Chapter 51: [51]: The Harvester’s Exchange, Domain Monopoly
Levi stood in the sweltering heat of the volcanic throne room and pressed the heavy parchment scroll directly onto the glowing blue pedestal.
The system chimed with a massive, golden notification that filled his vision.
[Domain Claimed.]
[Owner: Levi.]
[Please name your territory.]
Levi looked around the ruined, half-melted throne room and smirked.
"The Harvester’s Exchange," Levi said clearly.
The system instantly locked his words in.
What happened next wasn’t just a simple menu update. The entire Ruined Keep of Ash began to physically rebuild itself. The ground violently trembled, shaking the loose rocks off the walls. The massive chunks of shattered obsidian and broken iron scattered across the courtyard started floating into the air like gravity had just been turned off.
The half-melted iron doors at the front of the throne room snapped back onto their hinges, the metal straightening out and reforming into a set of heavy, polished black steel gates. The cracks in the stone floor sealed themselves up. The wild, overflowing rivers of magma were forced back into neat, glowing channels lined with dark iron grates.
In less than thirty seconds, the ruined dungeon transformed into a pristine, terrifyingly sleek fortress.
A bright flash of light erupted at the main entrance. Two massive NPC guards materialized out of thin air. They wore thick, heat-resistant black armor and carried heavy polearms.
Levi pulled out an Inspect scroll and checked their stats.
[Harvester’s Guard]
[Level: 31]
[HP: 25,000 | ATK: 600 | DEF: 300]
"Level thirty-one," Levi noted. The system automatically scaled the Domain’s base NPC guards to the owner’s level plus ten. Since Levi was Level 21, the guards were Level 31. That meant this place was now an absolute death trap for any random griefer or low-level player trying to cause trouble. The guards would one-shot them before they even reached the courtyard.
Levi walked over to the black glass throne and sat down. It was surprisingly comfortable for something made out of volcanic rock.
He opened the new Domain Interface that had just appeared on his main menu.
It was a top-down management screen showing his keep and a list of available structures he could build. There were barracks, walls, crafting forges, and portal hubs. But Levi was only looking for one specific building.
He scrolled down until he found it.
[Grand Mercantile Hub]
[Effect: Connects your Domain directly to the global server Auction House network. Allows players to buy, sell, and trade items from your territory. The Domain Owner may set a custom tax rate on all transactions.]
[Cost: 2,000 Gold Coins.]
"Two thousand gold," Levi said. "Good thing that event boss dropped a literal mountain of cash."
He had well over five thousand gold sitting in his digital wallet from the Blood Moon Eclipse payout. He dragged the 2,000 Gold into the payment slot and hit the construct button.
A new stone building instantly generated in the center of his courtyard, complete with a glowing auction board and a small squad of NPC ledger clerks.
Levi pulled up the tax menu. This was the real reason he bought the keep.
In Aethelgard, the main NPC-run auction house back in the City of Thresholds charged a brutal 15% tax on every single transaction. If a player sold a rare sword for 100 Gold, the game system just deleted 15 Gold from the trade. It was a massive sink that infuriated top-tier crafters and guild leaders who were trading thousands of gold daily.
Because Levi owned the land, he had the absolute authority to set the tax rate for his specific hub.
He tapped the sliding bar and dragged it all the way down to exactly 5%.
"Let’s see how much people hate the government," Levi laughed.
Setting the tax up wasn’t enough. People actually had to know his place existed. The Ashen Peaks was a Level 30 zone; nobody was going to just casually walk past his front door.
Levi opened the game’s built-in community forum browser. He created a new anonymous post in the main regional trading channel. He kept it short and directly to the point.
[Title: Tired of the 15% NPC Tax? I’m not.]
[Message: The Harvester’s Exchange is officially open. Connected to the global AH. The tax rate is locked at 5%. Yes, it’s in a Level 30 zone. Buy a teleport scroll or walk fast. Coordinates attached.]
He hit post.
Now, it was just a waiting game. Levi leaned back against his black glass throne, resting his Sovereign’s Deathknell scythe against the armrest.
For the first twenty minutes, nothing happened. The keep was completely silent except for the bubbling magma.
Then, a bright blue flash illuminated the courtyard.
A player materialized at the teleportation spawn point near the front gates. It was a high-level blacksmith from one of the major guilds. He looked around nervously, clearly terrified that a Level 30 monster was going to jump out of the shadows. But when he saw the Level 31 NPC guards standing peacefully at the gates, he visibly relaxed.
The blacksmith jogged over to the Grand Mercantile Hub, pulled up his interface, and listed a massive stack of silver-tier armor.
A second later, a notification pinged in Levi’s vision.
[Transaction Complete: Silver Plate sold for 300 Gold. Domain Tax (5%) collected: 15 Gold.]
"Fifteen gold for just sitting in a chair," Levi smirked.
Ten minutes later, three more flashes of blue light hit the courtyard. A group of heavily geared merchants showed up. They rushed to the auction boards.
Ping.
[Domain Tax collected: 8 Gold.]
Ping.
[Domain Tax collected: 25 Gold.]
Word travels incredibly fast when real money and in-game gold are involved. The top players quickly did the math. Paying a couple of silver coins for a teleport scroll to Levi’s base was completely worth it if they were saving hundreds of gold in taxes on big trades.
Within two hours, the courtyard of the Harvester’s Exchange was packed. Over fifty players were running around, shouting prices, and furiously tapping their auction menus. They completely ignored Levi sitting on the throne in the back room, assuming he was just an NPC lord.
Levi just watched his UI.
Ping. Ping. Ping.
The notifications were coming in so fast they turned into a solid blur of text. Every single sword sold, every stack of iron ore traded, every health potion bought funnelled a clean 5% cut directly into Levi’s Domain vault.
It was the ultimate passive income glitch. He had successfully privatized a massive chunk of the server’s economy.
Levi sat on his throne for the rest of the day, completely zoned out, listening to the beautiful sound of digital coins stacking up. He occasionally checked his stats or rearranged his inventory, but he didn’t need to lift a finger to grind. The players were grinding for him.
By the time the digital sun set outside the keep, turning the sky a deep, bruised purple, Levi finally opened his Domain ledger to check his total balance.
He had spent 5,000 Gold to buy the edict. He spent 2,000 Gold to build the hub.
His current vault balance was sitting at exactly 15,000 Gold Coins.
"Fifteen grand," Levi breathed, shaking his head. "I made my entire investment back and doubled it in a single afternoon. I am never going to have to worry about catalyst fusion fees ever again."
He was officially the richest solo player on the entire server. His economic dominance was now perfectly matching his ridiculous combat power. But Levi knew human nature too well. When you mess with people’s money, they don’t just complain on the forums. They retaliate.
He closed his menu and stared out into the busy courtyard. The money was flowing, but a target had just been painted on his back. He didn’t mind. If people wanted to bring him their unequipped loot, his front door was wide open.