The next morning, Damian was standing in front of his closet when his phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
Ethan Brooks.
Damian answered.
"Morning."
"You sound awake."
"I am dummy."
"To early for insults man."
Damian smiled.
"What do you want?"
"Breakfast."
"You’re calling me at eight in the morning because you’re hungry?"
"Yes."
"You have money."
"I have some money."
Damian laughed.
"How much?"
There was a pause.
"...That’s irrelevant."
"Thought so."
"There’s a diner near campus. Ten minutes."
"I’ll meet you there."
"You’re paying."
"Goodbye, Ethan."
"Wait—"
Damian hung up.
He looked at himself in the mirror.
The clothes he’d bought yesterday still felt strange.
Not uncomfortable.
Just unfamiliar.
For most of his life, he’d never really cared about clothes beyond whether they were clean and presentable.
Now he had enough money to replace his entire wardrobe if he wanted.
But he didn’t.
Not yet.
He wasn’t interested in pretending to be someone he wasn’t.
He grabbed his jacket and headed out.
The diner wasn’t particularly fancy.
It was the kind of place students visited because the food was cheap, the coffee was strong, and nobody cared how long you sat at a table.
Ethan was already there.
He looked up as Damian approached.
"You look annoyingly well-rested."
"You look broke."
"I am broke."
"You said you had some money."
"I lied."
Damian sat across from him.
Ethan pushed a menu toward him.
"Order whatever you want."
Damian raised an eyebrow.
"You’re paying?"
"No."
"Then why did you say that?"
"Because I wanted to see the look on your face."
Damian shook his head.
"You’re an idiot."
"An entertaining idiot."
A waitress came over.
They ordered breakfast.
While they waited, Ethan rested his elbows on the table.
"So."
Damian already knew where this was going.
"Don’t."
"I haven’t said anything."
"You were about to."
Ethan smiled.
"How much money do you have now?"
Damian considered lying.
Then decided against it.
"About twenty-one thousand."
Ethan’s smile disappeared.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"From where?"
Damian took a sip of water.
"Same answer as yesterday."
"Unexpected money."
"Yep."
Ethan stared at him.
"You realize that’s incredibly suspicious, right?"
"I know."
"And you’re just going to keep refusing to explain?"
"For now."
Ethan sighed.
"Fine."
The food arrived.
For several minutes, they ate in silence.
Then Ethan spoke again.
"You know what I’d do if I suddenly had twenty thousand dollars?"
"What?"
"Buy a car."
Damian laughed.
"Of course you would."
"A nice one."
"With twenty thousand?"
"A reasonably nice one."
"You’d spend everything."
"Not everything."
"Most of it."
"Maybe."
Damian shook his head.
"I wouldn’t."
Ethan looked at him.
"What would you do?"
Damian thought about it.
"I don’t know."
That was the truth.
He had spent the past two days figuring out how the system worked.
He hadn’t really thought about what came afterward.
Twenty-one thousand dollars was a lot of money to him.
But compared to the people who owned the buildings around Westbridge?
It was nothing.
If Damian wanted to change his life permanently, he needed more than cashback.
He needed assets.
Businesses.
Investments.
Things that could make money without requiring him to constantly spend his own.
He remembered the small technology company he’d analyzed yesterday.
Westbridge Solutions.
The system had estimated its fair value at $6.1 million.
The company’s current valuation was around $4.8 million.
Damian had no idea whether the prediction was correct.
But it had given him an idea.
"There’s something I’m considering."
Ethan looked up.
"What?"
"Investing."
Ethan smiled.
"Finally."
"What?"
"I’ve been telling you to learn about investing for months."
"I know."
"And you always said you didn’t have enough money."
"I didn’t."
"Now you do."
Damian nodded.
"Exactly."
Ethan took another bite of his breakfast.
"So what are you buying?"
"Nothing yet."
"Why?"
"Because I don’t know enough."
Ethan stopped eating.
He looked at Damian for a moment.
Then nodded.
"That’s probably the smartest thing you’ve said all week."
Damian smiled.
"Thanks."
"I’m serious. Don’t start throwing money around just because you have it."
"I won’t."
"Good. unless it’s on us though..."
" Hahahaha!"
They laughed as they continued eating.
Neither of them noticed the man sitting several tables away.
He’d been listening.
Not closely enough to hear everything.
But enough to hear one sentence.
Twenty thousand dollars.
After breakfast, Damian headed to the library.
He spent several hours researching.
Investment funds.
Stocks.
Small businesses.
Real estate.
Startups.
He quickly realized something.
Money wasn’t the hard part.
Knowing what to do with it was.
There were thousands of opportunities.
Some were legitimate.
Some were terrible.
Some were outright scams.
And Damian didn’t want to make his first serious move based on luck.
He opened the system.
The golden interface appeared quietly in front of him.
He selected Investment Opportunity Scanner.
