Chapter 142- Gold Conversion

Chapter 142: Chapter 142- Gold Conversion

The live chat and comment section erupted the second the word SOLD rang out over the final item of the auction.

Leo himself was still half in a daze, staring at the absurd final bid that had just closed the whole event out.

"Congratulations to our final winner," Aria said, flashing her usual professional smile toward the camera. "And thank you to everyone who joined us for today’s auction."

She smiled a moment longer, then stepped back from center stage.

The camera shifted to Elona as she moved forward to take her place at the front. "Thank you to everyone who supported us today. I’d also like to thank our auctioneer, Aria, who did a genuinely fantastic job running this event. And congratulations, of course, to everyone who won items from Space Z and from the Eternal Forge Guild."

Applause rippled out across the world, from people crowded in front of massive public screens, to commuters watching on their phones on buses and trains, to families gathered around televisions at home.

Elona and Aria stood together on stage while Leo appeared behind them on the big screen, waving a final goodbye before the live broadcast cut to black Screen.

...

Elona’s secretary arrived shortly after with a document laying out the total earnings from the auction.

[AUCTION SETTLEMENT — ETERNAL FORGE COLLECTION]

Lots Sold: 15

Rare Lots: 2,070 G

Epic Lots: 5,650 G

Total Hammer: 7,720 G

Elona nodded as she flipped to the next page, which listed the current gold exchange rate along with every applicable limit.

[EXCHANGE RATE]

1 Gold = $700.00 USD

(Market re-evaluation in progress — global demand spike)

[MONTHLY CONVERSION QUOTA]

[Novice (Level 1-15): $10,000]

[Adventurer (Level 16-40): $100,000]

[Veteran (Level 41-70): $1,000,000]

[Legend (71-100): $10,000,000]

[Saint (above 100): $100,000,000]

[WITHDRAWAL FEE]

[Up to $1,000 : 5%]

[$1,001 - $10,000 : 10%]

[$10,001 - $100,000 : 20%]

[$100,001 - $1,000,000 : 30%]

[Above $1,000,000 : 40%]

Elona nodded slowly to herself as she read through it.

The moment her eyes landed on the withdrawal quota section, her head started aching looking at the absurd structure. She let out a long sigh, already running the numbers in her head. The highest-level player in the guild is only level 40, which caps us at $100,000 per conversion. And there’s almost certainly a limit on how many times any single person can convert dollars into gold, on top of that. Even if we pool every member we have, this is going to take days just to get it all converted.

Then she looked at the actual conversion fee structure, and her face went pale.

"A real-world auction," she muttered, "was genuinely a terrible idea."

The breakdown appeared right there in front of her.

7,720 G equaled $5,404,000.

And converting that amount of USD into gold worked out like this:

First $1,000 × 5% = $50

Next $9,000 × 10% = $900

Next $90,000 × 20% = $18,000

Next $900,000 × 30% = $270,000

Remaining $4,404,000 × 40% = $1,761,600

Total fee: $2,050,550

Net received: $3,353,450

The total fee alone came out to more than two million dollars. Elona couldn’t stop herself from cursing under her breath at the sight of it.

Still, there wasn’t much to do but sigh and accept it. "Let’s just get this over with. If it comes to it, I’ll pull some capital from the company itself to help cover the gap."

What she had no way of knowing was that none of these rules applied to Leo at all — and that this had been his plan from the very beginning.

Leo logged out not long after and came to find her in person.

"So, vice guild leader," he said, a cheeky grin spreading across his face, "how’d the auction go?"

Elona gave him a wry, slightly exhausted smile. "The auction itself went about as well as it possibly could have. But the conversion rate is genuinely ridiculous. It’s going to take real time to get all of this converted into gold."

Leo waved a hand, dismissive. "Don’t worry about that part. Just transfer everything to my account — I’ll have it handled within the hou...r" He paused, realizing how that might sound, and quickly corrected himself. "A day. I’ll have it handled within a day."

Elona tilted her head, clearly confused by the claim. How exactly was he planning to pull that off in a single day?

She decided not to press him on it, and simply nodded instead.

If Leo was speaking that casually about it, she figured, he probably already had some kind of plan in place.

"Have all the transactions been verified and logged?" Leo asked. "Everyone’s already made their payments, right?"

Elona nodded. "Yes, you don’t need to worry about that side of things. You’re clear to hand over all the items in-game now. I’ll send over the signed contracts and agreements as well."

"Good," Leo said, nodding back. "Also — I’m planning to buy a building near the Space Z headquarters. Any suggestions on location?"

Elona blinked, confused all over again. "Huh? Why would you need a building? If you need space, you’re welcome to just stay here."

