Money Cycling

At exactly 3:00 p.m., Wu Zhong received the program Against the Light had sent him.

There was no icon, just a dull gray phone app.

According to Against the Light, the thing was idiot-proof. He only needed to open it and tap Activate.

To avoid exposure, he could use a phone without a SIM card and connect it to some public Wi-Fi.

Originally, Against the Light had wanted to handle it himself. By his reasoning, anyone could trigger this bug, so there was no need to send the app to Wu Zhong. It was an unnecessary extra step.

But Wu Zhong knew there was no social engineering and no insider within the company.

He had to trigger this himself and activate the app that opened the bug's backdoor.

It was like pressing an elevator button, thereby locking onto the corresponding "door."

So Wu Zhong said there was also a limited window for this. If Against the Light waited for his message before activating it, delays might ruin things.

Against the Light did not suspect anything. He merely quietly prepared the money and several accounts.

"Are you done? When are we starting? I've got the money ready. I'm just waiting for your word." Against the Light was anxious, asking every so often.

Wu Zhong, on the other hand, calmly said, "I'm waiting for my loan to come through. I borrowed thirty thousand yuan."

"Pfft... Thirty thousand? With an opportunity this huge, that's all the capital you've got?" Against the Light said in surprise.

Wu Zhong said, "Thirty thousand-odd is enough for me."

Against the Light sounded like he was about to lose his mind. "Are you kidding me? Thirty thousand? And you had to take out a loan for it?"

Wu Zhong curled his lip. "Do you think I'm rich?"

Against the Light complained, "I could casually transfer you a hundred and fifty thousand, then you transfer it back to me, and you'd instantly make thirty thousand."

Wu Zhong was tempted when he heard that. Of course he knew the more capital he had, the better.

Against the Light continued, "I thought you'd prepared a huge sum and were going to make one big play. After all that, you're planning to repeatedly cycle a measly thirty thousand?"

"Don't. Absolutely don't do that!"

"Wu Zhong, this bug trigger is extremely discreet. My program definitely can't trace it; at most, it can identify the public IP you used."

"So the platform either has to swallow the loss or investigate every single person who profited."

"But the beneficiaries are scattered all over the country, and there are too many of them. Every user who spent money while the bug was active would trigger a 20% instant discount."

"Everyone was making normal purchases. Who the hell would know who started it? Even if the platform finds the insider security staffer who made the bug impossible to fix in the short term, they still won't find you or me."

"You could say this opportunity is extremely safe."

"But if you keep cycling thirty thousand over and over and exploit the bug repeatedly, you'll be far too easy to notice."

Wu Zhong said, "But I don't have the capital."

Against the Light asked, "That insider friend of yours didn't give you a sum of money to cycle for him?"

"Looks like he doesn't trust you that much either. He's just using you."

"Whatever. This opportunity is rare. You'll help me get rich, and I'll help you get rich too."

"Once it starts, I'll transfer you one million!"

Wu Zhong was greatly shaken by those words.

"Really? Aren't you afraid I'll take the money and not pay you back?"

After all, although they had known each other for years, were close, and could talk about anything, they were still online friends. They had never actually met in person.

He had not expected Against the Light to dare transfer one million into his account.

Against the Light shouted, "You wouldn't dare! I know where you live. If you don't pay me back, I'll come to Xunyang City and chop you to death. That's all my savings..."

Wu Zhong was touched. "Don't worry. I'm not that kind of person."

Against the Light quickly added his Spending Treasure account. Wu Zhong took a deep breath and pulled out another phone. It was his grandfather's old phone, which had long since had no SIM card.

Wu Zhong connected to the hospital Wi-Fi and quickly used the app to open the backdoor and activate the bug.

"Has it started? When does it start?" Against the Light kept sending messages to urge him on.

Wu Zhong did not rush to answer. Although all the deductions seemed sound, this was still his first time.

He was not certain it would definitely work.

He should test the waters first. After all, his capital was small.

He went to the payment window and used the thirty-thousand-yuan loan that had arrived to pay for his grandfather's surgery.

With a ding, the money was paid.

Transaction successful!

-24,019.2 yuan.

Order amount: 30,024 yuan. Government subsidy: -6,004.8 yuan.

Wu Zhong was ecstatic. It worked!

