Three days after the semifinals aired.

Lu Zhixian sat on the apartment sofa, staring at the virtual panel before him.

The numbers in the top right corner were jumping.

The frequency of the jumping was incredibly fast.

The speed at which the numbers rolled was several notches faster than a taxi meter.

Follower data across all platforms was skyrocketing; the audio for "the brightest star in the night sky" dominated the number one spot on major music platforms, and the stage performance video views were leading by a massive margin.

Lu Zhixian watched for a full ten seconds.

The corners of his mouth couldn't be suppressed and curled straight up.

I'm rich.

The phone vibrated on the coffee table. It was a call from Old Zhao.

Lu Zhixian picked up and put it on speaker.

"Ancestor, are you awake?" Old Zhao's voice betrayed an uncontainable excitement, with the background noise of keyboard tapping and assistants moving about.

"The business email has exploded."

"Get to the point." Lu Zhixian's gaze didn't leave the system panel.

"The brands coming to us are lined up so far that we couldn't finish them even if we booked into next month," Old Zhao said rapidly.

"A certain car company wants to sign you as their full-line spokesperson, a certain menswear brand wants you to promote their autumn flagship style, and two national-level beverage brands are in a bidding war. You can pick whatever you want now; pointing at anything with your eyes closed is money."

"Fine, you handle it. Pick the ones with more money and less work," Lu Zhixian responded perfunctorily.

"Are you even listening to me?" Old Zhao keenly detected his absent-mindedness.

"I'm listening. Cars, clothes, water." Lu Zhixian tapped his fingers twice on his knee. "Gotta hang up, I have a multi-billion dollar deal to manage."

Without waiting for Old Zhao's reply, he cut the call and tossed the phone aside.

His entire focus was on the system interface.

Looking at that golden, shimmering gacha pool entrance, Lu Zhixian's fingers felt a bit itchy.

He did the math.

To specifically pull "the brightest star in the night sky" before, he had almost drained his popularity points. His account balance had once made him question his life choices.

But now, the amount that had surged back was several times more than the total he had saved up before.

As the saying goes, take a gamble and turn a bicycle into a motorcycle.

He now had enough capital to gamble.

Lu Zhixian sat up straight and made a decision.

A three-hundred-pull streak.

A confirmation box popped up from the system: [Confirm consumption of 1,500,000 popularity points for 300 consecutive draws?]

Without any hesitation, he clicked confirm.

Light flickered.

The first round of ten pulls began.

The wheel spun rapidly, the needle stopped, and golden light burst forth.

[Congratulations on obtaining: Advanced Cooking Skills]

Lu Zhixian raised an eyebrow. Not bad; one can never have too many skills, at least I won't starve to death in the future.

Immediately after, the light continued to flicker.

[Congratulations on obtaining: Toilet Paper (Family Pack 24 rolls) × 3]

[Congratulations on obtaining: Anti-dandruff Shampoo (750ml) × 1]

[Congratulations on obtaining: Cotton Towel Set × 2]

[Congratulations on obtaining: Nail Clippers × 1]

Lu Zhixian stared at the screen.

His expression went from anticipation to confusion, and finally settled into a blank stare.

"Do you think this is a daily necessities wholesale market?" he asked the air.

The system was silent.

The draws continued.

Second round.

[Congratulations on obtaining: Stainless Steel Mop × 1]

[Congratulations on obtaining: Fluoride Toothpaste × 4]

[Congratulations on obtaining: Intermediate Flower Arranging Skills]

Third round.

[Congratulations on obtaining: Clothes Hangers (Stainless Steel 30-pack) × 2]

[Congratulations on obtaining: Beginner Calligraphy Introduction]

Fourth round.

[Congratulations on obtaining: Lemon-scented Dish Soap (Large Jug) × 1]

Lu Zhixian leaned back against the sofa and took a deep breath.

This system has definitely switched to garbage recycling mode.

He patiently continued to watch.

Occasionally, a purple light flashed in the middle, looking like high-grade goods.

[Congratulations on obtaining: Master-level Culinary Arts]

Lu Zhixian was silent for three seconds.

He remembered he had pulled Intermediate Cooking before, then Advanced just now, and now it had gone straight to Master-level.

He came here to be a singer, not a cook.

With these skills, he could go to New Oriental Cooking School and become an executive chef immediately, or even snag a head chef position at a Michelin restaurant.

