Winning the Lottery!
Winning the Lottery!
However... Jihoon's footsteps came to a sudden halt before he could even cross the threshold of the convenience store.
"Come to think of it..."
A hypothesis flashed through his mind like a bolt of lightning.
Yevgenya.
That insanely vivid, erotic dream about his blonde Russian wife.
To simply dismiss it as a random nonsense dream spawned by a few days of starved sexual frustration, everything—from the feel of her skin and her breath to the touch of her sticky bodily fluids—was more real than reality itself.
'Maybe... this is actually an incredible lucky dream. I think I saw a rumor somewhere that even dirty dreams that are no different from wet dreams count as lucky dreams. Could there have been... numbers appearing in that dream?'
Standing in a corner of the convenience store, Jihoon closed his eyes tightly and delved deep into the abyss of his memories.
Not just tonight's wet dream, but combining it with the previous wet dreams as well.
From among the fragments of ecstatic pleasure, starting from today and going backward in time, he began to fish out numbers that were bizarrely engraved with vivid clarity, one by one.
The first number.
The moment the front door opened and Yevgenya, wearing see-through wedding lingerie, looked up at him in a perfect dogeza posture.
The time shown on the red digital clock hanging on the wall over her bare shoulder. [11] o'clock.
The second number.
When she finished giving him blowjob service, turned around, and arched her buttocks high. The memory of him shoving his fingers into her soaking wet pussy, fucking her with his fingers.
The number of fingers he ruthlessly jammed into her narrow vaginal opening as hot, sticky love juices gushed out in surges, scraping down her tight mucous membrane. Middle finger, ring finger, and index finger. [3].
The third number.
Before heading to the bed, the meal she had lovingly prepared while wearing only an apron over her jade-like naked body.
The Chinese character number clearly written like calligraphy right in the middle of the luxurious pattern on the rice bowl she pushed forward between her plump cleavage. [18].
The fourth number.
Every time his thick meat-rod ruthlessly pounded her narrow cervix, the number of times she rolled her eyes back in pleasure and let out animalistic moans.
"Seobang-nim...! Tonight alone, I'm cumming for the... [4]th time already...!"
The fifth number.
When she climbed on top of him and rotated her waist in cowgirl position.
The moment her two giant breasts bounced and drops of sweat scattered, the number engraved on the metal pendant of the choker necklace around her neck. [27].
And the sixth and final number.
When he poured a waterfall of hot semen into her deepest depths, the lewd and blind whisper she left in Jihoon's ear while trembling from the pleasure of creampie.
"For the next [45] years... please fill my womb with Seobang-nim's cum every single night..."
"3... 4... 11... 18... 27... 45..."
Jihoon muttered as he snapped his eyes open. The six numbers interwoven with the wet, intense sex scenes from his dreams fit together perfectly like puzzle pieces.
A pleasant goosebump swept across his entire body.
"Ah, fuck it! Who cares! If I really run short on living expenses, I'll just pull from my credit line!!"
The thread of reason snapped in his head.
Without hesitation, Jihoon walked toward the lottery counter inside the convenience store.
He picked up a crisp manual OMR sheet and pulled out a red computer sign pen stuck in the holder.
'Let's see... 3, 4, 11, 18, 27, 45.'
With trembling hands, he meticulously filled in the six numbers in black on Game A.
Just as he was about to move his hand to Game B, a crazy idea flashed in Jihoon's brain.
'Wait. Should I go with the so-called 'Gatosu (5 games of the same numbers)' combination this time? I already have several auto-generated tickets lying around at home anyway. If this dream really is a jackpot lucky dream bestowed by ancestors or the Birth Goddess, there's no need to diversify.'
Grinning like a madman, Jihoon filled in the exact same six numbers on Games B, C, D, and E down the line, without a single digit off from Game A.
The so-called 'Gatosu'.
It was a method of betting on the exact same numbers across all five games.
What this method meant was crystal clear.
If these six numbers won the 1st prize, Jihoon would receive the 1st prize payout a whopping five times over.
An all-in strategy where, if the 1st prize money were 2 billion won, he would instantly sit on a mountain of 10 billion won.
