A short while later Adam was walking through the city streets. He moved easily through the growing crowds. He had no bag on his shoulder. It felt strange and freeing.
The sun was climbing higher in the sky. It was still morning but the city was waking up. The metal shutters of shops were being rolled up with loud noises. The smell of coffee and baked bread started to fill the air.
Adam was waiting for the markets to fully open. He looked around at the familiar buildings. But they were familiar to a different Adam.
"In my past life I barely knew this city" he thought to himself.
At this point in his first life he had only lived in the city for two months. He mostly stayed in his dorm at the university. He only knew the path from the dorm to his classes. The rest of the city was a huge and scary mystery.
But the Adam walking here now was different. This Adam had the memories of ten years spent in this very city. They were ten years of pain and suffering but they were also ten years of knowledge.
He knew every street every back alley every shortcut. He knew which quiet parks were safe and which corners were dangerous.
And he knew much more than just the city's layout.
He knew the future.
He knew what would happen in the world over the next ten years. This world was similar to his old world's year 2008. The technology was still behind. Many things that would become common in the future had not been invented yet.
He knew which companies would rise and which would fall. He knew about political scandals before they happened. This knowledge was his greatest weapon.
Adam continued to walk. His eyes scanned the shops that were opening. Then he saw one that made him stop. A small smile formed on his face. It was a lottery shop. The owner a grumpy looking man was just setting up a sign outside.
Adam thought about his unique ability. He could get his initial money right here. It was a perfect plan. No risk no effort. Just pure profit.
He stood across the street just watching the shop. The owner noticed Adam staring. Adam was looking at the shop with an intense focus like a wolf watching its prey. The owner felt a little uncomfortable. He frowned at the young man who was just standing there doing nothing.
"Hey kid" the man called out his voice rough. "What do you want?"
Adam heard him. He looked away from the lottery tickets and directly at the man. He did not say a word. He just smiled.
He walked up to the lottery shop owner. Adam smiled a calm smile and spoke. "Can you show me the lottery tickets?"
Hearing that Adam was a customer the man's grumpy expression vanished. He became much friendlier. "Yes of course" the owner said happily. "You should have said that in the first place."
After speaking the owner went inside his small shop. He returned with a large cardboard box. He placed it on the counter between them. The box was divided into two sections. There were two different kinds of lottery tickets.
The owner pointed to one side. "Which lottery do you want? This one costs one dollar. With this ticket you have a chance to win ten million dollars."
Then he pointed to the other side of the box. "Or do you want this other one? This ticket costs seven dollars. You are guaranteed to win something with this one. It might be a small prize or it might be a bigger one. But you will not win a huge jackpot amount."
Adam looked at the two options. He thought carefully. If he bought the one dollar ticket for the ten million dollar prize his skill would be useless. The winning number was a future event. He could not copy a winning ticket that did not exist yet. The odds were too low.
He needed to buy the seven dollar ticket.
With this ticket wins were common. The prizes were smaller but that did not matter.
The important thing was that there were many pre-printed winning tickets already mixed into the stack.
It was a game of instant scratch-off luck not a big national draw. He could use his skill to find and copy a winning ticket that was already here in this shop.
This type of ticket was not very popular. First it was expensive at seven dollars. Second the prizes were usually small. The minimum prize was often just ten dollars. The maximum prize was twenty thousand dollars but almost nobody ever won that.
The owner had once told him that maybe three out of every ten tickets won a small prize. That was a good chance. A good chance to find a winner to copy.
Adam made his decision. "I would like to buy the seven dollar ticket" he said to the owner.
The man's smile grew wider. He was probably happy to sell the more expensive ticket. "A fine choice kid" he said. He reached under his counter and pulled out a long colorful strip of the seven dollar lottery tickets. They were all connected together ready to be torn off one by one.