Chapter 2: Thirty Thousand Dollars

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Lying on the wicker chair, Wang Yan suddenly came up with an idea that startled him.

“Is there a faster way to upgrade the system?”

He was referring to how the system could be upgraded, not how he should spend the money.

A man’s ambition was like dried leaves in fall—all it took was a little spark to light them on fire.

Although it wouldn’t take long to reach the upgrade, Wang Yan had no wish to wait that long.

Seven freaking days!

Why should he have to wait like a fool if there were things he could do to speed up the process?

According to the system settings, spending borrowed money would still accumulate EXP.

‘Let’s give it a try then!’ he thought resolutely.

Wang Yan started right away. He opened the Taobao app and selected a brand of tissues that were currently on sale. Each box had 300 sheets, and 30 boxes were 29 yuan, which made them cheaper than toilet paper. He made a payment through Huabei, which was essentially a virtual credit card.

After successfully paying, he looked at the system panel, and the EXP displayed was… 29/10,000!

As expected, it had worked!

Wang Yan was overjoyed. Looking at the 7,171 credit limit remaining in his Huabei account, he was suddenly cognizant of how much he appreciated Jack Ma, the creator of Huabei.

‘Sorry, Jack Ma, I was wrong about you!’ he thought.

‘I used to think that you were out to trick poor students like me into working for you, which was why I never properly utilized your credit programs. I also never made use of the instalment plans available and only tried to exploit all the loopholes.

‘Daddy Ma, I was wrong! Please love me again!

‘Raise the credit limit!’

It was, of course, impossible to raise a limit just like that. Wang Yan did a simple calculation. To his surprise, he had just about enough.

He had 7,200 in his Huabei account, 1,100 from Jingdong Baitiao, and 1,983 in savings. He not only had enough; he even had 283 yuan extra.

Since there was a surplus, Wang Yan figured that he might as well do another experiment.

Opening his private messages with He Meng, he sent a virtual red envelope with 200 yuan, as well as a message.

“He Meng, sorry, but I might not be able to make it to your graduation party. I’d still like to wish you all the best, though. May you live each day happily and become even prettier.”

The red envelope was opened almost instantaneously, and she promptly sent an envelope back.

“Thanks. I might not be free to attend yours either. That makes us even.”

Wang Yan couldn’t help but be a little stunned.

He had really received such a cool response from the pretty girl?

People usually exchanged niceties by responding with a thanks and then making some small talk. She could have waited until it was Wang Yan’s turn to host a graduation party, after he informed his classmates of the details, to decline.

From her immediate response, it was evident that she wanted nothing else to do with Wang Yan.

After recovering from his initial shock, Wang Yan shook his head and smiled briefly.

‘Well, whatever. I don’t really care.’

Things were going to be very different from that point on. There was no telling just then who would be on top in the future. Only time would tell.

His EXP had increased by 200, becoming 229/10000. Wang Yan opened the red envelope and took back his 200 yuan.

He didn’t bother saying anything else in their chat.

Next, it was time to decide how he ought to spend the money.

Frankly speaking, Wang Yan had never had this much money at his disposal before.

A village outside of a city was in fact not that different from a rural village. Wang Yan’s parents were once farmers, but after suffering financial losses twice, they began working for others instead.

Wang Yan hadn’t had much of an allowance since he was young. Now that he had 10,000 yuan at his disposal, he was practically shaking with excitement.

When his Huabei account was set up, he already had a baffling credit limit that was over 9,000, but he hadn’t dared to use it back then. It would have been silly to do so. Therefore, even when he was salivating at the sight of an iPhone 6, he hadn’t dreamed of buying one himself.

But since that was now equal to five days’ wages…

It was time to buy!

That day was July 26, 2015. The latest iPhone model was expected to be released in about two months.

Even so, there wasn’t a drop in prices; the 128GB version was still selling for 6,888 yuan, but with a tempered glass screen protector thrown in for good measure.

Had this been in the past, Wang Yan would have thought it was a rip-off. Since the prices were bound to drop in two months’ time, why not wait a while longer?

But now…

‘I’ll give you 7,000! And please give me one of those aluminum cases!’

Wang Yan’s fingers were shaking as he spoke to the customer service representative.

‘You’re doing great, bro!’ he thought to himself.

Five minutes ago, he had just figured out that a box of 300-sheet tissues was cheaper than a roll of toilet paper by 18 cents, and now he had no qualms buying an aluminum phone case for his new phone…

After topping up his airtime with the change, he moved on to Baitiao.

What could he buy with 1,100 yuan?

Wang Yan really had no idea, so he clicked on the ads on Baitiao’s homepage.

Damn!

Sh*t was expensive!

Wang Yan’s eyes widened.

Calvin Klein classic boxers, authenticity guaranteed, were 550 for three, with black and white options. If he bought now, he would get a free three-pack…

The gift itself was so fantastic that Wang Yan placed an order without any hesitation.

Only after he had spent all that money did he suddenly realize how inflated his spending was.

