Magic City.

Inside Junyue Garden.

*BANG BANG BANG!!!*

The loud pounding on the door echoed down the hallway.

Outside, yelling started up.

"Kevin Bennett! I know you’re in there! Don’t act dead!

You’ve got the guts to rent a place, but no balls to open the damn door?"

Kevin leaned back against the wall, bitterness tugging at his lips.

He stared blankly at the calendar on his phone.

Yep. Just as he thought. His lease was up next week.

And just like usual, that landlady had shown up a full week early to collect rent.

Normally, Kevin would open the door and just pay her to get it over with.

Yeah, she was a bit much—always collecting early, charging nearly double for utilities,

and sometimes even cutting his water or power for god knows what reason.

But what could he do?

Places close to his office that he could actually afford were practically nonexistent.

He glanced at his bank app—what was left barely hit ¥5,000.

Enough to scrape by for another couple months of rent at best.

And then what? Starve?

His company had been struggling for a while now, too.

Rumors of pay delays were constant. Honestly, it seemed like they were on the edge of going under.

He sighed deep in his chest.

The landlady kept shouting at the door for a good while, but when no one answered,

she finally left, cursing under her breath.

Only then did Kevin finally relax a little.

He came from a regular family—nothing flashy.

Stayed in Magic City after college because the pay was better,

even though living costs here were outrageous.

Still, if you cut corners, life was manageable.

He had also genuinely believed that, with enough hustle,

he could build something for himself in this city.

That was the dream anyway.

Reality? After a full year of busting his ass, he had nothing to show for it.

Zero savings. And now, potentially no job either.

"One more week. Just give me one job interview this week. Please,"

he muttered to himself, trying to hold onto some sliver of optimism.

He unlocked his phone to check the job apps,

scrolling through listings out of sheer habit…

Until his thumb froze.

"Billion-Yuan Subsidy? What’s this?"

On the bottom left corner of the screen, a new app had somehow popped up.

Kevin blinked, confused.

"I didn’t download this, did I?"

Frowning, he murmured,

"Must’ve been bundled with something else..."

He instinctively tried to hold down and delete it,

but nothing happened.

The option didn’t even show up.

"What the heck…"

Something about the whole thing gave him an uneasy feeling.

He squinted at the icon.

“Alright, whatever. Let’s see what this is all about.”

He tapped it open.

Immediately, a couple of flashy banners caught his eye:

“New User Bonus!”

“Dongjiao One Mansion – Subsidized Price: ¥0.1”

“Porsche 911 GT1-98 Limited Edition – Subsidized Price: ¥0.1”

Kevin couldn’t help but scoff.

“Are they serious with this?”

Both listings were outrageously high-end.

He knew the Dongjiao One mansion.

In Magic City, that place was legendary—top-tier stuff.Any of those villas? Worth over a hundred million, easy.

And you're telling me I can buy one for ten cents?

"Seriously? Who even comes up with this stuff? Ten cents for a whole villa?

If I can actually get that, I'll eat my phone right here!"

Kevin Bennett couldn't help scoffing. He shook his head, full of disbelief.

Still, curiosity got the better of him, so he tapped to see the details.

But just as his finger tapped on the image of a Porsche—

Boom, a new screen popped up!

"Purchase Successful!"

"Item is being delivered. Estimated delivery in: 5 minutes!"

"Please wait for your delivery."

Kevin stared at the screen, totally stunned.

Before he could react, a banner notification slid down from the top of the screen:

"Your debit card ending in 9528 was charged 0.1 yuan on April 20 at 9:38. Remaining balance: 5220 yuan."

"What the hell?!"

His eyes widened, disbelief all over his face.

"Is this some kind of virus app or scam?"

He had only tapped on the item—

Didn’t even input a password!

And yet …

Payment went through?!

This… this is wild.

What kind of tech does that?

Remote payment?

But seriously—

If someone had the ability to pull that off, would they really go through all this trouble just to sneak an app onto his phone?

Kevin was beyond confused.

He took a breath, trying to calm down.

"What on earth is going on here?"

Then his phone vibrated again.

"Your item has been delivered. Please check."

"Delivered? Yeah right! Delivered my ass!"

He cursed under his breath, brows furrowed.

But then—

He felt a sudden weight in his pant pocket.

"Huh?"

He reached inside.

Out came a car key.

It had a sleek, elongated shape, solid in his grip.

The whole thing was wrapped in black leather,

With a golden shield-shaped logo on the tip.

His heart skipped a beat.

That image from earlier flashed through his mind.

Could it be...

It wasn’t a scam app?

It’s… for real?!

He swallowed hard.

Just then, the female voice from the app chimed in again.

Breathing quick, Kevin looked back at the app—

His eyes lit up with excitement.

"This is actually real... This is crazy. I'm rich now!"

He whispered to himself.

Then his eyes landed on another item—

The villa in Dongjiao No. 1.

No hesitation.

His finger tapped again.

"Purchase Successful!"

"Item is being delivered. Estimated delivery in: 30 minutes!"

"Please wait for your delivery."

As the confirmation showed up,

The listing changed to a message:

"Today’s items are sold out. Please wait for restock."

Kevin nodded slightly, catching on.

"So, new items refresh once per day, huh?"

His eyes narrowed, thinking.

"Thirty minutes' delivery this time... a bit longer than the car.

Wonder how they’ll ‘deliver’ a whole villa."

He glanced at the car key in his hand.

"Alright, let’s go check out this ride first."

With that, he tapped on the location feature in the app.

According to it,

His car was currently parked in the mall’s parking lot right next to his apartment complex.