Chapter 124: Chapter 23: Ding Ding Ding Ding, A Wonderful Sound

About forty-five minutes later, Zhang Yan happily closed his eyes. With a smile tugging at the corners of his lips, he leaned back against his chair in sheer satisfaction and exhaled deeply.

"Finally done!"

[DING!]

[Task: Elevate Cognition. Current progress: 200% (An additional 100% is required for the next tier reward.)]

[Submit task?]

Reaching the next tier would require true mastery of the knowledge taught in these ten books. Zhang Yan had absolutely no confidence in achieving that, so instead of being greedy, he simply tapped [Yes].

[Evaluating task...]

[Rating: Excellent. Additional reward granted.]

[Searching for a suitable reward...]

[Excellent Reward acquired: One premium residential unit in the host’s current city. (Reward will be distributed within a week.)]

"What a pity! If I had known this was the reward, I would have made a special trip to Beijing or Shanghai! I feel like I just lost out on at least a hundred million!"

However, Zhang Yan’s complaints stemmed more from slightly losing a battle of wits with Brother Tongzi, rather than genuinely agonizing over the loss of absolute wealth. He, Zhang Yan, a predestined billionaire, wasn’t actually that interested in money.

Looking at the system’s distribution timeframe, Zhang Yan couldn’t help but feel curious. After all, the previous luxury car and designer watch only had a seventy-two-hour waiting period.

He wondered, "Why is the wait so long? Is it because of the reward’s special nature, or are there practical difficulties in reality?"

Setting aside the reward he had already secured, Zhang Yan shifted his attention to the additional reward.

Comparing it to Supernatural Abilities like the Internal Organ Repair Potion and Shimizu Ken’s blessing, he would be completely satisfied as long as it was something remotely similar.

[Additional Reward acquired: Vitality Aura (Permanent Aura).]

[Effect: Passively increases vitality recovery speed by 100%. Generates one drop of Concentration Dew daily (shelf life: 24 hours).]

"Vitality... is it the proper kind of vitality I’m thinking of?"

This reward was quite standard. While it didn’t give Zhang Yan much of a surprise, it wasn’t disappointing either. After all, a faster vitality recovery meant gaining extra time out of thin air each day. By sleeping a little less, there would be so much more he could do during those wonderful nights.

Nodding in satisfaction, he finally focused his gaze on the series task reward he had been anticipating the most. This was the main event that truly thrilled him. Brother Tongzi had made it crystal clear from the start: completing everything would yield a mysterious grand prize!

[Main Task: Regroup and Recover (Series Task)]

[Task: Elevate Cognition (Excellent)]

[Task: Improve Appearance (Average)]

[Task: Restore Health (Outstanding)]

[Comprehensively evaluating series task...]

[Rating: Excellent. Additional reward granted.]

[Excellent Reward acquired: Operational Fund of 100 million yuan.]

[Note: This fund can only be activated for reasonable commercial operations of enterprises under the host’s name that are currently involved in a task.]

Hitting a "small target" right off the bat?

For Zhang Yan, who was just starting out, this really was a grand prize! President Wang might have made it sound effortless when he famously referred to a hundred million as a "small target," but this was still a hundred million! If converted entirely into cash, it would weigh over a ton! That was an amount capable of literally crushing someone to death!

However, this money wasn’t deposited directly into Zhang Yan’s account. Knowing Brother Tongzi’s usual style, it would likely operate on a reimbursement basis, compensating him only for actual expenditures deemed compliant.

This type of distribution method presented a major problem: Zhang Yan’s actual cash on hand restricted the maximum amount of any single expenditure. Although a hundred million was a massive sum, his current net worth was only a little over five million. This meant that unless he took out a loan to scrape more money together, his maximum single expense couldn’t exceed that five million limit.

At this thought, Zhang Yan couldn’t help but recall the explanation Brother Tongzi had given him at the very beginning.

[This money is just the beginning. Go enjoy yourself and make up for all those years of hard work.]

Zhang Yan wanted nothing more than to flip it a universal hand gesture of friendship! Thank goodness he hadn’t believed that nonsense back then! This wretched system was absolutely devious!

While he was silently spouting such blasphemous words, another sudden DING startled him. He almost thought Brother Tongzi could read his mind.

[Additional Reward acquired: Stealing Hand (Consumable - 3 uses left).]

[Stealing Hand: In business games, controlling the opponent’s secrets means controlling everything.]

[Effect: Obtains the secret the target is trying desperately to hide in their heart.]

[Activation Requirement: Can only be activated by creating a significant enough ripple in the opponent’s mental defenses. The larger the ripple, the more important the stolen secret.]

Zhang Yan gulped, almost breaking into a cold sweat.

He wondered, "What does this reward mean? I just complained about Brother Tongzi in my head, and it gives me this?"

But after waiting for a long time without receiving any further warnings from Brother Tongzi, Zhang Yan could only console himself with the thought that he was simply being paranoid.

It seemed this item was intended for him to use in business negotiations. As long as he managed to figure out the opponent’s bottom line or their hidden inner thoughts, not only could he reap unimaginable profits, but he could even directly topple a seemingly unassailable corporate behemoth. After all, there was no such thing as a completely clean large corporation. A company’s helmsman knew its greatest weakness better than anyone else, and they would undoubtedly guard that knowledge as their deepest secret.

"If used well, this is as powerful as a commercial nuclear bomb!"

The rewards were as satisfactory as he had anticipated, but little did Zhang Yan know, this was merely the beginning!

[DING!]

[An old warhorse still has miles to gallop! At thirty-eight years old, you have quickly adjusted your condition and regrouped. Now is the time to start your counterattack!]

[Activating Main Task: Setting Sail (Long-term Task)]

[Prerequisite task rating reached Excellent. Granted: Setting Sail Gift Pack x1.]

[Activating System Mall.]

[Activating Achievement Hall.]

...

A dazzling array of system notifications bombarded him with a rapid DING DING DING. Only now did Zhang Yan realize that the system had essentially been in an unactivated trial state all along. Only now was it finally revealing its true form.

Unable to wait, he immediately tapped on [Setting Sail (Long-term Task)].

[Note: Completing each task in a long-term task grants an independent reward. Completing each major phase grants a phase reward. Completing everything grants a mysterious grand prize!]

[Starting Out - First Business: Acquire the host’s first business and manage it to grow as much as possible.]

[Task Requirement: Through commercial operations, inflate the market value by at least five times within three months. Alternatively, the task will end if the market value is prematurely inflated to six times its original size.]

[Reward: Reimbursement of all operational expenses and an equivalent operational fund.]

"It doesn’t seem too difficult. The main challenge lies in choosing the scale of the first business.

"If the scale is too large and I fail to meet the target within the time limit, I’ll have to bear all the expenses myself.

"But if I play it safe, even if I complete the task, I won’t make much profit if the scale is too small."

Deep in thought, Zhang Yan set the task aside for the moment and eagerly opened the Setting Sail Gift Pack.

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