Jack arrived before the store. It was named Alfix Grocery Store. This was the store that he’d just bought over to start his life here in the city. He had spent more than half of his years of savings to buy it alongside the groceries inside.

He wasn’t going to change the name, as the store that he was opening was only temporary. If things go well, he would absolutely find a better location.

He could see that It was a decent one. Furthermore, the location of the store wasn’t bad too as he could see that it wasn’t hidden in some corner.

Around the store, there were some other stores that were already open as it was already afternoon. But, the business at this time wasn’t that good as the traffic was mainly in the morning and evening.

Jack took out the keys that he’d received from the agency and opened the grocery store. As he entered, he found that the store was tidy.

There was a counter where he would be operating the store closer to the door. It was located at the right side of the door. Then, he could see that there were rows of shelves and fridges that were holding the stock that he was supposed to sell.

After confirming that everything was okay, he sat at the counter. He wanted to start working immediately. After all, he couldn’t afford lazing around when there were some people who thought so lowly of him.

Since it was still afternoon, there were no customers at all. Furthermore, Jack decided not to add stock at all and retained everything that was present there. He would see the way that the business goes before he can add more stock.

Currently, most of the things that he was selling were those that didn’t need to be fresh. They were things like packed milk, noodles and so on. These things had a shelf life and Jack had confirmed that they had not expired.

As for the prices, there was no need for him to worry at all. The prices were written on the shelves. Furthermore, this store could be considered a mini-mart. If he wanted to efficiently operate it, he would need to have at least two people to assist him. But, that would have to wait for later.

Currently, he was reading the log book of the store. It seems that the previous owner of the store was in such a hurry that he left the records of the sales. From how he was seeing, the business wasn’t that bad at all.

So, he read the records as he familiarized himself with the store’s sales and purchases.

It was around five in the evening that the first customer came in. It was a man who seemed to be in his mid thirties. It was rare to find men going to a grocery store but Jack didn’t find it bizarre as he was a man and was operating it.

He stood up and welcomed the man. “Hello, how may I help you?”

“I’d like some groceries. I’m going to work and I can’t be coming to the grocery everyday. So, I want those that can last a good period of time.” The man replied.

Jack showed him into the store and the man began picking some groceries. He picked rice, flour, sugar and several other things. Of course, the purchase wasn’t in bulk but for a person living alone, they could last him at least a week.

“Why don’t you have vegetables?” The man frowned after seeing that there were no vegetables in the store.

Jack knew that this was going to happen. So, he calmly explained, “The store was closed for two days and if they would have brought the vegetables, they wouldn’t have been fresh. So, the vegetables would be coming in tomorrow.”

The man nodded as he found this reasonable. Nobody wanted groceries that weren’t fresh if there was another place that they could get those that were fresh. The man came to the counter to pay.

After calculating, he found that the bill was three hundred dollars. This wasn’t that much due to the low quality of the products that could be found in this kind of street.

After all, one had to know that this was the poorest street in the entire city. So, it was obvious that the products being sold here would match the residents in terms of price.

If he brought things that cost thousands per kg, then it was obvious that people wouldn’t buy them or those who would be buying them would be counted by a single hand. After all, the depths of the pockets talked about what a person would eat.

The man touched his pockets but after a while, he found that there was no wallet there. So, he looked at Jack with a sorry expression as he said, “It seems that I was in so much hurry that I forgot my wallet. Can I do transfer?”

Jack nodded. There was no problem at all as long as the payment was done. So, he gave his account number and the man sent the money before leaving immediately. It seemed that he was in a hurry to do something.

As soon as the bank confirmation message arrived, Jack heard a robotic voice in his head.

[Ding! Congratulations on activating the Hundred Times Income Multiplier.]

[Ding! You’ve earned three hundred dollars. Multiplier applied. You’ve received thirty thousand dollars.]

[Ding! First income. As a reward, you gain a Suzuki GSX-R1000]

The voice rang three times in that it made Jack feel like he was hallucinating. But the fact was that he has never taken any drug, so, he felt that there was no way that he could be hallucinating.

‘Hundred Times Income Multiplier? What’s this?’ Jack asked himself.

Before he could think further, the phone in his hand vibrated. Upon looking at the screen, Jack was dumbfounded.

[Flyers Bank Account Received $30,000. New balance is $278,861.]

That message confirmed the second message about his income being multiplied by a hundred times. Now, what was all this about?

[Ding! You are the lucky host of the blue planet. You’ve been selected by the Hundred Times Income Multiplier System. With this system, as long as you earn any income by the rightful means, then it will be multiplied by a hundred times.]

