Chapter 158 – Does Purchasing Labour Count 

Translator: Lav

Editor: Seliniaki Ilikia

Seeing s.h.i.+ 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, s.h.i.+ 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.” 

s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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.” 

s.h.i.+ 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?” s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ Lei required at this stage. If the next level was really one hundred million per month, then it would be more logical for s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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, s.h.i.+ 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 relations.h.i.+p 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, s.h.i.+ 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, s.h.i.+ 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. s.h.i.+ Lei should at least have more than ten thousand yuan worth of rewards. After using this money for investment, s.h.i.+ Lei may have the chance to make investments in people. When that time came, he would also become an employer.