I came before the terminal, and took out the black card.
Slide---
The black card slid into the card slot seamlessly, just like any ordinary bank card. I held my breath, as the LED light flashed vividly with an emerald mint. The screen left its idle state and began to load the card credentials.
【Please wait...】
Five seconds… Ten seconds… The screen still appeared to be loading.
Was it jammed---? Perhaps the card wasn’t recognized by the machine after all? In the next moment, the screen blanked out all of a sudden. I watched the empty, black display reflecting the rigid expression on my face, and felt a bad premonition.
A malfunction? Right after the card was inserted into the machine?
「Wh-What the!」
My fears were realized in the next moment----
0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
As strings of green digits starting to cascade down the display, a cold sweat trickled down my forehead. Like a matrix raining down codes of 0s and 1s, a relentless assault of figures covered the screen. And I noticed from the center, there was a blink of red which slowly dyed the code in red branches.
While that strange virus-like webbing of digits continued to seep into all four corners of the screen, the machine began to malfunction in real life! Before long, the entire screen had been completely bleached.
Something like this wasn’t normal! The machine looked like it was being hacked!
Crackling, and buzzing---- The sounds of circuits frying and light sparks overloaded the machine, causing me to flinch backwards.
「Shit!」
I cried out in shock as a loose wire almost came in contact with my right arm! My body stiffened even more in the face of the severity of this situation: Destruction, tampering of bank property, in addition to attempted hijacking and misuse of the ATM… But what can I do to stop it? What should I do? It was impossible to take the card out of the machine now.
As the red wall of 0s and 1s had completely enveloped the entire display, I realized how naive I had been the entire time. Had I been possessed by a demon known as ‘money’ again? Confusion, regret, anger… All of those feelings swirled into a mess. I clutched my throbbing head, images of my childhood flashed before my eyes. Repeating the mistakes of the past, I was about to recreate yet another irreversible incident---
My head immediately cooled down several degrees, and my mind started to turn.
...Let’s not have anything to do with this black card anymore. Fortunately, this was one ATM terminal which didn’t have a CCTV. In that case, no one will know that I was here if I left this whole mess alone. There wasn’t anyone around in my surroundings yet.
I took another step back. Can’t be indecisive at any rate, I would be in huge trouble if someone came by and saw me with a defective machine.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. The sounds of the machine continued to play incessantly, ringing unpleasantly in my ears----
And just when I had made up my mind to get out of here as soon as possible, the next sequence of events caused me to stop my feet.
The strings of code started to submerge back into the blank screen, as if they weren’t there in the first place. The circuits began to run normally, and the display lit up again. But instead of the familiar white screen common for an ATM, the anomaly had only surfaced a single, flickering sentence with a sanguine font.
【Name】
And below those words was an input space.
「Name... Does it want… a name?」
I stared at the card slot where the black card had entered, and started to realize something. The machine had flipped out from the start because of the black card, and it wasn’t that difficult to overwrite the entire machine if it could spill out all those strings of code.
So this ‘name’, was what it wanted me to see.
Somehow, I felt it. I had a feeling that it wanted to know my name instead.
My curiosity was ignited once more. Despite understanding the danger, despite understanding how strange this situation was… I couldn’t help but stand back up on the terminal.
With my heart beating fast, I rested my trembling hands on the keypad below the screen.
Name. Should I use my real name? No. I don’t even know what this implies. Then, an alias. An alias will do.
An anagram of my name? Or should I borrow a fictional name here. ...Why am I even thinking so hard about this? I typed in the characters: “MONEY”, and pressed ‘enter’.
…
…
Immediately after, another sentence appeared.
【Invalid name.】
...What? Invalid name?
Don’t tell me… the name is some kind of password?
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I frowned and stared back at the screen.
What does it want from me?
After much deliberation, I decided to use my real name this time.
【Invalid name.】
...It didn’t work? Maybe I should put my name down in full.
【Invalid name.】
...How about, ‘name’?
Before I was even able to press ‘enter’, the sentence flickered into a new one again and resetted the input characters.
【One try remaining.】
「...」
I closed my eyes for a moment, and then opened it again.
Why am I trying so hard to crack the ‘password’ in the first place? What am I even doing? The phone in my coat had been vibrating for a while now, and yet I was still this focused trying to work out this mystery.
Perhaps I hated losing. I didn’t want to give up. I wanted to prove something. That no amount of ‘effort’ is worthless. I was simply a prideful, stuck-up person.
To someone… ...I wanted to prove that I was worthy.
I suddenly recalled something about the black card itself.
There was the digit nine etched in reverse. Perhaps… the name was ‘nine’?
Slowly but surely, I tapped down the letters on the keypad. But I stopped just before I hit ‘enter’.
Is the answer really ‘nine’?
What if I got it wrong again? It told me that I had one try remaining, so what happens when I fail again?
I hesitated. Nine. Would someone be called ‘Nine’? No, that might not be the right answer.
Then, I suddenly came across an epiphany.
What if, the ‘name’ requested, was actually… a ‘title’?
That’s right, a title. What if the ‘name’ it wanted, was more of a way to ‘address’ the user? Like how the ATM gives standard responses towards the user, their ‘dearest guest’?
