The Last Minute of Poverty

The moon hung above Silver Bridge City like a silver coin carelessly tossed into the heavens. Under its pale glow, the city's sinners crawled from their hiding places to hunt.

A young man weaved through the crowded sidewalk, a delivery bag slung across his back, glancing at the worn watch on his wrist every thirty seconds as if looking at it more often might slow down time.

Jason only stopped in front of a large building. Before him stood a dazzling neon sign whose brilliance seemed to challenge even the moon.

Snakehole Lounge. The playground of Silver Bridge's elites.

The city's wealthiest predators gathered here, casually spending a student’s yearly tuition on a drink.

Jason exhaled slowly and stepped through the employee entrance.

Tonight was supposed to be his day off.

Unfortunately, one of the lounge’s regular VIPs, a notoriously spoiled young master, had specifically requested Jason’s service.

Faced with a customer who spent tens of thousands of dollars every week, his supervisor hadn't dared refuse.

“You're late.”

A middle-aged woman with heavy makeup stormed towards him the moment he entered.

“Hurry up and change, the young master has been asking for you every five minutes.”

“Sorry, Miss Becky,” Jason said, not wasting another second as he rushed into the changing room. He quickly swapped his casual clothes for the lounge’s waiter uniform.

A few minutes later, he was pushing a brass service cart through the second-floor corridor. A bottle of Dom Pérignon was chilling in an ice-filled container on the cart.

His gaze drifted towards his watch again.

9:48 PM.

A little over two hours left until he turned twenty-two. More importantly, less than two hours left until payday.

The VIP had promised him a one-thousand-dollar tip for personally delivering tonight’s order. A ridiculous amount of money for a task that would take less than ten minutes, and Jason wasn’t too proud to take it. With that money alone, he would surely have enough cash to buy the Eclipse Music Festival concert ticket Rose had been quietly hoping for, and tonight was the last day of sales.

He stopped in front of Suite 204, knocked twice, and pushed the door open.

The smile that had been planted on his lips died instantly the moment he stepped into the room.

Rose was there.

She was curled in another man’s lap, wearing a black split gown that barely covered her nakedness. One arm looped around his neck, and his hand was placed on her exposed inner thigh, gently caressing it.

Her cheeks were flushed, her lips parted in a slow smile Jason had never seen her wear before… not once in two years.

The two were deeply intimate, despite the fact that there were bodyguards in the room watching their every movement.

Jason recognized the man instantly. John Starr, the city’s apex sex predator.

“Rose?”

Rose stood up in shock as soon as she saw him enter.

“Jason?” For half a second, panic flashed across her face. But it vanished quickly, and her expression twisted into anger.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she snapped.

John leaned back on the sofa and laughed.

“Relax, babe,” He lifted his eyes to Jason. “Actually, I made him come here. I thought it would be fun.”

“Told you I would see you soon, fucker…” John said, tracing his finger on the rim of the wine glass he had just picked up from the table.

Hearing that, Rose instantly put on a fawning smile. “Oh, Johnny, you’re terrible. I only came here to keep you company. Now the mood is ruined.”

“Oh, my dear. The fun is just getting started,” John said as he drew Rose closer for a kiss.

Jason's hands curled into fists, his nails biting deep into the palms of his hands.

“Rose,” he said, his voice strained as he struggled to look at her instead of John. “Tell me it's a prank…”

“Jason, the real joke is you believing I'd actually spend the rest of my life with you,” she scoffed.

“I thought what we had was real.” His voice came out in a whisper. “I did everything I could to make you happy.”

Rose burst into laughter. The sound was sharp enough to cut through metal.

"You did nothing," she sneered. "What exactly did you give me? Cheap flowers? Budget dinners? That secondhand necklace you probably picked up from some roadside stall?"

Her expression twisted with disdain.

"Every time you handed me one of those pathetic gifts, I swear I could practically smell the sweat on them. It was disgusting."

