Richest Man: It All Started With My Rebate System-Chapter 16: Researching

The elevator doors slid open and Steven stepped out. He set the console down gently on the hallway floor, turned back, and carried the rest of his bags out before the doors could close on them. Once everything was out, he picked the console back up and made his way down the short hallway to his apartment door.

He pressed his key card against the entry reader. It beeped. He pushed the door open with his shoulder, stepped inside, and walked straight to the TV stand, where he set the console down gently, with care.

He went back for the rest of the bags and brought them in, setting them near the kitchen counter.

Steven was well aware that he had enough money to buy thousands of the same console without noticing the difference. He was also aware that what he effectively had was an infinite money engine sitting in his vision at all times.

But none of that changed how he felt about the console. If anything, it made no difference at all. He had wanted one for years. Now he had one, and he intended to take care of it.

He left it where it was and turned his attention to the kitchen.

The cookware set came out of its packaging cleanly — brushed pots and pans that caught the light in a way his old secondhand ones never had.

He arranged everything methodically, putting each piece where it made sense. Pots stacked by size. Pans on the lower rack. Utensils in the drawer beside the hob. Cutting boards propped against the backsplash. Plates, bowls, and glasses arranged in the upper cabinets, evenly spaced.

When he was done, he stood back and looked at it.

It was the first time in his life that a kitchen he was standing in felt like it actually belonged to him and not a space he was using.

He opened the refrigerator and assessed what he had. The groceries from two days ago had made the move with him, and there was enough to work with. He wasn’t in the mood for anything heavy. Something light, quick, and worth eating.

He decided on scrambled eggs with cheese and chives, a slice of toasted sourdough, and a glass of cold orange juice.

He cracked the eggs into a bowl, whisked them with a fork, and set a pan on the hob over low heat. He had always cooked his scrambled eggs low and slow. It took longer, but the result was softer, creamier, and worth the extra few minutes. While the eggs moved slowly in the pan, he dropped a slice of sourdough into the toaster and poured himself a glass of juice.

By the time the toast was done, the eggs were ready. He folded them off the heat, scattered the chives on top, and carried the plate to the dining table.

He sat down, looked at the food in front of him, and the city visible through the window beyond it, and picked up his fork.

It was a simple breakfast. But eating it here, at this table, in this apartment, with a kitchen he had just stocked himself and it tasted better.

***

Twelve minutes later, the plate was clean. He cleared the table, washed everything in the sink, and went back to the living area.

It was time to set up the console.

He unboxed it carefully, lifting it free of the packaging and setting it beside the TV. He connected the HDMI cable first, running it from the back of the console to the TV’s input port, then plugged the power cable into the wall socket and connected it to the console.

He switched the socket on and pressed the power button.

The console came to life with its familiar startup beep and the two thin blue lines of light that ran along its face. Steven watched them appear with quiet satisfaction.

The first screen asked him to set up an account. He worked through it without rushing, entering his details and setting his preferences. Once that was done, the system prompted him to run a software update.

He accepted it and leaned back on the sofa while the progress bar moved across the screen. It took just over ten minutes. When it finished, the console restarted, and he was taken through the final setup steps — including setting a password for the device, which he did quickly.

The home screen appeared.

Steven looked at it for a moment. He saw the game library empty and waiting for him to populate it with games.

The first thing he did was to fund his account and he didn’t think twice before adding his debit card as his funding method, and funding his wallet with $5,000.

Such amount would had looked wasteful for someone else but not Steven. He was actually willing to fund it with more money but they would be too much, wouldn’t it?

Unfortunately, the transaction failed immediately. The amount exceeded the wallet’s holding limit. He wasn’t surprised — he hadn’t checked the limit beforehand — but he was mildly annoyed. He set the funding attempt aside and went to the membership section instead, purchasing the annual subscription without hesitating.

The debit went through instantly.

[You spent $159.99. A 4.5x rebate was triggered.]

[You received $720. The money has been transferred to your account.]

Steven glanced at the notification with mild satisfaction, then went back to the wallet issue. He did a quick search on his phone and found that the platform wallet had a $350 limit. He went back to the console and funded it to the ceiling.

[You spent $350. A 3x rebate was triggered.]

[You received $1,050. The money has been transferred to your account.]

He looked at that for a moment. He had spent just over $500 on membership and wallet funding, and received back nearly $1,800. It never stopped being quietly absurd.

With his wallet funded, he opened the store and started making his selections. Black Myth: Wukong went in first. Then he added the others he had been thinking about on the drive back.

They were titles he had been watching from a distance for months, waiting for a version of his life where buying them wasn’t a decision that required actual thought. That version of his life had arrived, apparently, so he bought them without thinking about it.

He confirmed the purchases and watched the download queue populate. Six titles, sitting in line, the first one showing an estimated download time of one to two hours depending on connection speed.

Steven looked at the progress bar for a moment, then set the controller down. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

There was nothing to do but wait, and waiting wasn’t something he planned to do passively.

He stood up from the sofa, walked to the bedroom, and came back with his laptop. He sank back into the cushions, which were, as he noted to himself again, unreasonably comfortable, and opened the lid.

The laptop hadn’t been set up yet. He had bought it yesterday with the intention of using it for research and hadn’t touched it since, which felt almost wasteful now.

He worked through the setup quickly and within fifteen minutes had a clean, ready machine sitting open on his lap.

He opened the browser.

The plan he had been turning over since yesterday was straightforward in outline but would require careful groundwork in practice.

He needed to understand where his money could work hardest in the short term, how to structure things properly so that the funds coming in didn’t raise questions they couldn’t answer, and what the most practical path looked like toward acquiring the restaurant without showing his hand too early.

That last part he was looking forward to.

But first things first.

"Time to see how to make the best use of my money," he said quietly, and started typing into the search bar.