MM Racing Chapter 122 Auction Train
Chapter 122 Auction Train
The Beasts Pirates currently have a total of 5 ships and approximately 6100 people including those at the MADS Research Institute.
As it happened, Rodney brought 10 guides, so Kaido simply divided the entire group into eleven teams.
Ten teams went to the island for sightseeing, while one team was responsible for guarding the boats.
They rotate every day, not counting today. After all the teams have rotated, they will set off for the next island.
Stroll along the bustling and crowded streets of Carnival City.
Pedestrians on the roadside readily made way for Kaido and his crew.
"Ugh, am I that scary?"
Kaido arrived at a newsstand on the street and bought a newspaper.
Unsurprisingly, the headline on the front page was about Kaido destroying Lupo Island and killing Lugi Arno.
The news reports were extremely exaggerated, vividly depicting the battle scene.
Although there was no deliberate attempt to slander Kaido, the writer's writing style truly conveyed a rather strong sense of despair.
In particular, the author deliberately mentioned in the article that Kaido has completely destroyed every island he has encountered since entering the Grand Line.
Before reaching Carnival City, three islands had already been destroyed by Kaido.
The author predicts that Carnival City, the fourth island on the route, will likely also encounter misfortune.
Of course, he deliberately obscured the fact that the first three islands were all under Lugi Arno's control.
But it seems that this vague writing style, with nine parts truth and one part ambiguity, really scared Rodney, the mayor of Carnival City.
Make him slide to his knees at lightning speed after Kaido arrives.
"Hmm, this writer is interesting."
Kaido saw the author's signature at the end of the article: "I am a little bird."
A thought struck him.
One might speculate: Could it be that scruffy bird from Morgans?
If it were him, would it be possible to recruit him?
As someone from the information age, Kaido is well aware of the immense power of news and public opinion.
If Kaido could intercept Morgans before he rose to power and become his financial backer, he could absolutely control the future public opinion landscape of the pirate world.
Thinking of this, he turned and handed the newspaper to Sonny.
"Pay more attention to the author of this article. If you have the opportunity, contact him and tell him that I can give him a chance to interview him in person."
Sonny took the newspaper, glanced at the signature, and then nodded slightly. "I'll remember that, Captain. I'll keep an eye on it for you."
Then, Kaido picked up the newly purchased bounty poster.
Only a few days have passed, and the pirate crew's bounty has been updated again.
[Azure Dragon Kaido - Bounty 18 billion Berries!]
[The Godfather Capone Sonny - Bounty 180 million Berry!]
[Fire Spirit Cat Miskina Olga - Bounty 7700 million Berries!]
[Female assassin Makima - Bounty 4000 million Berries!]
[Shadow Moonlight Moria - Bounty 3000 million Berries!]
Archaeologist Nicole Olvia – Bounty: 2500 million Berries!
[Elizabeth the Pet - Bounty 5000 Berries!]
As before, the bounty was deliberately kept low.
Apart from Kaido himself gaining 2 million Berries, the others only gained tens of millions of Berries at most.
Even the junior officers recently promoted by Kaido haven't had a single bounty appear.
"What's the point of deliberately lowering the bounty?"
Kaido scoffed inwardly, "In the first half of the Grand Line, would anyone really dare to challenge me?!"
Kaido casually tossed the new bounty to Sunny, and then, with Bakkin, Makima, and his twelve maids, began to act independently.
Seeing this, Olga and Olvia also formed a new group and left the main group to travel independently.
Seeing this, many more Beast Pirates followed suit.
In an instant, the entire Beasts Pirates were completely broken up.
Rodney, the guide, watched as groups of people left and became somewhat at a loss.
"You don't need to worry. It's not that you've done a bad job as a guide; it's just that they prefer to act alone."
Upon hearing this, the guide nodded slightly, and Kaido continued to provide guidance services to Sunny and the others who remained in place.
After leaving the main group, Olga and Olvia boarded the island auction train that the guide had previously mentioned.
This is a major feature of Carnival Island.
