"Alright, Thompson, we're going in. But I don't understand what for. I told you already, owners are only allowed into the warehouse after the auction ends—no one else is allowed in at any other time!"

David Thompson looked around and said, "Be patient, Boss Fox. There's a Chinese saying: 'Sharpening your spear right before battle may not make it sharper, but at least it shines.' I never fight a battle I'm not sure of. I have to at least investigate these warehouses before making a choice."

Henry pointed at a row of warehouses and said, "It's those eight warehouses. They used to belong to a manager at an insurance company. The guy had a bad back, so he bought a very expensive massage chair and stored it in one of these warehouses. But no one knows which of the eight it's in."

"Then why doesn't he want it anymore?" David Thompson asked as he walked up to the first warehouse.

In his mind, he summoned the little bug, then opened his right hand. The bug poked its head out from his palm, quickly crawled out, and jumped to the ground.

"I don't know, maybe he struck it rich and moved to a mansion in Los Angeles," Henry said.

David Thompson nodded. At this moment, he took over the bug's consciousness and controlled it to enter the warehouse.

The warehouse was made of concrete and brick, sealed with a rolling shutter door—airtight, you could say.

But the bug entered effortlessly, just as it could burrow into David Thompson's palm. It could pass through anything at will, whether it was a wall or a door.

Another impressive thing was that the bug's eyes didn't need light to see everything clearly. Even if the warehouse was pitch black, it didn't affect David Thompson's search.

However, he didn't have much time. Based on his experiments, he could control the bug for at most five minutes before becoming exhausted, needing lots of sleep and food to recover.

On the way, he thought about it: today, he'd have to move quickly, just do a rough scan—one minute per warehouse, so he'd have a five out of eight chance of finding the massage chair.

That's not bad odds!

The bug only had two little legs, so it wasn't fast, but luckily it could pass through any obstacle, allowing it to move freely inside the warehouse.

David Thompson prayed that the massage chair wasn't in a very obvious spot, or else the bug's search would be wasted:

According to warehouse auction rules, on auction day, all bidders could line up outside the door to look at the items inside, but not enter, and definitely not touch anything. In short, you could only look from afar, not get hands-on.

So the bug entered warehouse 202. He did a quick scan and didn't see any sign of the massage chair, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

The warehouse was large, filled with all sorts of stuff—bicycles, motorcycle parts, tires, wrenches, and other valuable things, as well as garbage bags, broken furniture, and scrap wood that were worthless.

But there was no sign of the big massage chair he was looking for.

Henry had told him that this massage chair was a flagship product from the American company Kahler Mechanical Health—a top-of-the-line massage chair, like a wellness pod: huge and luxurious.

It wasn't a small item, so David Thompson didn't need to search carefully. As long as he found the right warehouse, he'd definitely spot it.

Also, the chair was so big that there weren't many places to hide it. David Thompson mainly checked under tarps, in corners, or inside big boxes—places with enough space to fit it.

It was his first time controlling the bug for such a complicated task, and David Thompson didn't manage his time well, wasting more time in the last two warehouses.

When he entered the fourth warehouse, he saw he was almost out of time. David Thompson let out a tired sigh, ready to call the bug back to rest.

Just then, the bug crawled under a tarp. As it was about to pass through, it looked up—and a sleek, dazzling leather chair appeared in its view!

The chair was probably over two meters tall and more than a meter wide, with a golden synthetic plastic shell and brown leather inside. There were LCD screens on both armrests—extremely luxurious!

Seeing the chair, David Thompson breathed a sigh of relief: No wonder Henry said you could make a fortune with this thing. This isn't a chair—it's a throne!

Chapter 0005: In Hand

February 1st, morning, the weather was gloomy.

Early in the morning, David Thompson and Henry took the bus to the Smith Storage Company site.

The auction was to be held at nine o'clock. The reason they arrived early was Henry's idea—to observe the competition.

He knew it was David Thompson's first time at an auction, so he kept explaining some basic things: "Arriving early is so you can know yourself and your enemies. You need to know who your competitors are, so you can adjust your bidding strategy..."

By eight thirty, with only half an hour left before the auction started, everyone interested in these warehouses had arrived. David Thompson took a look—by his estimate, there were more than fifty people.

That made him feel pressured: "So many people want to bid on just eight warehouses?"

Henry said, "They're all after the massage chair. Don't worry, half of these people won't bid unless they're sure, and half of the rest are just hoping to get lucky with a low price. In short, we'll get a warehouse. I've prepared enough money."

"You managed to get more money?" David Thompson was surprised. "How did you do it?"

Henry answered with a question: "How did we get here today?"

"By bus—wait, shit, are you saying you sold your car?" David Thompson exclaimed.