On a sultry afternoon in June 2024, Chen Mo was squatting on a plastic stool in a rental house eating takeaway, and the screen of his mobile phone lit up.
"Mr. Chen Mo, congratulations on being selected as Observer No. 000001 Of the 'Human Civilization Continuation Observation Project'. Your mission: nothing to do. Your reward: Already received."
He thought it was a scam text message and crossed it out. Then Alipay popped up a payment notification: 500,000,000.00 Yuan.
He counted zero twice.
500 Million