If it was a means of addressing someone, then instead of ‘nine’, wouldn’t it be...
「...Ninth.」
As the ‘name’ left my mouth, the screen suddenly changed.
It had heard the correct response.
【User confirmed. Welcome back,〘Ninth〙】
The screen was swallowed up in a familiar wall of red again, but aside from that strange coloring, the interface had finally returned to the proper one at long last. I realized that my guess was on the mark.
However, when I tapped on the “Available Balance” for the card, my heart almost stopped.
「...You’re… kidding me, right?」
Was I dreaming? Tell me, the machine malfunctioned, didn’t it? Otherwise, how would it explain the numbers shown on the screen? A string of nine, to the point of absurdity. To the point which I doubted what I had seen----
The balance within the black card was, at the very least reflected clearly before me:
【$999,999,999,818.55】
And not even a digit off after putting into consideration that I had used the black card to pay for a case of beer. Otherwise, the balance would have been a perfect row of nine.
This heavy feeling lingered within my chest for the longest time.
It was hard to accept reality, even if it was a joke. Because if it wasn’t, then I had just become one of the richest individuals in the world at this very moment.
But what was this strange uneasiness that chills my spine? When I had calmed down a little, I had to ask the question: Where did all this money come from?
Did I want to dig deeper? I wasn’t sure anymore. The initial sparks of curiosity had long died down after seeing the colossal sum beyond my comprehension. Perhaps it was best to simply leave the unknown to an expert. I’m just in charge of spending.
This was already beyond the realm of a ‘small fortune’ after all.
I rested my gaze on the option to 【Withdraw】, and consciously gulped down a mouthful of saliva.
I-In any case... All of the money now… belongs to me, right? It won’t hurt anybody if I snip away a little more...
Right, I’m no Samaritan in the first place either. I came prepared to use any money that was inside. Besides, I need to confirm if this amount holds true.
Yeah. I’m just trying to see if the card is working properly or not. For now… this amount should be fine, right? I convinced myself with all sorts of excuses and with the rush of adrenaline, I punched in the amount “$5,000” breathlessly, and withdrew it.
Rumble, rumble, rumble--- The ATM made a churning sound while it counted the bills inside. A few seconds later, a slot opened with a stack of fresh, crisp $100 notes inside.
It’s true. The notes, are all real money. Of course it is.
At any rate, I should stop here. There will be plenty of opportunities to use the card again in the future. Glancing at the screen of nines once more, I steeled my heart and exited the bank interface.
Beep, beep beep----
【Please remove your card.】
The black card slid back out of the card slot, and I finally released a sigh.
This was all too much for my heart to handle. In the future, I will have to take my time to experiment with this thing. Taking into consideration how the ATM behaved, and the words which even appeared to be somewhat sentient… I had to know the limits of what I could, and couldn’t do. In the case that I had infringed on some unlawful territory, it was best to dispose of the card as soon as possible.
When I reached out to take the card out of the slot completely, I suddenly felt a sting on my fingers!
---Szzt---
「T-Te! It’s burning hot!」
The black card had actually emitted steam the moment my fingers came in contact with it! How high was its temperature now? My fingers had already turned numb, creating a bloated layer of peeled skin.
It was probably due to the circuits that malfunctioned earlier within the ATM, the metal of the black card had conducted the heat inside. I took out a few tissues from my bag and pinched it out. After securing the black card, I kept it secured in a small compartment hidden inside my bag.
I took out my phone, and realized that there were already 14 missed calls from Nijima. To be honest, I was no longer in a mood to attend the party. I wanted to just lie down on my bed and reorganize the things that had happened today.
The existence of the strange, black card was already making my head spin, but it was also bad for my reputation if I ditched a welcoming party for the freshmen.
I slapped my cheeks a few times, and tried to clear out my head of any unnecessary thoughts. At the very least, I should show my face for a bit before I return to the dormitory. While heading towards the restaurant Nijima had texted me prior, I glanced at the stack of money stuffed in my wallet.
This much should be more than enough to keep them satisfied. Looking up at the night sky, another lethargic sigh escaped me.
...I feel so tired. So floaty, as if I'm still in a dream. But---
「...If this is a dream, I hope I never wake up. ...Haha... hahahahahaha...」
Chuckling to myself madly, I began to pick up my pace.
Happy... that's right. I should be happy! I'm a billionaire... no, I'm way beyond that right now! I'm super, ultra rich now! Money is everything, which means... I can buy everything now! Hahahahahahahahaha!!! I'm goddamn rich! I'm fucking rich!!!
Before I had realized it, my prancing feet had already stopped before the entrance of a chinese restaurant. A young man dressed smartly as if he was in his graduation prom came up to me as soon as he saw me. He was Nijima, a kouhai in our department.
『Senpai, you're late! ...Also... what is with that creepy grin on your face...』
Nijima backed off a few steps as he was unused to my smile. But at this point, I was already too high to care.
「Hahahahaha, whaat, don't worry about it. Come, come, take the beer here. Let's go inside already.」
The young man looked at me strangely, but shook his head quickly.
『Well okay... come in, everyone is waiting.』
Without any more delays, the two of us entered the restaurant.