Upon looking at the phone message, Keith froze dead on the spot with his eyes widened. He was dumbfounded as he began refreshing his account balance repeatedly before finally yelling out a booming "Yes!".
Every single person in the vicinity turned their heads towards his direction in response to his loud frenzy.
However, he did not care if the passerbys on the streets were looking at him weirdly. The Business God System was real and that was the only thing that truly mattered!
"This could really help me become as rich as I was in my past life! Maybe even richer. I will build a business empire that will be able to rival massive conglomerates! I will be the next Bill Gates" Keith clenched his fists hard upon realising the amazing potential of the system.
As long as he could achieve the target profit set every month, he would be able to reap massively with the Income Multiplier skill.
"Yes! Just wait you bastards, you think you can erase me? Guess what, I will rewrite everything! I will be back in no time!".
***
It took hours to finally understand his place in this new world.
His story.
A lot was way different than it used be, Keith was no longer the Agro-Food company Pinnacle Foods CEO, he was a delivery driver for a fast food chain called 'DashBite'.
Not just his carrier, his personal life was extremely altered. From being the lean kid who worked his way through college and built a sustainable agro-food business from the ground up to being an uneducated, unwanted, illegitimate son to a wealthy family who barely accepts him as their own.
In this world, he was born into the prestigious Lockwood family whose wealth could rival a small nation, Keith was set to living a tough life since he was young.
With his mother being a maid and a father who gave him no love, he was treated cruelly in the manor by the main family members.
Rather than a child, he was treated more like a prisoner. The Lockwood family were more concerned that they would be disgraced because of his illegitimate existence. Thus, he and his mother were assigned to an abandoned shed house to live out their lives, hidden away from the others.
Along with having to endure humiliation and mockery from the main family members, he and his mother had to live in poor conditions too. It didn't take long for his mother to develop an illness and pass away with his father not even looking a single glance at their way.
In the end, he left the Lockwood family and didn't look back. With no qualification or education at eighteen, he worked odd jobs to support himself.
Later, he thought he had found true love with Jena Carpenter when she approached with affection, but alas, that too turned out to be a disappointment.
"I see…" he laid still, facing the ceiling fan rotating slowly as he assimilated the pattern of his new life.
It all played in his mind like he had experienced everything first hand, but it was just the story of the Keith Hall in this timeline— the timeline he will now have to live in.
"Jena was my assistant in my past life, but now she is my cheating wife…" he said softly as he rolled over, rubbing his eyes.
He had lodged at a small hotel the previous night to process everything that had just happened to him. Albeit the same, considering the amount of information he had to process about this new world, he didn't get much sleep.
"Right, I have a chance to rewrite my story. Although everything isn't clear to me at the moment, I'm sure it'll clear up as I expand". he said as he grabbed newly purchased clothes from the edge of his bed. "Lying here won't give me the answers I desprately need."
***
RING!
Keith walked into a medium sized restraunt located deep inside an alleyway, some distance away from the main street.
If it wasn't for the wooden sign depicting a chef with a cheesy mustache, he would have never noticed that a restraunt was opened in such a desolate place.
Entering the door with a nervous expression, Keith proceeded on with careful steps.
He was here to begin his quest to rise to the very top of the business world, by bringing forth a proposition to the owner of this establishment. And having being turned down by several businesses that day, he could not afford to fail.
The Business God System was his only hope.
There were only eight more days until the end of May to complete the mission given by the system— Achieve the target profit value of $200,000. If he couldn't, he would loose the system and be left with nothing but a shitty life.
After some calculations, he had figured that there was no way he could achieve the target profit by continuing as a food delivery driver with the limited time he had.
"Welcome to The Pine Cone! How may I help you, sir!?" the moment Keith stepped foot into the restaurant, he was immediately greeted by a young waitress.
She appeared to be just around the same age as him, early twenties, and looked absolutely gorgeous. Unique to only her, her sea green eyes were strikingly charming, but they weren't as charming as her contagious smile.
