Legends Rise - Chapter 3 Poor Winner

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.

—

Li Ming awoke to the sound of his alarm chirping.

As he slowly clambered out of bed, he recounted the events last night as his mind wandered occasionally. That’s right, today he was going to go to the bank and withdraw his money for a vacation!

Li Ming hurried to put on his casual clothes and rushed out the door to the bank.

The bank was pretty close to his house, only a 15 minute walk away.

His heart thumped faster and faster as he thought of seeing XueBai and the rest of the Beijing Tigers playing in the finals.

After cashing out his entire savings account and throwing it into his checking account, Li Ming promptly returned home to purchase the ticket. Every step he took, he felt more and more anxious. He was determined to catch the next flight to Los Angeles, California, where the Finals would be taking place.

Li Ming immediately booked a ticket when he got home. The cheapest flight he could find was a Economy level flight to the Los Angeles International Airport for a staggering 1200 US Dollars! Adding on a hotel would bring the cost of traveling up to 1800 Us Dollars for the entire 2 Days of the Finals. The cost of last minute traveling sure was steep!

But it didn’t matter. He would be willing to take the flight to see his favorite team compete, even if he meant choking up a little bit of blood. Of course, he wouldn’t have done so under normal circumstances, but seeing as he had resigned himself to a cashier’s life as well as winning a Golden Ticket, Li Ming clicked on the “Purchase” button without any hesitation.

Whoooooosh~!

‘There it goes…’ he sighed. Almost two thirds of what he has been saving for the last 4 years of being a cashier had flown straight out the window with a single click of a button. Vacations were truly frightening!

The flight was scheduled for tonight. He had already booked a room at a cheap motel for the entire week too. He hurriedly sent his counselor an email, letting her know that an emergency came up and that he would not be able to attend school for a week.

Li Ming immediately got to packing his travel bag that he had bought a couple years ago for a school trip. It was quite small, and could only hold about 4 days worth of clothing along with his travel essentials as well as his virtual reality gaming gear. But it would have to do. Li Ming figured that he would not want to spend money on an extra luggage case. This simple would serve him well enough.

After he was done packing, Li Ming ran straight out the door and to the nearest train station. He was now well on his way to see his favorite team compete!

Upon reaching the train station, he was denied entry past the ticket gates! His ticket card had run out of funds, and he’d have to spend more money to get to the airport. To make matters worse, the card itself had to be replaced soon as it was going to expire. Li Ming unwillingly swiped his Debit Card at the machine, paying a grand total of 6000 yen, or about 50 US Dollars.

The trip itself hadn’t even started yet, but Li Ming’s 1200 Dollars had already started to dwindle!