The Greatest Conglomerate Ever With the American Lottery

3. It’s an international call!

I can’t just tell him to leave now.

I glance to the side, and the monk has a slight smile on his face, as if he’s having fun with my decision. as if he was having fun with my decision.

Just give him 50,000 won?

That’s a bit much.

As I was drinking, a small thought occurred to me.

What does 50,000 won mean to me?

First of all, it’s not a lot of money.

My actual salary is about 2.2 million won.

After I get my paycheck, I don’t have a lot of pocket money to spend.

Honestly, I try not to spend more than 50,000 won on soju whenever possible.

However, what if I drink less and go to that monk?

Of course, like Lee said, there’s a good chance it’s a scam.

But what if it’s true?

What if the monk is really taking care of the children?

For 50,000 won, you could probably get some low-grade American beef made into bulgogi, and if you were in a bad situation, you could feed them to the brim.

If food is taken care of, you can turn around a bunch of cheap Chinese dolls and replace a few of their tattered underwear with new ones.

Which one is the most important?

A drink to relieve the stress I’m feeling from Mr. Hong?

I shouldn’t just ignore this.

After all, it’s the one thing that gives me breathing room and motivates me to keep going to work.

Still, it was short-lived.

No matter how much Mr. Hong wants me dead, skipping a drink isn’t going to kill me.

However, I would feel uncomfortable if I sent that fake Mr. North away.

I immediately pulled out a 50,000 won bill from my wallet.

“Uh, huh? Are you really going to give me that?”

“It’s my money. Don’t worry about it.”

“Dude, 50,000 won is still too much, right?”

I ignored him, stood up, and handed the monk the 50,000 won bill.

“I’m sorry, it’s not a lot of money, but I hope it’s well spent on the children, or the monk can buy something delicious.”

“Ho-ho-ho! You won’t regret it, will you? What if I’m as good as that monk just said?”

What’s wrong with you?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while.

“I hope not, but it could be true, right? You just have to take a chance on it, and if it’s true that the monk is bang—. If not, it doesn’t matter if she’s a grandmother like you, I’ll just pretend that I bought something delicious for her instead of my own grandmother who passed away.”

“Ho-ho! Good, good, good, good!”

“Neh?”

Isn’t this some kind of bullsh*t?

But the monk just smiled, closed his eyes for a moment, and quietly mumbled something.

It sounded like he was chanting.

When the monk opened his eyes again, his eyes flashed with essence.

“There—.”

“You are indeed good, good, good.”

“You know, I don’t really like that saying—.”

“What?”

“This bastard is a good man today, because he kicked me while I was yelling.”

“Eh! Brother!”

Are you really saying something stupid?

“Aha! Ho-ho-ho! You’re right, it’s not because he’s a good person that he’s losing money, it’s because he’s a bad person.”

“No, he’s losing money because he’s too nice. That’s why he always gets caught.”

“Oh, no!”

“No, the way the monk sees it, your good deeds are overflowing, and it’s about time you were rewarded for them.”

“No, monk. I’m only donating a penny or so as it seems, what’s wrong with you, with only 50,000 won?”

“That’s not true either, as you said, 50,000 won is worth more to the Lord than a rich man’s 500 million. The Bible says that Jesus said this in the Gospel of Mark.”

“What? The Bible or Jesus?”

“When he saw the poor widow putting in her two leptons, he said, ‘I tell you the truth. That poor widow put more money in the offering plate than anyone else. Everyone else put in a little out of their pockets, but she put in all she had, even though she was poor, so she gave all she had.”

What, what, man?

Is a monk allowed to say this?

Even Lee looked at the monk, his eyes glassy with alcohol.

“No, the monk is talking about the Bible and Jesus?”

“Well, what about this and what about that? I’m talking about the essence of good works, which is the same thing anyway.”

This old lady was on to something now.

“Ah, yes. Thank you for saying that. I really hope that something good will happen to me, just like the monk said. Of course, I don’t think that good deeds are done in hopes of something in return.”

“Ohhh! You’re a good man, a good man!”

“…”

Now I was too scared to say anything.

At that moment, the monk took something out of his arms.

“The lord will give me his hand for a while.”

“Yes?”

“I just need a moment of your time.”

“Okay.”

Without a second thought, I held out my left hand, and he stuffed what he’d taken out of my arms onto my wrist.

What was it?

“I’ve been wanting to come this way for some time now, and I see you have done so many good deeds. If this is fate, fate, fate, how can I pass up such a precious gift?”

“No, I’m an irreligious person—.”

“It doesn’t matter, this bead will be a small lighthouse to show you the way when you’re lost. I hope you’ll find it useful.”

“What?”

“One last thing: Zen practice is never a hobby, and if you keep it in mind and continue to cultivate as you are doing now, you’ll see better results, so I’ll leave you with this—.”

As if the monk suddenly had a busy road to travel, he finished speaking to himself and turned to me.

“Ah, yes—.”

I bowed as well, and even the head of the department stood up and bowed as well, or rather, he bowed with one arm.

“Who are you, Hui?

This is Shaolin?

He disappeared between the tables.

I was dumbfounded for a moment.

“Hey, that monk definitely doesn’t look like he’s hitting on me. I think there’s something going on.”

Mr. Lee also sensed something and said that he finally realized that the monk wasn’t paying attention to him.

“Isn’t that right?”

“Yes.”

I suddenly realized that I should at least know where the monk was taking the poor children, so I jumped out of my seat and rushed outside.

But there was no one in sight.

Not for a dozen seconds.

I wondered if he’d gone to the bar next door to get drunk, but all I got was a snide remark about how no one goes drunk these days.

Was I possessed?

The next day.

