Chapter 116: Eye-Opener
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The auctioneer did not concern himself with petty personal feuds. The two earlier storage units had already enabled him to earn a very good commission. Since storage unit 48 did not interest many people, he quickly closed the deal, saying, "Very good, 1,000 dollars—you have bought this unit at a steal, buddy!"
Lucas shouted, "Very good! For 1,000 dollars this junk is yours!"
Hans showed him his middle finger. "In horror shows, people like you don’t survive more than two minutes."
"No more than two minutes in the movies as well. I am talking about the romantic movies filmed by RB—even in those he wouldn’t last for more than two minutes," Li Du said icily.
Lucas laughed heartily, "Are you sure? Or would you like to test out my kung fu?"
"The two-minute Kung Fu? Chopsticks Kung Fu? Spaghetti Kung Fu?" Li Du laughed with disdain.
The fourth storage unit had a lot of homeware; there were only some household items. Li Du was not familiar with the value of such storage. He nodded at Hans to indicate that he could call the shots.
Hans took a look and then said, "We could probably sell this stuff for 300 to 400 dollars. There are some major appliances in there, with some value. If we could get it for under 2,000 dollars, we could give it a try."
But as the treasure hunters did not want to return home empty-handed, the bidding for this storage unit was much more intense than for the previous one.
The auctioneer started at 500 dollars, and the price raised to 2,000 dollars before Hans and Li Du shook their heads and exited the bidding.
In the end, a hunter had gotten it at the price of 3,800 dollars. Li Du shook his head. "There is no profit to be made."
Hans said, "This is called ‘gambling on storage.’ The items he could see are enough to let him break even. He is gambling that the places he cannot see have valuable items as well."
Li Du asked, "Why do you not gamble?"
"Nine out of ten gambles will end up in a loss; this was a valuable lesson I learned from Las Vegas."
"Then why do you still go play in Las Vegas?"
"Although there is loss, there is also excitement, and affection from beautiful girls. It is not the same as gambling on storage."
After payment, everyone started to take stock of their storage.
Hans called Godzilla on the phone to get him to come help out, when Li Du suddenly waved him over to storage unit 31; there was a crowd forming.
There were quite a few treasure hunters at the entrance of storage unit 31. Everyone was staring at Lucas’s advertising screen.
Lucas opened the storage door, and together with the long-face man and another Mexican man, moved the huge screen out carefully.
As he moved it, he said, "Take extra care, this advertising screen is very precious…"
As he spoke, a "snap" sound was heard from within the screen, and then something within it seemed to drop, causing the inside of the screen to sway.
Lucas’s heart pounded. He hurriedly signaled for the two men to put down the advertising screen, then asked loudly, "What happened? What just happened?"
The long-faced man said helplessly, "I’m not sure, boss. I don’t know what happened."
A hunter who was watching said, "Lucas, you just need to plug it in and try it out with electricity. As long as it can be used, who cares what happened? It can definitely fetch a high price."
Treasure hunters usually modified their vehicles so that they could provide power when started up. Lucas drove his car over and plugged the advertising screen into it. At this point, a red light on the display lit up.
Seeing this, Lucas was delighted, and looked at the crowd with elation. When he saw Li Du and Hans, he said with disdain, "The two country bumpkins—here to watch the show?"
The treasure hunters next to them were puzzled. "Guys, how did you offend Lucas?"
Hans said, "We did not offend him—this is just his personality. Why do you think he is called "crazy buffalo"?
The red light meant that the LED advertising screen could be used. Lucas confidently pushed the "on" button, but nothing happened; the advertising screen remained pitch black.
"What is going on?" The long-faced man looked dumbstruck.
Lucas panicked, turned off the switch and said, "Wait a while, maybe it had been left unplugged for too long. Some electronics are not very sensitive, and need electricity to pass through them for some time."
Li Du was watching the show from afar. This had meant that the screen’s display drive matrix and the display array had been damaged when the little bug absorbed the light. It would be inexplicable if it could light up.
As expected, no matter how Lucas fiddled with it, the screen did not light up.
After all that fiddling, he was perspiring profusely. He looked at the treasure hunters and asked, "You guys know how to use this thing? Did I do something wrong?"
A hunter said, "Usually when the electricity runs and the switch is turned on, it will connect to the computer’s software used to create the graphic design details; but even if there is no computer, it should still light up."
"Now that it’s not lighting up, could it be damaged?" someone asked in a gloating tone.
Lucas became angry hearing this, and howled, "Shut up Prince—what does a fool like you know?"
"Crazy buffalo, stop shouting. What you have to do now is to open it up to see what is going on," a calm hunter suggested to him.
Lucas nodded in agreement. "Correct. Anthony, bring the toolbox."
The long-faced man, who was Anthony, brought the toolbox over. They started to dismantle the advertising screen, but as the tools were not suitable, it was challenging to do so.
Lucas was irritable. A few times, when he couldn’t remove a screw, he smacked the advertising screen in anger. "D*mn this screen…"
He had barely spoken, but with his that smack, the advertising screen made a clock-clack sound, as though something inside had been broken into pieces.
At this, Lucas could no longer contain his anger. Then, the back cover could finally be dismantled.
The structure of the advertising screen could be seen by the crowd. They saw a cracked light-emitting diode, with a broken core chip protected by silica gel in the middle, evidently unusable anymore.
At this scene, Lucas’s face paled instantly. The surrounding treasure hunters looked on in regret.
"This advertising screen is damaged."
"The damage is quite unusual; the light-emitting diode and the core chip of the control display matrix are both damaged. It is worthless!"
"Poor Lucas. This is scarier than being infected by the mad cow disease."
Li Du asked, "Worthless? So this storage unit is not the most valuable out of the four units, right?"
"Definitely not as valuable as yours with the sewing machines. But having bought the sewing machines for 20,000, you guys also do not have much room for profit," a hunter said.
Hans shrugged and said, "That is okay. Seems like the news network of city guy Mr. Lucas is problematic. But it was indeed an eye-opener for us to have seen someone pay 80,000 dollars for an empty shell."
Li Du added, "And, obviously, probability theory has its use in our line of work. I suggest you go back to college; this could help you."
The treasure hunters roared with laughter. They were delighted to see such a situation; today’s matter would be a great topic for conversation.
The 80,000-dollar loss was driving Lucas insane. Hearing Hans’s and Li Du’s sneers, he took out a wrench from his toolbox, and hollered, "Shut up b*stard! I am going to smash your heads in!"
A tall and well-built figure came into the crowd. Godzilla, who had a brutal air about him, walked in and said, "Boss, there’s work?"
Li Du pointed at Lucas and said, "Hang on—this guy said he wanted to smash my head in."
Godzilla looked over, eyes narrowed, and gripped his hands together. His knuckles cracked loudly.
Lucas stared at Boss Li with widened eyes, and released his right hand for the wrench to drop to the ground with a clang.