Chapter 181: 181

“50 billion won…”

“Why did it get so expensive all of a sudden?”

“Well . He is Gordon Rohan…”

The loud auction house became quiet for a moment . Although they were people with so much money, they had no choice but to be quiet in front of Gordon Rohan .

The head of a big company? The grandchild of a wealthy family? An oil giant? Royalty from any country? An S-Rank awakener? It was all useless . Unless someone was from a giant conglomerate, they would have a slim chance of winning against Gordon Rohan in terms of money .

Although Gordon Rohan had a lot of money, people still didn’t know how much he wanted this adamantium .

“51!”

So, there were still some people who bet more money bravely .

“60 . ”

The number went up without hesitation . But it didn’t stop there .

“62!”

“70 . ”

“71!”

“80 . ”

The number kept increasing . All of those present who participated in the auction as a joke and with a simple desire to collect gave up quickly .

When it finally reached 100 billion, Gordon mumbled, “This is getting annoying . ”

And people became quiet . He didn’t spread his violent temper, but people could sense something . Gordon Rohan became annoyed at the overheated atmosphere .

“Hey, man . Can I suggest one thing?”

At the question of Rohan, Lee Kyeong-jong quickly answered, “Yes, sir . ”

“It looks like there are about five people, including me, participating in this auction right now . ”

As he spoke, Rohan looked around at the four other people who raised money in billion won units . One of them was an S-Rank awakener . There was also the head of a few British companies and a young man who looked like an oil giant . The last was a middle-aged man known for his wealth through the Chinese real estate business . There were only a few competitors left .

Rohan grinned and said, “Let’s stop this raising money little by little thing . How about we open our card at once? Just open the price what we think for maximum . What do you think?”

“Are you saying you want to end it at once?”

“Yes . Just let us call out our maximum, and we can’t raise money more than that . Of course, the more you call, the more likely you’ll take this thing . What do you say?”

It was a hot offer . It would end in a single round, but it was clear that the price would rise the most .

Lee Kyeong-jong thought for a moment and soon made a decision .

“All right . Do you guys all agree?”

“I agree . ”

“Same here . ”

“Whatever . ”

Everyone in the competition agreed . The other people just became spectators, watching the auction . They watched the auction with an excited gaze, wondering about the price of adamantium .

“Then I’ll hand out a paper . Please, write down the highest price you think of and submit it . ”

Lee Kyeong-jong took out the notepad . He tore the pages and handed them to the five participants . People, including Rohan, submitted the highest price that each person could pay . Lee Kyeong-jong took the paper and opened them one by one .

“First . Mac Ryan wrote this note . 200 million dollars . Two hundred twenty-seven billion in Korean won . ”

“Oh…”

“Wow!”

In an instant, it more than doubled the price that had been in progress . The next two people wrote down less than 200 billion won . It was time for the fourth one .

“Fourth . Shi Jahong wrote… 500 million…dollars . Five hundred sixty-seven billion Korean won . ”

“500 million dollars?”

“That’s crazy!”

The auction was in an uproar in an instance . Shi Jahong was a well-known name among wealthy people .

“He’s some kind of land baron of China . ”

“I’m sure he’s got quite a lot of holdings, but I can’t believe he’s willing to spend 500 million dollars here…”

“I heard he’s a famous collector . I guess he really wants it . ”

“What I heard was that his son is an awakener . ”

“Wasn’t that just a rumor?”

People whispered to each other . Shi Jahong, who bid enormous money, looked at Rohan with a proud face . In a sense, he bid that much money to show up Rohan .

“And for the last…”

When Lee Kyeong-jong opened his mouth to speak, people became quiet . It was the last paper . Rohan’s bid wasn’t public yet . People wondered if Rohan wrote a higher price than Shi Jahong .

“Rohan wrote one billion dollars . One thousand three hundred fifty trillion in Korean won . ”

“…”

Nobody said anything for a moment .

“One billion…”

“Dollars?”

People could not say anything . Lee Kyeong-jong continued to speak .

“Congratulations! Gordon Rohan is the new owner of the adamantium!”

Act 3

One billion dollars . It was such a large amount of money . People couldn’t even grasp how big it was . But Rohan paid the price in a lump sum and handed the adamantium to Su-hyeun .

“…Don’t you think you wrote too much?”

Su-hyeun looked puzzled as he received the adamantium . He was the one who asked Rohan to make sure he could the auction when it became more expensive than what he could pay . Su-hyeun promised he would pay his debt .

“Why? I win the bid . Why do you look so dissatisfied?

“I didn’t expect you to spend that much . ”

“If you’re worried about the debt, I told you . You don’t have to pay me back . ”

“I was the one who asked . And I have a sense of honor . ”

“Sense of honor…” Rohan shook his head and sighed . “Well . You can think about that way . But…” Rohan met Su-hyeun’s eyes and asked, “Do I look like a philanthropist?”

