Chapter 6: Officially Buying a Home
As Du Xin walked out of the jewelry store, he was carrying one less case than when he entered, yet his bank card now held an additional nine million yuan. Although he felt a sense of satisfaction, he didn't experience the rush of excitement he had anticipated. Ever since acquiring the System, Du Xin—despite having spent less than half a day in the real world—had already lived through more than ten days within the "Small World." Consequently, he seemed to have grown somewhat detached from worldly fame and fortune, exuding the air of a sage who had transcended the mundane world.
Stepping out the door, Du Xin hailed a taxi and headed straight for Century Garden. During the ride, he muttered to himself:
"Should I buy a car? Getting around is a bit inconvenient. But I don't have a driver's license, and I can't be bothered to take the test. Otherwise, I think a Mercedes-Benz G-Class would be pretty nice. Oh well, never mind—I'll just hire a chauffeur later."
Hearing Du Xin's muttering, the taxi driver shook his head in disdain. *Just another drunkard,* he thought, *spouting off a load of complete nonsense.*
Before long, the taxi arrived at the Century Garden sales office.
Stepping out of the cab, Du Xin opened his wallet only to find a few lonely bills lying inside. He immediately felt a flush of embarrassment.
"Hey, buddy... if I told you I didn't bring any cash, you probably wouldn't believe me, would you?"
"...You're right."
"...Well, I don't see a card reader or anything here. Is there anything on me you'd accept as collateral? I'll be right back to pay you—if you trust me, just wait here for a moment. I have friends inside."
"Forget it! The only valuable things on you are your two kidneys—and you expect me to take those as collateral? You're just trying to skip out on the fare! I'm calling the police! Keep the money—I'll just write it off as bad luck!"
As he spoke, the driver reached for his phone to make the call.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa—hold on, buddy! I honestly just forgot. Look at what I'm wearing—it's all designer gear, worth over ten thousand! I wouldn't try to scam you. Besides, even if I wanted to, I couldn't exactly take my kidneys out right here, could I?"
"You're dressed to the nines, sure—but you probably just rented the outfit! No way—I'm definitely making you pay up today!"
Just as Du Xin and the driver were arguing, the sales agent who had assisted Du Xin earlier spotted the commotion. She immediately rushed over to intervene.
"Mr. Du? Is everything alright?"
The sales agent stepped between Du Xin and the taxi driver, separating the two men. "Hmph! It's just that I forgot to bring my wallet. That arrogant jerk looked down on me and insisted I was trying to skip out on the fare! Am I really that kind of person? I told him I'd go inside to borrow some cash from you, but he wouldn't let me—he absolutely insisted on calling the police!"
The sales agent shook her head helplessly and turned to the taxi driver.
"Sir, how much is the fare?"
The driver glanced at the sales agent. "Seventy-six."
"Give him two hundred. It's not that I don't *have* money; I just didn't *bring* any! Hmph!"
With a resigned air, the sales agent took out two hundred yuan and handed it to the driver. Clutching the cash, the driver climbed back into his car in a huff. Just before driving off, he called out to the pair:
"What a waste—a beautiful flower stuck in a pile of cow dung!"
"Hey! Hey, hey! What do you mean by that? Come back here!"
The driver stomped on the gas and sped away.
"I really didn't bring any cash. And he didn't have... you know... a card reader or anything like that..."
Du Xin turned to look at the sales agent, feeling rather sheepish.
"So... well... look, let me just transfer the money to you via WeChat."
"You didn't just pretend you didn't have cash just to get my WeChat contact info, did you?"
"I really didn't bring any! See for yourself."
Du Xin opened his wallet to show the sales agent; sure enough, it was completely empty.
"Mr. Du, you don't need to pay me back the two hundred."
"How can I do that? I can't just take advantage of your kindness like that!"
"Mr. Du, since you paid for the apartment in full, my commission alone comes to nearly eight thousand yuan. If anything, I should be thanking *you*!"
The sales agent looked at him with genuine gratitude.
"Really? In that case, wait a second—I'm not buying that apartment anymore."
