The Daily Sign-in Rewards System

CHAPTER 12 - STREAMHUB

After exchanging a few final words, the rider thanked him once more before leaving the dormitory. Dylan watched him disappear down the hallway before quietly closing the door.

Returning to his bed, he opened the pizza box, and the rich aroma of freshly baked cheese, tomato sauce, and warm bread quickly filled the room. It wasn't an expensive meal by any means, but at that moment it smelled better than anything he had eaten in months.

As he looked at the steaming pizza before him, an almost unfamiliar expression appeared on his face.

He smiled.

It wasn't a forced smile meant to reassure someone else, nor was it the bitter smile he had worn while enduring humiliation after humiliation.

It was genuine.

His circumstances remained far from ideal. He still carried a crushing tuition debt of forty-seven thousand dollars, powerful enemies continued looking for opportunities to ruin him, and the mysterious system had introduced more questions than answers.

Nevertheless, the overwhelming despair that had defined his life until now no longer felt absolute because, for the first time in what seemed like forever, he possessed something he had almost forgotten existed.

A chance.

Sometimes, that was all a person needed to begin changing their destiny.

After closing the door behind the delivery rider, Dylan carried the warm pizza box back toward his bed, the comforting aroma of melted cheese, freshly baked dough, and seasoned meat quickly filling every corner of the modest dorm room.

It was an ordinary meal that countless students ordered without a second thought, yet after the relentless series of hardships he had endured over the past two days, the familiar scent brought with it an unexpected sense of comfort.

His stomach responded immediately with a loud growl, reminding him that he had barely eaten anything since morning, and for the first time since his life had begun unraveling, he realized he was genuinely hungry.

Setting the box down carefully, Dylan lifted the lid and allowed his eyes to linger on the steaming pizza. The golden cheese shimmered beneath the fluorescent lights while wisps of steam curled lazily into the air, carrying with them an inviting fragrance that made his mouth water.

Without wasting another moment, he reached inside and picked up a slice, watching strings of melted cheese stretch between the remaining pizza and the piece in his hand. He took a generous bite before slowly closing his eyes, a quiet sigh escaping his lips as the warmth and flavor spread through his mouth. The pizza itself was far from extraordinary.

It wasn't prepared by an award-winning chef, nor did it contain premium ingredients that justified an outrageous price. Nevertheless, to Dylan, it tasted better than any expensive meal he had ever imagined because it represented something far more meaningful than food.

Perhaps it was because he had spent days surviving on cheap instant noodles and skipped meals, or perhaps it was because exhaustion had made even the simplest pleasures feel luxurious. Whatever the reason, each bite reminded him that despite everything he had lost, he was still alive, and that realization alone carried a strange sense of gratitude.

As he continued eating, his gaze occasionally drifted back to the system. Even after everything that had happened, a part of him still expected the mysterious screen to vanish at any moment, revealing the entire experience to be nothing more than an elaborate hallucination.

Less than twenty-four hours ago, he had been an ordinary university student whose greatest concern was finding enough money to pay his tuition before the deadline. Now he possessed a mysterious supernatural system, ten thousand dollars had materialized in his bank account without explanation, and the impossible had become an undeniable part of his everyday reality.

If someone had approached him yesterday with a story involving magical systems and miraculous rewards, he would have laughed before dismissing them as delusional. Ironically, he had now become the protagonist of exactly that kind of unbelievable story.

Once he had eaten most of the pizza, Dylan reached for the paper bag containing the medication he had purchased from the pharmacy earlier that evening. Although the painkillers were beginning to take effect, his injuries still required proper treatment.

Rising carefully from the bed, he removed his shirt before walking toward the small mirror mounted beside the wardrobe. The reflection staring back at him was enough to make him grimace.

Dark bruises had spread across his chest and shoulders like ugly patches of ink beneath his skin, while streaks of purple and deep blue stretched over his ribs where Brandon's lackeys had repeatedly kicked him after he had fallen.

The swelling along the left side of his face had become even more obvious, making his features appear uneven, and the cut near his cheek had begun hardening into a rough scab.

Every deep breath caused a dull ache to pulse through his torso, forcing him to breathe more carefully than usual. Brandon's men hadn't merely wanted to hurt him; they had intended to make an example of him, ensuring everyone who witnessed the beating understood exactly what happened to anyone foolish enough to oppose Brandon Lancaster.

For several silent moments, Dylan continued staring into the mirror, studying the battered stranger reflected within the glass. It was difficult to reconcile that image with the person he had been only a few days earlier.

Back then, his worries had revolved around passing exams, balancing multiple part-time jobs, and somehow finding enough money to graduate without drowning in debt. Those problems had seemed overwhelming at the time, yet compared to everything that had happened since, they almost felt insignificant.

His scholarship had been stripped away, his reputation had been dragged through the mud, and he had become the target of one of the university's most influential students. It was astonishing how quickly life could change.

Shaking away those thoughts, Dylan squeezed a generous amount of antiseptic ointment onto his fingertips before gently applying it across the bruises and cuts scattered over his body. The instant the cool medication touched his broken skin, an intense burning sensation spread through every injury simultaneously, causing him to instinctively grit his teeth.

"Shit..." The curse escaped before he could stop himself.

Despite the sharp sting, Dylan refused to rush the process. He methodically treated every scrape and bruise, carefully spreading the ointment wherever Brandon's men had left their mark.

By the time he finished, a thin layer of sweat had formed across his forehead, and his breathing had become noticeably heavier from enduring the persistent discomfort. He swallowed the prescribed painkillers with a bottle of water before finally lowering himself back onto the bed, allowing his exhausted body a chance to recover.

The dormitory was unusually peaceful.

Luke and Ryan still hadn't returned.

Luke was probably throwing himself into another grueling football practice or lifting weights in the university gym, considering the guy seemed physically incapable of staying away from sports for more than a few hours.

Ryan, meanwhile, was almost certainly sitting attentively inside one of the business faculty's evening lectures, diligently taking notes and planning the successful career he dreamed of building after graduation.

The thought of his roommates brought an involuntary smile to Dylan's face. Amid everything that had gone wrong recently, Luke and Ryan remained two of the few people who had never judged him for being poor or mocked him for juggling multiple jobs simply to survive.

Their friendship wasn't built on status or wealth, and in an environment where most people seemed eager to associate only with those possessing money or influence, that sincerity had become increasingly precious.

Unfortunately, the quiet comfort of those thoughts gradually gave way to boredom.

His injuries prevented him from sleeping comfortably, while his restless mind refused to remain still long enough for genuine relaxation.

Every attempt to close his eyes inevitably led him back to thoughts of Amber's betrayal, Brandon's cruelty, his mounting tuition debt, or the impossible system that had suddenly entered his life.

Realizing that dwelling on those subjects would only worsen his mood, Dylan reached toward the bedside table and picked up his phone, hoping that watching a few live streams might distract him until fatigue finally claimed him.

A few moments later, he opened StreamHub, the country's largest live streaming platform and one of the few forms of entertainment he occasionally allowed himself whenever life became particularly overwhelming.

Whenever work and university pressure became unbearable, he usually watched gaming broadcasts or technology reviewers discussing the latest gadgets, finding the casual content surprisingly effective at clearing his thoughts.

Tonight, he expected nothing different as he leaned comfortably against the wall and began absentmindedly scrolling through the platform's trending section.

Then his thumb suddenly stopped moving.

A familiar face occupied the largest promotional banner on the front page.

Amber.