Chapter 52: The Value of Life
Chapter 52: The Value of Life
???
Can this gold... buy my life?!
Hearing the gentle inquiry that echoed in their hearts, the tens of thousands of citizens in the shopping square involuntarily trembled, their minds instantly falling into a daze.
When they came to their senses, these tens of thousands of citizens discovered in utter terror that they were standing stiffly, facing the large money chest at the center of the shopping square, arranged in a neat semicircle.
A giant toad, as tall as a two-story building, was lazily sprawled on the money chest, which was about the same height as it was. It had two enormous, protruding golden compound eyes, and it was looking at each person with great interest.
"..."
So... I've encountered another anomaly?
Feeling the scorching badge on his chest and frowning, Leon first checked the status of the sheep's head and the broom. Finding that they were still functional, he slightly relaxed. Then, he immediately tried to move his feet.
No, I can't move...
Looking down at his feet, Leon was surprised to find that a large frog hand with suction cups had grown out of the shopping square's floor, firmly gripping his calves.
On the back of this strange frog hand, there were numerous deep green bumps, resembling copper wheels embedded in the skin. There were about twenty-three or twenty-four of them.
After confirming that he couldn't break free, Leon observed the other people around him and found that they were in similar situations, each being firmly held by frog hands on the ground, crying out in panic.
Unlike his own, the bumps on the frog hands holding the others were not all deep green; many were a cold silver color, and occasionally, some golden bumps could be seen.
Gold, silver, copper... It seems to involve some rule related to money.
Frowning and thinking for a few seconds, Leon, who had two sets of children's clothing and a knitted sweater hanging on his broom, roughly guessed what these bumps represented.
The items piled up by Char Department Store were indeed much cheaper than market prices, and he had been particularly attracted by the tempting prices when he passed by the shopping square.
With the intention of saving a little money for his family, he had wandered around the clothing section, buying some items for his younger siblings. The difference between these items and the original market prices added up to roughly twenty or so copper wheels, similar to the number of green bumps on the frog hand.
So, if one feels greed, they will be grabbed by a frog hand proportional to the strength of their greed?
Trying to drop the shopping bag, Leon found himself still firmly held. He squatted down and tried to touch the frog hand but felt no solid substance and received no hints from the "Materialist Soul."
It seems these strange frog hands are not real entities but a manifestation of some rule triggered by the other party. I suspect I can only break free by dealing with the main body, but I'm over six hundred meters away from that toad. How can I hurt its main body?
...
"Why won't anyone agree to my offer?"
Just as Leon was hesitating whether to try the red hair of the director, the giant golden toad on the money chest blinked and sighed softly, looking at the panicked crowd in the square:
"People, you clearly love money so much, even deeply worshiping its magic. But when I follow your deepest desires and bring money to you, you refuse to even look at it. Why is that?"
"Because... because the cost is too high!"
Seeing that the large toad wasn't particularly "ferocious" and seemed to be open to communication, a man who had dropped numerous shopping bags mustered the courage to answer:
"Money is good, but it can't compare to life. Life is priceless."
"That's not true, though."
Following the sound, the man turned towards the creature, the golden toad with a slight upturn at the corner of its mouth, and chuckled softly as it spoke:
"Based on my understanding of your species, life should be measurable in terms of money, and it's rather cheap at that."
The massive monster turned its gaze towards him, and the man who had spoken instinctively wanted to run, but his legs were firmly grasped by the frog hands growing from the ground, leaving him unable to move from his spot. He could only scream in terror.
"You're so noisy."
The golden toad extended its webbed foot, covered in transparent mucus, and gently tapped the golden mountain in front of it. It then picked up a large number of dazzling gold coins with its "palm" and instantly made them disappear. It crossed a distance of over thirty meters and piled the coins at the man's feet.
"Sell me your voice, and you'll learn to be quieter."
As the golden toad spoke in a gentle tone, the man who had spoken to it suddenly fell silent, as if his screams and pleas for mercy had been cut off. Even as his terrified eyes bulged, and he desperately dug his fingers into his throat, he couldn't even utter the most basic "ah-ah" sound.
After directly "purchasing" the man's voice, the golden toad looked around the now silent square with satisfaction. It then turned its head towards the couple closest to it, a pair of trembling young spouses. In a soft voice, it asked:
"What about you? Are you willing to sell your lives to me?"
"No... We're not willing!"
The husband of the couple was already too scared to speak, while his terrified wife tried to suppress her desire to scream, holding onto her husband's arm and shaking her head vigorously.
"Our lives... We only have one life each! If... If we sell them to you, we'll lose them!"
"Is that so?"
The golden toad tilted its head slightly, looking puzzled, and said:
"You say you're not willing to sell your lives to me, but you've been selling your lives all along."
"We... We haven't! We've never sold our lives!"
"You have."
The golden toad extended the tip of its webbed foot and gently picked up two small, glittering objects. It blinked its enormous compound eyes, resembling a fly's, and spoke without leaving room for refusal:
"These two shiny little things, you'd have to work seven days in a cotton mill, operating machines to process tens of thousands of pounds of raw cotton to earn them. And your husband would need to spend five whole days soaking in a dye pool filled with chemicals and reagents.
So, I fairly judge that your seven days of life are equal to his five days, and his five days are equal to these two gold coins. For the past four years, you've been making this exchange, and it's clear it will continue in the future.
Instead of selling these precious lives cheaply to others, spending most of your lives in noisy, painful, and meaningless labor in factories, why not choose an easier path and directly sell this part of your lives to me?"
As the golden toad spoke, measuring the value of life, it began to grab handfuls of gold coins in front of it and deliver the expensive golden currency to the couple's feet.
And as the pile of coins at their feet grew, the couple's hair gradually turned pale, and the muscles on their faces relaxed rapidly. The wrinkles at the corners of their eyes and brows deepened, making them look like middle-aged people, and they continued to age further.
Even more terrifying was that, although the golden toad's words were directed at the couple, the people whose feet were covered in coins were not limited to them. In the entire shopping square, with over fifty thousand people, a large number of coins appeared at their feet.
As the sound of metal coins clinking together echoed, everyone in the square who received their "payment" began to age uncontrollably!
(End of Chapter)
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