3.5 Trillion Won (1)
3.5 Trillion Won (1)
A window left open to let the smell of ramen escape.
Cold air drifting in through the gap.
I let out a sigh inside my cramped studio apartment.
"Life is fucking shitty."
It was a small room where I was the only person, but there was a response.
- Why?
The chat window on the computer screen.
Inside it, viewers voice their own opinions.
"Because it's ruined."
[ Rue ] : Chill Chatting Stream
- Viewer count : 10
- Just chatting
I am a dime-a-dozen bottom-tier VTuber.
My average viewer count is 10, and my monthly income is under 100,000 won.
Even so, the reason I insist on streaming is that there's nothing else I can do.
- Rue's trademark) Always says her life is fucked but never says why.
- True lol
"Should I tell you?"
- Yeah
- Tell us
"Nope, don't want to."
- Same repertoire every day.
- Sigh
Actually, it's not that I don't want to tell you, it's that I can't.
No, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me.
Who in the world would believe that my gender changed?
Originally, I was a man.
As you can tell from the word "originally," I am not a man now.
I went to sleep and woke up a woman.
Am I transgender? I wish that were the case.
I wish I could just wake up and find out this was all a dream.
Me, a real man, Kim Ho-cheol.
An orphan without parents who grew up in the Bomnal Summer Orphanage.
I didn't go astray despite the unfortunate environment.
In fact, I was a model student who even got into a promising university on a scholarship.
I, who was writing a legend of turning my life around, suddenly turned into a woman.
If this were a reward from God for my hardships, I would have accepted it gladly.
An idol-like face would surely make my life bloom.
But the damn God didn't give me an ID.
I just became Unidentified Person A.
I am clearly Kim Ho-cheol, but Kim Ho-cheol was declared missing.
I was driven into being a suspect in the missing person case just because I was in Kim Ho-cheol's studio apartment.
Even though I passionately testified that I am Kim Ho-cheol and that I woke up as a woman.
My DNA was completely different, so there was no way they would believe me.
Instead, I was even charged with stalking, using the fact that I knew all of Kim Ho-cheol's relationships and private life as an excuse.
On top of that, being unidentified led to suspicions that I was an illegal immigrant from China.
Inquiries through the Immigration Office highlighted my suspicious nature, as I was a person who didn't exist in any country.
A woman who knows nothing of her own past and only knows the information of another man.
My highly suspicious identity was later revealed like this.
That I was the child of an illegal immigrant.
The immigrant's daughter, a child without an identity, became Kim Ho-cheol's stalker.
That she must have hit her head, lost all her memories, and became a mentally ill person who claimed that she was the Kim Ho-cheol she liked so much.
People concluded my past like this, saying this was much more realistic than the scenario where Kim Ho-cheol became a woman.
Afterward, I was issued a new identity, 'Seo Rin-ha', and stood in court.
There was a legal battle for several years.
Fortunately, the court sentenced me to not guilty due to insufficient evidence.
Actually, this was only natural. I never killed or kidnapped anyone, so how could there be evidence?
But in exchange for being found not guilty, I lost everything.
Family, acquaintances, education, time, money....
Because of my appearance, it was easy to find a job.
However, the mental illness that developed from what happened, the stalkers who clung to me because of my looks, and various other things ate away at me.
I cut myself off from the world and holed up in my room.
There is only one thing I can do now.
'Streaming.'
And a VTuber at that.
Since the only thing I had was a cute voice, this was the best I could do.
It was the best, but.
"Ah, should I just go out and die?"
Kim Ho-cheol, no, the person called Seo Rin-ha was already too broken.
- Is the mental breakdown show starting again?
- lol
Negative sounds I shout every single day.
"Ah! Who raised the Darius...."
- Bang bang
Tension I can't even raise because of the noise from next door.
- Rue, your avatar is glitching again.
"Ah, wait a second."
