Becoming a Money God with My Kickback System

Chapter 3

Chase shot up from his bed, pulling air into his lungs, his hand pressed against his chest as he steadied his breathing.

He could still remember how agonizing it had felt to breathe after he was thrown off the fourteenth floor.

He looked over his entire body. There was no blood, no broken bones, and not a single scar. He was still in his bedroom.

It seemed his choice had come to pass. 

"What is this?" Chase muttered, looking around. Everything in the apartment seemed ordinary.

But it was because he hadn't adjusted it all. 

Today should have been the end of the worst day of his life. Instead, it was only the beginning.

Ding!

A mechanical tone rang out, and a transparent screen appeared in front of him. Chase blinked twice. The screen was still there.

[Welcome, Host Chase Locke.]

[Base Stats: Strength 5, Speed 5, Stamina 4, Luck 1.]

[Rule of the Kickback System: The more you lose unfairly, the more you gain. Every sacrifice returns as a multiplier.]

"Awesome!" Chase said finally, after comprehending what he had just read. Was it true? Had he really awakened a system, just like the ones in the novels he read? He couldn't help but smile greedily. Now he could get his well-deserved revenge after all this time of being mistreated!

[Ding! Mission One: Give all your savings to the landlord.]

"Wait, what?" Chase blurted out.

That couldn't be right. He was alive again, and he was still on the losing end?

"Why would you make me give money away? Aren't you supposed to be the one giving me money?" Chase asked angrily.

The system did not respond. Instead, the mission kept blinking, waiting for him to accept or reject.

Chase didn't want to click anything, but the sound of pounding on his door caught his attention.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Who is it?" he asked.

"Open the door!" a rough voice shouted.

The door swung open before Chase could reach it, and the landlord walked in with his two huge men. They shoved Chase aside and immediately began to ransack the apartment.

Then Chase remembered. In his previous life, he had already gone out to work by this time, and the landlord had entered his apartment while he was gone. Now he was actually meeting the event as it unfolded.

"Landlord, I thought our meeting was scheduled for later in the afternoon," Chase said, an angry expression on his face, watching the men throw things around without any care.

"I decided to come early for my property," the landlord said.

Chase didn't ask him anything else. He only looked at him, angry. Then he took a deep breath and released it, got up slowly, and walked to the second room. He took out his savings box from under the floorboard and brought it straight into the sitting room, dropping it on the table.

"This is what you're looking for, right?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah!" The fat landlord was delighted. "You have a bit of common sense after all."

He took the box and opened it, then crashed onto the sofa, the cushions bending inward under his weight. He began to count the money, smiling.

Ding!

[Mission One completed.]

[Sacrifice detected: Host lost $1,000 in savings, the money for his sister's treatment, to an unjust demand.]

[Kickback multiplier: x1,000.]

[Reward: $1,000,000 has been deposited into the host's account.]

[Bonus reward: Instant Combat Skill: Discipline.]

Chase's eyes widened. One million dollars?!

I gave up a thousand dollars, and I got a million back?

Something rushed through his body at that moment. His muscles felt lighter, his senses sharper, and every fighting technique he had never learned suddenly seemed as natural as breathing.

"You dolt!" the landlord said in annoyance, snapping Chase out of his thoughts. "This is not complete! I need the full money now!"

"Oh, yes, that's true," Chase said, staring at the man devilishly.

"What are you smiling for? Give me my money!"

"Well, I have a few extra dollars in my pocket," Chase said, dipping his hand in and bringing out a fist. "Why don't you come over here and collect the remaining cash?"

"Good, you have sense," the landlord said, walking towards him.

He stopped right in front of Chase, smiling with his yellow teeth. That was when Chase threw a sharp uppercut into the man's jaw. The landlord flew up in the air and landed back on the sofa.

"Argh!" Blood ran from the landlord's nose and lip. "Look at what you've done to me! Boys, get him!"

The two hefty men reached for Chase from different directions at the same time, but to him, they seemed to be moving in slow motion.

Chase dodged the first punch and countered with a gut-wrenching blow that sent the first man flying into the wall. He swept the second one clean off his feet and, as the man hit the ground, unleashed a flurry of punches that left him twitching.

"Ah!" the landlord cried, and Chase only smiled, walking slowly towards him.

"Who do you think you are?" the landlord roared. "I will call the police to arrest you for this! I will make you pay a huge fine and lawyer fees!"

“Feel free to do so, then you would expose yourself for the cunning fat rat that you are,” Chase said and the man held his tongue. 

"Check your bank account. Every cent I owe you, plus the interest, has been paid. So from now on, this is my home, and no one enters it without my permission. I want this place sparkling clean, and you and your goons gone before I come back. Or else..."

Chase let his words hang in the air, and his cold eyes told the rest of the story. Then he left the apartment.

He hailed a cab outside. He was already late for work and expected the worst, but even so, he was waiting to see what else the Kickback System would give him.

When he stepped through the restaurant's front door, he wasn't wearing a uniform. He was in a plain shirt and jeans, and everyone looked at him with mean eyes. He could already hear the whispers around him, mocking his appearance, but he didn't think much of it. He only had to get to work.

"You are late! And you are not even in uniform!" Jerry, his boss, spotted him and raged.

"Order for table nine!" the woman at the counter called.

"Go and take that order!" Jerry snapped. "One more screw-up and you're FIRED!"

Chase only smiled. He remembered this clearly. That order belonged to Rachel's table.

He took the tray calmly. Before leaving the counter, he picked up a bottle of hot pepper sauce and poured the entire bottle into Rachel's sparkling water.

[Ding! Mission Two: Make the ones who wronged you regret it. Do it in your own way.]

Chase moved through the crowd with vivid ease and reached the table. Rachel hadn't noticed him yet. She was making lovey-dovey eyes at Trent, and Chase watched as she downed half of the drink before spitting out the rest.

"So hot! Why is it so hot?!" Rachel gasped for air, her face red like a tomato, tears streaming down her face and mucus running from her nose.

"You put a whole bottle of hot pepper in her drink?" Trent said, furious.

"Whoops," Chase said, with a shrug and pure sarcasm.

"You!" Trent shot up from his seat, but Chase caught his hand with ease and smacked him hard across the face. Trent tumbled to the ground.

"Oh my god! What is happening there?"

"He hit him!"

The crowd gasped in shock.

"Chase!" Jerry came storming through the crowd, panting and trembling. "Do you know what you've done? You are not just banned from this place, you are—"

"Shush!" Chase said. "You don't get to fire me. I quit!"

Ding!

[Mission Two completed.]

[Sacrifice detected: Host endured unjust abuse and framing.]

[Reward: Body Reinforcement Level 1.]

"Interesting," Chase said. His boss was still standing there, stunned by his attitude, but Chase didn't care much. With the money in his account, he had only one priority now: his sister. He would come back and deal with Jerry later.

He walked out of the restaurant and headed for the hospital. He had barely lifted his hand to flag down a cab when his phone rang.

"Mr. Chase, you have to come to the hospital immediately!" the hospital's MD said. "Your sister's condition has become critical!"