_Publishing this to complete win-win in time. Doing alst edits right now. Super raw. Do not read!!! Come back in 20 min when this is fixed., Thank you! Sorry !

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 hysteric. Meanwhile Josh was just standing there wondering how the hell this had all happened so fast.

He had just eaten a piece that felt somewhat familiar to him. It was the same feeeling 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 the 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 voluntary trying to cause trouble!

He was at a loss on how to explain that devouring urge. 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 be that unprofessional?

But it still did its job well as it it 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 more empty by the second.

But Josh didn't follow the crowd. Well, for one thing they were at 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 has any reason to want this palce destroyed or empty of people? Either they're already making their move or constructing a narrative to explain wht 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?"

"Material trading is a different business altogether. Doing it 100% requires connection with plenty of crafters and resource appraisers. The owner doesn't have any competition 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 it into weapons they can then sell them without none the wiser, right?"

"It's more complicated than that. It's very dangerous to be a craftsman working on such shady deal. There just is no need to take the risk when there are plenty of jobs to be done."

Oh sweet naive child. There will always be people committing crimes, as long as there was profit to be made of it.

Ding!

Checking his UW, Josh noticed a message fro Markus. He couldn't help but give a wry smile.

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

"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!"

"Well, think of it like that. We're about to lose the VIP token right? Plus we need things to be quit to be able to continue our crafting journey. I wasn't kidding when I said I really want a good 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 in 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 climging.

They were currenyl climbing an elevator shaft as they made their way toward the top. Their target was the all the way above, one that even tehy weren't sure what it was. All they knew was that they had an ornated blue box to retrieve.

As they went up, tehy couldn't help but lowly whisper to one another. It was fine since everyone 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 of something haha."

"Still, I wonder what kind of item is in taht box for all of us to be here. Hell, the others are closing the entire area."

"Oh, beleive me, the less you know and the better you'll fare!"

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

"Tchh I want to know if our employer is even human. Did you feel his aura when he was explaining the mission? It was so goddamn dreadful!"

"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 reamain careful."

The last one to chime in was thjeir leader. They were all freelancers that had been serparetly recruited, but he was the one temporarity assigned to make sure the mission went well.

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

But just as they were about to reach their target floor, they suddenly re4ceiveed a communication.

Bzzt, Bzzt

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

This was the voice of the newbie, the one tasked with causing a distraction inside the tower. This guy really hasd outdone himself.

"Is there an emergency?" They asked nervously. Why was he suddenly saying such ominous sounding lines.

But then what follow made them feel taht there was something wrong for sure.

"What's with teh balck smoke everywhere?! It smells so bad too!"

"?1"

Waitwhat?! If this guy wasn't the one that had set-up this whole thing then who did?" This didn't make any sense!