I’m really enjoying this Chinese novel. It’s been machine translated to "Losing Money to Be a Tycoon." (The author name has been translated to "Inebriation-seeking Blue Shirt.")

It’s 1717 chapters long, with some author notes here and there. And it’s a "guy wakes up 10 years ago with a system" story. Only instead of a magic finger, he’s given $50,000 with a promise of more if he follows certain steps.

He has money to use to make money. THEN the system tells him that he can convert the unused portions and the used portions for money. Which immediately attracts his attention.

So he starts reading the rules and things are flipped from what he thinks they should be. He finds out that used portions of the money will be bought back at a ratio of 1:1 while extra money will be bought back by the system at a ratio of 100:1.

He thinks he can spend $50,000 and get $50,000 back.

The only thing is: He can’t spend the money selfishly on himself. Which was one of his first impulses.

The money can only be spent on different money-making ventures. And in the course of making money, there are employees and other venues where money should be spent.

He is forced to be a humanitarian.

And by forced, I mean he doesn’t want to lose the chance to make money and change his life.

Because the system gives him a bunch of money and a time limit. It keeps track of its own money and his money. And after the session is over, it gives him a cut and takes the rest. Then it resets with a different amount of money and a different time limit.

All he wants is to see his balance grow. And the best way to do that is to start a venture and fail.

How hard is it to open a business and lose a bunch of money?

Apparently: very hard.

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SPOILER ALERT!

He is aware of his own ineptitude with money.

• I don’t know if he has gained valuable skills at this point. He could truly understand finances on a deep and powerful level. I don’t know. And neither does he. He doesn’t want to risk it.
• He wants to lose money so he does everything he thinks will cause a business to fail. Yet he keeps making money.

Maybe he’s in one of his own games.

• He has a fondness for screwing with his characters.
• (Breaking the Fourth Wall:) It would be an ending that the author has been leading up to.
• Some of the games and movies and their inevitable endings could be seen as foreshadowing.

Maybe he’s in a coma.

• He could be in a futuristic pod, his brain exercised by a virtual reality machine.
• He died(?) and woke up 10 years in the past of his own life. Which allows him to make different choices and leapfrog out of poverty.

~Harper Kingsley

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