The sight of Jim made him say inwardly to himself, "I wonder which is better, being raised to be used as raw materials for cultivation or being enslaved and used to produce wealth forever and ever in a pyramid scheme?"
"Fortunately, there is a definite way to know. The person who gains a higher value when they die will be the one who paid the best price for joining a society."
Tommy didn’t know what he was thinking. He only heard what Loki said about being informed about the awakening debt beforehand, which made him confused about why Loki joined the Rusty Bolts Society.
His reply made Tommy think to himself, "If you had someone experienced to tell you about the debt awakening, why didn’t they tell you to avoid the Rusty Bolts Society, too?"
"Or did they tell you to join the Rusty Bolts Society so that they will be protected from the Rein Family? If that is true, then maybe it isn’t exactly a bad idea to join us. After all, it is always better to earn money than to become beast food at the hands of the Rein Family."
This thought made Tommy chuckle to himself. But he quickly straightened his face and continued to guide the seven newbies.
He told them that the awakening debt was the great divide between inner disciples and outer disciples. He also told them about merit points and what they are used for.
Loki had heard about most of the stuff that Tommy was saying, but there was something new that Jim hadn’t mentioned in the previous timeline.
Tommy said, "Merit points can’t be sold or transferred between disciples. But I have heard that it can be converted into contribution points by using it to buy life insurance."
"If you buy life insurance, whoever kills you will have to pay a much higher price. That way, you can easily convert merit points into contribution points."
Loki heard this and said, "If you ask me, I don’t think such a conversion is worth it. I can’t see how converting something so invaluable that it can’t be bought into money is a good idea."
"Besides, I’m sure that whoever can earn merit points should be able to easily earn money. So I think converting merit points into contribution points is a waste."
To this, Tommy said, "You make good points, but whether converting merit points into contribution points is a waste is dependent on the person and the situation."
"For example, the person might be in desperate need of contribution points. At that point, the value of merit points will be reduced for the person. They would rather have something that they can spend and use to quickly improve their strength than something that can’t be traded for power."
"There is also the fact that life insurance will deter people from killing. Once they know that you will be very expensive to kill, they will think twice about killing you. If you ask me, that’s also invaluable."
Loki nodded and said in agreement, "You’re right. I didn’t think about it like that. Goes to show that I still have a lot to learn."
His humble words made Tommy wonder if this was the same person who was ready to fight him to death just a month ago when they thought they were about to be cheated out of an exoskeleton.
He was wondering if Loki was truly humble or was faking it. But he didn’t say this because it didn’t matter if Loki was truly humble or not.
He was sure that Loki would become humble soon, so he smiled and said to Loki, "We all learn new things every day. No one is perfect."
Then he continued his crash course in how to be a good disciple of the Four Directions Sect. He spoke at length about a lot of things, but not once did he mention status and the elevation to the great dao that they grant.
Loki wasn’t sure if this omission was a mistake or intentional on Tommy’s part. It could be that Tommy himself didn’t know about statuses, which Loki found to be unlikely.
What he thought was more likely was that Tommy was hiding important information by not telling them about statuses. He suspected that this was really the case because, unlike Jim, Tommy didn’t tell them the true situation of the Rusty Bolts Sect and their identity as eternal slaves.
Despite his suspicions, he didn’t point them out. He didn’t have any reason to be worried about Tommy’s scheme, so his heart was relaxed despite the oddities.
What he did was to keep quiet and listen. After all, the more attentive someone is, the easier it will be for them to learn.
While discussing with them, Tommy took them all the way to the seventh ring. He took them to the very edge of the city because that’s where their accommodation is.
They arrived in front of a large building that had three floors, and each floor was as large as a football field. This was just what they could see from the front. The building appeared to be larger still because it extended over a large area of land.
When they got there and saw this building, they also saw the slum around them. This made the six newbies become confused. They didn’t say anything, but they were all wondering why they were staying at the poorest part of the city.
Tommy knew what they were thinking, so he smiled and said, "It is not that our society is poor. It is just that our factory produces a lot of noise and smoke. So we were not allowed to set up closer to the city center."
Loki heard this and snorted inwardly as he thought to himself, "The only thing that you said that is the truth is how the Rusty Bolts Society isn’t poor. No one who uses the cheap labor of slaves can be poor."