4: Chapter 4: One strike can make you poor, one strike can make you rich!

A piece of rough cardboard, held down by a broken brick, stood on the oil-stained ground.

The ink from the low-quality marker was not yet dry, and the wild, cursive characters looked particularly glaring under the dim streetlights, exuding a sense of reckless arrogance.

"god and demon blind box, Heaven-Defying Fate Changer! One cut for poverty, one cut for wealth, one cut to wear sackcloth! Price: 10,000 alliance coins each."

Lin Fan sat cross-legged behind a tattered cloth, with those three pitch-black wooden boxes placed in front of him.

This small patch of open ground was right next to a public restroom, where the stench of urine mixed with the cumin scent of barbecue, typical of the night market, made one's head ache.

But he sat straight, appearing completely out of place in the noisy and chaotic environment.

10,000 alliance coins.

This number was like an invisible threshold, instantly blocking those passersby who had curiously gathered around.

"Are you crazy?"

A middle-aged man wearing a grey training suit stopped, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the cardboard and Lin Fan's Face, before finally letting out a scoff, "Students these days, are they crazy for money? You dare to sell a few pieces of rotten wood wrapped up for 10,000?"

His companion beside him also chimed in: "god and demon blind box? I think it's a Charlatan blind box. Young man, which street-stall literature did you copy this ad copy from? 'Heaven-Defying Fate Changer'? Why don't you just write 'Instant Ascension' instead?"

A scattering of mocking laughter erupted around them.

In this Martial Artist night market, although it was filled with all sorts of treasures of questionable authenticity, everyone had their own measure.

10,000 alliance coins was enough to buy a bottle of "Elementary Blood Qi Potion" produced by a legitimate manufacturer, which was a hard currency that could genuinely increase one's blood qi value.

Who would spend this money to buy a product of unknown origin, with shabby packaging and no certifications?

"Young people these days, not focusing on proper Cultivation, just thinking about taking the Evil Path."

"Let's go, let's go, stop looking, he's just a fraud trying to attract attention."

The crowd gathered and then dispersed.

Those looks of disdain, mockery, and treating him like a fool were like fine needles pricking Lin Fan's body.

"Hey, you, the one running the street stall."

A duck-like voice suddenly exploded in his ear.

Several youths with dyed, multi-colored hair and a hooligan air pushed through the crowd, surrounding him brazenly. The leader had a mohawk hairstyle, wore a leather jacket covered in studs, and was twirling a butterfly knife in his hand.

They were street thugs who frequented the night market.

The mohawk youth squatted down, used the tip of his butterfly knife to lift the cardboard, and looked at Lin Fan with a playful expression: "Buddy, you're pretty wild. 'One cut for poverty, one cut for wealth'? Come on, tell us brothers, is what's inside these boxes gold or diamonds?"

"Yeah, open it up and let us have a look." The yellow-haired thug beside him reached out to grab the wooden box on the ground.

Slap.

A hand suddenly shot out, precisely gripping the yellow-haired thug's wrist.

Lin Fan slowly opened his eyes.

His movements were not fast, but very steady. That hand was not sturdy, even looking somewhat pale and thin, but as it gripped the yellow-haired thug's wrist, it was like an iron clamp, motionless.

"No refunds after purchase."

Lin Fan's voice was very soft, somewhat indistinct in the noisy night market, "No credit, and absolutely no freebies."

"Damn, you don't know what's good for you, huh?"

The yellow-haired thug felt his wrist being squeezed by an iron hoop, his Face twitching in pain, and his other hand subconsciously formed a fist and smashed towards Lin Fan's Face, "Let go! Otherwise, I'll cripple you!"

The fist whistled through the air.

Although he was just a low-level thug, this strike made in anger still carried dozens of pounds of force; if it landed solidly, his nasal bone would undoubtedly break.

Lin Fan didn't even lift his eyelids.

