The Ten Thousandfold Cheat

Row after row of stacked, gleaming gold bars lay beneath Harper in the hidden vault. The harsh reflection of her phone's flashlight nearly blinded her. In both her past life and this one, she had never seen so much wealth. Suppressing a wild, unhinged grin that threatened to break her composure, she knelt closer to the opening. The heavy footsteps upstairs served as a ticking clock. She reached out toward the first glittering row.

Take. Take. Take.

With swift precision, she focused her mind. In the blink of an eye, the massive rows of gold vanished from the secret compartment. They materialized neatly inside her magical storage space. The immense fortune disappeared bar by bar, leaving the subterranean vault barren.

Once the final piece was secured, Harper sprang into motion. She replaced the wooden floor panel and secured the small metal lock. She smoothed the expensive Poshain rug over the trapdoor, meticulously erasing all physical tracks. She wiped the floorboards and slipped out through the narrow kitchen window on the ground floor.

The cool night air hit her face. Just down the street, a heavy garbage truck rolled into the neighborhood to collect the early morning trash.

Harper ducked behind a tall decorative hedge. She pulled a sanitation worker's uniform from her newly acquired supplies and threw it over her clothes. She secured a large face mask over her nose and mouth, grabbing a broad-bristled broom she had lifted from the property management office. Keeping her head down, she swept her way down the driveway.

She walked right past the yawning security guards stationed near the gate. They barely glanced her way. The driver assumed she belonged to the neighborhood maintenance crew. The guards assumed she rode in on the back of the garbage truck. Nobody raised a single alarm. She swept the pavement with steady, rhythmic strokes until she crossed the property line and confidently exited the Emerald Estate.

Slipping into the shadows of a nearby public park, she navigated toward a dense cluster of oak trees. She ducked deep into the thick bushes, shielding herself from any security cameras mounted along the streetlamps. Taking a deep breath, she sent her consciousness directly into her storage space.

The moment she stepped inside, she froze in sheer awe.

She blinked, looking around the vast expanse. Was she in the wrong place?

The area, which was once no larger than a cramped shoebox and had only grown slightly with her previous offerings, had expanded to the size of a massive stadium. The towering piles of supplies she had gathered now occupied just a tiny corner of the vast void. They looked so small they were easy to miss against the endless backdrop.

Harper laughed into the empty night air. She pinched her thigh hard through her uniform pants. The sharp sting confirmed this was real. Her voice trembled as she realized her chances of surviving the brutal apocalypse had just skyrocketed beyond comprehension.

"I hit the jackpot! With a space this big, I am going to make it."

Suddenly, a cold, mechanical voice echoed directly into her mind.

"Detected: 15,190,000 pounds of gold. Would you like to activate the Ten-Thousandfold Duplication Ability?"

Harper stiffened. She stopped breathing for a second.

The Ten-Thousandfold Duplication Ability? Did she hear that right? And fifteen million pounds of gold? How did a mere rich man from Ashbourne amass that kind of physical reserve?

The gold was only what remained after the storage space had absorbed a chunk of it to fuel the stadium-sized expansion. Was this fortune even legally his?

It did not matter anymore. It was hers now.

Thrilled and overwhelmed by the unbelievable haul, Harper clenched her fists.

"Activate."

The prompt's mechanical voice instructed her.

"Please select the item you want to duplicate."

Harper turned her attention to her corner of supplies. Following the instructions, she pointed her finger directly at a standard bag of long-grain rice sitting on the floor.

A glowing message appeared in her vision: Consume 2 pounds of gold to create 10,000 copies?

She eagerly confirmed the transaction.

Instantly, a faint hum vibrated through the dimension. Towering mountains of identical rice bags materialized out of thin air. They cascaded into perfect, organized columns, stacking toward the invisible ceiling.

Harper's eyes went wide. She stared at the endless wall of carbohydrates.

It worked. The cheat ability actually worked. She was loaded beyond her wildest dreams. With this kind of power, the impending apocalyptic wasteland was nothing to fear.

Her soaring excitement was abruptly and painfully cut short. A sharp, intense pain shot directly through her backside. She had forgotten about the dimension's strict five-minute physical time limit. The space forcefully ejected her.

Harper crashed face-first onto the damp grass of the park, her limbs sprawling across the dew-soaked ground.

She gritted her teeth, spitting out a mouthful of dirt. She clutched her bruised hip, climbed to her feet, and limped away from the bushes.

By 5:00 a.m., an elated Harper arrived at the bustling morning markets. The air smelled of frying oil, roasted coffee, and sweet dough.

