Warfare's Ultimate Frontier 1

by Quasar Magellan

  Meng Tian shrugged. “This offer is too attractive to refuse. My brother won’t like it, but he’ll understand why I accepted the trade. How is Meng Yi faring in the simulation, by the way?”

  “Last I saw, those two were pressuring him, but nowhere close to defeating him.”

  “And how could they? Those two elders don’t have anywhere near the amount of experience that my brother has. We were there when aerial combat was introduced to planet four, and we’ve been focusing on it ever since. It’s only been after so long that we’ve finally stagnated in this realm of warfare, as we’d stagnated in land and sea battles too. Baron could be the one to help us fly higher than we ever had.”

  Xu Da struggled a bit before asking the question on his mind. “So… why did you and your brother leave your old faction?”

  Meng Tian sighed. “That’s quite a story. But to put it simply, as you may know, our father is an elder of the community. We were never his equal in land-based battles. So when air battles were introduced as a new type of simulation, we took interest. And he was furious about it, so we just left. That was about two hundred or so years ago. Since then we’ve made quite a name for ourselves in this space.”

  The two talked for a bit longer until Baron entered the room again with a smile on his face.

  “What's gotten into you?”

  “Guan Yu and Yue Fei nearly beat Meng Yi.”

  “Really? What happened?” Meng Tian was as shocked as Baron was happy.

  “Your brother got a bit careless and made a major flaw in judgment. Guan Yu and Yue Fei capitalized on this mistake and nearly ended it then and there. However, your brother was too resourceful and managed to fight his way back despite such a devastating blow to his fleet. That was a spectacular simulation if I ever saw one.”

  Hearing this, Meng Tian’s shock faded and he chuckled. “My brother is not one to make mistakes. He intentionally did that to lull the two elders into committing everything they had into one attack.”

  Baron raised an eyebrow. “Then your brother is quite the risk taker. Have you made your decision yet?”

  “Yes, I accept your offer.” Meng Tian said just as his brother walked into the room.

  “What offer?” Meng Yi asked, surprised.

  “We'll talk about it later. For now, just trust me when I say that this will be good for us.”

  “Alright.”

  “Good.” Baron hid his smile as he continued. “Now that we have that settled, I'll give you this radar tower blueprint now, and the others later.”

  Meng Tian nodded. “Thank you. We will be back in a few days, and then we can begin.”

  “I look forward to it.”

  The Meng brothers said their farewells and left immediately. Within a few days, they returned with some of their belongings. The members of Under One Banner welcomed them warmly, and everyone was about to enter their simulations for practice until Baron reminded them of something

  “The greatest blueprint auction in the Chinese community is happening in less than a year. We need to produce as many high rarity blueprints as we can to prepare for this. Sorry to say, we will have to wait until after this event to focus on our simulation practice.

  Meng Tian frowned. “Even us?”

  Baron shrugged. “That will be up to the two of you. As for the rest of us, we’re running a bit short on faction funds. We plan on making as much as we can out of this event. We can also increase our contribution points this way. Two birds, one stone.”

  Meng Tian nodded in understanding. “I see, we might as well do that as well. It’s been a while since we’ve sold anything or competed. This will be a good chance to gain some coin.”

  Chapter 49

  The Setup of the Great Auction

  Having finished creating their blueprints a month early, the eight members of Under One Banner had a full month to practice together — and it was quite the bonding experience. Meng Tian and Meng Yi had mainly been mostly isolated with only each other as company for the better part of the last few centuries, and had long forgotten the joys of living with comrades and friends.

  But the battle simulations were exhilarating experiences for all involved. As they learned each other’s fighting styles, it was clear that everyone was improving at a steady pace. The month quickly flew by, and the Great Auction was finally about to begin. They rushed over to the building that housed this grand event a day before it was to begin.

  Looking around, Baron was quite impressed. The architecture of the building was incredibly detailed and fancy. Not dissimilar to what he’d seen when he’d visited the Forbidden Palace.

