The WealthTap System: Rising from Rags to Riches



"We have…" Chris looked at her with a smile, "A siblings bond! The bond that we have deepened since birth!" 

Hearing his flamboyant words, Cathy stared at him for a good few seconds, wondering if she maybe heard it wrong. There was no way her brother would suddenly begin to spout such bullcrap… right?

"Brother… you… should just focus on driving…" Cathy faked a bright smile with her eyebrows twitching. She was really trying her hardest to control her anger… 

"It is fine, Cath. I know we will win."

"Just shut up please…"

Not counting on Chris's 'scheme' anymore, Cathy focused on Taylor's car which was still standing where it earlier was, as if taunting them that Taylor wasn't afraid of them.

"Chris, let's get close range. You use your mana and drive as well as possible, I will also try to use mana in my eyes…" Cathy said to Chris while taking a deep breath to calm her nerves.

"You sure, Cath? You have never circulated mana before. Hell, you even awakened just this morning." Chris asked in worry.

"It's fine. I have watched the full movie where Lady Elena channeled the mana within her and beat that lecherous snake up." Cathy patted her chest in confidence.

"Movies and real life have a lot of differences, Cath. Even I had taken a full day to channel mana properly."

"See! If even a dumb guy like you can do it in a day, it should take only seconds for me to do it." 

"..." 

"What? Just drive. He is coming." Cathy ignored Chris's twitching eyebrows and pointed at Taylor who was finally driving towards them.

"Tsk, shoot him down." Chris pressed the accelerator and turned the steering wheel sideways, drifting the car on the arena as he moved away.

"No. Shooting the water gun pointlessly will just reduce the speed and disturb the balance." 

"I will control it. Shoot." 

"...If you say so." Cathy didn't bother to reason anymore as she quickly aimed at Taylor's target and pressed the trigger.

But since Taylor was driving car in a wavy, unpredictable way, only some of the water was hitting the target before Taylor moved the car away.

Chris himself was having some trouble keeping his car driving straight due to Cathy continuously shooting the high pressured water gun.

'We are getting nowhere like this.' Chris looked at the timer which was showing only 4 minutes remaining.

They could indeed try to continue to chip away at Taylor's target and hope to win by more damage dealt. But obviously Taylor knew of this plan and also ordered Alia to start shooting at the black target as well.

Thus a deadlock was created between the two. Both were slowly dealing little to no damage to their targets even when Cathy was using mana to augment her eyes.

Despite that she was barely able to improve her eyesight by a mere few percent. For example, if her eyesight before was 10/10, now it has become 10.1/10

Not a major improvement, but an improvement is an improvement after all.

And added to the fact that the more Cathy channeled her mana, the better she got used to it and improved her proficiency more.

Chris was quite shocked by her progress as he thought he himself was one hell of a genius bastard, but his sister turned out to be an even bigger beast at this than he was.

Of course, that was just comparing the starter progress. After all, after assimilating with Alfred's memory, Chris had got much better at using his mana.

So good that he could even run basic skills even without possessing the skill knowledge. After all, an advanced body augmenting was a mana skill that was very difficult to achieve without having a lot of knowledge in that field. 

So full body augmentation was impossible for normal people who didn't have that skill. 

But Chris had achieved it even when he didn't have that skill yet. It was all due to him gaining Alfred's over the top, once in a lifetime genius's knowledge. 

Chris smiled at Cathy's monstrous improvements and focused back on driving and dodging the shots properly.

The deadlock between him and Taylor was still on as the time kept ticking, waiting for none. Neither was able to gain any advantage and neither had any hope left to win.

They had left it up to luck to decide the winner till the end by damage dealt on the target. Since it was quite similar for both. 

"Shit, we might lose this way, Cath!" Chris panicked seeing only one and half minutes were left till the game ended.

Put of the arena, all the audience was cheering loudly for both the teams, they all were quite entertained as not always they got to witness such a hot blooded competition.

Mostly it was just kids and youngsters shooting around like complete newbies, or some talented geniuses just washing the floor with newbies. 

Rarely was it a sight to witness an equal and competitive battle.

Max and Cassie were also standing out of the arena, with a somewhat sad but cheery look. They were sad that they couldn't assist Chris better, but were also cheering for Chris without reprieve.

"I know! I will try to channel more mana in my eyes!" Cathy clenched her fists and spoke with a focused look on her charming face.

"No! Forcing too much mana can damage your eyesight! Maybe permanently!" Chris's eyes widened at her idea and he denied it vehemently, there was no way he could allow his sister to risk her future for a stupid bet!

"It's fine Chris. I will be fine." Cathy smiled softly and channeled her mana within her, it wasn't visible or palpable to anyone, yet Chris was vividly able to feel how mana coursed through Cathy's body… was this the sibling's bond he was talking about…?

Even if it wasn't, Chris didn't care. 'Please be safe, sis.' he prayed in his mind while continuing to keep a check on Cathy who had a SMALL chance that her mana might begin to run rampant.

And if that happened, it will be very difficult to control it back and during the time that mana will be running rampant within Cathy, there is no guarantee that she will even survive, forget about loss of eyesight.

After all, the rogue mana within the body, free of any control was one of the scariest things humans could die from.

Since it was written that while dying, a mage had vividly felt as if his body was being torn apart by the mana. His inner flesh was burning from within and- well, all in all, it is known to be a very painful, grotesque and horrific death.

Since then, no mage attempted to let his mana run rampart and always channeled it properly. Thus giving rise to what is now known as Mana Circulation.

Yet, here was Cathy, forcing excess mana to run more in eyes rather than letting it flow naturally. This wasn't completely going against the flow, however she was coagulating the mana at one place, causing a kind of blockage.

And also, it was very hard for a newly awakened C-Grade Awakened like her to masterfully control the mana to stay at one place.

Yet, she managed with a lot of grit and concentration, earning a sigh of relief from Chris and a gentle pat on her back.

"I will shoot them down." Cathy gritted her teeths and tried her best to maintain her concentration as she aimed at Taylor's target and shot the water gun.

The water stream arched in air again, and under the shocked eyes of the audience, directly hit the center of red target.

"What the… was it just luck?" Taylor hurriedly spinned his steering and moved the car away as his target had suddenly got a lot weaker just by a single shot.

"No… not luck." Taylor shook his head and focused directly on Chris's car which after observing properly, was driving a bit too 'perfectly'.

There was no way any normal man can manage to drive that perfectly, especially when a high pressured water gun was repeatedly shooting and disturbing the balance of the car.

"How the hell…" dubious and suspicious, Taylor suddenly released a bit of his mana in the atmosphere, encompassing the arena in his faint mana zone. 

And as expected… some of his faint mana reacted with Chris's and Cathy's mana who were in their cars.

"Oh Chris, isn't it too much to use mana in a mere friendly competition?" Taylor asked with a scary smile on his face…