Lex raised an eyebrow. He’d anticipated that Mary would want to make a grand entrance. A couple of days ago, when he used the 1000 MT to pay for her to have her own projection capabilities, he was surprised to find that she hid herself in his office, so he kind of saw it coming. Even so, he had no idea that people who have this big a reaction to her.

When he saw her, she only appeared normal to him. He saw none of the presence or allure of a Dao Lord that everyone else was gushing about. He wondered if being the System host made him uniquely immune to her presence.

Lex had asked Mary about why unlocking her projection had been so expensive at the time. After all, 1000 MT was not a small amount of money. He could have done incredible things with so much MT, for example, go crazy in the token shop. Mary had no idea at the time.

Now, though, as Lex watched the reactions everyone had, Lex began to have some idea. It was expensive because the projection needed to be able to support the natural presence she had as a former Dao Lord. Or wait, did she still count as a Dao Lord? He didn’t think so.

They hadn’t really discussed the details since Lex had to prepare everything for the auction, but once this was done, he would have a chat with her.

Mary chuckled as she saw everyone’s reaction to her. Despite her magnified presence, her personality hadn’t really changed much at all.

"You guys are too cute. Relax, you are guests of the Midnight Inn, so you can be at complete ease. If the Innkeeper thinks I ended up bullying his guests he won’t let me do next year’s auction either."

Mary was relaxed, informal, and friendly demeanor disarmed those who were watching - at least as much as possible. Who had ever heard of a Dao Lord hosting an auction for a bunch of immortals? No one! It had never been done!

Well, it wasn’t like they could stand up and say with complete certainty that throughout history such a thing had never happened. But most certainly no one had ever heard of such a thing.

Dao Lords were high and mighty - completely out of reach of almost everyone. They were usually aloof and indifferent to most, and though there were Dao Lords with all kinds of personalities, you didn’t really see them working in the service industry very often.

It was only through the combined might of large organizations that Dao Lords ended up rendering services, and that too was mostly in exchange for something unique only they could do, in exchange for some resources or something rare and valuable. But to get a Dao Lord to auction for a bunch of Immortals was just... was just... there were no words for it.

To call it wasteful would be an insult, yet it certainly wasn’t the best use of resources and time. Then again, the Innkeeper was well known for his indifference to status, treating mortals and immortals alike as if they were important guests. For Mary who... did she work for the Innkeeper? Or with him? If so, did that mean...

Wait a minute! Many immortals realized, belatedly, that Mary had literally introduced herself to them! She had revealed her name! Such a realization sent many of their hearts leaping, with both fear and joy.

The influence of a Dao Lord on literally everyone else was immense. Just words of praise could literally alter one’s destiny. It was one of the only concrete ways known of changing one’s destiny in the universe! So then to actually know the name of a Dao Lord... That too would subtly influence the rest of their very lives!

If Lex thought of things this way, then maybe one reason why he had so much good luck was because of how early he learned Ballom’s name. Of course, that good luck could have easily killed Lex if he didn’t grow strong enough fast enough, but that was entirely a different matter.

"Oh you guys are too uptight," Mary said with a chuckle. "How could I be a good auctioneer if I kept indirectly influencing you all? I wouldn’t want a complaint letter from one of your organisations saying I manipulated you into buying things. No, you all are completely protected from any influence I might have on you. You can just treat me like another auctioneer. Take a moment to gather yourselves, and once everyone is ready, I’ll begin introducing our event."

Nobody questioned what Mary said. If she said that she wouldn’t affect them, then that’s what they would believe. It wasn’t their job, or their position, to second guess what a Dao Lord said.

Even a peak Celestial Immortal, searching for a way to become a Dao Lord, such as Levi, was infinitely beneath a Dao Lord in terms of power. At most, she could compare to a Demi Dao Lord in the sense that she could measure how much weaker she was.

Mary waved her hand, and a white plastic chair appeared on the stage behind her where she sat down with her legs crossed. Her dress, while completely gorgeous, was not overly long, so when she crossed her legs the dress was pulled back just a bit, revealing a little more skin above her ankle.

The entire crowd of Celestial Immortals trembled as they rushed to look anywhere other than the stage, too afraid to look. The A.I. who did not really have any concept of modesty or humility, too, turned off all its sensors to keep itself from overheating.

Of course, none of the Inn workers reacted oddly - they had known Mary for a long time - and Liz also couldn’t help but cross her arms.

"She’s playing games with them," Liz muttered, right before Levi clamped her mouth shut.

Of course, Mary was playing, and she was thoroughly enjoying her game, too.

"All of you, dear guests, come from prestigious backgrounds and have connections far and wide, so there is little that you want for. The only resources you lack are the ones that can only be grown in specific parts of the universe, so something like an ordinary auction won’t really attract your attention."