In the past, she would never buy ready-made food from outside. To save every precious penny, she always cooked her meals from scratch.

But things were different today. Empowered by her immense wealth and her god-like new duplication ability, she knew her miserable penny-pinching days were officially over forever. She did not need to ration her resources. She needed to hoard everything she could find.

Harper approached a steaming food cart near the entrance of the market, leaned against the metal counter, and cheerfully called out.

"Boss, how much breakfast did you make today? I will take all of it! First, hand me a tray of mini bagels, three sausages, and a bowl of grits."

The shocked street vendor wiped his hands on his apron and stared at her.

"Sure thing! But can you finish all that food by yourself?"

Harper smoothly lied to avoid drawing any dangerous suspicion.

"Of course not. It is for my coworkers. There are more than thirty of us living together on a construction site down the road. I lost a bet, so I am responsible for buying breakfast for everyone. The company is paying for it anyway."

The vendor laughed, his suspicion melting away.

"Then eat first. No charge. Your breakfast is on me."

Harper did not refuse the hospitality.

"Thanks!"

She took the warm plate and dug in. The food was delicious. She devoured everything in record time, leaving the cardboard containers spotless.

After the vendor finished packing the massive pile of food into large plastic bags, Harper wiped her mouth with a napkin.

"Your breakfast is really good. Do you take advance orders?"

The man wiped the grill.

"Of course. How much do you want?"

She pulled out her phone, scanned his code, and casually handed over a five-thousand dollar cash advance.

"Twenty trays of bagels a day, with different flavors every week. Sixty sausages, thirty burgers, and thirty pancakes. I want to place a daily order for one month. If it is too much, keep the extra. If it is not enough, let me know."

The vendor stared at his phone screen, beaming brightly like he had just won the lottery.

"Deal! Don't worry. I will make sure everything is fresh and done right!"

Carrying the heavy bags full of hot breakfast, Harper walked down an adjacent alleyway where no one could see her. With a quick wave of her hand, she tossed the steaming containers directly into her storage space. The time-frozen environment would keep the food perfectly hot and fresh until she was ready to eat it.

Heading to the next breakfast stand, she did the exact same thing, securing massive month-long daily orders of sizzling sausages and hot pancakes. The duplication ability was a miracle, but it still consumed her gold reserves. Storing ready-made meals was a smart investment. She intended to lock them away before the apocalypse wiped such delicacies out of human existence.

Next, Harper left the breakfast stalls and marched directly toward the wholesale district. She walked into the market's largest store, a massive warehouse packed to the brim with towering pallets of goods.

She stepped up to the front counter, slapped an exhaustively detailed list onto the wooden surface, and commanded with a steady voice.

"I need all your staples. Rice, oats, flour, cornmeal, grits, potato starch, and tapioca starch. Every kind of cooking oil you have. Olive, peanut, soybean, sunflower, corn, and vegetable. I want lard and beef tallow too. And as much salt as you are willing to sell me. Every kind of sauce and seasoning you carry. Soy sauce, ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, hot sauce, steak sauce, and every kind of vinegar. All your dried spices, herbs, seasoning blends, and bouillon. Every kind of sugar. White, brown, powdered, and raw. Honey, maple syrup, and molasses too. I want baking supplies, extracts, and cooking wine. If you sell it, add it to my order. Stock me up on black pepper, pepper flakes, garlic, onions, chili peppers, cinnamon, and cloves. I also need various shelf-stable foods. Dried fruit, dehydrated vegetables, dried mushrooms, jerky, nuts, and trail mix. I want one hundred heavy cases of every single item on this list."

The skeptical, tired owner squinted at her. He looked from the massive list to her face.

"Is this ridiculous order some kind of sick joke?"

Harper calmly pulled out her phone, aimed the camera at the store's payment code, and tapped the screen.

Ding! 500,000 dollars has been received.

The automated voice chimed loudly from the speaker on the counter.

Harper smiled, her eyes locking onto the owner's shocked face.

"This is the deposit. If you carry it, I want it. One hundred cases of everything. Here is the delivery address. Deliver it in three days. Any problem with that?"

The owner stood speechless, his mouth hanging slightly open as he processed the massive transaction.

Before he could form a single word, his wife rushed out from the back office. She quickly shoved her husband aside and beamed brightly at Harper.

The woman's eyes shone with excitement as she spoke quickly.

"No problem at all! Absolutely no problem! Don't worry. We will give you the lowest prices. Our store has the biggest selection in the whole market. I guarantee you won't find a better supplier anywhere."