Of course, legend stories like "bought 5 sheets of the same numbers manually and won 5 1st prize games simultaneously" were reported once in a while in the news, but probabilistically, it was a ridiculously rare case.
"Ring this up, please."
Jihoon tossed a 5,000-won bill and the blacked-in sheet onto the counter. The female part-timer, without taking her eyes off her phone, pushed the paper into the machine with a soulless touch.
Ziiiip- clack.
With a cheerful sound, a real lottery ticket in the form of a receipt was printed out.
Jihoon snatched up the ticket and stepped out of the convenience store.
The night air felt less hot than before.
Or maybe it was because Jihoon's blood was boiling even hotter.
He stopped and pulled out his smartphone from his pocket.
He opened the app and tapped the QR code scan button on the top right.
When he aligned the barcode on the top right of the lottery ticket inside the square frame on the screen, a cheerful mechanical sound rang out with a beep-.
The screen refreshed, and the details of the lottery ticket Jihoon had just bought appeared completely on his smartphone screen.
A, B, C, D, E. All five lines had the exact same six numbers listed, and above them, the text [Before Drawing] flashed clearly in red letters.
Slightly scrolling down the screen, the records of several auto-generated tickets he bought a few days ago were also displayed side by side in the [Before Drawing] status.
"Yeah. In a smart age like this, who retroly checks each number one by one with their eyes? Too much hassle. If you just register everything in the app with the barcode, when the notification pops up on Saturday night, one quick glance at the phone shows if you won or lost in just 1 second."
Jihoon turned off his smartphone screen with a satisfied smile.
With the lottery ticket preciously folded and shoved into his pocket, his steps became noticeably lighter.
Vrrrm-! Vrrrm-! Vrrrm-!
On the cheap linoleum floor, the smartphone spat out irritable vibrations, tearing through the dawn air of the quiet semi-basement room.
"Ugh... my head..."
Jihoon opened his eyes with a groan, his brows deeply furrowed.
His head throbbed because the alcohol from the canned beer he drank last night hadn't worn off yet, but he instinctively reached out, fumbled around the floor, and grabbed his smartphone roughly.
The time displayed on the screen was exactly 4:00 AM.
Although it was the weekend so he didn't have to go to work, the alarm set for 4:00 AM held a crucial reason why he absolutely had to wake up, even if only for 5 minutes.
With practiced hand movements, Jihoon turned off the alarm and immediately tapped the bishoujo collection mobile game, 'Red Archiving', on his smartphone home screen.
Every day at 4:00 AM.
That was the sacred time when all daily events and quests in this game were reset.
As a free-to-play user who needed every single cent, checking in at this dawn hour before even wiping the sleep from his eyes was an indispensable routine in order not to fall behind others and to claim experience points and rewards.
After the loading screen passed, a silver-haired bishoujo character wearing a thin uniform that was practically naked appeared on the main screen.
Striking a provocative pose that completely revealed her cleavage, she swayed her silver hair and welcomed Jihoon by opening a pop-up window in a coquettish voice.
[Welcome, Sensei! Are you ready to hit the pity banner today too? A special package is waiting for Sensei!]
It was a cunning line enticing him to open his wallet for paid purchases.
Jihoon snorted.
"Yeah, no~ Sensei doesn't even have money to buy cup ramen, you seductive bitch."
Without mercy, he closed the seductive silver-haired female character's pop-up window with the 'X' button, and with mechanical hands, he thoroughly swept up only the attendance rewards and daily experience points that arrived in his mailbox.
Having achieved his goal, he closed the app without regret.
Just as he was about to set down the smartphone, which had turned dark again as the screen went off.
'Ah... come to think of it.'
The memory of the lottery ticket he bought at the convenience store last night flashed in Jihoon's mind.
Those six numbers he marked, inspired by Yevgenya's wet pussy and lewd moans.
That exact lottery ticket where he threw down a crazy gamble of 5 identical numbers.
"Well... it's probably a dud anyway, but let's check it out."
He turned on his smartphone screen again.
"Ugh... so bright."
The screen light set to maximum brightness in the dark room felt like it was stabbing his eyeballs.