‘Philanthropist’ wasn’t quite the word for Gordon Rohan, who was the CEO of Gordon company and world-class rich .

“What are you talking about?” Su-hyeun asked .

“Don’t you know your value?”

At Rohan’s question, Su-hyeun couldn’t say anything . He had never thought of his value before . No, he had thought about it, but he never linked it to money before . Gordon Rohan was a successful businessman long before he became an awakener . In his mind, Su-hyeun’s value was already being converted into money .

“Look at the flow of the world . And look at yourself . Know the present and look at the future . How valuable will you be? One billion dollars? Ten billion dollars?”

It was an absurdly high price . But that wasn’t what he wanted to say .

“Honestly, I can’t even guess . Do you know why? Although people don’t change, the market changes and the world changes . If it were like the old days, an excellent awakener would just go and get a lot of Ether stones . ” Gordon emphasized when he said ‘the old days . ’ “But the world has changed, hasn’t it?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Your value won’t stop at only one billion dollars . And what I did was investing in your future . ”

“If it’s an investment—”

“I’m not saying that I will get a return out of it . I won’t ask you to do something for this, either . ”

Su-hyeun clearly realized what Rohan was trying to say .

“One day, that stone will be worth not only a billion dollars . It might be worth hundreds of billions . No . Maybe money won’t matter by then . So…” Rohan grinned and tapped Su-hyeun’s shoulder . “I invested in you and in this world . Okay?”

***

Rohan left the auction house and went straight to his plane . There were no bodyguards . Rohan didn’t like useless things, and bodyguards were the most useless wastes of money for him . But, instead, he had was accompanied by a woman named Ashlyn . She was an S-Ranks from the United States, and she had been acquainted with Rohan for a long time .

“Wasn’t a billion too much?”

Rohan sat down and leaned back in the seat of the plane, instead of answering her question .

“You said 500 million dollars would be enough . I’ve never seen you lose so much . ”

“It wasn’t a loss . ”

Rohan put on a blindfold that he had placed next to his seat . He continued to speak as he settled into a comfortable position .

“And this will be better . He’ll think he owes me that much . ”

“Do you think he’s that kind of man?”

“If he isn’t, oh well . I guess I should think of it as an opportunity cost . ”

Even for Rohan, a billion dollars wasn’t pocket change . But, of course, it wasn’t a burden for him . He could consider it as an opportunity cost as if he didn’t have it from the beginning . For Rohan, Su-hyeun had a special meaning .

“He’s a ceiling that I have to breakthrough . The higher the ceiling, the bigger the world I will live in . ”

“You sound like a creep . ”

“Well, and that’s not just it . In the future, more difficult dungeons will appear . Then, Kim Su-hyeun’s value will increase more and more . I invested in that future value in advance . And maybe he can be a real hero in the future . ”

“Do you really think so?”

“Times are changing . The world changed much faster than I expected about five years ago . Time flies . If Kim Su-hyeun wins again in the next Ranking Wars, his era will really begin . ”

Ashlyn looked at Rohan with a look of surprise . Rohan said somebody else’s era would come, not his . Such humility didn’t suit one who always experienced the best and pursued it .

When she heard Rohan, she realized .

A billion wasn’t a high price to pay for the one who could push Rohan’s era out . It would be such small and trivial money .

***

“What’s all this?”

Su-hyeun, who had received the adamantium from Rohan, ran straight to Kim Dae-ho . And Kim Dae-ho, who saw all the adamantium that Su-hyeun brought, stared at it blankly .

“Is this all adamantium?”

“Yes . ”

“Where did you get this?”

From his question, Su-hyeun realized Kim Dae-ho really didn’t watch TV at all .

“I bought this from the auction . ”

“From the auction? Where did you get that much money?”

After he asked, Kim Dae-ho shook his hands with an embarrassed face because he remembered who Su-hyeun was . Even Kim Dae-ho, who was ignorant of the world, knew that awakeners could earn a lot of money And Su-hyeun was the best among awakeners .

Su-hyeun thought it would be better not to talk about what had happened . And he looked at the massive amount of adamantium that he brought . With this amount, it would be hard to make the equipment out of just adamantium, but still, it was possible to make some equipment mixed with adamantium .

“Do you remember what you said before?”

At Su-hyeun’s word, Kim Dae-ho was startled . The last time Su-hyeun and Kim Dae-ho had drunk together, after he had gotten drunk, Kim Dae-ho said something as if it was nothing .

“The hammer of Hephaestus made of adamantium,” Su-hyeun said .

“How…do you…”

It was a story that was said as a joke, just as it flowed . Kim Dae-ho even had changed the subject because he had felt he spoke useless words . But Su-hyeun had remembered it .

Su-hyeun asked with a proud face, “Do you think it will be enough?”