"Right, may I speak with the owner of the restaurant? I'm here to discuss business with him. I want to invest in this restaurant." Keith smiled with his teeth revealed, trying to present himself as professionally as he could.
"You?" the young waitress hesitated as she looked at him from head to toe, sizing him up.
Rather than an investor, Keith was looking more like a student with how young he looked and the cheap clothes he was wearing wasn't helping much.
"I'm so sorry, the owner is not in…" after taking a few seconds to contemplate, the young waitress made up her mind. The possibility that Keith was a scammer was far greater than him being a legitimate investor.
However, before she could finish her sentence, Keith's words shocked her.
"Daphne…" he blurted out, taking notice of the name tag attached to her breast pocket.
"I'm want to invest half a million dollars in this establishment— So, get me the owner immediately." Keith said.
A desperate move in a desperate situation. He didn't have half a million, but he had to do anything to at least get the owner of the restaurant to see what he had to say.
"H-Half a million dollars?!" the young waitress visibly swallowed a huge load of saliva as the menu in her hand dropped on the floor. "D-Dad…Dad! Come here immediately!"
***
"Is it true what my daughter tells me? You want to invest in my restraurant?"
Seated across Keith was the owner and the Head Chef of the restaurant, Lucio. After a few minutes of waiting, he finally came out to talk to Keith.
Normally, a chef would be busy in the kitchen preparing food for the customers, especially in the case of the Pine Cone where the place was solely run by the father and his daughter.
But, with how empty the restaurant was, he could afford the time.
"Yes, that is true. I intend to invest a total of half a million dollars into your establishment for 70% shares of your restaurant." Keith dropped his business proposal without hesitation.
"What?!" Lucio's eyebrow arched inquisitively as his facial expression changed.
"You really think I would fall for that? There's no way I will agree to such a deal. 10% shares or the deal is off. I've spent more than a million myself to open and run this place" Lucio argued with an agitated tone.
Just then, the systems interface flickered to life within Keith's POV.
Tti-ring.
[Business God System> Status Panel]
[Name> Keith A. Hall
Class> Business God Candidate
Level> 1
Title> System Selected Entrepreneur
Reputation> Poor]
[Core Stats]
[INT {Intelligence}> 12: Enhances Forecasting, Data Analysis, And Innovation.]
[CHA {Charisma}> 15: Boosts persuasion, networking, and media appeal.]
[MAN {Management}> 10: Increases staff efficiency and production output.]
[FIN {Finance}> 13: Grants smarter budgeting, better investments.]
[INN {Innovation}> 8: Unlocks unique business domains, models and patents.]
[Available BUSINESS GOD SYSTEM CREDITS {BGS Credits}> 15]
[Skill Tree Panel]
Current Innate Skill> Income Multiplier x30.
>Any income gained from chosen Domain gets multiplied by x30.
[Quest Log Panel]
Objective> Achieve the target profit value of $200,000 from the chosen Domain Food Industry.
Ti-tiring.
"I see…" he scanned through the information in less than a fraction of a second.
'I have stats and perks that directly or indirectly affect my business relationships… that's convenient, so from the looks of it Lucio would be complacent because my reputation is poor and my Charisma is low…'
Ti-tiring.
[Affirmative!]
[BGS Credits can be allocated to different Core Stats to increase their value for better results]
'Is that so… I have, 15 BGS Credits available and I will like to allocate them all to my Charisma Core Stat.'
Ti-tirng.
[Allocation of 15 BGS Credits to Charisma Core Stat complete!]
[CHA {Charisma}> 30: Boosts persuasion, networking, and media appeal.]
"You spend that much in running this place, and yet your business seems to be failing pretty hard." Keith shrugged and looked around the empty restaurant. "Furthermore, with how rundown this place looks, and the lack of staff, I think you are already knee deep in debt to maintain your usual operation."