From Wage Slave to Tycoon

「The next morning.」

Su Chen was up bright and early. He had no choice, really. He had to visit that elder today, so he needed to dress and groom himself properly.

After busying himself getting ready and eating breakfast, Su Chen noticed it was just eight o’clock. Remembering the time he had agreed upon with Xiao Chen, Su Chen found his favorite lounge chair and lay down again.

"Sigh, I don’t know why I was in such a rush." Although he said that, he had tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. His mind had been filled with thoughts of what it would be like to meet Elder Xiao.

Just as he lay down, Su Chen shot back up with a WHOOSH. "What a pig-brain I am! I’m visiting someone and didn’t even prepare a gift."

It was only then that Su Chen remembered he hadn’t prepared a gift. It was too late to buy one now; he could only see if there was anything presentable in his collection room at home.

With that, Su Chen took Chen Fei down the elevator to the basement. He wandered around the collection room and found that the only thing remotely presentable was some fifty-year-aged wine. As for the other items... he’d rather not embarrass himself.

"Ah Fei, take a case of the fifty-year-old wine to the car."

Chen Fei knew Su Chen’s schedule for the day, so without a moment’s hesitation, he picked up a case of wine and headed for the garage.

Looking at the items in the collection room, there really wasn’t anything particularly valuable besides the wine.

Su Chen pursed his lips and muttered under his breath, "Looks like I need to add some new things to the collection room."

The moment the words left his mouth, a system notification sounded in Su Chen’s mind.

"DING! The God of Wealth Blind Box has been available for ten days. The Host is advised to purchase it in a timely manner."

Hearing the system’s notification, Su Chen slapped his forehead. "How could I have forgotten something so important?"

He hurriedly summoned the system interface. When Su Chen saw the price of the God of Wealth Blind Box, he was stunned.

One yuan!

This February’s God of Wealth Blind Box only cost one yuan. His excitement instantly cooled by more than half.

After a moment of contemplation, operating on the principle of not letting things go to waste, Su Chen bought the one-yuan blind box with the last embers of his anticipation.

"Let’s hope for a miracle!"

"System, open the God of Wealth Blind Box!"

He thought it would be like before, with the system simply revealing the item from the blind box. Who knew that this time, it would be different.

The God of Wealth Blind Box shook a few times, and the moment it opened, it burst forth with a brilliant light. It felt just like getting a top-tier item drop in a video game.

Seeing such a spectacle, Su Chen’s heart tightened in anticipation. He muttered to himself, "Don’t tell me I’m actually about to get something good."

"DING! Congratulations to the Host for obtaining: one Suzhou Gardens estate, one hundred volumes of the Yongle Encyclopedia, and one hundred types of civilian technology!"

As Su Chen listened to the notification in his mind, a smile spread across his face. He hadn’t expected the blind box to contain so many things.

Su Chen knew about the Suzhou Gardens and the Yongle Encyclopedia, but what the hell was "civilian technology"? And a hundred different types of it??

Su Chen checked his system inventory. He had thought it would be a USB drive, like the water purification technology from before. But when he saw the hundred stacks of paper documents in the inventory, he knew this "civilian technology" wasn’t as simple as he’d imagined.

Fortunately, the system provided a table of contents. The moment Su Chen glanced at it, he was completely dumbfounded.

The very first item in the directory was nuclear power technology—more specifically, nuclear fusion technology, which no one in the world had yet mastered.

"You’ve got to be kidding me, System. Nuclear fusion power counts as ’civilian’ technology??"

The only response he received was the system’s silence.

’Actually, I guess there’s nothing wrong with that logic. Nuclear fusion can release immense energy, its materials are safe and easy to clean up, and it’s widely considered the ideal energy source of the future. Calling it a civilian technology isn’t too much of a stretch... I guess!’

He glanced at the rest of the list. It included things like aviation, medicine, and shipbuilding. It even had technologies related to fishing rods and paint.

After scanning the list, Su Chen put the table of contents back into the system inventory. His gaze then fell upon the Yongle Encyclopedia, and an idea sparked in his mind.

Finding an exquisite box, Su Chen casually took two volumes of the Yongle Encyclopedia from his system inventory and placed them inside. He planned to use this as his gift for their first meeting. As for the case of wine from before, it was now relegated to being a mere accompaniment.

As for the remaining volumes of the Yongle Encyclopedia, Su Chen had no intention of handing them over this time. He planned to clear out a room in the basement to create a special artifact exhibition, which would fulfill his previous dream of having a museum.

Thanks to his past experiences, Su Chen understood that creating a private museum was no simple task. The lack of exhibits alone was enough to stop him in his tracks.

Currently, aside from the Yongle Encyclopedia he had just acquired, he had nothing else. What was he supposed to open a private museum with?

He found an elegant gift bag for the box and went up to the ground floor. Just as he stepped out of the elevator, he saw Jiang Hui walking in with Xiao Chen.

"Huh? Brother Cheen, why are you here so early?"

Hearing this, Xiao Chen glanced at the watch on his wrist and said, "Early? It’s already nine o’clock. I called you, but you didn’t pick up, so I was about to come in and see what you were up to!"

Su Chen paused at his words, patting himself down. He indeed couldn’t find his phone. He then glanced over to where he had been sitting earlier and saw it resting quietly on the table beside the chair.

"I just went down to the basement and didn’t bring my phone!"

Xiao Chen didn’t say much more, but a glint flashed in his eyes when he saw the gift bag in Su Chen’s hand. "Is that for the old man?"

"Mhm. I didn’t know what to get, so I just grabbed a couple of books!"