Evren pulled his old electric scooter to the curb under a dripping bus stop canopy. Rain was pouring hard, and he wiped a smear of water off his helmet visor.

He was exhausted. He had been delivering food for fourteen hours straight, and his body hurt everywhere. He tapped the cracked phone mounted on his scooter’s handlebars to check his bank app; he only had forty-two dollars left.

Suddenly, his phone buzzed with a new delivery order.

Order #409: Grand Apex Hotel, Suite 808. Delivery Fee: $15.00.

Evren accepted the order right away. He was an F-Rank Awakener, which meant he had almost no mana. Other Awakeners went into Rifts to fight monsters and make millions, but Evren had to deliver food just to pay off the medical bills his late mother left behind.

Ten minutes later, Evren arrived at the Grand Apex Hotel. He took the elevator up to the eighth floor, carrying the bag containing the expensive seafood order.

Reaching Suite 808, he found the door slightly ajar. There was laughter coming from inside, and the woman’s voice that followed, sounded just like his girlfriend, Giselle.

"Oh, Prescott, stop it! What if someone comes in?"

"Who cares?" the man answered arrogantly. "I own half this city. No one tells a Prescott what to do."

"You’re so bad," Giselle cooed. "I can’t wait until I’m officially yours."

"What about that delivery boy of yours?" Prescott asked, laughing. "The loser who spends all day riding a scooter?"

Giselle giggled. "Evren? Please. He couldn’t even buy me a decent dinner. He’s just a stepping stone until I found someone like you."

Evren stood frozen outside the door. His blood ran cold as he listened in disbelief to his girlfriend say trash about him. The disbelief turned into anger and without a second thought, he pushed the door open and walked in.

Inside the fancy room, Giselle was sitting on the lap of a young man in an expensive suit. That man was Prescott, the heir of the Prescott Guild. Giselle was wearing a shiny diamond necklace that Evren knew he didn’t get for her because he could never afford it.

"Giselle?" Evren said in a shaky voice.

Giselle gasped and jumped off Prescott’s lap. But instead of looking ashamed, her face quickly turned annoyed.

"Evren? What are you doing here?" Giselle demanded, crossing her arms.

"I came to deliver the food you ordered," Evren said, holding the bag. "And to see why my girlfriend is sitting on another guy’s lap."

Prescott laughed out loud. He didn’t even stand up; he just leaned back on the sofa and looked at Evren like he was dirt.

"So you’re the delivery guy she was dating?" Prescott sneered. "You look like a beggar."

"Evren, just leave," Giselle said coldly. "Look at you. You’re wet, dirty, and broke. Prescott gave me a diamond necklace today. What have you ever given me? You can’t even pay off your own debt."

Prescott pulled out his phone and tapped it a few times. "I just checked. I own shares in the delivery app you work for. And as at three seconds ago, you’re fired. I’m also reporting this order as ruined, so they’ll fine you five hundred dollars."

Evren squeezed his fists tightly. He wanted to punch Prescott in the face, but he knew Prescott’s guards would beat him to death.

Just then, a door inside the suite opened, and a bodyguard pushed a wheelchair into the living room.

Sitting in the wheelchair was a young woman in a coat. Her face was very pale, and her legs were completely limp. She looked exhausted, and her forehead was red with a high fever.

It was Amber.

Evren recognized her immediately. She used to be the famous S-Rank Captain of the Sterling Guild. But six months ago, she got injured in a high-level Rift raid. Her spine was broken, and corrosive mana ruined her legs.

Prescott was here today because the Sterling family had officially signed papers to get rid of her.

They didn’t want to pay her medical bills anymore, so they handed her over to Prescott’s guild like unwanted trash. Prescott was planning to throw her into a cheap care home or hand her over to his guards later tonight.

Prescott pointed at Amber and smirked at Evren.

"Hey, delivery boy," Prescott laughed. "Tell you what. If you take this paralyzed trash off my hands right now, I’ll even call your manager and get your little delivery job back. Hell, I’ll even drop the five-hundred-dollar fine!"

Giselle laughed too. "Yeah, Evren! Take the cripple home and get your job back! You two losers belong together!"

