Chapter 2: Path of literature: shattered
"Since this is your first lucky draw, a list of possible rewards is provided to give you an idea of what you can get. But this is the only time we will be doing this. On your next lucky draw, all the rewards will be hidden. The reward tiers will be different depending on the color, respectively black, white, blue, purple, and the highest tier, gold. But gold rewards will only appear on high-tier lucky draws. As for purple rewards, there will be a chance for them to appear on all tiers of lucky draws, so their appearances will be completely random. Start now, young man. Start your bright path of life!"
"Spin!" Jiang Bai yelled inwardly. Next, the nine slots on the slot machine started spinning rapidly, all of them passing by the arrow repeatedly. A few seconds later, they slowed down as the different colors continued dashing past the arrow.
"I want to get rich overnight, get rich overnight..." Jiang Bai couldn't help but to start chanting inwardly as he watched the slot machine spinning. His eyes were fixed on the purple slot with such concentration his eyes were turning bloodshot.
Slowly, the white slots moved past the arrow. "RMB 100,000", "high-leveled mixed martial arts proficiency", one by one, they moved on. And finally, a black slot stopped at the arrow. Jiang Bai nearly fainted then and there.
"Fuck!" Jiang Bai nearly jumped in anger. So he was going to get nothing? Nothing?
"Huh? Wait..." Jiang Bai was already prepared to start cursing, but with astonishment, he noticed that the slot machine was still spinning. It was merely spinning at a speed so slow one could hardly see it moving. At the exact moment he was about to curse, the purple slot with a massive question mark on it stopped at the arrow.
"Congratulations, young man. You have obtained a purple reward, special ability, photographic memory!" The system's voice rang out, with a slightly toying and mocking tone.
At the next second, a gush of energy rushed into Jiang Bai's body. His head ached, and next, numerous memories erupted within his mind. All his memories since young, even those from his infancy, all surfaced with clear clarity, as if he had just experienced all those. And those memories included not only the memories of this body, but they also included everything he had experienced in his past life.
Jiang Bai could remember clearly the scene of his mother cooking him dumplings when he was young, and he could clearly recall that feeling of happiness from the past. Bit by bit, all the past memories resurfaced. Without realizing it, tears were already streaming down his cheeks at the realization that he could no longer return to the past, nor could he see some people anymore.
Jiang Bai wiped the tears off his cheek and rubbed his head, tossing all those recollections to the back of his mind. He rejoiced that he had obtained the photographic memory ability, and at the same time, he also started reevaluating his current life. His first decision was that he could no longer stay here. He had to move somewhere else.
Although a house with rent as cheap as Jiang Bai’s current house was very rare in the Upper East District, he did not believe that he would not be able to find a new house in the massive Tiandu City. A smart man would never intentionally put himself in danger. He could not stay here any longer. After packing up his belongings which included a shabby second-hand computer, he left the house he had been staying at for over half a year. Equipped with a saving of only RMB 10,000, he went looking for a new residence.
Jiang Bai found a middle-class neighborhood within the city. The security of that place was decent, and it was also located near the city center. The transportation system of that area was good as well, while the surroundings of this neighborhood were flourishing. The apartment was about 100 square meters. It wasn't too spacious, yet it was so much better than his previous dilapidated home.
Of course, the rent was much higher as well.
After paying the rent, Jiang Bai found with astonishment that he did not have much money left. He only had a few thousand RMB to his name, and even this was only possible after he tried his very best to persuade the owner to accept only two months upfront rent for now.
It was not that Jiang Bai couldn't find a cheaper apartment, but in his past life, he lived decently. He was a person with his own house, his own car, and a decent amount of saving. Thus, he could not stand staying at the kind of houses the previous owner of this body had been staying at.
"Life sure is hard. How have this kid been living his life? He is 23 years old yet he has zero accomplishments. He has been working for about four years since high school graduation yet he has only been making enough to feed himself. No decent job, all alone, and still a freaking virgin. This is quite a sad life." By the time Jiang Bai was done unpacking and cleaning up, it was already very late at night. Carrying a bowl of instant noodles on his hand, he grumbled about his current life without stop.
Jiang Bai was so poor he couldn't even afford adding a piece of ham to his instant noodles. This was a truly sad life. "I won't be able to continue working the security job for now. What should I do then?" He started wondering. He did not have much money on him, and he was effectively jobless as well. He had to avoid Great World for now as Liu Bin and his people would go looking for him sooner or later.
