Chapter 44 - Slave Rule No.3
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
Shi Lei was about to go crazy as he felt he had been lied to.
Although he had a huge amount of money which he could spend, but if Shi Lei knew that he could quit, he will definitely choose to not become a damn slave.
Perhaps when Shi Lei joked before that if he could have enough money, he would sacrifice his freedom for it. So much that when he used a drama called 'The Pawnshop No.8', Shi Lei even thought that using his soul to trade for being wealthy was worth it.
But when this really happened to him, he realised that compared to money, freedom was much more valuable.
In this world, no deal will ever be as valuable as freedom. Even the trade between Shi Lei and the Scepter —— if it could be counted as a trade. It was not associated with freedom nor soul, and the only thing Shi Lei needed to do was to spend all the money every week.
It had merely been four weeks and the total sum was only 150,000 yuan, but Shi Lei had already realised the value of his life. Whenever he thought of the quota that he had yet spend, it was as if he was sitting on pins and needles. It's impossible for other people to impossible to experience this feeling as the three idiots from his dorm only knew that their roommate suddenly became a wealthy person and shared the glorious side with Shi Lei without knowing how much thoughts and suffering Shi Lei went through.
Shi Lei had to think about every single yuan he spent as he had to consider whether the consumption will be acknowledged by the Scepter. It was a giant hole in front of Shi Lei and he would never know what his fate will be after every week.
The inquiry of spending all the money seemed easy, but to Shi Lei, it was as if treading on ice as any money spent in a way that the Scepter didn't acknowledge, he will be welcomed by nothing but cruel punishments.
He saw how the man who drove the Porsche disappear with his own eyes. He even experienced how his hair disappeared himself. He touched his head which only had a thin layer of hair roots, but it was enough to send shivers up his spine. As he thought of this, Shi Lei was furious.
"Why didn't you tell me? If you told me earlier, I would have chosen to quit! Even if you ask me to return all the money I spent, I would choose to quit! You are cheating, cheating! The only rule pinpointed for me was to spend all the money, but you also have the rule of never lie to me!"
The Scepter laughed freakishly as if he was accustomed to seeing Shi Lei's reactions like this.
In the deep whirlpool, the Scepter spun gradually and paid no attention to Shi Lei's irascibility.
It waited until Shi Lei was done with venting, the Scepter finally opened its mouth: "You are really somewhat different to the slaves before. You could maintain that thing called 'thinking' when you were hit by a moment of great happiness. What you said isn't wrong. In my rules, indeed, I can't lie to any slaves. But, you never asked me whether you could quit or not! Concealment and deceiving are two completely different concepts."
Shi Lei was astonished. His understanding of the Scepter's shamefulness rose to another level.
Under this situation, under absolute unknowns, how the hell are concealment and deceiving any different from each other?!
Shi Lei knew that his rage wouldn't help him in this situation and he forced himself to calm down quickly.
He picked up the black card, inserted it into the ATM, entered the password, and became the slave.
Fine, it was not important whether he picked up the black card or not. What was important was the last procedure of entering the password. As soon as he entered the password, the damn bank system would initiate and this obnoxious scepter appeared in front of him.
At that time, the only reason how Shi Lei composed himself that quickly was because he saw everything as a prank. When he thought about it now, his imagination really ran wild. After all, it would consume a large amount of money for the scene. He was only an ordinary university student, which reality show would make such a big prank for him?
But, it also seemed like Shi Lei's imagination did not run completely wild. If he did, he would believe every single word the Scepter said and not treat it as a damn prank.
When he thought about it, if Shi Lei did not treat this as a prank, he would not be so cooperative in the first week, he would not drown in terror after losing his hair, and he would not dare to doubt the existence of the black card and the Scepter. If he had 0.0001% of doubt, It would be possible for him to mention something about quitting, and the Scepter shouldn't be able to prevent him from doing so.
No! Shi Lei suddenly recalled that when he came in contact with the Scepter for the first time, although he did not mention anything quitting explicitly, but he did something else.
"This is a fraud. Although concealment and deceiving are not the same concept, but I remember clearly that I said I don't want to become anyone's slave before. If what you need is a slave, and I didn't want to become yours, then it sufficiently meant that I wanted to quit. So, if I had the wish of doing so, and you not telling me that truth that I could quit anytime during these four weeks, it was not concealment but deceiving."
