Chapter 975: A Novel Design and a Terrible Performance
There was still a little time before the auction began.
Crazy Blade and Mountain Sparrow controlled “Cardboard Ancient Fang Sovereign No. 1” and successfully made it into a private room at the “auction venue.”
This disguise, which seemed ridiculously reckless, the kind of thing that could only happen in a “comic,” or even a “gag comic,” had actually worked!
And they still hadn’t been exposed!
The main reason was that no Sea Demon could possibly have imagined something as absurd as “Ancient Fang Sovereign was assassinated, and the Ancient Fang Sovereign here now is just an empty shell someone drew.”
To be fair, Crazy Blade and Mountain Sparrow had encountered quite a few Sea Demon attendants along the way. They had even asked for directions to the auction venue, somewhere Ancient Fang Sovereign should have known how to find. But no one dared question a Sea Demon Regent!
Especially one who was staggering around as if drunk, while looking stern and thoroughly displeased.
In short...
Because they were wary of the Regent’s long-standing reputation for being “ferocious” and “petty,” even if something seemed off, fear stopped the Sea Demons from questioning Ancient Fang Sovereign further or entertaining the disrespectful thought that something might be wrong with such an important figure.
If he noticed, they’d be in serious trouble!
And it was precisely this excessive, almost twisted reverence that gave Mountain Sparrow and Crazy Blade their opening!
By now, the two had reached the second floor of the auction house’s main hall, where today’s auction was about to take place. After locking the private-room door, they sat in the anonymous room reserved for Ancient Fang Sovereign. Crazy Blade let out a sigh of relief.
“Whew, I knew it would work!”
He said it, but sweat was already soaking the inside of his diving suit.
Whenever a Sea Demon spoke to him along the way, Crazy Blade had been so nervous he could barely stand it.
Compared with Crazy Blade, Mountain Sparrow was genuinely composed.
Ancient Fang Sovereign was fat rather than tall, so the two of them squeezed inside the “cardboard cutout.” Instead of Mountain Sparrow carrying Crazy Blade, Crazy Blade walked in front and Mountain Sparrow behind him, the two moving back-to-back.
Crazy Blade was responsible for speaking and watching where they were going, while Mountain Sparrow controlled Ancient Fang Sovereign’s limbs and expressions to make him look less “stiff.”
The final result was still a stern-faced drunk, but they had at least managed that much thanks to Mountain Sparrow’s efforts.
Otherwise, “Cardboard Ancient Fang Sovereign No. 1” would have looked like a moving corpse or a wax figure.
“Anyway, now that we’ve made it here, we’re halfway to succeeding. Next, we just need to use Fatty’s name to bid at the auction and see if we can get the Mermaid’s Tear or the ‘Lost Treasure.’”
Mountain Sparrow spoke in high spirits.
Crazy Blade, however, had a new question. “Wait, but we don’t have any money on us!”
“You really don’t understand Pure Abyss at all, do you? Do you think important people coming here to attend an auction have to pay on the spot and take their purchases with them? Of course they have their stewards transfer the payment through the Pure Abyss Bank from their estates afterward.” Mountain Sparrow sighed. “Even if they pay in cash, their servants come to the auction house to settle the bill later. Otherwise, why would I have gone to all this trouble to disguise myself as this fat Sea Demon Regent? It’s because of his privileges. That way, we can get our hands on the ‘Lost Treasure’ and the Mermaid’s Tear.”
“As long as we don’t name an amount the auction house thinks we might not be able to pay, forcing us to prove we have the funds in advance, we can bid whatever we want!”
Mountain Sparrow explained, and Crazy Blade was once again stunned.
“Damn, the privileged class really can get away with anything!”
“But if that’s how it works, maybe we can just take the Mermaid’s Tear and the ‘Lost Treasure’ and leave this dungeon, just to spite those two Marauders bastards,” Crazy Blade said cheerfully. “Then we wouldn’t even have to worry about how to get out of this auction house!”
“Right, that would be the ideal outcome. Especially since we’re pretending to be Ancient Fang Sovereign. They might even think we’re still the real Ancient Fang Sovereign and that we’re bidding high to buy the items for them. Then we’d resolve the organization’s assignment without shedding a drop of blood.” Mountain Sparrow paused. “But we still need to prepare for the worst, in case those two Marauders figure out something is wrong with this ‘Ancient Fang Sovereign,’ or the Mermaid’s Tear is bought by another mysterious bidder.”
“Then we’ll have to figure out how to leave the auction house while still staying active in the Sea Demon capital, instead of simply exiting the dungeon.”
Mountain Sparrow added.
Hearing that, Crazy Blade was no longer so optimistic. “We do need to prepare a backup plan... What if we reveal that Ancient Fang Sovereign is dead ourselves, and use it to mislead everyone?”
After hearing Crazy Blade’s suggestion, Mountain Sparrow, a comic artist who often came up with all kinds of unusual stories, was immediately inspired.
“That’s a genius idea... Crazy Blade, you’ve given me a great idea!”
“Yeah, if we just wait for Ancient Fang Sovereign to be assassinated, the fact that we’re impostors will come out. But if we plan it out a little, we can muddy the timeline of his death. That’s a common trick in mystery comics too: fake the crime scene and the time of death!”
“We could make it look as if Ancient Fang Sovereign was assassinated right here at the auction. We’d dump that guy’s corpse in this private room, then set off an explosion or something. A sudden incident like that would really confuse everyone and send them in the wrong direction. The whole venue would definitely descend into chaos. The truth might come out eventually, but it would buy us a lot of time to move around. We might not even be investigated as ‘suspects.’”
The more Mountain Sparrow spoke, the more excited he became. The plan might not be perfect, but its clever design made it genuinely useful.
Crazy Blade understood Mountain Sparrow’s plan and was just as excited. “Damn, if we did that, wouldn’t those Sea Demons be completely at our mercy? Maybe we’d even leave those two Marauders totally baffled!”
In the anonymous room next door, Lin Yu pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Ugh...”
April looked at Lin Yu curiously. “Why’d you suddenly sigh?”
“Nothing. I was just feeling a little regretful.”
Lin Yu sighed softly.
The “plot” the two next door had come up with was actually pretty decent. That “Mountain Sparrow” fellow, the “comic artist,” really did have a knack for coming up with “scene designs.”
But an amateur was still an amateur. The most important thing about a good “script” or a good “scene” was how it was performed!
Those two had a great idea, but their acting was fatally bad.
Still, their “scene design” could add quite a bit to his own “script,” so Lin Yu had no intention of exposing them.
“Come back, Hannah. There’s no need to keep watching those two.”
“Croak! As you command, Director!”