Living However I Feel Like It
Welcome! I’m Randy Trainer!
Another great jackpot has been born tonight!
About $1.6 billion in prize money is waiting for you!
“Huh...? $1.6 billion?”
Just a little while ago, when I checked, it had been around $1.56 billion.
But the TV wasn’t exactly the sort of place that lied, was it?
“Guess it went up while the winner got rolled over.”
Prepare your ticket! Tonight’s winning numbers are about to find you!
The winning machine on the left, filled with white balls, and the one on the right, filled with red balls, began spinning furiously.
-[damage] HP
First number! 69! Second number... 38!
Matching them against the numbers on the Powerball slip, I already had two circles.
“So that’s how it works.”
It was a kind of force of inevitability. It wasn’t changing the existing numbers, just aligning them to the existing ones.
Without a moment’s pause, the white balls kept popping out in a stream.
“4, 11, 49.”
Third is 49! Fourth is 4! The final number is... 11! It’s 11!
Five circles.
The camera cut to a close-up of the red Powerball machine on the right.
“Powerball number is 16.”
16! The Powerball number is 16!
Let’s take one more look at tonight’s winning numbers!
The six numbers appeared one by one on the screen.
So who will be the owner of this $1.6 billion jackpot? It was Powerball!
Looking at the six circled numbers, Song Hoon clenched his fist tight.
Seeing it confirmed made me feel better.
And then, slowly, dopamine hit like a volcano erupting, spreading from my feet through every inch of my body.
“Holy shit...! I really won, right?”
I punched the air like a madman.
Roughly $1.6 billion. In won, that was about 2.2 trillion.
Take it as a lump sum and it was 1.3 trillion.
After taxes, about 900 billion.
They sure as hell took a lot out of it, but even so, I’d still be left with a jaw-dropping 900 billion won.
“Fuck! Now this is life! This is what they mean when they say life’s one big jackpot!”
If I said I’d live from now until age ninety, that was enough money to spend 15 billion a year.
For a moment, all the strength drained from my legs and I collapsed onto the sofa.
Smack—
“This is really real. Ha... haha...”
I slapped my own cheek, and the stinging pain was still there.
But I quickly steadied myself. That money would only be mine if I were the sole winner.
If there were two winners, didn’t I only get half?
“Please, just one person. Just me. Let it be only me.”
Half of 900 billion was still an absurd amount of money, but once 900 billion had already planted itself in your mind, having it cut in half would be genuinely heartbreaking.
***
The first thing I did when morning came was contact a reputable-looking law firm in Chicago.
Then I reached out to a tax and accounting firm back in Korea as well.
“I won Powerball. I’m a Korean currently traveling abroad. I want to receive the money safely and transfer it back to Korea.”
I’d heard that the tax firm would send a representative to the United States immediately, and the law firm replied that they’d dispatch someone to my hotel right away.
“Money really is the best.”
As a foreigner, and someone who knew nothing about U.S. law, I absolutely needed a lawyer.
And especially with a Korean tax firm, if you built up the relationship properly, it was no different from opening the door to a high-value client.
Less than two hours later, a lawyer from the firm had already arrived.
“Good morning. I’m Michael from Chicago Royal Law Firm.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Hoon Song, from Korea.”
“Oh wow. Not a U.S. citizen, just a traveling guest? You’re going to make America sit up and take notice.”
“I got lucky. Isn’t this the American Dream?”
Michael checked the winning ticket and began handling the procedure for claiming the Powerball first-prize payout.
“I’d like to receive it as a lump sum.”
“A wise choice. There’s no guarantee the value of money will remain the same forever.”
After contacting the lottery authority in Chicago and confirming the receipt process, we set a visit date and started gathering the necessary documents.
“You’ll need the winning ticket and your passport.”
“And I want to claim it anonymously. I don’t mind if they know I’m a foreign traveler, though.”
“I understand. It’ll take time to receive the payout, and if your identity gets out, who knows what could happen.”
And after quite a long while—
“Mr. Song.”
“Yes?”
Michael hung up the phone and called me with a solemn look.
“Congratulations. You’re the sole winner of this Powerball. An enormous jackpot has hit.”
At Michael’s confirmation, I clenched my fist and shook his hand hard.
Nine hundred billion. All of it was mine. I didn’t have to split it with anyone.