His right hand, which was gripping the yellow-haired thug's wrist, twisted violently and pulled backward using the thug's own momentum. The yellow-haired thug lost his balance, stumbling forward and falling, his aggressive punch smashing directly onto the hard concrete ground.

Bang!

"Agh!"

A pig-slaughtering scream instantly drowned out the surrounding hawking.

Lin Fan let go, sat back down cross-legged, as if nothing had just happened, just like swatting a fly.

"Get lost."

One word, concise and to the point.

The butterfly knife in the mohawk youth's hand stopped. He looked with suspicion and uncertainty at the overly calm teenager in front of him, then looked at his underling rolling on the ground clutching his hand.

Is he a trained fighter?

But to make a living in this area, Face is more important than life. If he was scared off by a student, how could he lead his underlings in the future?

"Fine, kid, you've got guts."

The mohawk youth stood up, pointed viciously at Lin Fan, "Daring to touch my people in the West Zone night market, you just wait. If this stall can last through tonight, I'll take your surname!"

After delivering his threat, the few of them hoisted the yellow-haired thug up and slunk into the crowd.

This was just a small interlude.

In the chaotic Martial Artist night market, such friction happened dozens of times every night. Besides providing a bit of gossip for the onlookers, it didn't change Lin Fan's situation of being ignored.

On the contrary, the stall owner next to him was unhappy.

That was a bald man selling mutant beast teeth and bones; business was originally quite good, but after the thugs caused a scene, the customers all ran away.

"Bad luck!"

The bald stall owner spat a glob of phlegm hard, landing right next to Lin Fan's stall line, and said in a sarcastic, Yin and Yang tone: "I say, little brother, if you don't have the ability, don't learn from others and come out to set up a stall. Messing around with a few broken boxes to pretend to be mysterious, and even attracting a bunch of hooligans, aren't you deliberately ruining everyone's business?"

As he spoke, he deliberately moved his pile of foul-smelling beast bones towards Lin Fan's side, almost pressing onto Lin Fan's cardboard.

"If you're smart, get lost quickly and stop being an eyesore here. This spot belongs to me for my goods from now on."

This was typical bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

Not daring to provoke the thugs, he took his anger out on the student who looked easy to bully.

Lin Fan turned his head slightly.

The dim light hit his profile, casting a shadow that made his expression unclear.

But that one look he gave the bald stall owner made the other man swallow the profanity that had reached his lips.

What kind of look was that?

Indifferent, without any emotional fluctuation belonging to a human. It was just like... the starving lone wolves he had seen in the Wasteland Zone, staring at a piece of breathing meat.

That was the Evil Qi that only settles after truly killing and seeing blood.

The bald stall owner's heart skipped a beat, and a chill ran up his spine to the back of his head. Intuition told him that if he said one more word, this seemingly frail teenager would really lash out and hurt someone.

"Ahem..."

He let out a dry laugh to cover up his inner panic, silently pulled back the beast bones that had crossed the line, lowered his head to pretend to organize his goods, and never dared to look this way again.

The world was finally quiet.

But Lin Fan's heart sank deeper and deeper.

He took out his old phone with the cracked screen and checked the time.

9:30 PM.

There were only two hours left until the night market closed. And his blind box had still not sold a single one.

1,200 alliance coins.

This was his entire net worth, not even enough to pay next month's rent, let alone that crushing mountain of one million.

"System."

Lin Fan asked in his heart, "Can you lower the price? Just sell one to recover some funds, even 5,000 would be fine."

[Warning: Products from this System are guaranteed to be high-quality. Price is anchored to value; do not undersell.]

[Each blind box contains an opportunity to change fate; 10,000 alliance coins is already a welfare price for the novice period. Please maintain the prestige of the "god and demon blind box".]

Prestige?

Can prestige be eaten as a meal? Can prestige save Xiaoya's life?

Lin Fan felt speechless; it felt like he had activated this cheat, yet it was as if he hadn't.

A sense of powerlessness surged into his heart again.

Is it really not going to work?

Must he, even with a Golden Finger, still be ruthlessly trampled underfoot by reality?