Damian stared at Sarah’s last message for several seconds.
Another university.
He leaned back in his chair.
That wasn’t supposed to happen yet.
Westbridge hadn’t even launched the student pilot.
The fifty-student test was still being organized, the guided challenge was still being prepared, and they were still figuring out how to make the software appealing to students.
Yet somehow, another university had already heard about it.
Damian locked his phone and looked toward the ceiling.
Something about that bothered him.
Not in a bad way.
It just made him think.
When he first invested in Westbridge, he had mostly been looking for somewhere reasonable to put some of his money.
The company had potential.
The system had confirmed that.
So he’d taken the chance.
Twenty thousand dollars.
Half a percent.
At the time, that had felt enormous.
Now?
He wasn’t sure anymore.
Damian opened his laptop.
The Westbridge website was still sitting in one of his tabs.
He clicked through the company’s information again.
Small business software.
Customer management.
Invoicing.
Expense tracking.
Nothing revolutionary.
At least, not yet.
But the company was moving.
Slowly.
The student pilot was one thing.
Another university showing interest was something else.
If Westbridge could prove that its software worked for students, universities could become a completely different market.
Damian frowned.
He wasn’t a business expert.
He wasn’t some twenty-five-year-old billionaire who had built five companies before breakfast.
He was a university student.
But he knew one thing.
Westbridge was more interesting now than it had been when he’d invested.
The thought refused to leave him alone.
His eyes drifted toward the empty space beside his desk.
"System."
The golden screen appeared.
It hung silently in the air.
Damian had gotten used to the strange sight by now.
Mostly.
[SYSTEM ONLINE.]
"Analyze Westbridge Solutions."
The screen changed.
Several lines appeared.
[ANALYZING INVESTMENT...]
Damian waited.
The information began forming.
[ENTITY: WESTBRIDGE SOLUTIONS]
[CURRENT ESTIMATED VALUATION: $6.7 MILLION]
Damian’s eyebrows lifted.
"Wait."
He sat forward.
The last time he’d checked, the system had estimated Westbridge at $4.8 million.
He looked again.
The number remained.
$6.7 MILLION.
"What changed?"
More information appeared.
[BUSINESS TRACTION: INCREASING]
[CUSTOMER INTEREST: INCREASING]
[EXPANSION POTENTIAL: INCREASING]
[MARKET REACH: INCREASING]
[ESTIMATED GROWTH POTENTIAL: 47%]
[RISK LEVEL: MODERATE]
Damian stared at the screen.
Forty-seven percent.
That was considerably higher than the thirty-one percent the system had previously shown him.
He slowly leaned back.
"So the company is actually improving."
The system didn’t answer.
Of course it didn’t.
Damian rubbed his chin.
The increase in valuation wasn’t just because of the student pilot.
There was growing interest.
The company had managed to attract attention without spending heavily on marketing.
And if the second university actually signed on...
Damian stopped.
That was the problem.
He was thinking too far ahead.
One interested university didn’t mean Westbridge was suddenly worth hundreds of millions.
He needed to stay realistic.
Still, the numbers were moving in the right direction.
He glanced at his financial plan taped beside his desk.
Invest in assets, not appearances.
He smiled faintly.
"Okay."
Damian picked up his phone.
Then put it down.
He picked it up again.
There was one question he needed answered first.
How much more of Westbridge could he actually buy?
The next afternoon, Damian sat across from Daniel Hart in the same modest office where everything had started.
Sarah was there too.
Claire sat a few seats away, working through a document on her laptop.
Daniel looked at Damian.
"You said you wanted to discuss your investment."
"Yeah."
Daniel folded his hands.
"Is there a problem?"
"No."
Damian shook his head.
"Actually, I wanted to ask if there’s an opportunity to increase my stake."
Sarah looked up.
Claire’s eyes briefly left her laptop.
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
"You want more shares?"
"Yes."
There was a short silence.
Daniel leaned back.
"That’s... unexpected."
Damian gave a small shrug.
"I’ve been following the company."
"You’ve been following it closely."
"I have."
Daniel smiled.
"I thought you were supposed to be a student."
"I am."
"You’re making it difficult to remember that."
Claire glanced over.
"He’s been doing that since the first meeting."
Damian looked at her.
"Thanks."
"You’re welcome."
Daniel chuckled.
"How much are you thinking?"