He was wearing shorts that had cost twenty yuan, a t-shirt that cost eighteen, and a belt that cost eleven, and here he was thinking of wearing them with underwear that cost 182!

The real problem, however, was that it was to be worn underneath all his other clothes. People would at least be able to recognize designer brands if they were worn on the outside, but under his pants…?

Wouldn’t he have to undo his belt just to show ’em off?

Emmm…

He hadn’t given much thought to that when placing the order and wasn’t really bothered after placing the order either. He had just wanted to hit his spending goals and happened to come across something that allowed him to spend exactly 110, so… Whatever.

Sticking to this train of thought, he bought a pair of beige Converse Chuck 70s with the remaining 1,500. After the discount, he only had to pay 1,499, and he even managed to get two pairs of ankle socks free.

In the past, he wore only Warrior brand shoes, which cost about twenty to thirty yuan. It was about time he checked out some premium shoes to see how different they were from budget ones.

His EXP was now 9,999/10,000, so it would only take one more yuan for him to level up and upgrade the system.

[The Game of Life Shenhao System has been upgraded to Level 2.]

[Every breath you take will be rewarded with 10 cents.]

[When you eat something delicious, there’s a 1% chance of receiving a food-related Secret Reward.]

[EXP: 0/30,000]

[The Mall is now open. A new product will be introduced every Monday at 00:00 hours. If a purchase is not made within the week, the product will be refreshed.]

What Wang Yan noticed first was the new category that had appeared—Gourmet Reward.

Did this mean tasting good foods?

That meant one would need to adhere to certain standards of food quality…

Eating a bowl of instant noodles when one was famished brought no enjoyment. It was simply for one’s survival.

Real delicacies didn’t have to be expensive, but they did require a certain amount of effort. The person consuming them had to be able to derive pleasure from the experience.

How considerate of the system! Being able to consume good food was a reward in itself, so it was incredible that one could receive extra rewards from doing so.

That was double the pleasure!

Even if the probability was pretty low, at one percent, meaning 100 meals in three months would only earn him one Secret Reward… that didn’t really matter.

Hopefully the probability would improve with the next system upgrade.

Next was the star of the show—Multiplying Cash Rewards!

He was now able to receive 120 yuan every hour, which added up to 2,800 yuan daily!

Wang Yan could barely stop grinning. He felt as if he had already reached the peak of his life.

Every time he woke up, he would receive 3,000 yuan… What was the point of going to school, then?! He should just focus on using Xianyu, a reselling app.

Would a run-of-the-mill college be able to find him a job that paid as much as he was currently earning in two days?

Of course, there was no way he could actually skip school. He would be beaten by his parents.

Wang Yan was actually looking forward to attending school more than ever, because a stress-free life while in college would be amazing!

There wouldn’t be a never-ending pile of assignments, there would be no need to worry about surviving, and best of all, he wouldn’t have to stress about finding excuses to ask his parents for money. There was plenty of time, as well as plenty of girls…

Haha! Life would be incredible!

After drooling over all the possibilities, Wang Yan suddenly remembered. ‘Eh, there’s still a mall?’

Clicking on The Mall, he saw a single item there.

[Habit Incubator]

[Quantity: 1]

[Number of uses: 3/3]

[Price: 30,000 yuan]

[Effects: Using it once a day will cultivate good habits in the host.]

[Note: For your first purchase from The Mall, you will be able to buy the product at 10% of the original price.]

Dang! That meant the original price was three hundred thousand?!

But considering what he’d receive in exchange, it did seem to be a value for the price.

Excluding those psychos who made it into prestigious schools with seemingly no effort, there really wasn’t too much of a difference between students who went to prestigious colleges and those who went to their less impressive counterparts, at least not in terms of intelligence.

In many instances, lousy grades could be attributed to bad study habits.

That was something Wang Yan was familiar with: not paying attention in class, not doing practice questions diligently, and losing focus after a few minutes of studying…

That was how his grades had worsened, bit by bit.

If he had managed to get his hands on this thing earlier and cultivated good habits, those good habits wouldn’t only have been beneficial for his studies, but also for his entire life.

Alright, it still wasn’t too late. It was worth spending thirty thousand yuan on cultivating good habits. The benefits would outweigh the cost.

Eh?!

Hang on!

Where the hell would that thirty thousand come from?!

Wang Yan suddenly remembered the conditions of The Mall, and his mood dampened considerably.

[A new product will be introduced the following week if the item isn’t purchased within the week.]

That day was the 26th, a Sunday. The Mall would be refreshed at midnight.

He only had about half a day left. That wasn’t even enough time for him to sell a kidney!

‘Ah damn, then what’s the point of the system harping about it being a good deal?!’

Wang Yan looked at the [Habit Incubator] longingly, then sighed.

‘Having a wonderful item in front of me yet not being able to afford it, what could hurt more than that?’

If there was an opportunity to do this over…

I still wouldn’t be able to come up with the thirty thousand!