12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

I swirled my mouse for a moment, with my new Gold Class email in front of me.

[People Search – Please enter a name.]

The cursor was twinkling.

‘Who shall I search for?’

‘To make money by searching for a person’s name, there must be a contact event, like the last mayoral election: Joo Sung-won and Lee Hee-chul, and Dongbo Construction and Endo Biologics. But right now, I don’t know who to search for.’

‘Shall I search for candidates for Seoul Mayor?’

‘But they have already gone up as high as they could and were only waiting to burst. No matter how the news unfolded, it is not far from now. It will not be strange to go down to -20% and -30% on that day, even if there is good news. It’s better to not touch them.’

I came up with a different method of use.

‘I should try to find out who’s going to put in here for the money. Well, let’s do a trial today. Let’s try it out on the famous people.’

I recalled the names of leading figures in the political and business sectors. The incumbent president Ahn Sung-geun, prime Minister Park Jae-gil, deputy prime minister for economic affairs Kim Sun-joong, chairman of Susung Group Ji Chang-woo, and chairman of LD Lee Jae-bak, Kokoa CEO Park Ji-soo, etc.

‘Well… who shall we choose?’

Thinking, I unconsciously wrote ‘Ji Chang-woo’, the chairman of the nation’s largest conglomerate, Susung Group, who was known as the richest man in our country. Writing down the name and pressing the enter button, a news came out at the same time.

[Chairman Ji Chang-woo is directly leading semiconductor industries.]

‘Oh, this is how it works.’

I had a rough idea. From now on, I should continue to search and think about who I should put in here. ‘There’s even a saying that says human resources are all things.’ If I could trace a person’s name, I could get a lot of money.

I went on to the Ranking News item. Unlike People Search,

‘I can use it only once a month and I need to gather information and research on how this will be related to money. But right now, there’s nothing like a Lotto. I have about $1,000,000 now after it has been reduced by $500,000. Therefore, the Lotto which can increase my assets by adding, rather than multiplying, will be very useful.’

‘How much money can I get for winning the Lotto?’

I bought it six years ago, only once or twice for fun as a student. I expected a Lotto article to appear every weekend, but I didn’t know exactly how much the winnings were. I searched on the Internet. The winnings were well documented on the Lotto official website.

[Lotto Winning Amount]

$1,160,000 – 16 people

$1,250,000 – 14 people

$2,650,000 – 7 people

[Lotto Winning Amount]

$1,710,000 – 11 people

$2,390,000 – 8 people

$4,220,000 – 4 people

The Lotto winning amount was different at that time because of the structure of sharing the winning with the winners at the same time. The fewer the number of people who took the grand prize, the more the money they would have, and the more the number of people, the less the money, and so the total money was roughly between $16,000,000 and $20,000,000. That was why it seemed to pay out $2,000,000 if there were close to ten winners and $1,000,000 if there were close to twenty. Just four of them won $4,200,000.

‘When only four people got the grand prizes, they were the luckiest ones among those who won the Lotto, like lightning strikes on a lightning rod. They are literally in luck and by the way, how much is the tax?’

‘Lotto’s tax for the grand prize is 33%. It means that they get at least $700,000 after taxes. If I only get the Lotto winning numbers once on the Ranking News, I’ll easily pay for this subscription fee.’

‘Well, that’s right. With tax reduction, the actual money taken home is from $700,000 to $3,000,000.’

I was thinking about it, but there was a catchy article.

[Those who have been hit by lightning in succession. Those who won the grand prizes in Lotto.]

I clicked on it, thinking about what it was. And I realized through the article that there were ‘duplicated winnings’.

‘Is this…?

Duplicated winnings meant people who had written the same number several times and won the grand prize multiple times.

‘Of course, it isn’t something that happens often. They have to write the same number more than once manually. They have to write a certain number, lowering their chances of winning, and so winning again.’

‘So, duplicated winnings are only possible if they do something that is hard to understand with common sense and have a lot of luck with it, unless they know the winning number in advance.

‘However, I may learn this week’s Lotto numbers through 12 Hours After. If it comes out of the news, it’s no big deal to write the grand prize numbers many times. I know it’s a little silly for someone else, but not for me.

‘I can say that these are the numbers my grandpa gave me in my dream. So, I bought several copies with one number.

‘Anyway, Lotto is a game. If I buy it for $1, the expected price is about 50 cents. No one can say anything about irrational approaches. It’s a game with low expectations built in.”

I did the math again on the premise that I could get the duplicated winnings.

