The Ring Of The Billionaire System

Eye of the Heart

"Alsean, please, don't leave just yet. I was completely wrong yesterday."

Laura kept chasing after me until she was gasping for air, her shopping bags swinging wildly and nearly slipping from her grip.

"You already said that, Laura," I replied without turning back, continuing down the New York sidewalk.

"I'm serious, Alsean. I had so much on my mind back then, I wasn't thinking clearly. Give me a second chance to fix everything."

I stopped and turned to face the woman who had once promised to stand by me until death, only to abandon me without hesitation at my lowest point, and now pleaded shameless before me.

"A chance to come back after finding out I have money? Yesterday you said I deserved to be alone, Laura."

"It's not like that, Alsean—"

"Then what is it?" I interrupted, my voice calm yet sharp. "Everyone gets scared, Laura. But not everyone chooses to walk away from someone facing a death sentence just because they're afraid."

Laura had no answer. I resumed walking, leaving her standing frozen on the sidewalk. On my way back to my apartment, I stopped by a small shopping center, something I hadn't done in years because I had always felt unworthy of stepping inside such places.

"Welcome, Sir. What kind of clothes are you looking for?" a sales associate greeted me, her eyes briefly appraising my shabby appearance before she quickly put on a professional smile.

"I'd like to buy some neat work clothes and a few casual t-shirts."

The associate showed me around, presenting several shirts, trousers, and shoes. I looked at my reflection in the mirror with a strange sense of unfamiliarity. The thin young man in worn-out clothes I saw every morning had been replaced by someone else, even though my face remained exactly the same.

My eyes briefly lingered on a watch display near the register. One of them was priced in the tens of thousands of dollars, gleaming temptingly beneath the spotlight. I almost pointed to it, but my hand paused in midair.

"Never mind, Miss," I muttered softly, more to myself. The image of my former self counting coins just to buy medicine suddenly surfaced, enough to make me feel that such an expensive watch would only serve as a reminder of how easily I could forget where I came from.

"Your total comes to three thousand two hundred dollars, Sir," the cashier said after ringing up my purchases, handing me the change.

I glanced over the returned cash, my brow furrowing. "Miss, this is too much. I paid with hundred-dollar bills, and you gave me two hundred dollars extra."

The cashier hurriedly rechecked the numbers, her face flushing red. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Sir, I miscalculated."

"It's fine, just don't make it a habit. You'll end up losing money if you run into an dishonest buyer," I smiled, handing the extra cash back.

I left the store wearing my new shirt, carrying several shopping bags in hand. My steps felt far lighter than when I had entered.

The sun began to dip toward the west. Its golden light reflected off the glass of the skyscrapers, making the streets look warmer than usual. I took a deep breath. For the first time in a long while, I walked without being haunted by bills, hospital fees, or the embarrassment of wearing ragged clothes. It felt strange, yet strangely peaceful.

"Alsean?"

I turned. A modestly dressed woman stood on the other side of the street, a canvas bag packed with textbooks slung over her shoulder. Her face looked tired, yet her smile bloomed the moment she confirmed that the person she called was really me.

"Rosse?"

"Oh my goodness, it's been so long!" Rosse crossed the street in a hurry, nearly tripping over a cracked curb, reflexively grabbing my jacket sleeve to steady herself. "Oh, sorry, I always forget to look where I'm going when I'm thinking about something."

"Where are you coming from? You look exhausted."

"Just dropped off one of my students at home. Her parents are going through some trouble, so I stayed with her for a bit. I completely skipped lunch and forgot about it again," Rosse laughed softly, accustomed to her habit of sacrificing her own rest for others.

"You really need to think about yourself sometimes, Rosse."

"Later, once everyone else is taken care of," she answered lightly, as if it were the most natural response in the world.

I looked at her for a moment, feeling a mix of amusement and concern, before finally offering a faint smile.

"It's been a while since we talked, Rosse. Do you have time?"

"Sure I do. I just finished teaching and was on my way home anyway."

We began walking side by side toward a small coffee shop at the end of the street, a place we used to frequent back when I could still afford a cheap cup of coffee.

"Rosse, back when everyone started pulling away from me because I got sick, why didn't you leave too?"

"Because being sick wasn't your fault, Alsean. People tend to forget that. They think being around someone in trouble will bring trouble into their own lives. But when times are tough, that's when a person needs company the most."

"Weren't you afraid of burdening yourself?"

"Scared, sometimes. But I'm more afraid of becoming the kind of person who is only around during the good times."

I merely offered a subtle smile. I realized that ever since we met again, Rosse hadn't once asked how much money I had, where these new clothes came from, or why my life had suddenly changed. All she asked about was how I was doing. That simple gesture felt far more precious than the eighty thousand dollars sitting in my bank account.

Rosse looked at me and smiled gently. "New clothes or old ones don't change who you truly are, Alsean."

The moment we sat down at the coffee shop, the ring on my finger pulsed intensely, far stronger than the usual thrum that had been guiding me.

"Is something wrong, Alsean? Why did you go quiet all of a sudden?" Rosse asked, noticing the tense shift in my expression.

"It's nothing, Rosse. My head just started ringing out of nowhere, probably just fatigue," I lied softly, unwilling to burden her with something I couldn't even explain to myself.

Inside my head, the system's voice echoed, louder and grander than usual.

"Heir emotional synchronization successful. Resonance with a pure-hearted individual satisfies evolution criteria."

The ring's pulse grew increasingly violent. The palm of my hand felt warm, then slowly turned hot. For a moment, my vision blurred. The noise of the coffee shop, the chatter of patrons, and the clinking of spoons faded away, as if the entire world were suddenly wrapped in silence. I clenched my fist under the table, trying to keep Rosse from noticing the strange change taking place.

I held my breath, my heart pounding hard not from the illness that had long been cured, but from a gut feeling that something much larger was about to begin.

As I sat motionless, the system's voice echoed once more, brief and decisive, like a small detonation inside my mind.

"Level two activated."

"New ability successfully unlocked."

I swallowed hard. "What ability?"

Silence lingered for a few seconds. Then the system's voice returned.

"Please use the Eye of the Heart to discover it."