The sales agent's expression instantly fell. She assumed that, having been turned down, Du Xin was now lashing out in embarrassment and anger. Seeing how startled she looked, Du Xin quickly clarified:
"No, no! That's not it at all! Don't you guys have that other unit—the split-level one that's over 280 square meters? The one that's also fully furnished? I'll buy *that* one instead."
The sales agent felt a sudden surge of emotion; believing that Du Xin was doing this specifically for her sake, she gazed at him with deep appreciation. "No, it's not that. I went to withdraw some money earlier, but I miscalculated and ended up taking out too much. So I figured, since I had the extra cash anyway, I might as well buy a bigger place. It wasn't—you know—intentional. Of course, I'm still going to buy it from you."
This explanation only astonished the sales agent further. He took out too much money, so he decided to buy a bigger place? What kind of logic was that?
Delighted, she led Du Xin into the sales office. After some negotiation, the sales manager happily closed the deal on the property for seven million. The sales agent earned a commission of twenty thousand, and she was guaranteed to receive a bonus at the end of the month as well.
In truth, the house was beautifully renovated, but it was a bit overpriced—especially considering it was located within a standard residential complex. Anyone wealthy enough to afford this house could easily afford a standalone villa instead. It fell squarely into that awkward category: too expensive for the poor to buy, yet beneath the notice of the rich.
Having settled all the formalities, it was already past nine o'clock at night when Du Xin left. He headed straight to the property and moved in—all by himself.
Lying in bed, Du Xin felt a sense of surreal detachment. Just yesterday, he had been rejoicing over the two hundred thousand he had earned by risking his very life; yet now, he no longer cared about such glittering gold. His thoughts inevitably drifted back to his "Mini-World," and a surge of excitement coursed through him.
"I wonder how the Mini-World is doing. It's ten o'clock right now; doing the math, five hours have passed here. That means two thousand four hundred years have gone by in the Mini-World. System—enter Mini-World!"
With a sudden flash of white light, Du Xin vanished from the room and reappeared within his Mini-World.
Algae had long since blanketed the entire planet; now, some strands had even begun to grow long and lush beneath the water's surface. With no natural predators to keep them in check, the algae were showing signs of evolving into aquatic plants. Gazing out at the teeming, overgrown planet, Du Xin felt an involuntary surge of anxiety. "I can't establish a food chain; without that, the energy cycle can't be completed, and I won't be able to generate energy any faster. Relying solely on the natural death of algae is just too slow. As for consumers... hmm, I need to find organisms with strong vitality and rapid reproduction rates—only then can I maximize my gains. Oh, right! System, can I expend energy to bring items in from the outside world?"
"Affirmative. However, doing so requires expending four times the energy equivalent of the item itself. For living organisms, the energy cost is ten times the equivalent."
"Damn it! You're practically a bandit!"
"Reporting, Host: The immense energy expenditure is due to the act of breaching the World Barrier. Since this Pocket World is not yet fully mature, additional energy is required to stabilize the barrier during transit. Once the Host's Pocket World expands to a sufficient size, you will be able to import and export items freely."
"Fine, I'll head out and take a look tomorrow." With those words, Du Xin exited his Pocket World and returned to the reality of the physical world.
The night passed without incident. The next morning, at six o'clock, Du Xin woke up. Ever since acquiring the System, Du Xin had gained complete mastery over his own physiology; he could go days without sleep if he chose, and he could consciously decide exactly when to fall asleep and when to wake up.
Du Xin had decided the previous day to go out and transplant a patch of turf into his Pocket World, yet he remained stumped as to which specific organisms would yield the greatest energy returns. He paced back and forth across his room, but no viable solution came to mind.
"Oh well, I'll just head out and wander around for a bit."
The soil within his Pocket World already contained microorganisms capable of decomposing decaying algae; however—for reasons unknown—no small animals or insects had yet been spontaneously generated or replicated within the environment. Du Xin therefore decided to bring in a patch of turf first, allowing any insects contained within it to establish a population and begin reproducing. After thousands of years of development—though the total energy accumulated within the Pocket World was still far too insufficient to trigger a full evolutionary leap for the world itself—it was certainly more than enough to cover the cost of importing a single patch of grassland.
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