[Ding! There are things that will be multiplied by a hundred in terms of quality and others would be multiplied in terms of quantity.]

The robotic voice echoed in his head as the explanation about what was happening immediately got explained to him. Jack wasn’t sure if he was dreaming or hallucinating, maybe both?

He pinched his arm and felt the pain. This meant that all of this was real! Furthermore, the bank message confirmed that he had indeed received $30,000 in his account after the transaction was done.

After taking a moment to cool himself down, Jack sat on the chair behind the counter and asked in his mind, ‘Can you tell me more about the system?’

[Ding! I am your guide, Angel. I will help you with matters concerning the system. So, for the question that you’ve just asked, the system is something supernatural that’s out of the blue planet. Of course, you’re not qualified to know about the origins of the system.]

[Ding! The system’s main function is to make sure that people don’t get lazy. You will be an example. By working hard, your rewards will be great. So, the system will reward you for your hard work by multiplying the income that you receive from working hard, by a hundred times.]

[Ding! Of course, there’s a limitation. Anything that’s not earned by working cannot be multiplied. So, don’t you think of cheating.]

Jack thought for a moment and couldn’t help but get excited. This was beyond his imaginations. But, he could only thank his lucky stars in that, among the billions of people in the blue planet, the system had chosen him.

Then, he thought of something. ‘Is there any other person in the planet that has a system.’

[Ding! Negative. There’s nobody else with a system in the blue planet as it is a unique. There are no copies.]

Jack, for some reason let out a sigh of relief. Then, he couldn’t help but get excited. As long as he could work hard and expand his business, then he would really get something bigger. This was something that he was really looking forward to.

[Ding! There’s another program. The reward system. Your first income in each and every business branch will make you receive a reward from the system.]

[Ding! There’s another reward that is, monthly reward, semi annual reward, yearly reward, decade reward, century reward, millennium reward and so on.]

Jack’s mouth was forced to stay wide open after hearing the system’s words. He could understand the first reward, monthly and even a decade reward. But what the hell with this century and millennium rewards?

Did the system want him to work hard for a whole century? No, scratch that, a millennium? That’s a thousand years we’re talking about here! Not talking about a person who’s dedicated for a hundred years of working, it was a question whether that person would be able to live that long.

And what’s more, according to the current calendar, it had only been two millenniums since the first time that they started counting. Now, just how many generations had gone by in the two millenniums?

Jack calmed himself down and asked, ‘How on earth am I supposed to live for a millennium?’

[Ding! With the system, as long as the host works hard, nothing is impossible.]

‘You mean that I can become an immortal? Be able to fly?’ He couldn’t help but start imagining.

[Ding! That’s right.]

And the system confirmed this. Jack wanted to jump off his seat and run around shouting about his luck. But, he still managed to calm himself down.

‘By the way, where’s my reward for the first income?’ Jack asked.

[Ding! The key is inside the draw of the counter. The motorcycle is parked outside the store.]

Jack opened the draw and found the key. It seemed that the system was right. But, how on earth did the key get inside the draw? Well, not like it matters. He’ll just receive the reward.

He was just about to go out of the store and take a look at the motorcycle when a person entered the store. It was a lady in her early twenties.

“Hello, I need some groceries.” She said as soon as she saw Jack behind the counter.

Since he was having a customer, then he would surely make sure to operate the store first before checking out the bike.

How it all began…

(A/N; You can skip this chapter if you don’t like flashbacks and jump directly to chapter 5. The following three chapters are mainly about how Jack became the way he was now.)

That morning…

Jack walked slowly across the pathway. Although he was there, his mind was wondering around. He was completely ignoring the wonderful scenic view of flowers that were planted along the pathway that he was following.

There were several colors that made this place look like the most decorated garden but surprisingly it wasn’t.

On the sides, apart from the flowers of different colors and species, there were some of the rare trees that were planted there.

There were several servants on the side either doing cleaning or maybe going somewhere to carry out the errands that they had been assigned to.

After a few more moments, he arrived in front of a majestic mansion that stood tall and proud. This mansion was exuding both beauty and majesty at the same time.

It was so huge not only in terms of length and width but, it had seven floors. The mansion was painted turquoise. There were some areas that were painted white as well but the turquoise color dominated the mansion.

As he got at the door, those servants at the door didn’t even bother to open the door for him. Without bothering that much, he pushed the double doors open by himself as he entered the mansion.

“Humph, that useless boy is here again.”

“He knows that they don’t love him but he keeps on trying his luck.”

