1: Chapter 1: Ga Ga earned a hundred million in one go.

Lin Feng was certain he was dead.

It wasn't a guess, but a certainty. He clearly remembered that at 3:16 AM, right after sending out the forty-seventh version of the proposal, his chest suddenly felt as if it were being squeezed by someone; his vision went black, and then he knew nothing more.

So when he woke up, his first reaction was:

Oh, so the afterlife looks like this.

Dilapidated. Old. Cramped.

A piece of the ceiling had fallen off, the corners of the walls were moldy, the windows were drafty, and from next door came the smell of Indian curry along with a fierce argument in Hindi.

Lin Feng lay there for three seconds, waiting for the Mengpo Soup.

It didn't come.

What came instead was his phone vibrating.

He reached for it and looked—

[Landlord Tina]: Hey, Lin, rent is three days late. Pay by tomorrow or get out.

[USCIS]: Your visa will expire in 7 days. Please take action.

[Bank]: Your account balance is $2.37.

[Unknown Number]: Do you need to book a flight back home? Special offer!

Lin Feng stared at the screen, reading every message three times.

Then he reached two conclusions:

One, he wasn't dead.

Two, he wished he were.

In his previous life, he was a corporate slave who died from overwork; in this life, he started as a broke international student. Rent was three days overdue, his visa had only a week left, his balance was $2.37, and his phone held the seventh deportation warning.

What kind of hellish difficulty level for reincarnation was this?

Just as Lin Feng was about to curse, a voice suddenly exploded in his head—

[Ding—]

[Host detected: So poor he's about to die.]

Lin Feng was stunned for a moment.

What the hell?

[Solution: Make the world happy.]

Lin Feng thought he had misheard: "...What?"

[Mission: Make 10 strangers smile sincerely within 24 hours.]

[Reward: $500,000.]

Silence.

Lin Feng looked at the ceiling and was silent for three seconds.

Then he laughed.

"Fine," he said. "I'm already dead anyway; dying once more won't hurt."

He scrambled up, put on a hoodie with a yellowed collar, stuffed his last $2.37 into his pocket, and pushed the door open to head out.

-

There was a Coffee Shop on the corner with a sign that read "Joe's Coffee."

Lin Feng walked in and slapped the $2.37 onto the counter. "One of the cheapest, please."

The Latina girl at the register glanced at him, said nothing, poured a cup of black coffee, and pushed it over.

Lin Feng took the coffee but didn't leave.

He stared at the pen holder on the counter for three seconds, then looked up and asked, "Can I borrow a pen?"

The girl raised an eyebrow. "For what?"

Lin Feng thought for a moment and said, "To make some art."

The girl chuckled and handed him the pen.

Lin Feng found a seat by the window and began drawing on the coffee cup.

He drew quickly, without much skill—just kindergarten-level doodles. But every drawing had one thing in common—

Misery.

The first cup: A dog, abandoned by its owner, squatting in the rain.

The second cup: An office worker, staring at a computer, completely bald.

The third cup: A fish, lying on a cutting board, with "I don't want to be braised" written next to it.

Lin Feng drew ten in one breath.

When he finished, he even laughed at himself. "Damn, even more miserable than me."

He carried the ten cups out of the Coffee Shop, crouched at the street corner, and began handing them out.

The first person to pass by was a fat man in a suit, talking on the phone as he walked, his face flushed bright red. "Say that again? Laid off? I've worked for fifteen years and you say I'm laid off just like that?!"

Lin Feng handed him the first cup.

The fat man looked down at the abandoned dog, froze for a moment, and then cursed, "Fuck, it's even more miserable than me."

He took the cup, and the corner of his mouth actually quirked up a bit.

[Mission Progress: 1/10.]

Lin Feng's eyes lit up.

The second person was a cleaning lady, pushing a cart, her face expressionless.

Lin Feng handed her the second cup—the balding office worker.

The lady glanced at it and suddenly laughed out loud. "This looks exactly like that deadbeat of mine at home."

She took the cup.

[Mission Progress: 2/10.]

Third, fourth, fifth...

A homeless man, an intern, a couple who had just finished arguing, a delivery driver crying after being scolded by their boss—

Everyone who received a cup would pause for a moment and then smile.

Lin Feng crouched at the street corner, handing out cups like a crazy person, grinning foolishly every time he gave one away.

When he got to the ninth one, an Asian guy in a plaid shirt stood before him, his eyes red.

Lin Feng glanced at his badge—Google Intern.

He handed over the ninth cup—the fish on the cutting board.

The guy took it, looked at it for three seconds, and suddenly burst into tears.

Lin Feng was startled. "Hey, brother, it's not that serious—"

"Not that," the guy said, wiping away tears. "I just feel... it's too damn real. My internship ends tomorrow, and I just got an email today saying they're not renewing it."

Lin Feng fell silent.

The guy cried a bit more, then laughed, holding up the cup and saying, "Thanks, this fish is pretty cute."

He walked away.

[Mission Progress: 9/10.]

Lin Feng watched his retreating back, suddenly feeling a bit dazed.

He used to be like that too. Tortured by proposals, scolded by the boss, ground into the dirt by life, and no one had ever handed him a cup with a miserable fish on it.

Forget it, why think about that.

The last cup, Lin Feng saved for the Latina girl at the register from the beginning.

He walked back into the Coffee Shop and placed the cup on the counter.

The girl looked down—the cup had a drawing of a cashier surrounded by a crowd of customers, with three words above her head: "I'm so tired."

She was stunned for a moment, then looked up at Lin Feng.

Lin Feng smiled. "Thanks for the pen."

The girl stared at the cup for five seconds and then smiled.

The kind of smile that rippled out from the depths of her eyes.

[Mission Progress: 10/10. Congratulations, Host, for completing the mission.]

[Reward Issued: $500,000 has been deposited.]

Lin Feng pulled out his phone and opened his banking app.

Balance: $2.37 → $500,002.37.

He stared at that number for a full ten seconds.

Then he stuffed his phone back into his pocket and said to the girl, "Give me another coffee. The most expensive one."

The girl smiled and poured him a cup. "On the house."

Lin Feng walked out with his coffee and stood on the streets of America, taking a sip.

The coffee was quite bitter.

But he was grinning like an idiot.

---

Beside the trash can across the street, a homeless man was holding up the first cup he'd handed out, grinning foolishly at the abandoned dog on it.

Lin Feng looked at that scene, and a thought suddenly popped into his head—

This system seems pretty interesting.

[End of Chapter 1]