The Black Card Chapter 157-158

Chapter 157 - The Period of Consumption Also Increased 

Translator: Lav

Editor: Seliniaki Ilikia

The Scepter didn't answer. 

But no reaction at all was equal to a reaction in Shi Lei's book and he already knew the answer. 

"Tell me about the status of a level two employee first!" Shi Lei purposely emphasized the word "employee" as if he wanted to provoke the Scepter on purpose. 

The Scepter had to answer this question no matter how unhappy it was. It didn't have a choice in the matter. "Level two employees have the sum of one million per month. The employee must―" 

Hold on, Shi Lei thought. Something was wrong. "Wait, wait," he cut the Scepter off. "What did you say? Per month?" 

The Scepter snorted. "Yes, one million per month. A level two employee's consumption period will increase from one week to one month. Today is the 21st of December, 00:03 AM. The first settling date for the level two employee will be the 20th of January next year at midnight. Then the amount of money will be refreshed on the 21st of every month at midnight."

The change caught Shi Lei off guard. The sum of money increased, he turned into a level two employee, and the time increased as well? 

His a.s.sumptions before weren't entirely correct, but this was a good thing. 

Now that this happened, Shi Lei couldn't predict how level three would work. 

He originally thought that the amount of money would increase by one order of magnitude, but since the time also increased, would one month increase to one year next time? If it was a year, then would the quota be a hundred million? That actually decreased the amount of money he would get per week! 

That couldn't be it. 

Perhaps the sum of money per week would still increase at level three, since it was basically impossible to lower it. There was no reason to make it easier. 

Or the time wouldn't be one year. 

He thought about it for a white. If the next level's consumption period increased to one year, then the level of difficulty would decrease. There were too much variables in one year. He could even repeatedly buy houses and cars. Even if the sum went up to a billion, it would still be easy. If the time really increased to one year, then the person with the sportscar wouldn't have died. 

Shi Lei realized that just when he thought that he knew this game inside and out, he was completely lost again. 

But the general situation wouldn't change. The things he knew about the Black Card and the Scepter definitely wouldn't change. The changes were only in the treatments he would receive after leveling up. This was something Shi Lei figured out from the training period to level one. Now that he looked back, he saw that he had been heading in the wrong direction. 

Shi Lei carefully reviewed his information. He believed that he wasn't wrong to a.s.sume that the amount of money would multiply by ten. The difficulty of consumption would only increase that way. 

But what confused him was the length of the consumption period. There were two other possibilities. The first was that the one month period wouldn't increase at all after leveling up. Actually, it was a rather long period of time. Many things could happen within a month and that would greatly affect the accuracy of consumptions. The other guess was that the time period would still increase, but definitely not to a year. At most, a season. After all, that was also a way to measure time, although ordinary people rarely used it. But if he treated everything as the actions in a company, then seasons would be extremely important for achievement reports. 

Shi Lei knew that there was no point in asking the Scepter since it wouldn't tell him anything about level three. 

Shi Lei relaxed slightly at the thought. He also realized that if the consumption period increased to a month and the money changed to a million, then it was 250,000 yuan per week. The quota per week only increased by two and half times. It didn't look like the difficulty increased by a lot on the surface, but such a thing couldn't be so simply measured. 

Because over the course of a month, there would be more questions on which consumptions counted and which didn't, and the number of questions he could ask were limited.

Shi Lei even began to understand more about the sportscar person's death. Because of this uncertainty, the person died due to a mere 100,000 yuan. He probably had too many consumptions he was uncertain about in the period of at least a month. And that poor sportscar person didn't even know that he would still face the threat of dying after he spent the 100,000 yuan. 

Shi Lei easily judged that he received a privilege that was extremely different from his seniors. The majority of those who died didn't have the authority to check how much money they had left during the consumption period. Or they had the chance but never thought of it and gave up on the privilege themselves under the Scepter's intentional concealment. 

