3 Poor Winner (1/2)

Li Ming could not believe his eyes. The golden ticket laid sprawled out across his monitor with the words ”Winner Number 4 of 100. Congratulations to K-Vector”. K-Vector was Li Ming's in-game display name, and surprisingly, he had won a ticket!

”We will be announcing the winners by name now! Number 1: Liquid223! Number 2: Beari! Number 3: mlGram! Number 4: K-Vector-” The announcer went on and on, but as soon as Li Ming heard his name being announced, he was so shocked, he stopped moving. Not only that, his mind was completely empty! Li Ming sat there flabbergasted for a few more moments, waiting for the followup announcement. He was hoping that they would be able to fly him over and pay for his hotels and such. He was just a broke High School student after all!

”We expect to see the winners arriving here in the next week for the up-coming finals match! Best of luck to all of you!”

...

There was no announcement of any hotels or flights or anything. Did this mean that he had to pay for his trip by himself? But he couldn't afford that! He was working at a local convenience store for minimum wage, and could barely pay off all his expenses! Even in his savings account, he only had about 350 thousand yen. That was barely 3000 US Dollars! Even if he could afford a round trip and the hotel for a couple of days, his college funds that he'd been saving up would have gone right out the window. That would be a terrible idea.

'Wait...'

Li Ming remembered something.

'That's right. I won't be able to go to college...”

He recalled what the Counselor told him earlier that day. Depression crawled back under his skin. The heavy rain outside only served to magnify his sadness, and his expression grew dark. What was he going to do with his future?

Despite his exuberance from winning the Golden Ticket earlier, he was now extremely worried and upset.

'Can I achieve anything in this life?' he pondered.

Li Ming sat motionless at his desk for a good 5 minutes. The he realized something.

'If I can't go to college, then isn't this savings account meaningless anyways?'

He had made up his mind. He would go with draw his money and book a flight to see his favorite team compete, then come back to Osaka a couple days later and live the rest of his life as a convenience store cashier. He had resigned himself to fate, and would not be bothered by his predicament any longer.

With that in mind, Li Ming hopped into bed straight away, not even bothering to turn off his computer before pulling the sheets over his eyes and falling asleep in his still-damp bathrobe.

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