It really worked. The expenditure had instantly been reduced by 20%!

The hospital had received more than thirty thousand, but he had only paid twenty-four thousand. There was still more than six thousand left in his account.

"It's done, Against the Light. It's started!"

He immediately called him by voice to notify him, and the latter was overjoyed.

After a while, the other side finally said, "It's coming, it's coming! I transferred it."

Wu Zhong waited for a long time, but no money arrived. His expression changed, and panic overtook him.

"Uh... I didn't receive it. I really didn't receive it."

He hurriedly explained, not knowing whether something had gone wrong. Had Spending Treasure's backend been shut down?

But when he tapped the app, everything appeared normal.

Against the Light, however, calmly said, "Of course you haven't received it. Even though I'm Wealth Black Card Level 3, instant transfers have limits. One million is slower; it'll take over two hours."

Wu Zhong blinked. He really had overlooked that, since he normally never transferred much money.

He did not even know what the Wealth Black Card was.

"Spending Treasure has levels too?"

Against the Light said, "Of course. An average daily asset balance of three hundred thousand makes you Black Card Level 1, five hundred thousand is Black Card Level 2, and one million is Black Card Level 3."

"You don't even have Level 1?"

Wu Zhong curled his lip. "No. I've never had three hundred thousand."

Against the Light laughed. "This is my first time making such a large transfer too, so we can only wait. By the way, how long can you guarantee this bug will last on your end?"

Wu Zhong said, "It can last quite a while, but the faster, the better."

He pondered it. Wasn't the duration entirely up to him? As long as he did not shut it down, they would not be able to fix this bug.

Still, he had to guard against them shutting down the entire platform directly.

Against the Light said, "It's fine. Even in the worst-case scenario, we won't lose anything. To be honest, before transferring the money to you, I already tested it with over a hundred thousand and made a small profit."

"But if it ends now, you won't get your two hundred thousand."

Wu Zhong fell silent. So that was it. Against the Light was not completely thoughtless either. He had tested it first before daring to give him one million.

Once he confirmed that the bug truly worked and was still active, Against the Light knew Wu Zhong had not been making things up.

Only then had he dared to transfer the one million to him with confidence.

Second by second, time passed. Wu Zhong stared intently at his phone and waited for more than two hours.

Ding! Clatter, clatter!

The sound of money came from his phone.

Wu Zhong opened his account's total assets. One million had arrived!

He jumped up in excitement and bounced around the hallway.

"It worked! I got it!"

As he spoke, he immediately tried to transfer the money back to Against the Light.

But this time, it was even slower. It would take two days to arrive!

"It says it'll take two days to arrive..."

Against the Light calmly said, "That's normal. You're only an ordinary member. For one million, the earliest is next-day arrival, and it could take up to two days."

Wu Zhong exclaimed, "Does this bug have to last two days? No matter how unable they are to fix it, the platform will definitely shut down its services, right?"

Against the Light said, "Relax. Since you've transferred the money to me, it'll be mine sooner or later."

"Right now, we should use this time to make more."

Wu Zhong was startled. "What?"

Messages from Against the Light kept coming. "I discovered an upgraded use for this bug: paying off credit cards can trigger the instant discount too."

"My account is linked to a lot of credit cards. The highest limit among them is one million, and I have plenty more with three-hundred-thousand limits."

Wu Zhong was horrified. "Huh? What are you going to do?"

Against the Light said, "Credit card payments are very fast. Paying credit cards through Spending Treasure is fast too, and transferring money from a bank account into Spending Treasure... is even faster!"

Wu Zhong did know that. Withdrawing money from Spending Treasure to a bank card was slow, but topping up Spending Treasure from a bank account was extremely fast.

As long as the mobile banking limit was high enough, it was basically instant.

Against the Light continued, "I've already contacted a friend. I'll use the terminal in his gold shop to charge my credit cards... His shop has huge turnover, so he can transfer cash straight into my card."

"Then I'll top up Spending Treasure and pay off the credit cards, over and over. Every time the money passes through Spending Treasure, it's a 20% windfall!"

"At the end, I'll use all the money in the account to buy gold."

Wu Zhong felt that his tone was brimming with fanaticism.

This guy had gotten carried away.

"Calm down. Cashing out credit cards is illegal..."

