At three in the morning, I’d just snapped out of a heart-pounding panic attack.

My nightgown was drenched in sweat, and I thought to myself, I’m never bragging like that again.

“Warning! Warning! You have ten minutes left. Spend one million dollars ASAP!”

What!?

Seriously? Is this real or just a bad dream!?

“Warning! Warning! You haven’t started spending yet. Countdown: nine minutes.”

The alarm in my head was relentless. I didn’t have a second to lose. Panicking, I grabbed my phone and started spending—fast, as fast as possible.

Oh right! The house—I’ll just buy a house.

I opened the real estate app I usually use and quickly bought a villa in the city center for ninety thousand dollars.

“Warning! Warning! Countdown: three minutes.”

I still had forty thousand dollars left!

I immediately opened a video app, and there was my favorite dancing streamer on the homepage.

I jumped in and tapped the gift bar.

Soon, the screen lit up: “Unknown user gifted the streamer two hundred top-tier gifts.”

Comments flooded the screen, covering the streamer.

Then, the countdown in my mind finally stopped—“Congratulations, you’ve met the spending target. Your life is extended by one day.”

I let out a huge sigh of relief. I really didn’t want to go through that suffocating feeling again.

Looking back, the live chat was going crazy:

“Oh my god!!”

“Is it raining gifts?”

“Who is this wealthy user? I’ve never seen them before!”

“Another rich person won over by our streamer.”

“Rich person, we love you!”

The streamer had stopped dancing and was now thanking me on camera.

I didn’t stick around. I closed the app.

I put my phone down and pinched myself hard.

Ouch… it’s really not a dream?

I covered my face with my hands, shaking with relief.

The system spoke up right away, “Host, please don’t cry. Don’t be afraid. As a rescue system, I won’t harm you.”

Seeing that I was still stunned, the system reassured me again.

“Trust me, as long as you complete the spending task, this system will make sure you stay alive!”

I shakily lowered my hands and burst into laughter.

The system went quiet.

I got back to the point and asked, “System, are all the tasks going to be this rushed?”

“Since the situation was urgent, a small target was set for a short-term extension.”

After a pause, the system’s voice came back. “The next task: spend twenty million dollars within one day.”

With that, the system fell silent.

I jumped up in disbelief.

When I woke up at seven-thirty the next morning, I checked my phone and saw a bunch of real estate messages. I couldn’t help but grin.

Last night was definitely not a dream!

Besides the villa I bought, I’d also picked out a mansion with a Western-style garden right before bed.

My dream home.

I’d hired a housekeeper and sent over $200,000 to spruce up the garden and finalize everything.

I swung open the door to my best friend Nancy’s room and dragged her out of bed.

I said, “Listen, I bought you a villa in the city center.”

I pulled a stunned Nancy with me, and we took a cab to the mansion to wrap up the paperwork.

As we stood in front of the villa, she finally burst out, “Kimberly, what’s going on? Did you hit the jackpot or something?”

“Yep, hit the big one!” I replied.

With no time to waste, I dragged Nancy to our next stop: the city’s largest 4S dealership.

We headed straight to the showroom, making a beeline for Nancy’s dream car, a Maserati.

Nancy’s eyes went wide with amazement.

The three female sales reps were busy fawning over a plump middle-aged man, ignoring us completely.

“Are you really buying a Maserati?” Nancy asked, her voice trembling with excitement.

“Absolutely, we’re buying it!” I said, giving her a reassuring pat.

She snapped out of her daze, eagerly inspecting the Maserati and about to open the door.

Suddenly, a voice called out, “Ladies, don’t get too close! You can’t just touch the car.”

A sales rep hurried over to stop us.

I raised an eyebrow. Now they decide to show up.

“It’s fine. We’re here to buy this car today,” Nancy said politely.

The sales rep looked us up and down, sneering as she said, “Ladies, this car costs nearly $2 million. Are you sure you’re serious?”

Wow, I didn’t expect to face such blatant discrimination in a big store.

Maybe I would have backed down before, but now, I couldn’t spend the money fast enough.

Feeling confident, I looked her straight in the eye. “What? We can’t touch it? It’s on display, isn’t it? Plus, we haven’t said we’re not buying. Can’t we at least have a look?”

“Ma’am, if you’re buying, we’re happy to sell. But if you touch it and then decide not to buy, we’d have to deal with any damage and that’s a hassle. It’s a waste of our time,” the sales rep replied.

Hearing the clear disrespect, Nancy also began to react.

The sales rep, who was treating us with such disdain, clearly lacked basic customer service skills.

Since she was treating us with such disrespect, I cooled my tone and said, “What? Isn’t it your job to serve customers? If you think it’s a waste of time, maybe you shouldn’t be in this job! You work at a 4S dealership, not run it yourself. Don’t act like you own the cars!”

The sales rep’s face darkened. “Ma’am, please watch your language and don’t delay our work.”

