Richest Man: It All Started With My Rebate System-Chapter 15: Making More Purchases

Steven parked in front of the superstore and stepped out. The morning air was cool and clean, different from what he was used to in his old neighbourhood. He stood beside the car for a moment, then walked into the store.

He made his way to the kitchen section. The condo’s kitchen had come equipped with the major appliances — refrigerator, oven, microwave, dishwasher — but everything else was missing. No pots, no pans, no utensils. Nothing to actually cook with. It was a fully built kitchen with nothing to show for it, like a garage without a car.

He needed cooking pots and pans, utensils, plates and bowls, cups and glasses, cutlery, cutting boards, and food storage containers.

Steven reached the section and started making his selections, moving through the aisle without rushing. He picked up items, checked them, set some back, and kept others. He wasn’t shopping the way he used to, scanning price tags first and working backward from there. He was looking at quality first, and if the price was high, that was fine. Better than fine, actually.

He found a nonstick cookware set in brushed. It was the kind of set that looked like it belonged in the kitchen he now had. He put it in the trolley without checking the tag. He found a knife block set with a thick wooden base, a set of ceramic plates that had a clean, understated look to them, tall glasses, wide bowls, a full cutlery set, two cutting boards — one large, one small — and a set of glass food storage containers with airtight lids.

By the time he was done, the trolley was full and heavy.

He pushed it to the counter. The attendant began scanning and packaging everything, working through the items one by one. When she was done, she looked up.

"That comes to $953."

Steven handed over his card without a word. She swiped it. The transaction cleared immediately.

[You spent $953. A 3.5x rebate was triggered.]

[You received $3,335.50. The money has been transferred to your account.]

Steven glanced at the notification and allowed himself a small smile. He collected his bags, thanked the attendant, and walked out.

He loaded everything into the trunk, got in, and pulled out of the parking lot.

The fact that he had just spent nearly a thousand dollars on a cooking set didn’t register as anything significant. What registered, faintly, was mild disappointment that it hadn’t cost more.

He understood how that thought would have sounded to the version of himself from two days ago. That version would have found it absurd. But the system rewarded spending, and there was a ceiling on how much kitchen items could reasonably cost. He had hit it, and that was that.

What he did feel, without any ambivalence, was a quiet satisfaction at owning a complete kitchen set for the first time in his life. Not a mismatched collection of secondhand pieces gathered over years. A complete set. His. Bought new, on the same morning, without a second thought.

He had always enjoyed cooking. It had been one of the few things that felt like genuine pleasure during the lean years. Now he had a kitchen worth cooking in, and tools worth cooking with.

He was looking forward to using them.

***

On his way back, Steven made a decision and changed direction.

The PlayStation could wait, he had told himself yesterday. He had reconsidered overnight. He was going to be spending a significant amount of time in the condo over the coming days, researching investment opportunities and laying the groundwork for the restaurant acquisition. There would be gaps in that time. Downtime. He might as well have something to fill it with.

He also had another reason, more practical than it sounded.

GTA VI was coming. He had been following its development for months, the way most people his age had, with the particular kind of patient longing reserved for things that were perpetually just out of reach. He already knew what was going to happen when it released. Stores would sell out within hours. Online stock would be gone the same day. This was especially so with the trailers that were released.

Steven pulled up in front of the gadget store and went inside.

The store was busier than it had been on his previous visits. He made his way to the console section and waited until one of the attendants noticed him and came over.

"What can I help you with?"

"I need a PS5 Pro, an extra controller, a headset, a charging dock, and a Samsung NVMe SSD with a heat sink. Minimum 2TB, but I’d prefer 4TB if you have it in stock."

The attendant looked at him for a moment. The expression was familiar — a quick, involuntary assessment. His eyes moved from Steven’s face to the list he had just rattled off, and something in them shifted slightly. The 4TB NVMe SSD request had done it. It was a legitimate upgrade, but it was the kind of spec that sat in an awkward middle ground. Enough storage to signal that Steven knew what he was doing, but the combination with a console rather than a PC suggested otherwise. The attendant was clearly running the mental calculation of whether to say something.

He decided against it and nodded once.

"I’ll pull everything together."

Steven waited while the attendant disappeared into the back. He came out a few minutes later with his arms full, setting the items on the counter one by one. The 4TB SSD was in stock. Steven hadn’t been certain it would be.

The attendant tallied everything up.

"Total comes to $1,669.95."

Steven handed over his card. It was swiped, and the transaction went through.

[You spent $1,669.95. A 5x rebate was triggered.]

[You received $8,349.75. The money has been transferred to your account.]

Steven smiled when he saw the system notifications. He curiously checked his account balance and he saw that he now had $1,739,288.73.

Because he now had over a million in his account, the increase wasn’t immediately noticeable, but his balance had grown by more than $11,000.

The attendant finished packaging everything and slid the bags across the counter with a smile that was slightly more attentive than the one he had started with.

Steven nodded, collected the bags, and left without looking back at the few curious glances being exchanged among the staff near the display units.

He loaded the bags into the passenger seat, got in, and drove off.

***

On the way home, Steven glanced at the bags beside him and thought about what he was actually going to play first.

While he wasn’t much of a gamer, he has always wanted to play games like Black Myth: Wukong, GTA VI, the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem, First Light and other popular titles.

It’s really nice to be able to casually drop more than $1,600 on a console and not be bothered one bit, Steven muttered to himself.

He still plans to drop another $1,000 after he’s done setting up the console, as he would do the annual subscription and the rest of the money would go to game purchase, and ingame items purchases.

This might be the birth of a whale gamer, he smiled.

Though whether he would actually have time to play was a separate question. The research he needed to do, the groundwork for the acquisition...

Gaming might end up being a late-night thing. Something to decompress with after everything else was handled.