Jason froze.

At that moment, it felt as though the ground beneath him had shifted.

For the first time, he began to wonder if the woman he had loved had ever truly existed at all.

Suppressing the bitterness clawing its way up his throat, he looked at her and said, "Everything you want... I can give it to you. Starting tomorrow."

Rose laughed even harder.

"You?" she mocked. "Jason, even if you worked yourself to death and handed me every cent you ever earned, it still wouldn't be enough to buy one of John's watches."

She crossed her arms and smirked.

"I was planning to dump you after graduation anyway. Honestly, I should thank John. He made this breakup far more entertaining."

Leaning down, she planted a kiss on John's cheek.

"Thanks, baby."

John's lips curved into a cruel smile as he looked at Jason.

"You've been crazy about her for years, haven't you?" he said. "Yet you never even had the courage to lay a finger on her."

His eyes gleamed with malicious amusement.

"Since I'm feeling generous tonight, how about I give you a short tutorial on how to please a woman?" John winked. "Next time, you'll grow up and stop being a nice guy."

Before anyone could react, John wrapped an arm around Rose's waist and pulled her firmly against his chest.

Rose let out a startled gasp.

Rather than pulling away, however, she relaxed into his embrace, blushing as she nestled closer, seemingly enjoying the attention.

“Hope I'm not going against the rules now, Mr. Superhero?” John mocked as he slapped Rose's butt.

The taunt hit Jason like a physical blow, dragging his mind directly back to exactly why John was targeting him.

That was it. The last string of Jason’s sanity snapped.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” Jason roared, lunging forward like an enraged beast.

But he never even reached John. A hulking, scar-faced bodyguard stepped into his path like a wall of iron. A massive fist swung like a sledgehammer, smashing directly into Jason’s face.

“Throw this trash out,” John ordered casually. “Don’t let him ruin my fun.”

The scar-faced bodyguard grabbed Jason by the collar and dragged him toward the back exit.

Jason struggled, but his exhausted body had no strength left. His shoes scraped against the floor. The music behind him grew muffled.

Rose did not call out. She did not even look away from John.

A moment later, the back door flew open. Jason was violently hurled out into the alley.

He hit the freezing, damp asphalt like a discarded bag of garbage. Blood trickled down his forehead, stinging his left eye.

For a long time, he just sat in the shadows, staring blankly at the bustling traffic and the cold, neon-lit world, listening to the muffled bass thumping from the club above.

Above him, the Snakehole Lounge continued to roar with laughter and music. Expensive cars rolled past the mouth of the alley. Men and women dressed in luxury stepped over puddles without ever glancing in his direction.

Jason reached into the inner pocket of his uniform and took out an old phone.

It looked cheap. Thick plastic casing. Scratched screen. No logo. The kind of phone a broke college student would use because he had no other choice.

He tapped the screen. A strange interface with the logo of a full moon appeared on the screen, a string of words written beneath the logo.

[Global Intellect: Pike Family Supreme Custom OS]

Then the logo disappeared. Replaced by a ten minute countdown timer.

Jason stared at the screen until the countdown reached Zero. Then a column of words popped up on the screen.

[Kindly place your eyes to the camera for identity verification.]

Jason lifted the phone and aligned the front camera with his left eye.

Beep.

[Iris scan confirmed.]

Then another row of messages popped up on the screen.

[Happy birthday young master Jason. Congratulations, your four years trial has officially come to an end.]

The word disappeared, replaced by a large gift pack hovering on the screen.

Jason clicked on the gift pack and a string of words appeared on the screen, followed by a notification sound.

[A sum of $10 million dollars has been sent to your private account, enjoy your new Life]

Then the screen went blank.

Almost immediately, the phone roared back to life.

A contact saved as the troublemaker popped up on the screen as the device began to ring.

“Stay where you are, I'm coming to meet you!” A sweet female voice sounded from the other side of the line.