CHAPTER 36: MAKING A DECISION

Liam woke up the next morning with heavy eyes, the kind of weight that made his lids feel like they’d been glued shut. His head sank deeper into the silk pillow, but there was no comfort to be found. Sleep had been a stranger last night.

He wasn’t tossing and turning because of nightmares or stress in the traditional sense. No, this was something new—something strange. His mind had been buzzing with the interface of the System Store, the endless list of impossible items flashing before him like temptations in a forbidden catalog.

Every time he thought he was done, every time he told himself, Enough, I’ll decide tomorrow, he would open his eyes in the dark and see them again.

By the time he finally drifted off, it was well past three in the morning.

Now, as he lay on the massive king-sized bed in the master suite of Bellemere Mansion, he stared at the high, crown-molded ceiling, his thoughts heavy and tangled.

This was the first time since getting the system that he had been this deep in thought—and it wasn’t about how to survive.

Before, back in the days before all this, when life had been nothing but a string of cheap meals, overdue rent, and constant anxiety, his late-night thoughts had been consumed by the same cruel loop: Where am I getting my next meal? How will I cover rent? Will I even make it through next week? How will I make it to Friday?

That was then.

Now? His sleeplessness came from abundance. From the sheer scale of possibilities in front of him. From trying to figure out what to do with a store that offered the kind of technology and power entire nations would go to war over.

It was like suffering from success.

He let out a slow sigh, the sound echoing faintly in the silence of the oversized bedroom.

The real question wasn’t just What should I buy?—it was What do I actually want to do with these items?

He knew one thing for certain: the items weren’t cheap. The System’s exchange rate was brutal—$10,000 for just a single point. Some of the items in there cost hundreds or thousands of SP. Even with his growing net worth, these weren’t purchases to make lightly.

Yes, he could pick a few for personal use. That would be fine. A stealth upgrade here, a health booster there—things that made sense without drawing attention. But the truth was, even if he bought the most expensive one he could afford right now, there would always be more items that are more tempting, more powerful, more dangerous.

And then there was that voice at the back of his mind.

The one that whispered, Take everything you want. Don’t choose. Don’t limit yourself. Do as you see fit. This is yours now. You earned it.

It was intoxicating.

They say money and power corrupt people. Liam knew that. He wasn’t naïve enough to think he was immune. He knew he wasn’t some saint who would always do the "right thing."

A line from an anime floated into his mind—one he’d watched years ago, in the dead of night, eating instant noodles and trying to ignore the hunger in his stomach for everything else in life:

"I finally know. It’s because I’m an idiot. A garden-variety idiot who got his hands on power."

That character had been self-aware enough to admit it. And Liam... wasn’t an idiot. But he also wasn’t a particularly good person.

With great power comes great responsibility. That old saying rattled in his head like an annoying bell. Liam knew it was true, but responsibility had never been his strong suit.

All he had ever wanted, for as long as he could remember, was to escape the hellish cycle of his life. To stop living from hand to mouth. To never again feel the gnawing panic of an empty wallet or an empty stomach.

And the system... the system had done that. It had obliterated that version of his life in a matter of days.

But deep down, he was starting to realize something.

Nothing was free.

Maybe there wasn’t an obvious "price" for the system’s gifts—not yet—but there was always a cost. It might come in the form of attention, enemies, or consequences he couldn’t see yet. But it would come.

And now, lying here in the most luxurious bed he’d ever slept in, Liam realized something else. He’d been playing it safe. Too safe. He’d been treating the System like a streak of good luck instead of the game-changing force it really was.

He could go on like this—buying the occasional useful skill, upgrading his lifestyle bit by bit—or he could take a risk. A big one. And start building.

The items in that store weren’t just cool gadgets and impossible tech. They were building blocks. The foundations for something greater. The kind of things empires were made of.

"I need to build an actual identity," Liam murmured to himself, his voice low but steady. "Give it substance. Make it undeniable."

Yes, there was a certain thrill in being "the mysterious buyer" or "the young guy with an absurd mansion," but that was smoke and mirrors. That was other people’s perception. He wanted more than that.

He wanted an empire.

And no, he didn’t want to start a company in the traditional sense—not one he had to run day to day. But a holding structure? Assets under his name—or rather, under the trust he was setting up with Daniel? That he could work with.

He couldn’t depend on the system forever. Not entirely. It was too dangerous to have all his eggs in that one basket, no matter how godlike it seemed now.

He needed real-world leverage to match the system’s leverage. And he was going to use the items in the store to get it.

The thought made something stir inside him—like a switch being flipped.

Liam closed his eyes and took a slow, deliberate breath. Then he opened them again, a sharp smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Fuck it," he said aloud, his voice echoing faintly in the high-ceilinged room. "I’ll just do as I see fit."

The hesitation, the second-guessing—that was over. It was time to take action. Time to take risks. Time to stop thinking like the boy who used to ration instant noodles and start thinking like the man who could call up a private banker and have an entire staff installed in his home in less than 24 hours.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, feeling the soft carpet under his feet. There was a strange lightness in his chest now. The weight of indecision had lifted.

"I’ll make something out of myself," he murmured. "Build my own empire. And I’ll do it with the items in the store."

For the first time in days, his mind felt clear.

To celebrate, he decided to start the morning with his daily sign-in.

"System," he said, his voice firm. "Sign in."