"heh?"

"......"

"Hrm?"

These are the reactions of the people on the room were Marcos' group is currently occupying.

To them, this was a literal surprise counter-attack.

They didn't expect it.

At this point, the woman was already frowning.

It was already in the bag. Putting this bid at the last moment was like a robber stealing the bag were her prized item is.

This can only be said in the single known word, insult.

"You dare..."

This time, she's literally pissed.

.......

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Rodel really felt tired this time.

It was really close, really-REALLY too close.

He was really lucky that they got approval on increasing their funds at the right time. If they didn't however.....

Rodel immediately took these thoughts out of his head. It was very bad to think like this since it can affect mental health.

"Haaaa, that was really close."

Looking beside at the person beside himself, Jose was also on the same situation as him.

His face alone already told him how tiring that was.

After such a close experience from losing, Rodel concentrated once more and also regained back his political confidence aura.

As expected, auctions of this scale would not be your average type of auctions. Just like now, he nearly fell of the cliff on that one.

"So I didn't have the chance to ask how much additional funds they gave us so I'm just gonna ask now." Asked Rodel to Jose.

Wiping some sweat of his face, Jose replied.

"They gave us 14.5 million, this is the highest amount they can give us."

"14.5 million, I suppose that's enough." Thought Rodel.

"We can't ask more than this, so let's make this trip to the Grand Auction count."

......

It's been quite some time now, and the bidding for the 17th item has reached a stalemate.

By this time, both parties continued their bids recklessly.

The only difference is that the other party started to lower their bid. And this party was the room of Marcos' group.

"Dammit!"

At this point the woman had some strands of hair that looked messy already.

The two men in Black tuxedos immediately moved out of the way. One of these men was Marcos.

"Mam..."

The woman glared at Marcos, after glaring at him for sometime, she proceeded to turn her sight to the room not far from her.

This room was the room that Rodel and co was occupying.

After thinking for some moments, she answered and said her next words in a very low tone.

"Fine, you can have this item. But I'll bet you won't be able get the next one."

.....

"Sold!" Said the auctioneer very loudly. This time though, uproars didn't happen.

It was because of that last bid made by the male voice.

It shutted the soul within their bodies into silence

4,050,500!

The 17th item made a whopping 4 million!

Crazy!

Even in history of all the auctions in the Philippines, prices never made it this far. As far as one can remember, the last highest bidded price was 3,879,000.

And today it was broken by this price of 4,050,500!

No matter what the crowd was thinking, the auctioneer didn't care. To him, this bid would make him rich for his own self proclaimed commoner life.

He immediately proceeded to introduce the 18th item.

"I would now introduce our 18th item, oh and a little heads up, this item are for trained seasoned soldiers. Our 18th item is the state of the art, Zero DG mech created by the Starline corporation. Within its name, the D is for degrees, while the G is for gravity. As for it's specs, I cannot tell. We were only told to say it to the person that gets to be it's user."

Quite a number of people made whispering sounds. The reaction wasn't that strong since most already got used to such surprised being given to them within this auction. The other reason why a commotion didn't came was that the auctioneer indicated the words 'trained seasoned soldiers'.

Smiling, the auctioneer continued.

"I won't prolong this any longer. We shall now start with the bidding. For our start up bidding price, 1,000,000."

The whispers suddenly disappeared. Clearly the people making those whispers were immediately silenced the moment the price was given.

It wasn't long though before a bid was placed on the item.

Most bids were from the second floor with increments ranging from 80 to 120 thousand.

Soon, the price reached 1,890,000.

Within the woman's room, her gaze was not on the item but on the room were Rodel and co was at.

Her previous rage was gone and what replaced it is tranquility.

Raising the corners of her lips, she simply said her next words.

"I'm not gonna let you take this one."

.....

"T3, 2, 3,500,000."

Rodel glanced at the room beside his. He then turned to Jose and asked.

"So, what's their reply?"

"They said that we could get someone from the Marsus kingdom to train under our military jurisdiction just to learn how to operate a mech."

Rodel raised an eyebrow when Jose said this.

If they're going to do this, then wouldn't that bring more things to do for them?

Although Rodel was complexed by the decision of their superiors, he still had to comply to it.

"Haaa, alright i'll put in our bid now."

.....

"T3, 1, 3,800,000."

"Ohh, he finally made a move, karon tan-awa samtang gilaglag ko ang imong pagsalig sa pagkuha niini nga butang."
(Translations: now watch as i destroy your confidence on getting this item.)

Marcos shuddered when he heard this. It wasn't just him too, the bodyguards and the other person wearing a black tuxedo also shuddered when they heard this.

And, as an addition to why they shuddered was that her smile....

Sweat began dripping down their heads.

It was too scary.

......

"T3, 2, 4,000,000."

"T3, 1, 4,200,000."

"T3, 2, 4,500,000."

Bid after bid came. Rodel and the woman continued they're fight endlessly.

The people from the first and second floor felt really tight just from the bids being thrown around from one price to another.

Although the family status of poor in the country became non-existent, that does not change the fact there are still much richer and high-class families out there.

And from what these people are experiencing now, they felt that they're in a war zone. And their base was at the center of the two opposing countries.

And in a war, such a location was surely really not good to be at.

Time passed, the bid has already reached 7 million. During these moments, everyone felt like they were being choked.

However, this feeling immediately changed from being choked to being killed.

Because not long after, a fresh new bid was thrown. And this bid was not from Rodel or the woman, but it came from a new, deeper male voice.

The voice simply said his numbers, and this following numbers even silenced Rodel and the woman.

"T3, 3, 15,000,000."