Chapter 1

Being a beast of burden is too difficult.

Xia Ke collapsed onto her workstation, looking at her newly arrived salary on her phone with utter despair.

After setting aside money for rent, credit card payments, utilities, and transportation, I only had a pitiful two thousand yuan left in my account.

This money will be all I need for the next month's meals and living expenses.

I won't starve to death, but living well is just a dream. I have to think twice before going out for a nice meal with friends, otherwise I'll end up broke by the end of the month.

When will these days of poverty end?!

Fortunately, I've paid off all my credit card debts this month, so I'll finally have some savings next month and won't have to live such a tight life anymore.

There are so many rich people in the world, why can't there be one more like her?

Amidst Xia Ke's grumbling, a sharp electronic voice suddenly exploded in her ears.

[Drip—Drip—Drip]

Xia Ke was startled and instinctively cried out, "What was that sound!"

It was lunch break, and Xia Ke's colleagues around her were all taking a nap at their desks. One colleague, woken up by Xia Ke's noise, opened his eyes, glared at the culprit, frowned, and went back to sleep.

Only Xia Ke's usual mealtime and gossip buddy, still half-asleep, sat up and looked at her. "What's wrong? There wasn't a sound just now. Were you dreaming?"

No sound?

Did she mishear?

Just as I was wondering, the voice rang out again, "Technology creates wealth, wisdom drives the future, and the entrepreneurial intelligent assistant is now bound."

This time, Xia Ke learned her lesson and didn't yell or scream anymore.

She leaned slightly forward and whispered to Chen Rui next door, "Rui Rui, did you hear that? They were talking about how technology creates wealth..."

Chen Rui sat up straight and frowned as she listened carefully. All she could hear were the varying breathing sounds of her colleagues as they slept, occasionally interspersed with the faint tapping of keyboards and mice by colleagues who were still working at noon. There were absolutely no other sounds.

She shook her head and asked with concern, "I didn't hear anything. Are you hallucinating because you're too tired from working overtime? Should you take a day off and go to the hospital?"

Is there really no sound?

Xia Ke frowned. Could she really be hallucinating because she was sick?

But auditory hallucinations shouldn't last that long, right?

"Rui Rui, you keep sleeping, I'm going to the bathroom."

Xia Ke refused her colleagues' concern and used the excuse of needing to urinate to hide in the bathroom.

The voice that only she could hear was still murmuring in her ear, "Hello, host number 563819, I am your entrepreneurial AI assistant. Nice to meet you. The system will accompany you through every hard day of your entrepreneurial journey until you achieve the entrepreneurial success as determined by the system."

What the hell is this?

Monsters and demons, get out of here! Monsters and demons, get out of here!

Xia Ke's head was throbbing from the noise. She shook her head in annoyance, "Stop arguing, I didn't want to start a business!"

She can barely afford to eat, let alone start a business. Besides, the current economic climate is bad; even people smarter and more cautious than her wouldn't dare to start a business. She's penniless, has no capital, and doesn't understand business operations. Only someone crazy would think of starting their own business.

Although working is tough and the pay is low, the risk is low.

Her impoverished life could no longer withstand even the slightest setback.

"The host will soon be starting a business. As for the project issues that the host is worried about, the system will help the host. As long as the project is chosen well, the funding problem will be solved."

"Do you know what I'm thinking?" Xia Ke often reads novels after get off work and knows that in some novel settings, the system can read the host's thoughts.

She didn't want to reveal all her thoughts to this unknown system like she was invisible.

"Reading the host's brainwaves is a violation of human rights. This conclusion is a reasonable inference based on the host's personality and the behavior of the previous 563,818 hosts when they were first bound to the system."

"You should find someone else. I really don't want to start a business." Although the protagonists in novels who are bound to systems are all very cool and reach the pinnacle of life by relying on the system, she would rather have money fall from the sky and kill her than be bound to an unfamiliar system and bear the hidden and unknown risks.

Loves money but is timid.

Only the cautious live long.

