2: Chapter 2 The Wealth Shop

"Chen Fan, do you have a fever? Why have you been shaking?" his deskmate Jiang Chen suddenly asked.

Eighteen-year-old Jiang Chen's hair still stood up stubbornly, and his school uniform was only zipped halfway, revealing a T-shirt with a hook logo underneath.

Chen Fan's Adam's apple bobbed as he suppressed his surging emotions. "No, my butt is just a bit itchy."

"Then let me treat you." Jiang Chen immediately perked up. He grabbed a gel pen from the desk and leaned in with a mischievous grin. "I guarantee the medicine will cure the disease, though it might hurt a bit."

"Get lost," Chen Fan said, rolling his eyes.

In high school, Chen Fan and Jiang Chen had a pretty good relationship. After all, they were deskmates. It was only after graduation, when they went to different cities, that they lost touch.

After calming his emotions, Chen Fan began to examine the system in his mind.

[wealth store]

Host: Chen Fan

Age: 18

Wealth Points: 0

The system interface was very simple. After studying it for a while, Chen Fan understood its functions.

Currently, the system had only one function: the wealth store.

Upon opening the wealth store, an interface similar to a shop in a video game appeared.

There were currently only twelve items in the shop, arranged in a three-by-four grid. The items emitted various colored glows, much like in a game; most were white, with only one appearing green.

Chen Fan took a quick look. The white items were basically daily necessities like soap, priced at around two to three or five to six Wealth Points.

Chen Fan's gaze only lingered briefly on the white items before quickly moving to the green one.

This sole green item was something called an energy potion.

As Chen Fan focused his attention on the energy potion, a description of the item surfaced in his mind.

The energy potion's only effect was to remove the user's negative statuses and restore energy. The price of this potion was 1,000 points.

To Chen Fan, the other white items were basically useless since they could be bought in reality, but this energy potion was extremely useful.

After all, Chen Fan often pulled all-nighters, and every time he did, he felt like he was dying. If he had an energy potion, he could immediately return to his peak state.

Moreover, since it could remove negative statuses, could it also remove *that* kind of negative state? If it really could, being a "seven-times-a-night man" would be no problem at all.

Furthermore, at a price of one thousand, it was practically a steal. For rich people, someone would likely buy a potion that could fully restore energy even if it cost a hundred thousand.

Pulling his thoughts back, Chen Fan looked at a line of text at the bottom of the shop.

There was a row of numbers there, constantly ticking down.

[Refresh Countdown: 13:40:59]

Seeing the time, Chen Fan was slightly stunned. It turned out the items weren't fixed; they refreshed just like in a game.

Based on Chen Fan's years of gaming experience, this energy potion would likely be gone after tomorrow's refresh. However, there might be other more attractive items, perhaps even something that could solve his academic performance issues.

Chen Fan tried to select the energy potion and click purchase, and a prompt immediately popped up.

[Insufficient Wealth Points, purchase failed.]

Hearing this prompt, Chen Fan remembered that his Wealth Points were still at zero.

So the question now was, how exactly was he supposed to get the Wealth Points needed to buy these things?

Thinking of this, Chen Fan moved his attention to the Wealth Points column in the system, and a description immediately surfaced in his mind.

He soon understood how to obtain them. It was actually quite simple: as long as Chen Fan earned money in the future, he could obtain Wealth Points.

Every yuan earned would grant one Wealth Point; earning 1,000 yuan would grant 1,000 Wealth Points.

Neither spending Wealth Points nor spending money would affect the other. That is, even if Chen Fan spent 1,000 Wealth Points to buy something, it only meant his Wealth Points decreased by 1,000; the 1,000 yuan he earned would still be in his bank account or his pocket.

Having finished researching the system, Chen Fan began to think about how to make money. After all, making money was the only way to obtain Wealth Points.

[Ding! Would you like to claim the Newbie Gift Pack?]

Just then, the system's voice interrupted Chen Fan's thoughts.

Chen Fan was delighted; there was actually a Newbie Gift Pack.

He immediately clicked to claim it without hesitation.

After claiming it, an interface similar to choosing a reward after opening a treasure chest in an online game instantly popped up in Chen Fan's mind.

A golden rectangular frame appeared with three options inside.

The first option showed an icon of a book, the second was a line chart similar to stock market fluctuations, and the last was something like a PPT.

These three options only had images, with no text descriptions underneath.

Seeing these three options, Chen Fan was momentarily dazed. He had thought the system's Newbie Gift Pack would at least give some money—if not millions, then at least tens of thousands would do. Otherwise, why call it the Wealth System?

To his surprise, the gift pack gave him a rather inexplicable feeling.

Was the book telling him to write novels? Would there be rewards for writing novels?

Was the chart telling him to trade stocks? But he barely understood K-line charts; wouldn't going in just be like throwing his life away?

The PPT was even more ridiculous—it couldn't be telling him to find a job and then draw "big pies" for the boss, could it?

"What kind of crappy..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly remembered something.

Newbie Gift Pack. Wealth System.

It couldn't possibly give him useless things, right?

He tried moving his consciousness to the first option, and a text description immediately popped up.

[One Qidian Hit Web Novel (Unreleased)]

"Huh?" Chen Fan's eyes lit up. It was actually a Qidian hit web novel. This was good stuff.

Although he wrote for Fanqie in his previous life, he was also very familiar with Qidian's novels.

Based on the data of a Qidian hit, it wouldn't be a problem to earn over ten million from one book.

To be honest, seeing this reward, Chen Fan was tempted and felt an impulse to confirm it immediately.

Because for the current Chen Fan, this was very suitable; he could obtain a large income without any cost.

However, Chen Fan controlled himself. After all, there were two other options; perhaps one would be even more suitable.

With that in mind, he immediately looked at the second option.

[Real-time Stock Trends of the A-share Market for the Next 30 Days]

"Real-time stock trends!" Seeing this description, Chen Fan's eyes widened once again.

With this, it was like having a god's eye view—which stocks would rise, which would fall, when to buy, and when to sell, everything would be crystal clear. This wasn't trading stocks; this was picking up money.

His heart skipped a beat.

But soon, that excitement was like having cold water thrown on it, and it slowly cooled down.

Trading stocks... required capital.

Chen Fan only had a few dozen yuan in his pocket. Although he had never traded stocks, he knew this amount probably wasn't even enough for the account opening fee, let alone trading.

"Help others trade stocks and earn a service fee?" As soon as this thought appeared, Chen Fan dismissed it.

He knew what kind of person he was—a total loser. Why would anyone believe him? Moreover, Chen Fan currently looked like a high school student, making him even less credible.

So, wanting to be like a novel protagonist who could convince others with a wave of his arm was completely unrealistic for Chen Fan.

Thus, after much deliberation, Chen Fan had to rule out this option.