking.
Just as he said, the auction transitioned into the antiques and jewelry segment, and these money-tied items drove the white-gloved crowd into madness, raising their bids like Diglett emerging from holes.
Even Baimu, under Shanren's instruction, hastily raised his bid, and his prestige from before seemed ineffective in front of such things.
——Normal.
Everyone here comes with a mission to accomplish something, whilst Solrock and Lunatone can be given up, antiques and jewelry cannot.
As the scene grew increasingly tense and exciting, Baimu symbolically put on a curious look and, like everyone around him, kept turning his head to observe who was raising the bids.
When the penultimate treasure, the second-to-last antique came on stage, the host excitedly shouted:
"This is from Carlos' three-thousand-year-old dynasty——Ziga!!!"
Suddenly, an unbearably loud static noise blasted from the speakers, causing the guests present to cover their ears and look at the host with frowns of dissatisfaction.
But in the next moment.
The entire venue suddenly went dark.
"Power outage?"
"What's going on?"
"What's your auction doing? Is someone taking the opportunity to steal something?"
The noise reverberated everywhere, then the lights came back on, and everyone looked at the antique covered by a glass case on the stage. Thankfully, it hadn't been stolen.
The host, somewhat embarrassed yet a bit proud, said, "Ladies and gentlemen, there's no need to worry, our security measures—"
The voice abruptly stopped.
Because the lights went out again, and the host's subsequent voice became as weak as a mosquito's hum.
"No power again! If you can't do an auction, don't do it!"
"Get your manager out here!"
The uproar arose again, and everyone was hoping the lights would come on once more.
And they did light up indeed.
But only for a moment before exploding like overload!
Bang bang bang!!
The shards from countless bulbs flew everywhere, and screams and shouts filled the air, then the ground began to tremble, with crashing sounds overhead.
"Earthquake—!!"
"Run!"
"Get outside!"
Someone shouted, and suddenly the crowd surged outward, Baimu mingling among them with Ditto and Alakazam, watching the scene with a strange expression.
The auction's reaction to the rush seemed a bit slow. Had no one ever dared to provoke them before?
Indeed.
Since after all, it was the mayor operating behind the scenes.
Before long.
All the guests were outside, and most of the staff were as well, some hugging antiques and gems, and some others had Pokémon with them.
Baimu did not spot Shanren and Wu among them, completely unsure if they succeeded, he paused, looking around.
He watched as staff ran to and fro, occasionally some running back in, then hurriedly coming out.
From fragmented snippets, he seemed to hear many reports of thefts, and the expressions of those auction people quickly grew anxious,
Many?
Baimu's expression was a bit strange, as Shanren had said the target was only Deino, had they encountered some competitor?
He pressed his earpiece, wanting to know if this person had said anything.
However, there was none.
Soon, news of the thefts spread among the guests, who rushed to the head to question loudly what would happen with the items they had already bid on.
Baimu stormed in per the plan, shouting, and saw the head explaining something with a troubled expression, feeling amused inside.
Thieves and robbers being robbed and stolen, how interesting.
"You two being so silent, isn't it not quite right?" he returned to his spot, turned, and said.
Unexpectedly.
"At times like this, silence is enough."
Shanren suddenly spoke, seeing Baimu's eyes widen, saying, "Stay calm, who knows if there's a camera somewhere."
"A camera?"
"Just kidding, no matter how many, they've all been remotely hacked. These people's low-level information technology relies entirely on Pokémon, little do they know the real rulers of the network are still humans, especially those human tech experts."
His words resonated deeply with Baimu.
In Twilight Wings' short story, the Galar Alliance President Luozi's secretary seemed to be skilled in information technology, making the invading wild Rotom cry for mercy.
"It's about time, let's go in."
Shanren spoke.
The crowd moved back inside the auction house, and as they passed by the head, they received his sincere apology.
"I am truly sorry for your experience today, such an unexpected incident was beyond our anticipation..."
This person babbled on, and Shanren merely removed his sunglasses, giving him a cold glance, causing the head to swiftly shut up.
"Impressive indeed."
"Relying on the elders behind me, nothing to do with my own power."
Shanren at this moment resembled the kind of wealthy second-generation refusing to depend on his family, venturing out alone to make himself.