I loved the use of blood tears. "Blood tears flowed from Su Chen's eyes" as he learned his parents' accident was engineered. That's a strong visual for extreme grief and rage. It's over the top, but in this genre, that's acceptable. It emphasizes the depth of his pain and justifies his later brutality. If he had just cried normally, it wouldn't have hit as hard. These little touches make the melodrama work.
I gotta say, the opening scene in the classroom really hooked me. The way the protagonist sees everyone as skeletons, then suddenly everything looks normal but the teacher and students are all acting super weird? That was creepy AF. And when they all turned to him with the exact same smile and said the same thing? Chills. It immediately set an ominous tone and made me wonder what the hell is going on. The black mist and the bloody hands forming from the corners added to that whole "am I in a horror film?" vibe.
The title of the system is "Spendthrift Tycoon Rebate System" but Duan Yunfeng calls it a "Simp System." That's a bit of modern slang that makes him relatable. It's also funny how the system insists on calling targets "Goddesses" – it's clearly designed by someone with a specific fetish. The protagonist's reaction is fitting. I liked that moment of humor. The novel doesn't take itself too seriously, and that's a strength. The self-deprecating jokes about simping and being a "tycoon" make the absurd premise more palatable. If the story were completely straight-faced, it would be harder to enjoy. Humor is the sugar that helps the medicine go down. Even the livestream audience jokes about "embezzling public funds" and "the rich are ugly." The author has a good ear for online banter. It's one of the reasons I keep reading.
The machine hero world reference (K1, K88) feels like a nod to those old Hong Kong sci-fi flicks. I haven’t seen Machine Hero, but I’m guessing it’s some cheesy robot movie. The fact that Ye Xiao actually saw those robots fighting and then later transforms into K88 is a neat explanation for his power. Like he absorbed that world’s tech or something.