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Dongfang Qingyu quietly knelt in front of the grave for three days and two nights. Her mother, who was not even forty years old, died in the hospital three days ago due to a long period of lack of nutrition and money to treat her illness. According to the rules of the village, her close relatives would have to mourn in front of the graves for three days and three nights.

Three days later, a little cousin sent three meals a day. Not a single relative came to pay their respects, not even to take a look, since the death of their mother. From then until now, Dongfang Qingyu did not say a single word, nor did he leave behind a single tear.

Dongfang Qingyu crawled up as his thin body swayed, as if he was about to fall, but in the end, he did not fall down. He had helped his mother with her work, chores, and hard labor from the start. Although he was thin, his body was tough, just like his personality. His body was very thin, but it lacked nutrition for a long time. He then took a look at his mother's portrait. His kind eyes were like the morning breeze blowing on his face. Then, he turned around and left.

His mother was gone, the only house she had left was to collect medical fees, she no longer had any relatives, so there was nothing left for her to linger on. Dongfang Qingyu set foot on the only road to leave the village, this was the decision he made in the past three days.

A month later, Dongfang Qingyu arrived at GZ City. Along the way, he sold mineral water bottles, construction site scrap iron, paper and other stuff to earn 128 yuan. Besides the food fees, he paid the rent of 100 yuan to make a small basement. In a city where the average monthly expenses exceeded 8000 Yuan, renting a house for 100 Yuan was simply a fantasy, but the owner of the building was also a trash collector. Adding the fact that Dongfang Qingyu agreed to clean up the rubbish downstairs twice a day, it was impossible.

The basement was rectangular, and could only place a single iron bed. Other than that, there was not even a small table, there was no window, no bathroom, not even a door. The hallway was narrow, the door could not open outwards, there was a bed inside, and the door could not be pushed in, so there was no door, only a simple curtain made of rags that divided the world in two. An incandescent light illuminated every corner of the room. This room that was looked down upon, was incomparably warm for Dongfang Qingyu.

After dawn, it was the second month since arriving at GZ City. After paying the rent yesterday, he walked a little longer, but unfortunately, the last bit of money he had left had been snatched away by the black tiger, he was hungry for the whole day, and his stomach was still growling as he drank a mouthful of water after coming out. If he did not use the money today, he probably would not have the strength to go out tomorrow.

It was not as if he had never thought of finding other jobs. He needed an acquaintance to introduce him in order to move the bricks, or else he would not be allowed to enter. The construction site was contracted by the contractor. A hotel needed a medical certificate to wash the dishes, but he could not afford to pay for a medical examination. A supermarket clerk needed a residence permit, and he only needed his ID card.

Suddenly, an item on the ground in front of him lit up under the illumination of the street lamps. It did not give off any silvery light. This light was not like the reflection of aluminum alloy or other metals, giving people a strange feeling. Dongfang Qingyu frowned, and walked over. It was a coin. A coin for one yuan was inserted into the subgrade with a slight crack in it, almost as if he would pounce on it and grab the coin. He would need at least 38 water bottles to exchange for one silver coin, which was equivalent to the amount of work he would need for at least an hour.

The cheapest steamed bun was worth one yuan each. He did not want to waste this coin that was not easy to get, so he walked towards the direction of the large shed area, where the workers were working. Half an hour later, he arrived at a simple breakfast shed.

He bought a steamed bun for fifty cents and a bottle of mineral water for the other fifty cents. If it wasn't for the fact that he had a stomach upset after drinking water every time, he really didn't want to waste the remaining fifty cents on white steamed buns. It was just that, for the running water of GZ City, whoever dared to drink it raw would definitely not be able to leave alive.

After eating half of the steamed bun, he stopped. The other half was reserved for the evening meal. He was already used to eating two or even one meal a day. Just as he was about to put the bottle back into the snakeskin bag, he saw two lines of red words written at the bottom of the lid. Upon closer inspection, it was the message of the winner: The first prize, [Cosmos], a helmet, Dongfang Qingyu was stunned and his mind went blank for a while before slowly regaining consciousness. The muscles on his face trembled uncontrollably, as if he was happy, as if he was nervous, but at the same time, as if he was afraid. He stared at the lid for a few times before he was sure it was real.

