20 Mar 2321
Time 12:23
Location Sky Blossom City, Guild Association Auction House, Auction Hall no.13
Sipping on a coffee black large I entered Susan's auction venue. But to my surprise, the whole venue was crowded and buzzing with discussion. Especially the front row was filled with journalists and social media reporters. For some reason, there was no bouncer at the entrance to stop people from filling in.
It seems I underestimate the catalogue being in the top 10 trending list. 'Sorry Susan looks like I can't cheer you from the first row' I thought as I turned to the VIP side but it was also crowded and the people in there seemed to be scolding the help for lacking space and seating arrangements.
The problem was not lacking management skills but the venue in itself was small to hold these many people. The guild management never expected Susan's catalogue to be this popular and provided her with a small venue.
Right, when I was considering not attending the auction, Susan called me, "Wyatt, where are you? are you here yet?"
"yes, I am at the venue."
"Come backstage!"
"Sure" Hanging up the phone I walked backstage.
The bouncer backstage stopped me and asked "Mr Wyatt?"
"The one and only"
"Turn left and go straight. Susan should be waiting for you there." I could see he had no respect for Susan, his immediate superior. I could smell something was wrong in the atmosphere.
The backstage was empty, there were no staff here contrary to a working auction hall backstage. Soon I found Susan pacing back and forth in front of the stage entrance she did not seem to notice me walking towards her.
"Susan!" I called nearing her.
"You almost gave me a scare." Said startled Susan.
"What's going on here? Where is everyone?"
"I sent them to manage the VIP section."
"Then, what about here?"
"I will somehow manage it here. I called you here knowing that you will not find a seat out there."
Every associate auction manager has a team of trusted staff ranging from bouncers, help, etc. Since Susan just became an auction manager she had no staff let alone trusted staff. So the auction management provided her with 10 staff, 4 bouncers and 6 help. Which would be enough for a small venue like auction Hall no.13.
Two bouncers one each at the two entrances of the hall, one bouncer for the backstage and front stage while the last one for the VIP hall. Four help for seating arrangements and attending VIPs and the last two to help Susan backstage.
But the audience expectancy exceeded anybody's expectations, it seems at the last moment for some reason the people, journalists registering to attend the auction increased in numbers especially the VIP people registering exceeded the number of occupancies.
Some of the social media influencers almost broke into backstage. So the bouncers from the entrance had to be called to guard the backstage.
Now no bouncers were at the two entrances of the hall, as they were used accordingly. one for the backstage and two for the front stage while the last one for the VIP hall while all the six help went for seating arrangements and attending VIP's leaving no one to help Susan.
Susan did request more staff to the auction management but they rejected her saying all the staff were allotted work and had no extra.
"Why did you not close the entrance doors to the hall if the number exceeded the maximum occupancy range? "
"I didn't think of that! But I can't turn away all these powerful journalists and VIPs, right?!"
I slapped my head dumbfounded-ly
"First, send one of the bouncers to close the doors of the auction hall as it's almost time to start the auction."
Many people who were not interested in participating in the auction were joining the crowd just for fun, so it was better to close the door now.
Soon Susan instructed one of the bouncers guarding the frontstage to close the doors. As the entrance door closed the crowd grew rowdier and the whispers turned into a loud noise.
"It is nearing the time to start the auction. How are you planning to control this rowdy crowd?" I asked.
Currently, the lack of staff was the last thing in Susan's mind as she did not know how to control the audience?
Since the crowd consists of popular influencers, journalists and VIPs, crude methods to control the crowd were out of the question.
…
20 Mar 2321
Time 12:23
Location Sky Blossom City, Guild Association, Administrative office
"Sir not good! Not good!" Clerk John rushed into the administrator's office.
"John!! What have I told you about knocking?!!" A voice thundered in the office.
John bowed and hurriedly apologized "sir I am sorry but it's about the young lady."
Hearing the word young lady the voice seemed to have calmed down a little and asked "what about her?"
"Young lady somehow found out about the girl and is going to attend her auction."
"How did she know? Why is she going there? What is she thinking?"
"Sir, I don't know who informed the young lady. Sir, please punish me as I could not stop the young lady!
But when I tried to stop her, the Young lady told me not to stop her from making amends.
I think she is going to apologize to the girl after the auction."
"Wtf! Those Journalists and Influencers will have a field day with her. That girl is stubborn and doesn't know how the world works!"
'Recently the young lady acting weird as if she is a completely different person and acting out without thinking. Master is trying so hard to keep her out of this, But she had to present her head to the enemy herself. Now any number of contacts or connections of master can't stop the rampaging netizens from ruining young lady's social life' John shook his head letting out a sigh, he was tired of managing this stubborn young lady.
20 Mar 2321
Time 12:30
Location Sky Blossom City, Guild Association Auction House, Auction Hall no.13
The auction hall was in a complete mess with all the babble, chatter and murmur. It was very difficult for one to hear amid the babble of conversations in the hall. The crowd was getting impatient as it was about time for the auction to start yet still no one was to be seen on the stage but then,
'Roarr… RR!!!'
A thunderous roar sounded throughout the auction hall, the startled crowd went quiet with a scare while the deafening echoes of the roar still reverberated in the hall. The lingering roar left in the hall soon died with the sound of the footsteps, as an intimidating aura filled the auction hall.
'Clomp... Clomp.. '
Attracted by the sound of the footsteps the crowd searched for the source, only to find a mystical figure covered in smoke, slowly ascend the auction stage.