Shi Lei forced himself to be calm and what he said was extremely clear in logic and without a flaw.
The Scepter laughed again and spoke in its horrible voice: "My lowly slave, your logically ability is really not that bad. With that logic, I can almost give you full marks. But, it's only almost. If the full mark is 100, what you said was more than enough for me to give you 99 points. But it's a shame that you are one point short, and this one point is extremely important. I'm sure you have heard of this inventor called Edison. He said, a genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine perspiration, but that one percent inspiration is much more important than the ninety-nine perspiration. In the situation you are facing now is exactly what it suggests. All of your logic and the absolute rules, you cannot even withstand a single blow."
Shi Lei glowered at the Scepter who was spinning slowly in the screen, and he thought he could even see a cocky smile on the expressionless Scepter and it made him even more frustrated.
"About the Slave Rules, No. 0 is that the violators of the rules will be punished accordingly, No.1 is that the slave will be granted money by the master. However, No. 2 is that the slave must consume all the money he had been given. At that time, I didn't tell you about Rule No. 3, and I didn't explain too much about the previous two rules either. But now I can."
"Spit it out!" Shi Lei's eyes turned red and he no longer held any fake respect towards the Scepter. None.
"About the previous two rules, it's actually rather simple. When I said every week, it was only counted in time as a unit. And this time unit will also be redefined according to the changes in your level and hence naturally, the amount of money will also be changing constantly. And the Rule No. 3 is —— After the slave had completed the newbie training period, he will officially become a slave of the Slave Development Bank."
Shi Lei said aggrievedly: "Even if you only hid the third rule from me, but I already said that I don't become anyone's slave and you didn't explain this point!"
Chapter 45 - Concealment and Deceiving
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
The Scepter's voiced sounded as it was in disdain. He didn't even know when it started, but the Scepter's asexual voice began to be filled with emotions.
"Lowly slave, originally I was very satisfied with your logical ability. But now, your feelings can really impact your brain. In Slave Rule No.3, it had clearly answered your doubt. Under the third rule, you shouldn't be doubting that I'm deceiving you as it at most is concealment."
Shi Lei blanked out as he recalled their conversation closely.
About Slave Rule No. 3.
"After the slave completes the newbie training period, he will officially become a slave of the Slave Development Bank."
Since he had to complete the training to officially become the slave, then if Shi Lei mentioned that he didn't want to become anyone's slave, wasn't that enough to indicate that he wanted to quit? The Scepter made it quite clear that before he becomes a slave officially, Shi Lei had the power to choose to quit. Perhaps the decision to quit was followed by certain penalties, but this damned Slave Development Bank isn't a charity. The penalty might be asking him to make up for all the money he spent, or a body part might be taken away and not just Shi Lei's hair, but he could definitely quit.
Then why is this damned Scepter saying that he didn't deceive Shi Lei? It clearly did.
Concealment and deceiving was indeed different, but concealment should be built upon the foundation of Shi Lei not knowing anything and not asking any questions. In that way, the Scepter could choose not to mention it itself. Otherwise, how could it still push Shi Lei into this bottomless pit?
But Shi Lei clearly indicated that he didn't want to become anyone's slave. Although his inquiry was not so firm, even if he simply blurted it out subconsciously, but the Scepter should not see it as if Shi Lei didn't have any doubts?
……
Shi Lei could not understand it despite how much he thought about it and he still felt like he had been deceived.
He could not contain his anger at all. This damned Scepter, clearly it was one who deceived him, but it pretended that it never violated any rules.
Shi Lei was close to swearing at it even though he understood that his swearing does not affect the Scepter who's hidden behind the screen.
The instant Shi Lei was about to blurt out swear words, he suddenly stopped as an idea flashed through his mind. He asked: "I will definitely be punished when I violate the rules, then what if you violated the rules? Shouldn't you receive punishments too?"
The Scepter seemed to be in shock as it did not answer, most likely because it was surprised.
The Scepter laughed oddly in its asexual voice after a while: "What a smart slave. Looks like this time's journey will be much more interesting. None of the people who came before you could think about this."
