Chapter 6

Eswaranski?

Now confused wasn't what Ashley was feeling. It turned into shock and for a moment, Ashley thought that it was a damn prank.

But it was impossible.

Eswaranski was so rare that he had never met anyone having that surname in real life, or even on the Internet. Lying was not that easy. You couldn't randomly take a meaningless surname and unintentionally match the real one belonging to someone if you had never heard about it.

Ashley had seen the name Eswaranski once.

“I have read about that name, Eswaranski.” Ashley’s face turned pale and his voice was trembling. “My late great grandfather had written about that in his diary, but I don't remember the content.”

Then he looked at Michael, “Mr Durkheim, I have to go home to find the diary!”

Ernest was sitting at a coffee shop.

A cup of espresso was on the table, giving off the beautiful scent of perfect coffee. A pianist was playing a song over there, and the relaxing music echoed all over the coffee shop. Waitresses in black and white outfits went back and forth without noise, bringing pricey drinks to people, each of which cost half of an ordinary person’s monthly salary.

Why did Ernest know?

He had just ordered one!

A three-hundred-dollar espresso which he could not imagine why it was damn expensive. Was there anything special?

Ernest smirked, suddenly having no mood to taste that fancy drink. He stared at the light blue screen displayed in front of him, which other people couldn't see. He was the only one who saw it, like the way no one else realized the problem Ernest was facing.

Ernest had been murdered.

It's not a grammatical mistake, because Ernest had been actually killed by his girlfriend, no, ex-girlfriend. That cruel woman poisoned him with arsenic put into his dinner, then taking away all of his money as well as the valuable belongings.

Ernest couldn't even figure out the reason why the cute girl who was scared of cockroaches murdered him. Though Ernest wasn't rich, he had tried his best to make sure that their lives wouldn't be stuck in debt.

Thinking about that made Ernest angry. He really loved that girl, paying for all of her expenses, staying with her no matter what, and vomiting blood in pain was what he got after all.

If it's not for the system, Ernest would have been put into the crematorium this morning, just because of a grateless girl who was in some fucking place in the world.

Fck.

And although it sounded impossible, Ernest was no longer a human.

If his life as a human had ended with arsenic poisoned all over his body at a suffering night in the old, empty apartment, then Ernest started another life, which was about 8 hours left to live, if he couldn't use up 1,000,000 USD immediately.

Ernest looked at the screen again, though he had done this so many times before, and he couldn't hold back sighing.

[NEWCOMER TASK: Spending 1,000,000 USD in 24 hours.]

[PRIZE: +7 living days]

[NOTE 1: Personal purpose allowed, but unreasonable spending prohibited.]

[NOTE 2: Living days exchange tasks would start after NEWCOMER TASK successfully completed. Death applied if not.]

Ernest turned off the screen, leaving the coffee shop after paying the bill with all the notes he got.

His target was the deluxe apparel shop at the opposite.

Even though it sounded impossible, Ernest spent a long day wandering all over New York City without wasting a penny. The system had given him a black card and 1,000,000 USD was ready to vanish within a day. He understood that he had to spend all the money to survive, but currently the most expensive thing he had bought was the espresso cup costing 800 USD.

It was the poor’s mindset. Ernest had got used to saving the money, and he had to change it!

The young employee standing right at the entrance in a green skirt as a receptionist saw Ernest coming. She was about to greet with a big smile, but her expression soon became unpleasant, as if she had unintentionally eaten a fly.

She rubbed her eyes, but the image wasn't her hallucination.

What the hell was happening? A beggar coming this way? Oh God, it was the fifth beggar to appear in the shop this morning! Please let her work in peace, okay?

She looked at Ernest, and her voice wasn't courteous at all.

“Sir, it's not the place you can enter.” She pointed at the apparel shop at the opposite street and repeated what she had said this morning, “They sell clothes with an appropriate price over there, 50 USD for ten clothes altogether. Just get there to buy what you need, and please, please let us alone!”

“Miss, I-”

“We don't give clothes away, unfortunately. Don’t disrupt us if you can't be our customer.” The employee said, and she was even more annoyed when she saw Ernest not fully understanding what she said.

She took the remote control, pointing at the door to close it automatically, then went into the shop.

Ernest was confused. He stood there like a sculpture, and his vocabulary wasn't enough to describe his mood at the moment.

What had just happened? Ernest didn't even say a word, but the employee had closed the door and refused to sell things? Ah, what had she just said?

We don't give clothes away, right?

So the woman thought that Ernest was coming to beg for their pricey clothes?

Why did she think that Ernest was that shameless?

Ernest stood there for a moment. The pedestrians walking back and forth might have heard what the employee told him, and they looked at him as if he had already begged for new clothes and been chased away.

Even a middle-aged woman told him, “Youngster, you'd better find a job and make a living on your own, don't walk around and try to take advantage of the others’ kindness.”

Another old man followed her words. “She's right, kid. There are four beggars coming and disrupting this shop's business, just because the owner said to give away some clothes at weekends.”

“I don't know where you heard that news from, but don't annoy them.”

Ernest was silent. He narrowed his eyebrows, nodding as if he actually listened to the others’ advice. But no one knew what he was thinking at the moment.

Who the hell said that spending money was much easier than earning? Who? Screw it, just come and see how hard it was for Ernest to spend one million dollars!!!

Okay, the system said that unreasonable spending was prohibited. Therefore there was no yacht, no throwing money from skyscrapers, no hiring aircrafts for a happy trip. Ernest understood it, of course he had tried to do those things and got some warnings.

So buying new clothes was reasonable, right? They're expensive enough, Ernest could wear them immediately, and he could use up all the money. But there was a really, really big problem.

If Ernest wanted to spend money fast, he had to go to the shop and buy deluxe brands. But before going to the shop, Ernest must look wealthy by wearing pricey clothes or he would be left outside like this. However, how the hell could Ernest wear such fancy clothes if he couldn't go to the shop and spend money?

No, Ernest had to do something to break this stupid circle!