Amber kept her head down and said nothing, but Evren could see her hands shaking on her lap. She looked like she had given up on everything.

He looked at Giselle, then at Prescott and a sudden wave of anger filled his chest. He hated people like them.

Evren walked past Prescott and stopped in front of Amber’s wheelchair. He crouched down so he was looking at her.

"Miss Amber," Evren said in a quiet voice. "Do you want to leave this place with me?"

Amber looked up, surprised. She looked into Evren’s eyes and saw that he wasn’t mocking her. She slowly reached out her hand. Her skin felt hot because of the fever.

"Okay," she whispered.

Evren took her hand and grabbed the handles of her wheelchair. He turned around to push her toward the door.

"Wait, are you serious?" Prescott burst out laughing. "I just made that offer as a joke! I didn’t know you were actually stupid enough to take her!"

Giselle scoffed, looking at Evren with disdain. "That just shows how desperate he is for his pathetic delivery job."

"FYI, delivery boy," Prescott sneered, leaning against the sofa. "Her medicine costs thousands of dollars a week! You’ll starve to death in a month trying to pay for her!"

Evren stopped near the open doorway. He didn’t turn around fully, but he glanced back over his shoulder at Giselle and Prescott. His eyes were cold and quiet.

"Have fun, Giselle," he said softly. "What goes around comes around."

Without waiting for their reaction or response, Evren pushed the wheelchair into the hallway.

Suddenly, a bright, glowing, almost-translucent screen popped up right in front of Evren’s eyes.

[DING!]

[System Target Confirmed: Amber (Fallen S-Rank Heroine / Paralyzed)]

[10,000x Wealth Return System Activated!]

[Starter Reward Granted: $1,000.00 Added To Account!]

[Current Mission: Spend $1,000.00 on Amber’s urgent medical care within 2 hours!]

[Reward for Completion: 10,000x Cash Rebate ($10,000,000.00) + S-Rank Nerve Regeneration Pill!]

Evren blinked hard and almost stopped walking.

’What is this?’ he thought, feeling confused and scared. ’Am I seeing things? Did I faint from hunger?’

He closed his eyes and opened them again, but the screen was still there.

’Added to account?’ Evren thought, frowning. ’Which account?’

He slowed down, pulling out his cracked phone with one hand to check his bank app. He refreshed the page.

Balance: $42.50.

Evren let out a quiet scoff. "Pfft. Yeah, right. I’m probably hallucinating."

Amber looked up from her wheelchair, sensing him pause. "Is... is something wrong?" she asked in a weak, raspy voice.

"No, nothing. Just checking something," Evren replied softly.

Just as he was about to slip his phone back into his jacket pocket, it vibrated violently in his palm.

A new text message notification popped up at the top of his screen: Bank Alert: $1,000.00 deposited into your account. Current Balance: $1,042.50.

Evren froze, staring at his screen. The money was real.

’Oh shit,’ he thought as his mind raced with all the ways he could use this money.

His first thought wasn’t about Amber. It was about his own survival. One thousand dollars could pay off his overdue rent and buy him food for two months. Why should he waste it on a woman he had just met?

He stared at the system notification text floating in the air. He was expected to spend all one thousand dollars on her within two hours?

’What if the promised ten million dollar reward doesn’t come?’ Evren thought, his heart beating fast. ’What if this whole thing is a scam, and I end up throwing away the only thousand dollars I’ll ever have?’

He looked down at his phone. He could just walk away right now, leave Amber in the hotel lobby, and keep the money for himself.

Then he looked down at Amber in the wheelchair. She was leaning weakly against the armrest, her slender body trembling from the painful mana fever. She looked so small, fragile, and helpless.

Evren remembered how Prescott and Giselle had laughed at her. If he abandoned her now, she would probably die in some dirty alley or cheap care home.

Evren swallowed hard, tightening his grip around the wheelchair handles.

’Fine,’ he thought. ’If this stuff is real, I’ll get ten million dollars back anyway. If it’s a scam and the reward doesn’t come... at least I saved a life and did the right thing.’

He looked down at Amber. "Hang on. I’m taking you to a pharmacy first."

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