When the magic flower blooms

After a peaceful night, the first high seas auction was held on time in the multi-function hall inside the cruise ship in the morning of the second day.

Compared with the mainstream auction mode in the society, the process of this black market auction is a bit special-each lot will have at least 15 minutes of on-site display time, and there will be Q & A after that.There are a total of five lots auctioned this morning, and it is conservatively estimated that it will take three hours.

At 8:45, the participants filed through the security checkpoint and entered the conference hall.Unlike the initial checks yesterday when they boarded the ship, the checks this time were more stringent to ensure any weapons were excluded.

All those who pass the inspection will receive a number plate, which will be the only code in the entire auction.

Of course, not everyone who gets a number plate has the strength to participate in the auction.

For example, in the Naga group, whoever pays is the boss—Yu Benxin has already reiterated his request with others: to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy all the technologies you are interested in as you like.

Ming Ruoxing had no objection to this: "You can buy whatever you want, just remember why we came here. But I bought a lot of other things, but in the end I didn't even see the shadow of the Chimera."

"I'm afraid I can't find the Chimera alone." Yu Benxin said honestly, "According to this anonymous auction system, it is impossible for us to know which lot belongs to the Chimera."

Naga interrupted suddenly: "This is easy to handle, why don't we buy all the lots in one go."

"Please forgive me." Yu Benxin smiled wryly, "Why don't you give you a budget to buy products that you find suspicious."

After all the participants have entered the venue, the auction will start soon.The glamorous and capable female auctioneer came to the stage and showed the first lot first.

With a slight shaking, a black velvet curtain on the stage was slowly lowered.Appearing behind the curtain is a huge water tank, in the center of which the "items" for display are quietly suspended.

"This is..." Naga and Ming Ruoxing widened their eyes at the same time, "Shark?"

Indeed, there is a woman with a fish tail in the tank.But it is more appropriate to say it is a "mermaid" rather than a "mermaid".

Because it was obviously a Caucasian woman, with pale skin and curly long pale blonde hair.There are close-ups on the screens on both sides of the stage, and it is obvious that she has a pair of mysterious purple eyes.

But almost everyone's attention was focused on her lower body—there was an extremely gorgeous lavender fishtail, flowing in layers like a huge gauze skirt.The anal fins on both sides of the waist and abdomen also mutate into translucent wings, which are particularly mysterious and beautiful.

Perhaps in order to bring out the ultimate beauty of this stunner, the mermaid is covered with pearls and purple gemstones, shining brightly in the sparkling water.

Of course, the mermaid is not the auction item.The real No. [-] auction item is the genetic technology that precisely controls the color and shape of the fish tail.

"Could this be a commodity from Camera?" Ming Ruoxing raised this possibility in a low voice, thinking of the situation in Jinyu Village.

"No."

Naga shook his head, "Look at the woman's right shoulder, there is a small pattern. It's not a tattoo, but an imprint. As far as I know, some extreme racist groups in Europe like to use this method to mark themselves slaves. Thankfully, the Camera has no such fetish."

Thinking about it carefully, the Naga who was once captured by Chimera did not have any strange marks on his body.Ming Ruoxing tentatively accepted this statement and continued to wait and see.

There are not many buyers interested in mermaids, and most of them are Middle Eastern faces.The first auction ended quickly, taking exactly 10 minutes.

Immediately afterwards, more lots were displayed on stage one after another.These range from bionic exoskeletons that dramatically enhance human performance to topical sprays that temporarily harden skin.But in all fairness, none of these things can be considered novelty, so the atmosphere at the scene was not high.

As soon as the fifth lot came on the stage, everyone was shocked.

It was a prisoner with his hands chained, blindfolded, and in a shackle that was brought into the arena.Pushed by the two escorts, he staggered and stood in the center of the stage.

Just as the participants in the audience guessed that this was another body modification to be shown, suddenly, one of the escorts took out a silencer pistol from his arms, and shot the prisoner in the heart.

The moment the gunshot was heard, there was an uproar in the venue.Naga instinctively wanted to get up to save others, but was grabbed by Ming Ruoxing.

"People are dead."

At this moment, the prisoner has fallen on the stage.The small-caliber pistol had opened a hole in his chest, and blood was gurgling from his heart.

"Sure enough, this is still an auction for the underworld." Yu Benxin sighed softly, "I was almost blinded by the false image of peace."

Under the urgent appeasement of the hostess, the venue gradually restored order.Everyone became nervous because of the scene just now, and countless eyes focused on the two escorts on the stage at the same time.

Before the gunpowder smoke cleared, the gun had already been taken down, and the murderer leaned over to pick up the iron chain tied to the corpse's hand, and fixed the end on the ground.

At the same time, his accomplice had taken out a gun-type syringe from the suitcase he was carrying, aimed at the back of the neck of the corpse, and injected the medicine into it.

"..."

Yu Benxin, who was the first to sense something strange, straightened his back, and his expression became more serious than ever.

Naga was about to probe his tone when he suddenly heard another commotion in front of the venue.

The big screens on both sides have switched to the real-time images on the stage, focusing on the corpse.

After about five or six seconds, the corpse's right hand visibly twitched twice, and then suddenly clenched into a fist!