A train that travels in a circle.
When other celebrations are held, this train serves as a stage for live performances by various artists.
When hosting this auction-themed celebration, it became a mobile auction venue around the island.
The entire train consists of three main areas and five carriages.
The first section is the locomotive, nothing much to say about that.
The second, third, and fourth sections are the carriages where the buyers travel.
The final, fifth section is naturally the stage for the auctioneers to perform and explain the auction.
The entire process of auctioning the train is as follows.
First, the train departs from the starting point.
Along the way, at intervals, there are shops that have been arranged in advance, carrying their so-called "treasures of the shop" onto the train from the second carriage.
After boarding, this so-called treasure will be placed on a trolley and carried from the second section all the way to the fifth section.
Buyers can get a close look at the products during this process.
Once the auction items are delivered to the fifth carriage, that's when the auctioneer begins their performance.
At intervals on the ceiling of the carriages where the buyers were traveling, video monitors were installed, which would play the images and sound from the fifth carriage in real time.
If a buyer is interested in the auction items, or simply enjoys the auctioneer's performance and wants to buy the items he introduces, then...
You can press the switch on the armrest of the chair, and then a flight attendant will come over and ask the buyer to write the price on a piece of cardboard.
After writing it down, the buyer needs to indicate the auction number that the conductor gave them when they boarded the train.
After that, the flight attendant will put the cardboard into a black box, so that it will not be seen by other buyers.
This greatly protects the personal safety of buyers.
Some professional snatchers can only roughly guess who is bidding on a certain item, but they can't pinpoint the exact individual bidder.
Of course, when competition for certain products is so fierce that only two buyers remain to compete, then it becomes easier to guess.
In addition to the auction items prepared in advance by the auction house, any individual who wants to sell their goods can board the train at any time during the journey.
The process remains the same as above: the goods are first publicly displayed in the second, third, and fourth carriages.
Once inside the fifth carriage, a professional evaluation team will provide an estimate, followed by an auctioneer's presentation and explanation to entice buyers to make a purchase.
After listening to the flight attendant's long explanation, Olga felt her head was spinning.
Fortunately, she had Olvia, the brains of the group, by her side, and she successfully understood all the rules.
"Let's go, we can just find an empty seat."
They said they would just find an empty seat, but in reality, they didn't want to share a seat with anyone.
After passing through the packed No. 2 carriage and the equally packed No. 3 carriage, we arrived at the crowded No. 4 carriage.
Olga glanced around, but being short, she couldn't see where there were any empty seats.
So she turned to look at Olvia.
Olvia smiled indulgently and took the lead, walking towards the last row.
Olga followed along.
"Hehehe! You guys are here too!"
"Moria..."
Olga stared blankly at the tall young man who had suddenly appeared.
"Since you got on the bus first, why didn't you choose a better seat?"
Olga glanced at the connection between carriages 4 and 5.
The toilets are located at the connecting points between each carriage.
Moriah's seat at that moment was right next to the toilet, separated by a wall.
Olga expressed considerable disapproval of this.
Moriah helplessly shrugged.
"I didn't want to either. When I got on the bus, this was the only empty seat available."
"Then why don't you kick the other people off the bus?!"
Okay, okay~
Olvia reached out and ruffled Olga's little head.
"Captain Kaido forbids us from attacking this island, and Moria is simply following the rules of the car, which is not wrong."
"Hehehe! As expected of Sister Olvia, she's much more sensible than you, little girl!!"
"I'm not a little girl!"
Olga retorted, "I'm 172 years old now!!"
"Hehehe, yes, yes, you're already a few hundred years old."
Laughing and joking, Moria rose from his seat, making way for Olvia, Olga, and Elizabeth to sit in the seats on the inside.
Olga, seeing this, let out a slightly displeased snort.
Apart from a few original members, not many people in the Beasts Pirates know that she and Asie lived for over 100 years using pure gold.
So although Moria's attitude displeased Olga, she couldn't really produce any so-called evidence to prove it to him.