Damian had already considered that question.
"Fifty thousand."
The room went quiet again.
It wasn’t an enormous amount compared to what Westbridge was trying to raise.
But it wasn’t pocket change either.
Daniel studied him.
"You understand that increasing your investment doesn’t guarantee anything."
"I know."
"And your existing shares could lose value."
"I know."
"Westbridge could fail."
"I know."
Daniel nodded slowly.
"Then why?"
Damian paused.
Because the system told me the company had a forty-seven percent growth potential.
Obviously, he couldn’t say that.
So he gave the answer he actually believed.
"Because I think the company is moving in the right direction."
Daniel waited.
Damian continued.
"The student pilot hasn’t even started, and another university already reached out. That’s a good sign."
Sarah nodded.
"That’s what we’ve been thinking."
"And if the pilot works, you could have something much bigger than a student experiment."
Daniel’s expression became more serious.
"That’s the goal."
"I know."
Damian looked at him.
"And I’d rather increase my position while the company is still small."
Daniel smiled.
"That’s a reasonable argument."
Claire closed her laptop.
"So you’re betting on them?"
Damian looked at her.
"I’m investing."
"Same thing."
"No."
He shook his head.
"Betting means you don’t know what happens next."
Claire smiled.
"And investing means?"
"You research first."
She laughed softly.
"Fair enough."
Daniel pulled a folder toward himself.
"I’ll have our legal team prepare the updated documents."
Damian nodded.
"Thanks."
The meeting ended shortly afterward.
There was no dramatic handshake.
No champagne.
No celebration.
Just another investment.
Another decision.
But as Damian walked out of the building, he couldn’t help feeling that something had changed.
The first twenty thousand dollars had been a gamble.
This time, it felt different.
He had watched.
He had researched.
He had waited.
Then he’d made a decision.
He reached the sidewalk and pulled out his phone.
The transfer went through.
$50,000 sent.
Damian stared at the confirmation.
"Well..."
He exhaled.
"That’s another fifty grand gone."
Then the golden screen appeared.
Right in front of him.
Damian stopped walking.
People passed around him without reacting.
Nobody could see it.
[VALID FINANCIAL PROGRESS DETECTED.]
Damian’s eyes narrowed.
The screen flickered.
[SYSTEM LEVEL REQUIREMENT: SATISFIED.]
His heartbeat increased.
"No way."
The next line appeared.
[SYSTEM LEVEL 1 → LEVEL 2]
For a moment, Damian simply stared.
Then another notification appeared.
[LEVEL 2 UNLOCKED.]
The golden interface expanded.
Several new lines appeared beneath it.
[NEW SYSTEM FUNCTIONS AVAILABLE.]
Damian’s eyes moved down.
[CASHBACK BOOST: UNLOCKED.]
He froze.
That was the feature he’d been waiting for.
The system had mentioned it before.
But it had always been locked behind Level 2.
Now it was finally available.
Damian swallowed.
"Finally."
Another notification appeared.
[CURRENT CASHBACK MULTIPLIER: 10X]
[CASHBACK BOOST: AVAILABLE]
[BOOST ACTIVATION REQUIREMENT: CALIBRATION REQUIRED]
Damian frowned.
"Calibration?"
The screen went still.
He waited.
Nothing else happened.
"Of course."
He sighed.
The system had finally unlocked something he’d been waiting for, only to give him another condition.
Typical.
He dismissed the interface.
His phone buzzed.
Damian looked down.
A message from Ethan.
Ethan: Bro.
Another message.
Ethan: Where are you?
Then another.
Ethan: Don’t tell me you’re at Westbridge again 😂
Damian laughed.
He typed back.
Damian: No.
The response came almost instantly.
Ethan: Good.
Ethan: Come to campus.
Ethan: We have a quiz tomorrow and I refuse to suffer alone.
Damian shook his head.
Of all the things happening in his life, Ethan somehow remained focused on quizzes.
Damian: Give me twenty minutes.
Ethan: fifteen minutes tops.
Damian smiled and put his phone away.
He started walking toward campus.
His investment in Westbridge had grown.
His system had reached Level 2.
And somewhere behind the locked features of the golden interface, something new was waiting.
For the first time since getting the system, Damian had the feeling that the ten-times cashback wasn’t the most important thing it could offer him.
He just hadn’t discovered what was.