  “This is quite a fancy place.”

  Meng Tian laughed. “You haven't been here very long, so I can understand why you don’t understand who this belongs to. This building is a subsidiary headquarters that the greatest faction, the Sun Coalition, uses to host events.”

  “This is just a subsidiary HQ? This place is bigger than ours by at least twenty times! And it’s so much fancier, too! I thought our headquarters was already quite roomy, already. The Sun Coalition sure has quite a lot of money to spend.”

  Ban Chao shrugged. “This building is second in size only to the Sun Coalition's main headquarters. The other factions can't even compare. This shows you just how big the disparity is between the three great factions.”

  “Who decides who gets to host such a big event?” Baron asked.

  Guan Yu answered. “The biggest faction naturally holds the biggest events. There are huge benefits to this, too. Networking, charging rent and other fees from sellers. Even taking a cut from all profits made. Every other faction can only drool at the thought.”

  “That's amazing. No wonder the Sun Coalition is the mightiest faction. I hadn’t thought about it before. Anyway, can we just set up wherever we want?”

  “No, unfortunately.” We have to get our blueprints inspected first. There are five places where we can set up shop. Location one is for VIPs and super expensive items. You need to get approval from someone in the Sun Coalition if you aren't very well known to sell blueprints there. Anyway, the other locations are for lesser and lesser products, all the way until one reaches location five, where the most common blueprint is still fairly rare, but nothing compared to those in location one.

  “Oh, I get it. Given the scope of the event, everyone only brings the best of what they have to sell here.”

  Guan Yu nodded. “Exactly. On a good day, it can take you days to auction off a rare blueprint for a good price. Here, though, a good blueprint can be sold in a matter of moments.” on a good day auctioning off a rare blueprint might take a couple of days. That time gets reduced to nothing since you are selling yourself here.”

  “So where should we go now, to get our goods approved?”

  Yue Fei pointed. “It's just over here, I've been to quite a few of these, so I know where everything is. Just follow me.”

  There were over a hundred lines where Yue Fei brought them. Without anything better to do, the eight of them lined up in a single line and looked at their surroundings. There looked to be an endless flow of people waiting for their goods to be checked out before they were allowed to continue. An endless chattering filled the air around them, until Yue Fei suddenly realized something.

  “Wait, what is the most advanced blueprint that we are going to sell?”

  “Repeating crossbow, for me.” Said Xu Da.

  “I'll be selling quite a few of my Mark 1 tanks since Baron has given me the Mark 7 tank.” Said Han Xin.

  “That's it! Follow me, everyone.” Yue Fei left the line and headed towards an area guarded by two burly, menacing guards.

  “Wait! What are you doing, Yue Fei?” Baron shouted.

  Yue Fei turned back to respond to Baron. “We can bypass the line if at least one of our blueprints we’re selling is advanced enough. A Mark 1 tank should be enough.”

  The rest looked at each other and quickly followed Yue Fei. Even in the afterlife, nobody liked wait
ing in lines. As they approached the two guards, they heard Yue Fei speak to one.

  “Ah, Little Ming. How are you?”

  “Oh? Elder Yue Fei! And is that Elder Guan Yu behind you? I didn’t think you’d be one to come to these events.”

  Yue Fei grinned. “We managed to drag him along this time. Listen, can you inspect this blueprint and let us know which location we should set up in?” Yue Fei nudged Han Xin forward.

  “Elder Yue Fei, you are an old friend of mine. You helped me when I had to fend for myself, so I’d do anything to repay you — wow! This is quite the blueprint you guys have here.”

  As Little Ming said this, the other guard took notice and looked over to see what kind of blueprint his coworker was praising. Upon seeing it, though, he just scoffed and then turned to look away.

  “This is quite good. With this type of blueprint, I can allow you to set up in location two. You are selling more than just this one blueprint right?”