In any case, even without this incident, Jiang Bai was not content on continuing working as an insignificant low-ranked security personnel. If he agreed to that, it would be an insult to the "cheat" he had obtained from his transmigration.
"Huh? I got an idea..."
Suddenly, Jiang Bai thought of something. He quickly turned on his computer and started searching on the internet. After a while, he stood up laughing heartily. He found that this world was indeed somewhat different than the Earth he came from. Although they were identical, there were still some differences here and there. For example, literature. Many literature works of Earth had never appeared in this world before.
This caused Jiang Bai's eyes to lit up, as if he had discovered a gold mine. He was certain if he recreated the literature works that once rocked his previous world, he would be making waves in this new world. At that time, he would be making so much money he wouldn't be able to spend them all. At this thought, a wide smile formed on his face.
Alas, though a dream would always be perfect, reality was cruel.
Right after Jiang Bai made his mind to pirate the famous works of his previous world to become a leading figure in the literature world, obtaining both fame and fortune, he recalled that he was in fact a person without learning or skills in his previous life. That stunned him greatly.
With Jiang Bai’s photographic memory ability, he could clearly recall everything from his past life. He found that during his previous life, he had been focusing on making money and had never spent any time reading. The four great classics? He could forget about that. The four great classics existed in this world as well. Even if they did not exist here...it's not like Jiang Bai had actually read those works. Harry Potter? What's that? Yeah, Jiang Bai had no idea.
Legends of the Condor Heroes? Demigods and Semi-Devils? Works of Jin Yong and Gu Long? Well...apart from watching some TV adaptations of those works, Jiang Bai had never read any of them. In his previous life, he only had an education of high-school level. He was fine watching some TV series, but reading? Reading such classic books? No way.
Jiang Bai also found with great sadness that although he had read a lot of those tremendously popular web-novels, the books he had actually finished reading were less than five, and those were mostly some unpopular books.
"I am a human tragedy!" Jiang Bai slapped his forehead, deeply regretting his past actions.
"Forget it. It's not like I am particularly interested in becoming a super writer. I should think of something else...Huh? But I still remember a couple books and it won't be too hard making some money off those books?"
After rearranging his thoughts, Jiang Bai decided to give up on this path of literature that seemed so bright. But toward the end, he suddenly recalled a certain book he had once finished reading.
Zhu Xian!
Chapter 2: Path of literature: shattered
"Since this is your first lucky draw, a list of possible rewards is provided to give you an idea of what you can get. But this is the only time we will be doing this. On your next lucky draw, all the rewards will be hidden. The reward tiers will be different depending on the color, respectively black, white, blue, purple, and the highest tier, gold. But gold rewards will only appear on high-tier lucky draws. As for purple rewards, there will be a chance for them to appear on all tiers of lucky draws, so their appearances will be completely random. Start now, young man. Start your bright path of life!"
"Spin!" Jiang Bai yelled inwardly. Next, the nine slots on the slot machine started spinning rapidly, all of them passing by the arrow repeatedly. A few seconds later, they slowed down as the different colors continued dashing past the arrow.
"I want to get rich overnight, get rich overnight..." Jiang Bai couldn't help but to start chanting inwardly as he watched the slot machine spinning. His eyes were fixed on the purple slot with such concentration his eyes were turning bloodshot.
Slowly, the white slots moved past the arrow. "RMB 100,000", "high-leveled mixed martial arts proficiency", one by one, they moved on. And finally, a black slot stopped at the arrow. Jiang Bai nearly fainted then and there.
"Fuck!" Jiang Bai nearly jumped in anger. So he was going to get nothing? Nothing?
"Huh? Wait..." Jiang Bai was already prepared to start cursing, but with astonishment, he noticed that the slot machine was still spinning. It was merely spinning at a speed so slow one could hardly see it moving. At the exact moment he was about to curse, the purple slot with a massive question mark on it stopped at the arrow.
"Congratulations, young man. You have obtained a purple reward, special ability, photographic memory!" The system's voice rang out, with a slightly toying and mocking tone.
At the next second, a gush of energy rushed into Jiang Bai's body. His head ached, and next, numerous memories erupted within his mind. All his memories since young, even those from his infancy, all surfaced with clear clarity, as if he had just experienced all those. And those memories included not only the memories of this body, but they also included everything he had experienced in his past life.
Jiang Bai could remember clearly the scene of his mother cooking him dumplings when he was young, and he could clearly recall that feeling of happiness from the past. Bit by bit, all the past memories resurfaced. Without realizing it, tears were already streaming down his cheeks at the realization that he could no longer return to the past, nor could he see some people anymore.
