……

　　……

　　One week later.

　　Dorm room.

　　"…This is so weird, how did such a dumb game even get popular?"

　　"Get off my computer!"

　　"There's actually someone on the leaderboard who’s played this game for over forty hours… Are they insane?!"

　　Brian Carter was playing "Lonely Desert Highway" on the top bunk, but quit the game after less than five minutes, completely baffled as to how this game became a hit.

　　Meanwhile, Eric Bennett was shivering on the bottom bunk.

　　"Hey, Eric, have you played that super popular dumb game lately? The one about some desert highway?" Brian Carter poked his head down from the top bunk and asked.

　　"…No." Eric Bennett was telling the truth—he really hadn’t played much of this game.

　　Because he knew all too well, this game was just made to mess with people. Why would he play it himself…

　　Brian Carter slapped his thigh. "It’s such a scam! Who the hell made this game? Rotten to the core!"

　　Eric Bennett: "…"

　　I really never meant for you guys to play it! You’re the ones who insisted on playing—how is this my fault?!

　　Eric Bennett never expected that this game would get popular on campus, even in his own dorm room…

　　Over the course of this week, thanks to countless video creators and gaming media frantically sharing it, "Lonely Desert Highway" became a total sensation—so much so that Eric Bennett started to question his own existence.

　　He was extremely grateful that, in 2009, streaming platforms were nowhere near as popular as they would be ten years later. They were just starting to take off, and even the dominant YY Live platform only had a little over a hundred thousand users.

　　If streaming was as popular now as it would be in ten years…

　　Eric Bennett couldn’t even imagine the consequences.

Chapter 9: A Genius Slacker!

　　Today happened to be Monday, which was both the day for platform revenue sharing and the day for the system’s settlement.

　　For Eric Bennett, this should have been a day to look forward to, but right now he just felt empty inside—he even wanted to cry a little.

　　The five grand that was basically in the bag—gone!

　　But, what had to come would come.

　　Eric Bennett didn’t call up the system interface, but maybe because it was settlement time, the interface automatically appeared in Eric Bennett’s field of vision.

　　[Wealth Conversion System]

　　[Host: Eric Bennett]

　　[Profit conversion ratio 100:1, loss conversion ratio 1:1]

　　[Settlement in progress…]

　　[System funds: 125,463.5 (↑75,463.5)]

　　[Personal assets: 153]

　　[Settling…]

　　[Wealth conversion in progress…]

　　[System funds: 125,463.5]

　　[Personal assets: 907.6 (↑754.6)]

　　Seeing these two numbers, Eric Bennett collapsed on the bed like a salted fish, all his dreams gone.

　　In just two weeks, the game had sold over 200,000 copies!

　　For other game developers, this would be a dream start—enough to brag about for a lifetime!

　　But for Eric Bennett, it was nothing short of a nightmare…

　　On the screen, new entries kept appearing.

　　[Next settlement: in 30 days]

　　[System funds to be replenished, target amount: 300,000]

　　[Replenishing system funds: 174,536.5…]

　　[System funds replenished.]

　　[System funds: 300,000]

　　[Personal assets: 907.6]

　　Seeing these lines, Eric Bennett completely lost all hope—he felt as good as dead.

　　Adding insult to injury!

　　Rubbing salt in the wound!

　　At settlement, the 70,000 yuan profit only converted to 700 yuan, which was already painful enough for Eric Bennett.

　　But at the time, he’d comforted himself that at least the extra system funds could be invested in the next round, so he could lose even more then.

　　But after settlement, Eric Bennett realized that after every settlement, the system funds always seemed to have a fixed value.

　　If it was below that fixed value, the system would top it up!

　　The minimum fund last time was 50,000, this time it was 300,000. In other words, if Eric Bennett’s system funds were below 300,000 right now, whether it was 10,000 or 290,000, it would be topped up to 300,000!

　　Before the last settlement, whether he lost or made money didn’t actually affect the starting funds for the next stage—unless Eric Bennett could turn 50,000 into over 300,000.

　　At this point, Eric Bennett couldn’t even calculate how much he’d lost this time—he just felt waves of heartache.

　　"Looking on the bright side, at least I have over 700 yuan in extra income, so I can improve my life a little…"

　　Staring at the 300,000 in system funds, Eric Bennett was drooling.

　　Unfortunately, he couldn’t just spend this money however he wanted.

　　Eric Bennett checked his bank card balance online and found that, sure enough, it had increased by 754.6 yuan, exactly matching the number shown by the system.

　　But there was no transfer information at all—it was as if the balance had just changed on its own.

　　Eric Bennett more or less figured out how the system worked.

　　The system’s power was that it could directly change the balances of company and personal bank accounts, without arousing suspicion from anyone or any institution.

　　The initial 50,000 yuan issued by the system was deposited in the company account of Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd. As the boss, Eric Bennett could use this money at his own discretion, investing in any industry.