Black Market…it wasn't an exact location.
Shadow Order had many secret realms, and every time, it was in a different secret realm. And no secret realm stayed in the same position.
How did Black Market came to be?
Well, Shadow Order wanted to create a trading platform of sorts for every illegal item in the federation.
Especially for the mainly expensive ones.
Why?
Easy money. For every transaction in the black market, Shadow Order had a cut.
But were the buyer and seller both fools?
Nope. If anything, they were happy that Black Market existed.
It's normal to kill the other party in these shady transactions to grab the items. But with the emergence of Shadow Order, such things were prohibited in the Black Market.
Offenders were killed without questioning.
While Black Market ate up a not so small part of profits, it became indespinsbile to shady transactions.
Inevitably, every grey organization—gangs, drug dealers, traffickers started using Black Market.
Not just them, even some families that were 'normal' got involved in black market for few items normally unavailable.
Shadow order went a step further and also acted as an intermediary between the clients and organizations.
Thus began spying, kidnappings, assassinations, suicide attacks and so on.
What began as a venture for profit turned into a powerful network that turned into one of Shadow Order's pillar.
Now, Shadow Order generated nearly 70% of revenue from black markets.
Each planet had one dedicated black market. Except for Earth's, which was destroyed.
Uranus also had one. But uniquely, even Uranus cluster cities were given a black market.
Though this black market was closed frequently after Dreamer's actions citing security reasons, it was finally back on track.
The grand auction welcomed the powers from the twenty cites, a rare occurrence.
"Pleasant greetings, ladies and gentlemen." A sonorous voice reverberated across the auction hall.
A charming woman in short red dress stood on the elevated stage as she looked at the audience in the semicircular seating arrangement with a smile.
At the bottom were the VIPs, and the higher the footing, the more distant the seat was from the stage, the less important the participants were.
So, people of same standing were more or less seated together. As they were all men and women with blood on their hands, they had a lot of conflicts with each other.
They just didn't have the chance to meet their opponents face to face. Now, they did.
So, mocking greetings turned into tauntings, which degraded into insults and soon, they were swearing at each other's face and were on the verge of breaking into conflict.
As a professional, the auctioneer didn't lose her composer. This happened every single time an auction was conducted.
She kept her gaze natural and mouth closed. There was a bright smile on her face, which someone mistakenly thought as her being timid and wanting to not appear awkward.
Until—
"Yufie is happy to be host of this grand auction. I hope you all can follow the rules. Or face the consequences."
Her voice sounded directly in everyone's mind. At the end, her words were sharp and cold. Everyone felt like they were stinged by a cold needle, regardless of their levels.
And the warning told them that next time, they'd feel like they were stabbed by a sword in the throat.
The powerhouses in the audience frowned.
Strong. Extremely Strong.
The moment they felt her mental power in their mind, they concluded.
Peak level 8 or…a low level 9!
"Hiss!" Involuntarily, they sucked in cold breath.
The strongest in the audience was only a peak level 8. But to Shadow Order, just an auctioneer was so strong!
The gangsters who were usually unruly and dismissive of the Order felt a sense of awe and fear.
From the Cosa brotherhood in Valos to Golden drug gangs in Orion, everyone fell silent.
Even Viper gang that was itching to settle a grudge with Cosa brotherhood held back.
Yufie's smile brightened and her voice continued to sound in everyone's heads. "Good. You all know the highlight of the auction. It'll be auctioned at the end. But we've got some really interesting, high quality products."
With a snap, a white flower petal enclosed in a crystal sphere appeared above the stage.
"It's a crucial ingredient for one of the best control poisons—fabled Ylocan flower. Of course, not a whole petal. That's too precious.
It's a 1/100th trimmed petal. Now, let's begin the bid." Yumie raised her hand signaling them to begin.
"10,000 aura crystals!" A small gang leader took the lead.
"15,000!" Her rival immediately followed.
"Dregs, fuck off! 25,000!" A rich intel network boss sneered.
"50,000 aura crystals! Shut up, y'all!" The arrogant young master of a powerful gang won it in the end.
"The second item is a FTL communication device. As you all know, it takes a few minutes for your messages to travel between planets. For your important kidnapping missions, delays are fatal.
Here, we provide latest FTL comms. They need a space stone and are very costly. But we promise, they are worth every bit." Yufie presented a brown wristband.
Upon closer inspection, a small space stone could be found embedded in it.
"30,000 aura crystals!"
"60,000"
"…."
The auction continued as the items got sold out one by one. Some items, for instance, FTL watches were sold multiple times in the same item slot.
Soon, the auction inched closer and closer.
The penultimate item was a talisman—a metal engraved with strange runes, it could block off the attack of a level 7. From the foreign script engraved on the talisman, everyone recognized it to be written in Abysse.
Not just the criminals, even the Abyssals sold their products here. But sometimes, the price wasn't aura crystals.
"As long as you assassinate the children of level 7 military officer of Orion City, and provide the proof, you are eligible."
Many gangs wanted to take the mission. But the Shadow Order allowed only three based on their 'credibility rating'.
Then came the highlight.
"The legendary Siloy Potion."
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A/N: Releases of last 2 days have been halted due to filling priv. It's sorted out now.. The updates will be normal from the reset.