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Chapter 525 - Rank 7 Properties 1

It had been a long time coming, but today was the day it would finally happen. The 5 Property Upgrade Tokens would be used on 5 select buildings to turn them into Rank 7, birthing unique establishments with likely overpowered features that could make Vita Kingdom even more desirable.

The reason they chose the buildings in the inner section was because they were semi-accessible. Rank 7 buildings were best used by both private affiliates and the general public, to generate revenue and provide special bonuses to either party.

Things like the Rank 7 Guild Hall in Cario City were few and far between, where it was a purely private establishment that mostly only drained funds instead of generating them. The same went for the Rank 7 Castle, with only the Rank 7 Shop being different, but it was a purely public facility.

It was best to have all five buildings in the inner section then, so that if they were public, people could access them and it would even push more people to vie for residency, while being close enough to the core that the citizens and members of Umbra could use them as they wished.

"Do we have a shortlist of chosen buildings by the way?" Draco asked Eva curiously.

Eva nodded. "I got them from Sublime just now. Her plan for them is super comprehensive and amazing. She has deeply researched what benefits each building should bring to the city based on what was known about the features of the highest Rank of similar buildings in the world against what changes exist in Rank 1 and Rank 7 versions of our buildings."

Draco was pleased by this. Using the various Rank 7 buildings they already had to stipulate what could come was wise, so they could maximize their benefits, instead of randomly upgrading buildings. After all, they had a limited number available.

"So, what are they?" Draco pressed on.

Eva took out the list and read it to Draco. "The five buildings are, in order of importance, a Warehouse, a Bank, an Academy/School, a Barracks and a Refinery."

Eva continued. "Sublime estimates that a Rank 7 Warehouse should give us one or more of the following features. An endless space, an ability to organize storage easily, the ability to not only store but also withdraw from (practically) anywhere, a concealed space like super mini small world and a preservation ability to keep items fresh for long periods of time."

Draco nodded. "Well then, let’s go take a look and see how right her guess was."

｢Detected a Property Upgrade Token – Platinum

Would the player like to upgrade a building? Y/N｣

Draco naturally chose yes and selected the warehouse as the main option. The usual prompt came up listing the benefits of the city and the warehouse itself as well as the detriments before calculating the final cost.

It came out to be 50,000 platinum, which was a pittance to the White-haired Duo at this point in time. Umbra’s weekly income alone had soared to 1.2 million platinum a week thanks to Money Lover being in charge over the Rank 7 Shop, Vita Kingdom’s finances overall, and the sea route especially bringing in hefty profits.

Draco chose one of the core section’s warehouses, since only those important to the city would need access to the Kingdom’s warehouse, and the ones who fitted that bill lived exactly there.

The White-Haired Duo paid the dues and quietly watched as the currently Rank 4 warehouse began to suck in Worldly Energy crazily. It lasted only a few seconds, and was only strong enough to slightly startle those who were in its immediate vicinity.

Disturbances where Aetheric Energy was drained in droves by various people was a daily occurence, much less mere Worldly Energy that didn’t go far.

The old Rank 4 Warehouse had been a four-story building that was about as large as a football field, but the new one was massive, around the size of 20 football fields. It had 7 floors including the ground one, and its design was slightly modern.

Draco and Eva descended before it and entered the warehouse. Before they did though, they realized that the warehouse had strict magical identification technology that scanned their badges to ascertain who they were.

They also heard a monotonic voice inform them that they had level 8 access, which Draco and Eva guessed should be the highest. When they entered, they were astounded to see that the ground floor alone was a huge area with hundreds of shelves that Draco and Eva couldn’t even count.

They felt dizzy just looking at it, and their knees quaked. However, they soon heard the same monotonic voice introduce itself to them.

"Hello, I am the Warehouse Management System Ruxx0028, and I am the Avatar of this building. As you are the only two who have level 8 access now, please set the rules and arrangements for the entire warehouse so I may implement them."

Nothing manifested before them, which made sense since the Aether Hall had required their blood and also used Aetheric Energy to manifest Vitae. The fact that a mere Rank 7 Warehouse had a named Avatar alone was amazing, but expecting it to reach Vitae’s level was a bit unreal.

Draco and Eva discussed before setting the rules. Firstly, they ordered the Avatar to distribute the items based on their Rarity to the respective floors.

The first floor was for Common Rank resources, items and materials, and had a grey theme.

The second floor was for Uncommon Rank resources, items, and materials, and had a green theme.

The third floor was for Rare Rank resources, items, and materials, and had a blue theme.

