2026-08-18 06:49:50Ethan swallowed hard.
The floating cards remained suspended before him, their golden symbols glowing faintly against the darkness of the room.
One card could bring wealth.
Another could bring power.
Another could bring wisdom.
And another could bring sickness, disaster, or even death.
Ethan had no idea what waited behind the card he was about to choose.
His hand slowly rose.
His fingers trembled as he reached toward the floating deck.
Then he stopped.
What if he chose death?
What if the card gave him some incurable disease that would destroy his body within weeks? What if he drew a fortune that made his already miserable life even worse?
His hand began to pull back.
Then the memories came.
His wife's cold expression.
The day he discovered her betrayal.
The way she had stood beside another man without even looking ashamed.
His mother crying quietly after the Hawthorn family humiliated them.
His father struggling to breathe while Ethan desperately searched for enough money to afford better treatment.
The laughter of his in-laws whenever he entered their mansion wearing his work uniform.
The countless times he had stood silently while people who were supposed to be family treated him like an unwanted servant.
Three years of humiliation.
Three years of swallowing his anger.
Three years of watching his life fall apart while having no power to stop it.
Ethan slowly lowered his gaze.
His hand stopped shaking.
Something inside him hardened.
Whatever happened next, he couldn't keep living the way he had been living.
“I have nothing left,” he whispered, his voice barely audible.
Then he reached forward.
His fingers closed around one of the black cards.
The moment he touched it, a strange coldness shot through his hand and traveled up his arm.
Ethan's eyes widened.
He almost let go.
But he forced his fingers to tighten.
Then he pulled.
The card slid free.
The instant it left the deck, every other floating card dropped onto the table at once.
THUD!
Ethan flinched.
The sudden sound echoed through the room.
The candles flickered violently before settling again.
Ethan stood completely still, staring at the card between his fingers.
His heart was pounding.
Slowly, he turned it over.
His breath caught.
Two golden words appeared across the black surface.
INSTANT WEALTH
Ethan stared at them.
He didn't blink.
He didn't move.
For several seconds, his mind simply refused to understand what he was seeing.
Then a strange laugh escaped his throat.
It was quiet at first.
Nervous.
Almost disbelieving.
“That's supposed to be my fortune?” Ethan asked, staring at the card as though it might suddenly change.
The old man smiled faintly. “Yes.”
Ethan looked up at him. “How does that even work?”
The old man opened his mouth to answer.
Ethan's phone vibrated.
BZZZT!
He glanced toward his pocket.
Another vibration followed almost immediately.
BZZZT!
Then another.
BZZZT! BZZZT! BZZZT!
Ethan frowned.
The sound kept coming.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
The screen was filled with notifications.
He opened the first one.
His eyes froze.
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $500,000.00
Ethan stared at the screen.
He blinked once.
Then twice.
The number didn't change.
His thumb hovered over the notification.
“That's impossible,” he whispered.
Before he could open the message, another alert appeared.
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $2,000,000.00
Ethan's eyebrows shot upward.
“What?”
Another vibration.
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $10,000,000.00
His breathing stopped.
Another.
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $50,000,000.00
Ethan's entire body went rigid.
The old man watched him silently.
The phone vibrated again.
BZZZT!
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $100,000,000.00
Ethan stared at the screen in disbelief.
Then another notification appeared.
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $250,000,000.00
His fingers began trembling.
“What the hell is happening?”
Another vibration.
BZZZT!
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $500,000,000.00
Ethan's mouth fell open.
Half a billion dollars.
One transfer.
He stared at the number as if looking at it long enough might make it disappear.
It didn't.
Then another notification arrived.
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $1,000,000,000.00
Ethan stopped breathing.
His heart slammed against his ribs.
One billion dollars.
His phone vibrated again.
BZZZT!
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $2,500,000,000.00
Ethan's knees nearly buckled.
He grabbed the edge of the table with his free hand.
“What...?”
The notifications continued.
They came faster now, one after another, filling the screen so quickly that Ethan could barely read them.
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $5,000,000,000.00
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $10,000,000,000.00
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $25,000,000,000.00
BANK ALERT: ACCOUNT CREDITED $50,000,000,000.00
Ethan's hands were shaking violently.
