System Within: Million Dollars From Today

CHAPTER 04

Gabe didn’t cry for long, or rather he couldn’t. A couple of teenagers had entered the alley, kissing, and not at all caring that he was there. He had to leave when it should have been the opposite. The teenagers should have been the ones that left.

He remembered that he didn’t even kiss a girl until he crossed 20. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to; it was just that he couldn’t.

After going to the side, Gabe asked, “You said you’d give me a million dollars, right? Give me them now.”

[You didn’t beat Bart. I did after taking over your body. Besides, I never said I’ll give you the money right away.]

“What? Then when are you going to give me?” Gabe sounded frustrated.

[You must level up and get stronger. Then I can give you everything in the world.]

Gabe couldn’t fully trust the system’s words.

Gabe then came home.

It was a small house with no lawn or any extra space other than the four rooms: living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom.

In the bedroom, there were two men currently uninstalling the old television set.

“Hey, hey, what are you doing?” Gabe asked them. These were the cable network operators.

“What are we doing? What we should have done three months ago!” they fumed at Gabe. “You have to pay us for the last 4 months. That means 120 dollars. If you want us to reinstall the cable, then you should also pay us an advance for six months. So the total adds up to 300 dollars.”

“So? You will take the television for 120 dollars?” Gabe asked, looking shocked. “That costs a lot more!”

“A lot more? Haha, this old model doesn’t even sell for 120 dollars,” one of them mocked him. “We’ll give you one month. Bring the money, or we’ll sell this.”

Saying that, they left with the television, despite Gabe telling them to stop.

After they left, Gabe came to his aunt’s bed.

His aunt, Nicole, looked terribly weak and out of shape as she was suffering from thyroid and rheumatoid arthritis. Her joints of arms and legs looked swollen, and she had to suffer a lot just to turn on the bed from one side to another.

“Aunt… I’ll bring our television back soon, I promise,” Gabe assured her. Television was the only thing providing his aunt some entertainment. Because he had to pay the current and water bill, he couldn’t pay the television bill these past four months.

“It’s okay,” she replied in a frail voice. “I can live without television.”

Gabe helped Nicole get off the bed and walk to the bathroom. She got extremely tired from doing just that much.

Gabe went to the rooftop, where he was raising tomato, ivy gourd and some other plants as well as two hens and a rooster. He plucked a couple of tomatoes and the eggs that both the hens had laid. He came down and prepared a meal, mixing eggs and tomatoes. He put the food in his aunt’s mouth because she couldn’t move her joints freely to eat. It would cause her too much pain.

Today, because there was no television playing in the background to distract her from reality, Nicole got emotional as he fed. She fell on his shoulders and cried, “I’m sorry, Gabe. If only I was courageous enough to kill myself… you wouldn’t be suffering with me like this. Keira wouldn’t have left you on the wedding day, either.”

Nicole, despite always going through a lot of mental and physical pain, tried not to show her pain in front of Gabe who was her brother’s son. She had taken him in after Gabe’s parents mysteriously vanished one night when he was only two years old. However, she never thought that she would soon fall ill and Gabe would start taking care of her.

She hadn’t painted her house in more than thirty years. She hadn’t gone to the park in over twenty years. She hadn’t even gone out of the house in the past ten years. Also, it had been more than ten years since someone came to the house to see her. They were probably afraid she would ask them to lend her some money, she believed. But none of that hurt her as much as watching her nephew waste his life for her.

“Aunt… I told you plenty of times already. I don’t see this as a burden. I’m still trying to marry a woman who wouldn’t mind living with you,” Gabe replied, wiping her tears away.

Nicole, however, didn't believe his words. She could see that after Kiera had dumped him on the wedding day, she hadn’t seen him talk about another woman.

Nicole quickly grew tired and had to rest on the bed. She couldn’t even cry for long. That was the state she was in, and she had been this way for many years now.

[This seems worse than death.]

The system spoke for the first time after he entered his house, but its words only made him feel even worse.

[Does your aunt have the same blood group as you?]

“Why are you asking?” He went into the living room.

[The blood of an alpha is powerful. Once you reach higher levels, your blood will help with her recovery, though you can’t give her in large amounts as it might affect her.]

Gabe froze in his tracks. “Are you sure? Can my aunt really recover?” He hurriedly asked, but then remembered that the system had already told him it could give him everything he wanted. He didn’t believe it back then, but now, he began wondering if there was more to those words.

[Don’t underestimate my power. Once you reach higher levels, a whole different world will open for you. You will see for yourself how vast of a world you really live in. Getting your full hair back, and improving your handsomeness to the max is also possible.]

Gabe’s eyes widened to the max. “What should I do to reach higher levels?” Gabe hastily asked. He didn’t care about what kind of world awaited him as much as he wanted to restore his aunt’s health.

[Defeat alphas that are more powerful than you. Taming them gives you even more power, though it’s not easy. Protecting your people would also boost your power. In the end, it’s all about winning. Alphas don’t lose at anything against their will, after all.]

“Then take me to an alpha. I want to defeat them and power up right away,” Gabe expressed his wish without hesitation.

The front door was kicked open, and four guys entered the living room, smiling as they cracked jokes among themselves. After seeing his four friends, Gabe closed the door to his aunt’s room.

The four men sat down on the cold marble floor. Gabe opened the food packets and alcohol bottles they brought and served them who started drinking and eating chicken pieces while talking about their work life and also about Sheila who lived in the same neighborhood. In between, one of them tossed a chicken wing to Gabe.

He managed to catch it with both hands and was about to bite on it.

[Don’t.]

Gabe stopped. “Why?” he asked in his mind.

[They are your friends, aren’t they? They come here and have fun for hours and in return throw a piece of meat or two in your face. How can you live with that?]

“Beggars can’t choose. I’m used to it, so...” Gabe bit on the chicken wing along with the bone and crunched on it.

[NO!]

The system got furious and forced Gabe to spit.

And the half-chewed chicken piece and bones flew out of his mouth and fell on top of his friends, leaving Gabe shell-shocked.