But before they could make out the figure the smoke covering the alluring figure burst into a blinding flash, before they knew the alluring figure was in the centre of the stage wearing the latest trending armour 'Daughter of wilderness - Artemis'.
The figure looked majestic and heroic in the armour as she twirled like a ballerina with elegance. With every twirl, the colour of the armour changed, a total of four twirls amounting to four different colours. The whole scene was so magical that the crowd almost forgot to breathe mesmerised by the sight in front of them.
The woman wearing the armour looked just like the virgin daughter of the wilderness, nothing could compare to her majesty. Every time her cold eyes gazed over the crowd, they felt a chill within them as if they were in presence of a heroic being. Some even bowed to the figure wanting to worship her.
Soon the smoke once again covered the alluring figure as the jumbotron in the auction hall displayed four 'Daughter of wilderness - Artemis' armour cards in different colours with all their status displayed, awakening the mesmerised crowd.
The crowd once again babbled seeing the perfect star and durability ratings of the cards. But the chatter died as an authoritarian voice sounded in the auction hall,
"Daughter of wilderness - Artemis armour, base price 192,000$ per card. Please start the bid. "
With the cold and authoritative voice, the auction final started.
"400,000$ by VIP no.4, going once!"
"This princess bids 2,000,000$ for all four armours."
"2,000,000$, going once!"
"2,000,000$, going twice!"
"2,000,000$, going thrice! Sold!"
The Jumbotron turned off as a blinding flash caught the attention of the crowd, with the figure had changed into the second armour 'Wood Nymph - Urania' another one of the top trending F rank armours and also the figure's hairstyle changed to suit the armour, similar to last time the figure once again twirled four times amounting to four different colours.
"Wood Nymph - Urania armour card, base price 177,000$ per card, open for bid!"
.
.
.
Soon the 40 F rank armours cards were auctioned, yet the crowd did not disperse as they were still immersed in the elegant and heroic figure on the stage, the figure walked out of the smoke around her as she said, "Thank you for making this auction a great success! Please collect your card's backstage from me and Since you, all have been so well behaved let me share some info on my auction next week! My next auction will contain 10 E rank trending female armour cards in four different colours. For further info check the catalogue yet to be released. See you later"
…
We were short on staff and Susan's authority was very low as the newbie, making it hard to control the crowd using the name of the guild association auction house.
Since gaining the attention of the crowd by crude means was out of option I decided to try a creative way to catch the attention of the audience in the auction house.
Therefore, I lent my Abyssal Giant Bear Spirit Guard card to Susan. Even though Susan had just been promoted to card apprentice, her active soul control was 14% thanks to the perfect origin card I helped her create, she got a huge boost in her active soul control making a considerable breakthrough in her active soul control and gaining 28 Star power.
Equipping one E rank Abyssal Giant Bear Spirit Guard card and two G rank mortal cards voice control and hairstylist.
As the Abyssal roar only affects enemies, we decided to simmer down the crowd by using the abyssal roar and maintain peace with the intimidating aura of the abyssal giant bear.
For this to work Susan had to act like an ice idol and anchor to match the intimidating aura of the Abyssal Bear and not seem out of place, which she performed perfectly mesmerising the crowd and leading them with her authoritarian voice.
Most shocking was the part where Susan's armour changed colours with every twirl, thanks to the origin card being sentient and its ability memory Susan was able to teach the armour to change the colours of the armours even though the armours it fed on were not of that colour.
As for her declaring a part of the catalogue was the stunt used in another world to keep the audience engaged as a good host, I asked her to reveal a part of the catalogue.
Walking backstage Susan excitedly came to me and handed me the Abyssal Giant Bear Spirit Guard card.
"You were awesome out there, I would not be surprised to see one or two fan groups forming in your name."
"Thank you, but stop it!"
"You were that good out there, no need to be humble in front of me. "
"I know right and I could get used to it. it was so exciting, feeling all their admiring gaze it felt different, it was as if they would believe me if I told them the earth was flat and the sun was blue. It felt great."
Leaving aside Susan who was still immersed in aftertaste while smiling like a fool, I was rubbing my hands to count my profits.
Led by the bouncer a group of about 14 people came to pay and collect their cards, Many people had directly bought the complete four coloured set of armours, so 40 cards were sold to 14 people only. Seeing them I nudged the grinning Susan to snap out of it.
Snapping out of the aftertaste Susan once again returned to her professional self and walked to greet the group.
The group was excited to meet Susan, some even asked for selfies. Seeing no harm in few simple selfies she agreed.
The 40 perfect F rank cards sold for 20,330,000$, but considering the 10% auction fee and 34% government tax, I would only get near 55% of the total. And after paying the 5,000,000 debt of copyright and ingredients I had barely 6,000,000 left for myself. So, my excitement died by half.
As the crowd left, Susan was in trance counting the amount of money she had made in just one auction. Her 5% amounted to 1,016,500 not including the taxes, even after paying the taxes she would be able to clear her parent's debts and buy back the family house or a new one.
She did get a big bargain out of this auction, 10 F rank armours that were fed to her origin card and nearly a million in commission. But she deserved all of it, if it were me alone I could not get a 5 million dollars loan on spot to buy the copyright and ingredients. especially I would not have been able to possible rank the auction catalogue in the top 10 trending list and attract so many deep pockets.
While I and Susan were busy counting money a voice called to us timidly,
"E-Excuse me!"
"Yes! Who are you? How did you get in?" Asked Susan, it seems she did not like being disturbed while counting money.
"W-well I am also the guild association staff."
"Oh! What is it?"
"I am here to apologize to you! I am sorry, please forgive me!"
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