Chapter 1
I was sitting in my apartment in the Evergreen Heights residential community when the banging started.
"Bang bang bang!!"
A deafening knock hammered against the door; outside, my landlady's furious voice rang through the hallway, full of curses.
"Lucas Moore! Open the door! I know you're in there! You can dare to rent this place, but you can't dare to open the damn door?!"
Hearing her yelling and swearing, I couldn't help but smile bitterly.
I glanced at the date on my phone, feeling completely helpless.
Sure enough, next week was the day my lease expired but Mrs. Hargrove had come a full week early to collect the rent again.
In the past, I would have just opened the door and paid without arguing; even though I knew she was taking advantage of me — collecting rent early, charging double for water and electricity, and sometimes cutting off the utilities without warning.
But I had no choice, as apartments this close to my workplace with a somewhat reasonable price were almost impossible to find.
I checked my bank card balance, only few thousand dollars left, that would barely cover two more months of rent; if i were to hand it over, how was I supposed to survive this month? Drink tap water and live on instant noodles?
The company I worked for was in serious trouble, as their profits had dried up, and salary payments were becoming more and more irregular.
It was clearly heading straight toward bankruptcy.
I sighed deeply.
Mrs. Hargrove kept yelling and cursing for a long time. When she realized I wasn't going to open the door, she finally left, still swearing under her breath.
Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief, I was just an ordinary guy from a regular family, after graduating from college, I had stayed in New York to work because the salaries were higher here.
Even though the cost of living was insanely high, I figured with some careful saving I could still get by.
I had even hoped to build a real career in the city, that's what I had believed, but after working for a full year, I hadn't made any real progress, and my savings were almost gone.
Now, if I lost my job, I would be completely broke.
"There's still one week left," I whispered to myself. "I hope I get an interview call within this week."
Feeling a small spark of confidence, I unlocked my phone and opened the job recruitment app to check for new openings.
But the moment the screen lit up, I froze.
"Godly Purchase? What kind of app is this?"
In the bottom left corner of my home screen, a brand-new application icon had suddenly appeared.
I was confused.
"I don't remember installing this…" Frowning, I muttered to myself.
"Are apps just bundling themselves onto phones now?" Shaking my head, I tried to uninstall it but when I long-pressed the icon, there was no "Uninstall" option at all.
"What the hell is going on?" My heart sank as I stared at the mysterious app.
"Forget it," I thought. "Let's open it and see what this is about."
I tapped the app and the first thing I saw was the headline product under "New User Benefits!"
"Benefits for newcomers!"
"Riverside Manor Luxury Villa
Price: $0.10"
"Limited Edition Porsche 911 GT1-98
Price: $0.10"
"This has to be a joke!" I shook my head as both items were insanely expensive.
Riverside Manor was one of the most prestigious luxury villa communities in all of New York, any unit there easily cost tens of millions of dollars, and they were selling it for ten cents?
"Even scammers aren't this shameless. A villa for ten cents? If I can actually buy it, I'll eat this phone right here and now!"
I scoffed at the idea.
Still curious, I moved my finger toward the Porsche image to check the details; suddenly, a pop-up appeared!
"Purchase successful!"
"The product is being delivered. Estimated delivery time: 5 minutes."
"Please wait for delivery!"
I was stunned, at the same moment, a notification banner slid down from the top of the screen.
"Your debit card ending in 9528 was charged $0.10 at 9:38 AM on April 20th. Remaining balance: $5,220."
"What the—?!" My eyes widened in shock as i couldn't believe it. I had only tapped the product image. I hadn't even entered my payment password! Yet the transaction had gone through?
How was that possible? was this some kind of virus software?
But if the scammers had this level of technical ability, why would they bother installing shady software on my phone just to steal ten cents?
I was completely baffled.
I calmed myself down and muttered, "What the hell is really going on here?" Just then, my phone vibrated again.
"The item you purchased has been delivered. Please check for it."
"Delivered? Delivered my ass!" I cursed with a dark expression.
But at that exact moment, I felt my trouser pocket suddenly grow heavy.
"Huh?" I reached into my pocket, where a sleek car key dropped into my palm.
It was a long, key fob wrapped in premium black leather, with a golden shield-shaped Porsche crest on the head.
My heart nearly stopped and the interface from earlier flashed through my mind again.
'Could it be… that this wasn't a scam after all? That it was… real?' Swallowing hard, I breathed heavily and opened the app once more.
Looking at the interface, excitement began to surge through me.
"It's actually true! This time… I've hit the jackpot!" Muttering under my breath, I immediately looked at the next product.
'Riverside Manor Luxury Villa. You too are mine.' Without the slightest hesitation, I tapped on it.
"Purchase successful!"
"The product deed is being transferred. Estimated notification time: 30 minutes."
"Please wait for notification!" Following the prompt, the product page updated with new text.
"Today's products have sold out. Please wait for tomorrow's restock."
I understood instantly "So the inventory refreshes once a day…"
My eyes flickered with realisation "The delivery for the villa's deed transfer notification takes a full thirty minutes… longer than the Porsche. I wonder how they're going to deliver an entire villa's deed to my name." I glanced at the car key in my hand "Well, let's check out the car first."
I tapped the product location feature in the app and according to the GPS, the new Porsche was already parked right outside the community — in the parking lot of the upscale shopping mall next door.