The two people and the lizard sat down together in the same seat.
After all, this was a seat that even Moria, who was 4 meters tall, could fit in. Even if the three of them squeezed into one seat, they wouldn't feel crowded at all.
After the brief commotion, the three people and the lizard began to quietly watch the display screen installed on the roof of the carriage.
In the video, the auctioneer is enthusiastically introducing an antique.
Olga listened to the auctioneer's introduction and nudged Olvia's arm.
"Sister Olvia, aren't you a big fan of archaeology? Aren't you going to buy this antique?"
Olvia smiled and said, "This antique comes from the Kingdom of Faihan 400 years ago."
"Although ancient, the Kingdom of Faihan has a complete historical record, and the number of artifacts unearthed from it is relatively large among all ancient kingdoms."
"Therefore, this antique does indeed have considerable collectible value for ordinary people."
"But for a scholar like me who is more concerned with lost information from ancient times, this antique belongs to the type that is least worth buying."
"Oh~~"
Olga nodded knowingly.
She then continued to watch the screen quietly.
"Is there anyone willing to make an offer?!"
"Is there anyone willing to make an offer?!"
The auctioneer's introduction and performance on the screen had ended, and the train attendant pushed a small cart, continuously calling out to passengers starting from carriage number 2.
During the journey, passengers would occasionally raise their hands to receive a piece of cardboard from the flight attendant, write down the price, and then hand it back.
Soon, the flight attendant came to Olga and her companions.
Just before entering carriage number 5, she deliberately paused for a moment, then turned around again and asked, "Is there any passenger who wants to make an offer?!"
"Me! Me!!"
Olga raised her little hand high.
The flight attendant was a curvaceous blonde woman wearing an office lady uniform with black stockings.
She turned around with a smile and handed the two pieces of cardboard to Moria.
"Please have this guest pass it on for me."
Moriah was speechless, but he did as he was told.
Olga took the cardboard.
Two pieces of cardboard, one blank, which she could fill in with the auction amount and buyer's number as she pleased.
The other section contains a list of bids without buyer numbers.
It allows people to see at a glance what the highest bid is, but doesn't reveal who the specific bidder is.
Olga looked back and forth between the two pieces of cardboard.
He eventually wrote 10000 Berry on a blank cardboard and attached his buyer's number.
The flight attendant took back the cardboard box passed by Moria, saw Olga's offer, and smiled indulgently.
He thought to himself, "He's still just a child!"
However, on the surface, she did not do anything impolite.
After calling out twice more to see if anyone had made a bid, and receiving no response, he pushed the cart and officially entered carriage number 5.
The auctioneer picked up the list and his eyes immediately fell on the highest bid.
"The highest bid this time is 186 million Berries! Is there any other VIP willing to bid again?!"
After another enthusiastic performance, the blonde beauty from before came out again, pushing her cart.
And so it went on for several rounds.
Ultimately, the antique was successfully sold for 217 million Berries.
Afterwards, the new auction items began to be exhibited in the carriages.
Olga craned her neck to observe.
This item is a famous sword, one of the fifty fine swords.
The design is that of a classic Western sword, with a total length of 1.5 meters, which is a size that a normal person can use.
After being displayed, the sword was sent to carriage number 5.
The auctioneer began to exaggerate and praise the sword.
Ultimately, the starting bid for this rapier was set at 100 million Berries, and the final sale price was 300 million Berries.
After that, several more precious items were auctioned off.
Olga would almost always deliberately stop the beautiful flight attendant and then offer her a price that left her both amused and exasperated.
Moriah, who was acting as the middleman, was extremely annoyed by this.
"Are you ever going to shut up?! If you're going to buy something, just buy it properly! What's the point of this whole charade?!"
"It doesn't mean anything, I just find it interesting."
Olga crossed her arms, completely unfazed by Moria's anger.
Moria was furious and guessed that Olga was probably deliberately messing with him, but there was nothing he could do.
After all, Olga looked to be only 7 years old, and he didn't intend to get angry with such a little girl.