The short 1 or 2 seconds while the loading icon spun felt exceptionally long today.
The screen shifted, and the winning history list window opened.
The moment Jihoon gaped a big yawn and peered at the display.
"Uh...?"
Instead of a yawn, a dumbfounded noise leaked from his mouth.
His eyelids snapped open wide like springs.
Unable to believe it, Jihoon sat bolt upright as if sprung by a coil.
Without even noticing his spine screaming from the sudden movement, he rubbed his eyes like crazy with both hands, then shoved his face close to the smartphone screen as if burying his nose in it.
Right in the middle of the display screen.
The five lines of perfectly identical numbers, A, B, C, D, and E, that he registered via barcode at the convenience store yesterday.
And above those numbers, lines of red text glowed so intensely they seemed ready to destroy his eyeballs.
[Congratulations on winning 1st place!]
[Congratulations on winning 1st place!]
[Congratulations on winning 1st place!]
[Congratulations on winning 1st place!]
[Congratulations on winning 1st place!]
"Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh...?"
Jihoon's lips convulsed and trembled violently.
His breathing grew labored, and his heart began to pound like crazy as if it would shatter his ribcage and burst out. Thump! Thump! Thump! The sound of his heartbeat echoed like thunder inside his eardrums.
"Is this a joke...? Is it an app error...?"
With trembling fingers, he scrolled down the screen.
Right beneath the 1st prize winning list, the results of other auto-generated lottery tickets he bought in advance were displayed side by side.
[Lost]
[Lost]
[Lost]
The word '[Lost]' clearly stamped in cold gray font.
On the contrary, it proved that the five red '[Congratulations on winning 1st place!]' text lines floating above were absolutely not an app error, but a chillingly perfect reality.
"Is this a dream... or reality...?"
Panting like an animal, Jihoon fumbled along the wall for the room's light switch.
Click!
The fluorescent light turned on, brightly revealing the shabby reality of the moldy semi-basement room.
However, in Jihoon's eyes, neither the mold nor the old wallpaper was visible anymore.
Only the text on the smartphone screen held tightly in his hand shone like the absolute truth of the entire world.
The circuit in his head multiplying the 1st prize amount by five went into overdrive.
Overwhelming joy, the sorrow he had endured all this time, and an insane explosion of dopamine flowing through the blood vessels of his entire body.
All those emotions condensed and crawled up Jihoon's throat.
"Wooooaaaaahhhhhh-!!!!!"
Jihoon raised both arms high and let out a roar of ecstasy at the top of his lungs.
It was an animalistic roar loud enough to reverberate through the semi-basement room.
That was the moment.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
The sound of someone violently pounding on the floor with something blunt echoed from the ceiling.
"Hey, you crazy bastard!!! Did you get shot in the head at 4 in the morning?! Shut your fucking mouth and stop screaming right now, you fucking piece of shit!!!!"
Without fail, it was the terrifying shrieking of the alcoholic husband upstairs.
Ordinarily, he would have pulled the blanket over his head in anger and helplessness, but now Jihoon was different.
"Mmph...!"
Jihoon hurriedly covered his mouth with both hands.
'I can't get caught. I can never let them find out... I can't let trash like that find out about this priceless secret.'
With his mouth shut tight, he began rolling around frantically on the mattress.
Between his lips blocked by his hands, uncontrollable laughter leaked out insanely.
"Pfft-haha... eheheheh... puhahaha...!!"
At the same time as his bursting laughter, hot tears poured from both of his eyes.
The humiliation and contempt he suffered while tumbling through a rock-bottom life over the years, and the days he had to feel miserable over a few bucks, flashed past like a lantern kaleidoscope.
Tears and snot mixed together and soaked the back of his hands, but he couldn't stop laughing.
"Finally... finally, my life turned around..."
Jihoon looked up at the ceiling with his face soaked in tears.
Beyond the ceiling with its stale mold, the faces of his parents, who must be somewhere up there, came to mind.
"Omma, Appa... you're watching from heaven, right...? Your son... I finally... made it... I'm not poor anymore... Ugh... eheheheh..."