Lucas did not answer right away with words. Instead, he let out a low chuckle—a faint sound that echoed with a dangerous yet mysterious vibe inside the transparent Main VIP booth. His hand, clad in a black leather glove, slowly rose, cutting through the night air that was heavy with the scent of the Wine family's ruin.Lucas’s index finger extended straight ahead, reaching far past the chaos of the lower auction floor and Edward’s blood-soaked booth, pointing toward an area hidden deep behind the main stage.There, in the innermost recesses of the Hakward City Auction House, lay a grand corridor lined with thick glass display cases. They housed massive antiques, historical artifacts, and ancient relics that were not meant for public bidding.Yet, Lucas’s finger was not pointing at an ancient gold crown, an old-dynasty jade statue, or a prized heirloom sword displayed luxuriously along the corridor. His unyielding gaze was locked onto a spherical glass container in the farthest corner

Evelyn froze completely where she stood. Her gaze remained locked onto the sharp pair of eyes behind the silver mask, radiating absolute dominance. The three requests Lucas uttered sounded completely insane, yet the aura of absolute bravery and conviction radiating from the man possessed an undeniable, hypnotic pull."W-what do you actually want, Lucas?! This is so weird... Even though I could just use my special ownership rights for the Stone of Life," Evelyn thought to herself. Swallowing hard to calm the intense fluttering in her chest, she nodded slowly—surrendering full control of tonight’s game to the mysterious man beside her.Meanwhile, outside the Main VIP Booth, the atmosphere of the auction stage was already burning hot, like the crater of an active volcano.Edward, seeing the lack of an immediate response from the Vance side, grew even more unhinged. His blood-soaked face looked increasingly gruesome beneath the glow of the stage lights. Breathing heavily with bloodshot, m

"Because..." Lucas whispered softly near Evelyn's ear, "the best game is played when your prey believes it has just seized its sole glimmer of hope."Before Evelyn could even process those crazy words, Lucas's black leather-gloved fingers moved with lightning speed. Without a single second of hesitation, he slammed his hand onto the button panel in front of him!CLICK!"Two hundred million dollars."BOOOOOOOOOOM!A paralyzing shockwave once again tore through the Hakward Auction House! The nine-digit figure on the giant screen surged dramatically, casting a blinding reddish-gold glow: $200,000,000.The entire auction hall instantly fell into complete paralysis. The Auction Director on the main stage held his breath until his chest tightened; the wooden gavel in his hand slipped and fell to the floor with a soft, clattering thud."T-Two hundred million dollars?!" screamed one of the clan patriarchs in the front row, his voice high-pitched and pale with shock. "That masked man just jump

Hearing her daughter's panicked outcry, the expression of tension on Lord Richard's face did not worsen as Evelyn had anticipated. Instead, the middle-aged man simply waved his hand nonchalantly, cutting through Evelyn's anxiety with the composure of a clan patriarch who had weathered a thousand political storms."The Wine family?" Lord Richard let out a low chuckle, his tone cold and steeped in derision. "Evelyn, since when has our Vance family needed to cower before the threats of a greenhorn like Edward or his father? Our ties with the Wine family were frayed from the start anyway. Whether Edward burned five hundred million or five billion dollars all at once, it was his own stupidity for being so easily provoked. Their rage won't be enough to tear down the foundations of this estate."Lord Richard took a deep breath, shifting his sharp gaze directly from Evelyn toward Lucas. His eyes suddenly gleamed with an intense spark, emanating a raw fervor and seriousness so heavy that the a

Lucas chuckled softly, casually leaning his shoulder against a nearby marble pillar without showing even a shred of fear toward Vyan's surging rage."Calm down a bit, Mr. Vyan," Lucas said in a calm tone that dripped with condescension. "I didn't come back here to beg for mercy or ask to be let back into your grand family. I'm just here to grab a few pairs of my spare clothes that were left behind. Besides, aren't those old clothes rightfully mine?"He paused briefly, casting a contemptuous glance at Edward, who was still kneeling on the floor, before shifting his gaze back to Vyan."But... well, I certainly didn't expect to accidentally overhear such interesting news," Lucas continued, shaking his head in feigned sympathy. "The precious son you're always so proud of, the star genius of the Wine family who was supposed to lead this family to the pinnacle of honor... turns out he just burned through nearly half a billion dollars just to buy a few pieces of junk at an auction house?"Lu