Chapter 6: Poverty Has Limited My Imagination

Lakeview Gardens.

Block 6, Unit 101.

After they had reached home, Fang Ping immediately went into his own small room and closed the door.

Outside, Fang Yuan banged on the door a few times, but Fang Ping refused to let her in. Fang Yuan was so angry that she wanted to break down the door to enter.

At this moment, Fang Ping did not care if Fang Yuan was angry.

While he was withdrawing the money, Fang Ping still had not figured some issues out. Now, he needed to hide someplace to understand it better.

…

In his small room.

The ten thousand bucks that he had withdrawn were put on his left side. On the right side was a ten yuan bill. This was the total amount of Fang Ping’s current wealth.

Fang Ping had regained his composure, but he still had a puzzled expression on.

When he was withdrawing money from the ATM machine and took two thousand bucks into his hands, his sight wavered. Something extra appeared in his sight as if he had floaters in his eyes.

Fang Ping had frozen then because of that.

If he had myodesopsia, his sight would be blurred, but instead, three lines of words were shown clearly in his sight.

Fang Ping still remembered that those three lines of words had appeared:

Wealth: 2000

Vitality: 1

Mentality: 1

Those words were short and simple. The first thing that Fang Ping thought of was a system.

Fang Ping was not quite unfamiliar with items of this matter. Even if he had not experienced this phenomenon himself, he had read books that spoke of it.

Fang Ping then discovered that the words appearing in his sight were overly simple.

There were only a few words, without any explanation or manual. Did systems not come with manuals in this timeline?

Or was it saying that this was a low-quality product made on an assembly line?

It appeared too suddenly too. Fang Ping did not even have a chance to prepare for it.

If this appeared when he had woken up in the classroom the past day, Fang Ping would have accepted its presence without any question. A day had passed, though. Why did it suddenly appear?

Thinking of the number 2000 in the Wealth column, Fang Ping figured out the basics then.

He then conducted some experiments to ensure if it was related to money.

Fang Ping had understood the meaning of Wealth then.

After numerous experiments, Fang Ping still found something difficult to explain.

The first example: He had twenty-eight bucks the past day and currently had ten bucks left.

Why did the words not appear then?

After consideration, he deduced that his remaining ten bucks were not counted into his Wealth, Fang Ping understood the reason somewhat.

In short, he was too poor!

The system in his mind had a mindset for wealth. It completely disregarded an amount lower than a hundred bucks. If he had more than a hundred bucks when he reincarnated, he would have known that this system existed earlier.

Fang Ping was poor though!

If it was not for the registration fee for the martial science examinations, the probability that his parents would give him a hundred bucks in one go was low. Fang Ping would have to discover this system after quite a long duration.

The past day Fang Ping was still complaining that God did not favor him, resulting in him having a hard time despite being a revenant.

According to current evidence, he had wronged Him. The decisive factor was his poverty.

“Poverty is really the underlying cause!”

Fang Ping was emotional after he thought it through. In current times, even God looked down on poor people.

Did He ever think of his feelings?

If he had never gotten the chance to acquire a hundred bucks, would this mean that the system was a waste?

Of course, the possibility of that happening was low.

The second point: as Fang Ping was withdrawing the money, he discovered something out of the ordinary.

After his wealth had increased to 10000, Fang Ping withdrew some more money from the account, but the number did not go up.

After numerous experiments, the number still froze at 10000 and no longer fluctuated.

There were only those few lines, no voice in his mind that explained anything to him and no manual either, so Fang Ping had to make a few guesses.

According to how Fang Ping understood it, the ten thousand bucks were given to him by his parents for registration purposes, so it should be his.

The money that he withdrew later belonged to his parents.

This Wealth was most likely a calculation of his own wealth.

If it was not the case and simply touching money was enough to increase his Wealth, Fang Ping would be thinking of doing nothing but finding a job in a bank that lets him have access to cash on a daily basis.

If he did not go to work in a bank, there were also other occupations that ensured access to money. Some of those did not require high qualifications, and so he could increase his Wealth indefinitely through working at those jobs, even though he did not know what good increasing his Wealth would do.

It was nothing if he did not know. Fang Ping knew that it would not be something detrimental.

“Wealth is a calculation of my own wealth. This system is quite intelligent, which contrasts with its overly simple manifestation, but I’ll take it.”

Fang Ping said to himself, and then he wrinkled his brow again. He muttered, “Is it only limited to cash, or does it include items of value? Gold and jewels, for example?”

When he had little money, it was fine, but what if he was rich? It could not be limited to cash only, could it?

Also, did he need to touch his wealth for the number to increase?

There were things like stock shares and virtual currency in modern society that were incorporeal. He could not touch it even if he wanted to, could he?

Fang Ping was filled with regret. His poverty was the cause of his current inability to make inferences.

If he had gold and jewels or valuable shares in his possession, he could have experimented on it, but now he could only put the matter aside until he had the means to do so.

“I was right, my poverty is limiting my imagination…”

Feeling slightly regretful, Fang Ping did not hasten to prove his guesses; the time to do so would definitely come.

Aside from those two questions that he had an answer to, Fang Ping thought of something else.

Did the calculation of wealth only count his net profit, or did it include his liabilities?

The question sounded paradoxical, but it was related to the next step Fang Ping would take.

This time, the ten thousand bucks he had was given to him by his parents. It could be counted as a gift that they did not have an intent to take back from him.

It was not earned by him, though. If the system counted his own wealth as Wealth, did it count as his if he borrowed it?

Also, would the number dwindle if he handed the ten thousand bucks to his teacher?

Spending money as soon as it was earned was inevitable.

