"Fuck yeah!"
Looking at the rebate he got, Damon jumped up in excitement!
The candies he purchased fell out of his hands as the stallkeeper looked at Damon with visible confusion.
Damon quickly noticed the confusion of the man and ran back to his apartment with an embarrassed face after his outburst.
"Fuck, that was embarrassing!" Shutting the door, Damon sighed. The earlier outburst was really not good—but what could he do?
Experiencing the poverty of two lifetimes and now gaining a system that's a literal infinite money glitch? Controlling excitement? Nah, that's not what Damon was able to do.
'Money! Money! Money!'
His mind was now filled with thoughts of money and money only! Forgetting his earlier confusion and questions about reality, he was now drunk on dreams of living a rich life.
He was still a teenager... gaining a system like this, his inner nouveau riche had awakened!
"Nouveau riche? Nah, I ain't rich... yet," Damon muttered. Thinking about his future, Damon couldn't help but let out a crazed grin. Holding his phone high, he unlocked the lockscreen.
[Dragon News! Clear Sky Base Under Attack!]
[DNN: Ex-Prime Minister Got Sexually Assaulted In Jail?]
[Awakening Ceremony In 10 Days! Here's All You Need To Know!]
[Sakura Country Cultivator Is The New Invincible Of Young Generation?]
[Melon Musk Crushed a Tier 9 Beast in a Blink of an Eye! The Power Of Space! — DNDTV]
Dozens of notifications, especially from news apps, popped up the moment he opened the phone.
His fingers froze as he eyed the news pop-ups.
"Beasts... Cultivators..." Seeing the news, all the excitement the system gave him vanished in an instant.
The excitement cleared up, and the realization of danger set in his heart. In the moment of joy at finding an infinite money glitch, he had forgotten the world he was in. His new reality... a fictional world of fantasy where monsters large enough to destroy cities and powerful beings capable of splitting mountains existed.
A world of novels... a world of cultivation!
"I forgot that in this world... money isn't everything." Unlike his previous world where money was the ultimate power, the world he now resided in was ruled by fists.
The strong eat the weak... the law of the jungle was what this world followed. Money is important, but what's more important is strength—in this world, cultivation.
Decades ago, the world experienced a change. Hit by a cosmic storm, spatial rifts called Gates connected to another plane of the universe emerged all over the planet.
Monsters of fiction rushed out of these Gates—dragons spitting fire, spiders as large as skyscrapers... all kinds of creatures emerged from these Gates.
Humanity was almost extinct, if not for the discovery of Qi—a mystical energy present in the air and the source of monsters' powers.
Qi allowed humans to cultivate and evolve into beings with magical power, giving them the strength to fight back against the monsters and reclaim lost land.
"...Yeah, this is a dangerous world... but there shouldn't be anything for me to worry about, should there..." Damon said dryly as a shaky smile appeared on his face. "I mean, I am a protagonist!"
Yeah, he had traveled to a dangerous world—but in the body of a protagonist possessing cheats. He also had meta-knowledge of the future, up to some 200 chapters ahead... School Arc, Awakening Ceremony, Interschool Competition, College Test, University Drama, International Tournament, Otherworld Crisis... Yeah, knowing the plots and upcoming future, Damon felt a bit more confident.
"Yeah... I know where the chances are, and the dangers too. I can avoid all the dangerous plots and grow stronger, taking away the opportunities of the original protagonist—and also those he had missed!" Damon said with excitement, imagining himself in a cultivator's outfit becoming a powerful cultivator.
Raising his thumb, flashing a grin, he couldn't help but pose. "I will become the strongest cultivator! Dattebayo!"
As he posed, he frowned. "Nah, this is Dragon Country..." Folding both hands behind his back, Damon straightened up his chest, equipping an indifferent expression.
"I alone shall become the strongest."
Standing alone amidst all kinds of trash inside the old room, he spoke with indifference. The air stood still, a heavy silence descended upon the region, as time itself seemed to freeze.
Clouds churned. The once-clear sky now enshrouded in darkness as the winds picked up speed. Lightning crackled as a thick, heavy bolt descended from the heavens.
**BOOM!**
"Fuck! Thunder Tribulation!" The lightning struck the room's roof, blasting off the ceiling and frightening Damon to his very core.
Debris from the broken roof descended, destroying the room—while Damon, like a frightened lizard, stood in the corner.
***
"So are you okay now?" a lady officer asked with a smile as she looked at the teenager in front of her.
"Yeah."
The lightning fell and destroyed Damon's entire room, leaving it in debris. Thankfully, his important documents—the only things of value to him—were all safe, but everything else was completely destroyed by the fallen roof.
After the lightning strike, the neighbors quickly called the authorities, who immediately contacted Damon upon arriving.
"Weather nowadays..."
"Tsk tsk, poor kid. Heard he's an orphan. With the Awakening Ceremony approaching, this must be a lot for him."
"Why bother... it's his problem, not ours."
The large crowd the commotion caused slowly dispersed along with the policemen who had come to the scene, leaving Damon alone, staring blankly at the sky.
"Heavenly Tribulation? Seriously?"
It might have been a coincidence, but the timing and aim of the lightning made Damon speechless.
Looking at all his luggage—the only things not destroyed in the lightning strike—Damon stood homeless on the road.
'Now what do I do?' There was no place for Damon to stay. 'Should I book a hotel?' Damon thought to himself, but thinking about how expensive it was—
'Wait, why do I care if it's expensive? I can literally earn millions in seconds!'
Damon's eyes brightened as he pulled out his phone and checked his bank balance.
[Balance: D¢ 986]
'Not even a thousand Dragon Coins?' Damon grimaced looking at the savings of the previous owner. 'Need a way to spend this.'
Spending money to gain more money—Damon could literally become the richest just by squandering wealth.
'Anything—even giving money to streamers—also counts as consumption...' Damon thought as he recalled how the original used the system. 'Donating thousands and millions to internet celebs? Fuck no...'
Reading so many novels with this same setting, Damon hated the idea of giving freebies to others. When protagonists used the system that way—giving free money to already wealthy streamers—Damon always had a weird sense of repulsion.
Instead of going through the streamer route, Damon opened the App Store, downloading Metflix, Amazoness, and other streaming services.
[Sent D¢ 300.00
From DKF Bank A/C x2476
To ******]
[Credit Alert!
D¢ 3000 ***]
First, purchasing a cheaper pack with the money he had, then upgrading to the most expensive package.
[Sent D¢ 1500.00
From DKF Bank A/C x2476
To ******]
[Credit Alert!
D¢ 15000 ***]
And voila—net worth multiplied!