Leo shook his head. "No, this isn’t for me — it’s for the guild. I want to set up a proper guild headquarters in the real world too, and I’d like most of the members to eventually move in. That way, everyone’s together once the world fully wakes up to all this."

Understanding settled over Elona’s face as the reasoning clicked into place. Her expression turned serious, and she gave a quiet, nod in acknowledgement of the idea.

"I can help you find something. Leave it to me. And if nothing suitable turns up, we’ll just build one from the ground up."

Leo nodded. "Alright, I’ll leave that in your hands, then. I need to head back into the game and hand over the rest of the auction items."

With that, he vanished right in front of her in a flash of golden light.

Leo swept up every item that was displayed in the auction and teleported straight to Graystone City, heading toward the tavern where a small crowd was already waiting for him.

The moment he arrived, the people gathered there rose to greet him. "Guild Master Leo, welcome," a bald man near the front said. "We’ve been waiting."

Every one of them was either a guild leader or a representative sent on behalf of a group that had won items at the auction.

Their identities had already been passed along to Leo ahead of time — Elona and her staff had sent him a full list of names matched to each item, along with who exactly would be arriving to claim it.

Since no two players in Myth Online could share the same name, there was little room for anyone to worry about being scammed through impersonation.

On top of that, each person’s identity and their unique auction code — known only to the actual winning bidder — would be checked before any handoff, which made the whole process reasonably secure. And in the unlikely event Leo accidentally handed an item to the wrong person, the Eternal Forge Guild wouldn’t even bear responsibility for it. The contract Elona had drafted with Space Z was airtight; virtually every possible scenario had already been accounted for in writing.

So there was very little actual risk resting on the guild’s shoulders.

Even though the auction itself had preserved anonymity throughout the bidding, the handoff phase meant winners inevitably ended up seeing who else had won items. Leo made a mental note that future auctions would need a better system for that — meeting with each winner privately, one at a time, rather than gathering everyone in one place.

For now, he booked a private room and called each person in individually. Every winner had to state their auction number and ID, sign the in-game contract, and only then would Leo hand over their item. The in-game contract carried even more weight than its real-world counterpart, since the system itself enforced it absolutely, with no exceptions and no way around it.

Working this way, Leo distributed every remaining item within about thirty minutes before finally leaving the tavern. From there he made his way across the city toward the administrative district.

The city was as crowded as ever, players weaving between shops, market stalls, and the open plaza, giving the whole place a chaotic but lively energy.

After a few minutes of searching, Leo finally located the coin-dollar exchange building. He stepped inside and found an old man behind the counter, sorting through a stack of papers.

The old man — clearly an NPC — glanced up as Leo entered. "How can I help you today?"

"I need to convert dollars from my world into gold," Leo said.

The old man nodded once and waved a hand through the air.

A panel materialized in front of Leo.

[WEALTH EXCHANGE]

Select Transaction Type:

[Gold → USD]

[USD → Gold]

Leo selected USD to Gold.

The panel shifted to display new information.

[USD → GOLD CONVERSION]

Current Exchange Rate:

1 Gold = $700.00 USD

[Scanning for available balance....]

[Available Authorized Balance: $5,404,000.00 USD]

Leo entered an amount: four million USD.

[Detected user’s level to be 24]

[Conversion amount exceeded the limit]

[Error...]

[Ding~]

[LEO STONE — PURCHASE STATUS]

Monthly Purchase Quota: ∞

Purchase Fee: None

System Exception: ∞ / 0%

[Convert 4 million USD to gold?]

Leo selected yes without hesitation.

[Conversion Successful]

[5,714 gold coins deposited into your inventory]

Leo gave a satisfied nod to himself. " Thankyou for your assistance" Leo said. And the old man just nodded and got back to sorting the papers.

He set aside a portion of the funds for the building he was planning to purchase out in Texas.

Checking his inventory once more, he transferred five thousand gold coins straight into the guild’s treasury.

The guild treasury itself was only accessible to the guild leader and vice guild leader — no other member could inspect it or pull from it, let alone view the balance.

Elona was going to be in for quite a surprise the next time she logged back in.

With that handled, Leo made his way back toward the guild. He could have taken a shortcut through the Hall of Death or straight through the Eternal Forge’s pocket dimension, but he held off — there was a daily limit on how many times he could use those teleports, and he didn’t want to waste one unnecessarily. Instead he walked to the city’s public teleportation plaza and used the standard route back to the guild.

Before diving into another forging session for the next auction, Leo decided to swing by and check on Cindy and the little girl first.

He turned and headed toward the lightning mana vein chamber.

....