Chapter Ch194.1 - Tracking the Source

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

Evening, 18:00.

When the dinner banquet began in the middle zone, various aromas assaulted their noses.

The attendant respectfully handed Wu Jin a towel, aiming a curious gaze at the bodyguard beside the young master. The ambiguous relationship between the two seemed to have become a source of conversation and gossip.

Wei Shi was expressionless.

The sound of detailed discussion grew calm the moment they appeared.

Wu Jin accepted the towel.

He raised his eyebrows slightly. The lighting in the hall was ambiguous, and curtains covered one side of the hall. The curtains were embroidered with leopard-like spots, and access to the upper area was behind it.

Wu Jin: “What is that.”

The waiter bowed, “That door will open up for distinguished guests in due course.”

Wu Jin nodded.

The attendant spoke in a low voice, “Tonight’s auction is about to begin. If you’re interested…”

In the headset, Researcher Song’s voice came across, mixed in with electric static, “The access requirements for the upper zone is unclear, but the auction is the only way to throw money at the problem. The Duchess’s contact will arrive in half an hour… By the way, remember this––don’t use your own card.”

“Use Brother Wei’s card. We’re out on a business trip, so he’ll be paying for it!”

Wu Jin quickly nodded repeatedly. He wasn’t nearly as rich as Brother Wei!

The attendant beside him looked confused.

The young master suddenly straightened his back, “We’ll go to the auction.”

Wu Jin reached out tentatively to the big boss.

Wei Shi’s expression changed slightly. The scene where the little white rabbit begged pitifully for pocket money was very pleasing to the eye. Wei Shi soon drew out a black card and handed it to Wu Jin, his fingertips rubbing twice across the youth’s palm.

Wu Jin shivered and held the big boss’s no-limit credit card very carefully. Then, he immediately came back to his senses and pretended that he bought things and freely spent money frequently.

The attendant led them to their seats, then left after Wu Jin found an excuse to send him away.

The leopard stepped all over others and came to rub its big face against Wei Shi’s calf. Meanwhile, a new stand was set up in the middle of the auction hall.

While nobody else was paying attention to them, Wu Jin raised up his small round face to look around everywhere.

There were several charity auctions in Wu Jín’s memories, but the auction on the Star of Bliss was different from those grand auctions. It was more like a corner in a shadowed private salon that could appear every night.

Legal and illegal goods intermingled and circulated around in this place. In particular, Wu Jin noticed that the aristocratic ladies who’d lingered near the garden in the middle zone during the day could no longer be seen, while the sound of sweet laughter came from the attic in the distance.

The auction area was isolated by a ‘vacuum zone’.

Wu Jin suddenly remembered that Researcher Song had said that the Star of Bliss was a carnival for adults.

“!” Wu Jin quickly hid in the shadows and asked the big boss cleverly, “What do they sell here?”

Wei Shi didn’t answer.

Wu Jin looked at the leather and fur covered seats and understood the theme for the auction. He began to speculate, starting from the nation’s top ranked protected animals, “The snow leopard, giant panda, red-crowned crane…”

Wei Shi made a sound of acknowledgement but didn’t confirm or deny it.

A privately customized zoo.

Applause broke out like the tide, as the stunning male host dressed in mink fur stepped out. Wu Jin, who was still investigating the device that would raise their auction card with a touch, suddenly looked up.

A sense of discomfort spread out from a distance. Genetically modified people were more sensitive to certain things, at a level far beyond ordinary people.

At first, Wu Jin had thought that there was another one of their kind behind the curtain, but he could hear the sound of tiny mechanical teeth rubbing together, and bone joints against metal––

The curtains suddenly lifted up!

The first auction item was presented amidst the dazzling lights.

At Wu Jin’s feet, the leopard cat suddenly arched its back and meowed.

From beside the young master, the bodyguard bent down. The leopard cat jumped into the bodyguard’s arms and was soon pacified.

There was another cat on the stage.

It was a black cat with a bow tie that stood gracefully in the spotlights. What made it remarkable were the four sets of perfect, metallic claws that left shocking scratches on the red carpet inside its cage.

The auction host squatted down gently and tossed a small ball to the cat in the cage, “Catch it, darling.”

The black cat was bursting with anger. It leapt up into the air––its claws shredded the ball, and the debris from the skin of the ball was scattered all over the cage!

The audience burst out in a round of cheers.

The host laughed briefly, “Be good, darling.” He pressed the button in his hand, and the black cat immediately twitched before being forced to lie down. The host put his hand into the cage and slowly caressed the cat’s back.

The host: “S2 mechanical cat tail transformation, central neuron control lock, starting price 100,000 credits.”

