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Chapter 148: Chapter 134: Era of Picking up Money (Votes Needed!)_1
Three hours later.
It was past four in the morning, and Tang Qing had already had a good sleep, his mind was unusually clear upon awakening, absent of the typical groggy feeling of just getting up.
Currently still in his excited phase, he closed his eyes and ordered the system to do another round of arbitrage transactions. Five minutes later, the system’s payment notification arrived. At this point, Tang Qing noticed a pattern, transactions from Citibank to the German Commercial Bank took about five minutes, which was the longest. Transfers to the other two German bank accounts also took around four minutes each.
The other US bank he had linked, the Bank of America, generally took less time when transferring to German banks. The shortest was a transfer from Bank of America to North German Bank, which only took about two minutes. Naturally, Tang Qing planned to use the account from Citibank three times and Bank of America seven times. Although all transactions got credited eventually, Tang Qing didn’t particularly enjoy the feeling of waiting for the funds to be credited.
Lying in bed, Tang Qing carried out transactions every ten minutes before daybreak, completing all of his arbitrage transactions for the day. He earned a bit more than the day before, bagging over 13 million RMB. His account balance directly soared beyond the 300 million mark, reaching 310.9 million.
Tang Qing calculated. At this rate, he would reach his self-set limit of 30 million Euros in two days. After that, the daily profit of over 13 million would simply accumulate in his account, growing more and more.
The thought of raising the transaction limit was tempting for him.
However, he suppressed this impulse in the end, and decided to treat the money accumulating in the account as insurance funds.
Right now, Tang Qing didn’t fully trust the security of these accounts. His all-in strategy from yesterday had an element of gambling. What if the bank ran off with the money? Although his funds were completely legal, it won’t help if the bank refused to acknowledge it. He guessed that as far as the bank was concerned, his account was presumably filled with "illicit" money. If the bank got greedy, it could be disastrous. He was not worried about the people who opened the accounts, but the banks themselves. His accounts linked to the system couldn’t be tampered with without his permission, not a single cent could be taken without his consent, this applied even if the bank itself tried. He had no doubt that the system had the ability to ensure the security of the linked accounts’ funds.
However, outside the system, transferring from one bank account to another did not use the system’s "encrypted channel". For example, from Citibank to the German Commercial Bank, it was obvious that the channel between the two accounts was not directly connected and definitely had to go through their respective banks’ internal settlement systems. As far as the internal structure of these settlement systems or the number of such systems was concerned, Tang Qing was completely in the dark. In other words, once the money left the system linked account, it was completely out of Tang Qing’s control. He could only passively hope that the other party was trustworthy.
Therefore, when Tang Qing considered the uncertainty of this "arbitrage channel", he firmly dismissed the idea of increasing the limit. It was good for a landlord to have some surplus grains. He would gradually save up a foundation for himself, so if there were any "accidents" with these funds, he would still have the capital to make a comeback. Once he had enough capital, say billions of dollars as a safety net, he could then take a risk with tens or even twenty billion dollars. But for now, his primary concern was gathering enough to pay back the three hundred million he owed Liu Qian.
On a sudden thought, Tang Qing remembered that he hadn’t used his Origin Qi Value yet, so he decided to check his personal information:
Host Name: Tang Qing
Level: Level 3
Experience: 210/400
Loan Quota for the Month: 0/2 million
Personal Quota for the Month: 0/400,000
Withdrawable Assets: 310.9 million
Spirit: 140
Physical Fitness: 150
Origin Qi Value: 10
Foreign Currency Available for Exchange: Dollar, Euro.
Tang Qing thought for a moment and added all points to Spirit. It was pretty much already at a point where it was overpowering compared to ordinary people, so he randomly allocated these points. He was very curious about what would happen after unlocking Level 2 Genetic Lock but it was clear that wasn’t possible in the short term.
After that, his Spirit attribute had become 160. Even if he completed the two achievement tasks for this month, he would only just fill up his Spirit points. He still needed 50 more points for Physical Fitness, which equates to needing 25 Origin Qi Points.
Huh!
Tang Qing suddenly realized that once the system upgraded at the beginning of next month, he could immediately unlock the Level 2 Genetic Lock, right? Then, he would be rewarded with forty Origin Qi Points, equivalent to eighty attribute points. The thought made Tang Qing excited all over again.
Well, despite his eagerness, Tang Qing could only wait for the ’double joy’ on the first of next month. Or, triple joy, if the promised four hundred million RMB is included.
The more Tang Qing thought about it, the more excited he became.
Of course, Tang Qing wouldn’t waste time staring at his account balance. He began to play with some of the weapons from the armory. After a lot of purchases recently, his armory now had over two hundred guns, from one to five of each type, with pistols being the most common. On one hand, they were cheap, only three hundred RMB each, and a hundred only cost thirty thousand RMB, a price he was all too willing to pay. On the other hand, they were compact. Having practiced for quite a while, although he could not disassemble a gun within seconds, he had delved deep into their inner structures and had even broken a few. These broken firearms he dumped into his armory.
