BXBX NOVEL Chapter 324: Repair Technician (Part 1/2)
Luo Shuqing’s feudalistic aura as the family head was completely unleashed when Mo Ya’s name was mentioned. She was resolute and decisive.
As one of the family heads, Mo Haihang coughed, "Don’t overdo it."
Luo Shuqing tilted her head to stare dead-fixed at her husband. "Overdo it? Our little child has been hospitalized time and time again, grandpa’s condition is worsening, while she’s been perfectly fine and has been gone from home for nearly a month! She doesn’t even call once a week. Her mind is completely on that band. Who are you saying is overdoing it?"
Luo Nan and Mo Peng locked gazes for a second before immersing themselves in their food. They obviously couldn’t tell their aunt and mother that Mo Ya had rushed back to see them when Luo Nan had entered the hospital the second time. This was just unbeknown to a certain someone.
Well, Mo Haihang knew of this as well, and even helped cover for her. But currently, Mo Haihang wore a face of calmness. It really made one utterly respect him.
Mo Peng saw how his father was acting so beautifully and was unable to think calmly. He blurted, "Good or bad, she’ll be back in a week. You can lecture her then, and things will be good...."
"Who’s getting it bad? Me for having your cursed sister?" Luo Shuqing shot a cold glare. There was a shift in the focus of her fury.
Mo Peng had stepped on a landmine. He lowered his head once more, but with a face filled with grief and indignation.
Luo Nan kept on chowing down, but the topic had touched upon Mo Ya, drawing a portion of his mind over to it. While Luo Shuqing was worried, he was worried as well, but in a different way. Today’s times were wrought with troubles. Even with the support of the Xia City branch, it was hard to look out for an entire family. Not to mention the fact that Mo Ya was in the border town several hundred kilometers away.
If it was a matter of worries, his were several fold more intense than his aunt’s.
"Nanan, what plans do you have today?" Luo Shuqing wanted to ease the atmosphere. She no longer nagged at her child and turned to ask Luo Nan. This pulled Luo Nan’s mind back to reality.
Luo Nan replied honestly, "I’m going to the service center in Xi City. I accidentally broke something of Gym Master Xiu’s a few days ago at the daoguan. I need to get it repaired."
Luo Shuqing was a bit surprised. "Xi City? That’s quite far. You want me to send you?"
"No need. I already booked a car. It’ll be here after breakfast."
Luo Nan speedily gulped the rest of his meal down and tidied things up before running outside. The car he booked was none other than Crag Burst’s military jeep. It was already parked outside the residential area and had been waiting for a while.
Crag Burst’s original jeep had been destroyed back at the recycling stratum. His current jeep was newly purchased. It looked even more domineering. Luo Nan sat shotgun and adjusted his posture. The car seats were a bit hard, conforming to military standard. However, the car was really spacious. With Luo Nan’s height, he could pretty much straighten his legs with no problem.
"Tsk, tsk. How much was this car?"
"Should be around two million." Crag Burst started the car, and it rolled down the public roads like a tank. It soon cut into the high-speed magnetic rails, and its speed increased.
Before, Luo Nan really didn’t care about matters such as these, but he was actually quite envious at the moment. "You’re godd*mn rich! Do all ability users make money easily? Why can’t I find a way to make money?"
Crag Burst laughed. "You’re still thinking about getting the sixty million, aren’t you? Didn’t the Secretary say she’ll help you find the money?"
"Well, I can’t always bother people." Luo Nan’s two palms smacked his own temples. His elbows supported his head. He was half-stretching and half-venting his emotions.
He used to almost never get worried over money. After all, he was the sole male heir to the Luo Family. When he was just born, his parents had invested funds for his education and livelihood. There were fixed credits for each of his expenses. In addition, his aunt and uncle doted on him, and Mo Ya gave material assistance to him as well. In this way, he was able to engage in drug research with some effort.
But sixty million was the price to purchase the Mutant devil ray inside the crystal pillar of Ocean Sky Cloud City. This large number far exceeded the level of his livelihood. If he continued to keep his head down and do research as a student, keeping to this working routine, then it would be hard to earn this number in his lifetime.
Plus, right now... he heard that the Yao Family was sick of the devil ray causing damage to the ecosystem in the crystal pillar. They were constantly looking for a new home for the ray. Perhaps the price would go down after the passing of time, but this was a big significance in Luo Nan’s perspective. The most important thing was that he didn’t have enough time.
"Ah, god. Thinking of money just makes me upset." Luo Nan sighed. He only revealed his emotions like this with someone he was as close to as Crag Burst.
Crag Burst’s pursed his lips. "Your appetite is far too big. Nobody gets their money in a huge gale of wind. It’s realistically impossible. Later, I’ll sponsor you a few million to make up for any differences. I don’t have any more. It’s all invested in the Society. Who keeps that much money lying around idly, anyway?”
Luo Nan leaned back against his seat. He cupped his hands wearily. "Thank you. But I’d rather you introduce me a channel of making money. I have no clue where to begin for this."
"How did you make money before?"
"I looked at the missions issued by the Society, both public and private, they all award points and/or resources, but I’ve never seen them award cash. You can convert points to money, but one honor point is only valued at a million. A drop in the bucket. And Zhang Yingying and Papercut keep telling me not to exchange my points...."
"Of course not." Crag Burst smacked his steering wheel. "The set price for the Society’s points hasn’t changed for the last thirty years, you know? It’s purely used to deceive people. If you want to exchange, you will have to go to the black market.... Ah pooey, don’t go to the black market. The things the cheaters there sell are too many to count. Many of them are set up by the b*stards of Headquarters. They’re specifically point sinks."