“It’s not like he can do anything anyway. He has never been given a company to manage.” eo. cm

“What company can he manage? He’s never going to get a chance in this family.”

“Well, you’re right, his mother is gone. Now, there’s nobody in the family that cares about him because of his behavior.”

As soon as he entered, he could clearly here the two servants at the entrance of the mansion talking about him with voices filled with contempt.

“Oh, look at who’s back. I thought that you wouldn’t dare to come back here.” As he was ignoring those that were speaking of him, he heard an arrogant voice coming from his front.

He raised his lowered head and directly stared into the eyes of the young man in front of him. The person could be said to be handsome but not by a great deal.

He had short blonde hair that was well kempt. His green eyes filled with both arrogance and contempt as they stared at him. He was currently wearing a green shirt with a black blazer on top of it. As for pants, he was wearing a black trouser.

Since they were inside the mansion, he was wearing his sandals.

“You mean that Jack is back. I also thought that he wouldn’t come back at all.” Before he could say a single word in reply, a female voice sounded from the living room.

Then, followed by the sounds of footsteps, a girl of height of 1.70m approached them. Just like the blonde before him, she had blonde hair, a beautiful face with a rating of at least 85. Her eyes were green as well.

Currently, she was wearing a knee-length beige dress that outlined her features. Unlike his eyes filled with arrogance, her eyes were filled with slyness like that of a fox.

Although she looked cute, Jack clearly knew that she was anything but cute. Amongst the two, she could be said to be the worst.

“I thought that you said that you were going to look for a way to fend for yourself. Why are you back now?” She asked as soon as she arrived before the two.

Jack looked at her before he looked at her brother whose name was Steve. He simply shook his head without saying a word and went past them via the side.

Seeing that he was ignoring them, the two of them didn’t like it at all. So, Steve immediately blocked Jack’s path once again.

Jack frowned but still tried getting past him via another side. He had just gotten past Steve only to find that Brenda was blocking his path.

Although the corridor that led to the living room was big, with the two siblings moving from side to side, Jack couldn’t get past them.

He had no choice but to stop and stare at them with frustration. And for the first time, he spoke, “What do you want.” His voice wasn’t loud and neither was it low but it contained a kind of male charm.

“You know what we want from you. Just tell us, why are you back? Didn’t you boldly say that you would go and fend for yourself?” Steve asked with a mocking smile on his face.

Jack was the fourth son of the Alfonso family. There were four sons in the family. The first born son was Arnold, followed by Steve, then David followed and finally there was Jack

As for the daughters of the Alfonso family, there was Cindy who was the first born daughter in the family, then following behind her was Diana and finally, there was Brenda.

Jack’s father had two wives and a single mistress. The first wife was called Marion. She was the mother to Arnold, Steve and Brenda.

The second wife was called Lucy. She was the mother to Cindy and David and Diana who were twins.

As for Jack, his mother was the mistress. Unluckily or maybe luckily, he was the only child of the mistress, Anne.

In terms of age, Arnold took the lead. He was twenty eight years old. Following closely behind was Cindy who was twenty seven. After that, was Steve who was currently twenty four.

David and Diana came next. They were both twenty three. Following them was Brenda who was twenty one. Then, Jack came last. He was nineteen this year.

Apart from having to show respect to all his siblings who were older than him, he still had to go through a lot in the hands of their scheming mothers.

Jack had always been mistreated, especially since his mother’s demise four years ago. At that time, his life had become increasingly hard as there was nobody that loved him in the family.

Although his father would sometimes help him, his help was just superficial as it solved nothing for him. As for his grandfather, he and his grandmother hated him.

According to what he heard, they didn’t like the fact that his father was keeping a mistress. They said that this was tarnishing the reputation of the family. So, they never loved her offspring as well as he was a sign of that black spot on the clean family reputation.

As for his uncles and aunts, there were some that were like his siblings or his grandparents. Of course, there were those that didn’t care about what was happening at all.

There were cousins too. But, just like his half siblings, there were many of them that didn’t like him at all. After all, Alfonso family wasn’t a small family.

Alfonso family was one that had assets that were worth at least seven hundred million dollars. They were the biggest family that was the overlord of Crystal city.

Here in crystal city, they were monopolizing almost every industry. They had spread their influence to another city called Volant city. But, their influence there wasn’t as great as it was in Crystal city.

Jack had tried so much to endure all the things that they were putting him through. But the end result was that he couldn’t take it anymore after his mother passed away.

He had began saving whatever little money he was receiving from the family. He had Bern doing so since his mother was alive. At that time, he was still thirteen.