Shi Lei suddenly felt a wave of panic wash over him. Luckily, he had rejected the existence of the Black Card from the very beginning and wasn't like his seniors, who completely accepted this fortune that befell them without a single question. They only crazily spent money, thinking that they didn't have to worry about being poor anymore. They ate and played with girls and never thought about what it all meant. 

As for Shi Lei, he had been walking on ice ever since the beginning and had wrestled enough information from the Scepter to gain as many privileges as he could. 

Such as the chance to check how much money he had left every week! 

No, not a week, but every consumption period. 

Although he only had one chance to check, it was enough for him to make up for what he missed. He could even figure out the difference between his calculations and the Black Card's calculations, hence finding more certainties in the ways of consumptions. Shi Lei could gain more knowledge about which consumptions could be counted and which could not. This guaranteed that he could survive for much longer than his seniors, and perhaps even eventually break free from the Black Card. 

He had to be even more careful when talking to the Scepter now, and pay attention to every single detail of their conversations. Otherwise, anything he neglected may cost him greatly!

Making a mistake when dealing with the Black Card meant losing his life!

Shi Lei looked at the Scepter and asked carefully "After I'm level two, is my chance to check the amount of money left still once per week?" He didn't dare to say the answer he had in mind, scared that the Scepter would plot against him. The Scepter, other than being extremely proud, was definitely a b.a.s.t.a.r.d full of schemes. It could be said that the people who owned the Black Card before died by its hands. 

The Scepter's answer wasn't at all unexpected. "Stupid marmot, don't even dream about it. The chance to check the amount of money can only be once per consumption period. Now that your consumption period has increased to one month, you can only ask me about the amount left once a month. Don't try to seize every opportunity you have. The question you should be considering definitely shouldn't be this. It's already your greatest blessing that you have the authority to check it!" 

As expected…

Chapter 158 - Does Purchasing Labour Count 

Translator: Lav

Editor: Seliniaki Ilikia

Seeing Shi Lei's pause, the Scepter continued to speak. "Next, don't interrupt me, level two employee, or you will suffer the consequences." 

Seeing that the Scepter wasn't lying about that, Shi Lei knew he was in too much of a hurry. He was scared to miss any key information and always asked any questions as soon as possible. The reality was that, up until now, the Scepter had only spoken about the consumption period and money for second level. There should be a lot more to talk about. 

"A level two employee's sum is one million per month. You must spend one million with the consumption period of one month. Otherwise, the employee will be punished according to rule number zero." 

Shi Lei didn't speak and waited for the Scepter to continue. Right now, he wouldn't interrupt unless the Scepter told him to ask questions, so as to avoid it scolding him. 

The Scepter paused and asked, "Level two employee, do you have any questions about a level two employee's authority and obligations?" 

These words were spoken extremely quickly, with only one second pause before it spoke again. 

But Shi Lei still managed to cut in within such a short period of time. 

"Yes! I have a question!" 

The Sceptre was rather dissatisfied since it had purposefully spoken quickly and with a short pause, knowing that with Shi Lei's personality, he would have a list of questions to ask. Hence, it wanted to skip this part quickly without giving him a chance. But Shi Lei's reaction was too fast and he cut in anyway. 

Without a choice, the Scepter could only say, "What question do you have?" 

"When I was level one, I mentioned a few points about consumptions, such as the limitations on consumptions. I want to know that now that since the sum of money and consumption period increased with my level, then would the area of consumption had also increase? For example, part of it could be used for investment or exchange it into other form of currency and reward streamers on their platforms or other platforms which need fees." 

"Don't overthink it," the Scepter said coldly, preventing Shi Lei from giving more examples. "It's merely one million and you are already thinking of investment and rewards? Stop daydreaming. If it was that easy for you to finish spending the money, then the people who came before you wouldn't have died so easily." 