Is this a fake corpse, or is it really alive?

The venue became noisy again.All kinds of languages, high and low, convey the same surprise by coincidence.

"A direct hit from such a short distance, the heart should have ruptured. The person must have died." Yu Benxin expressed his opinion.

And the subsequent developments on the stage seemed to confirm his judgment—the body's movements became more and more exaggerated. It raised its hands towards the sky, and then sat up straight.

The two escorts immediately got up and backed away, keeping a distance from the corpse.And almost at the same time they stopped, the corpse stood up with a "whoosh" and rushed towards the audience!

For the third time, there was commotion in the venue, even mixed with high and low screams.

But everyone soon discovered that the corpse was restrained by the iron chains in his hands, and could only move within a small range on the stage.

The commotion gradually died down. At this time, a foreign man in a white coat quickly walked up to the podium, slightly adjusted the position of the microphone, and began to introduce this terrifying "product".

According to the introduction, it is a unique fungus that causes the corpse to "resurrect from the dead".The fungus, originally discovered in a tropical jungle in Asia, can lodge in insects and drive the host's actions.After a long period of cultivation in the laboratory, this fungus has successively produced many mutations, and finally evolved a "zombie fungus" that can temporarily control human corpses.

The "product" presentation lasted about 10 minutes or so.Towards the end, the man suddenly motioned the people sitting in the front row to lean back slightly.

Just when everyone was at a loss, the man took out a dagger from his arms, walked behind the zombie unexpectedly, grabbed its chin with one hand, and quickly wedged the dagger into the spine.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the zombie stopped snapping and biting instantly, but the corpse quickly twisted and deformed, and then curled up on the ground.

After another burst of violent convulsions, the corpse's spine bulged rapidly, and a giant tumor the size of two or three footballs bulged out.

When the giant tumor stopped growing, the corpse also completely stopped.The two escorts came up again just now and tore off the clothes on the back of the corpse.

The strange giant tumor suddenly revealed the true face of Mount Lu—it turned out to be a bunch of huge mushrooms.

Only the speaker in white continued to explain, saying that the nutritional value of this mushroom is extremely high, and it will also bring a certain hallucinogenic effect to most demihumans.If you are not interested in the corpse itself, this top-quality mushroom alone can be sold at a high price in the market.

"Who would want to eat mushrooms growing from dead people?" Naga complained in a low voice.

In the audience, there are many people who have similar doubts.After the product introduction, there was a free questioning session, and the scene was much more active than before.

Perhaps due to the influence of film and television works, the first question raised at the scene was about the spread of zombie fungus—to put it more bluntly, if one is bitten by a zombie, will it also be infected with the fungus and become a zombie.

The answer given by the speaker was a firm "no".

According to his explanation, the fungus has no way of long-term survival in a living human body.Even if you encounter a dead body, the probability of parasitic infection is less than 25% - only by using the special injection they developed can the probability of fungal infection of the dead body be increased to [-]%.

Unlike the previous four auction items, this "zombie fungus" currently only plans to provide finished injections, and the real formula will not be sold for the time being.The auctioneer brought a total of [-] injections, which will be auctioned in groups of five, and the one with the highest price will win.

"Do you still remember the tragedy on Liuzhu Island?" Ming Ruoxing turned to look at Naga, "Does it look like the situation back then?"

"The methods are similar, but the technology may be different. It seems to be more advanced and more controllable. And it is a fungus in tropical Asia. It should be that Camera has not escaped."

Having said that, Naga went to look for Yu Benxin again: "We have to get rid of this thing."

Yu Benxin nodded: "I agree. How much do you want?"

"It doesn't need to be too much. A group is fine. Anyway, it's just a chance to get close to the seller. It's inconvenient to be too high-profile."

After free questions, it finally entered the auction session.As expected, many people showed great interest.

After more than a dozen rounds of thrilling competition, Yu Benxin finally bought a set of five reagents for the zombie virus at a high price.The other three groups were all bought by a mysterious buyer who was obviously an agent.

When he heard the final word, Yu Benxin smiled wryly at Naga: "I originally planned to pick and choose more, but now I have almost used up half of the budget."

"Isn't there another half?" Naga patted him on the shoulder, "Go back and ask for your help, if the Yaan Bureau can reimburse you a little."

"You don't need to ask, there is absolutely no way." Ming Ruoxing gave the answer directly.

In any case, the first auction on the cruise ship has come to an end.The second auction will be held at [-]:[-] p.m.—leaving three hours of space, not only for a lunch break, but also for the convenience of meeting and communication between buyers and sellers who have concluded a deal.

Unlike Baidao's regular auctions, there is no so-called "publicity time" for black market auctions on cruise ships.After the auction is over, both parties will "pay with one hand and deliver with one hand" as soon as possible.

Sure enough, as soon as Yu Benxin and his party walked out of the venue, a staff member immediately approached him and said that they had arranged their meeting with the seller at two o'clock in the afternoon.Naturally, everyone had no objection to this, and Naga took the opportunity to ask one more question, hoping to know the identity of the seller in advance.

Maybe because they felt that the deal had already been finalized, and there was no point in concealing it, the staff gave the answer very simply——

The seller of the zombie fungus is the Chimera.