Were ORL jobs easy? For some people. A lot depended on the limbs you ended up with. Some people were lucky enough to get sturdy legs and strong hands. If you didn’t... well, life’s a bitch.
What was a standard ORL job?
Using gray slime as an example, the ORL version of the job was to collect eighty standard containers. You’d get fifteen sol for that. The system cut me a one-time break: I had a GBL job that paid like an ORL job.
So my current job description looked like this:
Job: Collect gray slime. Easy (O).
Description: Collect and deliver forty standard containers of gray slime to the receiver unit.
Deadline: Evening end-of-work alarm.
Compensation: 15 sol.
But a standard ORL job would look like this:
Job: Collect gray slime.
Description: Collect and deliver eighty standard containers of gray slime to the receiver unit.
Deadline: Evening end-of-work alarm.
Compensation: 15 sol.
If I failed to complete even one ORL job, I would automatically get demoted, no second chances. And the system, as judge, jury, and executioner here, didn’t care why I wasn’t able to get the job done.
Didn’t do your job? Demoted! And down the chute I’d go. ORL becomes GBL — Graded Basic Labor. And what was it like having GBL status? It sucked. You did half as much work, but the payment matched that.
The job would look pretty much the same as what I had now, but with minor changes to the description and way less compensation.
Job: Collect gray slime. Easy (GBL).
Description: Collect and deliver forty standard containers of gray slime to the receiver unit.
Deadline: Evening end-of-work alarm.
Compensation: 8 sol.
Eight sol?
That was jack shit.
What was the bare minimum I was spending each day? Three sol for food, three for water, immunosuppressant shots, and vitamins. That was it. My whole daily wage. All eight sol. What about showers? Or... there were a lot of things I might need. A t-shirt would be nice. Could I buy a t-shirt here, or did they only give them to the women?
Were there other jobs? Ones that paid better?
Very rarely. Most of the system’s ORL and GBL jobs were collecting slime, collecting garbage, and cleaning walls. Did people close to bankruptcy get easier jobs but with the same compensation?
What was it like being bankrupt? Wouldn’t it make sense to just go bankrupt, since they get easier tasks? After today’s evening alarm I’d be in the red myself, anyways. A fantastic start to my new life. What a meteoric career.
Did it make sense to go bankrupt? God forbid! There was no fate worse than bankruptcy.
In local slang, if you were completely bankrupt it meant you had lost all your rented limbs. The system would take them from you if your total debt reached fifty sol. If that happened, they’d take an arm in the medblock. If you were right-handed, it’d be your left, And if you were left-handed, vice versa.
Once they cut your arm off, your debt went down by twenty-five sol. You heard that right. That was how much your arm was worth. As soon as your debt hit fifty again, they’d cut off a leg. Which one? System’s choice. Your debt would go down by thirty, and they’ll send you on your way. You’re fifty sol in debt again? Say goodbye to that second leg, and get another thirty wiped off your debt. Really? You hit fifty another time? Well, you only have yourself to blame. Get ready to part with your one remaining limb. In exchange, your debt gets canceled. You and the system are even.
That’s bankruptcy.
You lose everything, and they take your last limb to pay off your debt. You turn into a worm with a human face. All you can do is crawl and beg — for food, for water, for help using the toilet or taking a shower. Help me, help me, help me... But how many times are people going to help you? Maybe one person who hasn’t entirely lost their sense of compassion might answer your piteous prayers. Someone else might reluctantly give you a few sips of water. But sooner or later, you’d end up in a whorehouse or have to learn to use your head the way nature intended. There had been those who managed to survive by entertaining others with hallway performances.