The interface changed.
«[SELECT TARGET.]»
Damian searched for Westbridge Solutions again.
The system analyzed it.
This time, he noticed something he hadn’t seen before.
A new section had appeared.
Potential Investment
Current Valuation: $4.8M
Estimated Fair Value: $6.1M
Growth Potential: High
Risk: Moderate
Recommended Holding Period: 2–4 years
Damian leaned back.
He opened another browser window.
He researched the company’s founders.
One was a software engineer.
The other had previously worked at a large technology company.
Their product had received several positive reviews.
Their biggest problem appeared to be funding.
The company was growing faster than its current resources could support.
Damian frowned.
That was interesting.
He looked at the system again.
"How much funding does the company need?"
A number appeared.
Estimated Required Capital: $750,000–$1,000,000
Damian stared.
"That’s a lot more than I have."
The system didn’t respond.
He almost laughed.
"Yeah. Thought so."
He closed the interface.
For now.
He wasn’t going to invest in something simply because a screen told him it might grow.
He needed to understand the company himself.
That meant contacting them.
Damian found their website.
There was an email for business inquiries.
He stared at it for several seconds.
What was he supposed to say?
Hello, I’m a twenty-one-year-old university student with twenty thousand dollars and an inexplicable financial advantage. Would you like some?
Definitely not.
He opened a blank email.
Typed.
Deleted.
Typed again.
Finally, he settled on something simple.
Subject: Investment Inquiry
Hello,
My name is Damian Cross. I’m a student at Westbridge University with an interest in your company and its recent growth.
I’d like to learn more about your current funding requirements and whether you’re open to discussing potential private investment.
Regards,
Damian Cross
He read it twice.
Then sent it.
He leaned back.
That was it.
His first real attempt at doing business.
No system mission.
No forced spending.
No magical shortcut.
Just him.
Damian closed his laptop.
His phone buzzed almost immediately.
He picked it up.
Unknown Number
He frowned.
He answered.
"Hello?"
"Is this Damian Cross?"
"Yes."
"Hi, Damian. My name is Sarah Mitchell. I’m the operations manager at Westbridge Solutions."
Damian sat upright.
"Hi."
"We received your email."
"That was fast."
Sarah laughed.
"I happened to be checking our inbox."
"I see."
"We’re interested in hearing what you have in mind."
Damian glanced at the clock.
He had expected an email response.
Not a phone call.
"I’d like to understand your company’s current situation before discussing anything."
There was a brief silence.
"That’s... actually refreshing."
Damian smiled.
"I don’t know enough to make an offer yet."
"Most people who contact us already have an offer."
"Then most people are probably smarter than me."
Sarah laughed.
"I wouldn’t say that."
They talked for nearly twenty minutes.
Sarah explained that the company was looking for funding to expand its development team and improve its infrastructure.
Damian listened.
He asked questions.
A lot of them.
By the end of the conversation, Sarah seemed surprised.
"You’ve done your homework."
"I guess."
"Are you sure you’re a student?"
Damian laughed.
"Unfortunately so."
She smiled.
"Well, Mr. Cross, if you’re serious, we can arrange a meeting."
"That would be great."
"Tomorrow afternoon?"
Damian hesitated.
"Sure."
They exchanged details.
Then the call ended.
Damian stared at his phone.
His first meeting with a real company.
Tomorrow.
He looked at the golden interface.
It appeared silently.
No sound.
No dramatic message.
Just one line.
«[POTENTIAL INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFIED.]»
Damian looked at it.
Then dismissed it.
"Yeah."
He stood and packed his laptop.
"I know."
That evening, Damian returned to his apartment.
He opened his banking app.
$21,786.32
He stared at the number.
Two days ago, he’d had $47.63.
Now he was preparing to walk into a business meeting.
He wasn’t a businessman.
Not yet.
He wasn’t rich.
Not really.
And he certainly wasn’t a billionaire.
But he had taken the first step.
Damian opened his notes and began preparing questions for tomorrow.
He worked until almost midnight.
When he finally closed the laptop, his phone buzzed.
A message from Ethan.
~Ethan: You disappeared after class.
~Damian: Had something to do.
~Ethan: Important?
Damian thought about the meeting.
~Damian: Maybe.
~Ethan: You’re becoming mysterious.
~Damian: Maybe I’m just interesting now.
A few seconds later:
~Ethan: getting cocky are we?
Damian laughed.
~Damian: Goodnight, idiot.
~Ethan: Night, moron.
Damian stared at that last message.
Then smiled.
He put his phone down.
He looked toward the window.
Westbridge glittered beneath the night sky.
Somewhere in that city were people who controlled companies worth billions.
People whose names appeared in newspapers.
People who could walk into a room and change the direction of an entire industry.
For Damian thinking about being among that class was like an impossible dream.
But Tomorrow, for the first time...
He may be allowed a dream