I Rely On Poverty To Sweep Through Survival GamesCh1 - First Entry

We're recruiting a translator for this novel.
Join us!

Very late at night, in a convenience store that was about to close.

Xiao Lan changed out of his uniform and was packing up his things. His youthful features were elegant, and there was a cold fairness to his skin. Usually, he would hurry home and race to shower and sleep because he had to wake up at 5 the next morning to start his other job. ZJ98Dk

But at that moment, he didn’t know where he should go.

He had just been chased out by his landlord today because the latter wanted to increase the rent of his rotten place, which creaked all day on the verge of collapse with water dripping during the day and cold wind slipping through the cracks at night. And Xiao Lan, who had used nearly all of his income to pay off his debts, truly didn’t have much money left.

Read more BL at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

Thus, after being ridiculed grandly for being poor, Xiao Lan could only pack up and leave. Right now, everything he owned was in the black backpack in his hand.

Wondering whether he should find an unoccupied house and make do for the night, Xiao Lan opened the door of the staff room. JAFPH7

It was pitch black outside the door.

Xiao Lan suddenly felt that something was wrong. Just now, did he… turn off the lights?

Since he hadn’t left the convenience store, why would he turn off the lights? Moreover, the light switch was located opposite the staff room.

The darkness was abnormally silent; even the usual sound of the occasional car passing by had disappeared.

dcYx3e

In one corner, a darkness thicker than the night seemed to be spreading out.

The situation was odd. Xiao Lan directly strode past the deep darkness with his long legs as he charged out of the convenience store. As a qualified employee, he didn’t forget to lock the door either.

After he exited the store, he straightaway got onto his bicycle, which was so old the whole thing made noise on top of its little bell. The tall and slender youth stepped on the pedals with all his strength and used the fastest speed to leave the convenience store behind.

The clamor and exhaustion of the day was carried on the night wind in the city as it blew through his slightly curly black hair, bringing with it the smell of dust. It couldn’t be considered refreshing, but it was the smell that Xiao Lan was most familiar with. Today was still the same. NZHCRK

Unwittingly, the wind stopped, and the strange feeling still didn’t fade.

It was too quiet – quiet to the point that it was strange. There weren’t any sounds of people or of air-cons running. There wasn’t even the sound of the wind, or of birds and insects. It was as if the entire world was stationary right now.

From afar, the dense darkness gradually permeated everything. It swallowed up the street lamps that were already flickering feebly, and bit by bit, the street sank into a darkness which approached Xiao Lan step by step.

Seeing that things didn’t look good, Xiao Lan adjusted his grip on the handlebars and rushed in the opposite direction of the darkness. TK1VAM

But after passing several streets, everything was just as silent. He lifted his eyes for a look, and the darkness was approaching gradually from every direction.

— He was surrounded.

The darkness blustered and corroded its way toward him. In the next second, Xiao Lan sank into a completely dark world.

. PhrDvH

When he opened his eyes again, there was a door in front of him.

It wasn’t high quality stuff; it was the type of shoddy wooden partition doors that were usually found in public toilets. The glued-down surface veneer had peeled off, dangling as if unsure whether to fall off or not and exposing the wooden fragments underneath. On the door was even written:

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

【Wealthy Woman Will Pay A Lot To Try And Have A Child 136XXXXXXXX】

【Is LS a fool? This is the ladies toilet】 HVrw5d

【Very good, you’ve succeeded in attracting my attention】

Someone had even written an entire song about a hero, and it dripped with vague bitterness…

Xiao Lan pinched himself; there was no reaction. He tried to push the door open; it didn’t budge. Now that was unscientific — since when were public restroom doors so high quality?

Looking out through the door seam, he didn’t see any traces of other people either. iXKgrU

Xiao Lan looked around. The light in this toilet booth was dim and flickered occasionally. Wide patches of mould covered the walls, and the floor was dusty and had also collected water; it seemed as if the toilet hadn’t been used in a very long time.

However, what was even more frightening… was that Xiao Lan’s backpack was missing!

It wasn’t just his bag, but also the discounted, unsold bentos, his scant cash of fifteen dollars and three cents that remained, as well as his personal bike — a who-knows-how-many-hand Mr Bicycle from the last century.

Right now, he was only left with his lousy handphone that even needed to be stuck together with scotch tape, and… his clothes and shoes that weren’t even worth 100 dollars in total. 3uHSbk

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“Cii ws yfibculcur —” Wljb Ojc mbeivc’a tfiq geyylcu tlr ojmf ab rff lo tf mbeiv gey tlwrfio jkjxf ogbw atlr clutawjgf.