In other words, he had been saving money for at least six years now. And since he couldn’t take this anymore, he decided that it was time for him to move on and try his luck and see if he could do something with the education level that he had.

The previous day, he had left the mansion claiming that he was going to get independent. He had gone around Crystal city to look for an opportunity and see if there was a chance for him to start his life.

But, after going around the place, he found that the influence if the Alfonso family was too great. There was nowhere in Crystal city that they didn’t have a hand in.

Since his half siblings didn’t like him, he was sure that once he started anything here in Crystal city, they would make sure that he failed. So, the only solution that he came up with was to leave Crystal city and go to another city that had no influence of Alfonso family.

And so, he had slept in a hotel room the previous night. Today, he was here so that he could take his belongings before leaving.

“Am leaving today, so you don’t have to worry about me.” Jack said to the two who were blocking his path.

“Oh, I see. So, where are you planning on going to?” Steve raised his brows and asked.

“It’s not like you have to know that.” Jack replied.

At this time, Brenda pulled Steve to the side, opening a path for him. Although Steve didn’t like the fact that Jack didn’t reply to his enquiry, he decided to go alongside Brenda. He knew that although she was younger than him, she wasn’t someone that he could mess with. So, she indeed had to have a plan. She then said, “Oh, no problem at all. We can help you packing.”

“No need, I can handle it.” Jack said as he left and headed to his room that was located on the third floor.

Steve looked at Jack’s back as it disappeared from the corridor. He then looked at Brenda for answers.

Seeing his gaze, Brenda gaze him a sly smile as she said, “No need to worry about where he’s going to. This is Crystal city, there’s nowhere he can hide. As for if he wants to get out of the city, hehe-” Reaching this point, Brenda gave a shallow laugh that gave Steve chills on his back.

After Jack got into his room, he immediately took his luggage that he had already packed the previous day before he left. He then looked at the room that was painted white. The color of almost everything inside the room was either white or silver.

This was the color that he had chosen in memory of his mother Anne. As he can remember till this time, his mother had silver hair and blue eyes. She was a beauty and one thing was for sure, she was more beautiful than the two wives that his father had married.

He had inherited his mother’s features. If there was a part that resembled his father, that would be the way that his jaw was shaped. All the other features were like his mother’s.

This is what made Jack a handsome young man. With his rare features, he was a dream guy for most of the girls in Crystal city. If course, as soon as they met Jack’s siblings or cousins, they would immediately give up on him. After all, they didn’t want to get on the bad sides of these nouveau riche kids.

He looked around the room for a little while before he let out a sigh. He then murmured, “Mother, am not sure whether you would have wanted me to leave this place or not. But, am going to go out and prove myself. Although I won’t be proving to them, at least, I would like them to know that your son wasn’t useless at all.”

With that, he stepped out of his room and headed to the room that his mother had been using previously before she died. He entered the room that could be said to be a match to his in terms of colors.

He stared around for a while. Then, he took a step forward and looked at the bed-side cabinet. He opened it and took a big envelope. This was something that his mother told him to take it with him as long as he was sure that he wouldn’t be coming back to the room again.

Since he was leaving, he had no intention of coming back to this place. Alfonso family had wealth but had no moral values at all. After all, he had the blood of the Alfonso’s running in his veins but he was still being mistreated.

He put the envelope into his bag. He was carrying a backpack. He didn’t have many things as he was mainly saving money and he had bought nothing luxurious over the years.

In the bag, there were only the few documents that were important to him, a few pairs of clothes and the envelope that he’d just taken.

Without looking back, Jack left the room and left the mansion. He didn’t find any of his half siblings on his way out and he heaved a sigh of relief.

Those siblings of his were a headache to him and he wasn’t ready to face them when he was about to leave. So, he could say that it seemed that lady luck was on his side this time.

As he left through the main gate, he reached the road that led to the main road. This was an exclusive road for the Alfonso family that had been built for them by the governor of the city. This was his show of appreciation and of course, to curry favor with the Alfonso family.

It seemed that he had celebrated too early. As after he got out of the gate, he found that Steve and Brenda were waiting for him. They had even called a taxi for him.

He shook his head as he thought to himself, ‘Seems that they can’t wait to get rid of me.’

“Jack, here, we’ve called a taxi for you and we’re even paying for you. No need to thank us, we’re family after all,” at this time, Brenda strode towards him as she spoke. Her voice was laced with both slyness and mischief.

Jack could tell that something was wrong but he couldn’t point it out. For Brenda to do something like this, it wouldn’t be as simple as getting him to leave faster. She must be having another plan.

