The Most Powerful Wealth System

"That was the best nasi pecel I’ve ever had—the peanut sauce was a little spicy but so delicious!" said Kaivan, the foodie who can’t keep his mouth shut when it comes to food.

"Want me to make you a sauce like that? But it’ll cost you a million dollars," Riki quipped, prompting Kaivan to immediately grab him by the neck.

"I’d rather ask that vendor and pay her a million dollars than have you make it! That’s just making the rich richer—I’m not having it!" Kaivan said with a chuckle, before letting go of Riki.

"What’s wrong with making the rich richer? But isn’t that a good idea—asking that vendor to make the seasoning for us, so we can eat pecel without the hassle of making it ourselves?" Riki replied.

"Hmm, wait a minute! This could be a great business—selling dried seasoning mixes; customers just add water to make the peanut sauce later—"

"Come on, Zeno, we’re trying to cheer Riki up, but your mind keeps going back to business," Kaivan interjected, cutting off Zeno’s sentence.

"Ugh, I’m serious! This would also help that vendor, right? We could create jobs by having them make the peanut sauce for us.... But yeah—alright, let’s talk about this later. Where are we going now?"

Riki pointed toward the forest and the river, then said, "I want to go there, then continue on to the mountains over there—there’s a small mountain—and then, when it gets late in the afternoon, we’ll head to the lake. Oh yeah, there are lots of vendors up on that small mountain, too. Come on, let’s hurry over there!"

Hearing Riki’s explanation, Kaivan and Zeno suddenly became enthusiastic again.

The three young men immediately set off toward the forest and the river.

After entering the forest, they could clearly see the tropical rainforest scenery. There was a built trail to prevent people from getting lost and to make it harder to slip, especially during the rainy season.

Following the trail, they ventured quite deep into the forest, where they discovered various wild plants and trees typical of a tropical forest.

Among them was the corpse flower, which is actually quite rare in that area. They also caught a brief glimpse of a bird with red feathers and a trailing tail. They couldn’t be sure if it was a bird-of-paradise or another species, since they didn’t even have time to take a picture of it.

Once they’d had their fill, they finally made their way to the river.

The river originates from a mountain spring, and the local residents take great care to protect it, doing their best to ensure it remains completely unpolluted. As a result, the river is crystal clear, refreshing, and home to many freshwater fish.

The river was indeed very beautiful, with views of the forest and mountains in the distance. The colorful fish were also a major attraction. In fact, a fishing competition is held there twice a year. The locals release some fish so they can be caught. Of course, there’s a rule to catch only large fish. Any small fish or female fish carrying eggs must be returned to the river.

"I don’t really want to go home—it’s so peaceful here, so cool; I love it," muttered Zeno, sitting on a large, flat rock. He dipped his feet into the river. Unlike Riki and Kaivan, who were simply sitting on another large rock without dipping their feet in. Even so, both of them understood how Zeno felt—they didn’t want to leave.

The clean, cool air made them feel comfortable sitting and relaxing there.

"By the way, Riki... do you mind if I bring up Liz now?" asked Kaivan.

Riki turned to his friend, then shook his head. "I don’t mind—go ahead."

"Actually, I still don’t believe she’s the one who tried to hurt Angeline, because, well—she seems to care about Angeline, and they’ve been friends for quite a while," said Kaivan.

"Is there a chance she’s possessed by a demon or something? Because according to my grandpa, that could totally happen," Zeno replied.

Riki thought back to Zeno’s imposing grandfather; it seemed a bit far-fetched that the man would think about demons—wait a minute, it wasn’t impossible at all, based on Riki’s own experiences.

It could be... ugh, he doesn’t know.

"It’s not that I mind talking about this, but if I confirm your suspicions, it’ll seem like I’m just making excuses. The person best suited to discuss this is Angeline herself, who’s still trying to calm down. She’s also on vacation right now, and I’m the one paying for it—even though I don’t know where she is," said Riki.

"Sorry, Riki, I just still can’t quite believe it—I’m really sorry. I won’t bring this up again, since I don’t have any solid proof myself," Kaivan grimaced, feeling guilty for suddenly saying something that would likely weigh on Riki’s mind.

"Take it easy, Van. I’ve let it all go, and my heart has come to terms with what happened. At first, it was really hard for me to accept it, but now I can talk about it casually. Even so, it still feels like I’m just looking for excuses when I suspect things like that. I might be a bad person, but at the time I felt relieved that Liz didn’t have to go to jail—even though I knew she was guilty. I know this is a really terrible way of thinking, but honestly, I felt a sense of loss over her leaving. I felt like I was going crazy back then, thinking like that, haha."

Kaivan and Zeno smiled; they were quite relieved to see that Riki could now freely talk about what happened. Even so, they also felt sorry for him.

Riki loved Liz sincerely; he never once thought about Angeline, even though he knew she still had feelings for him. In Riki’s mind, there was only Liz.

Riki was also willing to wait for her—she didn’t want to date right away and preferred to focus on her career. During that time, Riki never got close to any other woman.

However, it turned out that Liz had all along felt insecure about Riki’s past relationship with Angeline. Even though, back then, Angeline had let Riki go so he could be with Liz.

Suddenly, Riki spoke up again, causing his two friends to fall even deeper into silence.

"Maybe this is karma because I toyed with Angeline’s feelings back then, right? I dated her even though, deep down, I already liked Liz. I dated Angeline just because she was so beautiful, and she could make Anton and other guys jealous of me. I realize I took advantage of Angeline back then purely for my own ego. I really am a jerk, huh? Haha." Riki laughed bitterly, mocking his own pathetic self.

"Forget the past, bro! Let’s face this new life. Just think of it as a fresh start in our lives now. Set your goals for the present," said Zeno.

Riki fell silent, then looked up at the blue sky dotted with white clouds drifting with the wind.

"My life’s goal is still the same: to become rich and help a lot of people."

Kaivan stood up and patted Riki on the shoulder.

"If that’s your goal, then you have to clear your mind of the things that stress you out. A hero must always have a clear mind."

Riki brushed Kaivan’s hand off his shoulder. "I’m no hero—that’s going too far."

"Hero Riki, let’s head to the mountain!" Zeno chimed in, just to annoy Riki.

"Damn it, don’t call me that—it’s creepy!"