Money was pouring into his accounts.
Not one transfer.
Not two.
Dozens.
His phone vibrated so continuously that it almost sounded like a small machine trapped inside his hand.
BZZZT! BZZZT! BZZZT! BZZZT!
Ethan could barely keep his eyes open.
He opened his banking application.
The loading screen appeared.
He waited.
One second.
Two.
Three.
The balance finally appeared.
Ethan stared at it.
His brain stopped functioning.
The number was so enormous that his eyes struggled to follow all the digits.
$187,450,000,000.00
One hundred and eighty-seven billion, four hundred and fifty million dollars.
Ethan's face went completely blank.
He refreshed the application.
The screen loaded again.
The number remained.
He refreshed it a second time.
Still there.
A third time.
Still there.
His breathing became shallow.
His fingers went numb.
He slowly lowered the phone and stared at it as though it belonged to someone else.
One hundred and eighty-seven billion dollars.
He had never seen that kind of money in his entire life.
Not in a bank account.
Not in a business.
Not even in his wildest dreams.
His monthly income had once been measured in thousands.
There had been days when eight dollars felt like a fortune.
He had counted coins to buy groceries.
He had skipped meals so his parents could eat.
He had spent nights staring at unpaid bills and wondering which one he could afford to ignore.
And now his account contained more money than he could comprehend.
His phone vibrated again.
Ethan looked down.
Another bank notification appeared.
Then another.
And another.
He suddenly remembered something.
He had more than one account.
With shaking fingers, Ethan opened another banking application.
The balance loaded.
His eyes widened.
$94,700,000,000.00
His mouth slowly opened.
“No...”
He checked another account.
$61,300,000,000.00
Another.
$28,950,000,000.00
Another.
$17,600,000,000.00
Ethan's entire body went numb.
Every account was receiving money.
His savings account.
His checking account.
His investment account.
Even an old account he had barely used in years.
The alerts kept arriving.
ACCOUNT CREDITED.
ACCOUNT CREDITED.
ACCOUNT CREDITED.
Money was appearing everywhere.
The amount kept climbing.
His phone vibrated again.
Then again.
Then again.
Ethan stared at the screen, completely overwhelmed.
The man who had struggled to find eight dollars for a stranger was suddenly watching billions of dollars flood into his accounts.
The irony was almost too cruel to be real.
“Ethan.”
He barely heard the old man's voice.
He slowly lifted his head.
The old man was watching him calmly.
Ethan's lips parted.
“What did you do?” he asked, his voice trembling with disbelief.
The old man slowly shook his head. “Nothing.”
“My account...” Ethan looked down at his phone again, his voice breaking. “There's billions in my accounts.”
“The first card has completed its fortune,” the old man replied calmly.
Ethan looked back at him. “Completed?”
The old man nodded. “Instant wealth.”
Ethan stared at him.
Then he looked down at the black card still clutched between his fingers.
The golden words remained unchanged.
INSTANT WEALTH
His eyes slowly moved back to his phone.
The number on the screen seemed to mock everything he had suffered through during the past three years.
The garbage truck.
The insults.
The humiliation.
The unpaid bills.
The empty wallet.
The cheap groceries.
The nights he had gone to bed hungry because his parents needed the food more than he did.
All of it suddenly felt impossibly far away.
Ethan slowly lowered his phone. His eyes were still fixed on the screen, but he didn't smile. He couldn't. The amount was simply too much.
“But... but won't my banks flag these transactions and freeze my accounts?” Ethan asked, his voice tightening as he stared at the impossible numbers on his phone.
His voice grew more serious as he continued, “Banks don't just accept billions of dollars appearing out of nowhere. They'll investigate. They'll ask where the money came from. They'll freeze everything before I can even touch it.”
The old man shook his head calmly. “No, they won't,” he replied, his voice carrying absolute certainty.
Ethan looked up sharply. “Why?”
The old man reached for his coffee and took a slow sip before answering. “Because the Cards of Fortune do not simply give you a fortune. They rewrite reality to make that fortune possible.”
Ethan stared at him.
The old man continued, his expression becoming more serious. “The card has already changed the world around you. The money in your accounts is not considered stolen, fraudulent, or unexplained by the systems that govern this world. Every transaction has a legitimate origin. Every account recognizes the funds. Every financial record supports their existence.”
