Chapter 15: Lottery

Back to Present day

Bodam, who always stood at the forefront when lining up by height with kids his age, was always small and precious.

His friends, who teased him for his small frame and poor stamina, actually found him genuinely cute.

Bodam had a charm that made you want to keep poking and teasing him.

It was impossible not to find the white creature, who tirelessly took on friends a head taller than him and tried to win, cute.

Of course, there was one person who didn’t find Bodam cute.

Yoon the Pig.

The pig, called Bomi, was that person.

‘If you keep hitting me, I’m telling mom!’

Bodam, with his hands on his hips and his voice raised, scolded Bomi.

He had gotten beaten up for saying that the kid ate too much ice cream and would die from it.

As befitting a pig who had quit ballet early and taken up taekwondo, she let out a disciplined yell and kicked Bodam’s arms and legs.

‘Don’t. Call. Me. A pig.’

Bodam, who fled from the pig that threw punches while speaking in staccato, locked the door to his room.

After pounding on the door, she shouted, “I’m eating your ice cream!” and he retaliated by listing the names of all sorts of complications.

They were diseases that Yoon Bomi would surely contract when she became an adult if she grew up just like that.

‘I’ll live longer than you.’

‘I told you not to call your older brother ‘you’!’

‘Ah tuld yu nu tu cul yur ulder bruther ‘yu’~’

‘Hey!’

‘What!’

‘Hmph…!’

Young Bodam clenched his chubby cheeks and fumed.

From beyond the firmly locked door, he could hear the smacking sounds of the pig b*stard deliciously eating someone else’s ice cream.

‘If only I were 10 centimeters taller, I would have won.’

On this day, Bodam ran away from home for the first time.

Overwhelmed by the sorrow of being beaten by his younger sister and the fear of dying from the beating, he slept over at a friend’s house.

He didn’t forget to call his mom and get permission, but it was a runaway in his heart.

He vowed that he would quickly become an adult who earned money and live without seeing that pig b*stard.

‘The moment I leave this house, I will erase Yoon the Pig’s existence from my mind—’

“Bomi.”

Bodam, who had woken up in bed after being sick for a whole day, muttered.

Bomi.

Our Bomi.

For a long while, he called the name of his one and only precious younger sister until it was worn out.

It seemed he had called her name more than he had in the ten-odd years he had lived with Bomi under the same roof.

Fearing that her precious name might actually wear out, he pressed his lips to his palm and took a deep breath.

Hoo.

Sss.

Hoo.

Ssssss—.

“Hoo-ah, f*ck, Bomi…”

His trembling voice wouldn’t calm down.

His head wanted to stop calling his sister’s name, but his heart kept calling out to her.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The wild beating of his heart was tumultuous.

‘I-I need to take a calming pill.’

He seemed to recall hearing a story somewhere about someone who was so shocked by a huge lottery win that they collapsed from a heart attack.

To protect his own heartbeat, which could by no means be called strong, Bodam stumbled out of bed.

“I… I can’t die… not me here… I…”

Muttering incomprehensible words, he opened the drawer under the TV and looked for medicine.

Bodam, who had many things to be surprised about, always kept calming pills and various first-aid medicines on hand.

So he had to take it.

‘If I die of a heart attack here, no one will know the reason, so my lottery ticket—’

Lottery.

“Agh.”

Bodam, who bit his tongue while chewing the calming pill, calmly knelt on the floor.

“Calm down. It’s just a lottery ticket… just a lott—oohp.”

Rushing to the bathroom, Bodam threw up the precious calming pill into the toilet.

An expensive calming pill that cost 8,000 won, but was there any reason to feel sorry for it?

‘Let’s use my head.’

Even if he popped an 8,000-won pill every day, it wouldn’t make a dent in 4.6 billion won.

It wasn’t 400 million or 600 million, but 4.6 billion won.

4.6 billion won for mom.

Since he was in the bathroom anyway, Bodam came out after washing his face with cold water, forgetting to wipe it dry, and headed for the laptop.

Even though it was a short distance in his studio apartment, it felt like seconds were flowing like minutes.

His mind was completely blank, with no thoughts at all, but his wildly beating heart was making a fuss, telling him that his life had just exploded.

The now huge and gigantic Bodam couldn’t believe it was real.

Sitting in front of his desk, unable to turn on the laptop screen, he picked up the opened soju bottle.

‘What on earth happened to me,’ who had been spending a gloomy Saturday drinking this now lukewarm soju straight from the bottle?

Bzzzt. Bzzzt.

Wondering what that sound was, Bodam, who looked around following the familiar vibration, saw his phone rolling on the floor.

Ah, it was the sound of his phone vibrating.

Holding the sloshing soju, he picked up the phone that had fallen on the floor.

A pile of missed calls was vaguely visible on the notification screen.

He just stared blankly down at the phone screen.

Of all times, the lock screen that filled the old phone’s screen was a photoshopped meme of a big-eyed, big-eared elf from a famous fantasy movie holding a hammer and shouting, “Give me freedom!”

“Haha…”

And what about the wallpaper inside?

It had been several months since he had changed the resignation meme that circulated whenever he got pissed off.

The current wallpaper was that one.

