Chapter 210: City of Angels
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
When it came to the prices, negotiations collapsed immediately.
Hans wanted to sell them as a whole. The earliest disc could be traced back to 1991. That was a time when "Blizzard Entertainment" didn’t exist yet, and the company was still called "Silicon & Synapse."
The older the discs dated back, the higher their collection value.
He hoped to sell this set for 20,000 dollars. Now, just an early, original copy of "Rock & Roll Racing" was valued at 1,000 dollars. "The Lost Vikings" would also sell for that price.
The shop owner didn’t want to accept the whole set, as he felt that there was no market for these in Flagstaff.
There were many wealthy people in Flagstaff, but they tended to be here on vacation only. Their children didn’t go to school here, and those who liked to collect these discs were the young generations.
Hans searched for a few more gaming stores, and all of them gave similar replies. Even if there were some that accepted to buy them as a collection, their offers were low.
"I have to resell them, so you have to leave some room for profit for me. If not, who would I sell them to? I can’t keep them for myself, right?"
It was a logical answer. It was not that Hans and Li Du didn’t want the other party to make a profit, but only 5,000 dollars for a whole set of premium, collectible discs, that was just too little.
Hans couldn’t be bothered to negotiate anymore, and walked out.
"So, what do we do with those discs?" Li Du asked him.
"We’ll deal with them in Los Angeles," Hans said. "It will be easier there, just watch."
Bringing the discs and guns, they embarked on their trip to LA.
Los Angeles was situated in the state of California. California and Arizona were neighbors, so it was a fairly short trip from Flagstaff. About 500 miles away, southwest of Flagstaff, was Los Angeles.
"Why are we driving there ourselves? Can’t we just rent a truck there?"
Hans shook his head and said, "LA is a large city—it will be difficult to deal with the leftover junk from the auctions. We might have to bring the junk back on our return trip."
This was one of the main expenses from storage auctions. They could not just dispose of their trash wherever they wanted. Because of this, the expenses could go up to thousands of dollars.
They set off in the early morning. Following the west highway, they reached Kingman after two hours. After taking a short break, they continued on, with LA as their next stop.
The Iron Knight was able to demonstrate its strength in speed on this journey. After getting on the interstate highway, it accelerated and maintained a speed of 85 miles per hour!
Los Angeles, also known as the City of Angels, was the city with the second largest population in America, behind New York. It consistently ranked in the top three cities in GDP amongst all the major cities worldwide.
Li Du had heard of this city since he was in elementary school, but had never been there before.
Before setting off for this country, his impression of LA was that it was an enormous city, with skysc.r.a.pers, luxury cars, mansions, movie stars, and a whole lot of people.
Actually, regarding population, LA referred to the whole metropolitan area and not just the city itself. If it were just the downtown area of LA, there were only about four million people, which was not that many.
However, as a metropolitan area, it had a huge population. Places like Long Beach in Santa Ana had thirteen million people. There were even more people in the Greater Los Angeles Area, as the range was even wider: including five counties, it had a population of about eighteen million people!
During his university days, Li Du had yearned to visit Los Angeles. It was not because of the Hollywood stars or the luxurious lifestyle that it portrayed, but because the city had many famous universities.
Caltech, UCLA, USC, Pepperdine University: these were all famous universities that he admired.
A pity that regardless of his efforts, his grades had always been average. He had no chance of entering these famous schools, and ended up in that diploma mill.
However, now that he looked back, going to that diploma mill had also had its merits. If he had gone to any other school, he wouldn’t have encountered this little bug, and he wouldn’t have the ability to make the huge sums of money that he had now.
With his savings and his watch, his net worth had exceeded 10 million dollars. In LA, he was a considerably wealthy multi-millionaire.
From Arizona to California, the sky remained clear and the sunlight was radiant. The temperature was high as always.
The truck exited the interstate highway. Rows of skysc.r.a.pers appeared at the sides of the road. Afar were faint traces of a golden beach and clear seas.
Li Du exclaimed excitedly, "City of Angels, here we come!"
Hans remained calm throughout the trip. Returning to this city didn’t seem to have affected his mood.
Behind them came a Ford continuously blaring its horn. G.o.dzilla pulled to the side to give way. The Ford drove up, and a white man shouted, "F*ck you! Get your truck out of LA, *sshole! Don’t block the road!"
Li Du was puzzled by his brainless shouting. "Is this guy crazy?" he said, irritated.
Hans scoffed, "Welcome to the City of Angels—that’s the style of this city."
LA was thought to be the most complicated city in America, with many extreme personalities residing there explaining the nature of this city.
It gathered the wealthiest and the poorest people in America, the oldest of residents and newly-arrived immigrants, the most well-mannered and the rudest people, and lastly, the most educated and the dumbest people.
Immigrants from all over the world wanted to enter this city. It was the place with the latest trends, bikini-clad-babes, famous stars, beautiful beaches, snow-white mountains, skysc.r.a.pers, and wide, desolate fields. There was everything anyone ever wanted.
The movie storage facilities were near the southern suburbs of the city. They were relatively close to Long Beach, but far from downtown LA.
As this was Li Du’s first time in LA, he wanted to look around; they found a motel outside of town. They parked and stayed there.
Hans said that this auction would have up to 45 units, and would attract treasure hunters from all over America—especially those from the West Coast.
There were no three-man rooms, so they just booked two rooms. One was a standard room; the other was a king-sized bedroom.
"A total of 300 dollars, sir," the staff at the front desk said with a sweet smile.
Li Du twisted his lips to the side. This was right at the border of the city, and the room prices were already extremely high—what about those in the city center?
He received the room card after making the payment, and the staff pa.s.sed a small box to him. It had a logo with the word "DUREX." Although Li Du had never used these before, he knew what they were.
"What is this for?" he said with surprise. "We’re not buying these."
The staff gave him a knowing expression, and said with a warm smile, "This is free, sir. Have a nice day."
Seeing his face full of dread, Hans laughed out loud. "Haven’t you heard this? ‘Hollywood is led by the fas.h.i.+on tastes of LA designers and gay culture.’"
Li Du gave him the middle finger and said, "Bullsh*t—no way I would’ve heard of that nonsense!"
Hans said, "You can’t just gesture that as you please here—especially to men."
Li Du immediately retracted his finger.
"To survive in LA," Hans said, "don’t bother about the looks from others, and just do what you want. Also, go rest up. I’ve contacted a buyer. We’ll be setting off once we rest up."