The Lifespan Wealth System

Chapter 4. The First Transaction

Axel Benjamin’s steps felt like he was dragging two blocks of lead. The distance from the lobby to the ICU waiting room was less than fifty meters, yet his lungs felt constricted, gasping for oxygen that seemed to thin in the air. Every time his heart beat, a sharp pain stabbed his left chest, a lingering trace of the “administrative f*e” he had just paid to the system.

In the corner of the waiting room, Arlo sat slumped over. His best friend looked shattered, hair disheveled, his face buried in his palms.

"Arlo!” Axel called out hoarsely.

Arlo looked up. In that instant, the sorrow on his face vanished, replaced by pure horror. He jolted backward until his chair screeched loudly.

"Axel? Dear God … what happened to you?!” Arlo shouted. His eyes widened as they scanned Axel’s face, now marked by deep wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and across his forehead. Axel’s black hair, neatly kept that very morning, had turned completely white at both temples.

“I’m fine. Where’s Elara?” Axel gripped Arlo’s shoulders, ignoring the throbbing pain in his chest.

“Fine, my ass! Your face… you look like someone going through withdrawal or cursed!” Arlo stepped closer, his hands trembling, almost afraid to touch him. “This morning you were thirty-one. Now… you look like a middle-aged man who just crawled out of a grave. Xel, you need to go to the ER right now!”

“Forget my face!” Axel tightened his grip with what little strength he had left. “Why isn’t Elara in surgery yet?”

Arlo swallowed hard, his voice shrinking as fear crept in at the sight of his friend’s physical change. “This private hospital is insane. They said Elara needs cardiac catheterization and a special anti-bleeding medication that isn’t covered by basic insurance. The deposit is ten thousand dollars, Xel. If there’s no upfront payment within an hour, they’ll only give her passive respiratory support. I tried calling the office, borrowing everywhere, but they said Elara is just a daily worker. There’s no guarantee.”

“I have the money.”

Arlo froze, his mouth hanging half open. Axel did not have time to explain. He turned toward the administration desk. Behind thick glass, neatly dressed staff worked with machine-like expressions. To them, Elara was just a line of data that would be erased without sufficient balance.

“I’ll take care of it.”

Axel staggered toward the desk. There was no time to argue. With trembling hands, he handed over his debit card.

“Please expedite the lab results and get her into surgery now,” Axel ordered the administrator. He added a few extra bills from his pocket. The instant bribe worked faster than any protocol. The clerk immediately picked up the phone and issued priority instructions.

The moment the transaction was approved, the system whispered again, sending a cold wave that made the hair on Axel’s neck stand on end.

[Medical Transaction Confirmed: $10,000]

[Base Cost: 6 Months of Lifespan.]

Axel clutched the edge of the counter. His head spun. Only six months? he thought. So Elara’s life was worth six months of mine? That cheap. So very cheap.

He walked toward the ICU window, staring at the woman lying weak beneath a white blanket. Elara’s usually cheerful face was now deathly pale, hidden behind an oxygen mask. The sight hurled Axel’s memories far into the past, to the darkest days of their lives.

Flashback, Five Years Earlier

“One more bite, Ra. Come on, force it." Axel whispered behind the dumpster of a fast-food restaurant.

In his hand was a packet of leftover rice, already slightly slimy, mixed with cold pieces of chicken. They had just been thrown out of their rented room after six months of unpaid rent. They had not eaten in two days.

“I can’t, Xel. The smell makes me nauseous." Elara murmured, tears streaming down her hollow cheeks.

“You have to. If we don’t eat, we die.” Axel shoved the spoiled rice into his own mouth first to convince her it was safe. The taste was sour, rotten, and humiliating.

Suddenly, a sanitation worker in a blue uniform appeared and kicked the bucket beside them. “Hey! You bums! Don’t litter here! Get lost!”

“Sir, please … my friend is sick. We’re just taking shelter.”

The man’s boot slammed into Axel’s shin. “None of my business! You trying to steal, huh? Admit it! You trash of society!”

Axel collapsed onto the asphalt, wrapping his arms around Elara’s trembling legs. The rice spilled onto the ground. Elara cried as she picked up each grain to eat again. That was when Axel swore to himself. If he ever had money, he would never let anyone kick them again. He would buy the world if he had to, as long as Elara could smile without fear or hunger.

Back in the present, Axel touched the ICU glass with his fingertips. “We used to eat trash, Ra. Now I have everything. You have to wake up. I’ve paid the price.”

Axel turned around and found Arlo still staring at him as if he were looking at a monster. Axel chose to avoid him. He walked into the hospital restroom, locked the door, and faced the mirror.

He gasped. The white hair was no longer just an accent, it had spread completely. His skin was pale, his cheeks slightly sunken. He looked like a man in his sixties who had just been battered by a decade of suffering.

“Only five years … the system said the price was only five years .…” Axel muttered hysterically. He splashed cold water on his face, but the exhaustion did not fade. It had settled deep into his bones.

Suddenly, the system panel appeared over his reflection. This time it was not plain text, but an unstable graph.

[Warning: User’s body has failed to compensate for accelerated aging.]

[Trigger Factor: Psychological burden of ‘Guilt’ is accelerating cellular oxidation.]

“What do you mean? You said the price was fixed! You said good intentions don’t affect it!” Axel screamed at the empty mirror.

[Good intentions do not increase monetary cost. However, the stress you experience damages the vessel, your body, faster than mechanical projections.]

[Remaining lifespan cannot be displayed. Your current heart rate is equivalent to that of a 65-year-old male.]

Axel clutched his chest. It felt tight, as if a massive stone were crushing his lungs. He tried to breathe, but every breath was short and painful.

Then an announcement echoed from the hospital loudspeakers.

“Code Blue! Code Blue in ICU Room 2! Medical team to the location immediately!”

The floor beneath Axel seemed to collapse. That was Elara’s room.

He burst out of the restroom, running with legs that felt unbearably heavy, his vision starting to blur. In front of the ICU, nurses rushed past carrying a defibrillator. Arlo stood frozen, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Elara! What’s happening to Elara?!” Axel roared.

“Cardiac failure, Xel! Her heartbeat just stopped!” Arlo screamed hysterically.

Axel stood before the closed glass door. He saw the medical team pressing on Elara’s chest again and again. No. I already paid. Why is this happening?!

[Emergency Option Available.]

[Absolute Medical Intervention: Instantly restore target’s heartbeat.]

[Cost: 2 Years of Your Remaining Lifespan.]

Axel did not think anymore. He did not care if he died tomorrow. “Take what’s left of my life! Take it all! Save Elara!”

A pain unlike anything he had ever felt slammed into Axel’s back. He collapsed onto the corridor floor, his body curling inward as his vision slowly darkened. At the same time, from inside the room, the long tone of the EKG machine softened into a steady rhythm.

Axel smiled bitterly through the pain. But as he tried to close his eyes, the system delivered one final notification that froze his blood.

[Transaction Successful.]

[Warning: Your remaining lifespan has reached the ‘Month’ threshold. Any strenuous activity will trigger total organ shutdown.]

Axel lay on the cold hospital floor, alone, while others celebrated the return of Elara’s heartbeat. He was unimaginably wealthy, but he had just realized that he might never see Elara open her eyes again as the same man.