June 30th, settlement day.

Pei Qian took a sip of cola, but even the happy water of the chubby homebody couldn’t bring him any happiness.

Over these three days, the Slackin’ Internet Café flagship store’s popularity had exceeded all imagination. Chen Lei’s fans had come from all over the country, frantically ordering drinks and giving tips.

Seeing that a loss was hopeless, Pei Qian had no choice but to retreat to his rented apartment and isolate himself for two days.

During these two days, Pei Qian had been pondering one question.

Where exactly had things gone wrong??

It seemed that every time, at the critical moment, all his efforts would come to nothing…

Since obtaining this wretched system until now, he had only successfully incurred a loss once, and it was just 20,000 yuan.

With just this small amount, earning 2 million would be enough to earn it back.

This was completely contrary to the script Pei Qian had imagined…

Originally, Pei Qian thought that with this system, he could become the richest man through losses in minutes. However, now it seemed the system funds kept increasing, while his personal assets were basically remaining in place, not even breaking 100,000 yet…

“This is really strange. By all accounts, I shouldn’t be this poor.”

“But why am I so poor…”

Pei Qian was starting to question his existence.

The approach should have been correct.

Before this cycle began, Pei Qian never imagined he could earn so much money.

Whether it was the explosion of “Sea Fortress” or the reversal of Slackin’ Internet Café, everything was beyond Pei Qian’s expectations.

If Pei Qian had known earlier that he couldn’t make a loss, he might have considered how to earn more, but he couldn’t predict the future!

And for the current Pei Qian, the difference between 100,000 and 20,000 wasn’t that big.

Now, as long as the consumption was related to work, Pei Qian could have it reimbursed by the system. He mainly needed money for consumption unrelated to work, enjoyment, and to supplement his family.

Earning 100,000 each time according to routine was not as quick as losing 600,000 to 700,000 at once.

Now the system’s initial funds had reached the level of 5 million, and it would increase again next time. With such a large base, making a loss of 600,000 to 700,000 shouldn’t be too difficult.

Yet he just couldn’t make a loss, which was very frustrating!

“Could it be that I have to rely on this pitiful 1% profit ratio to make money? That would be too miserable, wouldn’t it?”

“I can’t accept this!”

As Pei Qian was grappling with these thoughts, the system panel automatically appeared.

[Wealth Conversion System]

[Host: Pei Qian]

[Surplus conversion ratio 100:1, Loss conversion ratio 1:1]

[About to settle…]

[System funds: 7.36 million (↑2.36 million)]

[Personal assets: 45256.4]

[Settling…]

[Performing wealth conversion…]

[System funds: 7.36 million]

[Personal assets: 71299.78 (↑23675.8×110%)]

Pei Qian was speechless.

After working hard for two months, he had converted just over twenty thousand, even worse than last time…

Painful!

Seeing these pitiful personal assets, Pei Qian couldn’t help but have another thought.

“Why not take a break and be a bit lazy for one cycle?”

“Now, several games are continuously making money. Just ‘Sea Fortress’ alone has monthly revenue exceeding ten million, and with the high percentage the official platform gives me, I can earn seven to eight million every month.”

“Now the Slackin’ Internet Café flagship store is also making money. Although the other branches are still losing money, they’re losing much less than before.”

“Calculating this way, if I do nothing, or just casually do some low-investment, low-return projects, even while maintaining current expenses, saving five to six million each month should be very easy.”

Pei Qian hadn’t considered cutting expenses.

Skimping on employee benefits to convert assets for himself was something Pei Qian couldn’t do.

On one hand, he couldn’t lose face like that; on the other hand, the efficiency would be too poor.

Cutting employee benefits by 400,000 to convert 4,000 yuan for himself—was that something a human would do?

But even maintaining current expenses, Pei Qian would still have profits.

“Suppose the next settlement cycle is two months, and I save 5 million each month. At settlement, I could convert 100,000 yuan. Wouldn’t that be much more cost-effective than now, where I exhaust myself spending money only to convert 20,000 yuan in the end?”

Pei Qian suddenly felt that being lazy like this might not be a bad choice.

While he was considering this, the text on the system panel continued to scroll.

[Next settlement time: 120 days later]

[About to replenish system funds, target amount: 8 million]

[System funds 63457.6 being replenished…]

[System funds replenishment complete.]

[System funds: 8 million]

[Personal assets: 71299.78]

[Special task for this cycle: Profits and losses are the way of business. The host seems overly fixated on temporary profits, which is not the mentality a business genius should have. It is recommended to achieve a loss by the next settlement.]

[Special task completion reward: A mysterious surprise within system rules.]

Pei Qian, who had just been thinking about being lazy for a cycle, instantly froze.

He carefully read the special task for this cycle and couldn’t help but want to spew profanities.

“System, I’m going to Tony Ma you!”

What the hell does “the host seems overly fixated on temporary profits” mean?

Am I fixated on profits? I don’t want profits! I’ve always wanted to make a loss, but I couldn’t. Can you blame me for that???

However, the system didn’t seem to think so.

In the recent two settlements, Pei Qian had indeed made profits twice in a row.

If all five settlement results were taken into consideration, it would be profit, profit, loss, profit, profit.

If one only looked at the results and not the process, it would indeed make people think that Pei Qian seemed to be a host obsessed with making money.

A stampede of ten thousand grass mud horses galloped through Pei Qian’s heart.

The key was the reward after completing this special task.

“A mysterious surprise within system rules”!

It wasn’t clarified exactly what it was, but just looking at this description gave people a feeling that it was especially precious and especially worth it…

So far, this system has only provided Pei Qian with funds and converted personal assets for him at settlement, nothing more.

But “a mysterious surprise within system rules” made it too easy for people to imagine.

Perhaps it was some special item?

Or maybe a significant change in the wealth conversion ratio would also be good!

Pei Qian understood very clearly that this was very likely a trap, but he couldn’t not jump in!

Although it was possible to draw a rather disappointing “surprise” reward after completing the task, what if he drew something useful?

Pei Qian couldn’t possibly give up on this “mysterious surprise within system rules” just for a hundred thousand yuan or so. That would be too foolish.

After spewing profanities for a while, Pei Qian calmed down.

“You dog system, considering that you’ve always been honest, I’ll trust you this time.”

Anyway, the settlement was complete, the special task was set, and the unpleasantness of the previous cycle should be over.

To complete the special task, Pei Qian still had to gather his spirits and set off again, thinking about how to find a new way to lose money.

But the good news was that this cycle was longer. The last one was 2 months, but this one was as long as 4 months.

Four months was enough time for Pei Qian to flex his muscles and do some things he hadn’t had time to do in the previous cycle.