Wedge: Countdown to Death
The phone screen was blindingly bright in the dark.
Remaining time until global catastrophe: 00:00:03
I stared at the numbers, sweat soaking through my cheap T-shirt. Three days ago, this second-hand mobile phone suddenly appeared under my pillow, with only one pre-installed application: a blood-red countdown, and a line of small words——
"Binder detected: Lin Que, assets -5823.5 Yuan. Catastrophe compensation agreement has been activated, novice gift package: unlimited storage space (1m³)."
I cursed a lunatic and almost threw the phone into the trash can.
Until yesterday, the news began to report "mass hallucination events" around the world: pedestrians in New York's Times Square fell to their knees and cried simultaneously, billboards in Shibuya, Tokyo oozed black slime, and office workers in Shanghai's Lujiazui frantically transferred money into the air.
Then came my bank APP, and a message popped up at three in the morning:
Doomsday Treasury SystemBinded
Initial amount: 5,000 Doomsday Coins (can be withdrawn into real currency, exchange rate 1:100)
Warning: You will not be able to withdraw money after the disaster. Please purchase supplies in the real world as soon as possible.
I gasped. 5,000 Doomsday coins, converted into RMB, is 500,000 yuan.
I am a poor screenwriter who lives in a shared apartment in an urban village, and my income does not exceed four figures all year round. This kind of joke is not funny at all.
But by some strange coincidence, I tried to withdraw 100 yuan.
The phone vibrated, and the text message prompted: "[ICBC] Your account with the last number 9374 has an income of 10,000.00 Yuan and a balance of 10,213.5 Yuan."
