Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat - Chapter 81

Chapter 81: The Auction House

“I’m seventeen.”

Ethan almost lost it.

This guy was seventeen? No way. He looked way too old for his age.

Ethan gave him a closer look. He didn’t seem to be messing around, but Ethan still had to ask, “Are you serious?”

NoPaperOnTheBigOne looked more embarrassed. “Yeah, really. I just… look a bit older than I am.”

Ethan thought to himself, ‘A bit older? No, this is much more than that.’

As they chatted, they arrived at the Property Management Center. “Wait here,” Ethan said before heading inside alone.

With the guidance of the system NPC, he walked up to a 3D holographic map. Six golden-highlighted plots were displayed, indicating they were available for use.

These were the six prime-location properties Ethan owned in Harmony City.

Plot #1 had been a reward for being the first player to reach the Main City.

Plots #2 and #3 had been given to him for completing the City Lord’s special quests.

Plots #4, #5, and #6? He had bought those with his own money.

After some thought, Ethan selected Plot #2 first and built an Engineering Shop. Engineering was a gold mine. Bullets, mechanical arrows, and cannon rounds were consumables, and with so many Archers and Gunners in the game, demand would always be high.

Even if a player wasn’t hardcore about Engineering as a trade, mindlessly mass-producing ammo could still be a profitable business.

Why? Because player-crafted bullets and arrows hit harder than system-generated ones. On top of that, they could be customized with different effects based on buyer requests. That alone could build an entire premium market.

After setting up the Engineering Shop, Ethan moved on to Plot #3 and opened a Potion Store.

Potions were an absolute necessity in Ethereal. If you didn’t have a Priest in your party while grinding, you needed potions to stay alive. If Engineering ammo was a gold mine for Archers and Gunners, then a Potion Store catered to everyone.

Whether it was solo grinding or raiding dungeons, potions were always in demand.

Ethan had planned the Potion Store in advance, the Engineering Shop had been a last-minute idea.

Setting up each store cost 50 gold, meaning the total was 100 gold. However, Ethan only had to pay 90 gold.

Why? Because under his contract with the City Lord, the city covered 10% of his construction costs.

Meanwhile, outside at the teleportation hub, players were going about their business, some setting up stalls, others just hanging around.

Suddenly, a squad of city guards marched in.

One of them unrolled a notice and announced, “As per Harmony City’s Urban Management Laws, no private stalls are permitted within 500 meters of a Level 2 store. Violators will be detained for three days. You have three minutes to pack up and leave.”

The crowd was stunned.

“What the hell? There’s no Level 2 shop around here!” someone voiced what everyone was thinking.

But before anyone could argue, a group of NPC workers arrived, hauling wood and tools.

They went straight to the designated locations and, without even laying a foundation, started tapping their tools on the ground.

Then, before the players’ eyes, two buildings started rising out of the ground, assembling themselves section by section like magic.

Within seconds, two brand-new two-story buildings stood there.

The crowd stared at the shop signs.

“All-You-Need Potions”

“All-You-Need Engineering”

Someone muttered in disbelief, “This guy must be loaded… He named both stores the same thing.”

“Forget rich, do you know how much these plots are worth? Yesterday, someone offered 3,000 gold for one of them!”

“Yeah, I saw that too. Either the owner refused to sell or he was the original buyer all along.”

“Holy, 3,000 gold?! That’s 5.4 million dollars!”

“Yeah, if it were me, I would’ve sold it. No way that plot cost more than a thousand gold when bought from the system.”

“That’s why you have no vision. Only an idiot would sell! But seriously, this guy’s naming sense is… something else.”

“Forget that, just the construction cost alone is insane. Upgrading to a Level 2 store takes 550 gold!”

“Whatever, man. We’re the ones getting screwed. This was the best spot to set up stalls, and now we’re banned? That’s some real bull—”

As players vented their frustration, their emotions ranged from admiration to jealousy, and, of course, resentment.

Ethan? He didn’t care.

He knew exactly what the Urban Management Laws allowed, and he could already guess what was running through those stall owners’ heads.

No place to set up meant no sales. Moving somewhere else? Useless. Sooner or later, new stores would pop up, pushing them out again.

In the end, they’d have no choice but to relocate to the Market District, the only area designated for player-run stalls.

That’s precisely why Ethan immediately upgraded his stores to Level 2, to make the gap between him and the others feel even wider.

Now, he turned his attention to Plot #1 and selected another construction project.

By the time the NPC laborers finished the first two buildings, the displaced vendors had already packed up and moved to the northern side of the plaza.

The central plaza spanned about 1,000 meters, and the 500-meter shop restriction hadn’t covered the entire space. But with everyone now crammed into a smaller section, things were a mess.

There were more sellers than buyers.

Just as the stall owners began setting up again, they noticed something.

The NPC workers were heading straight for them.

Eyes widened in shock as the workers reached Plot #1 and started hammering away at the ground once more.

BOOM.

A structure even larger than the first two began rising from the earth.

Since Plot #1 was massive to begin with, this new building looked downright imposing. The golden sign gleamed under the sunlight:

“All-You-Need Auction House”

Silence.

Then…

“Holy—ANOTHER All-You-Need store?! AND IT’S AN AUCTION HOUSE?!”

Someone in the crowd yelled, voice full of disbelief.

“I knew it! This was the only spot in all of Harmony City big enough to house an auction house.”

“Knew it? Bro, everyone knew. You don’t get points for calling the obvious.”

“Exactly! The real shocker is the cost. 200 gold just for Level 1! Upgrading to Level 2? 2,000 gold! And it’s the same guy running it!”

“Three prime-location stores… Just how rich is this guy?”

As the crowd reeled from the sheer amount of money involved, a sudden cry rang out—

“Hey! What the hell, why are you grabbing me?!”

Everyone turned toward the voice.

Their faces paled.

A player had just been seized by the city guards, his hands shackled in iron restraints.

A second player was arrested seconds later. Only then did it hit everyone, they had forgotten to pack up their stalls!

The unlucky ones caught near the guards were immediately detained.

Three days in jail. And if they didn’t log in during that time? The sentence extended further. Three days of zero progress. The financial losses would be massive.

Within moments, the entire crowd scrambled to clear their stalls, no one daring to resist.

But even as they packed up, despair sank in. Anywhere else, selling would be twice as slow.

What now? Use the auction house instead? But auctions had fees, didn’t they?

Then again, consigning items meant they wouldn’t have to sit around selling, they could go back to leveling or questing instead.

As everyone hesitated, a figure cloaked in black appeared. Beside him was a man in his thirties.

The two strode into the auction house.

Moments later, a system message flashed above the entrance:

“Auction House Trial Run: No Fees for the Next 7 Days!”