Although it didn't answer Shi Lei's answer straightforwardly, but the Scepter's action clearly indicated that Shi Lei guessed right.
"Answer me, what's your punishment like if you violated the rules!"
"You damn slave, this shouldn't be something for you to ask. You are just a lowly slave, how dare you talk to me in that tone! I'm the supreme Scepter, I can kill you anytime just like that man!" The Scepter was agitated as it was offended.
On the contrary, Shi Lei had calmed down completely. He snorted coldly and continued: "Even if I've become an official slave, I am the slave of the Slave Development Bank and not yours. As to our relationship, you never know who is the slave and who is not. Kill me? If you attempt to kill me when I didn't violate any rules, you will be one who's acting against the rules. Although I don't know what's the outcome of you violating the rules, but I think it won't be any better than me getting killed. Or maybe, you, as a living being with supernatural powers but without a body, your outcome might be getting wiped out entirely in the perspective of your living entity!"
The Scepter was completely silent as it did not continue to yell at Shi Lei. Perhaps, it was astonished by Shi Lei's words. It would never ever think that Shi Lei could analyse it as far as this.
"There's no need for you to answer it anymore as I have found the correct answer already. If I'm the slave of the Slave Development Bank, then what does that make you? We are just the first and second party under the Slave Development Bank and we are both clamped down by it. To be blunt, this black card which doesn't seem to be of any use is the real master. Don't try to pretend to be cool and show off to me in the future, I don't like it!"
The Scepter displayed its true anger for the first time: "Fuck you! You lowly slave, if you dare to offend me like this again, I……"
Shi Lei cut off the Scepter's sentence mercilessly and laughed: "So what if I offend you? You simply only have the power to converse with me that's it. So much that you can't even punish me for doubting you. All the punishments are created by this black card."
"You don't want to try. You definitely won't know what will happen if you agitate me for real! Do you really think that I don't have the power to punish you? You lowly thing!" The Scepter was still growling but in Shi Lei's ears, it sounded much better as he knew that the Scepter can't punish him casually.
Shi Lei laughed in disdain and said: "Maybe you really do have strong supernatural power. Maybe you can actually kill me whenever I can, if I'm not overthinking it. But I also believe that if you kill me under the situation that I didn't act against the rules, or even the tiniest penalty you can give me, you will be punished by the black card. Stop pretending. Compared to me, you have to follow the rules even stricter."
The Scepter gasped furiously but did not say a single word. Obviously, Shi Lei had saw through the truth.
As Shi Lei calmed down completely and recovered his ability to think, he finally understood the reason of how he mentioned he did not want to become anyone's slave yet the Scepter did not violate the rules either.
From his guess before, the Scepter also said that the moment Shi Lei inserted the card into the ATM and entered the password, he had become a slave of the Slave Development Bank, or in other words, the black card's slave. Of course, the term 'slave' is simply a statement of the black card's one-sided thinking. Or simply a word that the Scepter made up in order to satisfy his stupid vanity. To tell the truth, it was equivalent to a contract between Shi Lei and the black card.
If the black card is described as a company, then after Shi Lei entered the password, it was as if he signed a contract with this company and became one of its employees. With the black card acting as the employer, it provides Shi Lei with money that corresponds to his level every week, or in other words, every certain time period. Shi Lei, as the employee, must act accordingly to the contract and spend all the money under that certain time slot, he must spend all the money. Otherwise, he will receive penalty from the employer. Between the employer and the employee, the Scepter plays the role as the communicator. The employer is inflexible but the Scepter is flexible. It has its own thinking and to achieve a certain goal, it can choose to tell or conceal it from him. But, as long as the employee, Shi Lei, is associated to the rules of the employer, the Scepter must provide him with a clear explanation.
So according to the black card's logic, Shi Lei became an employee after he entered the password, so his point cannot be passed on when he mentioned that he didn't want to be anyone's slave.
His standpoint was not even right, and the logic after that won't make any sense either.
At that time, if Shi Lei did not say that he didn't want to become anyone's slave, but didn't want the money given by the black card and he wanted to go back to his normal life, then the Scepter must tell him honestly and Shi Lei would have the chance to quit.
But now, it was too late.