Even the disastrous streaming environment born from not having money to buy a high-spec computer.
The result is a viewer count of 10.
I look at my avatar reflected on the computer screen.
A low-quality avatar with a blonde ponytail.
It seems there is no future for this girl, nor for me.
"...Guys."
So I said quietly to the 10 viewers who like me.
"I'm going to quit streaming."
- What?
- ?
- ?
- Huh?
A chat speed rarely seen on my stream.
Everyone is shouting question marks and "why".
"No, it's just, I don't think this is my path."
- Rue, you have talent.
- Your shit-talking is so fun.
- True.
"Then send me some donations so I don't quit."
- That's a bit...
- I don't have money either.
- Sorry.
"You fuckers."
I spat out the curse and smiled slightly.
- Haha.
- Lol.
"Sigh, whatever."
- Then what are you going to do now?
- Yeah.
I've already decided what I'm going to do.
"I'm thinking of going on a trip to clear my head."
- A trip?
- Where to?
"America."
Traveling was on my bucket list.
I didn't have money, and I was afraid of the backlash, so I couldn't go, but thinking that there is no tomorrow, I finally made up my mind.
"Still, thanks to the money I saved from streaming, I'm able to go."
- Didn't you say earlier that it was because we didn't donate?
- True lol.
"Of course, it's not the money you guys sent. A big spender came by a while ago and threw several 100,000 won punches, remember?"
- Ah, trying to dig into your past?
- If you just tell a few stories, you could catch a big spender, Rue you idiot.
"Anyway, I'm going to go with that money."
3 million won that I saved and saved.
Investing this in my streaming setup won't change anything.
Let's just take this money to America and have a blast.
And disappear quietly.
Even if I die, there's no one who would be sad.
Because my acquaintances all disappeared along with Kim Ho-cheol's missing person declaration.
- Will you film a travel vlog?
"Hmm...."
Traveling alone is lonely.
"I will."
That's how I scheduled my final broadcast.
*
The heat was enough to take my breath away.
It felt like having a hair dryer blown directly into my face.
Indeed, summer in America is on a different level from Korea.
I finished immigration and came out of the airport.
Palm trees were lined up in front of my eyes.
Blue sky.
Sunlight so strong it was blinding.
English is heard from all sides.
I have arrived in America.
"Guys, can you see my hand?"
10 loyal viewers sat down in their seats.
Some often miss out, but I guess they couldn't miss the last broadcast.
- I used a vacation day because of you, you bitch.
- Oh.
- So pale.
- You weren't a pig, damn.
"I told you I wasn't."
I never intended to show my face on cam because of stalker PTSD.
But since I'm abroad and have no intention of returning to Korea, I decided to turn it on as a special treat.
Still, I didn't want to reveal my face, so I positioned the screen to just show my hands.
"Anyway, I've arrived. They say this is Los Angeles. It's huge, right?"
- Oh.
- It's huge.
- By the way, there's some lag.
"Lag is unavoidable, since I'm abroad."
- Wow.
- It's crowded.
"I feel a bit nauseous."
- Motion sickness?
- You don't like crowds?
"I hate them."
- Your tone sounds like a delinquent girl who goes to clubs often.
"I don't have money to go there, though?"
- It's pathetic that you don't have money to go, not that you haven't gone.
- True lol.
I decided not to think about my difficult past anymore.
Let's enjoy this moment for now.
I asked in an excited voice.
"Anyway, where should we go? Is there anywhere you want to see?"
We wandered around Los Angeles, chatting.
Ate delicious food, looked around famous tourist spots.
I felt like I understood why people tell you to go on a trip when bad things happen.
The thing I like the most is that people don't really look at me.
Western and Eastern aesthetic standards are different.
No matter how much of a top-tier beauty I was in Korea, it seems Americans don't really know.
Or maybe they think I'm a minor because of my small frame and are avoiding eye contact.
Westerners develop better than Easterners.
