She Asked Us to Give Up SATs for a Million-Dollar Promise Chapter 01

She Asked Us to Give Up SATs for a Million-Dollar Promise Chapter 01

On the eve of the SATs, the new transfer student suddenly announced that she had been bound to a System.

“If we all skip the SATs, the System will reward each of us with ten million dollars.”

She was practically glowing as she told us every detail of the contract she had made with the System.

“The System came to me last night. It said that as long as I cooperated with its mission, I’d get an incredible reward.”

“Ten million dollars. Even if you got into the best college in the country, you’d never make that much money. Besides, we’d only be skipping this year’s SATs. Worst case, we repeat senior year and take them again.”

In my previous life, listening to her had nearly made my head explode.

I contacted the school and called the police, stopping that absurd tragedy just in time.

But after everything came out, the transfer student was mocked by everyone for being delusional.

She couldn’t take the pressure and slit her wrists.

Because of that, the three boys I had grown up with hated me. On the day of her memorial, they tricked me onto the rooftop and shoved me off, sending me plummeting to my death, my body shattered on impact.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day the transfer student announced that she had been bound to a System.

Looking at everyone’s eager faces, I kept my mouth shut.

A bunch of fucking idiots. This time, I wasn’t going to stick my nose into their business.

Stella Collins planted her hands on her hips, lifted her chin, and said, “I’m only telling you guys, so you have to keep this a secret for me, okay?”

My boyfriend, Ethan Foster, could barely hide his excitement.

“Is this real? Systems actually exist? Stella, you’re not messing with us, are you?”

Stella covered her mouth and giggled mysteriously. She even glanced around with exaggerated caution before taking out her phone.

She opened an app with a solid black icon.

The moment the app loaded, an ad popped up and forced her to watch it for thirty seconds.

When the ad ended, a line of glowing, rainbow-colored text floated in the center of the black screen.

[Everyone Gets Rich Mission activated!]

[Mission One: Give something up to gain something bigger. Skip the SATs and receive ten million dollars.]

The few childhood friends gathered around the phone all drew in a sharp breath.

Their eyes filled with shock and excitement as they leaned in, staring at the screen with greedy, feverish intensity.

It was as if they had just seen some once-in-a-lifetime chance to rewrite their fate.

As for me, I kept my eyes lowered the entire time, my gaze cold and indifferent.

No one knew better than I did what this so-called “System app” really was.

After I called the police in my previous life, they investigated it thoroughly.

They found that it was nothing but a sketchy, half-baked prank-scam app from an unknown source, designed specifically to trick gullible teenagers.

It had no official verification. It was just malware some bored programmer had thrown together at home.

There was no massive payout. That was never going to happen.

It was just a pop-up selling empty promises.

Worse, the malware could steal personal information from the phone it was installed on.

It was nothing but downside.

In my previous life, after I found out what the app was, I tried to talk Stella through it and make her see reason. I asked her, “Look, this app doesn’t even show up in the App Store or Google Play. It isn’t verified, so it isn’t safe. And why are you so sure it’s actually a System?”

But Stella had always been obsessed with System webnovels.

She was convinced she was the chosen one.

She answered me, “Evelyn, you’re just jealous that the System chose me, aren’t you?”

“This app knew my name and address from the start. It even predicted that we’d have a group hangout today. If something that powerful isn’t a mysterious System from a novel, then what is it?”

And now, facing the expectant looks of everyone around her, Stella hadn’t even changed her script.

“The System is amazing. It said it could calculate that we were coming to this hangout today.”

I rolled my eyes inwardly.

The malware could steal her chat history from her phone.

That wasn’t hard to figure out at all.

But the people in front of me had already been dazzled senseless by a trap dressed up as a miracle that had dropped into their laps. They had mostly bought it.

Seeing the shock and envy on their faces, Stella became even more smug.

She tapped the screen a few times and excitedly opened the so-called mission rules.

Stella raised her voice, her tone filled with fanatical certainty.

“Come look. These are the mission rules from the System. The System would never lie!”

“The rules are simple. As long as all of us voluntarily skip the SATs and sign our names here, the System will verify everything. Once the SATs are over, every participant will receive ten million dollars in cash!”

Ethan was completely convinced. His eyes burned with excitement.

“So all we have to do is skip this year’s SATs, and we get ten million dollars for free? Ten million dollars. That’s more than an ordinary person could make in several lifetimes!”

The other two boys I had grown up with immediately chimed in.

“Holy crap. Isn’t that basically a guaranteed ten million dollars? We’re just not taking the SATs. How big of a deal can that be?”

“Stella is so lucky. She actually got bound to a miracle System like this. I’m in. I’m definitely in.”

Soon, Stella opened the signature page.

[Stella Collins’s signature confirmed!]

[Ethan Foster’s signature confirmed!]

[Mason Shaw’s signature confirmed!]

[Logan Hayes’s signature confirmed!]