The Black Card

Chapter 14 - Laptop Died

 

Translator: Lav

Editor: Levs

Having spent more than 30,000 in the morning, Shi Lei was not too worried about this week's quota.

But if next week was really going to be 80,000, how would he spend that?

Sitting inside a luxurious model of Benz, Shi Lei began to worry about next week's spendings.

The laptop did not have anything installed except for basic operating systems. A large online game would occupy five or six gigabytes, plus software patches and skins, it will take up to around ten gigabytes. 

This model's hard drive has a capacity of 1TB and it was impossible for Shi Lei to only download one game. His dorm's internet was 4 Mbps, which had the maximum download speed of about 400KB/S. Shi Lei started downloading a few games on it and two days were not enough for them to finish downloading. 

Shi Lei was not bothered anymore; he shoved his laptop towards the inner side of his bed with the downloads open, then looked at his 'cold sliced chicken', he felt like his life was in dismay. He decided to treat himself to a good meal. 

I want to eat seafood, I want to eat Australian lobsters, I want to eat…… Fine, one Australian lobster is about 1.5kg, even if its shells were taken away, it would still have about half a kilogram of meat. After eating that, he would not have the stomach for anything else. 

Shi Lei was absolutely disgusted with the Scepter. Why won't it let me pretend to be cool? I would order a whole table of food and waste it if i can't finish eating! How good would it feel if he could just walk into the restaurant and order the entire menu? But obviously, there was no way that the Scepter would allow him to do that. 

Grudgingly, he searched for a nearby seafood restaurant. He ordered a 1.5kg Australian lobster, with another two blue crabs to be stir-fried. He calculated the price in silence, realising that it was barely 2,000 yuan, he sighed as his journey to spend all his money was still long. 

Having experiences from the two previous weeks, Shi Lei was no longer the newbie from before. At least his standard for meals have risen from the crayfish in front of school to lobsters in seafood restaurants. 

But he could not just keep eating like this. Firstly, the consumption rate was not high, secondly, even if he ate that much, it was no use. A weekly quota of 20,000 to 40,000 yuan was fine, what could he eat when the weekly quota increases to no less than 80,000 or 100,000 in a few weeks' time? Eat Australian lobsters every meal? Although it was delicious, but he would become sick of it if he ate too much. 

In the next few days, it could be said that Shi Lei ate the lobsters in new ways. 

At first, it was the normal steamed lobsters with minced garlic. Followed by sashimi, then pepper and salt. After that it became slightly absurd. He requested the restaurant to boil the lobsters in chili oil in the Szechuan cuisine style. As he continuously ate lobsters there for a few days, the restaurant satisfied his desire, but unavoidably said that he was completely wasting it. 

Those were not bad enough; Shi Lei invented another new way as he went as far as asking the restaurant to chop the lobsters into fillings, and made into dumplings. 

On Friday evening, he asked the restaurant to slice the lobsters and make it with pickled vegetables. The waiters in the restaurant all watched in shock. 

After this meal, Shi Lei had finally consumed his weekly quota of 40,000 yuan. He patted his stomach in satisfaction, thinking that he can't keep eating like this next week. 

If he was to keep eating like this, he would be trying Australian lobster with fried rice. Perfectly contented, Shi Lei returned to his dorm. As soon as he stepped inside, he heard Zhang Mo's screams and yells. 

"What the hell are you yelling at? Say it properly if you have something to say. Also, how come you aren't going home this week?" Shi Lei put a stop to Zhang Mo's yells and scolded him resentfully. 

Shi Lei suddenly understood the reason behind Zhang Mo's yells as he looked inside. He almost forgot that he bought an Alienware computer worth 20,000 yuan, and he had kept it on the small bookshelf on the inner side of his bed to download games. 

He didn't know how, but Zhang Mo found it, as well as the control pad, and was having fun. It seemed that he did not go home because of this.

"Stone, did you rob the bank recently? Oh shit, you didn't sell your virginity, did you? You always left early and came back late these few days……" 

"Fuck off!" Shi Lei was really not bothered to talk to Zhang Mo, who was long-winded and wordy like a train. 

"Come on, explain to me, what's up with this Alienware? I checked the features, high configurations, about 20,000 yuan? This game control pad is also of original packaging. These two plus together would cost at least 25,000, right?"  

 "I, your bro,, am a fuerdai!" Shi Lei sat on his bed confidently, and moved his laptop back, away from Zhang Mo. 

Zhang Mo panicked and reached out in desire to seize it back: "I'm playing, stone, don't be so petty. Let your bro play too." As Shi Lei did not let him take the laptop as he tried, he became more well-behaved and sat next to Shi Lei, asked again: "Don't tell me your house got demolished and got tens of millions from it? Wait, no, your house is in a small city, even if it was demolished, unless you have a whole yard, there's no way you would get tens of millions from it." 

"Why do you care so much? Why won't you believe that I'm a fuerdai? It looks like I was too modest in the past three years!" Zhang Mo rolled his eyes, not bothering to argue with Shi Lei, and simply said: "Let me play on your laptop for a bit, I won't break it!" 

Shi Lei had a thought, that this won't do. After he bought the laptop, he did not really use it himself either except for downloading the games. If the Scepter claimed that he simply bought it as a decoration and the 20,000 yuan spent on it does not count towards the weekly quota, there was no way for Shi Lei to survive. 

He glanced at the games and it was already downloaded. Zhang Mo even installed all of them. 

Shi Lei said: "You can't just play it by yourself, I haven't even played it after I bought it. I only downloaded it," 

"Shit, no wonder the internet was so slow for the past two days, it was because of you downloading these games. Just by this alone, you need to let me play it for three days!"  

 "Play together!" Shi Lei did not back off either. 

 Zhang Mo had a thought; after all, it was Shi Lei's laptop, and he could only say: "Fine, I already installed them, let's play a few games." 

He plugged in another game control pad, the two immediately entered the soccer game. Shi Lei picked Bassar, whilst Zhang Mo picked Real Madrid CF, and opposed each other with equal sharpness. They played till the second half of the night, and put away the game control pads as Zhang Mo exclaimed: "As expected of Alienware, it's so satisfying. The game control pad is also awesome. I'll make my parents get me one when I graduate." As he talked, his stomach rumbled. Zhang Mo then said: "I'm hungry from playing, let's go, BBQ! Stone, you have to treat me!" 

"Why do I have to treat you?" Shi Lei rolled his eyes; thinking that he already spent this week's quota, how would he still have money to treat him? 

"You bought Nike shoes and an iPhone, and now Alienware, why are you so reluctant over treating me to BBQ skewers?" 

"Too tired, I want to sleep, we'll talk about it tomorrow!" Shi Lei waved his hands and began to pack up his laptop. 

Zhang Mo shook his head as he stood up, and waved his hand heroically: "Nevermind, I'm not bothered to be wordy with someone who has money but is still so reluctant. I'll treat you, you hear?" But as he waved his hand, he hit a glass on the table. 

It was a 1L big cup which is still half full, and it all spilled onto the laptop. 

The laptop was rather nifty too, in a split second, two wisps of smoke emitted from it. With a 'pop', the screen turned black…...

Immediately, Shi Lei and Zhang Mo panicked…… 

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