Luo Nan snorted. "The others told me that too."
"Honor points are super duper extremely important! Currently, an extremely closed-off rare resource trading platform exists within the Society’s circle. One must use honor points as money to barter for any object here. Nothing else will do."
Crag Burst was still worried that Luo Nan didn’t know how serious this was. He was worried Luo Nan would get swindled as soon as he bumps inside. He increasingly put more energy in explaining, "It must be said that this is the main reason that the Society has lasted this long. You’ve seen how the Society has handled things this time, causing the heavens to be furious and people to be reproaching. Especially Headquarters! But most people still stay with the Society! There are even huge batches of people sharpening their brains, seeking to get in! Why? It’s none other than this resource transaction platform. It hangs above everyone’s mouths, wetting their appetites. You can’t see it now, but later, when you go deeper into your cultivation, you’ll fork over large amounts of points at any time for repair, medical treatment, or advancement. One mistake and your progress will be stagnant for several years!"
Luo Nan nodded at first, but then shook his head. He smiled wryly. "Right now, I just want to make money. Big money."
Crag Burst grinned. "You’re looking at things the wrong way. The Society’s transaction platform has already become a closed-off circle. Money from normal society isn’t worth a dime. If you really want to make money, you need to rely on your supernatural abilities. You need to find those circles which are neither close nor distant to us."
"Neither close nor distant?"
"Those who know the existence of the ’inner world’ but don’t inherently possess the relevant abilities, so they wish to hire ability users to do some special work. They can be individuals, financial groups, military or government powers, and so on."
Having spoken to this point, Crag Burst turned to look a few times at Luo Nan. He hesitated, a rare action from him, before speaking, "This circle isn’t white; it’s half-dark. It might be too early for you to touch upon this."
"Too early? Right now I feel like I’m behind when it comes to making money. Oh, hold on. Using my abilities.... So you’re telling me to do some illegal things?" Luo Nan finally realized what Crag Burst was saying.
Crag Burst shrugged. "It’s fifty-fifty. Depends on your luck."
"Then... I’ll go try my luck?"
"Maybe. In any case, based on your current capabilities, it’s just a matter of time before you to contact these people. I’ll lead you in an encounter in the future. This circle is mainly concentrated in a few private clubs. Face-to-face transaction is in the majority. After you get familiar with them, then you can negotiate about freelance work over the net."
Crag Burst introduced some crucial information to Luo Nan. He just spoke generally. Luo Nan had to first make contact before he could understand any concrete details.
This was something that couldn’t be done today. Currently, Luo Nan’s main task was to get the central mechanism of the tai chi ball repaired. It took Luo Nan and Crag Burst an hour of driving to reach an electrical equipment center located within Xi City. Its name was ’Cross Borders’.
Papercut had inquired about this Cross Borders Electronic City; it was a nice place. There were thousands upon thousands of stores, big and small. All together, they formed a twenty-four-hour large-scale service center. It was the largest professional D.I.Y. exchange community in Xia City.
Luo Nan and Crag Burst arrived at around nine o’clock in the morning. The electronic city was gushing with people. Hundreds and thousands of unmanned equipment turned and crossed to and fro near the ceilings of the various floors. It was quite a bustling scene.
Their destination was the twenty-four-hour large-scale service center. According to the process arrangement, they needed to have an appointment number and register it in order to have a mechanical part repaired. Then they got assigned a repair technician. They followed a floating guide-ball until they reached the corresponding workstation. They saw a beautiful service advisor and waited.
The hardware facilities of the service center were quite up there, and the waiting area was set up to be very cozy and luxurious. There were even monitoring video feeds of the workstations inside, which could be displayed as a three-dimensional hologram for a panoramic view of the repair technician’s work process. It was like being next to the repair technician.
However, the feeling this all gave was a considerable surcharge in service without even including the cost of repair.
There were many people here, which was a glaring sight. Crag Burst no longer talked with Luo Nan about these sensitive topics. Under the chatter of idle boredom, Crag Burst saw the situation at a few of the work stations. He was uninterested in the repair technicians wearing face shields. His gaze lingered around the electronic price display, and he clicked his tongue repeatedly. "Papercut recommended this place? Isn’t this a place for dealers?"
The prices were able to make someone as rich as Crag Burst smack his tongue over them. From Luo Nan’s perspective, this mean that the prices were no different than being drained of blood. However, Luo Nan still believed in Papercut’s sincerity. He laughed, not responding otherwise.
On the other hand, the service advisor spoke gently while pouring tea for them, "Rest assured you two sirs. We are one of the Class A workstations in this service center. The repair technician, personnel, and equipment allocated here are the most top-notch of Xia City. We will certainly provide the highest quality services for our customers."
Before her voice faded away came a beeping sound from the workstation. Information was sent back, and the service advisor received it. He became a little stunned, but he shortly gave Luo Nan a smile, revealing eight normal teeth.
"Hello, customer. The goods you’ve handed off to us has fairly special circumstances. I’ll let the repair technician explain the rest."
She turned to the side and made some minor calibrations. She made the quality of the comprehensive hologram clearer. However, the repair technician revealed by the projection wasn’t as pleasing to the eye as herself.
The repair technician had stopped doing his diagnostic work. He lifted his visor to reveal slim cheeks. He was nothing special to look at, but he was a technician who was able to hold a position at a Class A workstation. He was certainly an outstanding professional. He sat behind the workstation and nodded toward Luo Nan and Crag Burst. He looked quite amiable.
"Hello. This is worker number 5475, at your service. My last name is Di."