Against the Light found that amusing. "What are you talking about? Maliciously exploiting a payment platform's bug is even more criminal."

"Either way, it's more than three years. What's there to say?"

"Besides, I told you, even if the insider gets caught, we won't be caught unless he gives you up."

"In my opinion, since he set this up, he must be cycling far more through other channels. Compared with that, what I'm doing is pocket change."

Wu Zhong grabbed his hair. "Didn't you say not to cycle it repeatedly and that making one score was enough?"

"You were the one who warned me not to do this so I wouldn't draw attention. Why are you going big yourself?"

Against the Light said feverishly, "You only had thirty thousand in capital. Of course cycling that back and forth wasn't worth it."

"But I'm different. I'm not exactly rich, but I still have around a million. Add the credit cards, and after doing this a few times, I'll be financially free..."

"You don't know how disgusting my job has been. I've got diabetes, heart problems, liver problems too. I'm already in my thirties and don't even dare get married. In a few years, I might even get laid off by the company..."

"To hell with it. At worst, I'll grab a fortune and run."

"I have to consider whether this is the only opportunity I'll ever get in my life!"

Wu Zhong was shocked, but he had no grounds to persuade him.

Because he had been the one who wanted to do this in the first place. He had been driven mad by poverty and intended to exploit this bug.

Against the Light had originally tried to dissuade him, but once the huge profits were really in hand, Against the Light himself could no longer sit still... He got carried away faster than anyone.

"Don't get carried away. My grandfather taught me that everything must have limits. Never go too far. Greed is the greatest demon in the human heart."

"This bug won't last long. It'll be fixed soon."

Wu Zhong threw cold water on him, hoping he would calm down, and said he would shut the backdoor on his end immediately.

But Against the Light would not listen. He often went silent, replying only sporadically.

"I've already started. I'm making hundreds of thousands every minute now."

"You can't do this, but I can. This is an opportunity, and when opportunity is in my hands, I have to seize it!"

"Brother, don't try to talk me out of it. I've already quit my job and even booked my plane ticket."

Wu Zhong felt dizzy. "Holy shit, man, you..."

He was stunned by Against the Light's execution. One moment he had been urging him to stop, and the next he had directly prepared to flee, even cutting off his own retreat. He was too decisive.

"Do you really think you can get away? With an amount this huge, the platform will definitely trace it to the end and demand all our money back," Wu Zhong said.

Against the Light replied with a laugh, "You're overthinking it. This isn't some unbelievable amount. I figure I'll cycle for half an hour at most, then stop."

"And do you think that when this bug appeared last time, the platform didn't recover its losses because it didn't want to? No! It was because it couldn't!"

"Do you really think capital doesn't care about us taking this little advantage? It involved too many people, and the money had already circulated multiple times, passing through countless hands across the country and involving an enormous number of transactions."

"If they wanted to ignore public opinion and trace and freeze everyone one by one, the cost would be even greater than the losses they could recover!"

Wu Zhong froze. So when the platform said it would not recover the money after the last bug incident, it was not being merciful. It simply could not do it...

That immediately put him at ease.

But even so, Against the Light was cycling money in such a regular pattern. He would definitely be discovered.

The other users during the same period, including Wu Zhong himself, would surely be fine, but Against the Light might get caught.

Yet judging by his attitude, he clearly did not care. He was going all in!

"This..."

Wu Zhong was somewhat speechless. Who exactly had superpowers here?

He himself was being so cautious, while this guy had merely hitched a ride on his coattails and was now gambling everything he had.

"Against the Light, enough. How much have you made? Run already."

Wu Zhong urged him. He did not want him to get caught.

Against the Light replied, "Not much, not much... Oh, right, you don't need to return that one million. Cancel the transfer. It's a gift."

"..." Wu Zhong's mouth twitched.

Not much? He was giving away one million just like that.

Hadn't he said he would chop him to death if he did not pay it back? Clearly, Against the Light had already cycled himself crazy in that short time!

His perspective had changed in an instant. He had so much money now that he no longer cared about one million.

Wu Zhong thought to himself that this could not continue. He decisively ended the bug incident.

The operation was simple. He only needed to touch the app and think about removing the effect.

Without the superpower effect sustaining it, the rest could be left to the platform's security staff. They would naturally shut it down.

