Chapter 264 - How To Postpone a Consumption
Translator: Lav
Editor: Seliniaki Ilikia
Shi Lei finally understood, but the feeling that the value of the points was inconsistent soon followed.
“A five star consumption at level two isn’t even worth ten points?” he asked. “Because I have another two star consumption and contribution in leveling up a card. Even if the last one doesn’t count, the two star consumption should more or less give me some extra points.”
“The Level Two Employee can get ten points for every five star consumption. A two star consumption is four points, and the leveling up of the card is just an extra reward that is not calculated because it’s not included in the grading system. But because you have postponed a consumption, even though it fulfilled the rules, it was still recognized as inappropriate consumption and hence four points were taken off,” the Scepter managed to explain.
Instead of being surprised, Shi Lei was delighted. “‘Postponed a consumption’? Do you mean the 100,000 yuan I deposited at the racecourse?” he asked immediately.
“Yes.”
“As long as I don’t break the rules, all postponed consumptions will result in points taken off?”
“Yes.” Although the Scepter knew what Shi Lei was thinking, it was unable to do anything because the rules that bound it required it to answer all questions without lying.
“Awesome! That’s great! So do loans on cars and houses also count as postponed consumptions?” Shi Lei asked in a hurry. He had wanted to ask this question before, but because his sum was too small and he couldn’t really afford any good houses or cars, he kept this question unasked. After all, loans weren’t only capable of finishing the sum, they could also made the task of him spending money easy for the following few consumption periods, so the Black Card may not necessarily recognize this kind of spending.
“Yes,” the Scepter replied without a choice, “but the loan cannot exceed double the sum of the consumption period.”
“Does double the amount count the sum itself or no? As in, if I have one million right now, can I get a loan of two million, or just one million?”
“The highest loan the Level Two Employee can apply for is two million right now. Before you finish paying it back, you cannot have any other sort of postponed consumptions.”
Shi Lei smiled. He had already considered the details of this aspect. Then this month’s consumption would be the most suitable for purchasing a car. He could spend 700,000 or 800,000 yuan and buy a car worth 2,700,000 or 2,800,000 yuan. The loan would be two million already together and excluding this month, Shi Lei wouldn’t have to worry about spending money for the next three months.
It was easy for Shi Lei to finish spending between 100,000 yuan or 200,000 yuan.
But there was another question and Shi Lei felt like there was also another trap.
“Can I use the the sum to pay for the loan’s interest?” Shi Lei asked calmly.
The Sceptre suddenly became enraged. “Stupid marmot,” it almost growled. “why do you have so many questions? Why can’t you ask less questions? I’ve told you clearly that it’s the most important to spend money with your nonexistent sum of money—”
Shi Lei laughed again. Although that the Scepter didn’t reply, he already knew the answer.
It was simple. He could not use the sum to pay the interest and had to use his own funds.
Shi Lei remembered the sportscar man and thought that perhaps the man didn’t die because of that 100,000 yuan, nor because the consumption wasn’t acknowledged by the Black Card. Another possibility was that he purchased his car by applying for loans. He had a high interest rate and thought that he could pay for it using the Black Card’s money. After all, a variety of factors made up the cause of the sportscar man’s death. Otherwise, 100,000 yuan wouldn’t be enough to kill him.
As for this sportscar man, Shi Lei felt like he could cast him aside completely. He didn’t want to know how much the man had not spent. He knew that he died due to complex reasons for not finish spending money, and that was more than enough.
The Scepter composed itself and answered the question. “The Level Two Employee must pay for all interest using his own money, which cannot be counted within the sum.”
Shi Lei realized that his housing rent should also be seen as a postponed consumption and was probably the reason why four points had been taken off at level one. But he had also made a mistake at level one. In other words, the points that were taken off from the rent shouldn’t be four points, yet this time’s postponed consumption resulted in four points taken off…
Shi Lei snapped his fingers. “Then let’s continue to the next question.”
“Are you done or not?!’
Shi Lei shrugged and replied indifferently, “Of course I’m not done yet. I have the power to ask you and you have to reply, no?”
The Scepter fell silent. Shi Lei didn’t bother with it. “Postponed consumptions will take points away. Is the amount of points fixed, or does it depend on the amount of money?”
“The amount of points taken off depends on the amount of money.”
Shi Lei nodded, “So in other words, every postponed consumption will have points deducted accordingly. When I am level two, four points were taken off for a 100,000 yuan postponed consumption. So if I apply for a loan of 200,000 yuan, then will eight points be taken off?”
“The amount of postponed consumption isn’t equivalent to the points taken off. As too how the points are deducted, there’s no need for you to know.”
Shi Lei nodded and thought: As expected, there shouldn’t a big bug like this. It isn’t important.
“Let’s continue. When I have points deducted, does it only deduct from the forty marks, or will it include the basic points too?”
The Scepter didn’t want to talk to Shi Lei anymore because it had realized that he could always find new questions no matter what it said.
Hence, it replied with brief words. “The extra points will be taken off first and the basic points will be deducted if there isn’t enough extra points to deduct.”
“So under the circumstance that six points are taken off every consumption period, I will level up every ten consumption periods without having points deducted. But because of the existence of deducting points, it is possible that I still won’t have sixty points by the end of ten consumption periods. When that time comes, will I be allowed to continue to stay in level two, or will I be punished?”
“Punished! Of course I will punish you! You must level up within ten consumption periods because that is your limit!” the Scepter raged.
But Shi Lei had found another loophole. “If the maximum time is ten consumption periods at level two, then what about level three? Is it less than ten or more than ten consumption periods?”
“Stupid marmot, you can’t know things about level three yet. Don’t tell me you want me to give you some punishment to make it clear that you shouldn’t try to investigate level three?”
Shi Lei quickly smiled and waved his hand. “We are just discussing. It’s fine if you can’t tell me. There’s no need to bring up physical violence and penalties.”
“Hmph!”
The Scepter was still proud, so Shi Lei began talking to himself. “It looks like I can’t use postponed consumptions to have points deducted in order to slow down the speed of leveling up. I need to grasp this more accurately and delay the level up time as much as possible while making use of the fact that I can at least have three hundred basic points.” Shi Lei briefly calculated that he could level up if he received full marks twice and he would have the situation of exceeding the required number of points. With the existence of points deduction, the marks he received would be deducted, so he needed to make sure that he had enough basic points in future consumptions. Otherwise, if he didn’t have sixty points by the end of ten consumption periods, then he would be killed.
It was pretty dangerous.
The Scepter didn’t want to talk to Shi Lei anymore. This guy was a monkey once he got on top of things.
“Are you done with the questions? Let’s draw the prizes if you are done with your questions!” The Scepter felt extremely drained as it changed from not wanting Shi Lei to draw prizes to wanting him to hurry up and get things over with.
“Don’t rush, I have one last question.”