Chapter 12 An Unforeseen Development

Feng Bujue walked down the steps and into the main hall, continuing to observe his surroundings and the people around him.

Although the word "banquet" had been used in the earlier announcement, the organizers clearly had no intention of seating everyone at tables for a Chinese meal.

Of course, food and drinks were being provided in the main hall. Various wines, champagne fountains, and a variety of ready-to-eat snacks and fresh seafood... were all available for the guests to help themselves.

Or rather... they could only help themselves.

Because the only personnel present were the men in suits and sunglasses maintaining order; there were no servers.

Considering that many guests had chosen masks that made eating impossible without removing them, the demand for food and beverages was quite limited, so the arrangement seemed appropriate.

A moment later, Jue-Ge, who had quickly circled the main hall, suppressed his urge to take off his mask and grab a bite to eat… and stood in a corner against the wall, continuing to observe the situation.

"Just as I expected…" Looking at the diverse array of guests, Feng Bujue thought to himself, "Even though everyone is wearing masks and strangers to each other, quite a few people have already formed 'small groups.'"

His eyes darted around, scanning the groups of three to five people.

"Even if their faces are hidden, those who are good at socializing are still good at socializing.

"Figure, conversation, demeanor; and their taste in wine, clothing, and even masks... these are all overt assets that can quickly demonstrate one's self-worth."

Thinking of this, he looked at some other people.

"And those who aren't good at those things can only serve as temporary appendages, or fight their own battles like me."

Then, he snorted softly.

"Hmph... However, in the long run, there's no difference between the two.

"Those who are laughing and chatting now understand in their hearts that the 'relationships' they're building in this situation are nothing more than acting on the occasion and mutual exploitation.

"When it comes to their own interests, anyone can easily betray the other..."

Feng Bujue looked up at the second floor of the main hall; there… was a doorway guarded by many black suits that no one could approach.

"In the eyes of the 'organizer' pushing this charade, everyone standing in this main hall is nothing more than a plaything for their amusement…

"The luxurious clothes, the excellent social skills…

"The show of knowledge, the seductive poses…

"No matter what they do, they can't hide the most basic fact – those who have come here have reached the end of their rope.

"If they weren't at the end of their rope, they wouldn't have come on this ship.

"If they weren't at the end of their rope, they wouldn't be gambling with their lives.

"Moreover, these people… are different from the common people who have never touched the upper echelons of society; they are all 'successful people,' 'social elites,' 'winners in life'… their abilities, courage, vision, and so on are different from the former.

"But they have all brought themselves to the brink of ruin because of some mistake.

"They… fear poverty and loss of power more than ordinary people.

"For mortals, being a mortal is life, but for gods, being a mortal… is the most terrible punishment.

"In the hearts of this group, the 'fear' of a life of poverty even surpasses the fear of death—at least, that's what they think before they truly face death.

"So, they make a desperate gamble…

"So, they came here…

"In order to escape the abyss in front of them, they rush to a single-plank bridge, but they deceive themselves by ignoring… that only a few people can cross the bridge; and the rest will fall from the bridge, falling into another abyss that is even more bottomless..."

Thinking of this, Feng Bujue laughed.

"Heh… Watching these people struggling in desperation, tearing at each other… gradually stripping away the layers of pretense, revealing the dirty essence under their glamorous exterior, or rather… their true nature, must be a very pleasurable thing."

His laughter contained self-deprecation, and some indescribable emotions…

Perhaps Jue-Ge himself has realized… that the reason he can think of these things is because his dark side is also craving this "show."

…………

Evening, 7:10 PM.

Perhaps to put on airs, perhaps to give the guests time to socialize beforehand, or perhaps… simply out of whim.

In short, tonight's protagonist arrived late and made his grand entrance at this time.

It was a yellow-skinned man wearing a tuxedo, about 1.8 meters tall, with black medium-length hair.

Like the guests, this "organizer" was also wearing a mask.

Therefore, people could not see his face; the only information that could be confirmed from him was his hair color, skin color, height, and body type.

