Chapter 1

"Look at this official seal! Look at this layout! This is cutting-edge technology!" Rick Gould barked, jabbing his finger at his phone screen as flecks of spit flew into my face.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! Do you have any idea how many connections I had to pull to get the AI to approve your slot?"

I stared at the shredded remnants of my employment contract scattered across the floor. That contract was the product of three grueling months of hard work and five intense rounds of interviews with a prominent company.

"Dad, please wake up," I said, crouching down to try and piece the torn paper back together. "That is just a generative AI. It only outputs what you tell it to. If you asked it to make you President of the United States, it would happily give you an official White House appointment letter."

"What the hell?" Rick kicked the scraps of paper out of my hands. "You stupid girl! Did you go to college just to lose whatever brain cells you had left?

"Mr. Miller and Mr. Davis in the chat group just paid their deposits two days ago, and yesterday the AI system already sent them digital pickup vouchers for their brand-new Rolls-Royces!

"The videos of their keys are going viral in the group chat right now! What do you know? This is the ultimate gold rush of the Metaverse and AI. Even the government is secretly backing it!"

The bedroom door swung open. My stepmother, Evelyn Gould, walked in with a fruit platter in her hand.

"Honey, why are you losing your temper?" she said with a fake smile. "Sandra just graduated; it's only natural that she doesn't understand how the world works yet."

She drifted over to his side, but her eyes were instantly glued to the $200,000 transfer receipt in his hand. "Oh my... the security deposit has already been paid?"

"Of course it has!" Rick puffed out his chest proudly. "$200,000 to buy a position as the South American President? Where else on earth can you find a deal like that?"

Evelyn caught my hand, her voice dripping with envy. "Sandra, your dad practically emptied his retirement fund for this opportunity. Once you start working and pulling in that $100,000 monthly salary, you need to look after the family first.

"Your brother is about to enter a private high school, and the tuition alone is nearly $100,000 a year."

I yanked my hand out of her grasp. "This company is fake! Who did you even send that money to? This is a textbook scam!"

I pulled out my phone, ready to dial 911. Moving with unexpected speed, Rick snatched the phone right out of my hand.

"What do you think you're doing? Trying to ruin my ticket to wealth?"

"Dad, give it back! You just wired $200,000 to a criminal's account!"

"Bullshit!"

Rick pulled up his messaging app, displaying a group chat titled "Global Stellar Consortium Executive Group".

"Open your eyes and look at this! This is the Chief Financial Officer at headquarters, Mr. Elton Musk! He personally accepted the funds and issued me this digital receipt!"

I stared at the profile picture—a heavily pixelated stock image. And the message history was filled with glaring grammatical errors.

A sharp, bitter laugh escaped my mouth. "Elton Musk? Why didn't he just call himself Elon Musk?"

"You don't know anything. He's mixed-race!" Rick growled, tightening his grip on the phone. "Tomorrow morning at nine, you are going to dress professionally and head to the Grand International Hotel for the new executive onboarding ceremony!"

"I'm not going," I refused flatly. "Give me my phone back. I need to contact the company to re-issue my contract."

"Don't you dare!" Rick's hand whipped through the air, delivering a stinging slap across my face.

A burning pain radiated through my cheek.

Evelyn stepped in with a half-hearted attempt to play peacemaker. "Honey, take it easy. Sandra is just short-sighted; she can't see the big picture."

She turned her gaze to me. "Your dad is doing this for your own good. What's so great about that crappy offer anyway? Once you're a corporate president, the whole family benefits."

I held my burning cheek, staring at the two delusional people standing before me. "You are going to regret this."

"Regret?" Rick sneered. "The only thing I regret in this life is raising a useless, ungrateful brat like you!"

He stuffed my phone into his pocket, marched out of the room, and locked the door from the outside. Before leaving, he warned, "If you don't show up for that onboarding tomorrow, you aren't leaving this room!"