Classless Ascension

The people inside the auction house couldn't help but jump in fright as a message resounded.

"To the terrorists inside, you guys are surrounded. Surrender now or face this City's wrath!"

Wait, terrorists?! At this instant, what was relatively harmless black smoke filling the place turned into a biochemical weapon in their eyes. The rotten-egg sulfur smell did nothing to convince them otherwise either.

If before many visitors had been panicking, they became full-blown hysterics. Meanwhile, Josh was standing there wondering how the hell this had all happened so fast.

He had just eaten a material that felt somewhat familiar to him. It was the same feeling he had felt back when old man Iron had left him swimming in the Spirit of Metal. As for what it did concretely? He had no damn clue!

He had been convinced that he would just need to outbid any other buyers, and the auction house wouldn't complain too much about it. After all, credits were credits no matter the circumstances they were earned in.

But now the whole place was going crazy. What was that about them being surrounded? Actually, wasn't the response way too fast? Was it a bluff? He turned toward the poor lady who had guided them here:

"Hey, do you know what's happening exactly?"

"What do you mean?! They obviously think that you're assaulting the auction house! It's all your fault we—"

"They? Who?"

"The MTA! Who fucking else deals with terrorism?! There's no way that…." She kept babbling nervously.

Yes, but actually no. Shouldn't they have introduced themselves as the MTA if that's who they were? Well, he had an easy way to make sure.

- Josh MF Malum: Hey, do you have any idea what's going on at the auction house? Are these guys yours? There's trouble brewing.

- Markus: What did you do?!

- Josh MF Malum: I ate something bad, and it kinda sent smoke everywhere. Now there's a terrorist alert or something.

- Markus: -_- …. I'm on my way. Stay fucking put and behave!

It wasn't like he was voluntarily trying to cause trouble!

He was at a loss on how to explain that devouring urge from a few minutes ago. It was akin to rationalizing why a human would breathe: because it felt natural, that's fucking why!

The intimidating messages kept going too:

"Come out of the building with your hands in the air. Otherwise, we will open fire. We have permission to kill and even destroy this place entirely!… You do not want to mess with the MTA!"

The last part was added as an afterthought. Death AND destruction threat straight off the bat? This sure sounded odd for an organization that defended the peace. How could the guy sending the message to be that unprofessional?

But it sure as heck sent fear in the hearts of the visitors. Shouts reverberated all over as they hurried to head outside. Then happened a complete exodus, with the entire building becoming emptier by the second.

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But Josh didn't follow the crowd. Well, for one thing, they were on a higher Floor than most, but there was also something sketchy about all this.

"Let's leave already! Why are you daydreaming?!" The lady shouted.

"You go. There is something I'm wondering about." Josh nonchalantly waved her away.

He almost expected her to stay, but then she glanced at the empty vault, sighed, and got the fuck out. It was already too late to save her job so she might as well save her life. The two men were left alone in the dark smoke.

The blacksmith gave a nervous laugh:

"It's a shame, but I think there might be a chance that we're gonna lose the VIP token. At least, we should be fine even with so much damage. U-bots will be able to repair it pretty easily." Was that meant to comfort him?

"That's not the issue right now. I think the people outside are fake. I've dealt with people from the MTA, and they don't usually act like that…." Josh pondered aloud.

"What?! Really?!"

In the background, the messages kept promising them death. But every time, the way it was said was different. If they were soldiers, they weren't sticking to the established protocol.

"Actually, let's forget about their identity. Does anyone have any reason to want this place destroyed or empty of people? Either they're already making their move or constructing a narrative to explain what they're about to do."

"Wait, you mean that the people claiming to be the MTA outside could be the real terrorists?! Do you think that they'll try to do something to the auction house?! But it wouldn't make much sense…."

"Why?" Josh asked perplexed.

"Material trading is a different business altogether. Doing it 100% requires connections with plenty of crafters and resource appraisers. The owner doesn't have any competitors willing to crush him."

"Not insurance fraud either?"

