Infinite Cashback System

Chapter 365: 365 | Dead and Dancing is a Legitimate Career Goal

Chloe steered Kumiko past the merchandise displays with practiced efficiency, one hand on her shoulder and the other preventing Kumiko from purchasing a seventy-five-dollar lightsaber on impulse.

When they emerged into Galaxy’s Edge proper, the February sun had warmed the park to the low sixties and the crowd had thickened into a proper Saturday mass of humanity. Jordan checked the time on his phone without looking at any notifications and confirmed nine-twelve AM.

The next three hours blurred into a montage that Kumiko’s spreadsheet governed with the authority of sacred text. They hit Smuggler’s Run at nine-twenty with a twelve-minute wait, Kumiko piloting the Falcon with the intensity of someone whose actual life depended on the fuel efficiency score.

Radiator Springs Racers ate forty minutes of line time but Kumiko spent the wait photographing every prop car and narrating the lore of each character to Jordan as though he were receiving classified intelligence.

Jordan won the race against the opposing car by what felt like three inches, and Kumiko celebrated by climbing onto a bench and performing a victory dance that drew applause from four strangers and a security camera adjustment.

Chloe ate plain toast and ginger ale at Flo’s V8 Cafe at ten-fifteen, exactly as Kumiko had scheduled, seated under a shade umbrella that Chloe had identified via satellite view during the car ride.

Jordan ordered a burger that cost nineteen dollars and tasted like a twelve-dollar burger with a seven-dollar location surcharge, and the System processed the transaction with its usual cold mathematics.

Rebate cleared. Profit logged. The running total for the day climbed past four hundred dollars in net gain, and Jordan found himself caring less about that number with each hour.

Haunted Mansion happened at eleven-oh-eight thanks to Chloe’s rerouting, the line lasting a merciful fourteen minutes because most of the crowd had migrated toward the parade staging area.

The ride itself produced three distinct results: Jordan found the stretching room mechanically impressive, Chloe cataloged the projection technology for potential stream background applications, and Kumiko fell so thoroughly in love with the ballroom scene that she sat in the doom buggy for four seconds after it stopped, staring backward through the exit tunnel with the look of someone leaving a church.

"I want to live there," Kumiko whispered.

"In the haunted mansion."

"With the ghosts. They looked happy. They were dancing."

"They’re dead, Kumi."

"Dead and dancing, Jordan-kun. Some of us have goals."

They rode the Matterhorn, which rattled Jordan’s bones and made Chloe grip his arm with enough force to leave fingerprint bruises on his bicep. They rode Indiana Jones, where the vehicle lurched so violently that Kumiko’s phone flew out of her hand and Jordan caught it midair with the reflexes Maya had beaten into his nervous system over three weeks of combat training. Kumiko spent the next four minutes staring at Jordan’s hand as though it had performed actual magic.

"You caught it," she kept repeating. "In the dark. While we were moving."

"It was coming at my face. Self-defense."

"Your reflexes are inhuman and I am adding this to the document."

Lunch landed at one-fifteen at the Bengal Barbecue, a counter-service spot near the Jungle Cruise that Kumiko’s spreadsheet had rated a seven point one for its skewers and proximity to a shaded eating area.

Jordan ordered enough food for four people because Chloe ate half portions and Kumiko grazed constantly, and the bill came to forty-eight dollars for chicken skewers, beef skewers, rice, and two waters. Another rebate cleared. Another line item in the invisible ledger that tracked his love life like a hedge fund portfolio.

The afternoon heat crested at seventy-one degrees by two o’clock, and the park’s energy shifted from morning urgency to a slower, syrupy rhythm. Families with strollers dominated the walkways.

Face characters posed for photos near the hub. A jazz band played outside the French Market, and the sound carried across the square with the warm, lazy quality of music that existed purely to make people walk slower and buy more churros.

Chloe sat on a bench in New Orleans Square with her legs stretched out and her eyes half-closed. The folding chair Kumiko had purchased sat unopened in the cat backpack because Chloe decided the bench was sufficient and she didn’t want to look like a woman who brought furniture to Disneyland.

Jordan sat beside her with his arm draped along the backrest, close enough to feel the warmth of her shoulder through his sleeve. Kumiko had disappeared into a shop twelve minutes ago and would emerge carrying something unnecessary and adorable.

"You good?" Jordan asked.

"Mmhm." Chloe’s eyes stayed shut. "Ask me again in November when a person the size of a cantaloupe is sitting on my bladder."

Jordan’s hand found the back of her neck and his thumb traced a small circle against the skin where her hair met her nape.

Chloe made a sound so quiet it would have been invisible in any louder environment, a short exhale through her nose that meant she appreciated the contact but would deny making any sound if confronted.

This was the version of Chloe that nobody else ever saw. Not the six-figure content creator. Not the scholarship student with a secret identity. Not the girl who’d spent the morning silently rerouting Kumiko’s spreadsheet while tracking parade schedules and shade availability on a separate browser tab.

This Chloe had her eyes closed and her guard down and her hand resting on her own stomach in a gesture that had become instinctive over the past five days despite there being nothing to feel and nothing to confirm.

Kumiko burst from the shop carrying a bag that was far too large for any reasonable purchase.

"I bought Mr. Snuggles a friend," she announced, producing a plush Stitch the size of a cocker spaniel. "His name is Detective Blueberry and he is an emotional support officer."

"How much."

"Thirty-nine ninety-five and he was worth every penny because he matches my ears and also because I love him and you can’t put a price on love, Jordan-kun."

Jordan pulled out the card.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!