The room collectively held its breath.
Mark felt his heart rate spike despite himself. This was it. This was what two hundred wealthy people had gathered here to compete for. This was what his entire land flip scheme and bike sacrifice had been building toward. Everything reduced to this moment.
[ESTIMATED COMPETITION: 15-20 serious bidders]
[RECOMMENDATION: Wait for initial bidding war to eliminate weak competitors. Enter at strategic moment. Conserve resources.]
"We will begin the bidding," the auctioneer announced, her voice cutting through the silence with practiced authority, "at five hundred thousand dollars."
A pause that felt like held breath. Then paddles started rising throughout the room like flowers blooming in fast-forward. Five, ten, fifteen hands in the air. The competition was real.
"Actually, I'm going home with that stone tonight," Alex said beside him, tone light and joking but meaning every word. He was still composed, relaxed even, and he hadn't raised his paddle yet. Waiting. Patient.
"Is that a joke?" Mark asked with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Because I also came specifically for it."
Alex looked at Mark as the bidding continued around them, paddles rising and falling as numbers climbed. He knew the truth without saying it: Mark couldn't possibly outbid him with whatever resources he'd scraped together. Alex had access to family money that made a million dollars look like pocket change.
"The Bloodglass is currently at seven hundred thousand dollars," the auctioneer announced, her voice rising with practiced excitement. "Seven hundred thousand, going once, going twice—"
Before she could declare it sold, a young woman in an elaborate pink dress raised her paddle with dramatic flair. The number on her paddle was impossible to miss.
"Miss Elena Volkov has bid eight hundred thousand dollars," the auctioneer announced with renewed energy.
Elena sat back in her seat with obvious confidence, certain that no one in this room was crazy enough to outbid her by such a significant margin. She whispered something to her personal adviser, probably already planning where she'd display her new acquisition. But she was wrong about the room.
Alex Sentara didn't raise his paddle. Instead, he calmly turned on the table microphone—a feature reserved for serious bidders who didn't need to wave paddles like amateurs—and spoke with quiet authority that carried through every speaker in the hall.
"Nine hundred thousand dollars."
Every head in the room turned. The jump was aggressive. Intimidating. A statement that said he had resources and wasn't afraid to use them.
Elena whispered urgently to her adviser again, her confidence visibly cracking. The math was simple: she was outgunned.
"It's called timing, bro," Alex said quietly to Mark, quoting words that Hugo had taught him years ago. Words about knowing when to strike in negotiations. "You wait until everyone else exhausts themselves, then you come in strong."
"Nine hundred thousand dollars," the auctioneer repeated, clearly delighted by the drama. "Going once, going twice, going thrii—"
"One million dollars."
Mark's voice cut through the room as he raised his paddle high. Clear. Unmistakable. Final.
The auctioneer actually paused, thrown off her rhythm. Mark pressed the microphone button on his table, letting his voice carry through the hall with the same quiet authority Alex had used.
"One million dollars."
The auctioneer's mouth opened slightly, clearly wanting to ask who this young man was, where he'd come from, what family he represented. But professional pride stopped her. She couldn't show that level of surprise without embarrassing herself and the auction house.
Around the room, wealthy faces turned to study this new player. A teenager none of them recognized. No family name they could place. No obvious connections or introductions. Perhaps he was from one of the great invisible families, they presumed. Old money that stayed off lists and out of magazines.
Alex stared at Mark with something between shock and respect, recalculating everything he thought he knew about his classmate.
The auctioneer waited, scanning the room for any additional bids. Elena had slumped back in her seat, defeated. No one else moved. A million dollars for a diamond was madness, even at an event like this. It exceeded even the high-end appraisal. The silence stretched. Final and absolute.
"At one million dollars," the auctioneer said slowly, savoring the moment, "the Bloodglass is sold to bidder forty-seven, Mr. Mark Lidorf."
Applause erupted throughout the hall. Genuine appreciation for the boldness of the bid, for the drama of the moment. This was what people came to these auctions for—not just the items, but the theater of wealth in competition.
"Who the hell are you?" Alex asked, his voice low and intense. "And don't give me that 'not really rich' bullshit. You just dropped a million dollars like it was nothing."
Mark smiled but didn't answer. Instead, he pulled out his system card—that unmarked black card that had held his fortune—and inserted it into the payment terminal built into their table. The machine beeped, processing. Confirming.
A notification appeared in Mark's vision.
[TASK FOUR: COMPLETE | BLOODGLASS ACQUIRED: $1,000,000 PAID]
[REWARD: $2,000,000 DEPOSITED TO SYSTEM CARD | CURRENT BALANCE: $2,000,000.00]
[CONGRATULATIONS: You have successfully completed all beginner-level tasks.]
[NEW TIER UNLOCKED: PLATINUM OPERATIONS]
[Player level: 2 ]
The payment terminal chirped its approval. Transaction complete. The Bloodglass was legally his.
Around them, people were still talking, still speculating about who this Mark Lidorf was and where he'd come from. Elena was leaving in a huff, her pink dress swishing dramatically. Other bidders were shaking their heads, some impressed, some annoyed at being outplayed.
"You're serious," Alex said, watching the payment go through. "You actually just bought it."
"I'm serious."
"How? Where did you—" Alex stopped himself, clearly thinking through possibilities. The timing. Mark showing up at school with a motorcycle then selling it days later. The confidence that had appeared from nowhere. "You must be playing at a completely different level than the rest of us, aren't you?"
"Maybe."
An attendant appeared at their table with a velvet box, placing it ceremoniously in front of Mark. "Your Bloodglass, Mr. Lidorf. Congratulations on your acquisition. Papers and certification will be processed and delivered to your registered address within eight hours."
Mark opened the box. There it was. Fifteen carats of red diamond, worth—according to the system—two million dollars in value but only one million in cost. The ultimate flip. The perfect arbitrage.
"Can I see it?" Alex asked, genuine curiosity overriding his shock.
Mark closed the box and tucked it into his jacket pocket. "Maybe another time."
"You're unbelievable," Alex said, but there was admiration in his voice now.
A new notification suddenly popped into Mark's vision, overlaying everything else with urgent priority.
[QUICK QUEST: SUPPLEMENT TASK]
[OBJECTIVE: Give the Bloodglass to Elena Volkov]
[REWARD: $1,000,000]