Chapter 01: Starting with a Store (Newcomer's Pit, Please Collect and Follow)

"Yue Feng, I won't waste my breath on you. There are only twenty days left before the house's lease expires. If I don't see the rent by then, I'll definitely sublet the place to someone else, so don't blame me for not warning you in advance!"

With a dull thud, the glass door at the entrance was slammed shut, leaving Yue Feng with the retreating figure of a middle-aged woman, not quite clear.

Yue Feng was a bit dazed, with only three philosophical questions in his head.

Who am I, where am I, what am I doing?

In Yue Feng's memory, he worked for an import and export company, staying up late last night to finish his work. It was the weekend and he shouldn't have to work, so he should have been sleeping until noon in his bed.

But when he opened his eyes, Yue Feng was surprised to find himself in an unfamiliar environment, confronted by a landlady with an unfriendly face urging him for rent.

As he watched the landlady leave, Yue Feng looked around.

This was a small-scale fishing equipment store, with a total business area of just over twenty square meters.

As you entered, there were three L-shaped glass display counters in the lobby, with walls lined with panels displaying common freshwater fishing accessories like hooks and lines.

Outside the counter area, against the wall, there were four sets of upright shelves filled with various popular brands of bait commonly used by fishermen.

Business, it seemed, wasn't booming—the packaging on many baits was covered in a thin layer of dust, probably due to poor sales.

Five minutes later, Yue Feng finally sorted out his thoughts and understood his situation.

"Have I, out of the blue, become the owner of a small fishing equipment shop?"

Yue Feng pinched his thigh over and over again, the pain reassuring him that everything in front of him was real, not a dream.

He found it hard to believe, but looking up at his own name written on the business license for individual industrial and commercial enterprises on the wall, he had to accept the truth.

Ding! Binding Big Player System, do you confirm?

Damn it! Syst...System!??

Ding! Binding Big Player System, do you confirm?

Once again, a clear synthetic electronic prompt sounded in his mind!

As a netizen of the new era, Yue Feng had read countless web novels and even fantasized about having a day like this. If he ever got a system, he believed his growth could outdo any protagonist in those novels.

But now that the day had come, he was not only bound to a system, but had also acquired a store.

Yue Feng's first reaction was confusion, and his second reaction was not excitement but an underlying sense of fear.

His gaze wandered around the store, trying to find the source of the sound, but he found nothing!

Ding! Binding Big Player System, do you confirm? Countdown one minute, 60, 59, 58, 57...

After three system prompts, a countdown of one minute appeared in his mind.

As time ticked away second by second, Yue Feng grew increasingly nervous.

"System, system? What are you for? What's the use of binding you?"

"This system is designed to assist growth in life for transmigrating individuals. It randomly selects and binds to transmigrating users. Current user's body condition is suitable, activating automatically. Countdown will end the binding process!"

Countdown 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,

As his time for decision grew shorter, Yue Feng, in a rush, chose to bind! If it was a dream, there was nothing to lose by binding the system, and if it was reality, there was definitely no harm in doing so—the books all said to make that choice.

Ding! Binding successful! Big Player System is officially activated!

Current host information!

Name: Yue Feng

Gender: Male

Age: 23

Height: 183

Weight: 75kg

Education: Bachelor's Degree

Personality Traits: Bold, meticulous, thick-skinned

Talent: Physically strong, calm thinker

Skills: [Traditional Fishing Beginner][Taiwan Fishing Introduction][Cooking Introduction]

Talents: Eating, bragging, Platinum in LoL

The character and talents described in the data were very accurate, but the skills Yue Feng mastered in the base timeline, such as driving, public speaking, Excel, PPT, and so on, were not present at all. Instead, they had been replaced with the "parallel world Yue Feng's" skills.

In consideration of the host's data attributes and skill tendencies, the Fish Gear Shop Owner on the Edge of Bankruptcy has been officially bound as the player's occupational identity!

Ding! Congratulations, you have received the Newbie Binding Gift Pack. To claim it, simply think "extract" while in solitude, and the gift pack will be automatically delivered to your hands!

Huh? Binding this system even comes with a newbie gift pack?

That's rather generous. It's much like the tropes in domestic online games I've played. I wonder if it's any good!

After his initial confusion subsided, Yue Feng, who was naturally broad-minded, gradually accepted the existence of the system. Upon learning that there was a gift pack to be claimed, he even felt a growing sense of eager anticipation.

The system prompt indicated that he could only extract the gift pack in a private space. Yue Feng glanced around the small shop—this should meet the criteria, right?

Extract!

Ding! Congratulations, you have received the Beginner Newbie Gift Pack!

In front of Yue Feng, two small foil paper bags suddenly appeared.

As Yue Feng's eyes swept over the bags, the information about them naturally came to mind:

[Wild Fishing Companion]: A broad-spectrum wild fishing companion, 500g. When added in appropriate amounts to bait or groundbait, it increases the chance of attracting and catching fish by 20%, with a recommended addition of 1%!

[True Wild Fishing Rice Wine]: A power-upgraded version of the super Bait Wine Rice, 500g. With a 30% increase in fishing attraction, it works even better when used in combination with Wild Fishing Companion!

After reading the attributes of the two packets of fish bait, Yue Feng felt a bit disappointed.

What the heck is this? I was expecting something impressive, but it's just a bag of Bait Wine Rice and a wild fishing version of a fishing lure enhancer. It's supposed to be a system gift pack, but this is quite stingy.

Ding! You have successfully claimed the Beginner Newbie Gift Pack and are compelled to take on the newbie trial mission [Bankruptcy Edge]!

[Bankruptcy Edge]: As a fish gear shop owner who isn't quite excellent, you're on the brink of bankruptcy, unable to pay your rent. Find a way to earn enough money to pay your rent by the latest deadline, or it will be regarded as a failing of the trial mission!

Mission Completion Reward: Points + one random reward draw

Mission Failure Penalty: Bankruptcy will result in the loss of your shop owner status, and the system will disappear.

When Yue Feng saw that he was forced to accept a newbie mission with the penalty of losing his shop owner status and the system disappearing, a chill ran up from the bottom of his heart.

Damn, this system is ruthless. I've finally got a shop, and if I can't get through the trial mission, the system that I've acquired will disappear!

After taking a deep breath for a minute to calm down, Yue Feng began to inventory the capital at his disposal.

He had 137 yuan in change in his pocket, and the shop had a fairly abundant stock of conventional bait and tackle.

The rent for the year was ten thousand yuan. It would be difficult to earn that amount in twenty days, and even if he aimed lower, achieving ten thousand yuan in sales was a huge challenge for Yue Feng's current situation!

More than an hour later, Yue Feng found the complete inventory list in the counter and roughly inventoried his resources. The shop's inventory was worth around 30,000 yuan, with some lesser-known baits severely unsold but with ample stock of conventional fishhooks, fishing lines, floats, and the like. Overall, it was the scale of a small-town fishing gear shop.

Just as Yue Feng was getting a rough understanding of his assets, a sudden system prompt sounded.