The Lifespan Wealth System

Chapter 1. Economic Pressure

The concrete floor of the narrow alley felt icy through the thinning soles of his shoes, as if the remnants of a Canadian frost were creeping up his legs. Axel Benjamin leaned his back against a damp, stained wall, letting the stench of old rainwater and rotting trash fill his lungs. In his right hand was a brown envelope, crumpled from being clenched too tightly.

“Pay your rent now, Axel!”

The voice was heavy, hoarse, and dripping with contempt. Axel looked up. Standing in front of him was Galim, the landlord, his belly nearly spilling out from under a grimy yellow tank top.

“Give me until tomorrow, sir. My project payment was delayed,” Axel replied flatly, trying to hide the tremor in his voice.

“That excuse is rotten!” Galim spat beside Axel’s shoe. “If the money isn’t on the table by eight tomorrow morning, get out. Go sleep under a bridge.”

The door slammed shut right in front of Axel’s face.

Axel did not beg again. He trudged upstairs to his coffin-sized room on the second floor. He threw the brown envelope onto a wooden table with a broken leg. Inside was not money, but a termination letter. Laid off. Corporate efficiency, they said. A polite sentence that meant Axel’s labor was no longer wanted.

His phone vibrated. A family group message appeared. Rendy just bought a new car. Axel, when are you coming home? Mom is seriously ill, our savings are not enough for the doctor.

Axel stared at the cracked screen, then deleted the message without replying. He walked to the cracked mirror in the corner of the room. The figure reflected there looked like a walking corpse. Dark circles under his eyes, a deadened gaze.

“If I died today, who would care? Galim? He would just be annoyed at having to find a new tenant. Mom? She might cry for a while, then suffer even more because no one would be sending money anymore.”

His greatest fear was not just being poor, but being invisible. Dying without ever being acknowledged. Dying without having mattered.

“There’s no point in pitying yourself,” he whispered.

Suddenly, his door was kicked open. Two men in leather jackets stormed in. The smell of alcohol and cheap cigarettes instantly filled the room. Gerry, the man with a scar across his eyebrow, flicked a gas lighter open and shut.

“Axel Benjamin. Remember the interest on your loan? Two thousand dollars. Now,” Gerry demanded.

“I just got fired today, Gerry. Give me some air.”

“Air doesn’t pay interest,” Gerry snapped. He grabbed Axel by the collar, ripping off a button.

Axel did not stay still. He shoved Gerry’s hand away and tried to push him back, a reckless decision made to protect the last scraps of his dignity. A brutal punch slammed into his stomach. Axel collapsed, his lungs seeming to cave in. Nausea hit him hard.

“You better find the money. Sell your kidney if you have to. Or sell what little pride you have left. We’ll be back tomorrow night. If you’re empty-handed again, we’ll make sure you don’t need legs to walk anymore. You understand?”

Axel did not answer. He could only groan, clutching his stomach. After they left, the room fell silent again. Axel curled up on the dusty floor, holding his aching body.

He remembered his father, who had died in poverty, leaving behind nothing but debt and a good name that could not be exchanged for rice. Axel had always sworn he would never end up like that. But now, he was even worse.

His phone lit up again. Not a message, but a reminder alarm. Pay Mom’s hospital bill.

Axel hurled the phone at the wall. It did not break, only the screen cracked further, as if mocking him. He staggered out of the room. He needed air. He needed a way out, or maybe he just needed the courage to end everything.

As Axel descended the creaking wooden stairs, he passed Galim again, who was counting money in the living room downstairs.

“Still here? Haven’t packed yet?” Galim asked without looking up.

“Sir, please … just one night.” Axel’s voice was barely there.

“The world doesn’t run on ‘please,’ Axel. It runs on ‘pay.’ You have a brain, don’t you? Use it to make money, not to daydream by a window.”

Axel did not reply. He kept walking out into the darkness of the alley. His steps carried him to a deserted pedestrian bridge. Below it, the river flowed black, carrying trash and the city’s secrets.

He stood at the railing, staring at the rushing water. His thoughts drifted. If he jumped, tomorrow’s news would probably read, ‘Unidentified Man Found Dead.’ No name. No meaning. And he did not want to die poor.

Suddenly, he heard hurried footsteps behind him. A middle-aged man, dressed just as shabbily as Axel, ran past with a panicked face. The man began searching the ground under a flickering streetlight.

“Please … has anyone seen my wallet?” the man asked Axel in a trembling voice. “My child is in the hospital. I just borrowed money for the operation. Please help me .…”

Axel stared at him blankly. A bitter thought surfaced, why are you asking me? I’m the one who needs help.