The fourth floor was for Epic Rank resources, items and materials, and had a purple theme.

The fifth floor was for Legendary Rank resources, items, and materials, and had a golden theme.

The seventh floor was for Origin Rank resources, items and materials, and had an orange theme.

As for access rules and permissions, Sublime was the first person who got assigned level 8 clearance, followed by Roma, Zaine, Hikari, and Draco’s kids with them.

The rest of the Morningstar Clan, all got level 7 access, which put them above the core members who got level 6 access.

Expert members of Umbra, as well as nobles among NPC citizens, received level 5 access, Advanced members of Umbra, and first-class citizens among the NPC citizens level 4 access.

Basic members of Umbra and common floor NPC citizens had level 3 access and lastly, Umbra’s Serf players had level 2 access.

They didn’t bother assigning any group to just have level 1 access. After all, these rules were just the preliminary, and Sublime would likely work out a more streamlined access system down the line.

Draco moved all the resources from the chock-full Guild Warehouse to the Rank 7 Kingdom Warehouse, where he watched with awe as the Avatar of the building sorted everything out into different spaces on different floors.

Was it really that overpowered?

"Total Warehouse space filled by 0.5%. Would you like to add anything more?" The Avatar asked neutrally.

The items that had stuffed their Guild Warehouse so full that they had to force some into the Guild Shop only took 0.5% of the space? For the love of God, it had taken it less than a minute!

The duo had a strange expression on their faces.

Hey, didn’t this mean that if it ever crosses 5%, they wouldn’t even be able to use it all in their lifetime? Umbra, and likely the citizens of the kingdom, could not consume so much, even if they were to overindulge.

Wouldn’t they have to start giving out things for free by then?

Especially for the Common to Rare items and materials. Well, if anything, they could just hold endless tournaments and have them as prizes. They could give out weapons and equipment as part of battle tournaments, materials as part of Tradeskill tournaments, and resources as part of both among others.

It definitely would make Vita Kingdom a very lively place many would seek after, more than they already did, which was – frankly – more than enough.

The Rank 7 Warehouse also had most of the features they had stipulated and more!

Any items kept would be the same as they were even 10,000 years later, items of any Rarity could be kept, unfortunately, people could not withdraw anywhere in the world, but there was a loophole.

An Umbra member with sufficient access could request for an item to be sent to the Guild Warehouse, where they could then extract it autonomously.

However, they were shocked when they found out that it had an overpowered feature! It could clone resources placed within over time by consuming ambient energy in the kingdom!

If Refinement didn’t exist, this would be enough to make the White-Haired Duo kneel and start calling the Warehouse Management System their Ancestor, but as it was, they only felt it was neat.

In case items existed that were too costly for Draco to make, he could leave them here to be cloned. Speaking of that, they shook their heads when they saw the amount of time it would take.

Even Common resources required a full day. A week for Uncommons, a month for Rares, a year for Epics, a decade for Legendaries, a century for Divines, a millennia for Origins.

Compared to Draco who could create any of these in seconds as long as there was enough energy, it felt quite lackl.u.s.ter.

The couple then left the Rank 7 Warehouse to see a crowd gathering outside, observing the new building curiously. Seeing Draco and Eva come out, many greeted them and asked what was going on, and were pleased to hear that today was the day that a bunch of Rank 7 buildings would appear.

Draco and Eva returned to the sky and gazed at the Bank of Vita Kingdom which was located in the inner section. Since it was a semi-public facility, it was best put there, and that was the one they chose the level up.

The bank was surprisingly Rank 3, which was pretty darn high among banks worldwide. Most either didn’t have one or it was merely at Rank 1. Those that had them at Rank 2 were mostly top mercantile empires that dealt with a lot of cash.

As far as they knew, only Vita Kingdom and some cities with major branches of the Merchant Guild had Rank 3 Banks.

The phenomena this time was a bit more intense as Worldly Energy was pulled in even greater amounts to the building as it glowed and expanded. However, even after it changed, its size only increased by about onefold at most.

When Draco and Eva landed before it, ignoring the crowd which were coming around to take a look, they noticed that the doors were wide open, so they walked in. At the same time, many onlookers did the same as they wanted to know what was going on.

When they entered, they saw the bank had a huge hall space with many comfortable waiting chairs that even had some devices attached to provide service to a client. In other words, no longer did one need to wait in line for an available teller, just find a seat and press away!

"Welcome, Guildmaster. I am the World Bank Management System FourLeaf and I would like to take you through the features of your new establishment." Another disembodied voice spoke into Draco and Eva’s minds, but this one was far less monotonous.