Ethan's eyebrows drew together.
“So, you mean...” He glanced at his phone again, struggling to put the pieces together. “The banks believe I've always had this money?”
“Not exactly,” the old man replied.
Ethan looked back at him.
“The banks believe the money is legitimate,” the old man explained patiently. “Your records have been adjusted. Your financial history has been adjusted. The necessary documentation exists. The transfers have valid sources. If a bank investigates the money tomorrow, it will find an explanation that satisfies its systems.”
Ethan's mouth fell slightly open.
“So you're telling me the card didn't just put billions into my accounts.”
“No.”
“It changed the records too?”
“Yes.”
“My tax records?”
“Yes.”
“My account history?”
“Yes.”
“Investment records?”
“Yes.”
Ethan stared at him in disbelief.
“And if someone checks where the money came from?”
The old man gave a faint smile. “They will find what they are supposed to find.”
Ethan slowly lowered his phone.
That was far more frightening than simply receiving money. He had initially thought the card had somehow transferred billions into his accounts.
Now he understood.
It had done something much bigger.
It had altered reality itself.
Ethan looked down at the phone again.
The balance was still there.
$187,450,000,000.00
The number no longer looked like a bank balance.
It looked like a warning.
He swallowed.
“So this is real?”
The old man nodded. “Every cent.”
Ethan's fingers tightened around the phone. “And I can actually spend it?”
“You can spend it, transfer it, invest it, donate it, or use it however you wish.”
Ethan stared at him. “Without anyone stopping me?”
“Within the normal laws of the world, you are free to use your fortune.”
Ethan slowly looked at the remaining cards.
A few minutes ago, he had been worried about whether he could afford his father's medicine.
Now he had more money than he could spend in several lifetimes.
He should have been celebrating.
Instead, a strange uneasiness settled in his chest.
He had been so lucky to receive exactly what he had wanted.
Money.
Enough money to solve every financial problem he had ever faced.
Enough money to move his parents somewhere safe.
Enough money to pay every medical bill.
Enough money to walk away from the Hawthorn family forever.
Enough money to make everyone who had looked down on him regret it.
Ethan slowly raised his eyes. “Can I stop here?”
The old man nodded. “You can.”
Ethan's eyebrows lifted in surprise.“I don't have to draw the other two?”
“No,” the man replied, his head shaking in disagreement.
“Then why did you tell me I could choose three?”
“Because you came here with nothing,” the old man replied quietly. “Now you have everything most people spend their entire lives chasing.”
Ethan looked at the black cards.
For a moment, the sensible thing seemed obvious.
Take the money.
Go home.
Forget the cards.
Forget the old man.
Forget this strange night ever happened.
But another thought slowly surfaced.
If one card could give him nearly two hundred billion dollars, what could the other two do?
It could give him power, health or something even greater.
Ethan's heartbeat began to quicken, slowly he placed his phone on the table. Then he looked at the old man.
“I'll take the second card.”
The old man's eyes narrowed slightly. “Are you certain? The remaining two cards could bring you bad fortune.”
Ethan stared at the remaining deck, and this time, there was no fear in his expression.
“I'm certain,” he replied, his voice filled with confidence.
The old man gently pushed the deck toward him.
“Choose carefully,” he said, his voice low and serious. “The first card gave you wealth.”
His finger rested on the black deck.
“But the next two may give you something money cannot buy.”
The old man gently pushed the deck toward him.
"Now," he said, his voice low and strangely calm, "open the second."
