Free Web NovelChapter 3: Trying the System
Later that night, Richard was finally discharged and his mother paid the rest of the medical bill using the money she loaned from the loan sharks.
Now, they were on their way home using a taxi.
Though Richard insisted they take a jeepney instead since taxis were expensive, his mother simply refused to listen.
"You literally got hit in the head earlier," Theresa said while sitting beside him in the backseat.
"You’re not commuting tonight."
Richard sighed quietly afterward.
Even now, his mother still prioritized comfort over money whenever it came to her children.
Which honestly made him feel guiltier.
The taxi slowly moved through the busy evening roads of Manila while old pop music played softly from the driver’s radio.
Outside the windows, the city remained alive despite the late hour.
Street vendors still lined the sidewalks.
Jeepneys packed with exhausted workers continued passing by.
Motorcycles squeezed dangerously between lanes while traffic lights reflected against rainwater puddles left from an earlier drizzle.
Metro Manila never truly slept.
About an hour later, they arrived at their house, which was in a place called Happyland.
Why was it called Happyland?
Honestly, Richard had no idea.
Because there was barely anything "happy" about the place.
The area was infamous in Tondo for being one of the poorest communities in Manila. Narrow alleyways packed tightly together. Rusted roofs patched with tarpaulins. Floodwater that refused to drain properly during heavy rain.
And then there was the smell.
A mixture of garbage, stagnant water, smoke, and pollution permanently lingered in the air.
Especially at night.
The taxi stopped near the entrance of the alley since the roads inside were far too narrow for vehicles.
Theresa carefully paid the fare first before all three stepped out quietly.
The moment Richard exited the taxi, humid air immediately stuck against his skin.
Even near midnight, the place was still alive.
Children ran barefoot through the alleyways.
People sat outside their homes talking loudly.
Someone nearby was still singing karaoke terribly despite the late hour.
A group of men drank gin beside a sari-sari store while an electric fan pointed toward them uselessly.
This was normal here.
Privacy barely existed in communities like this.
Everybody knew everyone.
Everybody knew everyone’s problems too.
"Oy Richard!"
One of the neighbors immediately spotted him.
"Richard! Heard you got robbed!"
Another older woman widened her eyes after seeing the bandage on his forehead.
"That looks bad. Are you alright?"
Richard forced a small smile.
"I’m okay."
"The streets are getting more dangerous these days," one of the men muttered while smoking.
Theresa exchanged a few more words politely before they finally continued walking deeper into the alley.
As they moved farther inside, the surroundings became even tighter.
Electrical wires tangled overhead like spiderwebs.
Some homes stood so close together that sunlight probably barely reached the lower floors during daytime.
Richard quietly looked around while walking.
This place had been his home for years already.
And yet...
Sometimes it still depressed him seeing how people lived here.
One fire alone could wipe out hundreds of homes instantly.
One flood could destroy everything families worked years to build.
Still, despite all that, people continued surviving somehow.
That was probably the only thing poor communities were genuinely good at.
Surviving.
Eventually, they reached their home.
A tiny two-story structure squeezed between neighboring houses.
The lower walls were concrete while the upper portion was patched together using plywood and metal sheets.
Old clothes hung near the window while a weak yellow light illuminated the entrance.
Theresa unlocked the metal gate carefully.
The moment Richard stepped inside, exhaustion immediately hit him harder. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
The house was small.
Very small.
A worn-out sofa sat near the television.
The electric fan near the dining table produced more noise than airflow.
Their refrigerator looked old enough to belong in another decade.
Yeah, this reminded him how poor they were.
But now?
Maybe he could finally change it.
Richard immediately remembered the system.
And more importantly, the plan forming inside his head ever since he left the hospital.
He quickly headed upstairs and locked himself inside his room.
Inside was a cramped space barely large enough for a bed, a plastic drawer, a small study table, and an old standing fan that rattled loudly whenever it oscillated.
Stacks of old engineering notebooks sat near the corner covered in dust.
Richard’s eyes lingered there briefly.
Those notebooks were reminders of a life he once thought he would have.
A future that died the moment debt swallowed their family whole.
He slowly sat on the edge of the bed before pulling out his old Vivo phone from the drawer.
The device honestly looked miserable.
The back cover had scratches everywhere.
The battery bloated slightly near the edges.
Its performance had become so slow that even opening social media apps took forever.
Normally, Richard would have replaced it years ago.
But replacing phones was a luxury poor people rarely prioritized.
The moment he focused on it, the familiar holographic interface immediately appeared before his eyes.
[Ding!]
[Target Detected.]
[Object: Vivo Y11]
[Dimensions: 160.1mm × 76.1mm × 8.3mm]
[Weight: 190.5 grams]
[Condition: Poor]
[How would you like to reconstruct this?]
Well what did reconstruction even mean?
Did the system mean he could restore the phone to factory condition?
Or could he actually transform it into something else entirely?
He only had one reconstruction attempt every day.
Might as well test the limits immediately.
"Uh... reconstruct this into an iPhone 16 Pro Max..." Richard muttered awkwardly.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then suddenly, the phone in his hand emitted a faint blue glow.
Richard’s eyes widened.
Tiny particles of light slowly spread across the Vivo’s body like flowing water.
The scratched plastic back panel began changing first.
The cheap material slowly hardened and transformed into smooth matte glass.
The bloated frame compressed back into shape before gradually becoming thinner and cleaner.
The Vivo logo faded away.
In its place, a glowing Apple logo slowly appeared.
Richard’s breathing unconsciously slowed.
"What the hell..."
The transformation continued. freёwebnovel.com
The thick bezels around the display shrank rapidly.
The cracked edges disappeared completely.
Even the camera module physically shifted shape, expanding outward while the cheap lenses transformed into large premium-looking camera rings.
The entire phone literally reconstructed itself inside his hand.
The process only lasted several seconds.
Then the glow slowly disappeared.
Silence filled the room afterward.
Richard stared blankly at the phone in his hand.
It was no longer his old Vivo.
It genuinely became an iPhone.
[Ding!]
[Successfully reconstructed!]
[Current Daily Reconstruction Capacity:
0/1]
[Next Reconstruction Availability:
23:59:12]
[Current Profit Quota:
₱0 / ₱5,000,000]
Then he looked at the system again, specifically at the quota. It says that in order to level up, he must earn about 5,000,000 PHP (100,000 USD). So this was it huh? The power of the system is that he could take trash and turn into treasure and flip it for an absurd high margin.
This phone would probably sell around 100,000 pesos.
"Okay, this is getting interesting."
