BXBX NOVEL Chapter 110: $1,328,420 [1/2]
For example, man originally hunted and foraged. However, when weather or disease prevented them from doing so, this began to change. He began to store meat and eventually raised livestock.
Then, in his wisdom, he learned to plant and began to cultivate the land. When food was secured, he began to improve his dwellings. Instead of making something that would fall apart at the slightest tremor, man slowly moved from huts, to houses, to castles.
Those who bred too many animals began to trade them. Various professions began as the time spent hunting was used for crafts. With each new industry, the need for a stable measure created the concept of currency.
Money then began to rule the world. Cash became credit and money itself changed from a physical object to a concept. In short, money made it possible to live without working.
It saved the time needed to gather or hunt for food. That was its most basic function. As more and more people no longer struggled to survive, they began to develop their arts, crafts, and technology.
Money allowed people to eat even if they could not hunt or cook. It allowed you to have shelter, even if you didn't know how to find or build it. It could be transformed into pleasure or new experiences by the sheer number of ways people could spend it.
The worst part was that money, or lack of it, eventually became the basis of happiness.
"Well, that was debatable, but money buys affection, life and time to a certain extent.
Want love but don't know how to find it? Hire a beautiful prostitute and fuck until you go broke.
Want to end a life? Hire a hit man. If you want to prolong your life when you are ill? Buy medicine or get an operation.
Don't have time to do something? Hire someone to do it for you.
As civilization developed, things that used to kill people could now be mitigated. From weather to disease to predators. Such a system made sure that everyone knew that everything had a price.
As a result, many became rabid about working for money. But like so many in this world. Sometimes people worked to make money while throwing their lives away. It was sad to think about.
A human life was something that no one could create. Despite all the advances in science and technology, this remained a fact. Yet such wonderful things were often murdered for paltry sums.
A concept to prolong life became worth more than the life it was created to save.
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but such a fact would often rear its ugly head every now and then. I thought of it just now because of the ridiculous number of souls I now possessed when I checked with {Connect}.
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Souls Available : 66,421
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$1,328,420.
If I converted everything I had at $20 each, I effectively made $1,328,420 in one night.
Normally I should be happy, but somehow I felt empty. Maybe because of the way I earned it, the money felt heavy.
Reapers who fought all night died for such a sum. And no matter how I spend it, tonight I will be part of the cycle again.
Trying to clear my mind, I began to think about how I would use such a large amount of money.
"Should I buy a car? A house? Should I pay off my student loans first? Maybe I should consider giving to charity?"
It has often been said that the true test of a person is what he or she does with his or her money. That was true when you thought about it. Whether people valued possessions, experiences, or relationships, money would always follow those desires.
"It's funny, now that I have the money, I have no idea what to buy with it."
Remembering my old life, I was working at a dead-end job and couldn't even manage to pay my student loans. Forget starting a family or even buying a house, everything was just too expensive.
However, that was no longer true. my dreams were so close they were within my reach.
"Let's start fulfilling my dreams one at a time."
No matter the circumstances, I worked hard for this money. So I should spend it on what makes me happy. Then I opened my GRI and began the process of converting souls.
Most Americans had problems paying their student loans. While a small majority were able to do so by their forties, the experience of working to pay off what you owed was never pleasant.
It robbed you of your daily happiness and made you fearful of the future.
Credit became synonymous with social status. Of course, I was no different from most. I had over $140,000 in credit and hadn't even begun to pay a dime.
Whenever I hung out with strangers or my co-workers, the most avoided topic was not politics or religion. It was student debt. Nothing else could get people to shut up or unanimously agree that it sucked.
Maybe it was different for others who had paid theirs, but for those who hadn't, it was a scythe hanging over their necks. If you took out a home or car loan, at least you got either a house or a car.
With student loans, your efforts today were to pay off your decision years ago. The fact that you may have made a bad choice made it all the more unbearable. Many have given up even trying to pay the debt in the first place.
I took my GRI, which was in handheld mode, and navigated to [Services]. I moved the slider and converted 7,200 souls. Not a second later, I received a text message.
[Dear Mr. Smith. $144,000 has been credited to your account ending in 457...].
I then used online banking to transfer the 144 grand and paid off my student loans. It took less than a minute. And just like that, I was debt-free.
"Debt-free, huh?" I repeated, almost like a prayer.
Even though I hardly thought about it, it was pretty liberating.
Unfortunately, I remembered that I also had a debt in Hellsgate. This brought my sweet 2 minute fantasy to an end.