"Wear your masks." Rudy said to Ruby and Maria. "You two are still targets of the other mafia syndicate. I trust Lu Bela's security, but it's also a rule to wear a mask at the party."
They left the room and met the guards.
"Uhh..." Mia has things to do, so one of you should go with her. I would prefer if both of you go with her and leave me alone with Maria, but I know you won't agree with that."
Ruby's guard followed Ruby and Rudy's guard followed Rudy.
They got into different elevators and parted ways.
"Where is the party?" Rudy asked the guard. "Center hall."
"Then it must be big enough for so many people to fit in. Do you have any information on how many people are invited to the after-party?"
"Rough estimate is five hundred."
"Oh, then it doesn't have to be that big."
The elevator stopped on the ground floor, where a car was parked for them.
"..." Rudy sighed after seeing the car and muttered, "Figured it would be like this. Is the hall far from here?"
"It's a twenty-minute ride."
"Wow. Maybe hosting the auction on such a big island was a mistake. If traveling from one place to another takes so much time, it's... well, never mind. The traveling experience was great, so it's not a big deal."
They got in the car, and the guard sat in the passenger seat beside the driver.
"Master actually selected this island for you. She said she wants to leave a strong impression of your first-ever Underworld auction."
"I guess one more thing added to the list. What is this car? Haven't seen something like this before. It looks like a flattened egg from the outside, but it's luxurious from the inside."
"You will know in a few seconds."
The car's speed increased as it passed through the busy streets and flyover bridges. If someone looked outside for the first time, they would think they were in a highly developed city, but that wasn't the case.
The streets were busy with other cars carrying the guests to the party hall, while some were leaving for the market to buy the local things and to inspect the items they had purchased in the auction; Ruby was one of them.
The rest of them were leaving the island as they had already bought enough things while some of them weren't invited to the after party.
The streets were surrounded by tall buildings of various shapes and sizes. Seemingly they are the hotels where the guests were staying.
Rudy looked at the building he stayed in and noticed it was the tallest one he had seen so far.
The buildings had neon lights on the borders to highlight them, and the streets had them on the sides. There were trees on the lanes and footpaths, and the sky had a clear view with nothing to obstruct the view even with such a high-tech city.
"It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call this island the best example of a cyberpunk era."
"Master made this with that intention in mind. This city, or rather... This country is way ahead of its time. And she quoted that this island has only developed 10% so far."
"Whoa!"
"She plans to launch this island publically after twenty years once it's ready. However, if she wants, she can finish developing this island within a year. She has infinite resources and unlimited workers."
"Publically? For the Underworld or like the whole world?"
"I am not privy to that information, but I believe it's for the whole world."
"But you can't just launch a country like that, right? I am not that knowledgeable about politics and shit, but I am sure the other country would oppose the idea."
"There have always been such cases. Even the current Underworld was in the same condition a hundred years ago."
"She can always make this island the new Underworld." He looked at Maria and whispered, "Should I book a nice beach house in advance?"
"The castle would make a better beach house."
"Can you increase the speed? I highly doubt there is a speed limit," he chuckled softly.
The driver changed the gear and hit the accelerator.
On their way, Rudy caught something moving in the distance. Of course, many things were moving, but something in particular, caught his attention.
He sharpened his gaze and zoomed his vision to see someone was running across the sea to the beachside.
'What the... why does that look suspicious?'
A second later, he saw a few dozen Underblade chasing after the person.
'Is it a criminal or someone who cheated in the auction? I shouldn't care about other people. But...hmmm? It's a girl.'
Rudy closed his eyes and activated his enhanced vision ability, allowing him to see everything, including all his vision abilities. It was a nerfed version of his all-vision ability that let him focus on one thing without making him blind.
'Okay... what the fuck?'
Rudy opened the door in the running car and jumped out after saying, "Be right back. You keep going, I will catch up."
Rudy walked to the side path and then jumped in the air to land on the beach, where he waited for the girl to arrive.
When the girl came into his sight, he ran to her and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her close.
"Let me go!" She yelled.
He pressed his lips on her lips to shut her up and hide behind the trees so the Under Blades couldn't see them.
The girl pushed him back and tried multiple martial arts moves on him, but Rudy blocked all of them except one.
He grabbed the girl's hands and said, "Relax, it's me."
He took off his mask to show his face.
The girl also took off her mask and revealed herself. It was none other than Cassandra.
"What are you doing here?" she asked with a confused look on her face.
"No, what the fuck are 'you' doing here?" And why were you being chased by the Under Blades?"
