Matthew Atkinson
Oxford, United Kingdom
The next day, early morning.
Matthew sat in the classroom, waiting for class to begin.
-Ring, ring
The bell rang.
Professor Holland entered the classroom just on time, like he always did.
"I have something to tell you before class begins." Professor Holland said, then asked with a smile, "You haven't used any of the points on your student cards, have you?"
The vast majority of students shook their heads.
Only a few students showed slight changes in expression. Clearly, they used their points to redeem supplies provided by the university.
Seeing this, Professor Holland said, "It's good that you haven't used them. Three days from now, the annual university auction will take place. Your points will come in handy then."
After a pause, Professor Holland continued, "Moreover, this auction is different from previous years. In the past, it was organized internally by our university. This time, it will be an online auction led by the Ministry of Education, with universities across the country participating simultaneously. The Ministry of Education will be offering many useful items, and even supernatural items, as rewards for you."
Upon hearing this, all the students' eyes lit up.
Even Matthew showed a curious expression.
Matthew wasn't particularly hoping for anything from the auction items. After all, he doubted he'd find anything higher-level than what he'd seen at the OASIS Special Shop.
But he was going to check them anyway. Maybe he could find something useful, even if it wasn't high-level. After all, the points awarded by the school were just sitting on his student ID card.
Matthew was interested in the auction because he wanted to see if he could use it to auction off some of the items he'd acquired from OASIS.
Neither Matthew nor Natalie had yet given their families items such as Ageless Trait Potions or Life-Extending Potions.
Because the moment their families used these items, they would visibly change. And explaining this change would be difficult.
So, Matthew and Natalie were looking for a chance to bring a few of these items into the open and explain their effects. Then, when their families used them, no one would find it strange.
But after some thought, Matthew decided that this annual university auction wasn't the right place.
First, the target audience was students; second, payments were made with student points.
Matthew couldn't reach a sufficient audience this way. And he didn't think students could afford his items with their points.
Even if they could, Matthew didn't have a place to use those points. He wasn't going to wait a year, hoping for something good to appear at the next auction.
But the auction idea wasn't bad, and Matthew might be able to find an auction house targeting expert supernaturals. But he would have to deal with that later.
One student raised his hand and asked, "Professor, what if other universities have different point systems, or even have many more points than us? Wouldn't that be very unfair?"
Professor Holland said, "Don't worry, the management of the Ministry of Education has already thought of this problem and has introduced a points exchange mechanism. Based on the different point systems of each university, points will be uniformly exchanged for auction points."
"The exchange module is on our university's official website. Remember to exchange your student points for auction points later."
"The auction will begin at noon three days from now, and the bidding will be conducted via live stream."
"Oh, by the way, the auction website will display some of the items up for auction. You can take a look in advance, and if you find anything that interests you, you can focus your points on that item."
"Also, if you feel you don't have enough auction points, you can borrow from your classmates, provided that they don't have anything they want to bid on and are willing to lend them..."
...
After classes, students eagerly exchanged their university points for auction points.
But Matthew, Natalie, and their party members from the eighth layer had another matter to attend to.
After these ten people gathered, they began walking together towards the administration building.
Upon arrival at the building, the principal's assistant greeted them at the entrance and said the principal was waiting.
After arriving at the principal's office, the assistant set out various beverages and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Now, only the principal and the ten-person party who had completed the race at the eighth layer were in the room.
"Looks like you've managed to do something again that will pull me back from the Front Line," the fat principal said.
Honestly, Matthew wasn't sure how he managed to stay so fat while constantly fighting on the Front Line.
Maybe it was something to do with metabolism. He'd heard some people gain weight just by drinking water.
The subsequent events were quite monotonous. The principal asked them to describe their experiences on the eighth layer.
Since he had spearheaded many things, Matthew was the first to speak. He began by describing what they had done after entering OASIS.
The principal occasionally interrupted to ask questions.
After describing their first week in OASIS and the first race, Matthew handed the narrative over to the others.
The other teams then described what they had done based on the information Matthew had given them and the problems they had encountered. It seemed their agreement with Aech had taken longer because of the limited number of coins they possessed.
Then Matthew talked about how he had put his winning strategy up for sale even though this method was no longer usable.
After that, the topic shifted to the OASIS Special Shop.
Here, Filip Walker and Sam Harris's team members spoke first about the products they had purchased. But Matthew and Natalie remained silent.
