The Trillionaire’s Rise: Powered by a System Ring

CHAPTER 3 An Unexpected Mission

[Ding!] [No suitable missions currently available.] [Missions appear based on the Host's situation. The System will notify when an opportunity arises.]

Rendi stared at the text. His smile vanished.

"Then why did you ask me what I wanted?"

[To record the Host's objective.] [Objective recorded: become strong and fight Evelyn and Alex Wijaya.]

"That's it?" Rendi kept his voice down so Nurse Wulan wouldn't wake up. "You're a revenge system, right? Give me a way."

[Analysis: The Host has no money, no place to live, and has not mastered the first ability.] [Suggestion: recover your energy tonight.]

The blue screen closed on its own.

Rendi punched the mattress lightly. He wanted to argue, but the analysis was correct. He truly had nothing.

Rendi lay back and stared at the ceiling until his eyes grew heavy.

The next morning, Nadia came in carrying a tablet and a cup of coffee.

Nadia examined Rendi one more time. His blood pressure, heart rate, and this morning's lab results remained excellent.

The doctor read everything with a furrowed brow. "You are still giving me a headache."

"Does that mean I can go home?"

"Not yet. Patients who suffered a heart attack must be hospitalized for at least five days."

"I can't stay here for five days, Doc."

Nadia put down her coffee. "Why? Have a board meeting?"

Rendi did not answer. Nadia immediately realized her mistake and rubbed her forehead.

"Sorry. That wasn't funny."

"It's fine. It was actually quite funny."

Nadia let out a long sigh. "If you insist on leaving, you have to sign a discharge against medical advice form. If anything happens outside, the hospital won't be held responsible."

"I'll sign it."

"One more thing." Nadia slid the tablet toward Rendi. "Your medical bills are fully paid."

Rendi looked up. "Who paid?"

"I don't know. An anonymous transfer, came in this morning."

Rendi stared at the screen. All his acquaintances had already chosen Evelyn's side, so who would want to pay the bills of a fallen man?

Nadia wrote something on a slip of paper and tucked it into Rendi's shirt pocket.

"My number. If your chest hurts again, call. Don't pretend to be tough."

"Do you give your number to all your patients?"

"Only to the ones who should be dead." Nadia clipped her pen into her coat pocket. "Where are you going after this?"

Rendi stayed quiet. His apartment was no longer his, and neither was his family home.

"I don't know yet."

Nadia did not ask further. The doctor simply nodded without saying a word.

"Take care," she said while walking to the door.

At the doorway, Nadia glanced back. "And don't look at me like you did yesterday."

Rendi left through the hospital's back exit. There were still several reporters waiting by the front lobby.

Rendi only had the dress shirt and trousers from his wedding suit. The shirt was wrinkled, and there was a coffee stain on the collar.

His phone had been cracked since it fell in the hall, and the battery was dead.

Rendi opened his wallet. There were four bank cards inside, but all the accounts had been emptied through the power of attorney he signed for Evelyn.

The cash left in the wallet amounted to exactly twenty-three dollars.

Rendi stood on the sidewalk for a long time. A week ago, Rendi had spent two thousand dollars on a single bottle of wine during dinner with Evelyn. Now, he had to calculate whether twenty-three dollars was enough to eat until tomorrow.

Rendi wanted to call his mother. He walked into a small shop at the end of the street.

"Ma'am, may I borrow your phone for a second?"

The shop owner handed over her phone. Rendi dialed the number he had memorized since childhood, but no one answered. He tried again, and the result was the same.

Rendi returned the phone. "Thank you, Ma'am."

The shop owner stared at Rendi's face for quite a while. "You're the guy from the TV, aren't you?"

"No, Ma'am."

"You look exactly like him."

Rendi gave a faint smile and walked out of the shop.

His stomach growled. The smell of meat skewers from a food cart across the street made him even hungrier.

'Should I eat first? Or save this for bus fare?'

[Ding!] [Opportunity detected.] [Unexpected Mission: First Sight] [There is a valuable item hidden at the Kenari Street Flea Market. X-Ray Vision can find it.] [Time limit: Before sunset.] [Reward: $800 cash.] [Reward will be disbursed once the item is found before the time limit.] [Accept or decline?]

Rendi read the offer twice.

"What if I decline?"

[Mission will be withdrawn. The Host is free to find another way.]

Rendi looked at the contents of his wallet one more time. Another way meant twenty-three dollars and sleeping on a park bench tonight.

Eight hundred dollars was enough to eat and rent a room for a month. That was what he needed right now.

"Accept. Where is the Kenari Street Flea Market?"

[Three blocks east.]

"Can you give me a map?"

[Not available.]

Rendi scoffed, then started walking.

The Kenari Street Flea Market turned out to be just a long alleyway filled with tarp-covered stalls. People sold all sorts of second-hand goods there, from old radios, shoes, and cracked plates to wall clocks, books, and small statues.

Rendi walked slowly among the rows of tarps. His expensive but wrinkled clothes made several vendors cast suspicious glances.

"Hey, that's the guy from the video," whispered a woman selling plates to her friend. "The one whose bride ditched him."

"Really? Why would a rich guy come to a flea market?"

"He's not rich anymore. His girl took everything."

Rendi heard everything, but he did not turn his head. He just quickened his pace.

Rendi stopped in front of the first stall and focused his gaze. His eyes grew hot, then the cardboard boxes in front of him faded.

The contents were just scrap cables, rusty keys, and broken cassettes.

Rendi blinked, then moved to the next spot. The old radio there was empty, the wall clock was full of dust, and the leather bag contained scrap paper.

Rendi checked the third, fourth, and fifth stalls. A vendor offered him a pair of used leather shoes, and Rendi just shook his head and kept walking.

After half an hour, his head started to spin. His eyes stung, and a small throb pulsed at his temples.

'So this ability has its limits.'

Rendi sat on a plastic stool at the end of the alley. The sun was already tilting westward.

In front of him was a small stall belonging to an old man in a faded, thin t-shirt. The old man had fallen asleep while sitting.

His merchandise was sparse. There were a few old books, two oil lamps, and a wooden statue of an owl as tall as an arm.

Rendi stared at the statue without much hope. He focused his gaze for one last time.

The wooden owl faded. Inside it was a cavity, and arranged inside that cavity was something gleaming yellow.

Rendi straightened his body and focused his gaze harder. The dizziness in his head grew heavier.

Inside the cavity were five gold coins wrapped in an old cloth.

Gulp.

Rendi stood up and approached the stall. He tried to act casual.

"Sir, how much for this owl?"

The old man woke up and raised his head. "Fifty dollars."

Fifty dollars, while Rendi's money was down to twenty-three.

Before Rendi could bargain, a young man in a designer shirt stopped beside him. The man pointed to the exact same statue.

"Sir, I'll take that one. I'll pay a hundred."

The old man immediately broke into a wide smile.

The young man looked Rendi up and down. His eyes stopped at the wrinkled shirt and the coffee stain on Rendi's collar, then he let out a small laugh.

"Whoa, Rendi Martin? Is that really you?" The man pulled out a thick wallet from his pocket. "You used to buy million-dollar paintings like candy. Now you're haggling over a wooden statue at a flea market."

Rendi did not reply. His eyes were fixed on the owl statue.

In the corner of his vision, the blue screen blinked.

[Mission time remaining: 1 hour 52 minutes.]

The sun was getting lower, and Rendi only had twenty-three dollars left. In a matter of seconds, those five gold coins would change hands.