“Delay? Have your manager come here and talk to me.”

“Our manager doesn’t have time for you,” she said with a dismissive look, turning to the front desk and sending a trainee our way. Then she went back to fawning over the middle-aged man.

I checked the time and decided not to waste anymore. The trainee, clearly fresh out of college and still carrying a bit of campus innocence, approached us.

“Ma’am, don’t be upset. Here, have some water. If you want to know anything about the car, I can help you,” she said.

Not wanting to make things hard for the trainee, I pulled Nancy over and said, “Let her explain. She’s the car owner.”

The trainee guided Nancy around the car, carefully explaining the details and materials.

Nancy gave me a nod, indicating she had a good understanding.

I interrupted the trainee, “That’s enough. How much is it in total?”

“$2 million for the full price,” she replied.

“Charge it,” I said.

As I pulled out my black card, the entire store fell silent.

The three sales reps and the middle-aged man stared at us in shock.

The trainee seemed in disbelief, stammering, “O-Okay, I’ll get the POS machine from the front.”

“No need. Let’s go there together,” I said.

As we headed toward the front desk, the three sales reps crowded around us.

The sales rep who had mocked us earlier snatched the POS machine from the trainee, saying, “Ma’am, look at how clumsy this trainee is. I’ll take care of the payment for you.”

Before she could finish, another sales rep grabbed the machine from her hand, saying, “You were quite rude to our distinguished customer. I’ll handle it.”

Watching them jostle for position, I scoffed. “No need, I wouldn’t want to waste your time.”

Nancy saw the smiles freeze on their faces and couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“Ma’am, about what happened earlier... those were misunderstandings. This...” the sales rep stammered.

I wasn’t interested in explanations. I took the POS machine from her and handed it to the sidelined trainee, saying, “You handle it. I want your service.”

The trainee, looking completely flustered, took the POS machine and shakily processed the payment. The nearby sales reps watched with a mix of jealousy and frustration.

Ignoring their stares, I spoke up again. “By the way, do you have any recommendations for cars with high safety ratings?”

One of the sales reps began to speak, but I cut her off. “No thanks. I want this trainee to tell me.”

The trainee’s eyes welled up a bit as she said, “Yes, ma’am. How about a Volvo? It’s a great choice.”

She pulled out her phone and started showing me details about the car. “The only thing is, we don’t have any in stock right now. The last one was taken yesterday, so you’d have to wait about a week.”

I looked it over and decided it was fine. “That works. How much is it?”

“About $2 million for the full price,” the trainee said.

“Charge it,” I told her.

The three sales reps' faces dropped as they watched the trainee process my card, their earlier arrogance completely vanished.

As the system chimed in my head, “Congratulations! You’ve spent $16.4 million. Keep it up!” I heard the announcement and decided not to waste any more time.

Driving Nancy’s new car, we headed toward the luxury shopping district downtown. Nancy was bubbling with excitement the entire way.

“Kimberly, this is so amazing!”

“Did you see the look on those sales reps’ faces when we left? It was priceless!”

“So funny!”

“This is so awesome, Nancy!”

Nancy and I had both grown up in foster care after being abandoned. As a child, I was frail and often went without food because I couldn’t compete with the stronger kids. The caretakers only served meals at set times and didn’t care about those who didn’t get enough.

It was during one of those hungry times that Nancy showed up. She gave me a bun and promised to look after me from then on.

Nancy, two years older than me, was fierce, and even the older kids in the home were scared of her. Thanks to her, I never went hungry again.

Nancy always said she was like my sister. When I asked her about her real sister, she fell silent. I later learned that her sister had died in a car accident while saving her. Her parents, having a new baby, didn’t want her anymore and had brought her to the city and left her at the foster home.

I once asked Nancy if she ever wanted to find her parents. She said that once they abandoned her, they were no longer her parents.

So, we grew up depending on each other, becoming each other’s only family.

Now, Nancy was thrilled. “Kimberly, I still can’t believe I’m in a Maserati worth millions!”

“I never imagined this would happen.”

“How many handbags do you plan to buy, Kimberly?”

How many? I looked at my excited friend. I wasn’t planning on just a few bags. “You’ll see when we get there.”

Since Nancy loved handbags, I decided to take her to the store and let her stock up.

As soon as we walked into the store, the sales associate at the handbag counter greeted us with a bright smile. “Hi there! Can I help you with anything today?”

Her friendly attitude made me think of the surly salespeople at the previous store. Clearly, not everyone is the same.

Nancy and I exchanged grins. It was decided—we’d be shopping here.

“I’ll take this purple one,” I said.

“And this orange one,” I added.

“And this gray one,” I continued.

The sales associate, focused on taking notes on her phone, jotted down my requests.

“Besides those three, I want every other bag in the store,” I declared.

There was a loud thud as the sales associate’s phone dropped in shock.