I stood in the Vault staring at prices that made me want to commit arson.
Chocolate cake. Two hundred points for one slice. Five hundred for a whole cake.
The universe hated me specifically.
My current balance sat at 1,740 points. Which sounded impressive until you remembered that 100 points equaled one day of breathing. I had eight days and twenty-two hours. Spending 500 on cake meant burning through five days of life on dessert.
Stupid.
But showing up to a date with Aurora empty-handed after she specifically requested chocolate? That was relationship suicide.
I bought the slice. 200 points vanished from my account.
The cashier, a bored third-year with Emerald trim, scanned my student ID and handed over a plastic container with a single piece of chocolate cake inside. The slice looked pathetic. Small. Like something you'd get at a sad office party where nobody actually liked the person retiring.
"Anything else?"