"Business is booming and on an upward trend. He has no reason to do any of this. But what if someone is trying to rob the place? Then again, that too is unlikely. Who steals raw materials? It still requires to be transformed to be useful…."

"Wouldn't that be the ultimate robbery? If they grab the materials and turn them into weapons, they can then sell them without none the wiser, right?"

"It's more complicated than that. It's very dangerous for a craftsman to work on such shady deals. There just is no need to take the risk when there are plenty of legit jobs available."

Oh, naive child. There would always be people committing crimes, as long as there was profit to be made. It was the very nature of humans. That's when his UW beeped.

— Ding!—

It was a message from Markus, one that made him give a wry smile.

"It seems like there really is something going on. The area is still camouflaged as usual, and no one is responding. There hasn't even been a call for help to the MTA. Whoever is out there are fakes."

"Damn! That's ridiculous!"

"What do you think people will try stealing?" Josh inquired.

"Whatever it is, it has to be at the top, right? But why do you even want to act? Shouldn't we just wait? I mean, I'm a blacksmith, and you're alone! We can wait for the real MTA to show up instead, no?"

"Well, think of it like that. We're about to lose the VIP token, right? Plus, we need things to be quiet to be able to continue our crafting journey. I wasn't kidding when I said I really want an amazing morphing weapon."

The man slightly blushed. "It feels weird to have my creation praised so much."

"Then you'll just have to spend even more effort on it until it deserves the praise." Josh chuckled with the man nodding.

It was time to go….

━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━

Somewhere else in the orange tower, a few men were happily climbing.

They were in an elevator shaft as they made their way toward the top. They weren't even sure what they were supposed to be retrieving. All they knew was that it was contained in a blue ornated box.

As they went up, they couldn't help but lowly whisper to one another. It was fine since the crowd had already evacuated.

"Hell, that sure was one hell of a stunt he pulled."

"For sure! I don't know how the newbie managed to cause all that dark smoke, but we'll have to give him a raise or something, haha."

"Still, I wonder what kind of item is in that box for all of us to be here. Us inside, the guys outside, and even the shipping guys...it's a lot of people!"

"Oh, believe me, the less you know, and the better you'll fare! This is something I learned the hard way."

"True that! I still can't believe how we got this job. What is someone from another Metropolis even doing here?!"

"Tchh— Is our employer even human? Did you feel his aura when he was explaining the mission? It was so goddamn dreadful!"

They all shuddered as they remembered the man that always wore a hoodie and a mask under it. He wasn't just strange, he was downright scary. It was as if nothing in the world could ever make him angry and yet he had killed a few of the applicants in cold blood back then.

"All of you shut up and focus on climbing. We're almost there. In theory, most of the defense systems should be off, but we never know, so remain vigilant!"

The last one to chime in was their leader. They were all freelancers who had been separately recruited, but he was the one temporarily assigned to ensure the mission went well.

They could only grumble as they all shut up one after the other. They readied their gear and prepared for what was supposed to be an extremely easy mission. Sure, the scope was pretty big compared to what they usually did, but so was the planning involved.

But just as they were about to reach their target floor, they suddenly received a communication.

— Bzzt, Bzzt —

"Guys. What the hell is happening?!" came a voice on the other side of the transmitter.

This was the voice of the newbie. The one tasked with causing a distraction inside the tower. But why was his voice panicked?

"Is there an emergency?" They asked nervously.

Hell, he should have been celebrating right now. That dark smoke was genius and his job was completely done. What had changed?! But his next line sent their hearts thumping crazily.

"What's with the black smoke everywhere?! It smells so bad too!"

"?1"

Wait…what?! If he wasn't the one who had done it....then who fucking had?!

They weren't alone here....

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[A/N] I want to thank Itarotchi for the recent castle! ? Helped show the novel to new peeps ^_^v Thank you, brother!

Also, 5 chaps a day taking their toll haha xD. Hopefully, I edited everything correctly. I do want to write more CA once I'm done with RPP PRIV mass release.