Date: June 30, 2024
Location: Boys' Dormitory Building 1, Room 404, Caiyun University
…
Zhou Wang, with a scruffy beard and disheveled hair, bid farewell to the last of his roommates to leave.
"Brother Dog, are you sure you don't want to come over to my place for a couple of days?"
"No, I have an interview tomorrow."
"Alright then, take care, and let's keep in touch through WeChat!"
After watching his roommate disappear around the corner of the hallway with his suitcase, Zhou Wang gazed at the empty dorm room, sighed, and began the final sweeping.
He had finally graduated…
The day after tomorrow was the deadline to leave the university. The last roommate who had just left was a local from the provincial city, which is why he left last.
Those who lived far away or had already secured jobs had left progressively earlier.
After finishing the cleaning, Zhou Wang sat on a chair, his face a mix of confusion and a hint of reluctance.
What about himself?
He picked up his Xiaomi 12 with a cracked corner of the screen and reopened a group buying app to look up a list of train schedules.
His home was in Jing City, in the same province but not far from the provincial city. The intercity train could get there in one and a half hours. There were plenty of trains available tomorrow, and he could even leave today.
He had already sent most of his luggage back home in advance, only leaving behind some daily necessities at the school. There wasn't much left to pack.
But… Zhou Wang couldn't make the final decision to leave.
A couple of days ago, his parents had called, unanimously suggesting that Zhou Wang return home and look for a job.
Being from a modest family, it was already a strain to buy a house in the provincial city. The family had recently endured a mishap, which only made matters worse, leaving no chance of support for Zhou Wang.
Life in a small city was less stressful, and with his parents somewhat connected, finding a decent job, marrying a decent girl, his life would probably just be ordinary…
Damn, I'm not a rapper!
A sudden notification sound on his phone jolted Zhou Wang from his thoughts.
He looked down; it was a message in the class group, not specifically for him but from a girl with the group nickname "It's Ding Yi," tagging everyone.
"Classmates, my birthday party is on the 3rd of next month. If anyone is still in the provincial city then, feel free to come and celebrate with me—just DM me. Sorry for the interruption, wishing everyone a future as bright as the silk, and smooth sailing!"
"Little Cat Waving.gif"
Staring at her profile picture, Zhou Wang's eyes showed a glint of complexity.
Ding Yi was the most attractive girl in their class and a perennial contender in the Miss Caiyun University rankings on the university's forum, her fair and flawless, seemingly non-local skin, her bright features partially attributed to mixed heritage, coupled with her tall figure and killer legs, made her the unattainable goddess of many male students' fantasies.
In fact, Zhou Wang and she had once had a brief flirtation.
After all, Zhou Wang wasn't bad-looking either, just a plain class hunk, who was rather popular during their relatively innocent freshman year.
Unfortunately, after his family's mishap, Zhou Wang's attempt to start a business for a better future had failed, leading to a prolonged period of despondency after an incident, which naturally caused him and Ding Yi to drift apart.
Now, they were probably even more distant than average classmates.
On the still-open laptop in front of him, the screen showed the game interface of "Teamfight Tactics," commonly known as "Chess."
"You have been eliminated: Ranked eighth."
Staring at the grayed-out game interface, Zhou Wang smirked sardonically.
If life were also a game of chess, his four years in college had been played terribly, hadn't they?
Ding!
Suitable Host detected, Life's Chess System successfully launched!
[The game of life has just begun, a perfect opening can always keep you ahead.]
[Host has triggered the newbie reward, receiving special privilege "Prismatic Opening".]
[Please choose your first Hextech enhancing rune.]
[Note: The next Hextech will unlock after triggering five "action rounds".]
[Current action rounds completed: 0]
(Small tip: Not having played the game before will not affect your reading experience of this book.)
Zhou Wang hadn't even recovered from his surprise when a series of notifications echoed in his mind.
Suddenly, a holographic screen appeared in front of him with three different options:
"Path Forward," "Hedge Fund," "Demon Contract."
Everything happened so suddenly and Zhou Wang, still confused, almost instinctively clicked on "Hedge Fund," not even taking a closer look.
Ding!
[Host has chosen "Hedge Fund".]
[Hextech in effect, the first profit will be credited at 0:00 tomorrow, please check the system interface for details.]
What the hell?
It was only then that Zhou Wang suddenly realized what was happening and stood up abruptly.
He had a system too?
Probably because he had been immersed in online novels for years, Zhou Wang, despite being excited, surprisingly accepted this fact quite easily.
He couldn't wait to check the system interface.
[Active Hextech: Hedge Fund]
[Hedge Fund (Prismatic Rank): All disposable cash in the host's personal account will earn 10% daily interest, with a maximum interest of 10,000 yuan]
10%?
