Thorian pressed his palms against his eyes, trying to force his headache away.
The campus library was nearly empty now, the fluorescent lights buzzing quietly above him. A half-finished economics assignment glowed on his laptop screen, mocking him with every blinking cursor.
Midnight.
He exhaled slowly.
Rent was due in two days. He had just been fired from his part-time work because his manager claimed he was too lazy. And his bank account was sitting at $37.12… including the emergency fund he swore he'd never touch.
"Perfect," he muttered.
He wasn't stupid. He knew life wasn't fair, he knew hard work didn't guarantee anything, and he knew—better than most—that he was running out of time.
His phone buzzed.
Low Balance Alert: Your account is below $50.
"Yeah, thanks. I noticed," he said to no one.
He shut his laptop, slipping it into his worn backpack. As he stood, the world tilted, a faint dizziness washing through him.
Maybe skipping lunch and dinner wasn't a great idea.
He reached for the table to steady himself—
And the world froze.
The buzzing lights went silent.
The air stilled.
Dust motes hung in place like tiny stars captured mid-fall.
"What the—?"
A soft chime rang inside his head.
[System Initialization Complete.]
Thorian jumped back, eyes darting around the frozen library.
"Who said that?"
Another chime.
[Second Chance System activated.]
[Host Selected: Thorian Stormborne.]
His breath caught.
A hallucination?
Stress?
Sleep deprivation?
But the voice felt too… clear. Crisp. Like it bypassed his ears entirely.
"Okay," Thorian whispered carefully. "If I'm going insane, at least it's interesting."
Another notification echoed gently:
[Primary Function: Monetary Accumulation.]
[Rate: +$1 per second.]
[Balance: $0]
Thorian blinked.
"Sorry—what?"
The frozen world snapped back into motion. The buzzing returned, the air stirred, and he stumbled forward, catching himself.
Was that real?
His phone vibrated.
New Notification: Balance +$3
Thorian stared at the screen, heart pounding. His banking app… had three more dollars.
It wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible.
He swallowed, palms sweating.
"Okay… then how about—give me one more dollar?"
Ding.
His balance ticked up… +$1.
Thorian sat heavily in the nearest chair.
This was real.
Very real.
"Holy—"
He covered his mouth with his hand, breathing hard.
A system. A literal system.
One dollar every second.($1)
Sixty dollars a minute.($60)
Three thousand six hundred dollars an hour.($3,600)
Eighty-six thousand dollars a day.($86,000)
His life—his entire future—had just shifted.
But another message appeared before he could get carried away.
[Funds may be spent on the host or others freely.]
[Warning: System may evaluate purchases for excessive recklessness]
Thorian blinked hard.
"So… I can actually use this? On myself?"
[Affirmative.]
His throat tightened.
He could pay rent.
He could eat.
He could sleep without worrying about bills.
He could live.
The frozen world suddenly snapped back to motion, sound rushing in all at once. Thorian stumbled, catching himself on a nearby table.
His phone vibrated again.
Balance +$28
He opened his banking app with trembling fingers.
Money was actually appearing. Every second.
"This is real," he whispered. "Holy… it's real."
Emotion crept up his chest—relief, disbelief, fear, hope.
"This… this changes everything."
He walked out of the library slowly, like the world had turned unfamiliar overnight.
The night air was cool and quiet. Campus pathways glowed under soft lamp lights. Students laughed somewhere in the distance.
He stood still for a long moment.
The system's presence hummed softly at the back of his consciousness, warm and steady.
Not demanding.
Not intrusive.
Just… there.
For the first time in years, Thorian didn't feel like he was drowning.
He looked up at the sky.
"One second at a time," he murmured. "Let's see where this goes."
He had no idea how far this new life would take him.
He had no idea whose life he would cross.