SWNOVELXO Chapter 15: The Listing
Chapter 15
The Listing
The transition was as jarring as ever. One moment, Jax was on the magnificent, ancient bridge, the silent hum of the Nexus Core a familiar presence in his mind. The next, he was slammed back into the clumsy, aching reality of his own body. His consciousness returned with a gasp, the grand vista of the cosmos replaced by the dark, curved interior of his Sleeper Pod.
Log-out complete, the pod's OS pinged in his mind. Time: 19:54 PST. Ambient external temperature: 41°C.
The pod hissed open, spilling him into the oppressive heat of his small Phoenix apartment. July in the sprawl was a brutal, suffocating thing. He sat up, his limbs feeling heavy and weak, a dull ache settling into his joints from the NMES cycle. He pushed himself out of the pod, his legs trembling slightly as they took his full weight.
He ignored the urge to shower or eat. His mission was too urgent. He stumbled to his wall terminal, the screen flickering to life and casting a cool blue light on his pale, determined face. He bypassed the usual news feeds and social media, his fingers moving quickly to open a secure browser window. He typed in the address for the one place that could solve his problems.
The Holo-Net Exchange was not a gamer's website. It was a stark, professional trading platform, its dark-mode interface filled with scrolling tickers and encrypted auction lots. The prices were not listed in in-game currency, but in Universal Credits, the standardized currency of Earth's governments. This was where the real business of the virtual world was done.
[Intel: Crimson Suns Syndicate troop movements - SOLD: 85,000 UC]
[Coordinates: Verified wreckage of the 'Stardiver' freighter - SOLD: 150,000 UC]
Jax's first step was to create a new seller profile. He activated a black-market anonymizing program he'd bought with some of his last credits, its icon a simple, gray ghost. His connection was now being bounced through a dozen untraceable nodes from Neo-Kyoto to the Buenos Aires Free Zone.
He entered the profile name: The Warden's Echo.
Next came the payment route, the most critical step. He navigated to a hyper-encrypted financial service based out of a data haven, creating a one-time-use account that existed only as a string of alphanumeric code, untethered to his real name or identity.
With the anonymous infrastructure in place, he created the new listing. His fingers hesitated for a moment before he typed out the title, his heart pounding with each word.
AUCTION: Exclusive access credentials to secure data packet containing verified modern coordinates of a Prime Cryo-Carbide Source.
He uploaded Kael's tiny, elegant data packet. He attached the notes, highlighting the 50,000-year-old survey data as proof of authenticity against modern, obscured sensor readings. He set the auction duration: 24 hours.
Then he came to the starting bid. Zana's voice was in his head: "Start high. We don't want any low-ballers." He took a deep breath and typed in a number that made his stomach clench: 100,000 UC.
His finger hovered over the final confirmation button. This was it. This was the point of no return. This act would either be their salvation or the beginning of a new, far more dangerous kind of trouble. He thought of his dwindling bank account, of Zana and Kael waiting on that ancient bridge, trusting him.
He clicked the button.
The page refreshed. A simple, quiet line of text appeared at the top of the screen.
Auction #B-4829 is now live.
The fuse was lit.
Jax didn't log back in. He couldn't. His eight-hour cycle wasn't up, and more importantly, he was glued to his terminal, a pilot monitoring the launch of a missile he could not call back. He made a pot of cheap, real-world coffee, the bitter taste a sharp contrast to the purified water on the ship, and watched the auction screen.
For the first hour, there was nothing. The auction for Lot #B-4829 sat there, silent and untouched. A knot of dread tightened in Jax's stomach. Had he been too bold? Was the price too high? Had they made a colossal miscalculation? The forums were quiet, the listing seemingly unnoticed in the sea of smaller, more conventional data sales.
Then, at the 74-minute mark, the first alert chimed.
New Bid: 100,000 UC by Prospector_Alliance_7
A small, independent guild. A nibble. Relief washed over Jax, so potent it made him dizzy. It was real. Someone believed them.
The first bid broke the dam. Over the next two hours, a flurry of activity erupted as other mid-tier prospecting and mining guilds joined the fray, pushing the price up in small, competitive increments. 110,000. 125,000. 150,000.
Jax allowed himself a small, triumphant smile. This was already more money than he had ever seen in his life. The pressure in his chest began to ease.
And then the first shark entered the water.
The bid number jumped with a violence that startled him.
New Bid: 500,000 UC by Titan Industries (Acquisition Taskforce)
Jax's jaw went slack. Titan Industries. A titan of real-world resource extraction, with one of the most powerful and ruthless in-game guilds ever created. They weren't just bidding; they were trying to scare off the competition with a show of overwhelming force.
It didn't work. A moment later, another bid appeared, matching it instantly and then raising it.