Qtfc sbe atbeuta sbe kfgf jigfjvs ygbxf fcbeut, gfjilas mbeiv ralii ulnf sbe j ugjcv jcv mbiv rijq lc atf ojmf jcv afii sbe, “Rb, sbe mjc yf fnfc wbgf ygbxf.” Qtb xcfk lo jqqfjglcu lc atlr ragjcuf qijmf kjr rmjglfg, bg atf meggfca atgfja bo yfmbwlcu yjcxgeqa kjr wbgf vfjvis.

“Ha…”

All of a sudden, there was hoarse and unpleasant laughter outside the silent cubicle, which was followed by a gloomy and icy wind which whistled past Xiao Lan’s ears and made him feel extremely uneasy. 4UI5bM

Xiao Lan abruptly raised his head. He had confirmed earlier that there clearly hadn’t been anyone outside.

Suddenly, a row of words appeared unscientifically out of nowhere before Xiao Lan’s eyes:

【You’re so broke it makes Zhang Dong happy that there’s finally someone even more broke than him in the world. As such, he has decided to give you a chance】

【Triggered a hidden side task: Freeloader】 diwAho

【Task explanation: Reach out to the lucky people outside to borrow a tissue】

【Task reward: Random skill *1, Zhang Dong’s gift *1】

Please support our translators at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

【Tip: A hidden side task is extremely rare. The above-mentioned task cannot be abandoned. Task failure means forever never leaving the current space】

This was the pace of being trapped in the toilet to be trash forever after failing! Ssu0M

What a hardcore opportunity.

Xiao Lan didn’t know whether he should curse or not.

After Xiao Lan tried opening the door and failed, then verified that climbing the walls didn’t work either, he finally accepted his fate. Wasn’t it just finding someone to borrow tissue from in a strange toilet?!

And it was even a goddamn ladies toilet… fonjtX

But who was Zhang Dong ah?

.

After a while, someone finally entered the toilet, and it was quite a number of people.

They sized up the toilet: dust had accumulated everywhere, and there was mould on the walls and pools of water on the floor. Coupled with the dim, flickering light, the atmosphere felt indescribably weird. SdNoLM

“Um…”

A voice rang out faintly and resounded in the shabby setting, even producing an echo.

“Ah — a ghost!”

An ear-piercing scream rang out and shattered their hard-earned courage. After that, several people hastily withdrew. A man in a suit tried to persuade them for a while, but they still refused to go back in no matter what. swrdiU

In the end, the ones who chose to enter and explore the toilet were just the suited man, two people who looked like gangsters, and a short-haired schoolgirl. They walked to the cubicle where they suspected the voice had come from and stood outside as the suited man prepared to ask some questions.

However, a hand stretched out from the gap under the door. “Excuse me, can I borrow a tissue?”

Four of them: “…”

They wanted to go back. MdUuBF

Who present hadn’t heard one or two strange rumours before about the toilet? This scene of a neighbour borrowing tissue simply couldn’t be any more typical, and was at the very forefront of strange rumours. Whoever lent the tissue would have bad luck — it couldn’t be any more lethal.

The female student shrunk back slightly.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

A gangster wearing a gold necklace at the side couldn’t help pulling up their trousers, possibly afraid of peeing and humiliating themselves.

The man in the suit seemed experienced and knowledgeable, and at that very moment, didn’t panic or turn pale. He pushed up his glasses and calmly said, “You’re someone who was also pulled into this place, right? Your surroundings suddenly went dark and extremely quiet. Then, after you woke up, you were here.” hQCSdM

“Yes, that’s right.”

It turned out that it wasn’t just Xiao Lan alone who had run into this strange situation. At the moment, he didn’t know if he should be happy or worried. In the end, what on earth could pull so many people into another place all at once? It felt even more troublesome than just one person encountering this mysterious situation.

“The person inside is also the same as us,” the person in the suit said to the three people beside him, then seemed a little perplexed. “I don’t have any tissues on me. Do any of you have any?”

The gangsters looked at each other in dismay. Real men never carried tissues with them when they wandered the streets. UVpAW7

“I… I do.” The sole girl took out a pink packet of tissues, and at the suited man’s gesture, handed it over while she trembled.

“Thanks.” Xiao Lan drew back his hand, and the kitty’s innocent wide eyes on the tissue stared back at him.

Instantly, the task display before his eyes turned into【Completed】.

