Infinite Cashback System

Chapter 185: 185 | The Cheat Code for Life

The condom wrapper sat crumpled on the nightstand beside a half-empty glass of wine and Chloe’s phone, which had been silenced sometime during the second round. Jordan stared at the ceiling of her loft bedroom, his chest rising and falling in slow rhythm while Chloe’s weight pressed against his left side. Her breathing had evened out about ten minutes ago, each exhale warm against his skin.

She looked different when she slept. Younger, maybe. The sharp edges of her personality smoothed away by unconsciousness. Her black hair fanned across his chest, the blue streak catching what little light filtered through the industrial windows from the parking lot below. One of her hands rested on his stomach, fingers twitching occasionally like she was typing something in her dreams.

Jordan’s body felt heavy in the best possible way. Muscles sore from the gym, skin still humming from everything that had happened in the last two hours. The second time had been slower. More deliberate. Chloe had told him exactly what she wanted and where she wanted it and Jordan had discovered that following instructions was actually pretty great when the instructor looked like that.

His phone glowed on the floor somewhere near his discarded jeans. He could hear it vibrating against the hardwood. Probably Kumiko sending another string of goodnight messages with too many emojis. Maybe the System pinging him about some quest he’d forgotten to check.

Jordan ignored it.

Instead he looked down at the girl sleeping on his chest and tried to remember what his life had been like four weeks ago.

The apartment had smelled like old pizza and failure. His sheets hadn’t been washed in three months. He’d spent somewhere between forty and fifty hours a week watching content that actively rotted his brain, and the highlight of his social calendar was maybe getting a two-word text response from a girl who couldn’t remember his name at parties.

Now he had two girlfriends. A business plan. Friends who actually wanted to hang out with him. A body that could bench one-eighty-five without dying. His apartment was clean. His hair wasn’t a disaster. He’d eaten home-cooked food made by someone who wanted to cook for him specifically.

By every measurable metric, Jordan McKnight had gotten his shit together.

So why did something feel wrong?

Chloe shifted in her sleep, making a small sound that Jordan felt more than heard. Her leg slid higher across his thigh, and her hand on his stomach curled slightly, fingernails dragging against his skin in a way that was probably unconscious but definitely not unpleasant.

Jordan’s eyes stayed on the ceiling.

The problem, he realized, was the System.

Everything good that had happened to him in the past month could be traced back to that golden interface appearing on his phone. The Tune Up trait had fixed his body overnight. The Headpat ability made girls melt when he touched them. His voice literally had magic properties now. He got paid for spending money on women, which was the exact behavior that had made him pathetic in the first place.

Was he actually better? Or was he just cheating?

The old Jordan had spent four thousand dollars on Eliza hoping she’d love him for it. The new Jordan spent money on Chloe and Kumiko and got cash back at a profit. The action was identical. The only difference was the return rate.

He thought about what Kyle had said at the gym. Something about Jordan growing forty pounds on his bench press in ten days when Kyle had taken two years to make the same progress. Kyle had asked if Jordan was taking performance enhancers. Jordan had said no and technically that was true. He wasn’t taking anything.

Something had been installed in him without his consent.

Chloe murmured something unintelligible and pressed closer. Her lips brushed his collarbone, dry and warm.

Jordan closed his eyes.

If he stripped away every advantage the System had given him, what was left? A guy who’d cleaned his apartment because a phone told him to. A guy who’d called his dad because a quest said it was mandatory. A guy who’d talked to women because there was literally a daily objective requiring it.

Had he made a single decision in the past four weeks that wasn’t motivated by external validation?

The answer came immediately and Jordan hated it.

He’d chosen to register Chloe. That had been his call. The System had prompted him but he’d been the one to click yes when she said something genuine at their first coffee date. He’d chosen to tell Kumiko the truth about the inheritance situation instead of lying to her. He’d chosen to pay Brooke for her work when he could have just accepted her help for free.

Those were real decisions. Nobody made him do those things.

But the System had put him in the position to make them. Without the Tune Up trait, Chloe wouldn’t have looked twice at him. Without the Alluring Whisper, his voice wouldn’t have made Kumiko weak in the knees during karaoke. Without the cashback mechanics, he’d have run out of money weeks ago and none of this would be sustainable.

Jordan opened his eyes again.

The ceiling didn’t have any answers for him.

Maybe that was the wrong question anyway. Maybe asking whether he’d changed was the same as asking whether a prosthetic leg counted as the person’s real leg. The answer depended entirely on what you were trying to measure.

If the question was whether Jordan could survive without the System, the answer was probably no. Not at this level. He’d regress back toward the version of himself who’d cried in a parking lot on Christmas while his ex walked into a love hotel with someone else.

If the question was whether Jordan was making choices the old Jordan never would have made, the answer was yes. Unambiguously yes. The old Jordan would never have turned down a girl offering to buy him something. Would never have insisted on paying a contractor their worth. Would never have sat through an uncomfortable conversation about sharing a relationship instead of just agreeing to whatever the other person wanted.

The System had given him resources. What he did with those resources was still up to him.

That felt right. Or at least close enough to right that Jordan could stop spiraling about it at one in the morning while his girlfriend drooled slightly on his chest.