Shi Lei paused and he knew why the Black Card was unlikely to let him do that. The so-called rewarding was no different than giving them money. Even if it was a form a consumption, it could only buy psychological pleasure and it was obviously difficult for the Black Card to determine its value, since it asked for the price to be equivalent to the object's value. The Black Card was a very conservative existence and all it saw was trading things of equivalent values. The money spent must be of the same value as object. That was the most basic rule. 

"Then would it work if I paid to hire a bodyguard or a personal a.s.sistant?" Shi Lei asked. 

It seemed that this question had been asked before and the answer was already programmed into the Scepter. "Labor is counted as secondary goods and it can be calculated as consumptions. But the value of the labor will be judged by me," it answered immediately. 

When Shi Lei heard that, he knew that there was no way he could hire a personal bodyguard or a.s.sistant because it wasn't very meaningful.

The Sceptre's words sounded like he was allowed to hire an a.s.sistant or bodyguard, but it changed the wording to "labor" and didn't mention any specific occupations. Of course, from a normal perspective, whether it was a personal a.s.sistant or bodyguard, it was a service provided from the workforce to the employer. Whether they were protecting the employer or handling the personal matters of the employer, they were investing their labor skills. 

But the value was difficult to measure, especially for someone like Shi Lei, who had no money or authority. If he hired bodyguards or a.s.sistants, they would have nothing to do and their value would without a doubt be measured as extremely low. Even if he paid them in the form of a salary, it still wouldn't turn out well because Shi Lei didn't have anything for them to do. He didn't have a big chance of being in danger in a month, and the bodyguard wouldn't invest the equivalent amount of labor in comparison to their pay. 

But if Shi Lei had a restaurant or a small shop and hired a few workers there, then it was possible for that to be counted into the total sum. 

After all, whether it was a restaurant or a small shop, the workers and waiters' pay had a standard within the industry. Whether their business was good or bad, the employer had pay the corresponding wage. Even if the workers and waiters had nothing to do every day, he still had to pay the people even if the restaurant or shop didn't have good business. 

As for personal a.s.sistants and bodyguards, it was obvious that it wasn't something Shi Lei required at this stage. If the next level was really one hundred million per month, then it would be more logical for Shi Lei to hire a bodyguard and a personal a.s.sistant. After all, if he carried that much money on him, it would pose as a potential danger and would therefore be normal for someone with that much money to hire a bodyguard. Not to mention an a.s.sistant. If he was spending so much money every day and buying expensive things, then it would be inconvenient to not have an a.s.sistant. 

So Shi Lei decided to behave for now. 

He didn't really have the need to hire others at the moment. If he decided to buy a car, then maybe he could consider hiring a driver. But a driver wouldn't make him consume too much money every month. It was merely one million. If he really bought a car now, didn't that mean that he lost the chance for a more expensive consumption when the sum rose to one hundred million in the future? 

With the Scepter's explanation, Shi Lei knew that he had to be extremely careful with hiring people. He may be able to hire those who worked in an industry with clear standards, but he shouldn't touch those with fluctuating wages. 

He had one last question about what could be counted into the total sum of money. 

"If I'm using my own money to invest in a certain project but this project requires me to hire other people to work, a.s.suming that this employer and employee relationship is approved by you, the n.o.ble Scepter, then could the consumptions produced under this circ.u.mstance be counted within the sum?" 

To be clear, Shi Lei wanted to know whether or not he could use the money for his own private benefits. Because he wasn't sure whether this was a form of investment or not. Normally, when someone hired people to open a company, then these workers' salaries would count as part of the company's consumptions. Usually, these workers would also gain benefits for their employer. Theoretically, anything that provided returns could be counted as investment, but because this concept was unclear, Shi Lei thought that it was the best for him to confirm. 

Although he only had slightly more than 10,000 yuan of free funds, because he levelled up and would soon receive a grade for level one, he should also receive a reward for the points he got. Level two's sum was 100,000 yuan, then 100 points should correspond to 100,000 yuan. Shi Lei should at least have more than ten thousand yuan worth of rewards. After using this money for investment, Shi Lei may have the chance to make investments in people. When that time came, he would also become an employer.