It was Saturday, so I didn’t go to work, and I woke up around 12:00, still hungover from the night before.

I made myself a quick breakfast and slapped the alcohol out of my system.

I turned on the TV, and the news was back to the US Lotto.

Overnight, the jackpot had grown again, to a whopping $2.1 billion!

It was becoming the event of the century.

Normally, I’d stay late on Saturdays to run the store or stop by the office to catch up on work, but now I hated it.

The company had fallen into a funk.

And I didn’t want to go to the store because I knew I’d be reminded to play again.

As I lay there, looking at my phone, I kept thinking about the American Powerball.

I know the odds are a few thousandths of a chance of being struck by lightning, but so what?

You know what?

Someone said something about Ronaldo or Messi, maybe?

When asked how he scored so many goals, he said that you have to shoot to score.

In other words, if you don’t do anything, nothing happens.

Or it doesn’t.

It’s not like I’m going to sit here and win $250,000.

Immediately, I searched the internet and found a lot of sites offering to buy American Lotto tickets.

There are some scams out there, so I searched around to find one that I could trust.

The site said that there was a company in California, USA, that would scan and upload the purchased lottery tickets, and if the buyer wanted, they would also send the winning tickets to Korea.

Of course, it’s the buyer’s responsibility.

The purchase price was relatively cheap.

The price of one Powerball game was originally $2.

On top of that, a $1.65 agency fee was added.

In total, the actual consumer purchase price for one game was $3.65, but there were many other places that charged as much as $4.

Also, for some reason, the other sites had a stipulation that you had to give 10% to the site if you won the first prize, whereas here it was 5% and you could keep the rest.

If you pay 5%, the site pays for a lawyer, accountant, and full cooperation in finding your winnings, or they just give you the lottery ticket.

Something tells me that’s a good deal.

I looked at the FAQ section.

The biggest question I had was whether or not I would actually get paid if I won the grand prize.

As it turns out, there’s nothing in the state lottery’s rules that prohibits you from doing so.

Also, as long as the ticket doesn’t leave the borders of the United States, it’s still valid.

Also, they said that even if they tried to steal the top prize, they would not be able to claim their winnings if they filed a dispute with the scanned ticket.

They said it takes a long time to receive the tickets and there is a lot of verification.

I was starting to believe them.

I chose a site and eagerly signed up.

Then, the top-up.

To pay, you need to have a credit or debit card that can be used abroad,

I used a credit card with a visa and paid $50.

I got a $1 bonus, so my total was $51.

Now I had to pick a number, which was a big deal.

Instead of picking 6 out of 45 numbers like in the Korean lotto, I had to pick 5 out of 69 numbers and then another 1 out of 26 numbers.

“Wow,” I thought, “how can this go on for months without a winner, and they draw twice a week?”

I gasped.

“They just run all of these automatically?”

I had to manually enter them, so it didn’t seem special.

Rattle, rattle, rattle! Rattle, rattle, rattle!

My phone rang.

“Who is it? On the weekend?”

I checked, and it was my high school classmate Jung-hoon.

What’s going on?

“Hey! Why?”

– What? Why? You called me in the middle of the night yesterday and asked me to meet you for drinks today, saying that you broke up with Yeon-ju?

“My, my? I never did that.”

– You bastard! Don’t tell me I’m not here! It’s in your phone records!

“I see.”

He must have called Jung Hoon-i in a drunken stupor.

Damn, I ate a bunch of them yesterday, so I don’t want to eat them again.

“You know what, can we eat it next time?”

– I canceled my plans for the day because you were whining about breaking up with Yeon-joo. What the hell? Why don’t you come out now?

Damn it.

“Okay. I’m leaving now!”

So I go out, get drunk again, crawl back in, and it’s 10pm.

Everything was bothering me, so I didn’t bathe and collapsed into bed.

However, I kept feeling a tingling sensation on my left wrist.

“Mr. Ai, what is it?”

I looked at my left wrist drunkenly and realized, “Oh no!

I finally saw the prayer beads that the monk had filled.

I had been wearing it for a day, and I didn’t even realize I was wearing it, so it didn’t feel awkward or uncomfortable at all.

Why is this bothering me now?

And then I realized.

“Oh, yeah! American Lotto!”

I almost didn’t buy it.

I splashed my face with cold water to open my bleary eyes, then hurried to the site.

I had to take my numbers again.

I tried to take 5 out of 69 numbers and 1 out of 26 numbers, and I was just dumbfounded.

“Eh, I don’t know!”

At times like this, it’s best to just put it on auto-pilot.

Fervently praying for $51, I played the auto game one by one.

Hadn’t someone done that before?

That if you wish hard enough, the universe will help you?

Then, the last game.

I was about to run the auto, but for some reason I was reluctant.

“Maybe I’ll take one of these manually?”

Sure.

First, five, numbered 1 through 69.

Starting with number 1, I hovered my finger over the numbered spaces.

As I passed number 2, I felt something on my left wrist.

What was it?

Had I been drinking too much?

I lifted my finger again, and there it was!

As I passed by number 2, I felt a prick on my left wrist and saw the beads glow!

“Hmph, this is getting crazy!”

I had been drinking too much and was dazed.

I forced my closed eyes open and excitedly checked the beads, hoping it was just an illusion.

And finally, when it came time to press the confirmation button, my hand brushed against it as I collapsed in a fit of sleep.

Ah! I don’t know anymore.

Sleep!

The next day.

It was Sunday after all, so I woke up leisurely after 12:00, ate a quick bite to eat and beat the sh*t out of myself.

Then back to bed with a sore head.

How long had it been?

Bam!

“International call!”

Beep, beep, beep!

“International call!”