With the advancement paused, he said with excitement, "What I need now is a Life Ability. Once I get it, everything should continue smoothly."
As he said this, he took out his token and input his internal energy into it.
Name: Loki
Title: Unavailable.
Cultivation: Rank 2
Merit Points: 0.
Contribution Points: 10,012,746
Society (Position): Death Claw (Member)
Pending Debt (Amount/Interest Rate): Awakening (100,000/1,000 per month).
Current Missions: None.
The sight of the money in his account made him chuckle and say, "I may have gone overboard just a little bit. I wonder how they are feeling now."
By they, he is referring to the Rein Family. He is not asking about their feelings because he is concerned about them, though. He is asking to know if he should feel more joy about ripping them off.
To be honest, he didn’t plan to earn this much money. Things had gotten out of hand a little bit, and he bet one too many times.
When he remembered how easy it had been for him to earn more than he originally planned, he shook his head and said, "I can’t be blamed for this. They are to be blamed for making this too easy for me."
With that said, he laughed hard. Then he proceeded to pay his awakening debt to the sect.
After clearing his debt, he received a notification from the sect about his change of identity.
The message said, "Congratulations on becoming an inner disciple of the Four Directions Sect. Merit Missions have been unlocked. The Merit Shop has been opened to you. You have gained access to the Public Trading Platform.
"The Stock Market has been unlocked. The Betting Arena has been unlocked. Prepare to be listed on the Stock Market in one month. Evaluation will occur during this month. Once you’re listed, you will become eligible for the yearly elimination."
When Loki saw these messages, his eyes lit up with curiosity. He quickly began to tinker around with the token to see all the new things that he now had access to.
The first thing he checked was the Merit Shop. He wanted to see what was so great about merit points.
As he clicked on the new icon of the Merit Shop, a list was transmitted to his mind. He was also able to use his mind and internal energy to determine what he wanted to see.
Merit Shop
1. Status.
2. Life Insurance.
3. Reincarnation Insurance.
4. Awakening Insurance.
5. Awakening Bestowal.
6. Society Creation.
When he saw the item listed as number 6, his eyes lit up with understanding, and he exclaimed, saying, "Oh. So that’s how societies are formed. Imagine that."
Then he clicked his tongue in wonder and said, "I might have underestimated the value of merit points. With Life Insurance, I can make my life worth more so that people won’t want to kill me."
"The sect will even put up a sign above my head that powerful people can see, showing that I have been insured. That way, they will know not to mess with me if they don’t want to pay through their nose."
The more he read, the more he was sure that he had underestimated the value of merit points. Just Life Insurance was enough to dazzle his eyes.
The option to buy Status is obviously the most important commodity in the Merit Shop. But there was nothing interesting to see about the options of Status. The option to buy Life Insurance was far more interesting to go through because the concept was novel to him.
He is familiar with the concept of Life Insurance from his past life. But the way Life Insurance is being handled in this life is very interesting.
However, as interesting as it was, he realized that something was wrong with life insurance. What he realized made him furrow his brows and say, "Something is wrong here."
"Let me get this, the sect won’t protect me if I buy Life Insurance. No amount of Life Insurance will make the sect protect me. The quality of Life Insurance only determines how much the person who kills me will pay for my death."
"But the increase in my value will still have to be split between me and the sect. It won’t belong to only me. So I will have to work hard for the sect to earn merit points, and if I use those merit points to buy life insurance, the sect will also benefit from it."
"Isn’t the sect eating their cake and having it? How is this right? Am I missing something?"
He thought that there was a mistake somewhere, so he immediately buried his mind in the terms and conditions of the Life Insurance Package. Unfortunately, there was no mistake anywhere.
The truth remained that the sect would take the merit point that he earned with his blood and sweat, use it to enlist him for the Life Insurance Package, refuse to protect him, but still take half of the increased value that he gains from the insurance that he paid for.
This made him complain bitterly, saying, "The sect is truly the greatest slave master. We have to pay an awakening debt when we join the sect. Then, when we become true disciples, the sect will put us in a yearly evaluation program where we have to pay to continue living."
"Once we join the yearly evaluation program, the sect will take 10% of our wealth every year. The 10% with the least amount of money will be killed and sent into reincarnation to start over again and owe the sect another 100,000 energy stones for awakening."
At this point, he raised his voice as he said, "It is bad that they are taking our money. But that isn’t good enough for them. They still have to kill the least productive."
"At this point, everyone is just cattle and sheep meant to toil away forever and ever over several lifetimes for the sect. How is this fair?"