But since he couldn’t see through her and he wanted to leave faster, he decided to use the taxi that she had called for him.

“Thanks,” he said indifferently before he got into the cab. Then, the driver immediately started the vehicle and left for the main road.

As they watched as the cab disappeared into the distance, Steve couldn’t hold himself anymore and asked, “So, what are you planning this time? You didn’t pay for him at all but you told him that you did so.”

“Humph, why would I waste my money on someone like him. As for what I am planning, it’s simple. I told the taxi driver to tell me where he’s going to take Jack. From there, we can see what we’re going to do. Am going to make sure that he comes back while begging on his knees to be taken back into the family.” Brenda said with a cold smile.

Steve felt a chill running down his spine as he looked at her smile. He couldn’t help but think to himself, ‘What a demon. I better not get on her bad side or things wouldn’t be so good.’

….

Inside the cab, the driver drove the taxi as he looked at Jack via the rearview mirror. He was wondering why this handsome young man was leaving the family mansion where all the riches were.

He could see that this young man was wearing some simple clothing. This way, he could guess that this young man’s life wasn’t good in there. But still, he thought that he shouldn’t have left the family.

As soon as they got to the main road, he asked, “Where are we going to sir?”

“Inchoate city,” jack replied calmly. He looked out if the window as he let his mind wonder around.

The driver nodded before taking the road that led out of the city. Before long, they had already left the city on their way to Inchoate city. It would take at least five hours to get there.

Seeing that Jack wasn’t paying attention to him, he immediately took out his phone and sent a text message to Brenda. She had given him five thousand dollars so that he could give her the location that Jack was going.

He saw no reason to refuse such easy money and thus accepted. Furthermore, he knew that if he didn’t accept, he would surely have a hard time in the city. Why would he die for a person whom even his family didn’t value at all?

As soon as he sent the message, he received a reply. [Tell me the exact location that you’ll be dropping him.]

He immediately agreed and put his mind back to driving. He was also thinking about the fact that, since he was having the contact of the young lady if the Alfonso family, maybe in the future he could use his connection with her to make his life in the city easier.

Jack had no idea that where he was heading to had already exposed. He just sat on the backseat of the cab as he thought about what he was going to do once he reached Inchoate city.

He decided that he would open a small store with the money that he had been saving during the years. This way, he could have a source of income. Then, after the business expands, he would be able to get a footing in the city.

Although he knew that he wouldn’t be able to become a millionaire without getting an opportunity, he decided to be optimistic. Nobody knew what would occur in the future.

He took his backpack and opened it. He then took the huge envelope that he had gotten from his mother’s room. He had an urge to open and see what was inside it but he forced down the urge.

This envelope had been staying inside his mother’s room throughout the years. He was the one that was making sure that his mother’s room was tidy.

Furthermore, those arrogant members of the Alfonso family thought that it was beneath them to enter a mistress’s room. Thus, nobody had ever entered his mother’s room since she died other than the servants that were doing the cleaning.

Even though the servants knew that the mistress and her son weren’t favored by the family, they didn’t dare have a thought of stealing anything inside the room. If they were found to have stolen, their fates would be anything but good. Alfonso family had zero tolerance to thieves.

So, although the cabinet that the envelope was placed in wasn’t locked, nobody had taken it.

Jack could clearly remember his mother’s words about this envelope. It was simple, “If you are thinking about marrying and starting your own family, you can open this envelope. Otherwise, don’t do it. Remember, even before thinking about having a girlfriend, you’ll have to open the envelope.”

He was fourteen at that time. He didn’t understand his mother’s words, neither did he understand them even now. As long as he wanted to have a girlfriend, he would have to open the envelope first.

But, he would do as his mother wished him to do. He out back the envelope back into his backpack. He wasn’t ready to get a girlfriend at this time. After all, a girl would mean that he would have to spend more and he had yet to secure his source of income.

Furthermore, although he was handsome, he was sure that as long as the girls knew that he wasn’t rich, they would leave in disdain. There were some that had ever wanted to take him as a gigolo. Of course, Jack had never been tempted by such an offer. He wasn’t that cheap.

As Jack was still thinking, he forgot about time and he didn’t know that five hours had already gone past. It was already twelve and at this time, a visage of a city could be seen from a far.

The taxi driver’s voice reached Jack’s ears at this time, “Sir, we’re about five minutes from the city. Where exactly are you going in Inchoate city are you going?”

Jack looked at the city that was getting closer and closer as time moved. He sighed and said, “Take me to the yellow street.”

“Yes sir,” the driver replied as the car zoomed into the city.