576 Chapter 576 - A Bold Suspicion (1/2)
”Wha-What did you say?” Vast Lushness felt so dizzy when she read the last message, and her reply gave off the feeling how tongue-tied she felt.
”I didn't win the bid for the magic staff.” The man initially struggled to admit to the truth, but after spilling the beans, the ensuing messages the person sent were quick and no longer beating around the bush.
”What happened exactly?” Vast Lushness asked.
”I had a good read of the time to make my bid, but when I placed my bid, the system prompted me that the auctioned item is no longer up for bidding. I believe that I might've been a tad too late to send my bid through,” the bidding master explained.
”Why didn't you tell us sooner?”
”I thought that there's still a week…” the person answered meekly.
Vast Lushness was well-acquainted with this man, which was why she felt reassured to entrust this task to him. The moment she heard his answer, she knew what he had intended to do. This was similar to a boss assigning work to his trusted aide, but something unexpected cropping up prevented the task from being completed in time. Still, since the superior would only inspect the work in a week's time, this essentially meant that the subordinate had an entire week to come up with a solution to the problem. While this sort of incident would often occur in real life, she had truly never expected herself to come across something similar while playing online games.
”What's the point of that…” Vast Lushness suddenly found it too difficult to speak further as it was apparent that he only had such thoughts due to the importance placed on that staff.
”Where are you right now?”
”The Auction House…”
She instantly got it. This person was also thinking of waiting for the real buyer to show up, probably in hopes of resolving the matter by buying back the staff with a high price. This transaction would naturally be an extremely unique situation, where the price of the magic staff itself could be ignored as the sum spent in this instance would be for the sake of shouldering the responsibility. Vast Lushness reckoned that he would bring the buyer to the Trade Exchange immediately, taking that step to become a pay-to-win warrior…
”Forget it; let it remain sold!” She could not really find it in her to reprimand him for his actions. With this conversation over, she proceeded to message Young Master Han. ”It's as you wished.”
”Are you done arranging everything?” Young Master Han asked.
”No. I mean that the magic staff has really gotten sold,” Vast Lushness said.
”What?!” Young Master Han was surprised.
”The magic staff has been sold as per your wishes.” She sighed as she sent this message. This entire incident had so many twists and turns that even she was at a loss for words.
”F*ck!” Young Master Han spat this single expletive out in person when he received the message, causing Brother Assist to have quite the fright.
”What happened?” Brother Assist quickly asked.
”What did I tell you… A variable occurred.” Young Master Han was visibly annoyed. ”The Utopian Magic Staff has actually been sold; the buyer lied to us.”
”Why would he—” Brother Assist started to ask.
”He most likely thought himself as clever, wanting to use his money to buy it back from the new owner, which is why he told the white lie.” Young Master Han interrupted.
Brother Assist scratched his head and contemplated this before saying. ”But this doesn't seem to affect us too greatly. Essentially, we're now back to the original plan of yours where the charade becomes reality; wouldn't everything be fine if we go according to plan?”
”Why would it be that simple?!” Young Master Han said. ”Let me give you an example; there're two plans here: A and B. A is a smokescreen and meant to be seen by the enemies for them to think that we are executing A when, in fact, we're executing B – this is the crux of our entire plan. But since we've successfully let A become the smokescreen like we wanted, we can't enact plan B; do you think we can once more use the smokescreen A as the real plan?”
”Uhhh… Why not?”
”Please man. We've already very clearly conveyed the entirety of this plan to Southern Lone Blade's team. He's sure to come up with a strategy that will perfectly counter what we are doing. If we continue with plan A, we'll pretty much be walking right into a trap knowingly,” Young Master Han said.
”After hearing your explanation, it does appear to be the case…” Brother Assist nodded. While Young Master Han's example with plan A and B was not what was happening right now, the logic it expressed was evident. Furthermore, he had similarly expected the first iteration of Young Master Han's plan to indeed possess the duality of plan A and B, working in concert like what he had explained: A stood for the charade of selling the magic staff, while B would be successfully selling it. However, since the actual auction failed, Young Master Han instantly adjusted the plan, such that the smokescreen of plan A became the successful sale, and the charade of selling the magic staff turned into reality.
”So, what do we do now?” Brother Assist asked.
”If Utopian Magic Staff truly got auctioned off, then the buyer is really strange. Why isn't the buyer anxious to get such top-grade equipment in their hands?” Young Master Han wondered.
”Do you suspect that it's a sham?” With how skeptical Brother Assist was toward others, he was already suspecting the person tasked with buying the magic staff to be stashing it away for himself while claiming that he had failed to win the bid for it.
”Since that man has told a lie once, I am of course inclined to suspect him a little,” Young Master Han said.
”Still, the fact that Vast Lushness entrusted this task to him should mean that he's someone she can trust!” Brother Assist reasoned.
”Hmph. This isn't the first time she has misjudged a person's character.” Young Master Han scoffed.
Brother Assist naturally knew that Young Master Han was talking about Silver Moon. Vast Lushness had truly made a huge blunder by trusting that detestable scumbag before.
”Silver Moon…” Young Master Han suddenly furrowed his brows when he uttered that name.