While the system’s weapons storage had no quantity limit, those red "Damaged" tags stuck out like sore thumbs and were annoying to see.
When Tang Qing asked the system about what to do with these, it decided to abruptly inform him that the Level 1 Mall did not provide weapon destruction services. As to when such services would be provided, the system remained tight-lipped. From its words, it was obvious that it could provide them, but Tang Qing couldn’t understand why the system creators couldn’t make it more user-friendly. By the point of the civilization that developed the Artificial Intelligence installed on the system, AI must have been widespread, so why wasn’t it installed on the system?
Faced with a system that always kept him guessing while acting as though it owed him nothing, Tang Qing could not help but complain even though he had nowhere to lodge a complaint.
Tang Qing caressed the cold grey Bartel in his arms. This was the name he had given his gun. Its meter-and-a-half-long design, full of masculine and lethal charm, was truly fitting for its envisioned role in combat. It was a joy to behold.
Whenever Tang Qing got to handle these cold, specially designed weapons, he had an itch to try them out. He made up his mind to have a good time back in the woods behind his village the following week.
Damn it.
He won’t stop until he has fired ten thousand rounds. The mountains behind his village covered dozens of kilometers and were deserted. If he vanished into them, he could let rip with his gun to his heart’s content.
And so, Tang Qing lay on his bed, embracing Bartel and snickering to himself.
He soon heard the bustling noises of his aunt and uncle preparing breakfast, followed by his cousin, Qin Shiyu. As for the sleepyhead Qin Shiqi, he was sure she would be lazing about in bed on such a chilly winter day, probably wrapped up in her blanket.
Finally, thanks to Qin Shiyu and his aunt’s persistent coaxing, Qin Shiqi hauled herself out of bed to have breakfast, looking cranky and dishevelled. Tang Qing didn’t dare to tease her for fear of a morning workout. Best not to upset a woman who’d just woken up, or he would end up receiving a thrashing. He knew this from harsh experience.
Over breakfast, his aunt suggested, "Tangtang, it’s best to buy your return tickets in the next few days. It’s not a long journey and there are numerous shuttles, but it would be troublesome when the Chinese New Year approaches and tickets become scarce. Hitching a ride is not safe either."
Tang Qing knew his uncle’s family has arranged a ride home and didn’t need to buy tickets. However, his mother’s hometown and his own were in completely opposite directions, so they were not on the way. His Aunt Lin and Uncle Lin would also ride with a fellow villager. But for him, who planned to return earlier, it necessary to buy his own ticket.
But things were different now. With a private car at his disposal, Tang Qing had no interest in crowded shuttles. His past trauma made him instinctively reject shuttles and heavy-duty trucks. The mere sight of them would bring back the tragic memories of his past life.
"No need, I have a friend with a car who will drop us home on the way," Tang Qing replied with a smile.
"Who exactly is this friend?" Qin Yugang asked, furrowing his eyebrows. Nowadays, Tang Qing’s acquaintances were a colorful bunch, especially the mysterious ’big man’ backing him. As a result, he was highly suspicious of Tang Qing’s friends. A friend with a car was certainly not an ordinary person, and having his nephew mingle with so many ’social’ friends concerned him greatly.
"Uncle, there’s no need to worry. He’s a comrade-in-arms of Uncle Han, whom I met when I was working out at Uncle Han’s. We get along really well. His family lives in Chunwu County just below us. He can drop off me and Jiaxue on the way," Tang Qing explained truthfully.
"Oh, as long as he’s a comrade of Han Leng’s, I have nothing to worry about. But won’t it be too much trouble for him?" Qin Yugang responded, nodding his head. As long as they weren’t society folks, it was fine. Being from a military background, he inherently trusted the word ’comrade’ and didn’t think the fellow would be a bad person. Although such feelings of loyalty might be naive, they were very much real.
"It won’t be. He drives a passenger car, and his mother is the only one traveling with him," Tang Qing explained.
After Sun Chao’s mother was discharged from the hospital on the 30th of the previous month, she moved into a residence near the Sheng Tang Company. It was just a ten-minute walk from the company. Sun Chao had even invited Tang Qing over for a meal to express his gratitude. Tang Qing didn’t decline the remaining eighty thousand RMB from the hospital fees, but he did arrange for Sun Chao to repay it in monthly installments of only two thousand five hundred RMB out of his five-thousand RMB salary. Repaid under the guise of living expenses, it was a negotiation that only succeeded after much convincing. He was reminded once again that lending money could be a hassle.
Sun Chao had initially planned not to go back to his village for Chinese New Year and wanted only to drive Tang Qing home. After all, they didn’t have many relatives left there anymore. However, he noticed that his mother missed their old house. In the end, he decided to go back home for the holidays and tidy up the house. Although they were only a family of two, they still felt a sense of belonging to the village.
"Alright then, make sure you prepare your things in advance so you don’t keep them waiting. Also buy them some gifts; we must remember our manners." Qin Yugang reminded him.
"Yes, got it," Tang Qing agreed.
