XIV. Lottery
After the man left, the main live stream room, which had been black, finally lit up again, forcibly taking over all players' homepages just like when the game started.
The man dressed in tattered clothes on Pi Min's side had changed back into his previous elite attire. With his sanctimonious appearance, no one would associate him with the adorable, cuddle-loving cow cat in Pi Min's live stream.
The man smiled, but his eyes were filled with deep sorrow as he held up the card he had failed to deliver to the camera.
"My girlfriend rejected my request to get back together and threw this quit card in my face."
"I don't really need it anyway, so I might as well use it for a lottery."
"Lottery code: You'll regret it!"
After saying that, he placed the card under the spotlight, turned and left without hesitation, leaving the audience with only a sad and heartbroken figure.
The cards on the display stand rotated continuously, refracting a dazzling array of light as the angle changed.
Once the countdown to the lucky draw had started, the previously empty live stream room suddenly became lively.
"Throwing the exit card in the face of a lifelong employee? No wonder she can dump a lifelong employee, that ex-girlfriend is awesome!"
"Those who praise their ex-girlfriends, don't forget who caused us to end up in this situation."
"He actually secretly gave his ex-girlfriend cheat codes. The ultimate producer really loves his ex-girlfriend."
"Love my ass! It's just a nice-sounding phrase."
"If it were true love, how could he have let her get into this situation? Has he forgotten the time when the entire internet pressured him to reveal his ex-girlfriend's password?"
"Stop gossiping, let's try our luck in the lottery! Even though the odds are only one in billions, what if we win?"
"Yes, a lottery!"
Then, the comment section was instantly flooded with the phrase "You'll regret this!"
Pi Min's hands moved faster than her brain. She glanced at the lottery draw and subconsciously pressed "confirm." By the time she realized what she had done, it was too late.
She wanted to cancel, only to find that the lottery interface didn't have an undo button at all.
However, she wasn't particularly panicked. With a probability of one in billions, she didn't think she could be that lucky. On the contrary, watching the live stream but not participating in the lottery seemed more suspicious.
Having figured this out, she resumed her boring daily routine.
She was indeed overthinking it. To ensure that everyone had an equal opportunity, the live stream's lottery was pinned to the top for a full 24 hours. In the end, the number of participants reached 99.9% of the total number of surviving players. Even the largest lottery in human history didn't have such a low winning probability.
"If everyone on Earth has to die and only one person can survive, I hope that person is you."
Beautiful words of love, but it's so unfair. Only things like this can make people feel at ease.
It's not that Pi Min has a strong moral compass; she just feels that she has no future and it doesn't matter whether she lives or dies. The most important thing in life is to have a clear mind.
She refused to withdraw from the card because she wanted to achieve her goals; the same reason she took the man home in the first place was also for the same reason.
Don't just pick up any man and bring him home.
This is a golden rule summarized by countless time-traveling predecessors with blood and tears.
Unfortunately, in a hopeless world where everyone lives like zombies, people will do anything, no matter how outrageous or dangerous, let alone just picking up men.
There was even a suffocation challenge that was popular in the dungeon once. Twenty people would team up and compete online. Participants would deliberately cut off the air circulation system in their homes, and whoever could last the longest would win. The winner would then enjoy all the prizes given by the netizens.
Since the game's inception, countless people have died because of it, but both participants and spectators alike find it endlessly entertaining.
In a hopeless world, human life is as insignificant as dust. Everyone inevitably falls into the vicious cycle of nihilism, beginning to doubt the meaning of human existence. Even life and death seem less important.
The suffocation challenge is just the tip of the iceberg; there are many more insane and perverse ways to play.
Pi Min only picked up a man of unknown origin and took him home; compared to this, it was a piece of cake.
It's more accurate to say that I was taken advantage of rather than found.
That day, she was picking up trash on the garbage mountain as usual when suddenly a hand reached out from the pile of trash and grabbed her trouser leg tightly.
Looking down, I realized it was a man who was half-buried in garbage.
The man was filthy and dressed in tattered clothes, but his eyes were extremely bright. The moment Pi Min lowered her head, he stared at her with his big, bright eyes, looking at her pitifully. His actions, expressions, and eyes were exactly the same as the police chief's.
Sheriff is the cat she raised in the original world. He rose to power by staging accidents and was named after the black cat sheriff from the cartoon.
The moment the man's large, bright, cat-like eyes looked at her, Pi Min felt her heart be struck hard. She softened and took him home. At that moment, she had no idea she had just welcomed a tyrant into her home.
