Year 2009.
Handong Province, Jingzhou City, Handong University.
"Brother Qian, wake up! We'll be late for class! Today's lecture is by the vice dean; he'll definitely take attendance!"
Pei Qian woke from his sleep, rubbing his eyes, still confused about who was calling him.
'Didn't I rent a single-room apartment? Who got into my room?'
He opened his eyes to find a long, narrow face almost entirely filling his vision.
"Ma Yang?"
Pei Qian stared in shock, almost believing he was dreaming.
"Hurry up! I've done my part waking you—don't blame me if you miss roll call!" Ma Yang's elongated face quickly vanished from Pei Qian's view as he turned around and hurried out of the dorm room.
Wait, dorm room?
Pei Qian instantly became fully alert, springing upright from the bed.
A university dormitory, room for six!
He occupied the lower bunk near the door. He remembered how, during winter, the door never closed tightly, always leaving a gap that let in drafts. He'd complained endlessly about that.
The other two guys in the room were already gathering their things, about to leave.
"Hurry up, Brother Qian. If you run, you might still make it. Otherwise, we definitely won't dare to call your name during attendance—if the vice dean catches us, we'll be in big trouble."
With that, his two roommates quickly exited as well.
Pei Qian pinched himself a couple of times.
Hiss— His cheeks hurt!
Could this actually be happening? This was his university life, wasn't it?
Vice dean's class... attendance... freshman year...
2009?!
Had he really traveled ten years into the past?
Pei Qian hesitated momentarily, then calmly accepted the reality.
After graduating from college in 2013, he'd switched industries, job-hopped several times, dealt with extremely annoying bosses, and experienced office politics firsthand.
In short, a classic corporate slave.
Encountering time travel was undoubtedly a dream come true. Returning ten years earlier and starting fresh—wasn't that what countless people longed for?
All sleepiness vanished, and Pei Qian sat upright in bed.
What now?
Should he report this to the Time Administration Bureau?
Would they execute him on the spot, silencing him?
Or maybe... after time-traveling, the first thing to do was... attend class?
That's absurd!
His memories from ten years ago were somewhat fuzzy, but Pei Qian vaguely recalled skipping many classes in freshman year, including those of the vice dean, yet still passing them.
Though the vice dean threatened attendance checks, he never actually did them.
Ironically, a seemingly gentle young teacher who never took attendance suddenly conducted one check at semester's end, counting it into the final grades.
"I'm not taking attendance; I just want to get to know everyone better," he'd said.
Thinking back, Pei Qian still felt deeply tricked, as he'd naively trusted that friendly teacher at the time.
Suddenly, a translucent screen appeared before Pei Qian, with lines of text gradually forming:
[Wealth Conversion System binding to host...]
[Binding successful.]
[Host: Pei Qian]
[Please review the user instructions for this system.]
"What the heck?!"
Pei Qian jumped in shock but quickly descended into excitement.
As expected, time-travel came with a system—his cheat had arrived!
Calm down, stay calm; this was a common trope. Nothing worth panicking over.
Pei Qian quickly calmed down and began carefully examining the information displayed on the transparent screen.
[Wealth Conversion System]
[Profit/Loss Conversion Ratio: To be determined]
[System Funds: 50,000]
[Personal Assets: 443]
This was the standard template.
Below this general information was a chatbox-like area displaying dynamic details—likely the "User Instructions."
[Wealth Conversion Rules:]
[Periodically, the system will allocate a certain amount of funds to the host. These funds may only be used for legitimate commercial activities related to the business, and must not be wasted frivolously.]
[After each cycle, the system calculates profits or losses relative to the allocated system funds. Both profits and losses will be converted into your personal funds based on a certain ratio, freely available for your use.]
[Special Note: To encourage the host to focus on business operations, you may not directly issue salary payments from the company account to yourself.]
[Next Step: View detailed rules]
"Oh? This system is pure profit!"
"You give me money, and then even share profits or losses with me? What a generous system!"
Pei Qian instantly understood how the system worked.
"System funds" and "personal assets," though both represented money, were entirely different concepts.
The 443 yuan in personal assets meant that Pei Qian currently only had 443 yuan of freely disposable cash.
The 50,000 yuan was the system's money. According to the rules, it could only be used for commercial purposes, such as starting or running a business.
