Thin and lightweight, yet packed with wonderful functionalities, Lucas'' smile could not be contained as he held the smartphone in his hands.


    This was not the first time he held a phone, but this was the first he owned in this life.


    "Do you like it?"


    His mom''s gentle voice prated his ears. Although she said it in the most gentle tone, the words still felt as if an echo of thunderps reverberated in his chest.


    The strong words of his mother made his heart melt like butter.


    This was not his first time receiving a gift either. However, receiving something so valuable made him extremely emotional and grateful.


    He nodded his head and said, "Thank you!"


    Heartfelt words left his mouth, his smile still lingering as he swiped the smooth screen of the smartphone, not made of ss but of an unknown material he did not know of.


    Compared to what he was using in his previous life, and before the dungeons descended in this world, the gadget and this world have gradually advanced too.


    Nowadays, the usual smartphones would not break, even if you smashed them with a hard brick.


    "It''s good that you like it. It''s actually very expensive, and it took us a-"


    As usual, his father''s words were cut short with an elbow from his mother.


    "Who cares if it''s expensive or not? As long as Luke is happy, that''s all that matters."


    Although his father''s words were cut short, Lucas somehow knew the full extent of it.


    Due to the materials used and the functionalities, the smartphones in this world were actually very expensive.


    The one in his hands was even considered a mid-range one, so its price was even higherpared to the others with lower specs.


    To buy such a phone, one must at least have 15 Unity Coins.


    A Unity Coin was equivalent to 100 Unity Cents. Considering his father''s ie of 0.8 Unity Coin per day, he must work for a total of 19 days before he could save enough money to buy the cheapest mid-range smartphone out there.


    Of course, saving money was not that easy. With their daily needs, they would be lucky if they could save at least 20 Unity Cents per day.


    Knowing that, Lucas could imagine how long his parents had saved the money just to buy him this phone. This was also the first time that they have given him such an expensive gift. It was apparent that his parents had always nned to give him a smartphone as a present but were only able to do so due to theirck of savings.


    "Well, don''t worry about it anymore. It''s our present to you for all the years you''ve made us proud. Continue to make us proud and always be safe, okay?"


    Confirming his thoughts, Lucas smiled and nodded his head.


    Returning to his room, Lucas thoroughly inspected his first phone in this life.


    In his previous life, it was through his own hard work that he was able to buy a decent phone. In this life, he assumed that it would be the same way as well.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    He did not expect his parents to give him such a thing, as he knew that they didn''t have enough money to buy such an expensive thing.


    For that, he was extremely grateful and appreciative.


    Lying on his bed, Lucas scrolled and was very satisfied with the phone.


    The storage alone was staggeringpared to what he used in his previous life.


    Since one could not use the inte inside the dungeons, storage space has be the main selling point of smartphones nowadays.


    For those who could not memorize well, storing information inside the smartphones for easy ess has always been the solution. With such a function, one could ess Beast''s and other information as long as they downloaded it in advance.


    Aside from that, the phone could also double as their bank ount.


    Normally, after opening an ount in the bank, they would receive bank cards linked to their ounts. This card would store the necessary data for transactions and could be used as one''s own personal wallet.


    For those who don''t have any gadgets or ess to the inte, they could use such cards for their transactions. Lucas'' parents had these kinds of cards.


    However, these cards could only be used physically. Unlike when one has a smartphone, in which case they could use the smartphone to transact digitally and physically.


    A smartphone also acts as a verifier during offline transactions in areas without inte. Since it was unable to be forged and counterfeit, one can even make offline transactions, provided that they still had bnce in their ount prior to the signal interruption; the transaction would then reflect in real time after they connected back to the inte.


    Eager to open an ount of his own, Lucas hurriedly essed the World Unity Bank app, which was already installed in advance on the phone, and proceeded to open a bank ount.


    Since the smartphone was already very advanced, there was no need for Lucas to make an appearance at the local World Unity Bank branch in Twilight City.


    After his biometrics data was scanned a few times and it was confirmed that the identity was his and not a forged one, Lucas finally smiled as an ount was finally opened in his name.


    Although the bnce as of this moment was a few rows of zeros, Lucas simply did not care.


    ying a bit with his phone, Lucas then downloaded the Academy app and logged in with his unique ID a momentter.


    Trying the functions of his phone, Lucas found an interesting post in the forum and began to read it.


    The post was nothing but a student''s rant about the academy''s poor administration and exploitative behavior. Lucas was amused and began to read thoroughly, and in some parts of the post, he could even sympathize with the original poster.


    The bias towards students that were gifted has always existed, even during his previous life.


    Closing the post, Lucas went to the library function of the app and downloaded a thesis that he wanted to read.


    The inte speed was quite fast, downloading the document almost in an instant.


    This speed was iparable to his previous life, and the best thing about this was that the inte in this world was actually free, a feature that was well liked by Lucas.


    After downloading a bunch of studies that might be usefulter on, Lucas then turned his attention to the school group chat that belonged to his ss.


    Upon clicking, Lucas realized that it was especially active today, with a lot of chats popping one after the other.


    As he read back to know the details of their conversation, Lucas could not help but sigh in frustration as hemented at how unfair the world was.


    ''What a hack!''