Spy-x-War Showdown
Chapter 1273 - 1278 Be Careful of Fire

Chapter 1273: Chapter 1278 Be Careful of Fire

The auction is held in a shopping mall. Although half of the mall has been destroyed, the remaining half is intact enough to host a small auction.

The crowd is larger than Yang Yi imagined. Although most are ISIS members, there are at least twenty buyers, which is not a small number.

Moreover, all these people are quite powerful. They’re not here to buy just one or two items to take home; they’re here to package and bring home many valuable things.

All the buyers share a common characteristic: they have their faces wrapped in scarves and wear sunglasses, not willing to reveal their eyes.

In this unidentifiable situation, it’s impossible for Yang Yi to recognize Tartar.

The items up for bidding are those packed inside the suitcases.

The suitcases vary in size, and clearly, these suitcases were taken from ordinary people and then used to contain the stolen goods taken by ISIS.

"What’s sold at this auction first are items owned collectively by ISIS. No matter how much money they sell for, it will be used by ISIS collectively. But ultimately, it’s mainly for Baghdadi and some upper-level members. After the auction, more people will come for private transactions. Many have seized valuable items but lack a venue to sell them. So every time this happens, people come for transactions."

Azar whispered an explanation to Yang Yi, who was surprised and said, "Even knowing those people below have snatched valuable goods, hm, won’t the people above care?"

Azar smiled and said, "They don’t care. They always give some benefits to the people below."

Yang Yi nodded. At this moment, the person who brought them stepped forward, spoke a few words to someone who seemed to be a leader, and then pointed at Azar. The person who looked like the host nodded to Azar and made a gesture.

Azar whispered, "We can go see what’s inside those boxes first. The contents of these boxes won’t be sold individually. To buy them, you have to buy the whole box—mainly gold jewelry, luxury watches, some antiques, or any valuable and precious items. But others can’t examine them at will; only we can. It’s our privilege."

Yang Yi nodded. He and Azar walked to the first box.

There are eight boxes in total, varying in size. Yang Yi crouched in front of the first box and, under the gaze of a gun-wielding guard, started to rummage through the contents.

There were silver knives and forks, gold rings, gold necklaces, and a gold headpiece that seemed quite antiquated. Azar whispered beside him, "This looks like an antique."

Brian whispered, "It is an antique, very characteristic of the Umayyad Dynasty era. Judging from the gem embedding technique, it must be an antique."

Yang Yi and Azar looked at Brian in surprise but said nothing as Yang Yi continued to rummage through the scattered jewelry until he came across a finger.

The finger was thick, and the ring on it was too small and difficult to remove. So the person who seized this ring just cut the finger off, treating it as a trophy.

Yang Yi stood up, sighed, and walked over to the second box.

The box didn’t contain any gems, nor did it have anything similar to the pictures Aaron had sent.

Yang Yi and Azar’s privilege dissatisfied other buyers. Some murmuring started, and then someone loudly said, "Either no one can look at them, or everyone can. We are participating in a sealed bid, and if you continue to break rules like this, I’d rather not participate in this auction!"

Yang Yi was a bit surprised that someone dared to say this in ISIS territory, but Azar whispered beside him, "Ignore him. I know who this guy is now."

"Who is he?"

"A Frenchman, Victor Jean Pierre, an antique dealer. Most of the antiques seized by ISIS have been acquired by him, so he’s quite valued by ISIS."

Yang Yi shrugged and said, "Frenchmen really love plundering others’ cultural relics. Is there anyone from the United Kingdom?"

"Of course there are, but I can’t see them now. But I do know there are; the French and the British are the most active here."

As expected, Yang Yi was about to say something, but at this moment the auction host came over and said to Azar, "Sorry, I can’t let you continue looking."

Yang Yi clapped his hands and stood up. Then the host immediately shouted, "Alright, the auction is starting now. The first item is this box, priced at fifty thousand US dollars. Does anyone bid?"

Everyone looked at Yang Yi because he had just inspected the box.

Without hesitation, Yang Yi raised a hand as he walked out, saying, "Hm, not actually worth it."

Azar whispered, "No one’s a fool here; it’s more cost-effective to acquire single items. It’s just that there’s too many buyers today, and there might be competition. But you’ll understand later, there will definitely be gains."

The box quickly rose to eighty-five thousand US dollars and was bought by someone. At that moment, the Frenchman loudly said again, "Sorry, I’m in a hurry. Can we start with the sculptures first?"

A big buyer gets preferential treatment; the host immediately said, "Sure, let’s head over here. These were taken from museums, and you can freely bid. The highest bidder wins."

Yang Yi followed the crowd to the side. Only then did he realize that many items from the Mosul museum destroyed by ISIS had been transferred here.

The Frenchman stood beside a relief cut from a wall or something. The content was of a warrior. After peering closely at it, Victor immediately said, "I bid fifty thousand US dollars."

There was no competition. Originally a priceless treasure of human history, it fell into Victor’s hands just like that.

Victor eagerly approached to inspect the relief that now belonged to him. He placed his hand on it but before he could say anything, the relief leaning on the wooden frame crashed to the ground, shattering to pieces.

Victor turned his head in astonishment and then loudly said, "What’s going on? Can’t you make the frame sturdier?"

Yang Yi couldn’t help but say, "Even if you took the relief back, it might get burned, but still, be careful."

Victor immediately said to Yang Yi, "What are you saying?"

Yang Yi cleared his throat and said, "I was saying, considering your level of cultural relic preservation, even if you moved all treasures back, they might be burned, so be careful."

Victor said discontentedly, "Why would you say that?"

Yang Yi smiled and said, "I don’t know why, just want to remind you to be cautious about fires, um, don’t mind these details. Please continue."