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If his Wealth dwindled after he spent money, Fang Ping would have to be miserly if he wanted to acquire a large amount of Wealth.

Fang Ping was unable to get answers for the questions above due to his current state, so he would have to put them aside for now.

Fang Ping paid the most attention to the words Vitality and Mentality.

Fang Ping had already guessed some parts of it, actually.

Vitality and Mentality were words that he had seen quite often when he was browsing the Web the past day.

Modern martial artists were not few, although they were not common, either.

This, coupled with the accessibility of information, led to the disclosing of some information on the Internet.

Even ordinary citizens knew, albeit not that thoroughly, that Vitality and Mentality were the basics of martial arts.

Few low-ranked martial artists talked about Mentality and did not pay much attention to it.

Some on the Internet had the opinion that the predominant difference between high-ranked martial artists — especially those of Grandmaster-level — and those ranked lower was their Mentality.

This was a distant issue from the current Fang Ping. Lower-ranked martial artists prioritized their Vitality first.

Abundant Vitality meant the elimination of ailments.

In Fang Ping’s past world, the usage of Vitality was common. The preservation of one’s health practiced by traditional Chinese physicians was actually the preserving of Vitality.

People with abundant Vitality were healthier than their peers.

Those food items said to be extremely nourishing were actually replenishing one’s Vitality.

People with abundant Vitality were not always martial artists, but martial artists had to have abundant Vitality.

The practice of martial arts was not equal to meditation. It was still vastly different from the Dao doctrines.

Martial artists were actually ordinary people that trained until their limits were reached and even broken. This was how martial artists came to be.

With abundant Vitality, the body would be healthy and be able to withstand training and exhaustion, setting a base for the body to grow stronger.

“This is also saying that increasing Vitality will make being a martial artist easier.

“After I become a martial artist, it’ll be easier to withstand the impending training that facilitates the advancement into higher ranks, one by one…”

Fang Ping muttered, and then he asked himself, “If my Wealth is shown, and if Vitality and Mentality are quantified, does it mean that I can convert my Wealth into either of these? What is the ratio of conversion?”

1:1 is not a ratio that Fang Ping thought was possible.

Right then, his Vitality and Mentality were both 1.

If the conversion ratio was 1:1, it meant that one yuan was enough to increase his Vitality into double of what ordinary citizens had. He would rather die than believe that it would be so easy.

“How should I convert it then?”

Fang Ping said somewhat helplessly, “Give me a user manual at least. Figuring it out myself is so troublesome.”

Fang Ping only had to focus to see the words and numbers in his sight.

After staring at them for a while, Fang Ping said experimentally, “System, system, add some Vitality for me?”

Nothing happened!

“Mister System, I’m going to convert some Wealth into Vitality?”

“…”

“God, Mister, are you still alive? Can you talk to me?”

“…”

“Open Sesame?”

“…”

” Rabbit, be good? ¹ ”

“…”

“O, the Three Divine Teachers ¹ above? Nam Amitabha ² ? God bless me…”

“F*ck!”

He tried for a while, but the three numbers did not change. Fang Ping gave up completely. It seemed like this was not related to the conversion at all.

After a long consideration, Fang Ping stared at those numbers with all his might, trying to see if there was a plus sign behind the numbers that he had ignored somehow.

There was none, sadly.

Fang Ping was completely baffled. He did not know how to use this system. It could not be broken, could it?

Was this reliable?

He complained in his mind. It would be nice if the system came as a whole. Now it stuck Fang Ping in an awkward situation. Had it considered his feelings?

“Let me add some Vitality, or I’ll beat you to death!”

Fang Ping stared at the numbers and said without thought, but then the numbers suddenly changed after his words.

Wealth: 0

Vitality: 1.1

Mentality: 1

“…”

“F*ck!”

Fang Ping was dumbfounded. Such a method existed?

He would have to threaten this system for it to work?

As he stared in confusion, Fang Ping’s body wriggled unnaturally.

This sensation disappeared quickly.

Fang Ping let out a long breath, and he felt much lighter than before.

If he had to describe what he felt, it was like when an asthma patient was cured of asthma, or if an anemic was no longer so.

If he had to exaggerate, he would say that he felt like the Earth’s gravity seemed a little lesser to him, even though this sensation was fleeting.

“This is comfortable!”

He had only increased his Vitality by 0.1, but he felt more comfortable than jerking off.

This feeling of relief was similar to that of an orgasm — it did not go on for long before subsiding.

It had subsided, but Fang Ping could sense that his body was healthier than before. He understood himself the most, so he could definitely sense if something in his body had changed.

Fang Ping immediately furrowed his brow when he noticed that his Wealth had become zero.

He knew that the ratio would not be too high, but 100000:1 was so expensive!

10000 Wealth points were exchanged for a 0.1 increase in his Vitality. He did not become superhuman; he was, at most, slightly better than ordinary citizens.

If he wanted to reach the standards of a martial artist, how much more Wealth would he need?

At this thought, Fang Ping turned his gaze toward his study table abruptly. He sighed with relief when he saw that the red bills were still there. Luckily, the worst that could happen did not.

If spending Wealth meant that his money was spent too, he would not know how to explain this to his parents.

Grabbing the bills with his hands, Fang Ping went deep into thought again.

It seemed like he would have to earn money diligently in the future. If he wanted to pass the martial science examinations and become a martial artist, the easiest way in this situation was to convert his Wealth into Vitality.

If he really did get admitted into martial sciences, he would have to expend uncountable sums of money to purchase resources.

In other words, everything needed money.

“The poor really don’t have the right to be strong! This is forcing me to think of ideas to earn money!”