At the same time, a skill card and an European-style, retro envelope with the word ‘Luo’ appeared before his eyes out of nowhere. dzJZTh

After Xiao Lan touched the card, it immediately disappeared, and information related to the skill appeared in his mind:

【Name: Poverty is unable to restrict my imagination (Bound)】

【Ability: 1. Imagine an ability, and it will be bestowed upon you for five minutes. The poorer you are, the greater the ability (lvl 1) 2. The player’s physical qualities are boosted according to the degree of poverty (Passive)】

【Cooldown period: 24h】 Bryn5z

【Explanation: Even if I’m broke, I can still have a dream ah! This is a broke person’s ultimate obstinacy】

Xiao Lan: “…”

It was clearly a skill, but unexpectedly came with self-ridicule. As someone from a capitalist society, he felt discriminated against.

Xiao Lan pondered as he looked at the explanation of the ability. An ability… who knew whether it was an ability that could be used with a human constitution, or if it was an inhuman ability. He needed to find a chance to test it out. Moreover, the skill explanation of ‘the poorer, the stronger’ gave Xiao Lan a bad feeling — it couldn’t be that he would be unable to rise out of poverty in this life, right… 6rYCBz

As for the second point about the boost in physical qualities, Xiao Lan jumped twice on the spot. It seemed he could jump even higher and easier than before. There was nothing more than that; could it be that he wasn’t broke enough in the eyes of the skill?

While he was thinking this, another row of words appeared:

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

【Current poverty index -22.2608 million. Standard for skill activation has just been attained. Please continue to persist in your efforts, and strive to create brilliance on the road to poverty】

-22.2608 million just so happened to be the sum of all of Xiao Lan’s miscellaneous debts, plus his high-interest loans which had inexplicably appeared. jzIvRe

Did this skill hope that the creditors would one day stick him in cement and drop him into the sea? It really didn’t have any humanity!!

Create brilliance, your ass!!

Xiao Lan expressionlessly shifted his attention to the envelope, and a couple of explanatory lines appeared on it:

【Name: Unopenable envelope (Bound)】 TX4qLG

【Explanation: This is Zhang Dong’s acknowledgement of you since you’re poorer than him, but this envelope simply looks like a randomly picked supermarket unsaleable item

The dazzling ‘supermarket unsaleable item’ was filled with a sense of existence.

Xiao Lan: “…”

He took a deep breath and curbed the urge to flush it down the toilet. QR2cip

Shutting me up in the ladies toilet for such a long time just to give me such a shoddy plaything; Brother Zhang, aren’t you a little too miserly?!!!!

Xiao Lang randomly stuffed the envelope into his pocket, and while he was subjected to the complicated gazes of the masses that could be saying ‘You actually have the mood to use the toilet’, or ‘Momma, there’s a pervert hiding in the ladies toilet here’, he pushed open the door and calmly exited the cubicle, and washed his hands in passing to demonstrate his innocence.

After that, he followed the suited man’s lead, and they left together with the other three people to meet up with the others.

. kECWJP

Everyone gathered together: The suited man, a gangster with a gold chain necklace, a gangster with a sleeve tattoo, three schoolgirls, a pair of sweethearts, a middle-aged woman, and a stout and bald middle-aged man.

Including Xiao Lan, there were 11 of them.

They were prepared to discuss the situation, but before they could open their mouths, the extremely rusty-looking roll-up door behind them let out a teeth-aching, metallic screech as it opened bit by bit.

A musty smell assaulted their senses. BSJxj2

Everyone couldn’t help turning to look.

Behind the roll-up door was a supermarket that was just as shabby as the toilet earlier. It wasn’t too big, the lights were dim, the floor was covered in stains, and the shelves were in a terrible mess; there were even dubious, dark handprints and traces of finger streaks on the walls.

Please support our translators at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

“Welcome to Terminal Supermarket, lucky ones!” A gentle and pleasant sounding female voice rang out.

A woman wearing a shop assistant uniform suddenly appeared before their eyes. Xiao Lan could confirm that there hadn’t been the shadow of a person at all when he was sizing up the supermarket, so where did this woman come from? BsN6ok

Her smile was sweet but stiff, and she spoke to them in an enthusiastic tone. “Next, you will participate in the supermarket activity.

“Every hour, please gather at the checkout counter and select one product with the boss as witness.

“If the selected product does not conform to specifications or time runs out, you will be punished.

“Wishing you a pleasant game!” yc9VSg

The female shop assistant bowed to everyone, and was about to leave.

“Wait a second!” The bald middle-aged man promptly blocked her way. “What on earth are all of you doing? Recording a program or carrying out a prank? I was discussing millions on the phone, and I really have no interest in playing with you.”

The female shop assistant was still smiling stiffly. “This is the Advent World, and all of you are the chosen lucky ones.”