Yes, that one.

“Good-bye, everyone.”

He lightly scanned the missed call list and the message previews and returned to his desk.

His eyes read how many calls had come from whom, but his brain couldn’t process it.

His mind was elsewhere.

Sss.

Hoooo—.

He took one last long, deep breath and turned on the laptop with a calm face, as if he had just woken up from a good sleep.

To confirm if his life had really changed.

3 15 25 29 36 42

3 15 25 29 36 42

3 15 25 29 36 42

…

He looked for a long time and checked countless times.

“4.6 billion…? Huh… no, I mean, 4.6 billion? …Yeah. 4.6 billion…”

He tilted his head, nodded, and went through all sorts of antics, fluctuating between reality and a dream.

The soju he had swallowed tasted sweet, making his heart sink for a moment, thinking it was a dream, but this was reality.

If it wasn’t reality, it would be hell, so he decided to believe it was reality.

Bodam, who couldn’t leave the lottery winning screen for a long time, muttered the name of his one and only, the most beautiful sister in the world, like a prayer.

‘Piggy. Our honey piggy.’

***

Team Leader Han Seung Ho of Attack Team 3 took a sip of water.

Dressed in flexible combat gear rather than a sharp uniform, he looked as natural as someone who had spent decades on the battlefield.

‘Like father, like son from a military family.’

Sector 2, which had had many gate occurrences but were relatively small-scale, had been causing trouble lately.

Just last week, a gate that was suddenly upgraded to Code Red covered the sky in an instant, and more than half of the Espers who were on standby at the site were almost killed.

It was thanks to Team Leader Han that they were able to end it with only some minor injuries and no casualties.

Team Leader Han Seung Ho, who possessed a barrier ability that was unbelievable for a B-class.

He had created a safety barrier around more than 50 Espers and guides, buying time until the S-class psychokinesis user Lee Tae Hwan arrived.

At that time, all those who had come out of the Sector 2 west gate site were fresh rookies who still had their baby fat.

Team Leader Han, as the representative of Attack Team 3 and a man with the blood of an instructor, was selected as a trainer for the rookies.

It was a job that anyone would have complained about as being bothersome, but Team Leader Han took it on silently without a word of complaint.

He was a man whose personality was called the epitome of stoicism.

Some even said he had no emotions.

“Please confirm the number of personnel deployed.”

Seung Ho, who received a report on the situation inside the gate through his earpiece, emptied the 500ml water bottle in one go and folded it flat.

He folded the plastic as if it were paper and tucked it neatly into his pocket.

“Have only the attackers remain and the rest withdraw. I’m going in.”

Seung Ho, who was standing in front of the gate that had formed on the ground like a giant sinkhole, briefly took out the disconnected earpiece and rolled his neck wide.

Crack. Crack.

His knotted muscles made a sound, revealing a heavy fatigue.

He hadn’t been able to rest all weekend due to this damn gate putting them on high alert.

It was a gate that could have been dealt with in half a day if two members of Attack Team 3 had taken it on.

Beep. Beep.

Lee Tae Hwan had gone to support Sector 4, Kang Yi Jun was absent because the ‘manic’ part of his bipolar disorder was missing, and he wasn’t curious about Min Ji Oh.

Seung Ho’s eyes narrowed as he requested a guide on standby through his watch.

Seung Ho, who didn’t call guides to the site, would have them on standby in the guiding room in advance on days like today when he used a lot of his ability.

Guide Yoon Bodam, who had zero attack power, would only be a hindrance if he came to the site.

Beep. Beep.

He repeatedly tapped the watch screen, but when the notification message remained unchanged, he took out his phone.

The situation inside the gate, where the roars of the monsters could be heard loudly, was within the expected scale.

No variables were likely to occur.

“…”

Seung Ho’s cold gaze was fixed on the watch.

On the red background screen, which indicated the danger level of the gate Seung Ho was currently in charge of, bold white text flashed.

[Standby request has been denied.]

Han Seung Ho, who was standing straight, turned his back on the gate.

His sensitive hearing was focused on the mechanical sound ringing from beyond the phone.

[The customer you are trying to reach is currently unavailable—.]

“Why.”

Guide Yoon Bodam had ignored his call.

For the first time in six months.

***

Bodam, who had come out of the residential village in the ability user’s living quarters area, first stopped by a pharmacy.

He popped a newly bought calming pill and, instead of using an app, went out to the intersection himself to catch a taxi.

He had put his phone, switched to silent mode, deep inside his eco-bag.

The contacts that would be piling up until the battery died were not even in his line of sight, nor did they penetrate even 1g of Bodam’s current interest.

“Haaa…”

The driver, who glanced at the young man who let out a long sigh as if taking a deep breath as soon as he got into the taxi, asked for the destination first.

Seeing the noticeably white face covered with a hat and glasses, he wondered if he was some kind of celebrity.

‘Seeing his short height, maybe he’s an idol.’

“Where are you headed?”

Instead of announcing the destination right away, the young man, who glanced out the window once and then tightly gripped the eco-bag on his lap, finally opened his mouth.

Contrary to his fidgety behavior, his voice was very calm and therefore more suspicious.

“Please take me to the Seodaemun Police Station.”