Daily interest?
Zhou Wang couldn't believe his eyes, making sure he wasn't seeing things wrong.
Typically, a good return even for a standard money market fund would be 4%, perhaps 6% in some rare cases, with most hovering between 2% and 3%...
Note that the above returns are annual.
What does a daily interest of 10% mean?
Even loan sharks aren't that excessive!
Although there was a cap at 100,000, if he could somehow muster a million, he'd rake in three million a month just from interest!
Robbing a bank might be faster, but who can consistently rob a hundred thousand every day?
Who needs a job with numbers like that?
Excited, Zhou Wang paced around his dorm room for quite a while before he calmed down and realized a new problem:
He didn't have a million.
Not just him, his family couldn't pull together that much either, maybe not even a hundred thousand.
His family's old house might be worth a few hundred thousand, but he couldn't just ask his parents to sell it for no reason, could he?
Besides, he noticed that the system used the term "disposable cash."
In Zhou Wang's understanding, this implied that he had to have full control over the money, not just temporarily on his account without real access to it.
That made the limitation even bigger!
Zhou spent some time consolidating the funds in his various accounts and eventually, staring at the balance of 973 yuan on WeChat, he fell into deep thought.
So poor...
That included a subsidy from an internship he just completed; otherwise, his bank account could hardly scrape together five hundred yuan.
Where to get money?
He opened Alipay, checked his credit limit—2,000 on Huabei and 4,731 on Jiebei because he still owed over 5,000.
Previous business failures combined with handling many of university expenses himself had made Zhou Wang, young as he was, a "debtor."
Not just Jiebei, but there was also a few thousand from 'Gold Bar' and over ten thousand from 'Somele.'
He had planned on paying off his debts slowly after he started working, but now he might try to turn the tables.
After some moves, Zhou Wang's WeChat balance became 8,273 yuan.
Unfortunately, without a formal job, he couldn't get a credit card, and it wasn't the most chaotic time for lending; otherwise, he might easily have scraped together over a hundred thousand.
"But if it's just about having control, then money borrowed from friends should count, right?"
Zhou thought about it; it's best if there's no rush to pay back, otherwise borrowing today and returning tomorrow might also be judged by the system as "non-disposable."
He opened his phone contacts, thought about it, and eventually only chose two people to send a voice message to.
He had been through lows, especially during the period when his family had issues, and he had profound insights about the sensitive matter of borrowing money.
First, if you're not sure whether someone will lend to you, it's best not to ask at all.
Second, in the adult world, silence is a tacit refusal. Sometimes you might get the money, but you might lose a friendship.
Third, if you really need to ask for help, it's best to approach people who have helped you before, as they are likely to help you again.
Ding-dong!
Minutes later, a WeChat notification popped up. It was a transfer of 3,000 yuan from a contact named "Number One Godson" accompanied by a voice message.
Zhou Wang played the audio, which jokingly said, "When the son has trouble, of course, the dad has to help!"
"Bugger off!"
Zhou shot back a message while receiving the transfer.
Just three thousand though... While Yang Hao was well-off, his own spending habits and a girlfriend who could spend meant that the 8,000 yuan monthly allowance from his family didn't accumulate into much.
Zhou figured that was probably all Yang Hao could spare and couldn't ask for more.
Another childhood friend hadn't replied yet, but Zhou wasn't in a rush. Checking the time, it was just past five. He lay down on his bed and started exploring the system further.
According to the system, there would be more 'Hextech innovations' coming after the first one...
But how to trigger this "action round"?
The system didn't specify, and Zhou felt a bit clueless.
Also, things had been too rushed before, and he hadn't even had a chance to check the other two options, not knowing what "Road Forward" and "Demon Contract" might involve.
Demon Contract... Surely it's not about exchanging life for money?
Oh, many people probably already have that buff.
Moreover, since it's a new player protection giving out "Prismatic Tier" Hextech, according to the game's classification, there might still be "Silver Rank" and "Golden Rank", with "Prismatic Rank" no doubt being the best.
Having double-checked that the system's appearance wasn't his imagination, Zhou Wang pondered other quick ways to accumulate capital when his phone "ding-donged" again.
Picking up the phone, he realized it was already past seven. It was a message from the other contact, just under the normal name "Liu Zixi."
"Can you pay back within three months?"
Just a simple question.
"Yes."
Zhou replied instantly, having roughly estimated earlier that even with an initial capital of ten thousand, rolling it over a month could turn it into over two hundred thousand.
So he was anxious yet not anxious.
Borrowing money was merely to accelerate the early stages and save a bit of time.
Seconds later, Liu Zixi sent a transfer.
Ding-dong!
"Please receive payment: 50,000 yuan"
Zhou Wang: "?"