This was because, from their conversations within OASIS, Matthew and Natalie realized that the others hadn't seen the SSS section or the products listed there.
Matthew and Natalie mentioned some of the products in this section of OASIS Special Shop to them, but not all. They didn't want the news of some of the products they bought to reach the others' ears prematurely.
And they had no intention of mentioning the existence of certain products to anyone.
When the Principal turned to Matthew and Natalie to get their input, Matthew cleared his throat and said:
"Principal, could the rest of this conversation be just between the three of us? Some of the products in the SSS section contain sensitive information."
Then he turned to the others and said, "I'm sorry, guys. But for your own safety, it would be better if you didn't hear this."
"Don't worry, Matthew. We understand," Filip Walker said, then turned to the principal and continued, "Principal, if you have no further questions, may we leave?"
"Of course, go ahead," the principal said.
"Thanks, guys. I'll treat you to a meal sometime." Matthew.
"We've got your word," said Denis.
Then the others left, leaving only Matthew, Natalie, and the principal in the office.
For the rest of the conversation, Natalie did most of the talking, explaining to the principal which products were available in the SSS section.
Even though Matthew and Natalie hadn't purchased some of those products, they still had examined the details of all of them. Therefore, Natalie had no trouble explaining what each product did.
But Natalie hadn't mentioned the Ageless Trait Potion.
This was a decision Matthew and Natalie had made together.
The Ageless Trait Potion, Natalie's new Bloodline, and Matthew's new talent were among the things they wouldn't talk about.
Matthew's new talent and Natalie's new bloodline were products in their Unique Merchandise section, so unless they mentioned it, no one else would know.
The Ageless Trait Potion, on the other hand, could be learned once someone else achieved an SSS grade and accessed the SSS section of the OASIS Special Shop.
But Matthew didn't think this could be achieved quickly.
First, it was no longer possible for supernaturals to sell methods to win races at the eighth layer and earn a huge number of coins.
And second, even if they earned a high number of coins, they couldn't produce an SSS-level vehicle unless they found a way to move rare items from the fourth layer to the eighth layer or quickly obtain these parts at the eighth layer.
Therefore, Matthew was certain that for many years to come, no one would know about the existence of the Ageless Trait Potion.
"Thank you for your contributions. After I forward this information to the relevant authorities, your awards will be decided, and you will be notified," the principal said.
"Principal, are you planning to report this information to the Ministry of Education?" Matthew asked suddenly.
"There will be other institutions I'll be reporting to, but yes, the main institution dealing with this matter is the Ministry of Education. Why?"
"If you want to share this information with the whole world, that's fine. But if you want it to be used only by our country, I wouldn't recommend it," Matthew said.
"Do you think this information will be leaked, Matthew?" the principal asked.
"I'd rather say I'm sure it will be," Matthew said.
"So, what's your suggestion then?" the principal asked.
"Share this information only with a few key people. The head of the country's intelligence, the Queen, or the head of the Round Table. People like those. Then these people can arrange to distribute this information to the students five minutes before the freshmen enter the eighth layer next year. If the students' communication devices are collected before, the possibility of a leak is minimized, and even if it does happen, it will reach very few people," Matthew explained.
"I see. Even if this information is learned just a few minutes before the eighth layer, it would still be enough. This way, we can get ahead of other countries, even if only for one year," the principal said.
"It's not exactly limited to that, principal. If only our country's freshmen win the race in the eighth layer, then the following year, only they will be able to compete in the eighteenth layer. If we can continue like this, we can maintain our dominance for three years in a row," Natalie said.
"That's a really good plan. I'll discuss this plan with the key people before sharing the information I have. But I don't know what will happen to your prize," the principal said.
"It doesn't matter," Matthew said.
He had never relied on things coming from others anyway. If he got something, he would make the best of it, but he had no intention of being upset about things that he didn't get.
Before leaving the room, Matthew took a card and a bottle from his inventory and placed them on the principal's desk.
Now that he had Inventory Skill, he didn't have to worry about carrying items.
As for the items he placed before the principal, one was a card that removed the weaknesses of Devil Fruit users, and the other was a Life Extender Potion.
In the past, the principal had given Matthew the Armament Haki skill, which had been very helpful in his early times.
Now Matthew was simply repaying the kindness he had received.
And being on the principal's good side for the remaining two years of university wouldn't be a bad thing.
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.160: New Goal - The Tremor-Tremor Fruit
Ch.161: A New Project
Ch.162: Bidding for the Tremor-Tremor Fruit