Sure enough, after waiting a while, a message from Against the Light arrived.

"The bug's been fixed. What a shame. That guy must have cycled enough."

Wu Zhong rolled his eyes. I was afraid you'd cycle too much, you bastard!

Against the Light had always believed there was a mole inside the platform group.

Wu Zhong did not explain and kept asking, "Better to cash out while it's good! How much did you make? Will they find out?"

After a long while, Against the Light replied, "Huh? Oh, there's a high chance I'll be held accountable. I'm already at the airport."

"But you don't need to worry. Several people were doing it at the same time, not just me."

Wu Zhong's heart stirred, and he understood as well.

That was right. Against the Light definitely was not the only one farming money.

After all, this bug had appeared twice in total. The first time, people were not used to it yet. Either they had not noticed the twenty percent discount, or they were afraid the money would be reclaimed, so no one exploited it.

But after the news came out, everyone knew about it, and the platform had not reclaimed the money.

Now that the bug had appeared a second time, anyone paying attention would see it: It was back? Another instant twenty percent off? Damn it, they absolutely could not miss it this time.

So without a doubt, uncountable people all over the country were deliberately exploiting it to make money and quietly get rich.

Against the Light said, "Even if I get caught, it'll only be for malicious cashing out. That's just breaking the law."

"As for triggering the bug, if you don't say anything and I don't say anything, who would know?"

"Someone will definitely take the blame for this, but it won't be us."

"You should be more worried that the person who told you the news gets caught. Don't rat me out."

Wu Zhong thought about it and realized he was right. Triggering the bug and taking advantage of it to farm money were two different matters.

At most, Against the Light would be investigated for farming money, and plenty of people had been doing the same thing at the time.

As for triggering the bug, it was practically impossible to trace, at most leading back to this hospital's IP address.

Against the Light still had to worry about the mole being exposed, while Wu Zhong did not have to worry at all. There was no mole—only a superpower.

"Tch! You're making me want to do it again," Wu Zhong said with a curl of his lip.

Against the Light chuckled. "You were the one who told me about this opportunity. I couldn't even talk you out of it back then. That means you've got the guts of a thief, but not the heart of one."

"It's fine. Take my one million and use it. That's everything I painstakingly saved over the past decade or so. The taxes have already been paid."

Wu Zhong asked, "What about you? How much did you actually make?"

Against the Light still did not answer that question. He only said, "Anyway, I've made enough. I'm hanging up. I'm deleting you now, Old Wu. If fate allows it, we'll meet again."

"Deleting me?" When Wu Zhong tried to ask again, he found that the voice call had ended.

Then he checked and, damn, the friend had already been deleted, and the records had all been cleared.

He knew that Against the Light was protecting both of them.

If Against the Light was caught, they could at most hold him accountable for maliciously farming money. Only their chat records might make people realize that he had also been behind this bug.

That was why he deleted the records, even removing him from his friends list.

In truth, the only important record was the voice call log. The app did not record voice call content.

Other than being cautious, it was even a little unnecessary.

After all, even if he was caught, no one would imagine that Against the Light was one of the people behind this incident.

"Ah..." Wu Zhong sat in a hospital chair, staring blankly into space, feeling somewhat lost.

He had lost a good friend. He did not have many friends in real life to begin with; they were all online friends.

Now that they had lost contact, they truly would never meet again.

However, when Wu Zhong saw the one million in Spending Treasure, he immediately perked up again.

He had money! A full one million. He had never had this much money in his life.

This was all of Against the Light's savings. Wu Zhong had expected to use his superpower to make money, yet he had barely made any himself. Instead, he had helped the other man achieve financial freedom, and the other man had given him a sum of money...

Thinking about it carefully, Against the Light had provided the bug program, the capital had been Against the Light's, Against the Light had farmed the money, and Against the Light had also taken the risk and fled.

Wu Zhong scratched his head. It seemed like he had not done anything at all.

He had merely triggered his ability once and received one million.

Wu Zhong had been annoyed before that his ability seemed useless, but upon thinking it over, simply possessing an ability was the greatest value. Gold would always shine brilliantly.

When everyone else in the world was ordinary, possessing any ability no one else had was enough to break the fate of an ordinary life.