03. Hitting the Jack-frigging-pot!

Certainly, Nathan had a splendid time during his little outing with Dahlia.

However, if anyone had told him that a simple meeting between friends would put him in his current situation, Nathan would have simply hissed bitterly at the person and walked away.

But right before his eyes it was happening.

He stared at a particular notification, blinking several times than could be counted.

His mind had pushed every other thing behind as the young man simply focused on this specific screen that shone with resplendent light green hue.

[Expense: $50]

[10x rebate effect initiated! Earned $500!]

< ERROR! >

< Money will be withheld has host is yet to register a bank account for transfers >

"$500… how?" he soliloquized and yet also hoped that something or someone could explain what was going on to him.

Nathan could not believe what he was seeing and tried to wave it off as a prank.

Then again, who would want to prank him?

To do such a thing, wouldn't one of the high tech neuralink devices in the world today need to be inside his head somewhere for him to be seeing these screens?

While he was still befuddled, the phenomenon continued as another glowing panel appeared.

< Host is required to register an account number to receive the reward of the 10x rebate >

After this message dropped, another followed.

This one requested his account number in order to complete the binding with the system in play here.

Nathan was sceptical about this.

Inside his head, he couldn't shake off two very possible scenarios – fraud or prank.

Which one it was between the two, he didn't want to be a part of it.

In the end, Nathan ignored the hanging panels and went back to his bed to lie down.

His mind was constantly bugged by this as the panels seemed to move with him.

At some point, he began to consider himself to be crazy and the more he lingered on the matter, the more unbelievable it was becoming.

Several minutes passed.

Nathan had still not done anything with these strange panels other than stare at them from different angles and positions.

A few minutes passed.

It was now that a series of impulses fire speedily to his brain, jolting his entire nervous system up as he started to recall something.

"No way that's possible," he said with a chuckle that sounded as well as complemented the grave disbelief in his voice.

"It's ridiculous that you are even thinking about it that way."

He raised his head and sighed, chucking even more afterwards. "Seriously, it really can be that. It was even a flimsy wish for Pete's sake!"

Nathan Cross' mind had tracked back to last night when he witnessed the descent of a shooting star.

Pushed by nostalgia of his younger years, Nathan had made a wish just for the sake of making one and he forgot about it.

"Is this a way of the universe saying that she has answered me?"

The aura around Nathan changed in a second as he became more serious.

He was not dreaming this and so he knew it was as real as it gets.

Inhaling and exhaling, Nathan had come to a conclusion and decided to take a giant leap of fate.

This giant leap was going to make or mar… no, kill him even.

It was the universe's way of changing his fate, then Nathan knew that these strange hovering things were going to favour him, but if it was anything otherwise like he feared… Nathan Cross would be terribly fucked.

He might end up thinking about that jump from an unreasonable height a bit more seriously.

"Here goes nothing…"

Nathan punched in his account number.

< XXX-XXXX-XXX >

As soon he finished and clicked [Save], a revolving circle icon appeared and wasted no time in reaching the 100% mark.

< Account registration status: Successful >

[Expense: $50]

[10x rebate effect initiated! Earned $500!]

< Money has been transferred to the account number XXX-XXXX-XXX >

[Transfer status: Successful]

'That's the account number I just typed in. The sentence changed too. Is it because I registered an account?'

Nathan was starting to immensely hope and pray that this thing was real.

If it was, then his life has changed for the better!

In a twinkle of an eye, his $50 was about to grow into $500.

That was a 1000% return! Even VVIP clients of these banks don't get such benefits!

It wasn't more than a few seconds and Nathan's phone buzzed.

A glance at it and by the next second, he speedily swatted it from the bed.

Impatience and the need to confirm the authenticity of everything going on had him by the scruff of his neck, curiosity almost killing him in the same manner as it did cats.

Nathan's fingers rattled over his keypad and as if his phone understood the urgency of the matter, it obeyed straightaway.

It didn't give its master any headaches this time around.

Perhaps it could sense that Nathan was ready to send it hurtling into the hard wall that surrounded the room if it added to his troubles at the moment.

Nathan's eyes gaped at the message that had just dropped into his phone, nearly falling out and landing on the screen.

It was a credit alert!

His gaze shot straight to his current balance and that was when he froze in shock.

His account balance had increased by $500!

"Oh my… this thing is the real deal!"

He looked at his account balance over and over again.

Every single time, he saw the same balance after the $500 addition.

[Total balance: $725.69]

Nathan rose from the bed and walked around the room for a bit before sitting on the only chair he had.

Still not comfortable, he got up and went back to his bed.

The fan inside his room was not the best but it spun enough to help with ventilation and coolness and yet, several beads of sweat formed on Nathan's face.

It was getting hot all of a sudden and for no reason that he could account for.

"Holy shit! I just struck gold!" he exclaimed, his arms shooting into the air.

"Nathan Cross. Your bloody ass just hit the jack-frigging-pot!"