"It's a lottery store."
I filmed the lottery store as it was caught on camera, as if it were fascinating.
I didn't intend to go in, but suddenly a viewer asked.
- Rue, I have a question.
"What is it?"
- Can tourists buy Powerball too?
According to the information I got while researching travel info with Chat GPT, it should be possible.
"I think so?"
- Go?
"It's a waste of money."
- Wait, I'll send you some.
[ RueCheekSlap5Combo ] donated 5,000 won.
'RueCheekSlap5Combo' is the loyal viewer who has been in my stream for about half a year.
"Wait, what's the occasion?"
I was keeping an eye on them because they never donated a penny despite chatting so much, but I didn't expect them to donate 5,000 won.
- It's the last one, and it's a bit sorry to not donate a penny for half a year lol.
"You brat."
Since I'm in a good mood, I decided to buy a Powerball ticket.
- Rue, I looked it up, and the jackpot is huge right now, the prize is 2.6 billion dollars.
"How much is 2.6 billion dollars?"
- 3.5 trillion won.
For a moment, I imagined winning.
"That would feel amazing."
- It's not just amazing.
- You'd be flying lol.
RueCheekSlap5Combo asked.
- If you win, will you give me a cut?
Of course, there's no way I'll win.
No matter how ruined my life is, imagination is a human right.
"CheekSlap, if I win, I'll give you 1 billion won."
- For real?
"Promise."
- What about me?
- Me?
"What did you guys do to deserve money?"
- We watched your stream consistently.
- True lol.
"Since you guys didn't tell me to buy it, I'll give you 100 million won each."
- 100 million is enough lol.
- Nice.
- Hahaha.
Sharing trivial conversations.
I visited a lottery store and bought a Powerball ticket.
Powerball is a lottery where you draw 5 white balls and 1 red ball.
Because of that, the winning probability is astronomically lower than the Korean Lotto.
Even if you match all 6 numbers, if the red ball number is different, you lose.
The probability is roughly 1 in 290 million.
It's a terrible probability, but thinking about how I became a woman with a 1 in 8 billion probability, it feels like a bargain.
The draw time for this round appeared on the TV in the corner of the lottery store.
"Hey, the draw date is tonight?"
It was tonight.
- Oh.
- Let's check it later.
- Dopamine show reserved for tonight.
I wandered around excitedly until nightfall.
I arrived at the booked accommodation and unpacked.
"Wait for me, I'm going to wash up."
- Will you show us?
"Are you crazy?"
I finished bathing and changed the stream title.
[ Rue ] : Checking Powerball while traveling in the US before quitting streaming.
- Viewer count : 10
- Just chatting
It seems like I got some aggro, so floating viewers are coming in little by little.
The viewer count surpassed 20.
As expected, streamers need content.
Someone said.
- But even if you win 3.5 trillion won, they say they take 30% for national defense tax.
- It's probably federal tax.
- And 3 trillion is only if you receive it in the form of an annuity paid over 30 years; if you take it in cash, they cut it more, right?
"So how much is it?"
- Probably around 1 trillion.
- They take so much.
- No conscience lol.
They do take quite a lot.
GPT says) It's because the lottery agency calculates the "money that will grow by investing for 30 years" at its present value and pays it all at once.
- Ah.
"Hey, but 1 trillion is still a lot, right?"
No matter how much is cut, the fact that 1 trillion is an astronomical amount doesn't change.
It's money that goes beyond living off the interest for the rest of my life, it's enough to buy the platform I'm streaming on right now.
I pressed the remote control button.
I found the Powerball draw channel and fixed my smartphone so the screen was clearly visible.
- They're yapping in English, so I can't understand.
- Streamer, interpret please.
"I don't know either."
- Too bad.
- By the way, when are they doing it?
- Seems like it's about to start?
Finally, the draw time arrived.
I stared at the TV with empty eyes, devoid of expectation.