My Quadrillionaire System

#2#

Kai woke up to someone shaking his shoulder.

"Dude, you alive?"

He opened his eyes. His roommate Trevor stood over him, looking worried. The basement room was dark except for the glow of a laptop screen.

"What time is it?" Kai's voice came out rough.

"Three AM." Trevor held up his phone. "Kai, you need to see this."

Kai took the phone. The video was everywhere. "Silvercrest's Dog Janitor" was trending on every platform. The footage showed everything. Him on his knees. Barking. Chase kicking him. Rebecca laughing so hard she had to wipe her eyes.

The comments were worse than the video.

"This is the saddest thing I've ever seen."

"Put this animal down already."

"His girlfriend is way too hot for him. She upgraded to a real man."

"Three jobs to pay for her and she still cheated. What a pathetic loser."

Kai handed the phone back. He felt nothing. The humiliation was so complete it had circled back to emptiness. He stared at the ceiling, wondering if this was rock bottom.

Then something impossible happened.

A blue screen appeared in the air in front of him. Text scrolled across it like a computer interface.

[SEARCHING FOR WORTHY HOST...]

[REQUIREMENTS MET: Maximum Despair. Pure Heart Corrupted. Unbreakable Will. Righteous Fury.]

[SUPREME LAVISH UPGRADE SYSTEM ACTIVATED]

[WELCOME, CHOSEN ONE: KAI RIVERS]

"What the hell?" Kai sat up fast. His head spun.

"What's wrong?" Trevor asked.

"You don't see that? The blue screen?"

Trevor looked around the room. "What blue screen? Man, did you hit your head?"

The text changed.

[HOST CONFIRMED. INITIALIZING.]

[I AM THE SUPREME LAVISH UPGRADE SYSTEM. I EXIST TO GRANT POWER TO THOSE WHO HAVE SUFFERED BETRAYAL WHILE MAINTAINING PURE INTENT.]

[YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BECAUSE YOUR SUFFERING REVEALED A PURE HEART CAPABLE OF SELFLESS LOVE. YOUR BREAKING POINT AWAKENED RIGHTEOUS FURY. YOU ARE ONE IN EIGHT BILLION.]

[CORE FUNCTIONS:]

[LAVISH RETURNS: When you spend money on righteous purposes, you will receive 100 times the amount back within 24 hours. Righteous purposes include helping others, self improvement, building legitimate businesses, and confronting injustice.]

[UPGRADE POINTS: You earn these through righteous actions and successful missions. Use them to upgrade any aspect of yourself. Skills, attributes, opportunities, even fate itself can be upgraded.]

[MISSIONS: I will generate tasks based on your circumstances. Complete them for rewards.]

[STARTER PACKAGE: $10,000,000 USD HAS BEEN DEPOSITED IN YOUR ACCOUNT]

[CHECK YOUR BANK ACCOUNT FOR PROOF]

Kai stared at the screen. Ten million dollars. This had to be a hallucination. Stress induced psychosis. His mind breaking under the weight of humiliation. But the screen stayed there, waiting.

"This is insane," Kai muttered. His hands moved on their own, opening his banking app.

The balance showed: $10,000,327.43

The $327.43 was his real money. Everything left after Rebecca's gala ticket. The rest was ten million dollars.

"Holy shit." The words barely came out.

"What?" Trevor leaned over.

Kai turned the phone. Trevor's eyes went huge.

"Is that real? That can't be real."

"I don't know." Kai's hands shook. "I don't know what's happening."

[IT IS REAL. TO PROVE THE SYSTEM WORKS, SPEND MONEY ON A RIGHTEOUS PURPOSE. THE RETURN WILL ARRIVE WITHIN 24 HOURS.]

The system was still there. Still waiting. Kai felt like he was losing his mind. But the bank balance didn't change when he blinked. Ten million dollars sat in his account, impossible and undeniable.

Someone pounded on their door. Hard, desperate knocks that echoed through the thin walls.

Trevor opened it. Their neighbor Marcus stood there. The guy lived two doors down, another scholarship student Kai recognized from the cafeteria where they both worked. Marcus looked terrible. Eyes red, face pale, hands shaking.

"Trevor, man, I'm sorry to bother you. Do you have any money? Anything at all?" The words tumbled out fast and desperate. "My mom, she's sick. Really sick. The hospital called and said she needs medication tonight or she might not make it till morning. It's five hundred dollars and I don't have it. I called everyone. Nobody has that kind of money. I don't know what to do."

His voice broke on the last word.

Trevor glanced at Kai. "I'm sorry, Marcus. I'm completely broke."

Marcus put his hands over his face. "She's going to die because I can't come up with five hundred dollars. What kind of son can't even save his own mother?"

Kai stood up. His head throbbed but he ignored it.

"I have it."

Marcus looked up. "What?"

"I have five hundred dollars. I'll give it to you."

"Kai, are you serious?" Marcus stared at him. "I can pay you back, I swear. It might take months but I'll pay back every cent."

"You don't have to pay me back." Kai pulled out his phone and opened his banking app. "What's your account number?"

Marcus rattled off the numbers, his voice shaking. Kai transferred five hundred dollars. Marcus's phone dinged a moment later. He looked at the screen and his knees buckled. He caught himself on the doorframe.

"Oh my God. Oh my God, thank you. Thank you so much." Tears streamed down his face. "You just saved my mother's life."

He ran off down the hallway, already calling someone.

The blue screen updated.

[EXPENDITURE REGISTERED: $500]

[PURPOSE: SAVING A LIFE. HIGHLY RIGHTEOUS.]

[PROJECTED RETURN: $50,000 IN 18 HOURS]

[UPGRADE POINTS EARNED: +10 UP]

[SKILL UNLOCKED: KINDRED SPIRIT DETECTION (PASSIVE). YOU CAN NOW SENSE PEOPLE'S TRUE INTENTIONS AND LOYALTY.]

Trevor stared at Kai. "Did you really just give away five hundred dollars?"

"Yeah."

"Kai, that was most of your money. How are you going to eat?"

Kai looked at the system screen. At the promise of fifty thousand dollars returning. At the ten million sitting in his account.

"I'll be fine."

An hour later, Kai's head was pounding worse. The spot where Chase had kicked him throbbed with each heartbeat. His vision kept blurring at the edges.

"You need to see a doctor," Trevor said. "You might have a concussion."

"I'm fine."

"You collapsed earlier. You're not fine. Go to the hospital."

Kai knew Trevor was right. The pain was getting worse, not better. He took an Uber to Silvercrest General Hospital. The emergency room was nearly empty at four in the morning. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, too bright and harsh.

Kai walked up to the reception desk. A middle aged woman sat there, scrolling through her phone. She looked up when he approached. Her eyes swept over him. His janitor uniform, stained and wrinkled. His cheap sneakers with holes in the soles. The bruises on his face. Her expression shifted from neutral to disgusted.

"Can I help you?" The words came out cold.

"I need to see a doctor. I hit my head and I think I might have a concussion."

She looked back at her phone. "Do you have insurance?"

"No, but I can pay."

"Uh huh." She didn't look up. "And how exactly do you plan to pay? Because if you're here looking for charity care, you need to fill out forms and wait for approval. That takes three to five business days."

"I said I can pay. Right now."

The woman finally looked at him again. Her lips curled.

"Listen, we don't have any toilets for you to clean here. No vomit to mop up either."