Jiang Bai wiped the tears off his cheek and rubbed his head, tossing all those recollections to the back of his mind. He rejoiced that he had obtained the photographic memory ability, and at the same time, he also started reevaluating his current life. His first decision was that he could no longer stay here. He had to move somewhere else.
Although a house with rent as cheap as Jiang Bai’s current house was very rare in the Upper East District, he did not believe that he would not be able to find a new house in the massive Tiandu City. A smart man would never intentionally put himself in danger. He could not stay here any longer. After packing up his belongings which included a shabby second-hand computer, he left the house he had been staying at for over half a year. Equipped with a saving of only RMB 10,000, he went looking for a new residence.
Jiang Bai found a middle-class neighborhood within the city. The security of that place was decent, and it was also located near the city center. The transportation system of that area was good as well, while the surroundings of this neighborhood were flourishing. The apartment was about 100 square meters. It wasn't too spacious, yet it was so much better than his previous dilapidated home.
Of course, the rent was much higher as well.
After paying the rent, Jiang Bai found with astonishment that he did not have much money left. He only had a few thousand RMB to his name, and even this was only possible after he tried his very best to persuade the owner to accept only two months upfront rent for now.
It was not that Jiang Bai couldn't find a cheaper apartment, but in his past life, he lived decently. He was a person with his own house, his own car, and a decent amount of saving. Thus, he could not stand staying at the kind of houses the previous owner of this body had been staying at.
"Life sure is hard. How have this kid been living his life? He is 23 years old yet he has zero accomplishments. He has been working for about four years since high school graduation yet he has only been making enough to feed himself. No decent job, all alone, and still a freaking virgin. This is quite a sad life." By the time Jiang Bai was done unpacking and cleaning up, it was already very late at night. Carrying a bowl of instant noodles on his hand, he grumbled about his current life without stop.
Jiang Bai was so poor he couldn't even afford adding a piece of ham to his instant noodles. This was a truly sad life. "I won't be able to continue working the security job for now. What should I do then?" He started wondering. He did not have much money on him, and he was effectively jobless as well. He had to avoid Great World for now as Liu Bin and his people would go looking for him sooner or later.
In any case, even without this incident, Jiang Bai was not content on continuing working as an insignificant low-ranked security personnel. If he agreed to that, it would be an insult to the "cheat" he had obtained from his transmigration.
"Huh? I got an idea..."
Suddenly, Jiang Bai thought of something. He quickly turned on his computer and started searching on the internet. After a while, he stood up laughing heartily. He found that this world was indeed somewhat different than the Earth he came from. Although they were identical, there were still some differences here and there. For example, literature. Many literature works of Earth had never appeared in this world before.
This caused Jiang Bai's eyes to lit up, as if he had discovered a gold mine. He was certain if he recreated the literature works that once rocked his previous world, he would be making waves in this new world. At that time, he would be making so much money he wouldn't be able to spend them all. At this thought, a wide smile formed on his face.
Alas, though a dream would always be perfect, reality was cruel.
Right after Jiang Bai made his mind to pirate the famous works of his previous world to become a leading figure in the literature world, obtaining both fame and fortune, he recalled that he was in fact a person without learning or skills in his previous life. That stunned him greatly.
With Jiang Bai’s photographic memory ability, he could clearly recall everything from his past life. He found that during his previous life, he had been focusing on making money and had never spent any time reading. The four great classics? He could forget about that. The four great classics existed in this world as well. Even if they did not exist here...it's not like Jiang Bai had actually read those works. Harry Potter? What's that? Yeah, Jiang Bai had no idea.
Legends of the Condor Heroes? Demigods and Semi-Devils? Works of Jin Yong and Gu Long? Well...apart from watching some TV adaptations of those works, Jiang Bai had never read any of them. In his previous life, he only had an education of high-school level. He was fine watching some TV series, but reading? Reading such classic books? No way.
Jiang Bai also found with great sadness that although he had read a lot of those tremendously popular web-novels, the books he had actually finished reading were less than five, and those were mostly some unpopular books.
"I am a human tragedy!" Jiang Bai slapped his forehead, deeply regretting his past actions.
"Forget it. It's not like I am particularly interested in becoming a super writer. I should think of something else...Huh? But I still remember a couple books and it won't be too hard making some money off those books?"
After rearranging his thoughts, Jiang Bai decided to give up on this path of literature that seemed so bright. But toward the end, he suddenly recalled a certain book he had once finished reading.
Zhu Xian!