Wu Jin was taken aback and raised up his auction card as a conditioned reflex.

When the leopard cat saw Wu Jin raising the card, it immediately howled and latched onto Wu Jin’s sleeve, eager to show that it could play better than the black cat on the stage. However, Wu Jin soon pressed its head back down.

The auction price soared to 140,000.

New and interesting mechanically modified pets were popular amongst the aristocrats.

Wu Jin and the big boss exchanged looks.

The patchwork of clues and rumors linked together at this moment.

The genetic transformation technology originated from the Star of Bliss. The Duchess came to this private castle to buy the transformation reagent. The central neuron control lock for animals. The emotional lock for the genetically modified humans in the R-Code Base. The black cat on the stage, and the black cat who’d escaped from R-Code Base.

The auction held in this castle was targeted at those who wanted genetic modification technology.

The black cat was just one example of the available modifications, and one of the most ‘ordinary’ ones.

‘Modified animals’ was just a gimmick that they used to attract their target customers. Real buyers who had specific needs would spend a lot of money in the castle to open up the door to the upper zone, and then inquire around to see if there was ‘anything more interesting, anything beyond modified animals’.

For example, genetically modified people.

180,000.

Wu Jin smoothly purchased the black cat on the stage. The control chip for the neuron lock was handed over to Wu Jin respectfully, and the cage holding the black cat was also pushed over.

The leopard cat immediately jumped out in anger and tried to beat up the new black cat.

Wu Jin separated the two cats, and Wei Shi reached into the cage, “The claws are cut off when they are six months old, then connected to the mechanical chip. The training period should be no more than three months.” He tossed the cat to the leopard cat, “Your little brother. Take it with you.”

The leopard cat who suddenly had a younger brother, “……”

Wu Jin pondered over this so-called ‘central neuron control lock’ and finally came to a conclusion after a period of time, “It’s almost the same as the emotional lock.”

Wu Jin’s back felt a little chilled.

He looked up towards the top of the castle.

If his guess was correct, then that was where it had all started.

Very soon, the second, third, and subsequent auctions were all also purchased by Wu Jin.

But the entrance to the upper zone was still never opened up to Wu Jin.

Until the last item was slowly pushed up onto the stage.

In their headset, Researcher Song urged in a low voice, “The transaction upstairs is about to begin. Little Witch, just swipe the card and buy everything for the night––”

Wu Jin nodded. There were already many electronic pet cages for modified animals around him, holding a little tiger, a little rabbit, a little green snake, and various other animals. He headed straight towards an attendant and tossed over the black card.

The attendant was instantly overjoyed.

No matter how much the bidders bid, this rich young noble with abundant resources would always continue to raise the price and obtain the item––

No auction house would dare to neglect such a big customer.

The attendant finally pressed down on his walkie talkie and reported to his superiors, “Yes. I’m going to open the door. When the transaction above is completed…”

The last item sold for 2.6 million credits.

When the black card was handed back to Wu Jin, a bronzed, blank membership card was attached to it. Both cards entered Wu Jin’s palm.

The door to the upper zone was opened up for Wu Jin.

In the headset, Researcher Song finally breathed a sigh of relief, “Little Witch, that’s enough. Let Brother Wei go in first. After confirming that we have everything covered, you can go in. Let Brother Wei take a sample of your blood for comparison…”

Wu Jin understood.

The castle’s middle zone was already under the big boss’s control, but the upper zone still held unknowns. He was still a half-baked trainee, and as could be seen from the competitions, his combat level was a far cry from the level of actual armed forces.

Wu Jin acted very straightforwardly and handed the two cards to the ‘bodyguard’ who always followed beside him so that the big boss could go in first.

The person in charge of managing the castle personally came to open up the door for them.

This manager had a deep understanding of an aristocrat’s possible doubts and was very willing to let the bodyguard enter first. Although the relationship between this master and servant was ambiguous, Wu Jin’s personal safety should still be handed over to his chief bodyguard to ensure his protection.

Just before Wei Shi walked in, the young noble skillfully pulled his bodyguard back, pulling down the neat collar of Wei Shi’s dress shirt. His fingertips swept over the blood collecting device, and a tiny blood storage tube slid into the big boss’s sleeve.

The manager in charge of the castle turned his head away, smiling politely as he avoided this ambiguous scene.

The big boss immediately stepped inside and disappeared through the entrance to the upper zone.

The manager smiled at Wu Jin, “I will send over the last item you purchased in the auction right away.”

A huge golden cage was pushed over from a distance.

Wu Jin was too distracted to spare it any attention.