Means of Making Money

After breakfast, Li Qing lay idly on the bed in his rented room, staring at the ceiling. He pondered for over ten minutes but couldn't come up with a single way to make money.

Pretend to be a charlatan, cover my face, and swindle the rich?

With my telekinesis, I'd just be performing the act of levitating a single strand of cotton for people?

Any superpower demonstration by a magician would look more like a superpower than this. This ability is so embarrassing even I can't stand it, let alone show it off in public.

Or, sell one of my sports cars?

After all, my garage is huge. If I took out a microscopic cellular sports car, I'd definitely win a Nobel Prize.

The three Nobel Prizes in 2016 were all for primitive nanobots. That little four-wheeled nanocar, compared to my sports car, was like comparing a firefly to the sun.

But what would happen after I revealed it?

Me, a psychiatrist, suddenly transitioning to a gene technology engineering research expert? A peerless genius? The world's attention? Interviews, science magazines, rapid fame?

That kind of fame is a hot potato.

After careful consideration, neither my [Telekinesis] nor my [Awakening] abilities could actually make money.

"It seems only the third superpower can make money,"

Li Qing seriously stroked his chin, lost in thought. "[Hormone] can indeed make money. It's very alluring to women. If I go find a sugar mama, a rich woman with a thriving microbiome, and just lie there, the money would practically pour in."

But upon further thought, he didn't know many rich women.

1. The rich old lady next door. 2. A lesbian who had no interest in him.

But as much as he talked, the idea of a dignified Outer God, dwelling in the heavens beyond the stars, having to rely on sugar mamas to support his church was a bit too wild.

The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt.

Bored, he could only observe the camera feeds on his phone.

On the screen.

Microscopic life teemed in the ocean, coral reefs, underwater forests, houses made of shells.

The streets were densely packed with sea folk. Amidst the undulating waves and sunlight, the entire mythical underwater kingdom was immersed in an extremely magnificent hue.

The Tower of Babel had grown another level.

It seemed to be building at a pace of about half a level per day.

At this national effort, with hundreds of billions of citizens united, perhaps in three to four days, this tower reaching the heavens would be completed, and they would be ready to move against him.

Li Qing looked at the phone's surveillance feed and suddenly had an idea. "Right, I can just edit some of the camera footage and pass it off as beautiful CG, then post it online. It's quite profitable, earning click-through traffic."

Of course, he couldn't make a living by making videos long-term.

After all, setting aside other things, in the future, he could treat cancer, fleece the rich, and even just one treatment could ensure a lifetime of food and clothing, all while being safe, discreet, and convenient. Money would definitely not be a problem in the future.

"I just need to get through this month."

Li Qing immediately got to work, opening his laptop and bringing up the surveillance footage.

"First, I need to be low-key, extremely low-key!"

"I can't cut any footage that exposes information. I'll just do some distant, beautiful CG shots, filming people walking around on the streets of a city. The main thing is to sell the visuals, go for a fresh, artistic vibe, targeting the niche audience for artistic videos."

Li Qing thought about it and felt that to hide information, using the video footage of this underwater city as fan content for novel or movie IPs would be a good excuse.

With the audience's preconceived notions, they wouldn't easily notice anything amiss.

Online arguments: "[Exactly! I'm a loyal fan of this IP! This video is fan art! What? You say this scene doesn't look right? Sorry, my skills are limited, and the modeling style is a bit off, but you have to believe I'm a true fan.]"

He clarified the general logic and began searching for major IPs to make quick money.

Harry Potter's underwater lake?

Can't really piggyback on that.

One Piece's underwater city?

He panicked a little. The art style isn't right, would he get cursed out badly?

Naruto?

This is the Land of Water, ninjas underwater?

That's already bait-and-switch.

He browsed through various famous IPs and finally settled on a recently popular story: Cthulhu's slumbering underwater city, R'lyeh.

He had to admit, the bizarre, hybrid, deep-sea creatures there were quite suitable. The deep-sea creature art style was very strange and exotic, and this IP was popular both domestically and internationally.

And so.

In half an hour.

Li Qing casually edited ten minutes from the overhead view of the underwater city he had captured that morning.

Scenes of soldiers patrolling and apprehending cultists in the city, street brawls, two soldiers fighting in the street while riding bizarre, large creatures, and neighbors chatting.

He uploaded the videos to Bilibili and YouTube, and wrote the video titles:

[A Day in R'lyeh, the Underwater City, Awakening Cthulhu!]

The video thumbnail was a beautiful picture of an underwater city, with a line of text:

[Grinding my life away! Spent 197 hours, frame by frame, polishing this animation of R'lyeh, the mythical underwater city!]

He really understood short-form video content.

To fit more information, he added descriptive text to the thumbnail to attract clicks.

And when you opened the video, there was a sob story description below:

[I stayed up so late working on this video that my hair fell out. In this era of clickbait accounts, I hope my hard work and effort will get likes!]

[Wuwuwu, this little UP主 poured a month's worth of effort into this grind. Please don't let it only get a few thousand views! I can't upload the high-resolution video, so I'll leave a link at the top of the comments for you to download.]

After a bit of self-pity, he uploaded it.

He wasn't worried about it not going viral. Nowadays, artisan videos on Bilibili that took hundreds of hours to create had a very high chance of becoming popular.

"As expected, there's a way to make money if you put in the effort." After finishing this, Li Qing didn't give it much more thought.

In the afternoon, he went to the gym again.

Since yesterday, Li Qing had stopped letting his personal trainer, or even Susannie, who came to teach him, come over.

Because some of the training loads were already inhuman.

His muscle density was now incredibly high, and his physique wasn't bulky, yet he was much more powerful than many muscular men with explosive strength.

At this point, it was less like training and more like testing.

"Weightlifting, long jump, high jump – I've already broken human records. This is a difference in biological genetics and form."

Li Qing got off the treadmill and noticed he was barely sweating, only wiping himself down with a towel.

"Humans truly have limits, a genetic ceiling. No matter how much you train, you can't run the 100-meter dash in nine seconds, but a cheetah can run it in six to seven seconds just by running."

"Tigers don't even need to train specifically; they're born with sleek, powerful muscles that make up more than half their body weight. It's written in their genes."

"Human muscles are naturally soft and flabby. Even for bodybuilders, their muscles disappear quickly if they stop training consistently."

From this perspective, individual training had little impact. Genetic structure and bloodline influenced everything about a life.

Due to environmental limitations, he still had the 100-meter sprint to test.

But he felt it was no longer necessary. He should be able to run the 100-meter dash in five to six seconds now, breaking human limits.

"I feel like the training is almost done. This aspect can be put on hold for now; I don't need to come to the gym for a while."

In the sunlight, Li Qing showed a gentle smile, put on his sunglasses, and walked onto the street, heading home at a leisurely pace.