Night fell on the Gallagher house, and the familiar post-dinner rhythm set in.
Lip had already left with his genius brain, off to hustle some quick cash with one of his schemes. Ian changed into his uniform and headed to the grocery store for the night shift. Carl and Debbie were curled up on the couch, eyes glued to cartoons on the TV.
Shane remembered he still had a few homework assignments to finish for some classmates. They were due tomorrow.
Sure, it was only two or three bucks per assignment, but money was money. Plus, reneging on a deal would just cause unnecessary trouble at school.
Shane said goodnight to Fiona and retreated to his little basement den.
He clicked on the bare bulb lamp, sat at his old desk, and spread out the notebooks.
As he scribbled down answers for American History, his mind was already drifting far away.
God let him transmigrate here and even threw in a Temu system that connected to future products. Was the point really just to do homework for other kids or haul bricks at a construction site later?
He definitely had to do something bigger.
He summoned the system panel again. He looked at the dazzling array of goods, especially the electronic products that were far beyond the technology of this era.
The latest iPhones, laptops with processing power that would make 2010 computers look like calculators, smart devices he couldn't even name...
The release dates for the newest models of these devices were frozen in 2025, right before he crossed over.
But right now, in this Shameless world, the iPhone 4 had just been released.
"So... become a tech tycoon?"
The thought flashed through his mind, but he immediately snuffed it out.
An Asian kid with no background suddenly producing epoch-making technology in the US?
That was a death wish.
In his past life, he'd seen too many TikToks about tech elites getting harvested by the powers that be, and those guys actually had backgrounds.
Plus, even with the transmigration, looking at deep engineering specs still made him dizzy.
And how would he explain the source? "Yeah, I hand-soldered this Snapdragon 888 chip in my basement"? Ridiculous.
"Singing?"
He tried humming a few tunes from his past life. His voice had a bit of magnetism, but otherwise? Completely average.
"Guess I don't have that talent."
Still, he wrote down the word "Composer" on a piece of blank paper. Maybe he could leverage future music styles later?
He browsed the system mall aimlessly. From daily necessities to hardware tools, from clothing and shoes to digital products.
There was a lot of stuff, but it was hard to see how any of it could support a stable future for him and his chaotic family in this messed-up world.
Just then, his eyes swept over an old copy of The New Yorker that Lip had tossed on the corner of the desk.
The cover featured an interview with a writer.
A thought sparked in his mind.
His system connected to future information. Whether it was stocks about to skyrocket, the winners of the next few World Cups or NBA championships—if he could find the info, he could easily achieve financial freedom.
This thought made his heart race. If this world followed the exact same trajectory as his previous life, Shane wouldn't even need to hustle. He could just skip to the end game.
He searched for "2010 World Cup Summary" in the product pages and noted the champion. He needed to verify if the biggest sporting event in the world had changed.
Shane wasn't naive enough to assume that a parallel world based on the plot of Shameless would follow Earth's history exactly.
Sometimes, just having the general historical trends align was already a miracle.
So what else?
Right. Writing! Become a writer!
Of course! Why didn't he think of that?
The advantages were huge:
First, he could explain it easily. "Inspiration" is impossible to trace. If he said he imagined it, who could question him?
Second, the Temu system didn't just have physical books and magazines from the future.
It also sold USB drives and even Kindles loaded with countless electronic documents containing novels, scripts, and poetry!
He could directly "borrow" literary works that would be bestsellers in the future. He just had to be careful about what he borrowed.
Works published within the next three years were too risky. The original authors might already be drafting them.
Shane decided to target bestsellers that wouldn't appear until 2015 or later. That would ensure that when he submitted his manuscript, there were no similar works on the market.
This direction got him fired up.
But to be safe, he needed other avenues. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
He could also use the Temu system to do some arbitrage. Be a reseller.
The prices in the system were dirt cheap compared to the purchasing power of the US dollar. If he could buy in bulk and resell, the profit margin would be massive.
It had some risks, but it was a great way to build initial capital.
But there was a key question: What were the limits of the system's delivery method?
He needed to run a test.
Shane opened his bedroom door and looked at a spot on the basement floor about two meters away. He made a purchase on Temu:
"Tape measure."
As soon as the thought formed—Snap. A brand-new metal tape measure appeared out of thin air, landing exactly where he was looking.
"Oh?" Shane was intrigued.
He picked up the tape measure. He bought a few more small items—a ballpoint pen, an eraser, gum.
After measuring, he found that every time, the item was delivered accurately within a two-meter radius of his focal point. Even if he looked at the basement wall, it was the same.
"So the delivery range is fixed. A two-meter radius anchored to my visual focus?" he deduced.
Next, he needed to test size limits.
Could large items fit in that two-meter space, or would the system "compress" or "adjust" them?
He found a 3-meter fishing rod on Temu.
"Buy!"
Whoosh—!
A sharp sound of cutting air.
A full-length fishing rod abruptly appeared next to him.
It didn't lay flat on the ground. Instead, with Shane as the center point, the rod extended outward, piercing through the narrow basement space diagonally. The tip actually stabbed into the opposite wall!
"Okay..." Shane wiped some cold sweat from his forehead. "So no ordering large items quickly. And definitely no buying anything too long or huge, or I might get impaled by my own delivery. Fck."
Shane snapped the fishing rod, tossed it behind the junk pile, and went back to his room.
This test result limited his plan for large-scale wholesale arbitrage.
Too big or too long meant safety risks during delivery.
"But making a little money should be fine."
He analyzed. "Selling small, high-value electronics or daily necessities would work."
But remembering this was the "friendly neighborhood" South Side of Chicago, setting up a street stall or exposing that he had a supply source would likely bring trouble.
"Selling stuff needs to be gradual. Can't be too flashy."
Writing was definitely safer and more covert than being a reseller, with a higher potential ceiling.
He picked up his pen and wrote "Writer" next to "Composer."
Shane started searching the Temu system for physical books tagged "202X Bestseller" or "XX Literary Award Winner." A smile curled on his lips.
How to start? "Create" a grand novel right away? or test the waters with a magazine short story?
Suddenly, his gaze swept over a broken shard of mirror on the corner of his desk. It reflected his handsome face, that perfect blend of East and West.
A much more direct idea struck him like lightning!
"Am I a fcking idiot?" He wanted to slap himself. "I'm sitting on a god-tier body and face, and I'm thinking about typing away in a basement?"
This wasn't the 90s. This was late 2010!
YouTube had been online for five years. Facebook was exploding. Instagram had just launched in October!
The era of internet video was kicking the door open!
And in his system, he had fitness methods from 2025 that were lightyears ahead of current knowledge, plus the most scientific nutritional data!
Most importantly, influencers in this era were still figuring things out. It was the Wild West. He could easily copy the roadmap of a future mega-influencer and minimize trial and error.
"Fitness Influencer! Sell courses! Start boot camps!" The ideas made his blood boil. This was a great way to harvest leeks... uh, no, make money.
Once he had fame, money would come fast in this industry. And it leveraged his biggest current assets: his perfect muscles and his distinctively handsome face.
He just needed to drip-feed some training concepts and diet plans that would be proven effective in the future, and he could package highly attractive courses.
Let's do this!