2. The harsh reality

"Hah!"

Travis woke up with a rush of breath. He'd just had a nightmare, he'd been beaten up just because they were having fun... no, wait, that wasn't a dream.

Travis ruffled his hair, then looked around.

He was already at home.

Who had lifted him up to his room?

The sound of the bedroom door being opened roughly made Travis almost jump, he immediately turned to his mother who had a sour face.

"Are you awake? You useless and troublesome child! You fainted in the field and was found by the residents, making me very embarrassed! They say I don't feed you, they don't know that feeding you is a waste of money."

Travis didn't expect his biological mother to say something like that. But his mother was like that, always thinking of Travis as a burden.

"Hurry up and pack your things, I'll leave you with your grandmother. Because I will divorce your father and marry another man who is more useful. I'm not willing to spend a lifetime with a useless man like your father. He won't want to take care of you, so you might as well go to your grandmother's house and take care of her old age. It's a bit far from school, but you can wake up early and walk to school, as well as exercise, aren't you embarrassed to have such a fat body?"

Although his mother's words were not pleasant to hear, Travis could feel a little concern in them. He was happy to know that his mother still cared about him.

If his mother left, his father, who was always drunk, would beat Travis instead of his mother. Maybe that's why his mom was worried.

Travis packed only the essentials, especially his school uniform and books.

Even so, his luggage was not much, just enough with a large, worn-out backpack.

While packing his things, Travis remembered something strange.

"Was the voice that asked me before fainting just a dream? It must have been my imagination." he muttered.

[Not imagination, master!]

Travis fell backwards in shock as a strange screen appeared in front of him, along with a robotic voice buzzing in his ears.

What is this?

Just as Travis wanted to grab the screen, it suddenly changed.

[Welcome, master!]

[I am the system that will help you change your life for the better]

[Wealth, power, strength, popularity, everything you can get easily!]

[Are you willing to carry out all the missions of the system and get the rewards?]

Travis was silent, his heart pounding with shock and fear, but he was also curious.

"What reward?"

[There are various random rewards that will be given, depending on the difficulty of the mission]

[Are you willing?]

Travis nodded quickly, "Yes..."

[The master has approved the contract with the system]

[Congratulations! You have officially joined the instant wealth system]

[You get 500$ as a reward for joining the system]

[Increase your level regularly by performing various missions of the system]

[For now, as you are still weak, you should eat and rest immediately]

[The system will return when your condition improves]

After that, the strange hologram screen disappeared again.

Travis was still silent on the floor, confused whether it was real or imagination?

I don't know, what is certain is that Travis must prepare immediately.

He got up again and continued his activities, because his mother was waiting impatiently. She would be taken to another city by her lover, leaving her husband alone.

After finishing, Travis went out with his big, worn-out backpack. It turned out that his father had come back drunk.

He was fighting with his mother again, angry at being divorced.

"So you want me to live in misery and wait to die at your hands? Are you crazy?"

"You even brought our son!"

"Son? Since when do you consider that child yours? Isn't he just my son? When have you ever taken responsibility as a father to him? Never! I'll leave him with his grandmother, leave him alone. Keep drinking, gambling and playing with woman, I don't care. Let's go, Travis!"

Travis was very happy that his mother loved him a little, even though he was brought only to be left with his grandmother. A little care from his mother made him happy, even though he knew it was just a false hope. Because after that his mother would leave with her boyfriend and forget about Travis.

Sad, isn't it?

Travis was thirsty for affection from his own parents.

"Go away already! Leave me alone, don't think of me as your father anymore, you son of a bitch!"

Travis could hear his mother screaming as his father threw a liquor bottle at Travis' head.

"You're out of your mind, Aron! Are you okay, son?"

Instead of getting angry after being hit on the head with a glass bottle by his father, Travis smiled as his mother trembled and worried about him.

Travis was pathetic.

"I'm fine, mom..." Travis mumbled.

"Get the hell out of my house!" said Aron, Travis' father.

Lisa, Travis' mother, immediately dragged her son's chubby arm while sobbing.

His mother's boyfriend knew nothing as he was waiting in the car, some distance away from the house.

After they arrived at the car, his mother's lover immediately panicked and tried to treat Travis' head wound.

Travis was relieved that his mother's lover looked good.

"Lisa, I'm sorry that only now I dare to ask you to go, it should have been a long time ago." said Lisa's boyfriend.

"Never mind, it's okay, you are also collecting money for us in the future, I don't mind."

"But we'll leave your son with his grandmother?"

Lisa nodded, "Yes, he has to continue his schooling. He goes to an elite school because he got a scholarship, I got the scholarship from the principal. So there's no way he's coming with us, are you okay Travis?"

Travis just nodded.

That's right, he went to an elite school because of a scholarship. A scholarship that he got because his mother accompanied the principal at a nightclub.

Although because of that Travis was looked down upon by his schoolmates until he was bullied. But Travis was still happy, because it was a form of his mother's concern for him. His mother wants Travis to go to a good school, at any cost.

Indeed Lisa is very beautiful, because of her beauty, Aron loves her. They got married for love at first.

But love alone is not enough to be married, there must also be responsibility in it.

And Aron didn't have that, he was just demanding and wanted to have fun.

They had arrived in front of grandmother's house.

"You just go straight there, I can't meet your grandmother, I'm afraid she's angry because I divorced her son."

The grandmother in question was Aron's mother, who did not agree with Aron and Lisa's marriage. That's why she didn't want to live close to her son. Even so, she loved Travis very much.

Travis simply got out of the car, and approached his grandmother's deserted house.

Lisa's boyfriend's car had already left.

Travis knocked on the door of his grandmother's house, but there was no response.

"You're Travis, right? Aron's son? Why are you here, your grandmother died a week ago, didn't your father tell you? He told us to take care of his mother's funeral."

Travis felt his legs were weak now, how could his father not say anything when his grandmother died.

"Travis? Are you okay? Let's go inside so you can rest, I have the key to your grandmother's house. Since you're already here, I'll leave the keys to you, okay?"

Travis felt he had never been so lucky. Just when he had imagined living with his grandmother and being loved by her, he had to learn the harsh reality that his grandmother had passed away.

[Don't worry master, the system will help master be loved by many people!]

It was just a comforting remark, right?

But Travis felt grateful to the system.