A dreaded expression appeared on his face instantly, puzzled by the claim of the interface, and before he demanded more info, an incomprehensible thought entered his mind.
But not knowing what the system meant, he decided to check, as he commanded for more info.
{Player has a balance of -1,000,000 black gold and by the laws of the game, player can't exit until the debt has been completely paid.}
"What the?"
Mark muttered with a hazy tone, as his expression, which had gotten some light, turned darker than before. It was as if his whole life had ended in a heartbeat.
His face paled from the unbelievable twist that had just occurred in his life after gaining some wealth.
He began to lose strength in his legs as he fell to his knees, tears starting to well up in his eyes, as he couldn't believe what he had done out of his naivety.
"What have I done?"
He muttered in disbelief, as he had never imagined, dreamt, or done anything whatsoever that was considered the sum of a million.
No matter how rich he told himself he wanted to be, he knew that becoming a millionaire was a far-fetched dream for him.
"So, what, can... Wait,"
A thought popped up in his head as he remembered.
"I thought my 10 dollars could cover for the million black gold, so how much is the black gold anyway?"
He said at a fast pace, raising his head to talk to the nothing, not being able to control his emotions.
A glimpse of hope sparked in him, his debt also putting him at the brink of a psychological breakdown, as the possibility of his thoughts being false or the system telling him the info is sold would devastate him.
Without giving himself time to go into his insane state before knowing the truth, the system spoke out.
{Info can be sold at the shop.}
The tears that had dammed in Mark's eyes broke free as the worst nightmare in this scenario had happened.
His body froze, his gaze fixed on the ground. As his system spoke out again:
{Info unlocked}
{1 black gold is equivalent to 1,000 dollars.}
The info rang in Mark's ears like a sonic blast, numbing his hearing and giving him an instant headache.
"How? It means I owe a billion dollars."
"How? Even millions, but now billions."
A grin appeared on Mark's face at that instant as the tears kept on flowing down.
Thoughts of the life he'd left behind, Martha, his new house, all that he'd suffered for in the real world was going to waste. Thoughts of him dying flooded his mind, as images of Martha coming into his room to only find a corpse made him even more depressed.
"There's no way. I'm done for. I can't get out. My body would die if I stay here for too long. I'll lose my dreams, Martha."
He kept on regretting his actions, as to him, it was game over in both worlds.
{Player can pay off debt by completing quests and defeating monsters. The timeline in the world of Bankrupt Online is different from that of the real world: one game week equals one real day.}
Since Mark was stuck in a trance, he was blocked off from the outside world. The notification repeated itself over and over again, until finally, the message got through to him.
He raised his head and listened, cleaning the tears on his face with his hand.
"I can get back. I can really get back."
"Different timeline. Even if I spend a year here, it'll be fourth-eight days in the real world."
" Wow, that's still bad, but as long as I can get out,I have to try."
With him regaining a glimmer of hope, he stood to his feet, holding his knee to raise himself, and in that instant, he became a whole new being.
"I'll make it in time, no matter what, even if I have to fight a monster every single hour."
He muttered, clenching his fist to prove his seriousness.
But before he could think of anything else, something popped up in his mind.
"The game said I could buy whatever appeared at my store, so why did it make me owe? I don't get it, unless what the shadow meant when I left the abyss was this. This damn game."
He said with an annoyed tone, pissed off about his groundless claim. But since he was stuck in the game anyway, he decided to make his first thought leaving and making sure his body didn't die but made a plan in that instant to return to the game afterward.
{System upgrade}
{System upgrade complete}
{Complete voice command system}
{Crafter's skill}
{System level-up feature}
{Black quest: unlocked}
{Limitless inventory}
Without wasting time, he decided to explore them, asking for info about all.
{Complete voice command system}
Allows player to fully control the system with words. The system will also only respond. Actual interface closed off for specific player.
"So this is intentional," he thought, continuing to hear the rest.
{Crafter's skill}
A special skill given to player, that allows player to craft anything he wants in the game.
"I guess this one too is because I can't buy anything anymore. This game is truly smack."
Mark thought once more, expressing his newfound hate for the game.
{System level-up feature}
Feature allows player's system to level up. Upon leveling up, system will be able to comprehend and cope with player's individual preferences.
{Black quest}
A special quest given to player.
[Current black quest]
(Player should kill all enemies player encounters)
(Quest reward: none)
{Limitless inventory}
Player can stash all items in an infinite space, where materials remain fresh and new.
Player has to call out the inventory and drop items in midair to insert them. Player calls out the inventory and mentions the item's name to retrieve it.
The interface silenced after completing its info dump, finally giving Mark time to properly analyze his situation.
He moved closer to one of the trees and comfortably leaned against it as he thought.
Completing his analysis in a minute, he muttered to himself:
"Martha always said I should be more serious. In this instance, I truly don't have any time for fun and games. Hm, how she'd laugh if she was here now."
With a serious, bold tone, a grin appeared on his face as he turned around, moving into the forest to begin his escape quest.