Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

nce again from 6 am onwards.

If poverty-stricken people went out or remained outside past their allocated time slot, they would be severely punished.

Most poverty-stricken people’s body clocks were completely messed up as a result.
They treasured the time slot that they were allocated to roam around outside.
To them, this was the most important part of their days.

Of course, strictly speaking, poverty-stricken people like the male protagonist were not completely jobless.

They were allowed to watch their favorite television programs and vote for them.

Depending on how long they spent watching these programs, they would be paid some fictitious money that could be used to purchase certain items.
These included nice clothes, delicious food, tasty drinks or alcohol, and the like.

Every television program would also contain a quiz.
If one decided to spend their money on these quizzes and ended up winning, they could earn even more fictitious money.

Some programs would even invite ordinary or rich people, who rose out of poverty by earning money through quizzes, to share their experiences during the program.

The male protagonist was very into this.
He won some and lost some, but he was quite gifted.
Thus, he would win small sums from time to time and reward himself with some beer.

One day, the male protagonist ventured outside once again.

By chance, he met the similarly poverty-stricken female protagonist.
The female protagonist was not especially beautiful or charming, but she was pure and adorable.
To the male protagonist, she was uniquely attractive.
He began to fall in love with her.

The male protagonist struck up a conversation with her using his innate sense of humor.
He defeated other competitors and won the female protagonist’s heart.

From that day onward, they would meet in their allocated three hours to eat good food or spend money on cheap forms of entertainment.

Both of them quickly developed a romantic relationship.

The male protagonist began to scrimp and save and carefully take part in quizzes, for fear that he would lose all of his hard-earned money.

He wanted to save enough money to buy a space where both of them could live together.

Since his heart was set on this, he did not buy the female protagonist any gifts or treat her to feasts for a long time.

The female protagonist did not get upset.
Instead, she was very forgiving and expressed understanding and support for the male protagonist.
That was until one day, the male protagonist finally saved enough money to buy a capsule big enough for the two of them.

It was then that the female protagonist suggested that he had been earning money too slowly for them to ever become ordinary citizens.
She said that she wanted to take part in a talent show, so that they could earn money much faster if she was given a chance to star in it.

The male protagonist refused, and they had their first quarrel.

The next day, the male protagonist felt immensely guilty.
After considering for a long time, he decided to give the female all the money he had saved up, so that she could chase her dreams.

On the day that the female tried out for the talent show, the male protagonist-as her loved one—was awarded an entire day free of advertisements.
That meant he could watch the entire episode from beginning to end without being interrupted by any advertisements.

The female tried to display her talents while on stage by singing and dancing.
The male protagonist watched closely but did not think that the program was that interesting at all.

The female protagonist finally ended her performance, but only one out of the four judges gave her the nod.

According to the rules of the competition, participants would only succeed if they got three or more nods.

The other judges ruthlessly pointed out the female’s problem: she was too stiff when she danced, making her look like a clumsy bear.
Her singing technique was also wrong, her breathing was unsteady, and she was out of tune.
She was also too nervous on stage, so that she lost her stage presence.

The only one who gave her the nod was a male judge who only thought her dress looked nice.
They had spent a huge sum of money to rent that dress for the show, so that the female protagonist would look like the innocent girl-next-door.

She left the talent show, feeling extremely disappointed.

Yet, the male protagonist inwardly celebrated.
That was because he knew that if she had succeeded, they would only grow further and further apart.

Now that the female’s dreams were crushed, he could hope for a future together

When they met again, the male protagonist comforted the female and then began to save up money again in order to buy a capsule that they could live in together.

He spent more time watching different television programs and studying their ways, so that he could carefully take part in the quizzes.

He had to make sure that he won every quiz he took part in.

Subsequently, the female protagonist became increasingly distracted on their dates.
She often zoned out while the male protagonist was talking and nodded while in a daze.

The male protagonist did not overthink this.
Instead, he wrote it off as the female protagonist being crushed about her dashed dreams and was certain that she would recover one day.

At last, the male protagonist earned enough to purchase a bigger capsule.
He happily announced this to the female, saying that they could finally live together.

However, the female protagonist lost her temper for the first time, becoming hysterical towards the male.
She kept shouting ‘you don’t know anything’ and suggested they broke up.

Confused and on the verge of breaking down, the male protagonist suddenly realized that the female had a small baby bump.

The female protagonist came clean with him and admitted to having an affair with that judge from the talent show the entire time.