He won the lottery, he really won the lottery!

A one in a billion chance of it hitting him. Although he had to pick up trash for a living, he still understood < Cosmos >. It was displayed on the streets, in the advertising boards, in the newspapers, and on television everyday, and as long as one was on Earth, there was no one who did not know of < Cosmos >.

"Cosmos" was a game that was developed and produced by more than 150 countries of the world at a cost of trillions of dollars. It was said that the authorities said so, "Cosmos" along with a certain dimension of the universe, was filled with mystery and fantasy, and there was no way for ordinary people to determine whether it was real or fake. However, all the players that had experienced it praised it endlessly, calling it a historical reform.

No one knew how much time had passed in the《 Cosmos》. According to the official figures, six months ago, out of the 15 billion people in the world, about one in fifteen was playing. Furthermore, this number was increasing at an alarming rate every day. With regards to this number, Dongfang Qingyu had his doubts. Forget about the rural areas, even in the city, there were so many people who worked hard for their wages every day, how could there be so many people playing games? Isn't this lying?

It was now 2080, the era of high technology. Many traditional handicraft industries had been replaced by machines, and the gap between the rich and the poor had been widening. The white collar, gold collar, CEO and others worked 4-6 hours a day, 3 days a week, the blue collar workers worked 6-8 hours a day, 4 days a week, the common workers basically did not change, just like a few decades ago, 8 to 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. Of course, there were people who worked, some of them were sons of officials, rich and wealthy families, these people did not need to work, their daily mission was to play, to eat and drink, because their parents had earned an endless amount of wealth for them, which they could never eat and drink until the end of their lives.

Originally, the purpose of Cosmos was to serve this kind of people. It was just to prevent them from bringing harm to the society, but who would have thought that after it was developed and had a new breakthrough, it would become a game for the entire people. There is no limit to gender, no limit to age, anyone can play, as long as you are human.

As a young man, he naturally had a lot of curiosity and yearning for the game, but the thing that suppressed his desire was the game helmet. Entering Cosmos required one to have a game helmet as a medium, and in order to serve different people, he had set up three types of high school and low school helmets. The price of normal helmets was 8888 yuan, middle grade helmets were 8888 yuan, and high grade helmets were 8888 yuan. It was said that there was another type of top-grade media, called gaming pods, that was even more superior than game helmets. However, the authorities did not introduce it to them, and they were only discussing it among themselves.

< Cosmos > 's game coins and real money could be freely exchanged. 1 diamond coin was equal to 1000 crystal coins, 1 crystal coin was equal to 1000 gold coins, 1 gold coin was equal to 100 silver coins, and 1 silver coin was equal to 1000 copper coins. 1 copper is equal to 1 coin. Note: The RMB is the only currency in the world.) There was no need to explain too much about the charm of money. Because of the appearance of the Cosmos, the number of professional player rose from twenty million previously, to seventy million today. Moreover, this number continued to rise at an alarming rate every day. As for the game workers, there was no way to count them.

The first time Dongfang Qingyu saw the advertisement that the < Cosmos > could earn money, he was envious of it for a few days. He had fantasized for a few days, but in the end, all of it were mercilessly snapped by the high price of the 8888 Yuan game helmet.

In the game helmet sales hall, under the scornful and astonished gazes of the staff and the customers, Dongfang Qingyu, who was dressed in old white clothes, did not say a word. Instead, he quietly took out a bottle of mineral water.

What luck!

To be able to hit the target with just a one in a billion chance, what else could it be other than dog shit? In the past six months, how much mineral water was produced? Plus the stock of mineral water from before, the shelf life of the mineral water was six months, which was equivalent to choosing three out of the total amount of mineral water in a year.

Although the staff was envious and jealous, he didn't dare to play any tricks and simply gave the game's main warehouse to Dongfang Qingyu. What made Dongfang Qingyu a little disappointed was that he thought that the special prize would be a high-end game's helmet, but he didn't expect it to be a low-end game's helmet. The so-called special prize was just a prize, not a high-end game's helmet.

Under the fiery gaze of the crowd, Dongfang Qingyu took his helmet and left.