“I didn’t see it,” Axel replied coldly.

“Please, son … if that money is gone, my child won’t survive the night. Please help me look.” The man dropped to his knees, desperately feeling through the cracks in the asphalt with shaking hands.

Axel stood still. He knew he should help. He knew what it felt like to lose hope. But years of mental exhaustion had turned his empathy to stone. He just wanted to go home and sleep, hoping he would not have to wake up again.

“Look for it yourself,” Axel said flatly. He turned away, intending to leave the man behind. He was sick of suffering, his own and everyone else’s.

But as Axel stepped near the railing, a black sedan sped in from behind. Before he could react, a violent impact struck his body, hurling him over the bridge’s barrier.

Agonizing pain spread as his body plunged downward. Icy water slammed into his chest. His muscles stiffened. His breath was torn away. In the last fragments of his fading consciousness, Axel saw something strange at the riverbed, a stone emitting a blinding light. With his final strength, he reached out and touched it.

A brilliant flash exploded, and a mechanical voice echoed directly inside his head. The voice was flat and artificial, yet carried undeniable authority.

[Analysis of suffering complete. Subject is in a state of existential failure.]

A semi-transparent panel appeared before his blurred vision underwater.

[Available Options:]

[1. System Contract: Physical recovery and access to wealth at the cost of lifespan.]

[2. Termination: Die as statistical waste. A useless human.]

“I … still want to live.” Axel whispered in the water, his oxygen nearly gone, his body beginning to fail.

[Contract accepted. Your life has been exchanged for loyalty and time.]

An intense heat surged through him, instantly repairing his shattered tissues. Axel gasped as he crawled onto the shallow riverbank. His body felt renewed, yet he sensed that something had been taken from him.

[Status: Active.]

[Subject: Axel Benjamin.]

[Available balance for exchange: 100,000 USD.]

[Cost: 5 Years of Lifespan.]

“What is this? I must be insane. It all happened so fast. I have to be dreaming.” Axel muttered.

[This is not a dream. This is a transaction. You require money to be ‘meaningful.’ We require lifespan to maintain balance.]

Axel struggled to steady his breathing. He checked his body, feeling his clothes soaked through. He realized then that what he had experienced was real. All of it was real, and he had just made a decision.

“What do you mean … lifespan?” Axel asked, his voice shaking from the cold.

[Simple. We grant you life and instant wealth. In return, you pay with the remaining time of your life. Every dollar has a price in seconds, minutes, or years of your existence.]

Axel fell silent. Five years. It was an enormous price, but what was the point of a long life if every day was spent being humiliated by Galim and beaten by debt collectors?

“Exchange it now,” Axel said firmly.

[Transaction processing. Biological synchronization initiated.]

A piercing cold spread through Axel’s entire body, as if his blood had turned into liquid ice. His heart pounded violently before slowing into a heavy, steady rhythm.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out with a hand that suddenly felt slightly stiff. On the cracked screen, a bank notification appeared:

[Incoming Credit: 100,000.00 USD. Your Balance: 100,054.00 USD.]

“I’m rich…” Axel let out a small laugh, one that sounded foreign to his own ears. A surge of power rose within him. “I’m really rich now.”

He turned toward the bridge. Up there, the old man was still crawling across the asphalt in desperation. A shift struck Axel’s mind. He now had everything he needed. Maybe he could finally start being the good person he had failed to be because of poverty.

“Sir! Wait!” Axel shouted as he ran up the stairs of the bridge.

He wanted to give the man at least a thousand dollars. He wanted to see gratitude on someone’s face. He wanted to feel meaningful.

But as Axel moved, he felt a strange itch at his temple. He touched it, then pulled his hand away. Between his fingers were several strands of hair. They were no longer black. They were silver-white, stiff and lifeless.

Axel froze. He stared at the hair in horror.

At the same moment, the old man at the far end of the bridge stood up. His face was a portrait of absolute despair, the same face Axel himself had worn minutes earlier. Before Axel could reach him, the man leapt into the dark river below.

Axel stood frozen at the railing. His hand still gripped the phone displaying one hundred thousand dollars. He was wealthy, but he was one second too late to save a life before his eyes.

The system panel appeared again, this time pulsing with a cold red light.

[Warning: The first transaction has triggered accelerated cellular aging equivalent to 5 years.]

[Status: Your remaining lifespan is now a classified variable.]

[Recommendation: Use your remaining time wisely. Death does not offer refunds.]

Axel stared at the white hair in his hand, then at the calm water below. He had just realized a horrifying truth. The system had not given him life, it was buying it from him in installments.

He had enough money to save the world, but he might not have enough time to see tomorrow.