She later learned that the man not only looked like the sheriff, but also behaved in a similar way: sensitive, cautious, yet full of curiosity, often doing things that she couldn't understand, inexplicable, and with a kind of otherworldly, innocent stupidity. Sometimes she couldn't help but wonder if the man in front of her was even from Earth.
Although he was in poor health, frequently ill, and suffered from various allergies, often requiring her to empty her savings for treatment, he was handsome.
Although he is spoiled and willful, refusing to eat this or that, and only willing to eat expensive natural foods, he is good-looking.
Although he was as mischievous as a cat and often broke things in her house out of curiosity, he was good-looking.
Although he was both cunning and vulgar, always attracting trouble and causing a ruckus whenever he went out, he was good-looking.
Although he banished all of humanity, he...
What good is it if it looks nice!
It wasn't until today that she suddenly realized that, apart from being good-looking, that guy really didn't have any commendable qualities.
Willful, spoiled, and arrogant, he's quite cute as a pet, but as a man, he's clearly not up to par.
Without the owner's filter, it's clear that the guy is not only sick, but seriously sick.
Recalling the scene when she chased people away, Pi Min still felt a bit amused and exasperated.
She was relieved that he had finally survived, but the man clung tightly to her leg, refusing to let go no matter what.
"Actually, I'm willing."
"What are you willing to do?"
"I'd rather die in your arms."
"You may be willing, but I'm not! Ugh, what bad luck! Who wants you to die in my arms? Get out of here!"
She didn't have necrophilia. Rather than letting him die in her arms, she would rather he live, even if the price was never seeing him again in this lifetime.
So she unleashed her full fury, giving the man a thorough dressing-down.
The man, who had suffered unprecedented verbal abuse, curled up like a frightened cat. After a long while, he finally spoke with a somber look in his eyes.
"Are you sure you want to send me away? The world up there isn't as wonderful as you imagine. Once I go back, I can't guarantee what I'll become. Maybe I'll turn into a heartless demon."
At that time, she guessed he was a relative of the Progenitor, because the servants were all outstanding individuals who had emerged from the underground city, and it was impossible for them to be as useless as him. She even imagined a feud between wealthy families because of this.
Her answer was: "It's better to become a demon than to die here."
Then, the man said the lottery code in front of him.
"You'll regret this!"
Pi Min stared blankly at the ever-increasing number of lottery participants on the game panel, somewhat lost in thought.
She had guessed that the man might be a relative of the end-of-life, that he might come from a family of servants, or even that he might be the pet of some important person, but she never guessed that he was the end-of-life himself.
The sweet boy she remembered, who seemed like an angel, had indeed become a demon.
Only today did she realize that everything had actually been foreshadowed.
One day, out of boredom, she told him the story of "The Three-Body Problem," and then the man suddenly asked her a question.
"If you were Ye Wenjie, would you press the button to send a message to the Trisolaran world?"
Her answer at the time was that she would press that button hundreds of times per minute to create sparks.
She was just joking, but the man actually pressed the button, and for such a ridiculous reason.
Pi Min couldn't understand how she had become a sinner against all mankind simply because she had only had a less-than-successful relationship.
Although she knew it was just an excuse, the immense guilt still weighed heavily on her.
Looking back carefully, the man at that time was probably Luo Ji, who had exiled himself and was racking his brains for a way to save the world, but she turned him into the anti-human Wade by a twist of fate.
In the past few days, her mind has been replaying every moment the two spent together in the dungeon, and she keeps asking herself if the man's choice would have been different if she hadn't answered that way.
However, the answer left her in despair.
Given her status and circumstances at the time, she simply couldn't have given a second answer.
A child who grows up in darkness cannot bring sunshine into the world.
Do you regret it?
She was shocked to find that she didn't regret it at all.
I don't regret taking the man back, I don't regret going to great lengths to support him, I don't regret driving him away, and I also don't regret refusing that exit card.
The only thing she regretted at that moment was why she had to be so impulsive.
If she were to be randomly selected, where would she put her face?
She had just righteously refused to withdraw from the lottery, but then secretly participated in the draw. This would make her seem very unrefined.
She could already imagine the smug look on the man's face if he won the lottery.
Therefore, when the lottery interface in front of her started scrolling, the expression on her face was exactly the same as that of the billions of people remaining in the live broadcast room.
The same suffocation, the same racing heart. The only difference was that while everyone else was praying to win the lottery, she prayed to every god in the heavens, fervently hoping not to win.
Don't win, don't win, don't win! Please don't win, or it will be too embarrassing!
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