Chapter 2: No one told me reincarnation was legit?.
[Ding!]
Host detected.
Host has successfully satisfied requirements for rebate system.
[Infinite Rebate System Activated]
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[INFINITE REBATE SYSTEM — AWAKENING SEQUENCE COMPLETE]
[This System Focuses On Upgradeable Rebates]
[Host will have the opportunity to upgrade to the next hidden rebate tier by gaining experience points through completing tasks]
[Experience points can be earned from system tasks, hidden tasks, side tasks and more]
[Current Rebate Tier — Penny Returner (Starting Tier)]
Base Multiplier: 2x
Minimum spend to activate: $1
Cooldown: 10 minutes per transaction
Max daily rebate cap: $10,000
[EXP required for next tier: 0/5,000]
[Note: Upgrading tiers guarantees stronger rewards and benefits]
[Host — go out there and make it count.]
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Alarm Clock Ringing]
BZZZT!. BZZZT!. BZZZT!.
Xavier jolted upright like something had grabbed him by the collar and yanked.
His heart was slamming. His head was splitting. And for exactly three seconds he just sat there, chest heaving, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling above him.
I died.
The memory arrived with quiet, horrible clarity. The train platform. The bottle. His foot catching the edge. The rails rushing up.
I actually died.
BZZZT!.
The alarm kept going. Xavier looked at it — a cheap digital clock on a bedside table that wasn’t his and grabbed it.
"Shut up," he muttered, killing it. "You piece of trash."
The clock face blinked a reminder at him before going dark.
[First Day of School — 8:30 AM]
Xavier stared at that for a long moment.
School?.
He hadn’t been in school in over two years. He’d graduated, scraped together a life delivering pizzas, fallen for the wrong woman, lost everything, stepped off a platform and ....
His eyes landed on a folder sitting on the desk beside the clock. He reached for it with the careful energy of a man who suspected reality was about to get worse.
[Name: Xavier Cole]
[Blood Type: AB]
[Age: 18]
[Year: First Year]
[Department: Food and Nutrition]
He read it twice.
Eighteen.
Year one.
He set the folder down slowly.
Okay. So I died. Saw... something — the memory of a grinning clown flickered through his mind and he immediately chose not to examine that — and woke up six years in the past with a system that pays me back for spending money.
He pressed two fingers to his temple.
I used to laugh at guys in anime who got reincarnated. Called it wish fulfillment garbage. Dropped the hobby entirely when life got hard enough that fantasy stopped being funny.
Look at me now.
He almost laughed. Almost.
He checked his phone. 7:30 AM. One hour before his "first day." He had time barely.
Xavier dragged himself to the bathroom, and when he saw his face in the mirror he stopped moving entirely.
Eighteen. He actually looked eighteen again. The tired lines around his eyes gone. The hollow cheeks from too many skipped meals — gone. His jaw was the same but softer, fuller. He raised a hand and touched his cheek the way a man touches something he’s not sure is real.
It was real.
He exhaled slowly.
Alright then.
He showered, dried off, and opened his wardrobe. A plain white tee stared back at him. Black trousers. One pair of shoes — old, worn, but carrying themselves with a dignity that didn’t match their age.
Even in a second life, he thought, pulling the shirt over his head, I’m starting from the floor.
He checked his account balance out of habit.
$500.
He almost smiled. In his previous life, $500 had felt like breathing room. Right now, knowing what he knew — knowing what compound spending could do with the right system behind it — $500 felt like a seed.
He ordered a pizza for breakfast. Why not?.
First real test.
The notification arrived before the delivery confirmation did.
[ REBATE SYSTEM ]
Transaction Detected: $12 spent on breakfast order
Base Multiplier (Tier 1): 2x
Total Return: $24
Credited in: 00:10:00
Cooldown: 00:10:00
[ Net Balance: $488.00 → $512.00 ]
[ SIDE QUEST COMPLETE ]
First Transaction
Reward: +100 EXP
[ EXP: 100/5,000 ]
So the system gives experience points for some kind of level up system. Interesting.
Xavier looked at that number for a long moment.The pizza had been quickly delivered to his home and was cooling on the box in front of him.
Twenty-four dollars. Returned. For spending twelve.
He took a bite.
This is going to change everything he let out a quick sigh of satisfaction.
He ate fast, checked the time [ 8:15] and quickly finished his meal. I don’t want to be late on my first day assuming this reality is real . He ordered a cab, grabbed his bag, and was out the door in under three minutes.
The cab pulled up within two minutes.
Xavier threw himself into the back seat and the driver, a stocky middle-aged man with a relaxed expression, glanced at him in the rearview mirror.
"Morning. Where are we headed?"
Xavier blinked. He’d been so busy processing his resurrection that he hadn’t actually checked where his school was. He examined his white shirt and saw some sort of school badge. Let’s hope this will be my lucky charm.
"Can you take me to a school with this exact logo?,"
Xavier said flatly.
The driver looked at him again. Looked at the white shirt, the black trousers, the worn shoes.Then glanced back at the road.
"You’re lucky I guess." I just happened to drop off some folks with similar badges at that school . "Riverside university, yeah? It’s located at Kenvale District. That’s where you going?"
"Yeah," Xavier said. "That’s the one." Even though he didn’t know where he was talking about . Let’s just hope on lady luck that it’s the right destination.
[ REBATE SYSTEM ]
Transaction Detected: $8 spent on cab fare
Base Multiplier (Tier 1): 2x
Total Return: $16
Credited in: 00:10:00
Cooldown: 00:10:00
[ Net Balance: $504.00 → $520.00 ]
He watched the notification dissolve and leaned back against the seat.
Twenty dollars returned across two small transactions. Nothing life-changing yet. But every empire started with arithmetic.
In my previous life I was grinding eighteen-hour delivery shifts and putting my hard earned money into platforms my cheating ex told me were safe. He stared out the window at the passing streets. This time will be different. I’ll be the one using these women.
The cab slowed. The gates of a university came into view through the windshield — a wide stone entrance, green lawns, some students milling around in the same white-and-black uniform he was wearing."We’ve arrived sir" the driver spoke signaling Xavier.
Xavier stepped out. Showed the driver his receipt and stood at the gate.Then he saw the huge sign symbolising it’s the right destination, a large brick carving sign with the word "welcome to Riverside University".
He let himself take one breath and look at the place that was apparently the beginning of his second act.
Then he saw her.
She was standing near the noticeboard with two other girls, laughing at something on her phone. Five-foot-nine even at eighteen, curves already announcing themselves like a preview of the woman she’d become. Chestnut hair catching the morning light.
Sarah Torres.
Six years younger. Technically still innocent. Technically hadn’t done a single thing to him yet.
Xavier stared at her for exactly three seconds.
So it really is a reincarnation.Of course she’s here.
She threw her head back laughing at whatever was on that screen, completely unaware of his existence, looking every bit like the girl a man with no sense would spend eighteen months worshipping.
Cute, he thought coldly. Enjoy it.
He adjusted his bag strap and walked through the gates.