Chapter 17: One Target. Twenty-Four Hours
The screen went dark the second his thumb landed.
Nothing, for a beat. Then a small loading symbol appeared dead center, rotating slow and unhurried, like it had absolutely nowhere else to be tonight.
He watched it spin. And spin. And spin again which for some reason began to tick him off.
Then the screen flashed.
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🎁 STARTER PACK RECEIVED
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A stylized package icon sat there, gold-edged, faintly pulsing like it wanted him to tap it. He did.
The animation played. Quick, clean, more polish than anything a scam app had any business investing in, and the rewards started sliding into view one at a time.
$2,000 USD
500 Billionaire Points
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Billionaire Points are system currency.
They may be exchanged for items and skills within the System Store.
Visit the Store to make an exchange.
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His eyes went straight to the $2,000 and stayed there. The points were interesting, sure. Abstract, gamified, whatever. The two thousand dollars was real-world money, and after the day he’d had, real-world money was the only currency currently holding his attention.
Just as he assumed his interest had peaked, a new panel slid in on top of the rest.
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🎉BONUS REWARD🎉
Condition fulfilled: The Host has shared meals with two different females during the Foundation Period.
[2× C-Rank Gacha Pulls Received]
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He paused on that one longer than any of the others.
...Gacha. That word did more to get his attention than $2,000 had. He hadn’t even opened the Store yet, and apparently there was a second, entirely separate gambling machine hiding inside this thing.
Then. His phone buzzed. A different buzz, a normal one, the kind he’d been getting all day from actual apps instead of whatever this was.
He looked down.
Incoming Transfer — $2,000.00 received.
He went still.
Didn’t trust it. Opened his actual banking app instead, the one that had shown him $193.47 that morning and $107.89 a few hours later, waited for it to load, and checked the balance.
Checked it again.
Refreshed, just in case the number was lying to him the way numbers occasionally did when you wanted them to be true.
It wasn’t lying. His balance sat there.
$2092.34
He blinked, brain gone completely static, no idea what came next.
His mom hadn’t even sent her delayed paycheck yet, and here he was, sitting on more than that would’ve been in the first place, deposited by something that had scanned his face in a diner parking lot some minutes ago.
He leaned back against the headboard.
It’s real.
He looked at the number one more time, like it might have quietly reconsidered itself in the last three seconds.
It’s actually real.
He closed the banking app before the number could stop feeling real. Looked back at the system instead.
Where the money had actually come from crossed his mind for about half a second.
He brushed it off instantly.
Right now he had money. That was the entire scope of tonight’s investigation.
He scrolled back through everything laid out in front of him. $2,000. 500 BP.
Wait.
His attention settled on the Billionaire Points.
He tapped it. The interface repeated what he already knew, exchangeable in the Store, and a gold-highlighted button sat waiting underneath.
VISIT STORE
He tapped that too.
The screen transitioned, and the Store opened up in front of him. Categories, icons, more than he had the patience to properly parse at whatever hour this currently was. He scrolled. Stopped on the first thing cheap enough to actually read the price on.
30 Wealth Points
Cost: 1,000 BP
He frowned. Checked his own balance again, like it might have grown in the last four seconds out of sympathy.
500 BP.
Looked back at the price tag. Looked at his balance again. His expression settled into something completely flat.
He scrolled further, and the pattern held. Everything in this store existed in a price bracket his current five hundred points had no business being anywhere near.
So I’m rich in dollars. He took a breath. Broke in whatever this currency is.
He backed out of the Store without buying anything. Back on the reward screen, something else caught his eye lower down the list.
🔍Investment Insight: Unlocked
He tapped it.
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Investment Insight allows the Host to perceive the Investment Potential of eligible targets.
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He read on.
Investment Potential represents the potential value generated by investing in a registered target. Higher Investment Potential may result in greater cashback returns.
He sat with that a second. So that’s what the investment part means.
Sounded almost like something out of one of those webnovels he used to read at 2 a.m. instead of sleeping. He didn’t let himself finish that thought.
He kept scrolling, expecting more explanation, and found a smaller line instead.
Investment Insight can only be applied to registered targets.
He stopped there.
No targets registered. So, no way to actually test what it did. He considered that for a second. Mildly annoying.
So I actually have to find someone first.
Filed that away too, next to the gacha pulls and the store prices he couldn’t afford yet.
Before he could dig any further, the screen froze without warning.
The whole interface dropped out.
PLEASE WAIT.
⏳SYSTEM UPGRADE IN PROGRESS...⏳
He blinked at it.
An upgrade?
A progress bar filled in slow increments, and once it hit the end, three lines appeared in sequence.
BEGINNER FOUNDATION MISSION CLEARED
SYSTEM LEVEL HAS BEEN UPDATED
NEW FUNCTIONS HAVE BEEN UNLOCKED
He straightened slightly against the headboard. This felt less like a welcome package. More like the system finally deciding he’d graduated into being taken seriously.
A new panel opened.
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DAILY TASKS
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☐ Eat one proper meal. Preferably in the company of another person. ⓘ
☐ Maintain personal hygiene. ⓘ
☐ Accumulate 90 minutes of physical activity. ⓘ
☐ Get at least 7 hours of sleep. ⓘ
□ Have at least one meaningful social interaction. ⓘ
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His eyes narrowed at the first line.
You really aren’t letting that one go.
None of the tasks looked especially difficult on their own, which was, in a strange way, almost reassuring. Completely different from what he had expected. He’d take that.
He scrolled further, and the interface shifted again, cleaner and more deliberate than the panels before it.
BEGINNER PHASE COMPLETE ✅
NEW PHASE: TARGET ACQUISITION 🔓
His expression sobered slightly. This wasn’t a reward screen anymore. This felt like the system finally getting to the part it actually cared about.
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A Target is an eligible female who enters a system relationship with the Host.
Investments made toward registered Targets may generate Cashback based on their Investment Potential.
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He read it twice.
Okay. Now that makes sense. He couldn’t just spend on anyone and expect cashback. It had to be a selected target. That didn’t seem so bad.
Then the next line loaded in underneath it, and whatever satisfaction he’d just found in finally understanding the mechanic evaporated on contact.
Target registration requires the Target’s voluntary consent.
He stopped scrolling.
Read it again, slower this time, like rereading it might reveal a loophole the first pass had missed.
A Target cannot be registered without her knowledge and agreement.
His brows pulled together.
The Host must personally obtain the Target’s consent.
He just stared at the screen for a second.
He read it a third time. What.
He scrolled back up, reread the whole section from the top. He didn’t have a problem with the fact he couldn’t just select anyone. But the fact she had to be aware. The fuck?
The screen didn’t wait for him to fully process that before moving on.
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NEW MISSION ACQUIRED: ACQUIRE A TARGET
Objective: Successfully register one eligible Target.
Time Limit: 24 Hours ⏳
Reward: Surprise Package! 🎁
Penalty: -$2000 from player’s account number.
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The penalty caught his eyes quicker than the reward did.
He stared at it, then looked up at the empty room like it might offer some kind of context clue. Then back down at the phone.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
He’d spent the last two hours of his night agreeing to pretend to be someone’s boyfriend for a day. And now, apparently, the system wanted the real thing, consensually obtained, inside twenty-four hours.
One final line appeared before the interface folded itself away.
GOOD LUCK, PLAYER.
❗️FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.❗️
The screen went dark for a beat. Then, in its place.
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Time Remaining: 23:59:59
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