"Old Yu, are you coming back to the dorm tonight?"
The lecture was over, at the entrance of the auditorium.
Old Cui saw Yu Jin heading toward the school gate and shouted after him.
Yu Jin didn't turn around, just waved his hand.
"Not coming back again?"
"Old Yu hasn't been in the dorm at night these last few days, man, acting all mysterious..."
Old Cui stared at Yu Jin's fading silhouette, mumbling to himself.
"Maybe he's off dating senior Yin Yao."
Yu Fei said softly.
"Actually, that's not it..."
Brother Gang muttered under his breath.
After all, he'd run into Yin Yao in "Wasteland" and knew she was gaming with her Helmet on every night, nowhere near Yu Jin.
The three stood there, watching Yu Jin's figure stroll off into the distance.
But then...
Clunk—!
Something like a 'brick' suddenly fell out from Yu Jin's pocket.
Even with the gap between them, the muffled thud of the 'brick' hitting the ground carried all the way over.
"Old Yu!"
"You dropped something!"
Old Cui hollered at the top of his lungs.
Yu Jin crouched, picked up the 'brick,' waved at them again, then vanished at the edge of their vision.
"What the heck did Old Yu just drop?"
"Why did it look all yellow and shiny?"
Brother Gang asked in confusion.
...
...
Across from Jiangcheng University.
Zhou Dasheng Gold Store.
"Hello, sir."
"You're selling a total of 1000g of AU9999 pure gold."
"Our recycling price is 713 yuan per gram, so that's 713,000 yuan total."
The clerk put on that ultra-professional, ultra-enthusiastic smile, and pointed at the notice board by the counter:
"But I need to remind you—"
"According to the Precious Metal Transaction Management Measures, any single transaction over 20g of gold requires you to provide your ID for registration."
Yu Jin nodded, "No problem."
"Do you want the payment to your bank card or by check?" The clerk added as Yu Jin filled out the form.
"Bank card, please," Yu Jin replied.
"Alright, there'll be a 0.3% bank transfer fee deducted."
"You'll actually receive 710,861 yuan."
Ten minutes later.
Yu Jin walked out of Zhou Dasheng Gold Store.
The gold brick he'd bought from the Points Mall was gone—what he had now was a string of icy numbers in his account.
"710k?"
Yu Jin suddenly felt like, huh, maybe making money isn't that hard after all.
If not for the Damocles sword that was the whole 'game might invade reality' thing hanging over his head, he could've gone full Happy Hero and realized financial freedom by milking the system, even if he couldn't be a Happy Hero otherwise.
"At least for now, I don't have to worry about being a broke Superman."
Sure, 700k is peanuts in the comment sections of those flex-heavy short video platforms, but for a third-year student like Yu Jin, this was literally a windfall.
[WeChat transfer 50,000 yuan]
Yu Jin first paid back the 50k that Yin Yao had directly lent him.
She said he didn't have to pay it back, but Yu Jin was never one to mooch.
Waited two minutes. Yin Yao hadn't accepted nor replied.
"Probably busy, huh."
Yu Jin murmured, then opened the group chat called 'I Hate Gambling With a Passion' and sent three 200 yuan red packets in a row.
Not that Yu Jin was stingy, but red packets max out at 200 a pop.
Old Cui: "?"
Brother Gang: "What the hell's going on?"
Yu Fei: "..."
Yu Jin: "Riches, and we never forget each other."
The three didn't say much else, just scooped up a red packet each, no fuss.
And then.
Yu Jin's eyes fell on another group chat, 'Environmental Protection Club Family.'
He thought about it, then fired off five more 200-yuan group red packets.
[Your red packet was claimed within 30 seconds!]
[Your red packet was claimed within 30 seconds!]
...
"President popped up?"
"Damn, as soon as the President shows, you just know it's something!"
"President, you're awesome, you're generous, you're the boss!"
"Haha, tonight's all-night net café bill is covered, thanks Prez!"
"Environmental Protection Club, loy~al~!"
"President, loy~al~!"
The group chat instantly blew up.
Behind the scenes, Old Tang DM'd Yu Jin: "Old Yu, you hit the jackpot?"
Yu Jin didn't answer.
His gaze was glued to the half-transparent system panel in front of him.
"It really worked..."
Yu Jin muttered.
Right there on the panel was—
[As Dawn City Lord, you generously distributed valuable resources 'Tier One Infection Crystal*200' to your subordinates! Wasteland Points +1000!]
[You received resource: Tier Four Energy Crystal*1!]
[...]
The same message repeated below, a full five times in total.
"Damn—"
Yu Jin's face was full of surprise.
