Chapter 2: The Reckless System

Staring at the countdown, Chen Lin remained dazed for a long time.
"This must be a dream, a dream within a dream!"
"Wake up, quickly..."
He pinched the inside of his thigh. It hurt, but he still didn't wake up.
"Is that not painful enough?"
He quickly grabbed a lighter, lit a cigarette, and pressed the burning end against the back of his hand.
"Hiss..."
"Why haven't I woken up yet!!"
"Could it be that this isn't a dream!?"
Chen Lin looked at the countdown again; only 33 seconds remained!
Just then, his phone chimed with a text message notification.
"No way!"
"Could it be that the 10,000 yuan has arrived!?"
Trembling, he opened the message...
"No, this can't be real. I don't want to go back to ancient times!"
[Host, please face reality. Hurry and take some modern items back to the ancient era. 25 seconds remaining...]
"Damn it!!"
Finally accepting reality, Chen Lin scrambled up and looked around. What should he take?
It was only then that he realized he was still wearing ancient robes. He took a selfie, and to his surprise, his ancient face looked identical to his modern self.
This meant he could bring things back from the ancient era and sell them as antiques in the modern world!
Wait, that wasn't right. If he had traveled back to the modern world with his physical body...
But when he first traveled to the ancient era, it was clearly a soul transfer. Where did his modern body go?
[It was reclaimed by the system. From now on, whenever you die in the ancient era, you will travel back to the modern world. Only after completing the mission and being killed by Zhu Yuanzhang one final time will you truly return to the modern world permanently.]
[Host, please note: 7 seconds remaining. If you wish to extend your time in the modern world, you may purchase it with currency: 10,000 yuan per minute.]
"10,000 yuan per minute!!"
"Why don't you just rob someone? Even Trump doesn't make that much playing the stock market!"
As he spoke, with a soft 'poof,' Chen Lin vanished on the spot.

Meanwhile, in the 15th year of the Hongwu reign, only a minute had passed for Chen Lin, but twelve hours had passed here. The Ju Rong County Magistrate was handing over testimonies and reporting yesterday’s events to the arriving Jinyiwei.
Just then, a bailiff ran up in a panic: "Bad news, sir! Chen Lin's corpse has suddenly disappeared!"
"What? The corpse disappeared? How could it disappear? Didn't you have people watching it?" The Magistrate was horrified.
"We were watching it the whole time, sir, but the body just vanished into thin air right before our eyes."

"Vanished into thin air? Impossible..."
*Slap!*
The Jinyiwei closed his ledger: "Magistrate of Ju Rong, come with us!"
"No, there must be some misunderstanding. I will go check on it myself, please wait a moment, officers."
"No need. I now have reason to suspect you are an accomplice, killing to silence witnesses and destroying the evidence. Magistrate, you're quite clever, aren't you!"
"No, no, no, that’s not how it is! I’m not an accomplice; I really don't know anything..."
"Come, take him away!"
"No~~~~~"
Just as the Magistrate was shouting 'no,' a 'poof' sounded in the restaurant, and Chen Lin returned to the 15th year of the Hongwu reign.
The bloodstains were still on the floor, the doors were locked, and through the light outside, he could see an X-shaped seal on the door.
"I feel physically stronger. Does physical transmigration improve one's constitution?" Chen Lin muttered, looking at his hands.
[Yes, every transmigration is a quantum-level physical reconstruction, eliminating all hidden ailments. You are now in a state of absolute health. Please maintain good lifestyle habits.]
Chen Lin curled his lip and took a drag from the cigarette butt he had brought from the modern era.
"Maintain good lifestyle habits? Not happening!"
"Huh! I even brought the lighter..."
"You said earlier that dying at the hands of a bailiff rewards 10,000 yuan, and dying at the hands of Zhu Yuanzhang rewards 100 million. Are there other tiers in between?"
[Yes. Dying at the hands of a commoner rewards 10,000; a regular official, 100,000; an official of the fourth rank or higher, 1 million; nobility or power-holders, 10 million; and at the hands of Zhu Yuanzhang, 100 million!]
[Suicide carries no reward...]
Chen Lin rubbed his hands in excitement. "Only a ghost would commit suicide without a reward."
"Is there a limit to how many times I can do this?"
[100 times. If you haven't completed the mission within 100 deaths, you will not be revived again...]
"100 times!!"
"That's plenty. At least 99 opportunities to make money."
"Let me calculate... 10,000 per minute, 100,000 in ten minutes... If I get killed by a nobleman, I get 1,000 minutes, which is 16 hours!"
"16 hours is enough to get a lot done..."
[Theoretically, that is correct, provided you aren't afraid of pain. You should know that ancient times offer many ways to die: poisoned wine, hanging, beheading, dismemberment, being torn apart by carts, flaying, waist-chopping, boiling, frying, and execution of the entire clan, three, nine, eleven, or twelve degrees of kinship...]
"Stop, stop, stop! Don't say any more. I know which method is the most painless!"
[One more thing, Host: please note that you must be killed by Zhu Yuanzhang 10 times to permanently return to the modern world.]
"What! 10 times!!!"
"Damn it, is this increasing the difficulty or is it a bonus?"
"Something feels wrong. Letting Zhu Yuanzhang kill me 10 times, meaning I have to revive in front of him 10 times... is that even possible?"
"Zhu Yuanzhang might catch on and stop killing me!"
"This is definitely not a bonus; it's a difficulty spike..."
"Regardless, the plan must continue. I have to see Zhu Yuanzhang."
With that thought, Chen Lin tore open the door, ripping the seal away with it.
The moment he opened the door, he saw the same head bailiff standing there with a group of Jinyiwei.
"You, you, you..." The bailiff looked as if he had seen a ghost. "You were dead! I watched you draw your last breath with my own eyes..."
"You what? Get lost, don't interfere with my business."
A Jinyiwei kicked the bailiff aside and stepped up to Chen Lin. "You are the Chen Lin who openly insulted the Imperial family!?"
"So what if I am? You aren't qualified to question me. Bring Zhu Yuanzhang to see me."
"Such audacity! Take him!"
"Step back! If you come any closer, I'll kill myself!"
The Jinyiwei captain merely sneered. "Take him!"
Chen Lin turned and ran. He didn't want to be thrown into the imperial prison to suffer; he had to cause a scene big enough to attract Zhu Yuanzhang's attention.
But being an ordinary man, how could he outrun the Jinyiwei?
He had just run into the kitchen and grabbed a vegetable knife when he was completely surrounded.
"Damn it, if you have the guts, kill me!"
Ask and you shall receive; the Jinyiwei were not joking.
*Poof!*
A cold flash passed, his head fell to the ground, and Chen Lin died spectacularly once again...
Meanwhile, the news of Chen Lin's public insult to the Emperor spread rapidly, reaching the Chen family estate outside Ju Rong County, and chaos erupted!
"What did you say? That brat opened a restaurant and openly cursed the Emperor?!" The Second Uncle lunged up from his grand armchair, causing the beautiful maid sitting on his lap to tumble to the floor in pain.
Third Uncle: "He has a death wish!"
Fourth Uncle: "No, this is aimed at us. He wants to take us all down with him using his own death!"
"..."
Second Uncle: "A classic case of killing with a borrowed knife. What do we do now?"
At that moment, a chaotic sound of footsteps and hoofbeats echoed from outside.
Before anyone could react, *bang!* The gate of the Chen estate was kicked open!
"Chen family, your time is up! Come with us to the imperial prison!"
"Take them all!"