「March 31st, Battery City Park, morning.」

Li Wei was killing time by the entrance, glancing at the Rolex Daytona on his wrist every so often.

Right now, Horizon Holding Company Limited had 5.25 million USD in its accounts. His share was about 5.09 million, with the remaining 160,000 USD being Don Quixote’s 3% commission as his agent.

But figuring out how to spend this 5.09 million USD was Li Wei’s biggest headache—and a source of immense frustration.

’Buy a house?’ He couldn’t afford a place on Anya’s level even if he poured all his money into it. He’d discreetly asked her about it—the penthouse apartment Mr. Sergey had casually bought for her in Riverdale cost over 9 million USD. And that didn’t even include the furniture, much of which had been shipped directly from Italy.

’I hate rich people,’ Li Wei thought, staring at the new blades of grass sprouting from the ground.

’How can my damn future father-in-law be so rich?’ He’d seen in Forbes that Sergey’s net worth had already surpassed 15 billion USD.

And that was just the publicly disclosed portion of his wealth. Anya had once mentioned that he and Vladimir were on very close personal terms, a fact that alone made his fortune incalculable.

Then his thoughts turned to Elizabeth Mellon and her family’s main residence, which sat on a fucking seventy or eighty thousand acres. ’Fuck, we’re all 18—oh, wait, Elizabeth is technically 19—how can anyone be that rich?’

The car he’d bought wouldn’t be arriving for a little while. After dropping off Lily, Don Quixote had gone to see a therapist about his ED, though it wasn’t helping much. Now, every few days, Li Wei had to give him a pep talk and ply him with vitamins as a placebo, all to help him and Susan have a happy sex life.

As he waited for the car, Li Wei’s mind wandered.

While the daily increase in his stats brought him fame and wealth, it also came with some unwanted side effects, like getting hungry easily and his mind becoming increasingly active.

Li Wei suspected this was because his point-allocation strategy had resulted in an incomplete physical evolution. He could only hope the problem would resolve itself once his Silver Body reached its complete form.

But then again, he couldn’t help but start comparing Elizabeth Mellon and Anya, wondering which of them was wealthier.

Based on where she lived and what she drove, Anya had initially seemed like the richer one. Especially when he learned that the quarterly dividend from her trust was between 2.2 and 2.6 million USD, he felt like he’d stumbled into the realm of the gods.

But then he saw Mellon casually summon a Rolls-Royce Phantom with a single sentence, and at such a young age, she was chatting and working alongside the Mayor of New York and the directors of major foundations. He realized he had still underestimated the power of old money families.

Just as he was lost in thought, a truck passed through the gate’s rigorous security check, rounded a corner, and pulled up in front of Li Wei.

"Mr. Li Wei," the driver hopped out, holding a clipboard. "This is the vehicle your company purchased, and the delivery form. Could you please sign for it?"

"Thanks," Li Wei said, slipping him a 20 USD tip as he signed the form. "Go ahead and unload it."

"You got it!" The driver beamed upon receiving the tip. "May God bless you, sir."

As the driver set up the ramp, a vehicle was driven down. It was a car identical to Li Wei’s own Cadillac Escalade—even the color was the same.

Yes, it was a Cadillac Escalade, but it was also not a Cadillac Escalade. To be precise, it was an INKAS-armored Cadillac Escalade, with a price tag approaching 500,000 USD.

Li Wei hadn’t planned on buying it, but Don Quixote had told him, "You might as well. You don’t have many other places to spend your money right now. And if you buy it, I’ll have some peace of mind when you’re out driving around on your own."

Seeing Li Wei was still hesitant, he pressed his advantage. "If your jersey sales hit 40 million USD this year, that’s another 2 million coming in. Add to that your starting salary and appearance fees from September... you do the math. How long is it going to take you to spend all this money?"

"Or you could just save it," he added with a shrug. "And then pay half of it in taxes next year."

’Might as well buy it, then.’ After all, while it looked identical to his old one on the outside, its core had undergone a complete transformation:

Its 360-degree ballistic steel plating, bullet-resistant glass, and reinforced door hinges gave it a BR6 armor rating, allowing it to withstand 7.62mm rifle rounds, as well as blasts from landmines and hand grenades.

The two rear bench seats had been replaced with two independent, Maybach-style captain’s chairs. A large TV, a refrigerator, and a safe had also been installed—the latter large enough to hold over 100,000 USD and three handguns.

The vehicle was also fitted with a supercharger, allowing the 6.2-liter V8 engine to crank out 650 horsepower—more than enough to propel the 4.5-ton land-based armored vehicle.

Aside from the high price and its abysmal gas mileage—it got less than eight miles to the gallon—it didn’t have any major drawbacks. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"That’s an easy fix," the sales manager had said. "We also offer a service to install an auxiliary fuel tank of about 40 gallons (150 liters) in the empty space within the underbody armor."

In the end, Li Wei checked the box for it. At least this way, a full tank would get him 900 kilometers, so he wouldn’t be frantically searching for a gas station every 300 kilometers.

’Alright, now its only drawback is the price.’

Just as he was signing the papers, a Mercedes G800—which looked a full size smaller than the armored Escalade—pulled up.

Anya, who was in the driver’s seat, lowered her window and looked at the Escalade.

"Why’d you buy another one?" she asked with a smile. "What happened to the old one?"