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
The Truth About Everything
Ryan's confident expression slowly disappeared when he realized something was wrong.His eyes moved past Ethan and toward the black SUV parked a short distance behind him. For a brief moment, Ryan seemed to expect someone else to step out of the vehicle. He glanced toward the driver's seat, then toward the rear doors, his confusion growing when the parking area remained completely still.Nobody emerged.Ryan's gaze finally returned to Ethan.“Ethan?” he muttered, the confidence in his voice replaced by genuine confusion. “What are you doing here?”Ethan stared at him.For a moment, the question was so ridiculous that he almost laughed.What was he doing there?As though they had simply crossed paths by accident.As though Ethan had come looking for a casual conversation.As though his parents were not lying dead in a hospital because of an order Ryan had given.The memory of their bodies lying motionless beneath white hospital sheets made Ethan's chest tighten.Slowly, his hands curle
The Man Behind It All (THE IDENTITY OF THE MASTERMIND)
The next day arrived with a strange stillness.Ethan had barely slept.Even after leaving the hospital and returning to the hotel, his mind had refused to settle. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw his parents lying motionless beneath the white sheets. He could still hear his mother's voice from the night before, still remember the way she had looked at him when he promised he would come back.He had promised.And he had failed to keep that promise.Now there was nothing left for him to return to.The only thing he had managed to take from the hospital was the assassin's phone, and even that had come with a purpose far darker than he had imagined. The man had not been acting alone. Someone had paid him to kill his parents, and whoever had given the order was still out there.Ethan sat quietly in the back of the SUV as the city passed outside the tinted windows.Beside him, the Guardian remained unusually silent.The silver-haired man had spent most of the journey staring ahead, his
The Mystery
Ethan did not say anything else as they left the hospital.The automatic doors slid open in front of them, allowing the cool night air to wash over his face. He stepped outside with Guardian beside him, while Clara followed several paces behind.The city was still alive despite the late hour, its streets illuminated by headlights, streetlamps, and the glowing signs of businesses that had not yet closed for the night. Cars moved along the distant road, people walked beneath the lights, and somewhere nearby, a motorcycle accelerated through an intersection.Everything looked normal.That was what made it feel so strange.The world had not stopped because Ethan's parents were dead.People were still going home. Restaurants were still serving customers. Drivers were still honking at one another. Somewhere, someone was probably laughing with their friends without knowing that Ethan Hawthorn had just lost both of his parents.He stood near the hospital entrance for several seconds, staring
THE BEGINNING OF THE HUNT
Ethan remained in the hallway for several more minutes, unable to move.The hospital corridor had become strangely quiet. The sounds of hurried footsteps, distant voices, and medical equipment seemed far away now, as though he were standing inside a world that no longer belonged to him. His chest felt heavy, and every breath he took seemed to drag against the weight pressing down on him.He lowered his head and slowly rubbed a hand over his face, forcing himself to regain control. There was no point standing there and letting grief consume him. His parents were gone, and nothing he did now could change that.A few feet away, Guardian stood silently.The silver-haired man had not interrupted him once. He simply watched Ethan with a calm, patient expression, giving him the time he needed to collect himself.After another long breath, Ethan finally straightened.His eyes were still filled with pain, but something colder had settled behind them.He turned toward Guardian and walked over.
Immense Grief
The doctor took a slow, quiet breath before speaking.For a moment, he seemed to struggle with the words himself, even though he had delivered bad news countless times during his career. His eyes remained on Ethan, and the sympathy in them was impossible to miss.Then he finally spoke.“Your parents died shortly afterward,” the doctor said quietly, each word careful and heavy.Ethan stared at him.He heard the sentence.He understood every word.Yet somehow, his mind refused to accept what they meant.His lips remained slightly parted as he looked at the doctor, waiting for him to continue. Perhaps there was another part to the explanation. Perhaps the doctor had made a mistake. Maybe he had confused Ethan’s parents with someone else.Ethan waited for the correction.It never came.The doctor simply stood there, his expression solemn.Claire slowly lifted one hand to her mouth as shock spread across her face. Her eyes glistened almost immediately, and when she finally spoke, her voice
They Are Dead
The room felt different now.A few minutes ago, it had been filled with the quiet tension of two men trying to understand the person behind the assassination attempt. Now that the messages had stopped and Guardian had locked the phone, there was nothing left for Ethan to do except stand there and look at the man lying on the floor.The assassin was dead.His body remained where he had fallen, one arm resting at an awkward angle while his face was turned slightly toward the wall. The gun was still several feet away, abandoned after he had made his final decision.Ethan stared at him for a long moment with no satisfaction or relief in his eyes.This man had come to kill him. He had followed him, watched his movements, and had been waiting for the right moment to carry out an order given by someone Ethan still could not see.And yet, as Ethan looked at the body now, the assassin no longer seemed like the most frightening part of what had happened.He had been nothing more than a weapon.
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