On a small street in the Qinglong District, Shen City, Huaxia.
"How I toiled for years only to lose everything in an instant,"
Lin Yun walked out of the detention center, looked at the desolate street before him, managed a bitter laugh, and sighed softly.
Days before, he was arrested for counterfeiting high-end electronic products.
After surrendering all the funds he had earned over the years, he avoided sentencing.
Still, he had lost all the money he had painstakingly accumulated over the years.
Considering his years of effort, Lin Yun felt a complex knot of emotions.
Five years ago, at eighteen, he had failed to pass the college entrance examination. Given his destitute family background and limited personal abilities, he judged that even if he were to retake the year, he still wouldn't get into a good university. With the oversupply of university students, not getting into a top-tier university was hardly distinguishable from not attending university at all. Consequently, to avoid wasting his family's funds, he decisively chose to forgo further education and go to work.
At the time, his parents were strongly opposed to his decision. Due to traditional beliefs common in their area, they saw higher education as the only means of securing a decent future.
He left home secretly and only afterward called his parents. His father was livid, swearing that, unless he returned to complete his schooling, he would sever their relationship.
Similar to his father, Lin Yun was quite obstinate and stubbornly refused to return.
Lin Yun secretly vowed to make good of himself before returning home.
To fulfill his commitment, he worked diligently, taking on three jobs at a time. He woke up at five every morning and didn't get back until eleven at night. After an exhausting day, he would unsurprisingly fall asleep as soon as he hit the bed.
His hard work paid off quickly when he found a profitable business opportunity.
In the Qinglong District of Shen City, a paradise for electronics, he discovered that electronic products were quite lucrative. Some items that wholesale for a mere couple of yuan could be retailed for twenty yuan or more.
At first, he was wholesaling items produced by others, which he then sold to out-of-town wholesalers.
His approach was to make just a tiny profit on each item, and focus his business model on volume.
Since he was honest in conducting business, he promptly amassed a significant number of customers.
To earn more profit, he bought some machinery, hired employees, rented a factory building, and commenced the manufacturing of some simple electronic components.
Through time and constant refinement, his business became more and more successful.
His monthly earnings grew from a mere ten thousand to twenty to thirty thousand, and then fifty to sixty thousand...
Once he had earned a certain amount of money, he bought a batch of better equipment to produce even better products.
He had bigger aspirations than simply earning money.
He aimed to produce quality products to win customer recognition. He believed that, only then, would his business achieve longevity.
The products that he manufactured were of better quality than most wholesalers offered in the Qinglong District. Despite the quality, his products weren't priced significantly higher than others. This price-performance ratio was one of the reasons why he steadily accumulated a large number of customers.
However, the downside was that his profits weren't high.
For five years, he didn't visit his family...Up until a while ago, he had called his mother and learned from her that their family's circumstances weren't very good.
Because of his father's resistance, the money that Lin Yun sent back home had not been spent by his parents.
His predicament gave him a sense of urgency.
He understood that, even if he were to earn fifty or sixty thousand each month, he would not gain his father's approval.
He craved a greater success.
He also somewhat begrudged his situation. The electronics products that he produced were not inferior to products from major brands. On occasions when orders from large brands became too busy to handle, they would even outsource the production to smaller factories like his. However, due to his lack of brand recognition, he had to sell his products at a lower cost, causing his profits to be significantly lower than theirs.
Eventually, at the repeated suggestion of some of his customers, he was tempted.
He started to mimic the design of high-end electronic products.
By merely altering the design somewhat, the profits could multiply many-fold. How alluring was that?
...
Experience showed that this approach indeed made money faster. Thanks to his stringent control over product quality and reasonable pricing, his counterfeit products quickly won a substantial number of customers in the high imitation market in Qinglong District.
The profit in the first month reached eighty thousand yuan.
His customer count was growing, and based on his calculations, the second month's profit could well exceed one hundred thousand yuan.
He had a dream of creating his brand.
However, that required sizable advertising fees.
In today's society, simply hiring a celebrity spokesperson or book an advertisement channel could cost hundreds of thousands, even millions, or tens of millions of yuan.
According to the pace at which he was earning money, he felt that he would soon be able to fulfill his dream.
Regrettably…it wasn't long before his dream was shattered...
At the start of the second month, he was arrested.
…
At a small supermarket, Lin Yun exhausted the last few tens of yuan he had to buy three bottles of liquor.
"It's all gone...everything is gone…"
That night, on a deserted street, Lin Yun finished all three bottles of liquor and was completely drunk. Resting against a park bench, he muttered woozily.
For these five years, he tirelessly worked to earn money and hardly had a good night's sleep. He was utterly exhausted.
At this moment, he just wanted to be drunk.
As Lin Yun looked up at the sky, he seemed to see, in his drunken stupor, a streak of light shoot across his line of sight.
"Is that a meteor?"
Lin Yun managed a lopsided smile.
Legend has it that if you see a shooting star, it means you have good luck. If you make a wish at that moment, there is a high chance that it would come true.
Until now, Lin Yun had never believed in such stories, considering them to be childish.
However, at this moment, he found himself making a wish.
If possible, he wanted to become the world's richest man. He wanted to produce whatever he desired and no longer had to imitate other's products. His products would instantly become prestigious, branded products.
"Huh? This meteor…seems like it's flying towards me…"
All of a sudden, Lin Yun was caught off guard.
"Damn…"
Soon after, Lin Yun snapped to attention, and his inebriated mind somewhat cleared up.
The meteor seemed to be getting bigger and bigger in his sight, it was as if it was really flying towards him.
Meteors hitting Earth were not unheard of. Although the meteor became small once it reached Earth, the impact range was quite vast, and the resultant force was considerably strong.
He couldn't be this unlucky, could he? He had just become penniless, and was he now going to be killed in an accident?
Instinctively, Lin Yun wanted to dodge, but he was too drunk to move his body.
In fact, if the meteor was really going to strike this place, there was no way he could dodge it even if he could move his body.
Eventually, after a bright ray of white light flew past his eyes, Lin Yun lost consciousness.
"Detected intelligent lifeform…potential suitable…Cosmic Trading System…commencing binding…"
Faintly, electronic voice echoed in Lin Yun's mind.
...
Lin Yun dreamed.
In that dream, he obtained a Cosmic Trading System where he could trade with various civilizations across the universe.
All kinds of high-tech products…various resources…all at his fingertips…
Soon, he became the world's richest man…
Furthermore, to his surprise, on the path of his childhood martial arts training, he quickly became the world's top martial artist…