When this man came to the railing on the second floor and stood there, the crowd in the main hall naturally quieted down.

【Presence】

This was the word that flashed through people's minds at this moment.

He didn't speak, nor did he do anything that would attract other people's attention. He simply "appeared" and stood there, giving people a strong, undeniable sense of presence.

Before long, the entire venue was silent, and hundreds of burning gazes were fixed on that person.

People were waiting… waiting for him to say something.

And this reaction pleased the organizer very much.

"As always, these ants disguised as elites, the ordinary, the vulgar… quickly noticed my uniqueness."

He thought to himself, just as he was about to speak, but unexpectedly…

Slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp—

Suddenly, a very obvious slurping sound rang out.

Because the main hall was very quiet at this time, the sound was particularly jarring.

So… the attention that people had originally placed on the organizer was instantly drawn to the slurping sound.

There, the source of the sound… a man wearing a raven mask was holding a drink and inserting the straw into the "eye" part of the mask, slurping and sipping…

Facing the crowd's attention, this guy had no intention of stopping this bizarre behavior.

He just nonchalantly, slowly finished the drink, then put down the cup and leisurely closed the "eyes" on the mask (the raven mask's two eyes were two round glass designs like small portholes; on the mask Jue-Ge bought, these two lenses could be opened individually).

"Hey~ Big brother." After finishing his drink, Feng Bujue turned around and took two steps, greeting a man in a suit and sunglasses who was closest to him.

The man in the suit was also stunned. After two seconds, he stuttered, "Wha… what's the matter?"

"Don't you guys have bendable straws here? These straight ones are so inconvenient." Feng Bujue used a tone as if he was complaining at a convenience store counter, telling the other party something that seemed irrelevant to everyone else.

But… from the actual situation, his suggestion was indeed well-founded.

Because the mouth part of Feng Bujue's mask could not be opened, when he was drinking just now, he could only bend the straw at a nearly sixty-degree angle and hold the drink almost as high as his face, allowing the straw to extend through the hole at the eye and into his mouth…

In this case, a straight straw being forcibly bent would make it very difficult to suck, and then it would make that very harsh and very obvious slurping sound.

Of course… normally, when the mouth of the mask cannot be opened, people would simply give up drinking and eating. And if the mouth of the mask could be opened, then the straight straw would not have any impact.

"This… this…" The man in the suit was a little confused by the question. As a small figure, he couldn't help but feel nervous under the focus of so many people.

"Heh… hehehe…" Fortunately, two seconds later, the organizer standing on the second floor laughed.

His laughter pulled people's attention back again.

"Oh? Younger than I estimated." Feng Bujue immediately thought to himself after hearing the other party's voice, "Judging from his gait when walking, the exposed skin, and his posture when standing, he should be no more than forty years old. But hearing this laughter now… he is likely under thirty."

"Hey! You there." As the laughter subsided, the organizer used his slightly arrogant voice and loudly called out to the man in the suit.

"Ah… ah! Yes! Sir!" The man in the suit hesitated for half a second, then immediately stood up straight and responded loudly.

"You go to the logistics department immediately and confirm with the gentleman next to you if the ship has the straw he wants." The next second, the organizer calmly ordered, "If not, you take a helicopter back to the city and buy some for him."

"Uh… yes!" The man in the suit showed a "rescued" expression when he responded. Then, he gave Jue-Ge a smug look before leaving…

What happened in this short minute was the first round of "confrontation" between Jue-Ge and the organizer…

Feng Bujue accurately grasped the moment when the organizer was about to speak and disrupted the other party's rhythm with a series of nonsensical actions.

And the organizer used an extremely simple and direct method that ordinary people might not have thought of to solve the other party's demands.

As a result, Jue-Ge's situation seemed a bit awkward at this time… However, he had a thick skin after all, and he also had the mask bonus today, so he didn't care much about the crowd's attention.

In any case, this first "sparring"… was clearly won by the organizer.

"Ahem…" After a slightly awkward silence, the organizer cleared his throat and spoke again, "Ladies and gentlemen…"

His words made those who were still looking down on Jue-Ge turn their attention back.

