Road to becoming the wealthiest: Starting From Treasure Hunting in the Cabinets
Chapter 401 - 295: Illegal Salvage! _2

Chapter 401: Chapter 295: Illegal Salvage! _2

Sean Knight guessed that this must be gold and silver panned from the local mine and ultimately privately minted.

So it’s irregular.

He stored these two boxes into his spatial realm, and then Sean Knight’s Sky Eye scanned the ship again. Basically, there was nothing else of value.

Then he retreated back to the original cargo hold.

The goods in these ten boxes were ostensibly their harvest.

At least these items should be worth a pretty penny.

Let’s haul one up first.

Looking at the boxes, he somewhat regretted not calling Douglas Cooper and others to help.

Never mind, let’s just hoist one up first.

Sean Knight put away his fish gun, picked up the box that was 1.8 meters long and 80 cm wide and high, and left the cave, slowly rising to the surface.

Carrying a box that weighed tens of kilograms, Sean Knight’s speed did not slow down much.

His main concern was that the box might fall apart. However, the box, crafted skillfully with wood and reinforced with iron at the corners, showed no sign of cracking even when he swam to the yacht.

Oliver Brooks helped Sean Knight drag the box up, then Sean Knight got on the deck and said:

"Open it and see what treasures are inside."

Oliver Brooks looked at it excitedly. He had initially held some hope, but now it was shattered.

This obviously was not something from the Ming Dynasty period.

He pointed to the pattern on the box and said:

"This kind of box is most likely a weapons box from the era when Southeast Asia was colonized. It emerged about two or three hundred years ago... just as you said, it’s not my ancestor’s ship."

"There was not a single bone on that ship", said Sean Knight, "But there were quite a few of these kinds of goods."

By this time, Elijah Hastings and the others also had gathered round, curiously eyeing the box.

"Stop looking, open it." Sean Knight said, "it’s locked, pry it open."

"Be careful!" Oliver Brooks hastily said, "This lock is also an antique, worth quite a bit of money!"

Only then did Sean Knight remember Oliver Brooks’ previous plight, so he nodded and said:

"Then let’s be careful..."

"And this box, I’ve seen on the Chinese Market, it would sell for several thousand dollars!"

Sean Knight nodded and fell silent.

Elijah Hastings and Lincoln Harrington carefully pried the lock off the box, lifted the lid, and then saw inside, tightly wrapped in oil paper, were several long cylindrical items.

"What is ..."

Sean Knight bent down to pick up one of the items, peeled off the multiple layers of oil paper; the onlookers were all very surprised – the oil paper on the outside had been soaked through, but the inside didn’t seem very wet at all?

Could it be that ...

When Sean Knight peeled off the last layer of oil paper, revealing the cylindrical item –

It was an antique flintlock gun!

"Wow! It’s still quite new!" Douglas Cooper exclaimed, " It doesn’t seem to have been much corroded by the seawater."

Indeed, there was a layer of water film on it, but the gun had a layer of oil, so it seemed that the gun had been well preserved by the box and the oil paper, and the seawater didn’t have much effect.

"This is a muzzle-flintlock gun!" Oliver Brooks took the gun from Sean Knight’s hand, looked at it carefully, and then said, "In the local antiques market, such a gun would sell for at least three to five thousand dollars!"

There were ten guns in this box alone.

And there were still nine boxes in the sunken ship below, amounting to several hundred thousand dollars.

Not only could the boat rental be reimbursed, but there was also the possibility of turning a tidy profit.

"So, who wants to go down with me? There are still nine boxes below, let’s get all of them up, then go out for a trip, sell these things off first!"

"I’ll go!"

"I’ll go!"

"I’m going too!"

Elijah and others all volunteered.

Sean Knight nodded:

"I’ll tell you where they are, then later one of you can take turns replacing me."

Oliver Brooks didn’t expect them to be so enthusiastic, and by now it was too late for him to muster up any words. Thankfully Sean Knight didn’t let him off the hook:

"Mr. Brooks, you should have some channels to sell these guns, right? The discreet kind."

"Yes, yes." Although Oliver Brooks was in a run-down state, he still had some connections. His downfall was primarily due to his obsessiveness, otherwise, he could definitely have lived a comfortable life.

"Alright, you inspect the guns on the boat, we’ll go down and retrieve the boxes. Let’s first recover the boat rental fee," they said.

Oliver Brooks nodded, saying nothing more.

After an hour, all ten boxes had been hauled up, and it was time for a feast of octopus.

