45: Chapter 45 Underground Auction, The Cat-Eared Girl in the Cage

Watching Matthew's ugly display of switching from arrogance to fawning servility.

Su Xiaoxiao smiled with satisfaction.

This was the confidence Su Chen had given her. In this steel city, they could swagger about with absolute financial power!

"Simple,"

Su Xiaoxiao pulled out the thick ledger from her pocket, flipped to a certain page, and slapped it directly onto the table.

"I need high-grade blueprints, extremely rare thunder and ice attribute cores, large quantities of special rare metals, and all the advanced gene potion formula materials you can find here."

"Also..."

Su Xiaoxiao's gaze swept over Matthew's obsequious face.

"I heard you have a top-tier underground black market auction here tonight?"

"Of course! Of course!"

Matthew nodded like a chicken pecking at rice. He carefully pulled out an invitation card from his bosom, made from an unknown high-grade monster leather and edged with gold.

He respectfully offered the extremely precious admission ticket to Su Xiaoxiao with both hands.

"This is our auction house's highest-level Black Gold VIP admission ticket."

"At tonight's auction, an extremely rare final treasure will appear. I believe, with the financial power of you and the great Train Master behind you, it will undoubtedly belong to you."

Su Xiaoxiao took the invitation, glanced at it casually, and put it in her pocket.

"It would be best not to disappoint our Train Master, otherwise, you can keep those eyes of yours to feed the Ghouls."

...

Night fell.

The entire core hub of the East China Region was enveloped in a thick layer of night and the intermittent flicker of neon lights.

Compared to the deathly silence and danger outside, the night here was exceptionally boisterous, filled with the filthy aura of various desires and transactions.

Deep underground in the hub, within a massive, heavily guarded underground venue constructed entirely of steel alloy.

Tonight's top-tier black market auction officially commenced.

Su Chen, wearing his black tactical trench coat, accompanied by the cold-as-snow Chu Qingxue and the shrewd and capable Su Xiaoxiao, was respectfully led by several fully armed auction house guards straight to the Black Gold VIP box on the second floor of the venue, which offered the best view and was the most luxurious.

...

Inside the box, Su Chen sipped the subpar red wine provided by the auction house and frowned slightly.

He gently swirled the wine glass in his hand. The murky, slightly astringent liquid refracted a dull hue under the light.

"This can be called red wine? The taste is worse than the cooling water in my steam train's boiler."

Su Chen casually placed the glass on the gold-thread-inlaid coffee table, his tone laced with unconcealed disdain.

Seeing this, Chu Qingxue immediately retrieved a specially made glass pitcher from a small, exquisite portable incubator she carried.

Inside the pitcher was absolutely pure water, purified by the train's [Intermediate Water Circulation Purification Hub].

Even better, Chu Qingxue had used her S-grade talent [Extreme Cold Frost] to condense a thin layer of frost on the outer wall of the pitcher, keeping the pure water perfectly chilled and at the most suitable drinking temperature.

"Train Master, have some ice water to soothe your throat."

Chu Qingxue bent slightly, her long, snow-white neck and proud curves displayed before Su Chen.

She elegantly poured Su Chen a fresh cup of ice water. Her cold eyes, however, were now filled with a gentleness and obedience that only surfaced when facing Su Chen.

Su Chen took the cup and drank it in one gulp. The bone-chillingly cold, pure, and sweet sensation instantly washed away the discomfort left by the earlier poor-quality red wine.

"The water Qingxue pours is still the best."

Su Chen chuckled lightly and, with a casual motion, wrapped his arm around Chu Qingxue's soft, slender waist, pulling her to sit on his lap.

Chu Qingxue let out a soft gasp of surprise, and two alluring blushes instantly bloomed on her fair, delicate cheeks.

But she didn't struggle. Instead, she obediently leaned against Su Chen's broad, solid chest, even adjusting slightly to find a more comfortable position.

Su Xiaoxiao, sitting nearby, pushed her black-rimmed glasses up her nose, pretending to look at the auction catalog in her hands, though her ears had long perked up.

Her shrewd, large eyes darted around as she muttered to herself.

"Goodness, Sister Qingxue, who's usually as cold as an iceberg, is gentler than a kitten in front of the Train Master."

"It seems the Train Master's 'physical cooling' methods in the master bedroom that night were quite effective."

Su Chen had no time to guess what this little money-grubber was thinking.

He turned his gaze back to the vast, noisy auction floor outside the box.

The black market auction, located deep underground in the core hub, had now reached the end of its first half.

The venue was arranged in tiers. The bottom level was filled with hundreds of Wasteland survivors in varied attire, their expressions alert and wary.

On the second floor, there were over a dozen Black Gold VIP boxes like Su Chen's, each with one-way glass and absolute privacy protection.

