Cash Back Tycoon: Spend Big, Earn Bigger

The suit that cost everything

The phone in Ethan's pocket rang before the frozen rain could fall out of the sky.

The drops crashed back onto the pavement all at once, and the blue panel in front of his eyes shrank into a small glowing icon at the very edge of his vision. The caller ID read Manager Harris.

Ethan answered with a shaking thumb.

"Listen carefully Vance." Harris spoke in the polished voice of a man reading off a script. "Detective Rourke from the financial crimes unit will be at your apartment at six tonight. Sign a confession before he gets there, and I will personally ask the firm to show you mercy."

"You stole that money." Ethan said. "Your authorization code is on every transfer."

"Then bring me the proof." Harris laughed softly. "Oh wait, you cannot. I had IT lock your accounts an hour ago. Enjoy your last afternoon of freedom."

The line went dead.

Ethan lowered the phone and stood very still while rain ran down the back of his collar. He had less than seven hours before a detective came to arrest an innocent man, and the only thing in his life that had changed since morning was a glowing panel that nobody else could see.

He opened it again with a single thought.

[ Infinite Cashback System v1.0 ]

[ Rule One: Every purchase made by the Host returns a reward greater than its cost. ]

[ Rule Two: The reward scales with the social value of the purchase, not only with its price. ]

[ Rule Three: Purchases made through force, fraud , or gifts to the Host's enemies will not be rewarded. ]

[ Newbie Task: Spend five hundred dollars or more on one personal purchase within the next hour. Reward: Tier One Cashback. ]

Ethan let out a bitter laugh that scattered the rain around his lips.

"A system that tells me to spend money I do not have." he muttered.

He checked his banking app anyway. The balance read five hundred and twelve dollars, and the system seemed to know that right down to the last dollar.

A cold, steady anger rose in his chest and pushed the shaking out of his hands. He had been fired, framed, abandoned and mocked within fourteen hours, and he had nothing left that anyone could take from him.

"Fine." he said. "Let us see what you are worth."

The Armani flagship on Crown Street was the proudest building on the block.

Ethan had walked past its glass doors a thousand times and never once gone inside. Tonight he pushed them open with a dripping cardboard box under one arm, and the warm air inside felt like a different world.

A woman in a tailored black dress looked up from the counter. The nameplate on her chest read Brielle Santos, Senior Associate, and her smile died the moment her eyes reached his shoes.

"Sir, the entrance for deliveries is around the back."

"I am not delivering anything." Ethan said. "I would like to buy a suit."

Brielle glanced at her colleague and covered a laugh with one manicured hand. "Our suits start at three thousand dollars, sir. I think you may have the wrong store."

"Then show me your cheapest one."

She sighed as if he had asked to carry his luggage, and she led him to a small rack in the far corner of the store. The sign above it read Final Clearance. She did not offer to help him look.

Ethan found a charcoal suit in his size with a red tag that said four hundred and sixty-nine dollars. It was last season's cut, but the fabric felt smooth and heavy between his fingers.

"I would like to try this on."

"The fitting rooms are reserved for serious customers." Brielle crossed her arms. "You are soaking wet, and the carpet in there costs more than your whole outfit."

The store manager appeared beside her. His name tag read Dunmore, and he wore the expression of a man who had found a stain on a clean shirt.

"Is there a problem here?"

"This gentleman wants to use a fitting room," Brielle said sweetly. "I explained that it is not possible."

Dunmore looked Ethan up and down. "Sir, if you cannot afford our merchandise I must ask you to leave before you frighten the other customers."

Two women near the window were already staring. One of them had lifted her phone.

Ethan felt the heat climb his neck, and he recognized it, because it was the same humiliation he had swallowed in the restaurant and in the office. He had swallowed it twice in one day already.

He did not swallow it a third time.

"I came here to buy one suit with my own money." he said, and his voice carried across the quiet showroom. "If your store is too proud to take it then say so plainly, and I will make sure that the whole world knows."

Dunmore's jaw tightened. "Fine. Ring him up Brielle. Let us see whose card declines first."

Brielle carried the suit to the counter with two fingers, as if it might stain her. The register chimed and she read out the total with a smirk. "Five hundred and eleven dollars and thirty cents, after tax."

Ethan placed his card on the glass.

The whole room seemed to lean closer to watch him fail.

Brielle tapped the machine and the screen paused for one long second.

Then it beeped and the receipt began to print.

Brielle's smile slid off her face. "That must be a mistake."

"It is not a mistake." Ethan said. "My card works, and so does my money."

He signed the slip, and a single dollar and seventy cents remained in his account.

The blue panel burst open in front of his eyes.

[ Ding! ]

[ Qualifying purchase detected. Amount spent: $511.30. ]

[ Social value assessment: the Host was publicly humiliated in this location and still completed the purchase. Reward multiplier applied. ]

[ Tier One Cashback is now unlocking. ]

[ Reward: 100% ownership of the Armani Crown Street flagship store, including its inventory , its lease , and its operating account. ]

[ Bonus reward: a liquid cashback wallet has been funded with $25,000. ]

Ethan did not move. He read the lines twice, and then a third time, because his mind refused to believe them.

Dunmore reached for the receipt. "Is there something else, sir, or are you finished wasting our time?"

Before Ethan could answer, the desk phone behind the counter began to ring.

Dunmore frowned and he picked up with an impatient hand. "Crown Street, this is Dunmore."

His face changed while he listened. The color drained from his cheeks in slow stages, until he looked like paper left out in the rain.

"Yes, Director Hale. Yes, I understand. I am looking at him right now."

He lowered the receiver with both hands, as if it had become fragile.

"Mr. Vance." Dunmore whispered. "The regional director says the store was transferred to you four minutes ago. He wants to know why nobody told him that the new owner was standing in our clearance section."

Brielle made a small choking sound.

Ethan lifted his new suit from the counter and looked at the two people who had refused him a fitting room.

"Then I believe,look" he said calmly "that I will take that fitting room after all."