Heroes' Prison Chapter 100

Next, the auctioneer auctioned off a batch of defective high-level runes, all incredibly powerful but with equally potent defects. To the average person, they seemed like junk. Some runes sold at the starting bid, others didn’t sell at all, and the most expensive sold for just twenty thousand Gold Coins.

But even up to this point, Huang Yi had yet to see any runes suitable for him.

"Next up is the last defective high-level rune. This rune remains Master of Law Longwen’s biggest regret over the past decade. He intended to keep it as a memento, but ultimately decided to auction it to find a fated person," the auctioneer said, retrieving a pair of gloves from his pocket before carefully putting them on and with great solemnity presenting an ancient bronze Treasure Chest.

Everyone stared fixedly at the chest with curiosity. This rune, being Longwen’s biggest regret in ten years, was certainly a piece into which Longwen had poured much heart and soul. It was estimated that the rune had a severe flaw that caused Longwen great regret. And the auctioneer, for the first time, was putting on gloves, indicating that the rune inside the chest was of a highly special nature that couldn’t come into direct contact with skin.

Then the auctioneer slowly opened the ancient bronze Treasure Chest, within which lay a green rune stone, quietly exuding a green glow. Its surface was faintly covered with a layer of filth, as if it were a stinking stone fished out from a sewer.

"This rune is called the Plague Rune!" said the auctioneer as he carefully picked up the rune, lifted it slightly, and spoke in a trembling voice, revealing his inner turmoil.

"Hiss!" Among the tens of thousands in the venue, many gasped and instinctively recoiled upon hearing the words "Aeonic Plague," as if they had seen something terrifying.

"I’m sure many of you have heard of the Aeonic Plague," the auctioneer began, not in a hurry to explain the rune’s effect but instead recounting a piece of history. "Thirty years ago, one of The Seven Archdemons, Ukar, led a horde of the Undead Army from the Abyss of the Undead to this continent. Since then, living beings were in torment, the land blackened, the sky cloaked in perpetually grey clouds, despair was everywhere. A virus from the Abyss spread across the continent with this Undead Army, an airborne, highly contagious virus. Those infected with this disease would slowly breed countless viruses. Each individual virus inflicted minuscule, negligible damage, but the collective outbreak could instantly kill an infected person, sparing not even the highly disease-resistant Half-Beastmen. Because this disease was incurable and couldn’t be dispelled, it caused countless deaths across the continent, becoming a terrifying nightmare. That virus was the Aeonic Plague! Back then, my own family members fell victim to this disease."

As he spoke, the auctioneer’s face turned slightly sad, and some of the older NPC bidders also showed a hint of fear, clearly having lived through that calamity.

"After Ukar was driven back into the Abyss of the Undead, the Aeonic Plague continued to ravage the continent, unstoppable, as if the entire land had fallen ill; there were corpses everywhere, the anguished cries of despair. Later, the great Pharmacist professor of the Oskan Royal Academy, Divine Hand Lǜ Ye, took a long time to finally develop a vaccine for the Aeonic Plague, bringing hope of life to the continent! Subsequently, this vaccine was administered continent-wide, and only then was the virus adequately contained. Ten years ago, the last carrier of the Aeonic Plague in the eastern part of Soma City announced the end of the transmission chain, which was finally completely isolated. In the following two years, the Oskan Academy continued to conduct special searches across the entire continent, ultimately confirming the complete eradication of the Aeonic Plague. As of now, samples of the disease are preserved in only two laboratories across the continent; one is kept in the Life Laboratory of the Oskan Royal Academy, and the other is in Master of Law Longwen’s Rune Laboratory."

The auctioneer continued, waving the green rune in his hand, "After obtaining a sample of the Plague, Longwen conducted extensive research and eventually modified the virus, integrating it into this rune. This rune can imbue a skill with the Aeonic Plague Effect and can be carried by the wind to all directions, infecting enemies within a two-hundred-meter radius! However, the modified Plague Effect has been greatly weakened and can only inflict viral damage equal to 10% of the attacker’s Attack Power per second, with a duration of 10 seconds."

The crowd below was calm, not surprised by the effect of the rune, for they knew it surely had some stronger flaw—Longwen’s greatest regret over the last decade.

"But, the flaw of this rune is more apparent." In the next moment, the auctioneer’s voice trembled slightly, "It will cause the Spellcaster to contract the Plague, that unattenuated, most primitive form of the Plague! If the Spellcaster dies and is resurrected, using a skill with this rune will still infect them with the Plague! The only difference is that this Plague will not spread but remain only within the Spellcaster’s body."

As the words fell, the tens of thousands sitting below shrank back, feeling a deep-seated fear. This was not a rune at all, but a lethal poison; whoever used it would die. Even sacrificing oneself to infect others was not an option, as this mutated form of the Plague had lost its ability to spread and was effective only on the Spellcaster themselves.

"We shall now begin the auction of this rune, starting at 10,000 Gold Coins, with each bid increment no less than 1,000 Gold Coins." With that, the auctioneer looked around and commenced the auction.

The venue was dead silent, with no one speaking up. This kind of rune wouldn’t be accepted even if given away for free, let alone purchasing it for 10,000 Gold Coins—it was purely an act of seeking death.

The words "Aeonic Plague" were an eternal, nightmarish terror that left an indelible wound across the continent, a scar that would be remembered by history, no matter how many years passed by, a grim and tragic note that no one could forget.

"Is there no one willing to bid?" After a long while, the auctioneer loudly asked around, his voice bouncing off the walls and echoing back and forth.

"10,000 Gold Coins." It was then that Huang Yi spoke up.