"Well, thank you very much," Lu Zhixian said through gritted teeth.

By the time he reached the one hundred and fiftieth pull...

Lu Zhixian had already collapsed.

His posture had changed from sitting upright at the start to being completely slumped.

On the system interface, the inventory was piled high with various daily necessities.

Toilet paper was piled like a mountain, there was enough shampoo to open a hair salon, and the hangers could fill an entire balcony.

Anyone who didn't know better would think he was celebrating Singles' Day and had cleared out a supermarket's shopping cart.

His expression had evolved from anger to tranquility.

The kind of tranquility that comes from seeing through the vanity of the world and completely resigning oneself to fate.

The two hundredth pull.

The wheel turned, and this time a dark golden light flashed.

Lu Zhixian's eyelid flickered.

[Congratulations on obtaining: English (Native Speaker Level)]

Lu Zhixian was stunned.

Immediately after, an extremely strange sensation welled up.

A massive amount of information, vocabulary, grammar, and slang poured directly into his brain without any buffer.

He felt as if someone had poured a bucket of water into his brain.

After a brief moment of dizziness, Lu Zhixian came to his senses.

He opened his mouth.

"What the f**k is this system? Are you kidding me? You piece of junk!"

Extremely fluent, authentic English—even with a bit of a London accent—blurted out.

He found that he could now use English to curse eighteen generations of the system's ancestors without any obstacles.

The cursing was very smooth and very stress-relieving.

But what was the use?

Was he going to the Grammys?

The three hundred pulls finally ended.

The system's notification sound ceased, and the panel returned to silence.

Lu Zhixian clicked on the final tally.

[Master-level Culinary Arts × 1]

[English (Native Speaker Level) × 1]

[Advanced Flower Arranging × 1]

[Intermediate Calligraphy × 1]

[Beginner Carpentry × 1]

[Toilet Paper × 45 boxes]

[Shampoo × 20 bottles]

[Various mops, brooms, and trash bags]

Useful music-related skills: Zero.

Vocal improvement: Zero.

Music theory knowledge: Zero.

Lu Zhixian closed the system interface, closed his eyes, and lay on the sofa without moving for a full minute.

The door lock clicked.

Old Zhao pushed the door open and entered.

He walked into the living room and saw Lu Zhixian sprawled on the sofa, eyes vacant, looking like he had just lost a hundred million in Macau.

"What's wrong with you?" Old Zhao was startled and walked over to kick the edge of the sofa.

"Nothing," Lu Zhixian opened his eyes, his voice raspy and tinged with a weariness that had seen it all.

"Then why are you lying there pretending to be a corpse?"

"I just accepted a fact."

"What fact?"

"I've used up all the luck in my life," Lu Zhixian said flatly.

Old Zhao thought he was acting crazy again or doing some performance art, so he just ignored him.

"Stop lying around, get up and work." Old Zhao slapped a stack of schedules onto the coffee table with a loud thud. "There are three appearances, two interviews, and a magazine cover next week. Look at the times and sync your schedule."

Lu Zhixian didn't move.

He was silently calculating his popularity point balance in his head.

It was seventy percent lower than before the three-hundred-pull streak.

In exchange, he got a pile of toilet paper, shampoo, and the qualifications to be a master chef and an English teacher.

He seriously considered whether, with his current stockpile of supplies, he should lease a storefront downstairs and open a small convenience store.

Business would surely be good.

The phone vibrated beside him.

Lu Zhixian tilted his head to glance at the screen.

A WeChat message from Lin Shiya.

[The full version of the semifinals has aired, and you've hit the trending topics three more times.]

Lu Zhixian raised an eyebrow.

He summoned the system interface again and glanced at the top right corner.

The numbers were starting to jump up again.

The real-time traffic brought by the trending topics was frantically regenerating his points.

The digits he had just squandered were being refilled bit by bit at a visible speed.

Lu Zhixian stared at that string of numbers for a while.

He propped himself up on the edge of the sofa and sat up.

"Give me the schedule," he said, reaching out to Old Zhao.

Old Zhao looked at him suspiciously. "Coming back to life?"

"Back to the grind." Lu Zhixian took the schedule, scanned the dense arrangements on it, and took a deep breath.

Fine.

Keep grinding, keep saving.

He swore he would never touch this crappy gacha system again.

If he gambled again, he was a dog.

Probably.