**Chapter 55: The Auction (Part 3) - A New Addition to the Family, Person in the Hospital**
"Damn coward!"
Ulysses Klaue, who had successfully auctioned off the Vibranium Ore at a price of 155 million US Dollars, had an ashen face at this moment. He cursed and grumbled, glaring in the direction of Private Box 6.
The reason for his anger was that he was the seller of this ten-kilogram piece of Vibranium Ore.
More than ten years ago, by chance, Ulysses Klaue discovered a secret path leading to Wakanda.
He led a group of people through this secret passage and successfully infiltrated Wakanda, injured the King of Wakanda, and stole two hundred and fifty kilograms of Vibranium Ore.
According to the black market price for Vibranium, one gram of Vibranium Ore is worth ten thousand US Dollars.
Two hundred and fifty kilograms of Vibranium Ore were worth 2.5 billion US Dollars. This money should have been enough for Ulysses Klaue and his group to achieve financial freedom and become billionaires.
But who could have imagined that Wakanda, this mysterious small country in Africa, not only possessed advanced technology decades ahead of Earth's.
While maintaining its isolationist policy, it also had a global intelligence network.
This intelligence organization, PRIDE, which was directly subordinate to the King of Wakanda, had launched a frenzied pursuit against Ulysses Klaue and his group for over ten years.
By now, of the seventeen people who had entered Wakanda back then, only Ulysses Klaue himself had survived the pursuit by the PRIDE organization.
The reason he had been able to live safely until now was that he was cautious enough.
PRIDE's espionage and intelligence network were highly developed. Many people who sought to buy Vibranium from them might have already turned around and sold them out to PRIDE.
Six of Ulysses's accomplices died as a result of PRIDE's entrapment.
Therefore, for many years, apart from a few channels he considered safe, he never easily sold the ore. The mobile auction organized by the mysterious organization was a sales channel he had trusted for many years.
Although Ulysses had Vibranium Ore in his hands, limited by the channels for cashing out, the disposable money he had was not as much as imagined.
He had always wanted to recruit men and reorganize his team to go to Wakanda again and pull off a big job.
This was also the reason he chose to sell ten kilograms of Vibranium Ore at once.
At today's auction, he had originally intended to see the determined posture of the people in Private Box 6 and wanted to drive up the price. He didn't expect the people in Private Box 6 to not follow the bid.
Now he felt like his attempt to drive up the price had backfired.
Although he was the owner of the goods, according to the rules of the auction, for the transaction price of 155 million US Dollars, he needed to pay the auction organizer a 10% brokerage fee, which was 15.5 million US Dollars.
To put it in perspective, the unit price of a Federation M1A2SEP main battle tank does not exceed nine million US Dollars.
He did have Vibranium Ore in his hands, but this thing only becomes money when it's cashed out.
Fifteen million US Dollars, this money was enough for him to recruit a batch of men in Africa and form a mercenary army.
Ulysses Klaue cursed and grumbled, so angry that he almost wanted to rush into Private Box 6, drag the people inside out, and shoot them dead.
However, the fully armed guards patrolling the venue dispelled this violent thought of his.
During the next few auctions, Ulysses Klaue's eyes never left Private Box 6.
He completely failed to notice a black thread as thin as a hair floating onto him and sticking to the trouser leg of his camouflage uniform.
After a few rounds of bidding, the beautiful auctioneer waved her hand to signal. Two big men standing by the side of the hall used crowbars to pry open a wooden box next to the venue.
The two men lifted and carried out a cylindrical object that looked like a rolled-up carpet from the wooden box.
"The next item for auction, a roll of the inner belly skin of a mysterious creature, starting bid two million US Dollars!"
Behind the beautiful auctioneer, the two strong men pulled the "carpet" open from the middle outwards. A huge white leather was slowly spread open, just like a movie screen.
Scales as large as a washbasin were closely overlapping in a staggered manner. Illuminated by the lights, the scales emitted a radiance like white gemstones.
But at this moment, everyone in the hall felt as if someone had grabbed them by the neck.
They stared blankly at the beast hide that was as large as a wall. Snake skin – that was the first thing everyone in the hall thought upon seeing this piece of hide.
In the deepest part of human genes, fragments of ancient memories had etched the danger of this patterned, elongated creature into their DNA.
Many people sitting on the seats in the hall felt their legs start to tremble uncontrollably.
As everyone knows, the inner belly of many snakes generally grows some protective scales to protect their soft abdomen when crawling.
But even if it were a legendary giant python, its scales couldn't possibly be this large, let alone the fine belly scales.
Snakes as thick as a washbasin could be called super giant pythons in human society, and the belly scales on this piece of skin were washbasin-sized.
If one were to only look at this piece of belly leather, the size of this snake would be enough to coil around this ten-thousand-ton cruise ship.
A feeling of suffocation permeated the hall, as if the pressure made it impossible for people to breathe.
A few people who were relatively close to the snake belly skin felt their jaws start chattering uncontrollably.
That was the awe and fear ingrained in humans when facing an apex predator!
"Three million US Dollars!"
A clear voice echoed in the hall. It was the voice coming from Private Box 6.
The sound of the bid broke the almost solidified atmosphere in the hall.
A few rich people who reacted took off their jackets, tied them around their waists, and hurriedly got up to go to the restroom.
Obviously, facing this piece of snake belly scale, these few people were actually scared into incontinence.
However, no one present had time to laugh at them. Whose legs weren't trembling?
A super giant python as thick as a cruise ship, just thinking about it was terrifying.
In a corner of the auction hall, Sabretooth, standing behind Magneto, slowly retracted his fangs and sharp claws. The moment this piece of snake skin unfolded just now, Sabretooth had directly entered an attack state.
As a top-tier Mutant, Sabretooth Victor possessed extraordinary regeneration, stamina, strength, and beast-like intuition.
Relying on his extraordinary beast intuition, Sabretooth felt a dangerous aura on this piece of snake skin.
Magneto seemed to sense the alertness Sabretooth displayed. He looked back at Sabretooth with some surprise.
"I thought you didn't know fear. You also have times when you are afraid?"
Sabretooth looked at Magneto, then let out a low growl towards the hanging snake belly skin. The almost inaudible low growl was full of provocation.
"Alright, business is important. If you like this piece of snake skin, we'll get it!"
Magneto's casually spoken sentence calmed Sabretooth's emotions.
Although Magneto was also surprised that such a large snake existed in the world, compared to his ideals and cause, a snake was nothing to him.
He had once teamed up with his old opponent and even killed gods, let alone a snake.
What Magneto cared about was that piece of research data about Mutants and the gene sample.
...
At this moment, inside Private Box 6, Tang Song's gaze was fixed firmly on that piece of snake belly skin.
Using "a roll" to describe this piece of snake skin was obviously not appropriate. It should be a torn piece of snake skin. Compared to the enormous snake body, it was an insignificant small piece, just like dead skin shed from a person's body.
Tang Song's Divine Sense swept over the snake skin. He could feel the powerful aura of the original owner. It wasn't cultivation level or supernatural strength, but a kind of strength in the essence of life, like a life leap.
On this piece of snake skin, he felt a sense of ancientness, as if the owner of this piece of snake skin had lived for tens of millions of years.
(Today added a new member to the family, wife gave birth to a son, weighing 7 pounds 1 ounce. Currently taking care of precious son...)
(End of this chapter)