The next day, the yacht returned.

Back to Jakarta Port.

Just as they secured the boat, someone across the way called out to Oliver Brooks, who was preparing to disembark:

"Mr. Brooks, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time! We have finally met... this must be Mr. Knight, isn’t it? Nice to meet you!"

The man approaching was in his fifties, somewhat dark-skinned, with not much hair left, a look often associated with the Mediterranean. He spoke with an inherent grin, like an aging, jovial uncle.

He was roughly 1.7 meters tall, dressed in short sleeves and baggy shorts, wearing a jadeite bracelet on his wrist. This type was often referred to as a ’greasy uncle’.

Oliver Brooks glanced at him before turning to introduce him to Sean Knight:

"This is Mr. Spencer, second-generation Chinese. He used to live in Singapore, but moved to Indonesia a few years ago. His business is diverse, and the price he offers for the goods we’ve got is relatively fair."

Sean Knight nodded.

"Mr. Spencer, this is Mr. Knight, my business partner."

"Great!" Mr. Spencer said with a smile. "Mr. Knight, you’re a remarkable young man! Let’s communicate more in the future... about the goods..."

"You can come on board to have a look," said Sean Knight.

Having spent years treasure hunting, Sean knew many countries had laws against private salvage operations.

So caution was still necessary.

Mr. Spencer boarded the yacht and entered the cabin, where Elijah Hastings and others had already opened a box.

Mr. Spencer stepped forward, carefully lifting the layers of an oil-paper wrap, and his eyes lit up when he saw the gun.

"Excellent stuff!"

He groped the gun from top to bottom, as if he were caressing a woman’s body, then said again:

"A muzzle-flintlock gun, its style should be a standard weapon of the 19th-century colonial armies. Now it’s almost impossible to find a brand new one like this — I didn’t expect it to be so well preserved in the sea!"

Looking up at Sean Knight, he asked:

"Mr. Knight, how many do you have? Name your price, I’ll take all of them!"

He could tell that, although Oliver Brooks had referred to him as a partner, Sean Knight was clearly the one in charge.

"Five thousand US dollars each," Sean Knight said, "The boxes and such are on the house."

"The price is too high!" Mr. Spencer shook his head. "If the quantity is large, the time I need to liquidate my funds could take longer, not worth holding the inventory."

"That’s the market price, a drum that’s 70% new is already worth four thousand eight hundred US dollars." Sean hadn’t been idle during their time on board, "Mine may not be brand new, but they’ve never been used!"

"Once this gun appears on the market, which collector wouldn’t want one? Five thousand US dollars is already very low. If Mr. Spencer thinks it’s not cost-effective, we can think it over and find someone else."

Mr. Spencer didn’t expect Sean not to let him haggle over the price!

Of course, at five thousand US dollars, he could certainly make a substantial profit.

But as a businessman, he naturally wanted to drive the price down.

Thinking over it, he turned his gaze, then said hesitatingly:

"Mr. Knight, Mr. Brooks, to be honest, this is indeed good stuff. But after all, its origin is unclear, so I’m taking a risk. How about this — I’ll take them all for four and a half thousand, and consider the 500 less as hush money, how does that sound?"

Oliver Brooks was instantly angered:

"Mr. Spencer, how could you do this? It’s a convention not to enquire about the origins, you know that, right?"

"I’m just telling the truth!" Mr. Spencer, impervious to Oliver’s frustration, said, grinning cheekily, "I’m also taking a risk! Even if I don’t spread the news, it’s hard to guarantee others won’t find out..."

"You..." Oliver Brooks, both embarrassed and angry, "I can’t believe you’re so despicable..."

He was the one who had introduced Mr. Spencer, and he hadn’t expected this kind of problem. He was too embarrassed to face Sean Knight.

Elijah and the others looked grim, ready to subdue Mr. Spencer at Sean’s command.

Sean Knight responded with a cold laugh:

"Mr. Spencer, you think you’ve got us cornered, don’t you?"

"Where, where..." Mr. Spencer’s thoughts were indeed along those lines.

"Then you can give it a try," Sean pointed outside, "You can go and call the people from the relevant departments now. I can also let you see if your plan will work."

Mr. Spencer was taken aback by Sean’s words.

Upon reflection, he believed that Sean must be bluffing. If he had that much influence, why would he team up with Oliver Brooks?

Moreover, this Sean seemed to be a newcomer. He was sure he was familiar with all the influential Chinese in Jakarta.

Therefore, he suspected that Sean was merely putting on a show!