The Broke Billionaire's System: Spend to Survive

First Confrontation with Viktor

Freya was stunned. Her heart hammered so hard it felt suffocating. The man at the peak of the dome had the face of the Johann she loved, but his gaze was empty, as cold as ice untouched by the sun. Behind the seal of light imprisoning the real Johann, the man struggled. The face of the true Johann looked full of pain and longing, a contrast that made Freya want to blow everything up immediately.

"Johann!" Freya screamed. Her voice was hoarse, breaking with overflowing emotion. She didn't care about the fake figure up there. Her focus was only on her lover locked within the energy prison.

The fake Johann tilted his head. He showed no signs of recognition. Instead, he raised his hand, and the air around Freya suddenly thickened. The pressure was so intense that Freya's knees hit the ground.

"He is no longer yours," the man's voice rang out, but there was a strange echo accompanying it, as if a thousand other voices were speaking through his vocal cords.

Viktor Reinhardt emerged from behind the shadow of that false figure. He laughed out loud, an arrogant and disgusting laugh of victory. Viktor walked toward the edge of the gold dome, looking down at Freya with a disdainful gaze.

"Look, Ms. Schneider. Doesn't he seem much more efficient now? No emotions, no hesitation, and most importantly, no remaining balance wasted on ridiculous rescue missions!" Viktor waved his hand toward his followers who were beginning to crawl out of the ruins.

Freya spat on the ground. She stood up with difficulty, even though her legs felt like they were about to crumble. "You think by replacing his soul you can control him? You're just playing with fire that will burn your garbage company to ashes!"

Viktor stopped laughing. He stared at Freya with eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're very talkative. That's exactly why he's always in trouble. Perhaps I should start by cleaning up this loudest stain first."

The fake Johann leaped down from the top of the dome. His movements were no longer like the clumsy Johann who struggled with the system. He moved with the precision of a professional hitman. In just the blink of an eye, he was in front of Freya. He didn't speak. He only swung his hand, which was now shrouded in a dark purple aura as sharp as a blade.

Freya managed to roll sideways, narrowly avoiding the lethal strike. However, the tip of the fake figure's nail caught Freya's leather jacket, leaving a gash on her shoulder that bled fresh blood. Freya winced, but she actually laughed.

"You're slow, darling!" Freya shouted, then she kicked right toward the man's groin.

It was a dirty trick commonly used by street mercenaries. Unfortunately, the fake Johann didn't react at all. Instead, he caught Freya's leg with his left hand and slammed her against the dome wall with enough force to make her ribs feel as if they were cracking.

Freya coughed up blood. She lay there, but her eyes remained fixed on the real Johann inside the prison of light. The real Johann screamed, though his mouth was blocked; his eyes pleaded for Freya to leave immediately. He didn't want Freya to die here.

"Don't look at him!" the fake Johann said in a flat tone. He approached the helpless Freya. He gripped Freya's jaw with his hard fingers. "He no longer exists. He is only a remnant of a memory that I will soon delete from the system."

Freya stared straight into the man's eyes. "You're wrong. He'll never leave because he's the only person who can't be bought with any amount of credit in this hell!"

Suddenly, a soft chuckle escaped Freya’s lips. Despite being battered and bruised, she broke into a wide grin. She reached into a hidden pocket in her shoe and pulled out a small detonator she had swiped from Viktor’s armory during the earlier hallway skirmish.

"You know what’s funny?" Freya asked, her breath coming in short gasps. "You were so busy managing his soul that you forgot to check what I was carrying in my pocket."

The fake Johann’s face flashed with confusion for a split second. Watching from above, Viktor screamed, "Stop her! Don't let her press that button!"

But it was too late. Freya jammed the button down right in front of the fake Johann’s face. Instead of a massive explosion, a high-frequency electromagnetic pulse radiated from the detonator. The wave struck the seal of light imprisoning the real Johann with pinpoint precision.

"No!" Viktor roared.

The seal shuddered violently. The real Johann began to tear himself free from the transparent energy cage. The golden light that had long been absent from his eyes flared to life once more, far brighter and wilder than ever before. The man standing before Freya suddenly went into convulsions, his internal systems suffering severe erosion from the unexpected frequency surge.

"Freya..." the figure murmured. His voice shifted, turning from cold and alien back into the real Johann’s voice, thick with pain.

"Johann, fight it!" Freya screamed as she crawled forward, ignoring the agony racking her body. She reached for the real Johann’s hand, which had just broken free from its energetic prison.

The real Johann collapsed into Freya’s arms. For a brief moment, they simply held each other, sharing warmth amidst the chaos of the battlefield. But Viktor would not let them be. He leaped down from the dome, his hands now swirling with an even larger vortex of black energy.

"You two are a real nuisance!" Viktor snarled. He swung the black energy toward them both.

Johann looked at Freya’s hand, then down at his own palm. A massive golden notification manifested across the entire area—no longer restricted to his retinas, but floating in mid-air for everyone to see.

[BALANCE: UNLIMITED. SYSTEM OVERLOAD DETECTED. INITIATING PURCHASE: THE ENTIRE REALITY OF THIS BUILDING.]

Viktor’s eyes bulged. "What are you doing? That’s impossible! I was supposed to have destroyed that system!"

Johann smiled—the very same smile that had made Freya fall in love with him in the first place. He pulled her into a tight embrace, kissing her with a desperate longing and burning passion. Surrounded by Viktor’s forces and under the immediate shadow of death, Johann took a deep breath and struck the brightest glowing confirmation button.

The world around them began to shatter like glass struck by a sledgehammer. The colors of reality bled away, replaced by a stark white void. Viktor shrieked as his body began to dissolve into data particles. Yet, at that same moment, Johann felt a jarring sensation deep within his chest.

His heart no longer beat to a human rhythm. Something else—something far older and more starved for transactions—began to seize control. He looked down at Freya in his arms, but just as he moved to speak, one final notification flashed before their eyes.

[TRANSACTION SUCCESSFUL: USER SOUL AND TARGET SOUL HAVE BEEN SOLD. SYSTEM IS REFORMATTING REALITY.]

The floor vanished beneath their feet. They plunged into darkness, but before they could hit bottom, light from the collapsing system yanked them in opposite directions. Freya felt Johann’s grip on her hand slowly transform into cold, hard iron.

"Johann, what’s happening to your hand?" Freya asked, her voice trembling with rising terror.

Johann didn't answer. He simply stared straight ahead at a massive gateway slowly creaking open, revealing a world where money was no longer a mere medium of exchange, but the very air one needed to breathe to survive. Viktor, who had just been disintegrated into data dust, began to reform behind that gate in a form far more hideous than before.

"Welcome to the new world," whispered a voice that did not belong to Johann, yet emanated from his mouth.

Freya tried to pull her hand away, but Johann’s grip was locked tight like a hydraulic press. She stared at his face in pure horror. The man she loved was truly gone now, replaced by an entity that didn't even have a name.

The gate slammed shut behind them, locking them in a room with no exit and no way back. Before them stood Viktor, his body now forged of steel and sorcery, waiting with a massive ledger in his hands—ready to read aloud the price they would have to pay for the rest of an eternity that would never end.

"Let us begin our final negotiation," Viktor said with a bone-chilling smile, as Johann slowly leveled his weapon at Freya.