Chapter 2: The First Step of a Titan
Ethan woke with a start, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. He gasped, his lungs burning as if he had just finished a marathon. For a moment, he remained frozen on his thin, lumpy mattress, staring up at the cracked plaster of the dorm ceiling.
Then, he saw it.
It wasn't a trick of the light or a lingering dream. A semi-transparent, golden-blue screen hovered exactly three feet in front of his face. It moved as he moved, perfectly calibrated to his line of sight.
"It's real..." Ethan whispered, his voice trembling.
As an avid reader who used web novels to escape the harsh reality of his poverty, Ethan was intimately familiar with the concept of a 'System.' He had read about players, cultivators, and regressors. He had spent countless nights imagining what he would do if a screen ever appeared before him. But unlike the protagonists in those stories who spent chapters questioning their sanity or visiting doctors, Ethan felt a strange, immediate sense of conviction.
The weight of the "Zillion" balance in his mind felt more real than the cold floor beneath his feet. He didn't need a psychiatrist; he needed to know how this worked.
"Status," he croaked, testing the command he had read so many times in his books.
[DING!]
The screen flickered and expanded.
Host: Ethan McCain
Balance: $10,000,000,000,000,000.00
Body: 15 (Weak/Malnourished)
Mind: 28 (Normal/High Potential)
System Points: 0
Ethan's eyes locked onto the balance. The string of zeros was dizzying. If he spent a million dollars every single day, he wouldn't even dent the interest this amount would generate in a standard bank. But the system's voice echoed in his memory: One point for every 100 million dollars. A small smirk played at the corner of his mouth as he let out a dry laugh.
"Even the richest man in the world isn't as rich as me," he murmured.
The scale was terrifying. To even begin his journey of self-improvement, he had to become the greatest spender the world had ever seen. He sat up, glancing over at Leo's bunk. His friend was gone, likely headed to an afternoon football practice. The room was quiet, save for the hum of a distant fly. Ethan reached out a shaking hand, trying to touch the screen, but his fingers passed right through the light.
'The host can use fingerprints, face, or pupils to pay,' the system had said.
Ethan looked at his battered smartphone sitting on the desk. He picked it up, his mind racing. To get his first point, he needed to spend a hundred million. He couldn't just walk into a convenience store and buy a soda. He couldn't even buy a car; even the most expensive Bugatti was barely a drop in the bucket compared to his target. Furthermore, he remembered the most important rule: Never Negotiate.
"If I want to change my life," Ethan muttered to himself, "I can't start small. The system won't let me."
He thought of his current situation. He was a scholarship student living in a room that smelled of mildew. He worked a shift at a high-end bar—the "Blue Velvet Lounge"—where the city's elite went to burn money. Julian Vance and his cronies often frequented the place just to mock Ethan while he served them drinks. A cold, sharp smile touched Ethan's lips. It was the first time in years that he didn't feel like a victim.
"I have a zillion dollars," he said, the words feeling heavy and powerful. "I'm not a ghost anymore."
He stood up, noticing that his body felt slightly different. Even though his 'Body' stat was only a 15, the integration of the system seemed to have cleared the constant fog of exhaustion from his brain. He felt sharp. Focused. He looked at his bank app again. The $12.45 was still there—his "old" life. But when he opened his phone's digital wallet, a new, black-and-gold card had appeared in his Apple Pay. It had no numbers, no name—just a logo of a crown entwined with an infinity symbol.
Ethan grabbed his jacket. He had four hours before his shift at the bar started. He couldn't spend 100 million in a few hours without drawing massive government attention, but he could start the process. He needed to test the "No Negotiation" rule.
As he walked out of the dorm, the sunlight hitting his face felt different. He passed a group of freshmen who usually looked through him as if he were invisible. This time, Ethan didn't look down. He kept his chin up, his gaze steady.
He headed toward the campus gate, his target fixed. A few miles from the university sat the Golden Dragon Hotel. It was a legendary 10-star establishment, famous for being the only one of its kind for a thousand miles. Ethan had never even dreamed of stepping inside, let alone buying anything there.
A small smile played on his lips as he walked down the street. "Should I just buy the hotel?" he muttered to himself. "Well, let's see how it goes."
With his eyes fixed on the towering, gilded spires of the Golden Dragon in the distance, Ethan took his first steps toward his new destiny.