New Bid: 600,000 UC by Cygnus Minerals (Prospecting Division)
Cygnus. Titan's biggest real-world rival. The battle was no longer about the data; it was about corporate pride. The public forums exploded. Threads with thousands of replies popped up, titled "TITAN VS CYGNUS FOR MYSTERY AUCTION!" and "WHO IS THE WARDEN'S ECHO??"
Jax frantically scrolled through the speculation. The consensus was that "The Warden's Echo" had to be a high-level mole within one of the other corporations, leaking classified survey data. No one even considered the truth; it was too impossible.
As the price rocketed past a million Universal Credits, Jax felt a new kind of fear. This was no longer a simple sale. He had inadvertently started a proxy war between two of the most powerful corporate entities on Earth. The level of scrutiny on their anonymous profile would be immense.
Just as the war between the two giants seemed to be settling, a third, more dangerous player entered the game. The new bid wasn't from a corporation. The name was legendary, and feared.
New Bid: 1,200,000 UC by RedSuns_Syndicate
The Red Suns. The largest and most notorious player-run criminal cartel in New Age. They were pirates, smugglers, and information brokers who dominated the game's black market through violence and intimidation. They didn't have the real-world cash reserves of a corporation, but their in-game wealth was bottomless, and they were clearly liquidating massive amounts of it on the black market to fund this bid.
Jax's blood ran cold. He wasn't just dealing with corporate rivals now. He was dealing with a criminal empire. The auction had become a three-way war between two superpowers and the game's most dangerous rogue state.
He stared at his screen, the numbers climbing to dizzying, life-altering heights. The feeling of triumph was completely gone, replaced by the chilling realization that he had kicked a hornet's nest the size of a solar system. He had their attention now. All of them. And he knew, with a certainty that terrified him, they would not stop until they discovered the identity of The Warden's Echo.
Jax sat in the sweltering heat of his apartment, his gaze locked on the auction timer on his terminal. His eight-hour window in the real world was almost up. On the screen, the bidding war had reached a fever pitch. It was a frantic, two-way battle between the corporate behemoth, Cygnus Minerals, and the criminal enterprise, the Red Suns Syndicate.
New Bid: 1,600,000 UC by RedSuns_Syndicate
New Bid: 1,700,000 UC by Cygnus Minerals (In-Game Prospecting Division)
The numbers were so large they had lost all meaning to Jax. This wasn't money; it was a score in a game he suddenly realized he was terrifyingly good at. The timer on the auction displayed its final ten seconds.
10… 9… 8…
The Red Suns placed one last, desperate bid: 1,725,000.
7… 6… 5…
Cygnus Minerals didn't even wait. They instantly countered.
New Bid: 1,750,000 UC by Cygnus Minerals (In-Game Prospecting Division)
4… 3… 2… 1…
AUCTION CLOSED.
The screen refreshed. A single line in stark, corporate font declared the result.
Winner: Cygnus Minerals (In-Game Prospecting Division).
Jax let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding for the last hour. A moment later, a secure notification popped up from his encrypted financial account.
[Cayman Digital Trust] You have received a deposit of 1,750,000 UC.
He stared at the number, his heart hammering against his ribs. It was more money than his family had seen in three generations. It was escape velocity. It was freedom. A second notification appeared from the Holo-Net Exchange.
Data packet credentials have been securely transferred to the buyer.
The deal was done. He looked at his real-world clock. It was time to go back. He initiated the log-in sequence, his mind reeling, the vast sum of money feeling like a dream as the magnificent, alien bridge rematerialized around him.
Zana and Kael were waiting, their faces etched with anxiety. "Well?" Zana demanded, the moment she saw his eyes open.
Jax didn't speak. He simply projected the final auction results from his datapad into the air between them.
Kael's eyes went wide as saucers. He let out a high-pitched squeak of pure, unadulterated shock. "One point seven five million? By the stars, Jax! We're rich! Your real-world problems are over!"
Zana, however, barely glanced at the number. Her eyes, one human and one cybernetic, were locked on the name of the winner. Her face, which should have been triumphant, turned as cold and hard as the metal hull of the ship.
"Quiet, Kael," she said, her voice dangerously low. She looked straight at Jax. "We're not rich. We're a target."
"What do you mean?" Jax asked, the euphoria of the sale instantly chilling. "We're anonymous."
"There's no such thing as 'anonymous' when a hyper-corp like Cygnus is involved," Zana countered, her voice grim. "They didn't just buy coordinates, Jax. They bought a mystery. They now know that an unknown entity called 'The Warden's Echo' has access to impossible, fifty-thousand-year-old data. They won't just go to the planet; they will dedicate an entire department to finding out how we got that information. They will tear the galaxy apart to find the source."
She took a step closer, the soft light of the bridge reflecting off her cybernetic eye.
"The good news is you can pay your rent," she said. "The bad news is we just sold a treasure map to a dragon. We need to get this ship flying. Yesterday."