“What the hell, laozi wants to leave now!” The gangster with the gold chain necklace was fairly twitchy. He looked fierce, but in reality, he was scared of the supernatural the most. Currently, his nerves had already been stretched to the very limit, and he directly stepped forward to grab the shop assistant’s wrist. K Ai2Q

The female shop assistant repeated, “All of you are lucky…”

The gold chain gangster roughly cut her off as he yelled, “Bullshit! I’m warning you, don’t play around with laozi!”

The female shop assistant still had that strange, stiff smile on her face. From the moment she appeared, there hadn’t been the slightest change in it. Xiao Lan felt that something was wrong with the situation, and he immediately spoke up to stop the gold chain man. “Calm down —”

Before he could finish speaking, the gold chain man slapped the female shop assistant and directly sent her flying. With a muffled thud, she hit her head hard against a wall. 4AD bi

Her body slowly slid down the wall, leaving behind a streak of red blood in her wake. She lay unmoving, and her chest didn’t move either; she was like a dropped, broken puppet.

“I… I didn’t use that much strength ah,” said the gold chain man in disbelief as he looked at his hand.

Everyone sank into silence. The game that suddenly appeared and this strange woman was already very hard for them to take in. The woman was now dead — was there still a way for them to leave?

“She… she moved.” The short-haired schoolgirl pointed at the female shop assistant on the floor, whose condition was unclear. IykbEt

Then, they saw her entire body jerk. Her head still drooped, yet her body sat up from where she had been lying on her side, and her limbs moved in a bizarre way over the floor as she headed toward the gold chain man…

Seeing that the situation had taken a turn for the worse, the gold chain man turned and ran. However, the female shop assistant sped up and directly pounced on him, trapping him firmly with her limbs.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Then, what happened next made everyone’s scalps turn numb — the two of them actually fused!

It was like chocolate slowly melting into a puddle at a high temperature. After that, a human figure gradually crawled out — wearing a shop assistant’s uniform, her smile sweet but stiff. W40RLB

It was the female shop assistant!

 

The author has something to say

  O VBaP

In a fit of anger, Xiao Lan flushed the envelope down the toilet.

Luo: …

—The End—


Baobao Notes pj3xSb

Heyooo new novel! First chapter for everyone to get a feel of what sort of novel this is(Also, this was recommended by rainbowturtle, if you like her taste). For those who don’t check, my updating schedule is usually from Monday to Wednesday. If I miss updates on those days, know that I’ll regularly update three times a week unless something comes up.

Translator's Note

lou shang; upstairs. Talking about the person writing above^

Translator's Note

as in secondhand, and it’s so old he didn’t know how many-hand it was

Translator's Note

father, used to call yourself arrogantly

Leave a Comment

47 comments

  1. If my surroundings were being swallowed up by darkness, I’d go mad and instantly pass out! Anyway, MC really is dirt poor! Wonder how exactly he ended up like that

    Also there are 2 sentences where the raws are present too.

    Thanks for the chapter! 🙂

  2. Thanks for the chapter, thus novel it seem very interesting so far even though this is just the first chapter.

    I can’t wait to see where this novel will take us next ☺

  3. Thank you so much Baobao! You’re working so hard for us! I really like your translations and please take care of yourself^^

  4. Can relate to being poor but he’s a on a whole other level of broke oof!

    Already hooked by the first chapter, thanks! 💕

  5. This was recommended by RainbowTurtle? SOLD, STAMPED AND DELIVERED, I am here for all of this!!!

  6. Whoa…thanks for this chapter…

    This MC’s skill and item (that explanation part 🤣) similar with MC from Earth Online, and it’s a wonder Xiao Lan didn’t flush that envelope to the toilet 🤣🤣🤣

  7. 😮 a new book has appeared in my sights!!! Thanks for translating!

  8. Oh vaya se lee encantadora jajaja, yo leyendo y dijo porque esto se parece a la novela – la tierra está en linea- jajajaja la recomiendo la tortuga arcoíris. Ais que mi respuesta es EXCELENTE SERVICIO ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

  9. 【Very good, you’ve succeeded in attracting my attention】

    this line define what I want to say XDXD

  10. This first chapter… wow I wish some director took this into making it a television show I would love to watch it. Is creepy, is gay and contains kind of crack/gag humor I’m loving it

  11. Hello , I want to translate this novel into Myanmar language. Can you give me a permission, I will wait for your reply, thank you.

    • hello, unfortunately i do not allow translations of my work anymore. In a sense it’s because I feel like it’s playing a game of telephone, where if you translate from an already translated work you’ll likely lose the original meaning.