Ordinary Man to the Fastest Alive

 Chapter 4: Continuous Winnings 

Ethan decided that with the $5,000, the first thing he had to do was take care of rent. $2,500 gone, just like that. 

Even though he lived on the cheaper side of Brooklyn, rent still felt ridiculous. But at least now, he wasn't at risk of getting kicked out. 

That left him with $2,500. Not bad, but not enough. 

If he was able to turn 400 into 5,000 so easily…he didn't really have something to worry about.

As long as he played smart, no one would suspect a thing. 

Casinos were easy money, but they had limits. They tracked big winners. If you got too lucky, too often, you got banned. 

That's when Ethan started looking into backroom poker games—underground spots where cameras were rare, and security was looser. 

He spread out his wins, moving from one place to another across New York, never staying in the same spot for too long. 

Sometimes he won big, sometimes he lost on purpose—just enough to look normal. 

After all, the worst thing they could do was ban him. It's not like anyone would immediately assume he had superpowers. 

And with every game, every hand, every bet... Ethan's bankroll grew. 

Faster than ever. 

However he also knew he still had to keep up pretenses.

Ethan was a graduate from University of New York with a Bachelor of Commerce yet no company wanted to hire him.

The job market was just that bad. Yet he continued to submit resumes to places.

In the following week, he visited three more casinos and underground poker games. 

Surprisingly, they weren't hard to find. With a little digging, he realized New York had no shortage of places where people were willing to throw away their money.

But even with all his precautions, his luck started raising eyebrows. Some players gave him strange looks when he folded hands . He should've won or bet aggressively at just the right moment.

By the end of the week, Ethan had turned his bankroll into $20,000..

So, he decided to lay low—at least for now. 

But now, with $20,000 in his pocket, Ethan finally had some breathing room.

It was time to start thinking bigger.

Ethan sat cross-legged on his bed, his laptop balanced on his knees, the dim glow of the screen casting shadows across his small apartment. 

His search history was a mess—articles, fan theories, physics breakdowns, and everything in between.

He wasn't just looking up The Flash for fun. He was studying.

Speedsters, at least in fiction, could do a lot more than just run fast.

Throwing lightning.

Phasing through solid objects.

Healing rapidly.

Even manipulating time itself.

And then, there were the weaknesses.

But in a world where Ethan was the only speedster, there wasn't exactly a playbook for how to counter him.

"In a realistic setting, what could actually stop me?" he wondered.

Guns? Yeah right, as if that would work.

Traps? But was there any materials that he couldn't phase through?

Other speedsters? Yeah…that might be a realistic thing to worry about.

But that didn't mean he was invincible.

He leaned back against the wall, staring at the ceiling.

'I have to stay careful. Stay smart. If people find out what I can do… I'll have more than just casino security after me.'

As Ethan sat on his bed, scrolling through his research on speedsters, something kept nagging at the back of his mind. 

Ethan knew that he had to stay up to date with the real world affairs.

"If it was before I didn't give a shit who people voted for and what their agenda was, I could barely eat…but now." Ethan thought out loud.

Understanding the world around him. He needed to stay informed, to track the pulse of the world, because if there were others out there with powers like his, he needed to find them before they found him. 

With a swift motion, he opened a new browser tab and navigated to the latest news section. 

The headlines flashed before him, one after the other. The usual stories—political scandals, economic troubles, and the occasional bizarre crime.

His fingers danced over the keys, guiding him effortlessly through a sea of articles. He wasn't just reading, he was absorbing, processing the information faster than most people could blink. 

In seconds, Ethan could read entire pages. He could skim through thousands of words, storing bits of information in his mind, all at once. 

News reports about unusual phenomena, strange occurrences, or stories that felt just slightly… off. These were the things he needed to catch. The things that could point to someone else. 

'Ideally if there were another speedster, some signs would pop up by now,' he reassured himself. 

The average human, from Ethan's understanding, would behave like idiots after gaining a modicum of power.

Powers like his didn't come out of nowhere. 

And something nagged his head that he wasn't that lucky, there had to be a catch for gaining powers all of sudden.

He couldn't afford to let his guard down. 

As the day passed and Ethan continued to surf the web, he suddenly received a message in one of his old group chats.

After graduating from university, Ethan had drifted away from most of his classmates. He wasn't exactly the social type—more of an introvert, really. He was content staying at home, working, and looking out for his family.

But there was a small group of friends who refused to let him slip away completely.

[Jesmine: @Ethan, you're not backing out on us tonight, are you?]

[Ignatius: Yeah man, don't leave me alone with these idiots.]

There were 5 people inside of the group chat in total but it seemed like the other 2 were still busy.

In his friend group, Ethan would say that the other 2 were definitely well connected to high society. Right after graduation they moved to work in their parents' companies.

Jasmine and Ignatius however were above average common folk.

After quickly replying to his friends, Ethan decided he did enough research for the day.

If there really were other super powered people in the world, they seemed to be keeping their tracks well hidden at the very least.

For now the best thing Ethan could do was to train his powers in secret.

Maybe it was even time to actually study some science…

"Urgh, can't believe I am going back into something I hate so much." Ethan mumbled, as he decided it was time to actually study.

One thing about Speed Reading was that, just because he read something, it didn't mean that he memorised what he had read.

Everything that he had read would be stored into the short term memory section of his brain, and thus he would forget about it fairly quickly.

However an easy way to combat such a thing would simply be reading things the instant he forgot about it.

After all, while hours passed for humans, for a speedster like him only a moment would pass.

'I also definitely will eventually have to create my own Super-Suit. I have already ruined 3 pairs of shoes the past week.'

Just like he had expected, his living expenses had definitely increased by a substantial amount.

He had to maintain a daily caloric intake of at least 10,000 calories, so Ethan felt like he was eating basically all of the time.

The Flash had an entire team, and seemingly unlimited finances from S.T.A.R Labs to keep up with his expenses but Ethan obviously didn't have such things.

And Ethan himself had some goals in life…after all, who didn't want to be successful in the real world?

Who didn't want to be able to provide for their family and live in the peak echelons of society.

Maybe there were people who were content with living ordinary lives.

And maybe Ethan too, just a week ago would be content with that.

But he was given a gift that most others would kill for.

It would be an embarrassment to himself if he didn't exploit the ever living shit out of these powers for his own personal gain.