He'd gotten only one Tier Four Energy Crystal from messing with a tiger!
But now?
Just sending a 200 yuan red packet nets him a free Tier Four Crystal!
Yu Jin didn't bother wondering how the system equated a 200-yuan red packet to 'Tier One Infection Crystal*200,' hell, he didn't even know what an Infection Crystal was.
"Send!"
Yu Jin, fast as lightning, sent another round of five red packets.
In that moment—
The Environmental Protection Club members practically lost their minds, spreading the gospel far and wide.
Crys of "loyalty" echoed all over the place.
[Your subordinates' loyalty has increased greatly!]
The system popped up a notification.
"That's it?"
Yu Jin frowned.
[You can only get the reward for distributing the same resource five times max!]
As if it knew what he was thinking, the system explained.
"Fair enough, I guess."
Yu Jin felt a bit of a loss, but after thinking about it, he could accept it.
This morning, when he was farming rewards at the zoo, the system acted about the same.
Basically, Yu Jin had figured out how the system worked beneath the hood—
Rewards for the same type of event are limited in number.
All things considered, spend 2,000 yuan, bag five Tier Four Energy Crystals and 5,000 Wasteland Points—absolutely a winning deal.
After all, that gold brick worth 710k cost him just 500 Points.
"Time to get to some proper business."
Yu Jin stopped sending out red packets in the club group.
He opened up his chat with the contact marked 'Little Brother.'
[Transfer 20,000 yuan]
Three seconds later.
Yu Jin's phone rang.
"Bro!"
"You hooked up with some sugar mama?!"
A young and slightly naive-sounding voice blared from the phone's speaker.
"..."
Yu Jin was speechless.
Seriously, what kind of stereotype is this?
Sure, maybe I'm a bit handsome, but is finding a sugar mama really the only way to get rich?
"Heh, just messing with ya."
The young voice piped up again on the line.
"Don't go blowing it all at once, you hear me?"
Yu Jin's tone got just a touch stern.
"Got it, bro!"
"You're the best brother ever!"
The call ended, and Yu Jin pocketed his phone.
Gold brick's sold, cash in hand, loot split up.
"Next stop—Langlang Mountain!"
Tonight, Yu Jin was going to use the Attribute Stone to activate his second Attribute!
And while he was at it...
Why not get himself promoted all the way to Tier Five or even Tier Six?!
That nap in the dorm this afternoon had already bumped him from Tier Three straight to Tier Four—with Tier Five Evolver status just within reach!
...
...
Su Province, Gunzhou.
Gunzhou University.
Freshman dorm, Year One.
"Nice!"
Yu Chen leapt up from his gaming chair, grinning ear to ear.
"With this cash, I'm one step closer to getting that Helmet!"
Yu Chen pumped his fist so hard the air whooshed in front of him.
"What's got you so hyped?"
His roommates crowded around, curious.
Soon enough—
They all saw that 20,000-yuan transfer in the VX chat window, clear as day.
"Damn?"
"Your bro is way too good to you!"
"That's a full-on 20k, no questions asked, just bam, straight up!"
The guys all started hollering and making jealous, envious, borderline feral noises.
"That's some real brotherhood!"
At this,
Yu Chen didn't say anything.
Yu Jin wasn't even his real brother.
Strictly speaking, they didn't share a drop of blood.
Yu Jin was an orphan, adopted by his parents from the orphanage when they were kids.
They both knew this from when they were little.
But that never got in the way of the close relationship between the two bros who'd grown up together.
When they were young, Yu Jin would even take the blame for him and get smacked extra times by the old folks.
"Ah Chen, you hit the jackpot and not going to treat the bros to something good?"
The roommate's teasing snapped Yu Chen back to earth.
"Nope."
Yu Chen answered without hesitation, leaving his roommates momentarily stunned.
"What the...?"
"You're not still fixated on that 'Wasteland' game Helmet, are you?"
"I heard that thing goes for hundreds of thousands, and you can't even get one if you want to!"
Everyone knew Yu Chen was a hardcore gamer, and lately he was downright obsessed with this 'Wasteland' game, dreaming of owning that Helmet.
"Hundreds of thousands?"
Yu Chen snorted, plopping back down in front of the computer.
"With the 20k my bro just gave me, I can make as much money as I want!"
"Back in the day, Chen Daozai turned 20 bucks into 37 million. Today, Yu Chen's gonna turn 20k into 500k—piece of cake!"
With that—
Yu Chen fired up a game called 'Counter-Strike.'
Half an hour later.
"Holy shit, you actually got it!"
"Gamma Doppler Emerald!"
"F*ck me!"