Chapter 218: The Continental Hotel's Remuneration

However, regarding everything about the Continental Hotel, Henry still had one curious point and asked, "Where do the gold coins come from?"

To such an obvious question, Charlie gave the person asking a look as if seeing a Bai Chi.

Henry had to explain again, "I know nine times out of ten they are minted by the High Table. But how do they enter market circulation? How was the very first gold coin paid into someone else's hands?"

"For instance, if I act as a server, the gold coins I earn are collected from the served. And how did that served person earn that gold coin?"

"It can't be that the High Table, in order to make the gold coins circulate, kindly gives one to everyone after minting them, telling them to figure out how to spend it themselves."

Charlie thought for a moment, then replied, "The Continental Hotel posts bounty missions. For every mission completed, the executor can receive one gold coin and the bounty reward. Is that what you are asking?"

"Only one?" Henry asked again.

Charlie answered, "One mission yields only one coin. But for particularly difficult missions, a certain number of participants can also receive gold coins. If we speak of a rough judgment standard, any bounty over one million can grant qualification for an additional gold coin."

"Missions under one million will only issue one coin. Missions over one million default to allowing two people to cooperate, meaning each person gets one coin. For every additional million, one more collaborator can be added."

"However, it still depends on the Hotel's approval, and it is not always so. Suppose there is a certain expert who is exceptionally powerful and, acting alone, takes down a bounty with a five-million reward."

"Then he can keep the entire five-million-dollar bounty alone, but he can only get one gold coin, not five. That is why I say gold coins are precious; exchanging them directly for money is a loss no matter how much you get."

If this was the difficulty of acquiring the Continental Hotel's gold coins, then Henry couldn't help but recall that before his transmigration, he had watched the movie *John Wick*.

When John Wick decided to strike again, what did the quantity of gold coins in the box he pried out from his basement floor actually represent?

One gold coin represents at least one life. But when Baba Yaga strikes, how could it possibly only take one life?

To say he kills without counting is still underestimating this Slavic melancholic handsome man. He wiped out an entire gang just for a dog and a car.

If every time he struck, he used this berserker style instead of targeting only the intended person, then behind that pile of gold coins lay countless innocent souls.

Without seeing it with his own eyes, Henry could already picture a scene in his mind.

An angel in Heaven asks a certain deceased soul: How did you die?

The deceased replies: I don't know either. On the very first day of reporting to a certain place, I saw a person and got shot twice in the chest and once in the head. Then I came up here to report.

That the lowly minions have no human rights is visible from this alone.

As for the Continental Hotel gold coin he already had on his person, it was a trophy scraped off a fallen gunman's body along with a gun loaded with bullets when he and Tony Stark fought the Continental Hotel's gunmen back then.

It counts as a gold coin of improper origin. Who knows if the Continental Hotel's rules prohibit using such coins. Besides, there is no way to check the source of a gold coin; who would care if it was stolen or earned?

He originally thought that gunman hadn't stored the gold coin properly and just happened to carry it on him, making it his trophy. Now it seems this was very likely that unlucky fellow's entire fortune...

As if remembering something, Charlie spoke again, "Actually, as your role as a collaborator, there is also a method to earn US dollars directly, rather than gold coins."

"Oh, what method?"

Charlie answered, "It is that whatever news you hear on the streets, you can tell the Continental Hotel's Intelligence Department. They will judge the value of the news and provide suitable compensation."

"You can speak of anything. Perhaps news you think has no value is different in the ears of those who need it. However, news that has already been reported in newspapers is worthless."

"Besides this passive intelligence collection, there are also active bounties. The compensation for this type of news is higher; even just providing a clue can earn money."

"Sometimes, we contracted gunmen, when we have no suitable work, also earn such intelligence compensation. Like the news with the highest bounty amount recently was from mid-last year: who was the clown that assisted the X-Men against the aliens."

... Hmm, should I turn myself in to exchange for the bounty? Although this thought flashed through his mind, Henry played dumb and said, "I thought that incident was just a tabloid fabrication. The place with the most aliens in this world isn't Hollywood? Or perhaps the legendary Area 51."

Charlie said, "If it can get on the Continental Hotel's intelligence bounty list, this news must have a certain degree of credibility. Maybe those aliens were just mutants who looked particularly strange."

"Anyway, that battle definitely happened. And besides the known X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants, an unknown clown also appeared, sparking a lot of interest. That is why someone wanted to inquire."

Henry asked, feigning curiosity, "Since the incident was from mid-last year until now, the bounty must have been posted for a while. Does anyone suspect who that clown might be?"

Charlie's eyes rolled mischievously, and he whispered, "I heard that from information leaked by official intelligence organizations, some suspect it is that Hollywood child star, River Phoenix."

Recalling when he painted on the clown makeup, he indeed used muscle control to alter his face. He remembered that at the time he just picked a face from a magazine to cover up, which led him to choose that actor considered to possess extreme spirituality and talent.

He didn't expect that even with his face painted that way, with the surveillance video technology and electronic technology of this era, they could actually restore the face beneath the clown makeup.

Fortunately, he had kept an extra eye back then and changed his face for himself. Otherwise, his original appearance would have been exposed.

From this, it is clear that whether superheroes or super villains, there is a reason they like to act masked. Even if not to protect their peaceful daily lives, it can reduce many idle people coming to disturb them.

But will this matter have any impact on that genius child star? Regarding memories from before transmigration, this guy vaguely overdosed and died young. Henry sighed, "River Phoenix."

Hearing Henry repeat the name, Charlie laughed, "Do you want to target that child star? I can advise you, don't bother. From the time the news came out until now, people have been taking turns watching that child star, hoping to find evidence."

"The result was just filming some irrelevant things, which could only be sold to gossip tabloids to subsidize operational costs. No one managed to catch a big fish. Moreover, that rumored clown hasn't appeared again; we don't know why."

"What a pity," Henry replied, feigning regret.

(End of this chapter)