“Then I’ll come back when it’s time to visit the lottery office.”
After Michael left and the hotel door clicked shut behind him, I covered my mouth and let out a shout of triumph.
“What the hell should I do with 900 billion? What can I do? No, what should I do first?”
With the consumer instincts of a common man who’d lived more than thirty years on this earth, my imagination had its limits.
At most, a house, a car, nice clothes and a watch. And eating and drinking.
“Ha. Guess I need to learn how to spend money now. Yeah, I really need to learn.”
I vaguely remembered some research I’d seen somewhere saying that money beyond a certain amount didn’t bring much happiness.
But I wanted to say that was only because the amount wasn’t big enough to push past the dopamine threshold.
This was different. We were talking about 900 billion won.
Song Hoon now stared blankly out at Chicago’s glittering night skyline and thought to himself.
As an unidentifiable sense of fullness spread through my whole body—
How much of my life’s goals have I actually achieved? Is money my entire goal?
I could say this with certainty.
Having a lot of money is undeniably, insanely good.
But money isn’t everything in life.
“More sex. More Dice Points.”
After all, wasn’t this money still only meant to help me fuck more women?
Was A-rank the end of it?
Definitely not. If that were the case, the System would have told me I’d fucked every woman at every rank already.
“What exactly does this System want from me?”
There was no answer from the System.
It didn’t hand out quests like a game, either.
“Just take it. Live however you want. Meet lots of women too. The more, the better.”
I remembered the old man who had given me this System.
Was I supposed to just live however I felt like it, then? Spend recklessly? Try this, try that?
“A life with little risk, huh.”
People usually called that the life of a silver spoon, didn’t they? A life where, while others had to fight with everything they had just to stand back up after failure—
You could fail once, twice, maybe more, and still have the chance to rise again.
“Silver spoon? Hell, this is more like a diamond spoon.”
Then the point, in the end, was simple: how many women of a higher grade I could fuck.
And there was no doubt that women above A-rank were out there, somewhere beyond my reach for now.
“Cheerleaders. Flight attendants. Celebrities. Or something even higher.”
I tapped the sofa armrest in a steady rhythm. Until now, I’d made women come to me.
This time, I’d have to go after them myself.
“Investment. Yeah, investment. Grow the money, secure the status, fuck the women.”
There was no way to approach them as some unemployed nobody.
No matter how many points I invested into my appearance, I was still just a normal guy.
“But what if I’m a guy with the title of investor? And what if that investor shows interest?”
If you believed the rumors floating around online,
wasn’t the entertainment world the place where people would do anything for success?
Whether it was drinking parties, sexual favors, or something beyond that, it was a world where people would throw everything onto the table if it meant making it big.
“And I can guarantee that success.”
The price was sex.
“Would they really be able to hold out and refuse?”
If I added a considerable amount of money to the ability to control numbers, I could make myself a pretty damn compelling business card.
“The Midas Touch.”
Yeah, maybe in the broadcasting world, they’d call me the Midas Touch.
And if that title followed me—
“That’d be fun. Very fun.”
***
Things moved quickly. By the very next day, staff from the Korean law and accounting firm, well-versed in both American and Korean tax law, had arrived.
“Good morning, sir.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Song Hoon.”
There were three of them in total: a tax accountant, a certified public accountant, and an office staffer.
The accountant was a man in his forties.
The tax accountant looked to be a woman in her thirties.
And the office staffer was a man in his twenties.
“First of all, congratulations on your Powerball win. And thank you for giving Hanuri Tax & Accounting Firm this opportunity.”
Of course, I didn’t know them. I’d just searched online and contacted the firm that looked biggest.
“First, we need to understand your current situation and exactly what you want, so we can move accordingly.”
At Team Leader Moon Taeuk’s words, I nodded and laid out my plan.
“First, I’ve heard the U.S. and Korea have some treaty regarding double taxation. I want to bring this money back to Korea while getting as little ripped off in taxes as possible.”
“Yes. At that amount, the taxes really are... substantial.”
“Second, I want to establish an investment company.”
“What sectors are you thinking of investing in?”
Nine hundred billion won. It was enough to invest in just about anything.
“A little bit of everything, I guess? Buildings? Real estate?”
The staff nodded. With that kind of money, it was certainly within reach.
“And also, film and cultural business.”
That was the main thing, wasn’t it?