Cosma Empire

Jonathan is just a very, very ordinary citizen of the Empire, with an ordinary job, an ordinary family, and two cute, but only cute, children.

The ordinary life and the pressure on his shoulders made him forget his youthful ideals and pursuits. His surging blood was consumed in the cold and numb life, and he finally became the person he least wanted to be when he was young—a person who never wanted to be. The soul is like a walking dead adult.

Maybe sometimes when he was drunk, he would recall his youthful ideals and those unrealistic pursuits, and he would shed tears of regret or hatred for his current sinking, but when the eastern sky gradually shone, his The state of drunkenness gradually faded away, and he also began to return to reality, to the so-called rationality.

Numbness is a label he gave himself at the age of thirty-two. Numb life, numb work, numb state, numb mind, no passion, no impulse, the whole world is gray.

"This is... what?" The numb Jonathan stood at the checkout counter of the supermarket. After he bought some supplies for his family for a week, the cashier handed him a colorful card the size of a palm.

These very bright colors were printed on it, and all kinds of powerful fonts spread all over the corners of the card. He remembered that he didn't buy this kind of thing, nor did he ask to buy additional services.

The additional services and value-added services in supermarkets are often very deceptive, and all the human beings who think they have taken advantage of it will finally find out that they are the ones who really suffer.

There was a promotion in a supermarket before. You only need to pay 29.9 yuan to get a long-term discount. Many people thought it was a good event until the supermarket told them that every When there is a limited consumption quota every month, everyone realizes that this is a fraud.

Either consume the consumption quota set by the supermarket every month, so that you can continue to enjoy the long-term discounted price in the next month and beyond, but if you do not consume the specified quota, the discount benefits will be cancelled, and twenty-nine The $9 activation discount fee will also not be refunded.

This creates a dilemma for many customers who have paid the fee in order to take advantage of it. If you don’t spend money to buy something, twenty-nine nine yuan is completely invalid. It will not return to your pocket, nor will it be able to create more value. What's more, I haven't earned back the twenty-nine nine yuan for the things I have already purchased. It's too stupid to do so.

But if you follow the rules to buy the full amount every month, a family can’t actually consume so many products, and don’t let the discount right of 29.9 yuan disappear, and spend more money to consume. Even more stupid.

It was not until someone filed a lawsuit with the supermarket that they "resolved" the matter. The supermarket publicly apologized for not clarifying the rules, and symbolically admired the customer who sued the supermarket very much. Nine nine, as for the others?

You can sue them and they will lose money.

Some people say that this lawsuit was fought by the supermarket itself. The purpose is to make those dissatisfied people realize the reality. After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to file a lawsuit, they can only get back less than 20 dollars in losses. , if they don't mind losing more to get such a small amount of compensation, the supermarkets won't mind playing a legal game with them either.

This incident gradually disappeared in rounds of new public opinions, but the inspiration and business routines it brought were gradually perfected by people, and a new term appeared in business to describe it. Such a vocabulary - sunk costs.

Many people knew about this, so Jonathan became vigilant in an instant. He put the small card back on the cash register and returned it, "I don't need to buy any coupons and membership cards, and I don't need any added value. Serve!"

It can be seen that he is very resistant to these things, and the cashier smiled and expressed his understanding. Basically, most customers are very resistant to these things.

But in fact, they don't know that these things will soon become a trend, and they will quietly appear around people in a more mature way, kidnapping people and pressing their heads to make them willingly walk in the supermarket. Consumption.

"Sir, this is a lottery ticket. As long as you buy something over ten yuan, there will be such a lottery ticket." The cashier pushed the lottery ticket over again, "You can go to the side to uncover it, before Someone has already taken a microwave oven, of course, if you really don’t need it, you can give me a dictation and give it to me, then I can legally own it, and you don’t need to worry about it.”

People are like this, they will become vigilant in the face of some inexplicable kindness, but if someone wants to take away this kindness at this time, people will become hesitant again.

He hesitated to hold the lottery ticket tightly in his hand, paid the cash and quickly left the counter. In a rest place not far away, he tore open the prize redemption area according to the knowledge on the back of the lottery ticket.

At 7:30 in the evening, Mrs. Jonathan, who was preparing dinner, looked at Jonathan in the living room, wiped her hands and walked over with some doubts. Ever since her husband came back from shopping, he has become a little... She can't say, It's like the soul has drifted away.

"Honey, what's the matter with you, did you encounter any problems at work?" She sat beside Jonathan gently and asked him carefully.

This is a very traditional family. Jonathan works alone to support his wife and two children. With his own struggle and persistence, as well as his numbness, he has a fairly good job, which costs one hundred and nineteen a month. The salary of 175 cents is not up to the income standard of the middle class in the south, but it is much higher than the salary of ordinary people, enough for him to support his family.

In the absence of financial independence, women's status in the family is often relatively low, and they have no real right to speak, so she behaves very docile and gentle.

Jonathan forced a smile, "No, honey, everything is fine."

He obviously didn't want to share the problems that bothered him, so Mrs. Jonathan could only give up and go upstairs to get the children to eat.

After the meal, Jonathan was absent-minded, and the children didn't notice. Mrs. Jonathan didn't want her husband to bother her, so she kept her mouth shut.

For three, four, five, six, seven days, Jonathan was in this state, and finally his wife couldn't help asking again after a weekend dinner, "Honey, are you in any trouble?"

Jonathan looked at his wife for a long time this time before slowly nodding, "I... don't know what to do, maybe you can give me some help."