"Once the system is bound, it cannot be unbound except by completing system tasks. Otherwise, it will cause great damage to the host's soul. If you try to forcibly unbind, it will cause brain damage and persistent cognitive impairment at best, and vital signs will stop at worst. Are you really sure you want to forcibly unbind?"

Although the words were spoken in a very formal manner, Xia Ke still understood them.

It's basically a choice between becoming an idiot or becoming a corpse.

Xia Ke was furious. No one would be happy to be bound to something like this without their consent, and to have to pay a huge price to unbind themselves.

However, she is someone who can suppress her emotions and never expresses her anger or unhappiness casually.

Take a deep breath.

She can't get angry, she can't get angry. She's the weaker party now, and she can't beat the high-tech system. Making things too tense will only harm her.

"What tasks do I need to complete? What are the negative consequences of failing to complete them?"

"The host has only one main mission: to start a business independently and successfully. 'Starting a business independently' means starting a business without relying on any individual or group outside of the host. During this process, the system will assign entrepreneurial tasks. If the task is completed, the system will issue points as a reward. If the task is failed, points or funds will be deducted from the host's account, with the deduction standard determined by the difficulty of the task."

"How much was the first mission worth to your previous 563,818 hosts? What was the mission success rate?"

"According to calculations, the average value of the first mission for the first 563,818 hosts was 96,372 yuan, with a success rate of 98%."

In other words, if I fail the first mission, I'll be fined over 96,000 yuan? With her current bank account balance, that's enough to turn her account into a negative number.

The task completion rate is quite high, but Xia Keke won't be fooled by the 98% success rate. Anyone who has played games knows that the first task in a game is often the easiest to complete, and the difficulty of the tasks increases as the game progresses.

"What if I don't accept your mission?"

"According to Article 532 of the System Law, if the host experiences procrastination, negativity, or discouragement in response to the task, the system has the right to impose certain penalties and incentives on the host without violating human rights laws. Based on the host's situation, if the host continues to treat the task with a negative attitude, the system will deduct 1,000 yuan from the host's account daily as a penalty."

Xia Ke was so angry she almost jumped up.

"Why are you deducting money from my account? You didn't ask for my consent before binding me, so you have no right to deduct money from my account!"

"The system apologizes for the forced binding, and will compensate you with one free project lottery draw."

In fact, system binding requires a relatively long period of due diligence beforehand to assess whether the candidate is suitable to complete the task, and the host's consent is indeed needed during binding. However, the system has exhausted its energy during this time travel and urgently needs to bind to a host to obtain energy. Therefore, the emergency plan was activated, and binding was forcibly performed without the host's consent in order to complete the system's task and obtain energy, thus avoiding the dangerous situation of shutting down and going into hibernation.

Of course, as an experienced intelligent mechanical life form, it chose to conceal these things that would hinder the completion of the mission.

Xia Ke was utterly helpless against this unyielding system, and in despair, she asked...

"So what is the first task?"

This system is clearly a product of a higher dimension. She has no doubt about the authenticity of the system's ability to deduct from her account balance. She can't gamble with her pitiful two thousand yuan balance.

We can't afford to gamble.

This is all she has this month's savings! Without it, she'll starve to death!

"The first step in starting a business is, of course, to own your own company. The first task is to create your own startup company. Task requirements: The company must be recognized by the local government where the host is located. The company type must be a technology company and it must have a physical office address (the office address can be changed)."

Setting up a company is indeed not a difficult task, no wonder the completion rate is 98%.

As Xia Ke was pondering, she heard the system say something else.

"The second step in starting a business is, of course, to determine the direction of your business! We are now issuing a task: identify your business project."

"The host can use points to purchase items in the system store, or find items on the current market. Please note that the entrepreneurial project is crucial to the success of the business, so please choose carefully!"

Xia Ke had no idea what kind of projects could make money. If she had known, would she still be poor today?

"Didn't you just say you'd give me a free project lottery as compensation for forcing me to join? Go ahead and draw it now."

As soon as she finished speaking, a deep blue screen suddenly appeared in front of Xia Ke, with unknown white characters rapidly sliding down the screen, exuding a strong sense of technology.

