The Auction Hall had been warned about the bear.
The doors had been widened. The back-row bench had been reinforced. The goblin auctioneer had, on his own initiative, moved his podium six feet further from the seating area than the floor plan called for. The System considered this reasonable.
Mike came in through the equipment entrance anyway, because it was familiar, and sat down, and the bench held.
Briefly.
System Architectural NoticeREINFORCED BENCH: HOLDING. REINFORCED BENCH: HOLDING. REINFORCED BENCH: WE WILL SEE.
The first recruit was nominated. Then the second: Nathan MacKinnon. The System watched Jake in the third row not raise his paddle, and it watched Mike in the back row raise his, and it watched the paddle snap in half in a claw the size of a dinner plate.
The auctioneer silently produced a much larger paddle. It was, technically, a shovel.
Mike raised the shovel.
“Fifty-eight.”
Silence. The kind of silence a room makes when a bear has just outbid it. Jake said nothing. Jake had been given every opportunity. The gavel came down and MacKinnon belonged to BBL TRULY, a team name the System has elected not to interrogate.
You know that’s Jake’s guy.
“Jake didn’t bid.”
No. He did not.
Vasilevskiy came a few picks later. Thirty-five. The shovel went up and stayed up and nobody in the hall felt strongly enough about the issue to argue. That was ninety-three gold on two players, and the System braced for a lollipop.
It did not get one. Mike, it turned out, had been studying the recruitment board back at the Tutorial Guild while everyone kept their respectful distance, and he had studied the middle of it. Matthew Tkachuk for nineteen. Reinhart for twelve. Leo Carlsson. Panarin for nine, which was a bargain a man could lean against. Connor Bedard for six, which was either a steal or a Chicago-related warning sign, and Mike did not appear to care which.
Victor Hedman for one gold. Shea Theodore for one gold. Dylan Larkin for two. The shovel had become efficient.
When the last name was called, BBL TRULY had sixteen players and fifteen gold in the purse, and Mike leaned back to consider this.
The bench made a sound.
Auction RecordROSTER: COMPLETE. GOLD REMAINING: 15. PADDLES DESTROYED: 1. SHOVELS ISSUED: 1. MACKINNON: ACQUIRED. JAKE: INFORMED.AUCTION HALL STRUCTURAL DAMAGE: 23%.
Please stop leaning.
Mike stood. The bench survived. Barely. He collected his ledger between two claws, nodded once at the auctioneer, and walked back out the way he came.
The System took note of a small detail: Mike had spent the night three rows behind his mother, and at no point had the two of them bid on the same player.
The System does not believe in coincidences.
The System believes Vicky told him not to.