Chapter 516: The War Has Just Begun
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Counter-Strike cosplay costumes inside the storage unit were estimated to be around 40 to 50 sets.
This type of laser-detecting sensor costume was of relatively higher value compared to other similar costumes; the price of each set was no less than 200 dollars. From the looks of it, this unit could be worth upwards of 10,000 dollars.
However, the 10,000 dollars would be for entirely new costumes. The costumes inside the unit were second-hand goods, so they need to cut the price in half when selling them. So when Li Du won the unit with a bid of 4,000 dollars, most treasure hunters felt that he could hardly earn anything out of it.
The Tucson Brotherhood treasure hunters looked at Li Du curiously; they could not understand why he bid for that unit with that amount. Li did not mind at all. He locked the unit personally and walked away, whistling.
Someone couldn"t contain his curiosity. "Hey, Chinese guy, what"s the problem with you?"
"Well," answered Li Du, "my problem is that G.o.d favors me so much it"s painful, you know?"
"Crazy." The Tucson Brotherhood treasure hunter rolled his eyes and left.
Princeps touched his mustache and watched Li Du with uncertainty. He had heard about the young man"s achievements, but he couldn"t figure out what was so good about the unit.
Li Du was not interested in the units after this one. He still partic.i.p.ated in the bids, however, because he wanted to help Flagstaff"s treasure hunters pit against the Tucson Brotherhood; he wanted his treasure hunter friends to get some units and earn some money.
Li Du was now no longer interested in units with a profit less than 10,000 dollars. However, his treasure hunter friends were very interested in these units. They were not a greedy lot of people; they were happy as long as the unit could earn them some cash, even if the profit was only a few hundred dollars.
The bidding battle was pretty much exclusively between the two teams. Subsequently, the auction proceeded in a rather fast manner.
The Mexican auctioneer tried to create trouble for Li Du and his friends. He suddenly tried to chase them away from viewing and announced that the viewing time was only ten seconds per unit. Hans recorded the incident and declared that he would lodge a complaint against him.
The auctioneer was intimidated by that threat, so he extended the new ten second restriction to the Tucson Brotherhood as well. Everyone had only ten seconds to view the units, and the auction became faster.
In a way this change was beneficial for the Tucson Brotherhood; their cast-a-fishnet tactic did not require them to look carefully in the unit. They were acquiring units based on the price, and whatever they found inside them was purely based on luck.
Even though the auction proceeded fast, the sun was setting by the time it ended.
If the treasure hunters wanted to clear their units, they needed to do it at night. But as both sides had fought against each other all day long, they were exhausted. Visibility was poor at night, and who would have the energy to clear the units at this hour anyways?
So when the auction ended and the treasure hunters went to pay for the units, Li Du released the little bug and had it enter the company"s safe. According to his experience, the lease agreements would be kept inside there.
After paying up, the treasure hunters proceeded to leave the place. All of them wanted to come back the next day to clear the units.
As Li Du helped the Flagstaff treasure hunters, they were happy that they had at least won two units. Everyone was satisfied.
The group locked up their storage units. When they reached the parking lot, they saw that the cars and trucks of the Tucson Brotherhood blocked the only exit.
Although the parking lot was outdoors, the company had fenced up its perimeter for easier care and management. If any vehicle wanted to leave the parking lot, it either had to exit through the opening or break through the fence.
G.o.dzilla had an icy expression when he saw the exit was blocked; he wanted to get out of the truck.
Li Du quickly stopped him by putting one hand on G.o.dzilla"s shoulder. "There"s no hurry. Let Big Fox talk to them—he"s better at negotiating."
Hans snapped his fingers and alighted. He talked to the treasure hunter whose truck was right in front of the exit. "Hey pal, we"re all treasure hunters in the same industry, and are all Arizonans. There"s no need to resort to such petty tricks."
The treasure hunter replied lazily, "What are you talking about? I don"t understand."
His partner had a grim expression and said, "Don"t bother with these lunatics. These idiots from Flagstaff are mentally ill—don"t get infected by them."
Hans maintained his smiling face. "Okay, okay—this is your turf, you can say whatever you want. But you can"t stay here all night, right? Come on, make way for us. Who knows? In the future, you may need us to make way for you."
Princeps was in this truck as well. He lowered the window and looked down at Hans from his seat. "We"re not blocking the exit. Big Fox, you"ve seen it for yourself: our truck has broken down. We can"t move at all."
"What"s the problem with your truck?" laughed Hans. "I"m good at repairing trucks, maybe I can help you."
"You"re good at repairing trucks?" said Princeps. "That"s bullsh*t, I don"t believe it. Don"t try and use your dirty hands to touch my truck. I"m mysophobic."
It was evident that Princeps had no intention of making way for them. Hans had used both carrot and stick but they still refused to budge.
Li Du waved for Hans to come back. He was unhappy with Princeps"s att.i.tude and looked solemn. "Try to get the security guard and let him handle this problem."
The parking lot belonged to the storage company. The security guard was in cahoots with Princeps. When Princeps gave the order to block the exit, the security guard had gone missing-in-action.
As things dragged on, Li Du"s expression became colder. He waved his hand and said, "Knock down the fence, we"ll compensate the company."
Big Quinn stepped on the accelerator and knocked down the fence easily. A new exit appeared in the parking lot.
The missing security guard suddenly appeared and started shouting for compensation.
Li Du had no intention of haggling over the compensation with the security guard. When the security guard wanted 500 dollars as compensation, he simply handed him five one-hundred-dollar bills without saying a word.
The men from the Tucson Brotherhood surrounded the guard and looked on coldly. When they saw Li Du fork out the money, someone said contemptuously, "That son of a b*tch finally caved in?"
"Now you see what kind of people you"re dealing with, right? Ha! What a bunch of idiots!"
"A pity for you that a war has begun—just wait to get thrashed!"
Li Du didn"t seem to hear all these voices. His facial expression was consistent the whole time.
After the security guard took the money, he turned to the treasure hunters blocking the way and said, "Get out of the way, everyone. You"ve seen my truck. If you get hit, no matter how much we compensate you, you won"t have the opportunity to spend the money."
Princeps looked at Li Du with interest. "You didn"t forget to threaten us even now? Very well, I"ll see how long you can last in Tucson."
Li Du smiled. "I have a strong endurance. You"ll be surprised."
"That"s even better," nodded Princeps. "I"ll wait and see. You took quite a number of units and there are lots of things inside. I"ll get to see how you transport all these things away."
Princeps waved his hands after saying this and the Tucson treasure hunters made way for them.
Hans contacted a hotel where all the Flagstaff treasure hunters could stay together. They had their dinner at the hotel as well. The motive for doing this was to look out for each other and avoid unnecessary trouble.
When Li Du entered the hotel, he began to make phone calls and was practically on the phone the whole night. He avoided everyone so no one knew what he was up to. They only thing they knew was that he seemed to be very busy.
Cras.h.!.+ Clang! It was around midnight when numerous cras.h.i.+ng sounds came from the hotel"s parking lot.
The Flagstaff treasure hunters, who had been vigilant all night anyways, were startled. d.i.c.kens had the fastest reaction as he had not fallen asleep yet. He looked outside and hastily shouted, "Someone"s smas.h.i.+ng our trucks!"
The treasure hunters were in such a rush that they dashed to the parking lot without their proper attire. They only took with them their self-defense weapons that they had nearby.
A number of big men were smas.h.i.+ng the trucks at the parking lot. They were fast too. When they heard and saw some movement at the hotel, they made to leave and started running toward their pickup.