"You can start the lottery by issuing a lottery command with your mind."

"lottery."

After the command was issued, the dark blue screen began to flicker, the white characters slid faster, and after a flash of white light, a dazzling vortex appeared in the center of the screen, with densely packed, incomprehensible characters beneath the vortex image.

What is this?

After the system beeped a few times.

"The host has switched to a different text type that it can recognize."

Space Ring (Primary): It can connect any two public areas within a straight-line distance of 150 kilometers. Through the space tunnel built into the space ring, you can travel directly from one location to another. It has a service life of 10 years after activation.

Xia Kexin's heart pounded when she saw this instruction.

How to get directly from one location to another?

Isn't this a space tunnel?!

This is a time tunnel! Which working-class person hasn't fantasized about stepping out of the company and instantly teleporting into their home after a tiring night of overtime?

She guessed that what the system provided wouldn't be bad, but this was just too amazing!

She underestimated the system.

In just a few seconds, Xia Ke's heart underwent a tremendous change.

With a time tunnel like that, why would she be a slave? She'd be happy to become a landlord herself! As for the risks behind the system?

As Marx said in Capital, if there is a 20% profit, capital will be restless; if there is a 50% profit, capital will take risks; if there is a 100% profit, capital will dare to risk being hanged; if there is a 300% profit, capital will dare to trample on all human laws.

Leaving aside the system that provides the space tunnel, the profits that the space tunnel itself could bring her would be more than 300%. The huge profits blinded Xia Ke. As for the risks she had just worried about? Sorry, the wonderful aroma of money masked the risks behind it.

Never mind, let's do it!

Xia Ke had no resistance whatsoever; she was eager to try.

How do I get the space ring?

"This project is a system reward. The host will have the right to purchase this product at a permanent 90% discount and all research and development materials."

Summer is disappointing.

"Is it not a free gift? Do I still need to buy it?"

"Please understand, host, that there are costs associated with the system selling products to you. If you want to save costs, we suggest that you build your own R&D team as soon as possible. Once you have completed the independent R&D, you can save a lot of costs by mass-producing the products."

Xia Ke didn't hear the last sentence: "Develop it yourself? It's not that easy."

"How much does one space ring cost?"

"Originally priced at 10,000 yuan, now discounted to 1,000 yuan."

Xia Ke exclaimed in surprise.

"So cheap?"

She originally thought this high-tech gadget would cost at least several million, but she didn't expect it to be so cheap; a thousand yuan was practically a steal.

"Such products are futuristic technological products in the host's time and space, but for the original place of origin of the space ring, they are just a common means of transportation on the market."

In fact, the cost of the space ring mainly comes from the transportation costs across time and space.

Xia Ke subconsciously avoided thinking about the meaning behind those words.

"Buy two first."

"bite!"

[XX Bank Payment Notification: Account 8890******7351, Account Name Xia Ke, spent RMB 2000.00 on May 23, 2027 at 13:05:45, leaving a balance of RMB 267. Recipient Account Number ******, Recipient Account Name *****]

"Beep! First purchase gift: a host space ring (intermediate) is given away."

As soon as the electronic sound ended, three round, cool rings, only the size of a thumb, were suddenly inserted into my hand. Each ring had two small protruding buttons, one blue and one red.

Having just read the instruction manual, Xia Ke knew that pressing the red button would allow her to select a location, and pressing the red button again at another location would allow her to select the other end of the spatial ring and establish a link. When in use, pressing the blue button would enable spatial transfer between the two locations.

What's the difference between an intermediate-level and a basic-level space tunnel?

"The intermediate-level teleportation range is 1,500 kilometers in a straight line."

The intermediate-level teleportation distance is ten times greater than that of the basic-level teleportation distance!

How much does an intermediate-level space tunnel cost?

"The host has not yet unlocked the purchase right for this item and cannot purchase it. Please actively complete tasks to earn points and unlock more items!"

I also need to unlock the purchase rights, that's such a hassle.

"All right."

Xia Ke wasn't disappointed; a basic spatial ring was enough to cause a huge stir in this era.