Chapter 5: A Streak of Good Luck

Whoosh!

Inside the digital store, the dozen or so onlookers suddenly erupted.

"It really is a laptop. The grand prize!"

"Holy crap! This luck is just too heaven-defying!"

"That’s the top-spec Ares series computer; it costs fifteen thousand!"

"Brother, your luck is truly unmatched. You’ve won two grand prizes in a row."

...

The onlookers were all filled with envy.

Chen Feng, meanwhile, was stunned. He hadn't believed he would stay this lucky, but reality was exactly that—he was just having a streak of incredible luck.

What on earth was going on?

Chen Feng’s mind was full of questions.

"Hey brother, go claim your prize!" someone kindly reminded him from the side.

Chen Feng snapped out of his daze and nodded at the shopkeeper, whose smile was stiff. "Many thanks, boss."

The shopkeeper was feeling extremely depressed. This was a high-end laptop worth fifteen thousand; she really didn't want to part with it.

But with so many people watching, she couldn't deny it, nor could she try to fool him with a low-end model—the computer model was clearly written on the announcement board.

Reluctantly, the shopkeeper went to retrieve the laptop, brand new, and placed it on the counter.

The dozen people crowded around to watch, and even more people outside, hearing the commotion, came over to join the fun.

The shopkeeper suppressed her heartache, turned the computer on in front of everyone, and gave a detailed introduction to its performance, naturally taking the opportunity to advertise her store.

At the same time, she announced that they would put out another one of these laptops tomorrow, and if someone was lucky enough, they could win it too.

With that announcement, the crowd believed her. After all, someone had already won a fruit phone earlier, and now someone had won the grand prize laptop. This couldn't be fake.

Some had previously suspected that the grand prize laptop wasn't actually in the red envelopes, but now that Chen Feng had won it, those doubts vanished.

Moreover, Chen Feng clearly wasn't a plant; the shopkeeper's reluctant expression just now couldn't be faked—otherwise, her acting skills would be Oscar-worthy.

So, many people on the scene planned to come back tomorrow to try their luck.

However, they were clearly going to be scammed. Because the shopkeeper, having learned her lesson, had already decided not to even write the note for the laptop tomorrow, so how could anyone possibly win it?

If it hadn't been for the sake of "just in case," she certainly wouldn't have included the grand prize envelope, let alone hung it up.

Chen Feng didn't care about the shopkeeper's thoughts. He stood there and listened to her long-winded speech, and after she finally issued the receipt, he walked away with the laptop under the envious gazes of the crowd.

Stepping out of the digital store, Chen Feng couldn't help but marvel at his good luck once again.

It was all so dreamlike!

In these past two days, he had encountered more good things than in the previous twenty-plus years of his life.

No one would believe it if he told them.

Of course, this streak of good luck had come a bit too late for him. Because he could die at any moment.

The doctor hadn't told him exactly how long he had left, but Chen Feng had searched online, and terminal brain tumors generally meant only two or three months.

So, for someone with only two or three months to live, having good luck was meaningless unless it could extend his life.

However, since he wasn't short on money now, Chen Feng certainly intended to enjoy himself.

He first took the laptop back to his rented room, then went out and drove to the nearest video game arcade.

He had loved video games in middle school, but as he grew older, he never had the opportunity or time to play. Deep down, he had always harbored a wish to come to an arcade and have a good time.

Now that he was nearing death, he certainly wanted to fulfill that wish.

He exchanged for 100 game tokens, put them in a plastic basket, and headed to the claw machines first.

Claw machines were a popular game that many loved, but almost no one could actually catch a prize.

This didn't really have much to do with skill; it had to do with luck.

Basically, the claw machines in these arcades were rigged; it was very difficult for anyone to easily catch a doll using skill.

Otherwise, the arcade would lose money instead of making it.

Of course, sometimes to attract customers, the merchant might intentionally lower the difficulty to let people catch dolls easily, but such things were rare and hard to come by.

Chen Feng’s goal was just to play, not necessarily to win. So, he found a random machine, inserted two tokens, and started playing haphazardly.

The first round, no surprise, he didn't catch anything. The second round, same thing. On the third round, Chen Feng mashed the buttons, and he actually caught one—a rather cute teddy bear.

Looking at the doll that dropped out, Chen Feng was stunned again, thinking, *Could this be my good luck again? Does it even have a bonus for this?*

So, Chen Feng continued. The fourth round, nothing. The fifth round, he got another one, this time a monkey; the sixth round, a rooster...

Out of ten rounds, Chen Feng had actually caught five dolls.

This was clearly not a matter of skill, but of luck. He remembered the last time he played a claw machine was over two years ago, when he was dating Shen Lin. They had seen a machine at the mall and played a few rounds together.

Other than that, his memories of playing claw machines went all the way back to high school.

"Mister, you're so amazing! Can you teach me?"

While Chen Feng was dazed, a young girl of about fifteen or sixteen spoke up beside him, looking at him with admiration and envy.

Besides this girl, quite a few people had gathered around him, mostly young people in their teens and twenties.

They were all looking at him with expressions of worship.

It was just that Chen Feng was too incredible, especially toward the end, where he caught one every single time.

"Uh, this... I don't really have anything to teach. It's just luck."

"You're lying," the girl said with some dissatisfaction. "I come here often to play, so why haven't I caught more than a few? And you caught so many in one go. You're hiding your secrets."

*What a brat!* Chen Feng thought to himself. *Are young girls these days all this rude?*

"I'm really not lying. I'm done playing. Do you want these dolls? You can have them all."

Chen Feng couldn't be bothered to argue with the girl and gave her the five dolls he had caught.

"Ah! Really? Thank you, mister! You're the coolest!"

The girl was overjoyed and, without any hesitation, bent down to pick up the dolls. It was hard to carry all five at once, so she had to hug them tightly in her arms.

By then, Chen Feng had already left, strolling over to a coin pusher machine.

This thing was essentially a gambling machine. Looking at those coins on the edge, it seemed like they would be pushed off at any moment, but in reality, that wasn't the case at all.

Many people had been scammed by this thing, and some had even become addicted, losing everything they had.

Chen Feng wanted to test just how heaven-defying his luck could be, so he casually started feeding coins into this "gold-swallowing beast." He threw in over a dozen, but nothing happened.

Chen Feng wasn't surprised; he kept throwing them in, another dozen or so.

Just as Chen Feng was wondering if his luck buff had disappeared, he suddenly heard a loud clatter. The stack of game coins that had been piled high suddenly collapsed and poured down.