Chapter 44 - Slave Rule No.3
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
Shi Lei was about to go crazy as he felt he had been lied to.
Although he had a huge amount of money which he could spend, but if Shi Lei knew that he could quit, he will definitely choose to not become a damn slave.
Perhaps when Shi Lei joked before that if he could have enough money, he would sacrifice his freedom for it. So much that when he used a drama called 'The Pawnshop No.8', Shi Lei even thought that using his soul to trade for being wealthy was worth it.
But when this really happened to him, he realised that compared to money, freedom was much more valuable.
In this world, no deal will ever be as valuable as freedom. Even the trade between Shi Lei and the Scepter —— if it could be counted as a trade. It was not associated with freedom nor soul, and the only thing Shi Lei needed to do was to spend all the money every week.
It had merely been four weeks and the total sum was only 150,000 yuan, but Shi Lei had already realised the value of his life. Whenever he thought of the quota that he had yet spend, it was as if he was sitting on pins and needles. It's impossible for other people to impossible to experience this feeling as the three idiots from his dorm only knew that their roommate suddenly became a wealthy person and shared the glorious side with Shi Lei without knowing how much thoughts and suffering Shi Lei went through.
Shi Lei had to think about every single yuan he spent as he had to consider whether the consumption will be acknowledged by the Scepter. It was a giant hole in front of Shi Lei and he would never know what his fate will be after every week.
The inquiry of spending all the money seemed easy, but to Shi Lei, it was as if treading on ice as any money spent in a way that the Scepter didn't acknowledge, he will be welcomed by nothing but cruel punishments.
He saw how the man who drove the Porsche disappear with his own eyes. He even experienced how his hair disappeared himself. He touched his head which only had a thin layer of hair roots, but it was enough to send shivers up his spine. As he thought of this, Shi Lei was furious.
"Why didn't you tell me? If you told me earlier, I would have chosen to quit! Even if you ask me to return all the money I spent, I would choose to quit! You are cheating, cheating! The only rule pinpointed for me was to spend all the money, but you also have the rule of never lie to me!"
The Scepter laughed freakishly as if he was accustomed to seeing Shi Lei's reactions like this.
In the deep whirlpool, the Scepter spun gradually and paid no attention to Shi Lei's irascibility.
It waited until Shi Lei was done with venting, the Scepter finally opened its mouth: "You are really somewhat different to the slaves before. You could maintain that thing called 'thinking' when you were hit by a moment of great happiness. What you said isn't wrong. In my rules, indeed, I can't lie to any slaves. But, you never asked me whether you could quit or not! Concealment and deceiving are two completely different concepts."
Shi Lei was astonished. His understanding of the Scepter's shamefulness rose to another level.
Under this situation, under absolute unknowns, how the hell are concealment and deceiving any different from each other?!
Shi Lei knew that his rage wouldn't help him in this situation and he forced himself to calm down quickly.
He picked up the black card, inserted it into the ATM, entered the password, and became the slave.
Fine, it was not important whether he picked up the black card or not. What was important was the last procedure of entering the password. As soon as he entered the password, the damn bank system would initiate and this obnoxious scepter appeared in front of him.
At that time, the only reason how Shi Lei composed himself that quickly was because he saw everything as a prank. When he thought about it now, his imagination really ran wild. After all, it would consume a large amount of money for the scene. He was only an ordinary university student, which reality show would make such a big prank for him?
But, it also seemed like Shi Lei's imagination did not run completely wild. If he did, he would believe every single word the Scepter said and not treat it as a damn prank.
When he thought about it, if Shi Lei did not treat this as a prank, he would not be so cooperative in the first week, he would not drown in terror after losing his hair, and he would not dare to doubt the existence of the black card and the Scepter. If he had 0.0001% of doubt, It would be possible for him to mention something about quitting, and the Scepter shouldn't be able to prevent him from doing so.
No! Shi Lei suddenly recalled that when he came in contact with the Scepter for the first time, although he did not mention anything quitting explicitly, but he did something else.
"This is a fraud. Although concealment and deceiving are not the same concept, but I remember clearly that I said I don't want to become anyone's slave before. If what you need is a slave, and I didn't want to become yours, then it sufficiently meant that I wanted to quit. So, if I had the wish of doing so, and you not telling me that truth that I could quit anytime during these four weeks, it was not concealment but deceiving."