They shared a look and nodded for the voice to continue.

"The World Bank is a special intuition of finance that works globally, and it’s a premier establishment that deals with all things business, investment and savings. It has many unique features abilities which I will now explain to you."

"The first feature is coin minting. The World Bank is granted the right to generate new coins for circulation around the world, valid in all transactions and exchanges anywhere. A maximum of ten million Bronze Coins are to be printed and distributed per day to all banks worldwide."

"The second feature is subsidiary creation. There can only be one World Bank, and every other bank in the world is automatically converted to a subsidiary of the World Bank within its region. Local owners and shareholders only retain 1% of previous shares while the World Bank purchases 99% at a reasonable value judged by the bank itself."

"The third feature is investments galore. The World Bank allows investors from all places to invest in everything they wish, with the equity calculated on the spot, as well as success chances. Business, mercantilism, agriculture, hunting, dungeoning, war, etc. As long as it is a venture that requires capital, it can be invested in to bring profits."

"The World Bank also supports Treasury Bills issued by the native state in which it originates, and Fixed Call Investments negotiated between the bank and the client per the amount invested."

"The fourth feature is the account registration and protection. Users can apply for a bank account of the savings or current type at any subsidiary with a requirement to deposit an initial amount. Each account will be soulbound to its user upon creation and cannot be accessed without their specific permission aside from situations where the law deems it necessary, like compensation."

"The fifth feature is the loans and collection. Users with an account open can apply for various loans judged by the bank based on their circ.u.mstances with relative interest rates depending on the quality of their possible success. The Bank shall, as in its right, make use of every means to collect such loans in the case of a bad debt."

"There are more features, but these five are the main ones. I am required to inform the Guildmaster that while you are the creator and owner of this bank, in order to maintain neutrality, you are not allowed to make many changes to its makeup, nor know certain details like where the money of account owners is stored."

"Without this neutrality in finance, the World Bank would have all five listed features revoked or greatly weakened. The Guildmaster though, retains a 49% share of the World Bank as well as the ability to appoint a Board of Directors at his own whim."

Draco almost felt like it sounded apologetic, which intrigued him. However, he and Eva were pleasantly surprised by how great the bank had become, and most of Sublime’s assumptions regarding it had come true.

Being able to print new money would solve one of Draco’s biggest issues, which was the forced Deflation which lowered Aggregate Demand worldwide. These bastards hoarding heaps of platinum and preventing it from circulating f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y lowered the supply of money, which then lowered the purchasing power of the people, f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y lowering the price of goods.

(Author’s Note: Any economics buff reading this, and I know y’all exist in my readerbase, please explain the above in simple terms for our non-economics buff buddies in the comments if you can. I don’t want to spend 1k words explaining economics in the novel.)

This wouldn’t instantly solve it all, but it would smoothen things out until Draco could bust those vaults open and let that mountain of cash FLOW for the love of God.

The second feature was a bit... troublesome. Draco was worried that various kingdoms, empires, and powers were marching troops towards Vita right now, enraged at having their own national banks hijacked forcefully.

Draco could only pray that the price the World Bank paid for those shares was more than enough to shut those fellows up, though many would still be unhappy unless they saw the benefits.

Of course, none of that money came out of his pocket. That was all on the AI this time.

The investment feature excited Draco, for it was the other half of the method needed to solve the Deflation issue plaguing the entire main plane. Through the use of the Expansionary Monetary Policy, money could be organically injected into the system and into the hands of the people without causing inflation.

(Author’s Note: Please explain this as well if possible.)

The fourth feature was typical bank stuff for the 99% of people, which was having an account to receive and spend money from. The Avatar was curt about this, but Draco could tell there was far more to all this in general, but he could explore it later.

The fifth feature was the classic bank money generation policy, how the bank itself largely made a profit for its shareholders, which was giving out loans to certain people and profiting off the interest that came back with it.

However... the way the bank spoke made Draco and Eva share an uncertain glance. Why did it sound less like the typical loan system of banks on earth and more like... loan sharking?

Especially since banks couldn’t use certain means to reclaim loans, but this bank said it would use ANY means necessary. Suddenly, even the former Evil Duo felt bad for those poor sods who would actually dare to take a loan to do this.

Then again, any who took a personal loan fell into this category.

Suddenly, Draco realized something. "Hold on, if I have 49% shares, who has the 51%?"

The Avatar answered in a strange voice. "I... don’t know actually..."