One Click Billionaire

Adam stared at the amount displayed on the screen. His eyes shone with a bright intense light. He felt a profound sense of disbelief mixed with pure elation.

"This is as much money as I make in a whole year," Adam said. His voice was a reverent whisper. "And look. I made it all in just a few hours." He thought of the endless nights stocking shelves. He thought of the exhausting weekends cleaning offices. He thought of the constant frantic running for the hotel. All that struggle for a year's wages he had just created in one afternoon sitting on his bed.

His phone vibrated again. It was another text message from his bank. The notifications had been coming in a constant stream. Each one was a small buzz a tiny confirmation of his new reality. He had received thousands of them. He picked up the phone. He felt a flash of irritation. The constant buzzing was distracting. It was pulling him out of his state of focused work. He went into his phone's settings. He found the messaging app. He turned off all notifications. He wanted silence. He wanted to focus only on the app.

He switched back to the One-Click Billionaire screen. Just as his thumb was about to touch the gray button again his stomach growled. It was a loud insistent noise that echoed in the quiet room. The sound broke his concentration completely. He realized he was starving. He had not eaten since the small piece of toast he had forced down at five thirty this morning.

He smiled. It was a relaxed genuine smile. He put the phone down on the bed beside him. "I have plenty of time," he said to himself. "And enough money to pay this month's rent." He looked at the $10,010 on the screen. 

He could pay his rent right now. But he knew that as soon as he paid the $750 he would have less. His new wealth would be diminished. A part of him felt a sudden greed. A new ambition. Ten thousand dollars was not enough. He wanted more. He needed more. He needed a buffer. A real foundation.

He made a decision. He would make one hundred thousand dollars today. That would be his new goal. After he reached that number he would think about his next plan. He would think about paying the rent. He would think about everything else.

With that thought settled in his mind Adam went to his small kitchen area. He opened the nearly empty refrigerator. He found a packet of instant noodles. He boiled some water on his small electric stovetop. A few minutes later he was sitting at his small wobbly table eating the noodles straight from the pot.

After he finished his simple meal he glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 11:30 AM. He could not believe it. He had spent hours just sitting on his bed tapping a screen. The time had vanished. He felt a strange disconnect from the normal world. His old life of schedules and deadlines felt very far away.

He went back to the bed. He sat down. He picked up the phone. He opened the app. He started tapping again.

The afternoon passed in a blur. The light outside his window changed. The shadows in his room grew long. He did not stop. He was a machine. His thumb was a part of the phone. His mind was focused on a single task. 

Tap. Four dollars. Tap. Tap.

It was evening now. Adam had been tapping for seven hours straight. His initial target of one hundred thousand dollars was a distant memory. He had passed that goal hours ago. He had not even noticed. He had just kept going.

He finally stopped. His hand was a claw of pain. His thumb was numb and raw. His entire arm throbbed with a dull ache. But he did not care about the pain. He was looking at the number on the screen. He had to read it several times to make sure his tired eyes were not deceiving him.

$2,500,000.

Two and a half million dollars.

He was staring at a number that he could not truly comprehend. It was an amount of money that belonged in movies and dreams. It did not belong to him. 

Not to Adam who worried about buying milk. A laugh escaped his lips. It was a wild unhinged sound. It was the sound of a man whose reality had been completely shattered.

A million dollars, he thought. Most people will never see that much money in their entire lives. He thought about the people in his building. He thought about his landlady Mrs. Gold. 

Even she did not have this much money. Adam was certain of it. If she had two and a half million dollars she would not be living in this rundown building. She would not be nagging tenants over a few late dollars. He was richer than anyone he knew.

He slowly pushed himself up from the bed. His body was stiff. He walked to the small balcony at the front of his apartment. He slid open the glass door and stepped outside. The cool evening air was a welcome shock on his skin. 

He looked out at the city. The sun was setting. It was a fiery ball of orange and red sinking behind the distant buildings. The sky was bruised with purple and pink. He could not believe he had spent the entire day inside that small room. He had lost a whole day of his life to that phone.

As he watched the last sliver of the sun disappear a familiar panic flared in his chest. He was supposed to be at his delivery job right now. He had to run packages for City-Sprint. His shift had started an hour ago. He had completely forgotten.

Then the number flashed in his mind again. $2,500,000.

He smiled. The panic vanished as quickly as it had appeared. "I forgot," he said to the setting sun. "I forgot that I'm rich now."

He leaned on the railing of the balcony. He looked down at the street below. He saw a familiar figure. It was his landlady Mrs. Gold. She was in the small patch of garden in front of the building. She was pulling weeds with a vicious energy. She wore old clothes and a sour expression.

Adam watched her for a moment. An idea formed in his mind. He had more than enough money. Why not pay the rent right now? Why not get it over with? It would be one less thing to worry about. It would be a small taste of his new freedom.