After a period, regardless of making a profit or suffering a loss, a certain portion would be converted into personal assets. Only then could Pei Qian freely spend it.
"This sounds exciting! Let's take a look at the detailed rules."
Pei Qian continued to tap the screen and read carefully:
[The host must engage in normal, reasonable, lawful commercial activities requiring a certain degree of skill.]
[The following activities are violations:]
[Profit-related violations:]
1. Large-scale purchases of real estate for speculation.
2. Buying digital currencies, participating in Ponzi schemes, illegal fundraising activities.
3. Profiteering by reselling goods, disrupting market order.
—(Click to expand the remaining 97 violation rules)
[Loss-related violations:]
1. Conducting charitable donations or transferring company property to others.
2. Making purchases, hiring employees, renting offices, or buying office supplies at prices significantly above market rates.
3. Passive or negligent work with extremely low efficiency, failing to produce any value over extended periods.
—(Click to expand the remaining 97 violation rules)
[Supplementary Clause: The host must not reveal or imply the existence of the system or the challenge to anyone, under any circumstances.]
[The system reserves the final right to interpret definitions of violations.]
[Next Step: Randomly generate the profit/loss conversion ratio]
"The rules really are strict."
Pei Qian scrolled through the extensive list of 200 violations, quickly discarding the few ideas that initially came to mind.
Speculating in real estate, investing in cryptocurrency—both were prohibited by the system.
Normal investments or standard wealth-management products might be allowed, but their typical annual returns probably wouldn't satisfy Pei Qian's ambitions.
The extensive list of 200 violation clauses severely restricted not only the types of profitable activities Pei Qian could engage in but also the ways in which he could incur losses.
In short, every crooked path was off-limits.
Pei Qian continued to tap on the screen and proceeded to the next step.
[Randomly generating profit-loss conversion ratio...]
[Profit Conversion Ratio: 100:1 | Loss Conversion Ratio: 1:1]
"Hmm, wait a moment… This ratio…"
Pei Qian carefully examined it and realized there might be a loophole.
Wasn't the loss conversion ratio suspiciously generous?
If he managed to lose all the system funds, they would directly convert to personal assets at a one-to-one ratio!
Losing money would effectively mean a guaranteed win!
"I randomly generated such an incredible conversion ratio? I'm practically the king of luck!"
"It's a shame that the profit conversion ratio is low, but that doesn't matter—losing money is far easier than making it!"
Pei Qian felt like he had hit the jackpot!
[Final Step: Please enter your company's name (click here to enter)]
Pei Qian thought for a moment and mentally entered: Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd.
The name implied "rapid success," but secretly, his real wish was that the company would quickly fail spectacularly.
["Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd." registration complete.]
With the final step completed, the text on the screen faded away, returning to its initial state:
[Wealth Conversion System]
[Host: Pei Qian]
[Profit Conversion Ratio: 100:1 | Loss Conversion Ratio: 1:1]
[Next settlement date: 14 days remaining]
[Note: If there are any unreleased products one week before settlement, the settlement date will be postponed. The duration of the postponement will be determined by the system.]
[System Funds: 50000]
[Personal Assets: 443]
Pei Qian reviewed the implications of this note.
In the week before settlement, he couldn't hold any unreleased products.
This rule made perfect sense.
Without this rule, he could exploit the system by investing all company assets into unfinished products right before settlement, artificially reducing system funds to zero.
With this rule in place, he was forced to release all products at least a week before settlement, ensuring profits or losses were properly calculated.
"One less loophole, but it doesn't really matter."
"Therefore, my next goal is simple: turn the 50,000 system funds into zero, and my personal assets from 443 into 50,443."
"It's just losing money within the rules. This doesn't seem difficult at all," Pei Qian confidently thought.
All he had to do was start a legitimate company, create real products, and, as the boss, subtly guide the operations slightly off-track.
That should do it!
Successful startups were rare, whereas failed ventures were plentiful.
It's obvious which route he should take!
- - - - - -
If you want to see more chapter of this fic for free, please go to my Scribblehub Account[1], I cross-poted this fic in there too.
Link: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1589938/losing-money-to-become-a-tycoon-starting-with-games/[2]
[1] https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1589938/losing-money-to-become-a-tycoon-starting-with-games/
[2] https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1589938/losing-money-to-become-a-tycoon-starting-with-games/