Explanation of the Black Ledger

I got back late today. The traffic jam this afternoon was awful and wasted too much time.

I didn't get home until almost eleven. I probably won't be able to finish Chapter Three until after midnight.

A reader asked today how exactly the Black Ledger settles accounts. I imagine some of you are pretty confused too, so I'll explain it here.

The Black Ledger records all transaction information concerning Sean White.

Even if someone says, "Sean, let me give you a dog."

The ledger will record it as: Someone owes 2 kilograms—the dog's weight.

Any money Sean touches, provided it belongs to him, will automatically be collected by the ledger.

Does Sean want to spend the ledger's money? Absolutely impossible. It's a ledger that collects money and makes loans. It can only lend money out, never let money out.

That's why he never has any money to spend~

The ledger's rules are:

1 point of source essence = 1 kilogram of animal body weight.

One kilogram of body weight is worth 2,000 dollars. Pigs, cattle, sheep, and humans all cost the same.

But when it comes to gold, the ledger is very generous. One ounce of gold is equivalent to the value of one kilogram of living body weight. In reality, though, one ounce of gold is only worth a little over 1,400 dollars.

(This is a trap. The reason for it will be explained later in the book.)

White Clinic's rules:

The clinic charges 2,000 dollars per kilogram for up to 100 kilograms of body weight. For anything over 100 kilograms, an additional 1,000 dollars per kilogram is charged. In other words, every kilogram over 100 costs 3,000 dollars.

Although Sean set that price increase himself, the ledger doesn't care. As long as it's a transaction and doesn't result in a loss, the ledger recognizes it.

As for the price and use of illnesses:

The ledger doesn't care what the subject is. Everything is calculated by body weight.

For example, someone weighing 50 kilograms is worth 50 kilograms * 2,000 dollars = 100,000 dollars.

That is their total value.

Ledger transactions are also calculated only according to their full weight.

Even if they're only treating a fatty lump growing on a finger.

They must pay the price of their entire body weight before the ledger recognizes the transaction.

Then Sean uses the unpaid medical fee as debt and directly takes away the illness to offset the corresponding debt. The illness is that fatty lump. (The smallest unit recognized by the ledger is one kilogram, so no matter how small an illness is, its minimum value is one kilogram.)

This is a little complicated.

The debt between the ledger and the patient is still priced at the patient's full body weight.

But in reality, the debt between the ledger and the patient has already been reduced by one kilogram—2,000 dollars.

That's where the ledger's underhandedness lies.

There is another situation: clients who have already paid.

After they pay the full price.

The ledger uses the corresponding source essence to purchase the patient's diseased portion.

But the ledger doesn't actually pay that source essence at all.

It's no different from offsetting it with debt. It is the Black Ledger, after all~

The use of illnesses is rather special.

To the ledger, those wounds and diseases are not property it recognizes, but they are recorded in the ledger all the same, making them a kind of special byproduct of profit.

In other words, the ledger doesn't care about such things, so Sean can use those wounds and diseases freely. Even if he gives them to others, the ledger won't interfere.

One more thing needs to be mentioned: the condition for giving wounds and diseases away is that there must be a channel of communication. Whether through talking or fighting, as long as a channel is established and receives a response, Sean can give those things away.

This is an incredibly bugged ability, and also Doctor White's most disgusting ability.

But the Black Ledger places great value on things like X-abilities.

Sean can't use them as casually as he uses diseases. He has to pay the corresponding source essence.

(The source essence here refers to source essence belonging to Sean—the price difference he manages to secure each time he talks patients into a deal. But it has to be net profit after the account has been settled. Debts that only exist on the books cannot be used.)

And they can't be given away, only traded.

In this kind of situation, the ledger doesn't control Sean. As long as Sean isn't deliberately taking a loss, he can make whatever deal he wants.

The Black Ledger not only refuses to let itself suffer losses, it also refuses to let Sean suffer losses. A textbook obsessive-compulsive ledger.

A previous chapter mentioned that Phoenix somehow ended up in a debtor relationship with Sean.

One reader guessed it was because Phoenix damaged the clinic wall~

That really wasn't it. The Black Ledger doesn't care about things that can't be exchanged for source essence. It doesn't even consider things without the slightest bit of faith to be property.

Phoenix ended up owing Sean because she used telekinesis in midair to squeeze him a little.

The result of that squeeze was that the food Sean had eaten didn't stay in his intestines long enough, causing the bastard to lose a few calories and slightly changing his weight.

Since she caused Sean a loss, the ledger charged it to Phoenix. At least it didn't count it as one full kilogram, so that was preferential treatment.

That's why the debt was only a few cents.

Is there anything else I haven't explained?

If there is, please remind me. I'll add it in the author's notes.

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The next chapter will probably be after 12:30... I feel so miserable~