Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Chrono Bank
The latest, top-of-the-line iPhone. Official website price: 1.6888 Dollars.
A classic Cartier diamond necklace. Official website price: 24.9888 Dollars.
A limited-edition Ferrari "Gale Cheetah Black Diamond" model. Market price: around 2,100 Dollars.
A 500-square-meter, river-view luxury apartment at The Rivercress in Downtown Lorcain. Market price: starting from 3,000 Dollars.
Cecilia Sterling sat on a plaza bench, scrolling through her phone for a full two hours before she finally figured out the reality of the world she was in.
Almost nothing had changed—not the people, the places, or the things. The only difference was the prices. Based on her memories of prices from her past life, the currency in this world had devalued by a factor of ten thousand.
In other words, the ten-dollar check Shawn Lane’s mother had given her was equivalent to a hundred thousand dollars in her previous life.
However, just as Cecilia decided to check her own finances and instinctively opened her WhatsApp wallet, she nearly screamed out loud.
She clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide as she stared at the string of numbers in her balance: 648,755.6725 Dollars.
Almost 650,000!
This number wasn’t unfamiliar to Cecilia. Before she retired, she had sold her car, and the dealership had sent her six WhatsApp transfers of one hundred thousand dollars each. Combined with her original balance, it added up to the exact figure she was seeing now.
’My WhatsApp balance... it came back with me from age sixty-five to twenty?’
’Wait...’
’If my WhatsApp balance could do this, then what about my bank card?’
Her entire life’s savings, her pension and funeral fund, amounted to nearly five million, all in a single Construction Bank card.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she opened the linked bank card section in her WhatsApp wallet. She couldn’t remember the full card number, but she remembered the last few digits very clearly.
1069.
The screen changed. A single bank card was linked to her WhatsApp, and on it were two words: Chrono Bank.
And when she saw the last four digits of the card number, Cecilia’s pupils trembled with excitement. It was "1069"!
She snapped back to her senses, her mind racing. She quickly switched back to her phone’s home screen and, sure enough, saw an app for "Chrono Bank".
It was all so fantastical that Cecilia felt she wouldn’t be surprised by anything else that happened.
She opened the app. The system automatically scanned her face and logged her in directly. The interface was clean, with no messy text or ads—it only showed Cecilia Sterling’s name, her card number, and the account balance.
4,762,359.88 Dollars.
Her entire savings from her past life, down to the last cent!
And in this world of global devaluation, her current assets were equivalent to—over fifty billion!
Over fifty... billion?
The rarity of that number was right up there with 0.75%.
September in Lorcain was muggy and hot, but Cecilia Sterling sat in the plaza until nightfall before she was finally able to calm down completely.
Finally, she stood up, hailed a taxi by the roadside, and returned to the university.
Lorcain University of Science and Technology, women’s dorm, room 309.
Returning here once more, Cecilia stood outside the door and let out a soft breath before pushing it open.
Inside the dorm, the latest hit from a K-pop girl group was playing. On the left bunk near the door, the plain-looking Summer Lynn was using a standard cutesy voice to play a game with some "jungle king" she met online.
At the desk under the right bunk, the stout Hope Warner was wolfing down a bowl of malatang, her phone propped up on a stand as she binged a BL drama.
Near the balcony on the left, Cindy Underwood, who was outstanding in both looks and figure, was hunched over, holding her foot and painting her toenails.
Cecilia’s arrival didn’t elicit the slightest reaction from anyone. No one even turned or looked up at her.
’Same old story, same old scene.’
In her past life, she had spent all four years of university in this same, isolating environment.
She walked straight to her spot—a loft bed with a desk underneath. A single glance was enough for Cecilia to sigh with annoyance, as she realized that most of the things, both on her desk and on her bed, were gifts from Shawn Lane.
Without a word, Cecilia grabbed a trash bag from the desk and swept everything into it in one go.
This action made her three roommates, who had been ignoring her, all turn to look.
Then, the three of them instinctively glanced at each other, their eyes filled with suspicion.
"Tch." Cindy Underwood scoffed, looking at Cecilia with a passive-aggressive tone. "What’s gotten into you? None of this stuff is cheap. Weren’t they all gifts from Shawn Lane? Did you two have a fight?"
Hearing this, the other two broke into schadenfreude-filled smiles.
Summer Lynn temporarily muted her game’s voice chat and sneered in her normal voice, "Don’t tell me you broke up?"
The moment she heard the word "breakup," Cindy Underwood’s eyes lit up.
She couldn’t wait for Cecilia to get dumped. Why did Cecilia have to be prettier and more popular than her? Why was it that she had known Shawn Lane first, but he ended up falling for Cecilia?
Cecilia couldn’t be bothered with them and just focused on rummaging through her drawer. ’I remember putting the ring Shawn Lane gave me in here. Where did it go?’
After a moment, she finally felt the ring at the very back. Without a second glance, Cecilia tossed it straight into the trash bag.
Cindy Underwood’s smile froze, her eyes widening in disbelief. "Cecilia, are you insane? That ring costs almost three dollars!"
"You want it?"
Cecilia turned to look at Cindy Underwood, her expression blank.
Cindy Underwood faltered, asking tentatively, "You... you really don’t want it?"
Cecilia’s lips curled into a sneer. "If you want it, go dig it out of the dumpster downstairs later. Don’t think I’m just going to give it to you."
"You..." Cindy Underwood’s face turned red with shame and anger, and she snapped, "Who cares about your stupid ring? Your family is dirt poor! How dare you act all high and mighty in front of us!"
"Exactly! It’s Shawn Lane who’s rich, not you," Summer Lynn chimed in disdainfully, then realized she’d forgotten to turn her voice chat back off. She quickly put on her cutesy voice again. "Oh, that wasn’t me talking just now, it was my roommate. You’re so amazing, you got another penta kill..."
Just then, the dorm room door was pushed open. Rainie Woods from the room next door appeared at the entrance, looking at Cecilia excitedly. "Cecilia, you have to go downstairs, quick! Shawn Lane is waiting for you with this huge bouquet of roses!"
As she spoke, Rainie Woods exaggeratedly gestured to show just how "huge" the bouquet was, a look of envy on her face.
Hearing this, Cindy Underwood shot up from her chair. Hope Warner stopped eating, and Summer Lynn stopped playing her game. The three of them crowded around the balcony window to look down.
A crowd had gathered below the women’s dormitory. Shawn Lane stood there holding a massive bouquet of bright red roses, his head tilted up slightly as he looked toward the window of room 309.
Cindy Underwood’s eyes were red with jealousy. She dug her nails into her palm and hissed through clenched teeth, "What are you trying to pull, Cecilia? If you broke up, why would Shawn Lane still come looking for you?"
Cecilia didn’t bother to go look. Instead, she tied the trash bag shut with a tight knot, picked it up, and strode quickly out of the room.
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