The God of Wealth's System

2. Reborn from the Trash

Sean Alexander’s eyes snapped open.

A faint sapphire glow flickered in his pupils for a split second before fading back into deep brown. He jolted upright. His lungs gasped for the freezing night air as if he had just breached the surface after drowning.

The first thing he felt was not pain, but a suffocating silence.

Sean panted. His hands frantically clawed at his chest, which should have been a mess of broken ribs. There was nothing. There was no pain. He sat up on the slick, filthy asphalt while his breath came in white plumes of vapor.

"I’m... I’m alive?" he whispered. His voice was hoarse and trembling.

He lifted the hand that Viktor’s guard had stomped into pulp. Under the flickering amber glow of the streetlamp, the hand looked whole. There was no blood and no protruding bone. There was not even a dull ache. There was only a faint red coin-shaped symbol etched into his palm, looking as if his skin had been branded by a hot iron.

"I’m dead," Sean let out a dry, nearly hysterical laugh. "This must be hell. Or my brain is playing its final trick before I truly rot in this trash pile."

[Emergency Recovery Level 1 Complete.]

[Medical Cost: $1,000 (Added to your Debt).]

[Total Debt: $1,501,000.]

Sean recoiled so hard his back slammed against the brick wall. A transparent, neon-blue screen hovered inches from his face. Digital letters flickered and followed his eyes wherever they moved.

"Who?! Who’s there?!" Sean shouted. He swiped his hand through the air to swat the screen away, but his fingers passed straight through the light.

[I am the 'God of Wealth System'. User’s mental state: Unstable. Suggesting breathing stabilization.]

"System? God of Wealth?" Sean clutched his throbbing head. "I’ve gone mad. That’s it. I’ve gone insane because I was beaten too hard. I’m talking to a damn hallucination inside my own head!"

He squeezed his eyes shut and counted to ten. He hoped that when he opened them, the crazy screen would be gone. But when he opened them, a red warning window blinked with a soft beep that echoed directly in his skull.

[Warning: Survival window: 23 hours, 42 minutes. If the balance remains negative after the timer expires, your existence will be erased.]

"Existence erased? What the hell does that mean?! Get out of my head!" Sean screamed into the darkness of the alley. A rat scurried past his feet, seemingly mocking the man who looked like a lunatic talking to thin air among the garbage.

Sean tried to stand. His legs felt shaky yet strangely powerful. As he turned toward the pile of waste where he had been discarded, his eyes suddenly throbbed with heat. The world around him lost its color. Everything turned into a monochrome grey, except for a few objects that began to glow with an alluring golden light.

A broken glass bottle beneath a pile of rotting banana peels emitted the brightest glow.

[Appraisal Eye: Activated.]

[Item: 'Vintage Oud' Perfume Bottle Shard.]

[Analysis: Contains 15ml of pure, uncontaminated Ambergris essence in the hidden base layer.]

[Market Value: $5,500.]

Sean froze. He recognized that bottle. It was the perfume he had bought for Sophia six months ago. He had purchased it by working overtime for an entire month. Sophia had thrown it away last week, claiming it was empty.

"Five thousand dollars? For this empty bottle?" Sean picked it up with a trembling hand. "This is impossible. What kind of logic is this? My brain is truly broken."

[Pure Ambergris is liquid gold in the world of fragrance. Sophia was too foolish to check the base design that stores a reserve. Do you wish to convert this information into currency?]

Sean went silent. Bitterness filled his mouth at the mention of Sophia’s name. If this was madness, it was a terrifyingly detailed one.

He continued to scan his surroundings. Beneath a rotting wooden crate, he saw another green shimmer.

[Item: Broken Pocket Watch.]

[Analysis: Internal gears are made of 95% pure Platinum.]

[Market Value: $12,000.]

Sean picked up the rusted watch. Its weight felt real. The coldness of the metal felt real. This was not just an illusion.

"If I am indeed crazy, at least this madness gives me hope," Sean whispered. His tears merged with the rain on his cheeks. "A million-dollar debt, that betrayal... I need this to be real."

[Advice: 'Black Market' Pawn Shop is open 24 hours in Sector 7, three blocks from here. Sell your assets to extend your life.]

Sean clenched his newly healed fist. He looked up at the luxury apartment balcony far above. Up there, Viktor and Sophia were likely laughing, certain that Sean Alexander was rotting in the trash.

"If you truly are a demon that crawled into my head," Sean said to the blue screen, "then be the strongest demon there is. Because I will destroy them all, no matter the cost."

He stepped out of the dark alley and tucked the "trash" worth seventeen thousand dollars inside his tattered jacket. Tonight, a loser had just received the key to the world’s vault.

***

To be continued ...