Shi Lei forced himself to be calm and what he said was extremely clear in logic and without a flaw.
The Scepter laughed again and spoke in its horrible voice: "My lowly slave, your logically ability is really not that bad. With that logic, I can almost give you full marks. But, it's only almost. If the full mark is 100, what you said was more than enough for me to give you 99 points. But it's a shame that you are one point short, and this one point is extremely important. I'm sure you have heard of this inventor called Edison. He said, a genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine perspiration, but that one percent inspiration is much more important than the ninety-nine perspiration. In the situation you are facing now is exactly what it suggests. All of your logic and the absolute rules, you cannot even withstand a single blow."
Shi Lei glowered at the Scepter who was spinning slowly in the screen, and he thought he could even see a cocky smile on the expressionless Scepter and it made him even more frustrated.
"About the Slave Rules, No. 0 is that the violators of the rules will be punished accordingly, No.1 is that the slave will be granted money by the master. However, No. 2 is that the slave must consume all the money he had been given. At that time, I didn't tell you about Rule No. 3, and I didn't explain too much about the previous two rules either. But now I can."
"Spit it out!" Shi Lei's eyes turned red and he no longer held any fake respect towards the Scepter. None.
"About the previous two rules, it's actually rather simple. When I said every week, it was only counted in time as a unit. And this time unit will also be redefined according to the changes in your level and hence naturally, the amount of money will also be changing constantly. And the Rule No. 3 is —— After the slave had completed the newbie training period, he will officially become a slave of the Slave Development Bank."
Shi Lei said aggrievedly: "Even if you only hid the third rule from me, but I already said that I don't become anyone's slave and you didn't explain this point!"
Chapter 45 - Concealment and Deceiving
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
The Scepter's voiced sounded as it was in disdain. He didn't even know when it started, but the Scepter's asexual voice began to be filled with emotions.
"Lowly slave, originally I was very satisfied with your logical ability. But now, your feelings can really impact your brain. In Slave Rule No.3, it had clearly answered your doubt. Under the third rule, you shouldn't be doubting that I'm deceiving you as it at most is concealment."
Shi Lei blanked out as he recalled their conversation closely.
About Slave Rule No. 3.
"After the slave completes the newbie training period, he will officially become a slave of the Slave Development Bank."
Since he had to complete the training to officially become the slave, then if Shi Lei mentioned that he didn't want to become anyone's slave, wasn't that enough to indicate that he wanted to quit? The Scepter made it quite clear that before he becomes a slave officially, Shi Lei had the power to choose to quit. Perhaps the decision to quit was followed by certain penalties, but this damned Slave Development Bank isn't a charity. The penalty might be asking him to make up for all the money he spent, or a body part might be taken away and not just Shi Lei's hair, but he could definitely quit.
Then why is this damned Scepter saying that he didn't deceive Shi Lei? It clearly did.
Concealment and deceiving was indeed different, but concealment should be built upon the foundation of Shi Lei not knowing anything and not asking any questions. In that way, the Scepter could choose not to mention it itself. Otherwise, how could it still push Shi Lei into this bottomless pit?
But Shi Lei clearly indicated that he didn't want to become anyone's slave. Although his inquiry was not so firm, even if he simply blurted it out subconsciously, but the Scepter should not see it as if Shi Lei didn't have any doubts?
……
Shi Lei could not understand it despite how much he thought about it and he still felt like he had been deceived.
He could not contain his anger at all. This damned Scepter, clearly it was one who deceived him, but it pretended that it never violated any rules.
Shi Lei was close to swearing at it even though he understood that his swearing does not affect the Scepter who's hidden behind the screen.
The instant Shi Lei was about to blurt out swear words, he suddenly stopped as an idea flashed through his mind. He asked: "I will definitely be punished when I violate the rules, then what if you violated the rules? Shouldn't you receive punishments too?"
The Scepter seemed to be in shock as it did not answer, most likely because it was surprised.
The Scepter laughed oddly in its asexual voice after a while: "What a smart slave. Looks like this time's journey will be much more interesting. None of the people who came before you could think about this."
