Chapter 515: The Props
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Tucson Brotherhood treasure hunters were rich. They monopolized the storage unit auctions around Tucson and had made quite a fortune over the years.
Especially Princeps, who was now nearly a member of the Million Dollar Club.
He had a personal net worth of millions of dollars.
The auction was ongoing. One thousand dollars wouldn't hold them back from bidding. Someone placed a bid of 1,100 dollars.
Li Du replied casually, "1,200 dollars!"
The auctioneer looked at Li Du. Although he wanted to avoid his bid, under such circumstances he could not pretend he didn't hear Li Du's voice.
He struggled for a while and pointed to Li Du, defeated. "Okay, 1,200 dollars, 1,200 dollars, this fella bid 1,200 dollars. Anyone bidding a higher price? How about 1,300 dollars?"
Princeps personally placed a bid in an aggressive tone: "No need for 1,300 dollars, I bid 1,500 dollars!"
Li Du raised his hand. "One thousand six hundred dollars!"
Princeps immediately followed. "Two thousand dollars!"
As Princeps had increased the bid price with two large jumps, Li Du gave it a thought and shook his head, backing off from the bidding battle.
At this time, Dickens shouted, "2,100 dollars."
Princeps's target was Li Du. He didn't care about the rest of them. He watched Dickens for a while and thought of what he had seen in the unit. Seeing that Li Du and Hans had stopped bidding, he gave up as well.
Li Du smiled when Princeps stopped bidding. He thought, This Princeps really has mediocre foresight!
With that, Dickens won the unit and winked at his fellow treasure hunters. "Thanks everyone, thank you," grinned Dickens. "It's a feat to take away any storage unit in Tucson."
Olly patted his shoulder. "You're going to be famous, lad. You did something that many treasure hunters are unable to do."
The auction ended for that unit and everyone went to the next one.
Someone took advantage of the opportunity to knock into Olly, and said with a dark face, "The one who laughs last, laughs longest. Don't get too conceited. If you cry later on, it's going to get ugly."
Olly could hear the threat in those words. He was not intimidated. "So what? If you're happy, you laugh. If I'm happy now why wouldn't I laugh?"
The Tucson treasure hunters wanted to teach Olly a lesson. Princeps stopped them with a stern glare and they walked away bitterly.
Big Beard Carl gave Olly a friendly punch and teased, "Hey Olly, you old rascal, when did you become so tough? I remember when we were in LA, you were so scared stiff of Frank that you peed your pants."
Olly gave him a dirty look. "I was scared stiff, I admit it. But I didn't pee my pants! And what do we have to fear now? I'm on Big Li's side—I'm with him!"
"Since everyone's with me, I'll help all of you earn some money," promised Li Du. "Let's go. We're gonna make a killing in Tucson!"
Although he spoke confidently, it would still be difficult for them to make any money in Tucson. The two most valuable units had been taken away by the Tucson Brotherhood.
The units afterward were either won by the Tucson Brotherhood or Li's team of Flagstaff treasure hunters.
Li Du adopted tactics as well. When each auction started, he would let the Tucson treasure hunters bid first. He would then follow with another bid that caused a huge spike in the price. No matter the worth of the unit, he would always do that.
This was because he noticed that the Tucson Brotherhood had adopted the cast-a-fishnet tactic on storage units. They didn't really care what was inside the unit, they would try their best to coordinate with the auctioneer and win it.
When Li Du placed a bid, the Tucson treasure hunters would follow with another bid. This was why he would usually bid with a reasonable jump in price so that when the Tucson treasure hunters won, they would have to pay a higher price for it.
If the unit had some value, he would calculate the profit margin, determine a maximum price, and then continue bidding for it.
The Tucson treasure hunters did not know much about the exact worth of the units. They depended on their "fishnet" tactic to bid against Li Du.
However, the fishnet tactic had its own constraints as well. It worked better when the bid price was low. If the prices were consistently high, they might not have enough money to bid on the rest of the units.
So when the price got too high for them, they would give up and let Li Du have the unit.
More than ten units had been auctioned. They were now opening up unit number 62 for viewing.
Li Du saw helmets, military uniform and guns inside the unit. He immediately recognized that he'd be unable to win the unit without paying a high price for it.
The treasure hunters who were in front of him had the same expression as him. They were glad to see the items but their morale soon deflated.
Li Du was unhappy because he would have to pay a high price for the unit. This was not why the other treasure hunters were upset. "What is this? D*mn, Counter-Strike cosplay equipment? I thought we got a military unit here!"
Hans was disappointed with the unit as well. "Not much worth. All of this is just cosplay equipment. D*mn—it's equivalent to a bunch of toys."
Hearing all these comments made by the treasure hunters, Li Du was startled. "It's just cosplay equipment? I thought it was genuine military equipment."
Hans shined his flashlight on the equipment and explained, "All this is cosplay equipment; the helmets are made of hard plastic and there are sensors in them. These military costumes also have sensors in them. It's probably laser sensor equipment."
Li Du's eyes followed the light Hans shined. Everything was definitely fake, but he thought he had seen real military equipment the other day.
"Look—there are military belts on the costumes and there seem to be bullet magazines on them," Hans continued explaining. "But I bet they're not bullet magazines. They're probably battery packs for the sensors."
Li Du nodded and released the little bug to check on one of the battery packs that Hans had just mentioned. It was indeed a battery pack created to look like bullet magazines.
However, Mr. Li was puzzled because this was different from his memory. He furrowed his brows, pondered for a while and let the little bug enter the wooden chest. The wooden chest contained military equipment as per his memory.
The little bug entered and saw a helmet, night vision goggles, a bullet-proof vest and other items. As the little bug looked around the items inside, he noted that it was entirely different from the cosplay equipment outside!
The equipment outside had no night vision goggles but there were some inside the chest. Moreover, the night vision goggles had internal electrical connections, which were definitely not props.
The chest contained guns as well. The little bug entered a gun and Li Du saw all the familiar gun structures. These were real guns, not props!
And the bullet-proof vest was definitely real. Although he was unable to discern the material used to create it, the layers and layers of composite fiber told him it was definitely not a prop.
In addition, the chest contained a gas mask, a multi-functional knife, a telescope and even a hand-grenade—all genuine!
Li Du perked up observing this equipment. He thought that only the first two units had value, but this unit seemed to be valuable as well. He could also get it at a much lower price as everybody thought this unit just contained props!
The auction started. The Tucson treasure hunters had given up on their human wall. It was useless against Li Du anyway. Moreover, with the Flagstaff treasure hunters participating in the auctions as well, they didn't have enough men to form a human wall long enough for every Flagstaff treasure hunter.
The auctioneer shouted, "The price of the unit is 1,000 dollars, 1,000 dollars, 1,000 dollars! Who's willing to bid 1,000 dollars?"
Li Du gave Hans a wink. Hans gave a chuckle and said, "I'll bid 1,000 dollars!"
"One thousand one hundred dollars!" a Tucson treasure hunter shouted.
Hans placed another bid, crying, "2,000 dollars!"
Another man from Tucson Brotherhood shouted, "2,100 dollars!"
"Three thousand dollars!" Hans said.
"Three thousand one hundred dollars!"
"Four thousand dollars!"
Princeps shook his head and the Tucson treasure hunters gave up bidding for the unit. "Haha, I'd be crazy if I spent 4,000 dollars buying a unit of cosplay props."