Chris's moist eyes began dripping tears after remembering the worst day of his life, his arms tightened around Cathy as he tried to hide his pain from her.

"Mom and Dad aren't coming back Cath. We need to survive on our own." Chris broke the silence in his mellow gentle voice.

"Mm. How did you get injured?" Cathy still burying her head in his shoulders asked in a muffled voice.

"Huh? M-Me injured? Not at all haha." Chris laughed nervously, not expecting such a sudden change in topic.

"You suck at lying..." Cathy giggled softly in her sweet sonorous voice.

"I am not lying!" Chris tried to defend herself, but, as usual, his white lie was caught easily.

"Cath, by the way, you don't need to worry about the loan. I have it under control." Chris suddenly said making Cathy's body flinch.

"N-No, I can help."

"Who said I want it? haha."

"Chris, you think I can't help you?"

"Well, you are pretty useless after all."

"Try to joke again." Cathy glared at Chris finally removing her head from his shoulders.

"Haha, I wouldn't dare to."

"I can help," Cathy said again, this time looking into Chris's eyes with determination.

Hearing her say 'I can help', Chris suddenly remembered Sharky's 'offer'.

"I said I have it under control, didn't I?" Chris looked back into her oceanic deep eyes that were currently as calm as a peaceful lake.

"..." Cathy was caught off-guard by his sudden strong refusal and his raging hazel eyes.

"Fine, I trust you. But, please don't forget that you are not alone. We are in this together." Cathy didn't know the reason for his strong denial, but, she respected his wish and she smiled sweetly at him.

"You are the best, Cath. I love you, " hearing those encouraging words filled Chris's heart with a warm feeling and his lips curved into a smile.

"Love you too, now let's go." Cathy smiled back at him and tried to pull him into the building.

"Wait, I left some stuff in the alley, you go ahead, I will be right behind you." Chris however gently removed her hand from his arm.

"Mm, okay, " Cathy shrugged and went into the building, not noticing that Chris, who never even dropped a penny, suddenly left something in the alley.

...

*Bang!* *clank*

A metal can collided with walls in a dark alley, falling back on the ground as it made a lot of clanking loud noises.

"I HAVE IT UNDER CONTROL??" Chris shouted and kicked yet another can on the wall, "I don't have it in control, I don't have anything under control..." his legs grew weaker and he fell down on his knees, his eyes depicting pure suffering.

Just like a universe's sign, heavy rainfall began to fall, "Dammit all..." Chris banged his hand down on the street as his body began to drench in cold rainwater.

Chris gave a look up in the sky, watching the dark clouds making it rain on him, hiding the beautiful starry sky. A metaphor that's also easily applicable to Chris's life currently.

This loan was his cloud, hiding his beautiful life ahead...

[ DO YOU WANT TO GET RICH? Y/N ]

Chris was lying on the ground, with a dead look in his eyes as he observed the heavy downpour, but, his vision was suddenly blocked by a bluish hologram that popped up in front of his eyes.

"Wtf!" Chris shouted trying to back away from the hologram that appeared suddenly, but it was in front of his eyes, so no matter how much he backed, it still remained there.

'Calm down Chris, you are hallucinating right now. Let's just go to sleep.' Chris closed his eyes and got up from the ground, heading towards his apartment.

"This f*cker appeared again." Of course, when he was walking and opened his eyes again, the hologram was still present there.

"Do you want to get rich? Hell yeah! Who doesn't want to get rich?!" Chris read the hologram and scoffed, ignoring it again.

But as soon as Chris said yeah, the hologram disappeared automatically, Chris also ignored it and opened the door to his apartment.

The lights were closed and Cassie and Cathy had probably already gone to sleep, Chris also threw himself on the couch, wanting to sleep and think about the debt tomorrow.

But, the same hologram appeared in front of his eyes again, with completely different texts than last time.

[Congratulations on accepting The Wealth Tap System.

Binding to Host...0%...39%...97%...100%

Binding to Host's Mobile Phone....100%

Loading The Application...Please check your mobile phone.]

As if on cue, the moment the floating hologram stopped loading, Chris's mobile phone on the center table began to vibrate violently.

'I don't even do drugs...spare me this nonsense...' Tired of his severe hallucinations, Chris turned his body on the couch and closed his eyes, and prepared to sleep.

As much as he wanted to ignore this nonsense and go to sleep, the annoying buzzing of his phone didn't allow him to!

With an annoyed click of his tongue, Chris picked up his cell phone to finally check what in the world was up with his phone today.

[Host: Christopher Swarts

Bank Details: XXXX XXXX XXXX 6587

Balance: 7,428$

Earned Money(greyed out)- Nil

<Withdraw> (greyed out)

Lvl-1(0/500 EM) 1$/Tap

<Click here to start Earning> ]

'T-That's my account number and account balance!' Chris no matter how suspicious of the system, had no choice but to question the reality of the situation. Especially when he saw his sensitive bank details laid out on the app casually.

Upon observing, the Wealth Tap application that was magically installed on Chris's phone had quite an easy and simple interface.

At the top was Chris's Bank information covering about 1/3rd of the total screen of the app. However, the rest part was just a big white plain box that read <Click here to start earning!>. At the bottom row were some locked-out tabs that were grey in color and complemented by a simple lock symbol.

'Well, here goes nothing.' with close to zero expectations, Chris casually tapped the white box a couple of times making the 'Earned Money' Heading turn from Nil to 3$ while the <Withdraw> button turned Red from its original Grey color.

'Hmm, Withdraw that then I guess.' Chris shrugged and tapped the Withdraw button.

[Host: Christopher Swarts

Bank Details: XXXX XXXX XXXX 6782

Balance: 7431$

Earned Money- 0$

Withdraw (greyed out)

Lvl-1(0/500 EM) 1$/Tap

Click here to Earn!]

'Oh my gosh! My fake balance went up, Yay!' Chris cheered sarcastically, expressing his condolences toward the poor app developer that worked hard to make such a pointless game.

That was what Chris felt up until a sudden notification rang on his phone.

//. Your A/C has been credited with 3$. Click on this link to check your total balance...//

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