1 The richest man alive

Jade woke up abruptly from his slumber only to discover that he slept while holding his phone.

'I did it again...' This was the third time he stayed awake until 3 AM this week. The reason behind this was a web novel that he got so addicted to reading he simply couldn't let go of his phone.

It was around 7 AM, so he had at least an hour before the breakfast was served in the canteen.

'I wonder what should I do ?' At first, he thought about continuing reading his novel, but a poster hanging right above his head ,that contained the moto "Get rich or get wretched" reminded him of his dream and steeled his resolve, and so he stood up, and went to work on the app he was trying to develop.

His plans for financial success were very simple. Enroll in a software engineering university, develop the perfect app that would make him millions. And even if things gone south he'll still have a diploma from a prestigious university that would allow him to work wherever he wanted.

An hour later, he washed up, dressed up and got ready to leave his dorm room leaving behind him his room mate Taofik who was still sound asleep.

Jade was a twenty years old student, he had a 1.83 meter height and around 70 kilograms weight. He had a black hair, that was decorated with a tinge of dandruff.

On his way out, he met up with some of his colleagues. They walked together but they didn't have much to say to each other. After all, it was still the beginning of his first year and they still didn't get to really know each other so he didn't consider them friends. Not yet at least.

When they arrived at the canteen, Jade toke out his earphones to listen to something, anything really just to keep him from hearing the students conversations that was mixed together resulting in a noise that was simply annoying to his ears and made him really uncomfortable.

After noticing that this issue happened for at least two weeks now, he couldn't help but think that he was experiencing something abnormal, so he checked with his doctor which, after doing a few scans to his ears, told him that there was nothing wrong with his hearing system. Needless to say, this wasn't of much help to Jade, none the less he decided to postpone dealing with this problem since it didn't bother him that much.

This time around , he chose listening to a podcast by Deva Ramys, one of the most renowned financial advisers out there. After all, Jade's dream was to become the richest man alive ever since he was 6. So it was safe to say that he dreamt of this since forever.

While it was true that he already had a plan ongoing, getting to listen to more ideas and strategies wouldn't be anything but helpful in the long run.

However, the longer he read or listened to financial stuff the longer he became more convinced that his plan was spotless. He firmly believed that most people that had the same thinking process, usually quit before reaching there goal either because they didn't make it to a prestigious college ( which he did ) or did manage to find a good job and decided to settle for it instead of pursuing there own plans.

"I still can't see how could this be your best way to become rich" said Taofik, Jade's childhood friend and current roommate. He met him outside the canteen. He was one year older than him and was considered one of the top students of his promo and more importantly, he was the brother Jade had always wished for.

"It is simply nigh impossible to be able to to make your own app and make money out of it. To do so you'll need a respectable budget to advertise your app and get it going. And to do that, you'll need investors"

Ayoub sighed for a long couple of seconds.

"As I told you hundreds of times, I don't like the idea of leaving my future to be decided by the approval of strangers. When you go looking for potential investors, you are practically gambling, either they will approve of your idea or they won't.

"And even if they do approve, you'll always be bound to their opinion on all the crucial matters related to your app, so you won't be able to follow your vision exactly the way you see it. Man, it is all about freed.."

"Yes yes, it is all about freedom and you wanna be the richest man in planet earth because that would make you the freest man out there. I heard this a million times but I simply can't agree with your reasoning"

Ayoub was starting to get worked up to the point of considering his friend's opinion a personal attack.

"As I said before, the more money you have the more you can …" He couldn't complete the sentence. He, suddenly felt light headed and when he tried to pin point the reason, he noticed that, while there was nothing around them, he was hearing … lots of sounds. He looked around him trying to spot the source of these sounds. He didn't understand how, but their was a few birds so far away and barely visible form their standing point.

'Am I losing my mind or can I really hear these birds chirping?!' And what was even stranger is that he could no longer hear his friend's voice that seemed to move his lips, probably worried about his sudden halt.

'The hell is happening to me' A second later, he was laying on the floor and everything turned dark and he lost consciousness of everything around him.