‘The total amount of the grand prize is between $16,000,000 and $20,000,000. This is not how I can touch it. It’s a certain amount of money set aside from the total amount of people who buy Lotto all over the country. But if I know the grand prize numbers, here I can decide how many times I’m going to take the grand prize.’

‘That means I can choose what percentage of the total amount I can take. I’ll take the shares of the luckiest people who are purely first, and of course, the number of winners will increase by as many as I have written, so the first prize will be slightly reduced, but the absolute price will increase because I take it as many as that number.’

I did a virtual calculation.

‘If I set the grand prize winnings to $16,000,000, if fifteen people win, if I get in there and win the grand prize five times… $16,000,000 for twenty people will be divided $800,000 each. I win five times, so $4,000,000 is my winnings.

‘That way, I can pay the subscription fee this month and earn $4,000,000.’

I was getting more and more excited by that idea. It was like I found a shortcut to the goal point. It was Saturday, when there was a Lotto draw tomorrow. It coincided with the day I decided to go home.

‘Yeah, well, let’s use the Ranking News right before I go home tomorrow. When the Lotto article comes out, I’m going to buy a Lotto on my way home.’

I closed my email after reaching that conclusion. I didn’t have any news today that would make money, anyway. After closing the email, I concentrated hard on my work. Now I had a day or two left to quit my job.

Wouldn’t it be better to beautify myself, if I was going to leave anyway? Then, there was a blind date tonight. I decided to concentrate on other chores than making money today. The time I would hunt in earnest would be the week after the issues, my job and my family would be settled.

——————–

“This stop is the Express Bus Terminal, the Express Bus Terminal. The door to get off is on the right.”

I left the place as soon as the subway door opened. It was 8:40 a.m. on Saturday. There were 15 minutes left before the email arrived. The stock market didn’t open on Saturday, and because I got nothing these days in the Lotto I had bet, my tension was a bit off, but today I was more nervous than ever.

‘I don’t want to get a strange article…

‘According to the message, Ranking News of 12 Hours After will show the most-viewed news with an hour’s accumulation, so unless there’s something really shocking on the Life/Culture. In the first place, Life/Culture is a peaceful category where nothing shocking is reported…

‘Unless there’s such a thing as a certain man sexually harassing his juniors or an international pianist committing suicide by himself. There is a high probability that a Lotto number article will appear.’

I waited until 8:55 with my feet trembling. But then I got a call from my mom. ‘Tiriri~’

“Yes, mom.”

“Are you coming?”

“Yes, I’m waiting for the 9:20 bus.”

“Okay, be careful. And… How was your blind date yesterday?”

“Well, it wasn’t bad.”

“How come? Tell me more about it.”

“I think she is pure. I don’t know her well because we only met once.”

“Then, meet her again. Have you contacted her?”

My mom seemed to want me to see another woman again.

“… I’ll tell you the details when I get there.”

“Yes, then.”

I finished the short call with my mom. To be honest, it wasn’t that bad. Since the woman was active, she suggested that we go to see the movie “Six Treasures and the Owner of Gauntlet,” which would be released next week. But somehow, I was not attracted to her. I would have met her two or three more times if it were in the old days, but it was because I was on the verge of making money right now.

‘$3,000,000 to $4,000,000 a day… I won’t be able to live normally anymore… I should go home and tell my parents for sure.’

I looked at the clock with that thought. It had been 55 minutes before I knew it. I got a new email. The news was full of trifles. The market wasn’t open anyway, so it didn’t mean much.

‘All right, well, let’s get it all over with.’

I went on to type Park Ji-soo into the People Search. He was CEO of Kokoa, one of the nation’s leading IT companies. It was also an experiment because there was no news to make money right away. However, suddenly, the news of a racing girl came out.

[Racing Girl Park Ji-soo, showed off the beauty of a goddess in front of the Mercedes Benz.]

‘Oh, well, someone with a different gender comes up. Just in case… As expected…

‘The People Search doesn’t seem to be exactly what I want, especially when similar names are so common.

‘All right, that’s a good example.

I remembered this case and then scrolled down. Here was what was important today, anyway. Ranking News. I pressed ‘Use’ first. There was a message just around the corner.

[Please select the category in which you want to use the Ranking News skill.]

I swallowed once and then chose Life/Culture. Then I closed my eyes for a while, and I opened my eyes gently. The title of the news in front of my eyes was the following.

[What are the winning numbers for Lotto 921?]

“Ch…”

My prediction was hit. I looked around with my lower lip slightly cracked. There were many people at the express bus terminal on the weekend. I shook my fist up and down quietly. Then I shouted inwardly, ‘I got it!’