  “Of course, of course. Some of the others are even better than this one.”

  The other guard's ears perked up.

  “Good, good. come over here while I handle the paperwork.”

  Little Ming did everything in a matter of minutes and gave each of them a little badge that said “2” on it.

  “Alright, now I just need to know which faction you guys belong to.”

  Yue Fei frowned. “We aren't part of an official faction yet.”

  Little Ming awkwardly smiled. “I'm sorry then, for location two and one you must be part of a recognized faction to enter.”

  Yue Fei grimaced. “Is there anything you can do?”

  Before Little Ming could respond, though, Meng Tian shifted his coat and pulled out a little badge that had the letters M.O.M. on it, and handed it to Little Ming without a word.

  Little Ming understood Meng Tian’s intentions and simply nodded.

  “Alright. Everything is all set. You may enter location two now.”

  “Thank you.” It was nice meeting you again, Little Ming.” Yue Fei bid the guard farewell.

  “It's always a pleasure to help you.”

  After walking out of the guards’ earshot, Yue Fei turned to Meng Tian, unable to contain himself any longer.

  “What did you show him?”

  “It's nothing.”

  It was only Yue Fei who was curious, but it was bad manners to pry further. So, Baron changed the topic.

  “How are we going to do this? Shall we have half of us man the stall while the other half wanders about?”

  Yue Fei tapped his chin. “In my experience, it would be best if we have two people operate the stall while the others comb the other locations for goods. Just keep in mind, we can’t enter location one.”

  Baron nodded. “Yeah, that's smart actually. Even with this event being four days long, we won’t have enough time to look for everything. It would be best to cast a wide net.”

  “Yes, but who will man the stall at what time?” Ban Chao asked.

  “There will surely be some sinister characters at this event, but most won’t dare to mess with any masters or elders. So, we should always have at least one of the Meng brothers, Guan Yu, or I here to man the stall at any given time. This is the safest way. As for the others, we should have two people cover locations two and three, while the rest should cover locations four and five, as there will be many more products to sort through there.”

  Ban Chao nodded, impressed. “You sure know how this works. Glad to have you on our side.”

  The eight of them split up into four groups that would each man the stall for twenty four hours each. all agreed and split up into 4 groups that would each man the stall for 24 hours each. The first day would consist of Yue Fei and Ban Chao, then Meng Tian and Xu Da, Meng Yi and Baron, and finally Guan Yu and Han Xin.

  They quickly set up the booth provided to them, and laid out the blueprints in a manner to attract the most customers. Now, all they had to do was wait for the event to officially start.

  Off in the distance, a group of greedy-eyed fellows looked around the building, thinking about all the profit they would make once the event started.

  Chapter 50

  Vesper’s Goons

  The first day of the Great Auction was the most chaotic. People yelling and fighting over the limited blueprints. Sellers hawking their wares. Buyers angrily stomping away, realizing they didn’t have the coin for the blueprints they coveted.

  Meng Yi was tasked with browsing through the wares in location two, while Guan Yu was to do the same in location three. Meng Tian and Xu Da were assigned to location four, while Han Xin would be showing Baron the ropes in location five.

  Yue Fei and Ban Chao were the ones chosen to man the stall on the first day — and they earnestly worked to attract customers. For the first few hours, though, they had little to no luck. Although their blueprints were fairly good and competitive compared to those in the other stalls, Ban Chao and Yue Fei simply didn’t have the sales expertise to properly hawk their wares.

  Although everyone who arrived on planet four had been a distinguished or talented strategist on Earth, many changed occupations, as their talent wasn’t enough for them to make a living on planet four.

  Despite being in the afterlife, comfort was a desirable goal for many — so those who couldn’t cut it as strategists chose other professions.

  Such as sales.

  The most sought after experts, other than strategists, of course, would have to be researchers and developers. After all, strategists mostly didn’t have the mind to adapt and change the blueprints they had.

