Super Rich: Starting the game by going back ten years to buy Bitcoin

The phone rang three times before I answered.

"Hello, this is Liepin's Executive Talent Service Center. How can I help you?"

The voice on the other end was a woman's, professional-sounding, polite but not long-winded.

Li Yichen closed his laptop and leaned back on the sofa.

"Hello, I would like to ask you to help me find a high-end talent."

"Okay, sir, please tell me your specific needs."

"The requirements are very clear—proficiency in the entire process of corporate mergers and acquisitions and wholly-owned company acquisitions, and understanding of the entire business of commercial negotiation, valuation, due diligence, and equity transfer."

He paused for a moment.

"This person needs to have practical experience, having personally managed a complete company acquisition case. They need to understand business negotiations, legal and financial risk control, and be able to help me control the acquisition project from start to finish, negotiate with the other party's boss, and sort out all the process details."

There was a two-second silence on the other end. The keyboard was clicking, someone was taking notes.

"I plan to acquire a company myself, but I don't understand this business. I need to find a professional and experienced M&A operator to handle the entire acquisition for me full-time."

Li Yichen placed his hand on the armrest and rubbed the leather surface with his thumb.

"One more thing—they must be reliable, discreet, and have a strong sense of confidentiality. Extensive industry experience and a proven track record are preferred. Salary and consulting fees are not issues; as long as they are capable and reliable, that's all that matters."

He paused for a second before saying his last sentence.

"Help me screen suitable candidates, compile their resumes and past cases, and send them to me. I will arrange interviews."

The keyboard sounds on the other end stopped.

"Sir, I have noted down your requirements in detail. We have candidates in this field in our talent pool, but screening and background checks will take some time."

"how long?"

"Two days. Within two days, we will match suitable candidates according to your requirements, and send their resumes and past cases to your designated email address or mobile phone."

"OK."

Li Yichen gave his email address and phone number, then hung up.

He placed his phone on the coffee table, the screen off. He sat on the sofa for a while, mentally prioritizing what to do next—the headhunter would give him results in two days, and there was no point in waiting idly for the next couple of days.

I stood up, changed my shoes, grabbed my car keys, and went downstairs.

The U8 drove out of the underground parking garage of Tomson Riviera and onto the main road. No destination in sight, just driving straight ahead. The window was rolled down halfway, letting in a gust of wind carrying the damp smell of the river.

After driving for about twenty minutes, passing a commercial street and turning at two intersections, the road ahead suddenly widened—on the right stood a huge arched gate with a banner hanging on it, red background and white lettering: 2026 Shanghai International Auto Show.

The parking lot at the entrance was packed with cars of all kinds, from cheap cars costing 50,000 yuan to luxury cars costing millions and sports cars costing millions.

Li Yichen drove the U8 into the parking lot and parked it in a corner.

As he got out of the car, he glanced towards the exhibition hall. The entrance was packed with people—men and women, families, people wearing car company vests and holding selfie sticks for live streaming—a vast, bustling crowd.

Let's go in and have a look.

Anyway, I'm just idling around.

Besides—what he lacks least right now is money; what he lacks most is where to spend it.

As this thought popped into my head, the system panel deep within my mind flashed.

[Wealth Level: Lv.7]

Earnings per second: 6.4 yuan

[Energy required to upgrade to Lv.8: 100 billion yen]

[Current spending: 103.8 billion yuan]

10 billion.

This number brought him a sense of relief.

Previously, the spending threshold increased tenfold from level one to level two—100 million for level five, 1 billion for level six, and 10 billion for level seven. He originally thought the threshold for level eight would be 100 billion, and with that kind of spending, even if he had more than 70 billion in his account, he wouldn't have enough to upgrade to level eight.

However, after completing the seventh level upgrade, the system displayed a notification: the cost for each subsequent upgrade will be uniformly set at 10 billion.

We will no longer multiply by ten.

Ten billion. With his current asset level, he can easily afford it. Moreover, at a car show, he can easily buy tens or hundreds of millions of dollars worth of top-of-the-line sports cars, limited editions, and custom models.

Money spent is wealth. Money lying in your account is just numbers.

Li Yichen locked his car and walked towards the entrance of the exhibition hall.

Security check, QR code scan, enter.

The air conditioning inside the exhibition hall was blasting, a stark contrast to the sweltering heat outside. The spotlights on the ceiling illuminated the entire space, and the booths of each car company stood side by side, each surrounded by a crowd of people.

Li Yichen followed the flow of people inside.

In front of the Porsche booth, a car review blogger was holding a ring light and live-streaming from a 911 GT3 RS, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Guys, look at this carbon fiber rear wing, it's factory-installed, not an aftermarket addition..."

He didn't stop, but went around it.

Further on, at the Ferrari booth, a bright red 296 GTB sat on the turntable, slowly rotating, its paint reflecting a flowing light under the lights. Several young people stood outside the fence taking pictures; a boy in a white T-shirt squatted down to take a picture from an upward angle.

Li Yichen glanced at it, didn't feel anything special, and continued forward.

Lamborghinis, McLarens, Aston Martins. He looked at them one by one; each one was beautiful, but none of them made him stop in his tracks.

Until he turned a corner.

In the deepest part of the exhibition hall, the lighting was dimmer than elsewhere. It wasn't that the lights weren't on—they were deliberately dimmed, with only a few directional spotlights shining down from above, the beams of light falling on the car in the very center.

Black.

Low-slung, wide-body design, with body lines sloping from the hood to the rear, and a single piece of carbon fiber roof that gleams matte under the lights. The front is extremely low, the grille opening is very tight, and the headlights on both sides are slender and slightly upturned.

A safety cordon, about two meters in radius, was set up around the car.

It wasn't separated by ropes. It was separated by a black velvet fence with a cast iron base and velvet cloth strung between the posts—the kind of separation only high-end auction houses use.

A group of people stood outside the fence.

A dozen or so people were there; some were taking pictures with their phones, while others had their hands in their pockets and were craning their necks to look inside. But not a single person crossed the velvet fence.

Li Yichen walked towards the car, through the crowd, and stood at the very front of the fence.

On the side fender of the car, there is a small metal nameplate.

He squinted, making out the letters on it—

Bugatti.

Below the nameplate, on the second line, the words were even smaller, but those words struck his retina, each one leaping into his mind.

La Voiture Noire.