Although it didn't answer Shi Lei's answer straightforwardly, but the Scepter's action clearly indicated that Shi Lei guessed right.
"Answer me, what's your punishment like if you violated the rules!"
"You damn slave, this shouldn't be something for you to ask. You are just a lowly slave, how dare you talk to me in that tone! I'm the supreme Scepter, I can kill you anytime just like that man!" The Scepter was agitated as it was offended.
On the contrary, Shi Lei had calmed down completely. He snorted coldly and continued: "Even if I've become an official slave, I am the slave of the Slave Development Bank and not yours. As to our relationship, you never know who is the slave and who is not. Kill me? If you attempt to kill me when I didn't violate any rules, you will be one who's acting against the rules. Although I don't know what's the outcome of you violating the rules, but I think it won't be any better than me getting killed. Or maybe, you, as a living being with supernatural powers but without a body, your outcome might be getting wiped out entirely in the perspective of your living entity!"
The Scepter was completely silent as it did not continue to yell at Shi Lei. Perhaps, it was astonished by Shi Lei's words. It would never ever think that Shi Lei could analyse it as far as this.
"There's no need for you to answer it anymore as I have found the correct answer already. If I'm the slave of the Slave Development Bank, then what does that make you? We are just the first and second party under the Slave Development Bank and we are both clamped down by it. To be blunt, this black card which doesn't seem to be of any use is the real master. Don't try to pretend to be cool and show off to me in the future, I don't like it!"
The Scepter displayed its true anger for the first time: "Fuck you! You lowly slave, if you dare to offend me like this again, I……"
Shi Lei cut off the Scepter's sentence mercilessly and laughed: "So what if I offend you? You simply only have the power to converse with me that's it. So much that you can't even punish me for doubting you. All the punishments are created by this black card."
"You don't want to try. You definitely won't know what will happen if you agitate me for real! Do you really think that I don't have the power to punish you? You lowly thing!" The Scepter was still growling but in Shi Lei's ears, it sounded much better as he knew that the Scepter can't punish him casually.
Shi Lei laughed in disdain and said: "Maybe you really do have strong supernatural power. Maybe you can actually kill me whenever I can, if I'm not overthinking it. But I also believe that if you kill me under the situation that I didn't act against the rules, or even the tiniest penalty you can give me, you will be punished by the black card. Stop pretending. Compared to me, you have to follow the rules even stricter."
The Scepter gasped furiously but did not say a single word. Obviously, Shi Lei had saw through the truth.
As Shi Lei calmed down completely and recovered his ability to think, he finally understood the reason of how he mentioned he did not want to become anyone's slave yet the Scepter did not violate the rules either.
From his guess before, the Scepter also said that the moment Shi Lei inserted the card into the ATM and entered the password, he had become a slave of the Slave Development Bank, or in other words, the black card's slave. Of course, the term 'slave' is simply a statement of the black card's one-sided thinking. Or simply a word that the Scepter made up in order to satisfy his stupid vanity. To tell the truth, it was equivalent to a contract between Shi Lei and the black card.
If the black card is described as a company, then after Shi Lei entered the password, it was as if he signed a contract with this company and became one of its employees. With the black card acting as the employer, it provides Shi Lei with money that corresponds to his level every week, or in other words, every certain time period. Shi Lei, as the employee, must act accordingly to the contract and spend all the money under that certain time slot, he must spend all the money. Otherwise, he will receive penalty from the employer. Between the employer and the employee, the Scepter plays the role as the communicator. The employer is inflexible but the Scepter is flexible. It has its own thinking and to achieve a certain goal, it can choose to tell or conceal it from him. But, as long as the employee, Shi Lei, is associated to the rules of the employer, the Scepter must provide him with a clear explanation.
So according to the black card's logic, Shi Lei became an employee after he entered the password, so his point cannot be passed on when he mentioned that he didn't want to be anyone's slave.
His standpoint was not even right, and the logic after that won't make any sense either.
At that time, if Shi Lei did not say that he didn't want to become anyone's slave, but didn't want the money given by the black card and he wanted to go back to his normal life, then the Scepter must tell him honestly and Shi Lei would have the chance to quit.
But now, it was too late.