  Fighters and envoys were also coveted. Fighters were hired to participate in simulations, and could be used as a general or an assassin. Envoys were used to deliver messages to other communities, and were very useful to high-ranking elders.

  But the most common profession on planet four, after strategist, was “Blueprint flipper”. These were people who bought and sold blueprints. Some were from unsavory factions, or were simply thugs, who would use their name and reputation to pressure blueprint sellers into lowering their prices.

  They would then take these blueprints and sell them for a higher price down the line.

  But as the table was being manned by an elder, most of these blueprint flippers skipped past Yue Fei and Ban Chao’s stall.

  As time passed, Yue Fei and Ban Chao grew worried about their prospects at the event. After all, several hours had passed, and they’d only managed to sell five blueprints for seven thousand silver coins. Under normal circumstances, this could be considered a solid payout for a day’s work. But this was the Grand Auction! And compared to the stalls around them, their income was clearly dismal. But it was as they lamented their woes that customers began to flock toward a particular stall.

  Soon enough, a crowd had formed, and there was clearly something big going on at the center. Yue Fei and Ban Chao glanced at each other, then closed down their stall and pushed their way through the crowd to see what was happening.

  Two stall owners were talking to a group of seven buyers with thug-like appearances.

  “Come on, Gou Shi. You’re only willing to pay five thousand silver coins for my most prized blueprint? You’re out of your mind!”

  His coworker followed up. “Yea that's right! Our asking price was twenty thousand! How dare you mock us like this!”

  Gou Shi spread his hands out in a conciliatory manner. “Oh, friends. I think you are the one being unreasonable here. Since we have a bit of history, I thought that I would give you guys some face. However, now that I see that I'm not welcome I think I'll reduce my offer to a thousand coins. What do you say?”

  “We wouldn’t accept your offer of five thousand silver coins, so what makes you think we’ll take a thousand?”

  Gou Shi’s face turned devilish. “You misunderstand, friends. That wasn’t an offer — it was an order.”

  “An order? Do you take us for idiots?”

  “If you’re not, then
you should know that I represent a particular faction. Perhaps you've heard of it?”

  “Hmph. Not many factions can pressure us. We are from the Purple Dragon faction, and we don't take kindly to your rudeness.” The seller flashed a purple badge with the initials P.D. on it.

  Gou Shi smirked as he reached into his jacket and dramatically revealed a green pendant with the letter V on it.

  The two sellers' faces instantly turned deathly pale. They knew that they didn’t have the backing to save them from the Vesper faction — and that they were screwed.

  Gou Shi snorted with derision. “You two are such chumps. If there’s nothing else, I'll be taking the blueprint now.”

  Suddenly, a voice rang out from the crowd of onlookers and a figure stepped in front of Gou Shi.

  “How about you guys go on your way and things won't get ugly.”

  Gou Shi barely glanced at this new figure. “Ha! Who are you? Some fool who doesn’t know his place?”

  “I'm Yue Fei. An elder, ranked 95th. I think you should leave these people alone.”

  “So what if you’re an elder? You don’t have the strength to deal with our Vesper faction. Besides, I’ve heard of you. You’re one of the few factionless elders. Are you sure you want to throw your future away like this?”

  “With just your Vesper faction? We’re not afraid of you. If anything you’re even more pathetic than the people you’re trying to swindle.” Ban Chao muscled his way to the front of the crowd to stand next to Yue Fei. He and Yue Fei were now standing at arm's reach from Gou Shi and his cronies.

  Gou Shi’s eyes narrowed. “You guys should seriously consider the consequences of your actions.”

  “Don't worry about us. We already have a bone to pick with you Vespers. The day for your faction’s reckoning is fast approaching.”

  “Tch. Very well. However, I am getting this blueprint from these losers no matter what you say.” Gou Shi turned around and demanded the two sellers give up their prized blueprint.