Chapter 15 - Underconsumption
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
Shi Lei knew exactly why Zhang Mo panicked, but Zhang Mo would never be able to understand Shi Lei’s feelings right now.
Zhang Mo picked up the cup in a hustle, then unplugged it. He was blank for a second, then ran and got the hairdryer out. He could not care less that it was in the middle of the night, he turned on the hairdryer and wanted to dry the water on the laptop.
Shi Lei was extremely frantic on the inside, but he seemed to be numb as he watched Zhang Mo do all those things. He did not scold him, nor complained. He struggled to take a deep breath and said: “No use, there’s smoke coming out already.”
Zhang Mo was full of regret and frustration and he was trembling with fear, he said: “Stone, don’t worry, I’ll go home right now and tell my family so I can compensate for it. How about this, I’ll take it and go to the specialty store and ask how much the warranty is. My family will pay for the cost. Although it can’t be compared to a new one, but the factory warranty should be ok……”
Shi Lei was filled with sorrow as he looked at Zhang Mo. He sighed, thinking that it must be fate.
But Shi Lei was not sure about the consequences of this. Perhaps the Scepter would not blame accidents like these on him.
A laptop worth more than 20,000 yuan was fuming. In this situation, the motherboard was probably burnt, the display card and the sound card was most likely broken as well. With Alienware laptops, these three are the most valuable parts. Taking a guess, the repair fees would be no less than 10,000 yuan.
10,000 was approximately a quarter of 40,000, from the toes onwards, it was no different to limb amputation. If it was going to start from the head, Shi Lei’s life would be done.
“We’ll talk later, you should sleep and stop thinking.” Shi Lei waved his arms as he walked out of the dorm.
“Stone, don’t be like this, I’ll take responsibility. Although my family is not that rich, but since I broke the laptop, my family will definitely give money to compensate. If worst comes to worst, I’ll buy you a new one.”
Although Shi Lei was nervous, against Zhang Mo’s attitude and actions of embracing all the responsibilities without avoiding the problem made him feel warm. Suddenly, he got over it.
If the Scepter did not approve of this consumption, even if counting the laptop’s repairing fees, Shi Lei’s life would be done, so looking into Zhang Mo’s actions would be meaningless. Tomorrow is the deadline. A 20,000 yuan laptop, even if Zhang Mo’s family was going to compensate for it, he was afraid that it was rather hard to do so within a day, and it was difficult for him to escape from the Scepter’s penalty. It could only be said that it was his fate.
The only hope left was the Scepter to approve this as Shi Lei did not damage it on purpose. To the Scepter, merely 20,000 yuan should not be a problem, right?
The most urgent task right now, was better to ask the Scepter first.
As so, Shi Lei turned around and smiled, and said to Zhang Mo: “What are you thinking? I told you I’m a fuerdai. It’s only 20,000 yuan and it was not entirely your fault either because I put the water there myself. Screw compensation, I’ll get a new one in a few days. I’m gonna go poop, you can go buy some barbeque and alcohol, we’ll drink later. Buy a lot of alcohol!”
Shi Lei was pressing his luck. He decided that since it was his fate, he will bear it himself. This had already exceeded the conventional so there was no point in dragging Zhang Mo into it.
He decided to ask the Scepter right now. If the Scepter thinks that the laptop’s price cannot be counted into the quota, Shi Lei will accept his misfortune as decreed by fate. He would treat this as the last meal of his life and get drunk, and die in a heroic manner tomorrow.
But if the Sceptre thought that it was not his fault and counts it towards the quota, then he would have escaped death. Naturally, he would celebrate after he comes back, so it was not too much of him to drink some alcohol.
Having thought this out clearly with the rigid night wind, Shi Lei felt rather light.
Shi Lei quickly walked out of the school gate and went to the same self-service bank. He Inserted the black card and entered the password.
The Scepter appeared quickly, without waiting for Shi Lei to speak, it laughed freakishly: “You are scared that your laptop broke, right?”
Shi Lei composed himself, said: “This was an accident, if you are really to punish me because of it, I have nothing else to say.”
Seeing that Shi Lei was unexpectedly calm, the Scepter was rather surprised, then was followed by frustration.
“Your calmness is unexpected. Do you know how severe the penalty will be?” Shi Lei laughed, then said: “According to the price of the laptop, it surpassed half. It doesn’t matter which part of my body you start with and take away half, I’m definitely dead. If you only count the repairing fees, you’ll need to amputate me till my crotch and I’m as good as dead that way too. So, do as you please. It’s only past midnight, at least I have another 24 hours to live.”
“Aren’t you scared?”
“How can I not be scared? But after seeing your supernatural powers, what’s the point of being afraid? I have no way of resisting it. Not mentioning that the police can’t do anything to you, even if I call the police, they would think I’m insane. I’m extremely afraid, but knowing my end won’t be as miserable as getting wiped out entirely, so in the contrary, I’m not that scared. So do what you please.”
The Scepter was silent. This was its first time encountering a slave who talked like this. The previous slaves were all in honest fear and did not dare to offend the Scepter the slightest. When they received a new quota, they only thought with all their might of how to spend them all.
For a solid three minutes, the Scepter did not talk, which made Shi Lei feel wonderful. Looking at the slowly swirling Scepter on the screen, an extremely bold idea popped in Shi Lei’s head.
He spoke tentatively: “Actually, you don’t want to wipe me out that quickly right? After all, a few tens of thousands of yuan a week isn’t that high. To ordinary people like me, it is rather hard to get used to in a short time. But to those fuerdais, it’s a piece of cake for them to spend these money. So, it means that you want me to grow to that state. Besides, if you are playing this game…… that’s right, to you, this is a game, although it’s a matter of life and death for us. The purpose in you wanting to play the game is to see me receiving a high quota one day. It’s more meaningful to watch me having no way of spending that amount of money. This is only the third week, even if you killed me, how would you have a sense of accomplishment? So, this was an accident, and this world is filled all kinds of accidents, so…… hehe(1), right?
The Scepter was astonished again, so much that it forgot to keep swirling on the screen. It did not think that Shi Lei was capable to think of this.
It felt angry as being seen through by a slave was a shameful thing.
But, the Scepter had to follow the rules. It did not have the supreme authority of killing whatever it wanted; it needed to follow the rules of the black card. So, even if Shi Lei’s words deeply offended him, it could only choose to let him go.
“You lowly slave, looks like you are smarter than what I imagined. You guessed right, this accident will not have any impact on you. But, don’t think that you’ve reached the set standard for this week’s quota. There’s no harm in telling you, you are short on 780 yuan for this week’s balance.”
(1)Hehe: sarcastic laugh in Chinese