On the auction stage, an auctioneer in a tuxedo was shouting at the top of his lungs, vigorously promoting a blueprint in his hand.

"Everyone! This is a Bronze Mid-Grade [Heavy Ballista Blueprint]!"

"Just install it on your train, and even if you encounter a Bronze Peak-Grade monster, you can severely injure it with one shot!"

"Starting bid, fifty liters of pure water, or an equivalent value in high-grade lumber!"

However, faced with this blueprint, which other survivors might consider a heavy firepower artifact...

Su Chen merely yawned in boredom.

"Too slow."

Su Chen's fingers tapped lightly on Chu Qingxue's astonishingly resilient thigh.

"They've already auctioned over a dozen trinkets. Either they're basic physical enhancement serums or weapon blueprints cobbled together from scrap metal."

"That kind of garbage, if thrown into the armory, Qingyu wouldn't even give it a second glance, let alone waste my modification materials on it."

Su Chen shook his head, feeling deeply disappointed with the so-called first half of this top-tier auction.

"Don't be impatient, Train Master."

Su Xiaoxiao leaned over, handing the auction catalog, which emitted a faint scent of ink, to Su Chen.

Pointing at the final few items on the list, deliberately marked with black question marks as the final lots, she said excitedly,

"According to insider information from that steward Matthew, the first half is just for warming up and draining the funds of the lower-level survivors."

"The truly good stuff, like Silver-Grade rare cores, high-grade modification materials dug up from ancient ruins, even some high-grade slaves with special talents, are all in the second half!"

As soon as Su Xiaoxiao finished speaking...

The massive crystal chandelier in the center of the venue suddenly went dark, plunging the entire auction hall into brief darkness.

Immediately after, a blinding spotlight instantly shone on the very center of the auction stage.

The second half had begun.

"Distinguished guests! Next, allow me to present the first item of tonight's second half, and also the final lot with the most ornamental and special value!"

The auctioneer's voice grew sharp with excitement.

As his words fell, four bare-chested, muscular men with bulging muscles strained to push a massive black iron cage, covered with a black cloth, slowly onto the auction stage.

*Rustle!*

The auctioneer yanked off the large black cloth.

When the interior of the cage was revealed to everyone...

The entire noisy auction hall fell into a deathly silence in that instant!

Then, a wave of gasps a hundred times more violent than before, accompanied by the sound of countless men swallowing their saliva, erupted like a tsunami within the venue!

Inside that cold black iron cage...

Crouched a girl, covered in wounds, her clothes in tatters.

The black material of her clothing, which should have been some form of tactical bodysuit, was now badly damaged, barely covering a slender yet perfectly toned body brimming with extreme flexibility and explosive power.

Large areas of snow-white, delicate skin were exposed to the air, crisscrossed with several shocking whip marks and bruises. Far from marring her beauty, they added a morbid allure that made one want to utterly destroy and ravage her.

But these were not the real reasons driving all the men in the hall to madness.

What was truly shocking, even stunning...

was that on top of the girl's head grew a pair of cat ears, as deep and dark as the night!

Those cat ears were trembling slightly now, due to fear and wariness.

And behind her, a similarly black, fluffy long tail hung limply on the cold iron floor.

Seeing the cat-eared girl curled up in the cage...

The breathing of every man in the hall became ragged at that moment.

In their eyes, twisted and filled with primal desires from long-term survival in the Wasteland, the most blatant, lecherous light was revealed without reservation.

"My god... A demi-human! This kind of fantasy-level beauty, I'm seeing a live one today!"

"Look at those cat ears, and that tail! If I could grab that tail..."

"Too perfect. That figure and flexibility... she's practically a work of art born to fulfill all a man's fantasies!"

The survivors on the lower level whispered among themselves, some already unable to control themselves and starting to drool.

But they could only feast their eyes.

Because the starting price the auctioneer had just announced was a full 100 liters of pure water!

In this cruel world where even a mouthful of clean rainwater had to be fought for with one's life, 100 liters of absolutely pure water was enough to buy several lives, or even exchange for a well-equipped ordinary armored train.

This was not a treasure that these scattered individuals at the bottom could ever hope to touch.

Meanwhile, in a VIP box on the second floor...

Zhao Kuang, the leader of the Iron Blood Alliance, was currently staring at the cat-eared girl in the cage like a bull in heat.

His sinister, tyrannical eyes flashed with a greed so intense it seemed ready to spew fire.

"Good! Excellent!"

Zhao Kuang slammed his palm on the coffee table before him, a cruel and lecherous grin spreading across his face.

"I've played with so many women, but I've never tasted a demi-human."

"This top-tier little wildcat should be taken back to my train, slowly trained. She'll definitely become a great asset for me!"