"Welcome to the Argo." The organizer said these words without any enthusiasm. His tone revealed a faint chill, "I am the organizer of this banquet. You can just call me 'Organizer'."

He paused for two seconds, looked at the reaction of the crowd below, and then said, "Everyone is a smart person, so I'll skip the hypocrisy and circumlocution…"

He wasn't the kind of person who would say those words anyway… because "hypocrisy" and "circumlocution" were rhetorical devices that people used when they were asking for something from others. And this organizer had almost no chance to say such things.

"I'll just talk about the parts that everyone is interested in…"

The organizer said at this point, eight men in suits silently appeared on his sides, four on the left and four on the right, standing side by side.

Each man in a suit was holding an object covered with white cloth. Looking at the outline… the white cloth should be covering some kind of rectangular object, with a side length of about thirty centimeters.

"Heh…" After waiting for a few seconds, the organizer sneered, "Allow me to introduce to everyone, the prizes for tonight's 'game'."

Before his words were finished, the men in suits each unveiled the white cloth on the objects they were holding.

Under the white cloth… without exception, they were all small glass cabinets.

The bottoms of those cabinets were made of metal, the base was covered with a rectangular glass cover, and inside the cabinets were stored…

"I'll start from my left hand side… and introduce them to everyone one by one." The organizer only glanced to the left and right respectively, confirming the position and order of those things, then stopped turning his head, and instead maintained the posture of looking down at the crowd below, and slowly narrated…

"First, 'Tears of the Red', one of the world's most famous natural red diamonds, stolen from a collector's home in 2040, and its whereabouts have been unknown ever since. The market value at the time of the last appraisal… was about 6 million US dollars."

"Second, 'Firefly', nothing special, just a very perfect cat's eye stone, worth about 5 million US dollars."

"Third, 'Fragrance', unearthed from the royal jewelry of a certain European country, legend says it will bring misfortune to the women who wear it, causing them to die in a few years, and each dead person will die in a place with a strange fragrance. 'Fragrance' last appeared on the auction market and was sold for 12 million US dollars."

"Fourth, 'Lover', produced in Myanmar, one of the largest diamonds in existence, first discovered in the nineteenth century, its rough stone was too large and was cut into two pieces, created by the hands of two skilled Italian craftsmen."

"Fifth, 'Beloved', this is the sister stone of the previous one, the individual market value of these two diamonds is about 5 million US dollars."

"Sixth, 'Dashmir Pink Diamond', originally belonged to a famous female star in the twentieth century, she was murdered in her own living room in 1968, and the only thing stolen from her mansion that day was this diamond. She bought this diamond for 180,000 US dollars the year before she was murdered, I think everyone knows about inflation, you should be able to quickly calculate how much 180,000 US dollars was worth back then."

"Seventh, 'Crown', the prize for a series of competitions held by an American game company in 1982, made of pure gold, adorned with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and aquamarines. Due to the great collapse of the American game industry in 1983, the competition game related to this prize was only released in limited quantities and ultimately failed to hold a final. The 'Crown' subsequently went missing in the same year. The appraised value of this item back then was 25,000 US dollars, similarly, considering inflation, plus its background story, the current market value is at least no less than 4 million US dollars."

"Finally…" When it came to this last thing, the organizer paused, and looked at that cabinet, before saying, "Heart of the Ocean."

Regarding this gem, he only said these four words.

Regarding this gem, he only needed to say these four words…

No one here didn't know the story of the Heart of the Ocean, and no one would appraise this gem.

"Hmm… As long as I get 'that' is enough, right…" While the crowd in the main hall was staring blankly at the priceless gems, Feng Bujue was unmoved, what he was concerned about… was only his "target" for this trip.

"Alright, I think everyone has a concept of the value of this prize." After pausing for a few more seconds, the organizer continued, "Undoubtedly, any one of these jewels is enough to get you out of your current predicament.

"As long as you win the 'game', you can choose one to take away.

"But… if you fail in the 'game'…"