The Broke Billionaire's System: Spend to Survive

Buying Weapons for a Cleaner

"Too bad the bill is going to be much more expensive than you can afford."

Viktor stepped forward, the shadows around him moving wildly like black tentacles hungry for blood. Johann felt Freya's fingers tighten against his waist. Without wasting a second, Freya grabbed a silver steak knife from the table and threw it with lightning speed directly at Viktor's eyes. The man didn't even blink. The knife stopped in mid-air, held by a layer of dark energy, then crumbled into shards of metallic dust.

"We have to run, Johann! Now!" Freya screamed.

"No, I'm tired of running from this old man!" Johann stared at his golden interface with a piercing gaze. He no longer felt like a trembling floor-mopper. Something inside him began to stir—a power hungry for a transaction. "System, give me access to the elite combat equipment catalog. Filter by category: military-grade magic weapons."

A holographic list filled the air. Freya's eyes widened as she watched Johann start tapping the buy button blindly. The man looked like a child in a candy store, but what he was buying were energy cannons and kinetic shields worth millions of dollars.

"You're insane! Don't buy everything!" Freya shouted amidst the chaos of the restaurant as other patrons fled for safety.

"If I'm going to die, I might as well die in style!" Johann replied. He burst into laughter as a magical rocket launcher appeared in the air, hovering beside him, ready to fire.

Viktor sneered. He slammed his foot onto the floor, creating a shockwave that collapsed the restaurant walls. Dust and debris flew everywhere. "You think money can buy you power, Johann?"

"Money is nothing but a tool for the weak. I have spent thousands of years gathering ancient power that your low-level balance system couldn't even touch."

Freya pulled Johann, and they dove behind the sturdy bar counter. Freya steadied her breathing. "He is right, Johann. Money has its limits. We need something more than just buying stuff. We need a tactic."

"A tactic? I have ten billion dollars, Freya! What better tactic is there than flooding the opponent with the most advanced weapons on the black market?" Johann rolled his eyes, finding the absurdity of the situation amusing. He then pulled out a small artifact he had accidentally purchased while browsing the system catalog. The artifact was an ancient disc emitting a pale blue glow. "By the way, I bought this because the color matched your eyes."

Freya stared at the object, and her face turned deathly pale. "That is the Magic-Breaking Core! Where did you find that? It is a legendary artifact capable of permanently erasing corporate magic!"

"Oh, really? It only cost five hundred thousand dollars. I thought it would make a nice keychain," Johann replied innocently.

Freya gave a bitter laugh, quickly kissing Johann on the cheek before pulling the trigger of her weapon toward Viktor. "You are truly the luckiest idiot I have ever met. Activate that artifact now!"

Johann pressed the artifact to his chest. An intense chill surged through his nerves. The balance in his eyes flashed red with a stark warning: [WARNING: ANCIENT ARTIFACT INTEGRATION DETECTED. USER'S SOUL WILL BE CONTAMINATED BY PURE ENERGY.]

"Argh!" Johann roared. His body was enveloped in a blinding blue light. That power did not come from money, but from the remnants of a civilization far older than any corporate system.

Viktor's eyes widened. "Impossible! That is an artifact from the era before the corporate system even existed!"

Johann felt his muscles tighten. He rose from behind the bar, no longer caring about the pain stabbing at his heart. He glared at Viktor with a cold, lethal gaze. He stepped forward, each footfall cracking the concrete floor.

"Viktor, you have been the owner of this building for far too long," Johann said. His voice sounded deep and echoing, no longer the voice of a janitor. "Let's see what your soul is worth when sold on the black market."

Viktor tried to launch a shadow attack, but as soon as the strike neared Johann, the artifact on his chest emitted a shockwave that erased the magic as if it were nothing more than a junk file on a computer. Viktor was slammed into the wall.

Freya seized the opportunity. She lunged forward, her movements agile and deadly. She attached a magical tracking device to Viktor's neck while the man was still sprawled out. "The tag is set. Now he has nowhere to run."

However, in the midst of their small victory, Johann suddenly fell to his knees. The pain in his chest became unbearable. His golden system chimed loudly: [BALANCE LOCKED. ACCESSING THE ARTIFACT REQUIRES A SOUL SACRIFICE. PLEASE CONFIRM: SACRIFICE HAPPINESS OR SACRIFICE BALANCE.]

"Johann!" Freya immediately threw her arms around him. She stroked his hair affectionately, her face showing deep concern. "Johann, do not do it! If you sacrifice your balance, you will be poor again! If you sacrifice your happiness, we will never be able to feel what we feel right now!"

Johann looked into Freya's eyes. He saw the sincerity there. The love slowly growing amidst the escapes and the whiz of bullets felt far more precious than ten billion dollars in his eyes. However, he also knew that if he did not sacrifice something, Viktor would rise again and destroy them.

"Freya," Johann whispered, his trembling hand gripping hers. "If I choose to remain a rich man, I will never truly be able to have you because I will always be bound by this system."

"Don't talk nonsense," Freya silenced Johann with a long, deep, and passionate kiss. That kiss felt like both a farewell and a promise. "I don't need your money. I just need you to stay alive."

In the distance, Viktor began to laugh again. He rose unsteadily, the black stains on his clothes beginning to absorb energy from his surroundings. He looked stronger than before. "You think you can defeat me with cheap emotions? You don't even know what you're up against!"

Viktor raised his hand, and the entire room began to shake violently. The restaurant ceiling collapsed, revealing a night view of the city filled with neon billboards displaying Viktor's face.

"System, confirm choice!" Johann shouted inside his head. He pressed the selection button, but it was neither his balance nor his happiness that he sacrificed. Instead, he used his entire remaining balance to blow up the system itself from the inside.

[USER HAS TAKEN EXTREME ACTION. BALANCE WILL BE WIPED. SYSTEM WILL COLLAPSE IN 60 SECONDS.]

"Johann, what are you doing?" Freya cried out, realizing that the golden energy around them was starting to fade and become unstable.

"I am cleaning up the last of the filthiest stains," Johann replied with a wide grin.

Just as the countdown reached zero, one final notification appeared before Johann's eyes: [BALANCE: $0. PREPARATIONS FOR SOUL DELETION COMMENCING.]

Viktor, who had been laughing, suddenly went silent. He watched as the flow of money and power around Johann vanished, but the ancient power from the artifact instead began to shine even brighter. Something unexpected happened. It wasn't Johann who was destroyed, but rather the entire corporate system within the building that began to lose control. All the lights went out, all the magic weapons stopped functioning, and even Viktor seemed to lose his strength.

"Impossible! A ten-billion-dollar balance was supposed to be the foundation of this system!" Viktor screamed in a panic as he began to turn into ordinary human dust.

Johann stood up, gasping for air. He looked at his hands, which no longer emitted a golden light. He felt light, yet empty. Freya held him tight, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"You idiot, you really spent it all," Freya whispered in the eerie silence of the building.

Johann looked toward Viktor, who now lay helpless on the floor, staring at the ceiling with empty eyes. They had won. They had truly won, but Johann now had no money to even pay for a taxi home.

Suddenly, from the shadows of the ruins, a group of people in black suits with a company logo they had never seen before emerged. They carried cases filled with gold and ancient artifacts. Their leader, a woman in sunglasses, stepped forward and looked at Johann coldly.

"Mr. Johann Keller," the woman said in a flat voice. "You have successfully passed the first test. Now, welcome to the real league."