He took out the lottery ticket and a receipt certificate from his pocket and put them on the table. His wife had gone to elementary school and middle school and knew how to read. After reading it, he also fell silent.

This lottery ticket shows that Jonathan has won the grand prize, and the prize is a "fragment of the map". This is a very special prize. There are a total of 5,000 winners across the country.

Each of these people has a "map fragment", which marks the hiding situation of supplies in a certain part of a certain area. On this fragment in Jonathan's hand, there are four such supply points, including two guns. Ammunition supply point.

With the fragments of this map and the proof of winning, the winners can go to Ambiluo State for free to participate in the "Battle Royale" game for at least two weeks. Before that, they will go through a week of wilderness survival training and combat training.

As long as they can enter the top 1,000, everyone will receive a cash reward of at least 200 yuan. If they can make it to the top 500, top 300, top 100, or even the final top Three, all the bonuses will add up to a staggering number.

Especially the first place will get a total of 300,000 bonuses alone, plus the bonuses of each stage, the first place will get at least no less than 400,000 bonuses!

In addition, every time a player is eliminated by himself, he will get a reward of at least 50 yuan and a maximum of 500 yuan. Someone calculated that if he can get the first place, the first prize may be as much as 500,000 yuan!

Five hundred thousand, for many people, this amount of wealth is an unattainable dream for a lifetime, but today, an invitation card to the Palace of Wealth appears in the hands of these ordinary people.

Temporarily give up the job in hand, take an opportunity to gamble on a brilliant future, or give up this opportunity, continue to be a numb person, and survive numbly in this numb society, without ideals, pursuits, and dreams. Impulse, only numbness.

The couple sat on the edge of the table and looked at the winning certificate and the lottery ticket for a long time. Finally, Mrs. Jonathan rubbed her sore neck and raised her hand to press the back of Jonathan's hand. She looked at Jonathan with eyes She had never been serious before, she gently held half of his cheek with her hand, her movements were careful and gentle, "Do what you want, you will always be our hero, remember?"

Jonathan was a little surprised. He thought the biggest resistance was his wife. He had wanted to take risks several times, but his wife blocked him. Even the impulse generated in consumption would be blocked and persuaded. .

But he didn't expect that his wife didn't stop him, but supported him. Only then did he realize that the biggest resistance was not others, but himself.

He is eager for change, eager for a passionate life, eager to make the world full of colors, but he is also afraid of change, he has been hesitant, thinking about what to do if he fails and loses his job, how to ensure the family's financial security, and the life of his family How to solve it.

Whenever he thinks about this, the purpose of his thinking has actually deviated from the theme he originally wanted to think about, but this time is different.

"You are our hero, thank you very much for taking care of us for so long, but this time, live for yourself!" Mrs. Jonathan smiled and looked at her husband, gently stroking his prickly cheek, "No Worry about us, we will support all your options."

Jonathan asked with some confusion, "Why?"

His wife is smiling as before, not particularly beautiful, but it gives people a very warm feeling, and the heart is hot, "My child and I hope that even if you don't have a smile on your face, you don't have a smile on your face." It will be painful..."

Jonathan hugged his wife tightly and didn't speak.

Three days later, he quarreled with the department manager in the company's office, handed in his resignation letter, packed his things and left the company under the watchful eyes of many indifferent colleagues.

"He will regret it!", this is the roar of the department manager, even with the office door closed, people can still hear the anger in the roar.

The eyes of some colleagues changed slightly, but most of them were still as indifferent as ever. They quickly lowered their heads and started to deal with their work. As for Jonathan's resignation?

No one will take it to heart, if he doesn't do it, someone else will take his place, and the only one who will lose is himself.

In the morning of the next day, their family had already boarded the train to Ambiluo State, preparing to participate in this "Battle Royale" event, to compete for that, for the 400,000 bonus!

The event planned by Du Lin happened to be during the spring break, which met the time requirements of all age groups. As for whether some people are willing to resign to participate in the event, Du Lin can't guarantee it, but no matter how many people will not come this time, As long as people come, next year this event will definitely be packed!

Back and forth, he will give out a total of 3 million bonuses, plus various other expenses to hold a wilderness escape with more than 10 million funds. It seems that he is at a loss, a big loss, but in fact it can't be like this calculate.

The venue layout fee is not only used for this time, it can also be used for future events, plus the buyout fee of the cable TV group, and the fees of some advertisers, more than half of which has already been earned back.

Moreover, in the city of Odis, the seven major casinos have already opened a public market. After the competition registration day is over, the information of each contestant will be announced, and then bets from the entire empire and even the world will be accepted.

There are a total of ten rounds of betting, and the single bet only costs 50 cents. If you hit all ten rounds, you can win a bonus of 800,000 yuan, and there are more gambling items in it, which are enough to earn back the money Du Lin invested. And make more money.

So in many cases, when rich people have more money to a certain extent, the money will start to reproduce itself. This has nothing to do with whether they have business acumen or business ability, because money will reproduce itself.

After the vigorous activity was announced to the public, it immediately attracted many people to Ambiluo State to watch the game at close range, and some people asked if they could participate in the battle royale game in other ways, but unfortunately, other channel.

However, according to the black market trading list in Ambiluo State, the current price of "Battle Royale tickets" in the black market has risen to more than 700 yuan a piece, and there is a tendency to continue to rise.

At such a moment when all the attention and the eyes of the world were focused on Ambiluo State, Jonathan saw the host of this event, Du Lin, at the largest opera house in the capital of Ambilao State.

Miaoshuwu