[You have just made a partial payment on your student loan. of 4,950,000 won. The remaining loan balance is 34,620,000 won]

“…Oh, shit.”

Where the hell did all the prize money go?

He had returned home after depositing the money into his bank account. After tapping his smartphone display a couple of times, the five million won just magically disappeared. All that was left was the stuffy, suffocating air of his tiny studio apartment in Seoul.

“Oh, here comes the text,” muttered Junsung.

Game ‘Turing Test’

This is a brain survival game with 11 players and the total prize money of at least 3.3 billion won. This game may last between one day and two weeks. This game may put your life at risk. If you have passed the selection round and would like to play the next round, please come to the place below on the date and time provided.

It was exactly a week after that day.

“The main round of the Turing test, huh?”

Junsung reflected on the conversation he had the day before as he glanced at this text. He pondered over whether the test itself was real rather than struggling to figure out what it was about. What if it’s all bullshit? Giving billions of won to the winners or killing the losers — what do the hosts even get out of it?

From this perspective, the selection round seemed even more bizarre and weird. He got 5 million won just by figuring out that the man in front of him was actually Artificial Intelligence. It wasn’t even a hidden camera TV show. The guy who went in before Junsung had failed, but the fact that there were 11 players in the game showed that the prize money for the selection round had been paid at least 11 times. Come to think of it, even those who had decided not to participate in the main round also probably received the prize money, which meant that the hosts of this test were spending hundreds of millions of won on just the selection process. They were actually serious about this. They had to be, given that they were spending so much money.

“So, it’s a brain survival game called the Turing test… What the hell is that?” In a daze, he dwelled on what the red ball had been talking about. There’s no such game called the Turing test in this world. The Turing test is not a specific game or action, but something that embraces all kinds of tests that distinguish Artificial Intelligence from humans. So, it’s more like a genre. If it’s similar to the selection round, maybe they’d set up some robots and we’re supposed to tell whether they’re human or not. We’d get the prize money if we get it right or be shot dead if we get it wrong or something.

It was just some random thought, but Junsung’s imagination actually met all the conditions described by Artificial Intelligence.

“I’d only know once I get there. So, there’d be 3.3 billion won for 11 players, and that’d be distributed equally among the survivors?”

Junsung began to write down a few numbers on paper, which he had rarely ever done throughout high school and college. As he didn’t know what the game was, it was impossible to calculate the winning percentage. However, the red ball had told him about two possible scenarios: the best- and worst-case ones.

“If we all luck out, then all 11 players can survive. Even if many of the players die, the game will end once four players are left.”

The best-case scenario was that everyone would be left alive with 300 million won each. The worst-case scenario was that 7 out of 11 players would die, and only 4 would survive, with each getting 825 million won.

“…So, the worst-case scenario would be like some kind of Russian roulette?”

Being the creative writing major he was, Junsung scribbled down three sentences on paper.

Here is a gun with 11 bullets. There are 7 live rounds and 4 blanks. If the gun is fired at your head and you live, you get 800 million won.

“…….”

It was a random thought. Before even attempting to do mathematical calculations or to look back on his life, Junsung thought he would probably just grab the gun and shoot himself in the head. Either way, it would end his boring, exhausting life without a change or future all at once.

“…Wait, no, no, no… I must be out of my mind. There’s a 7/11 chance of dying!”

According to the red ball, the “worst-case scenario” was four players remaining alive, which meant that there would be 4 to 11 survivors. So, there’s a 7/11 chance, which means that the chance of survival would be a little over 50%. Junsung kept scribbling some numbers, feeling intrigued by the distribution of prize money.

So, if 10 players survive, we’d get 330 million with a 10/11 chance, huh? I’d definitely shoot the gun.

Up to nine? Yeah, seems okay.

But from eight, that’s kinda scary. But we’d get more than 400 million.

Seven…

Junsung didn’t even know what the game was about, but he thought it was a well-structured prize scheme. The survival rate and prize money were in inverse proportion, which created a rather absurd cycle.

“… Oh, hell, what’s the use?”

With all the messy scribbles of words and numbers on paper, Junsung just thought of one sentence:

If the gun is fired at your head and you live, you get 800 million won.

Human beings pretend to think logically, but eventually, they are just animals of instinct and unconsciousness. Junsung couldn’t deny the fact that the moment he imagined this gun, he immediately thought he would shoot himself in the head, because either way it would end the troubles in his life.

No, no way. This world’s still worth living in. I can’t risk my life for some money. This world… Do I even have a clue about this world?

While he was asking himself all sorts of silly questions, his smartphone vibrated with a sudden flood of messages from his friends.

‘Wuzup! Come on out!’

‘What, now?’

‘I’m about to make a lifetime decision.’

Junsung’s serious reply was immediately met with short, disdainful answers.

‘SUYF’

‘Drinks with Hyunggi?’

‘Daelim Station?’

“…….”

Junsung thought for about five seconds.

‘Coming, assholes’

Instead of pondering over a weird game he may never find an answer to, Junsung decided to relax and meet up with his friends from high school and listen to how things were going with them.

“Hey, sucker.”

“Hey, dipshit.”

“Missed me?”

“Hey, jackass.”

“Been a while, huh? Been busy or what?”

“Shut up, let’s just go get some drinks.”

“What’s up with Gwanbeom these days?”

“Getting a master’s or something in Mapo somewhere.”

“After all that work, he’s spending all his money to get a master’s? That’s crazy!”

“Look who’s talking. Hey, menu, please.”

“It’s so fucking cold. The fall lasted, what, a week?”

“Remember we used to learn that Korea had four different seasons? Bullshit, really.”

“So Junsung, what’s up with you, with your great creative writing major and all?”

“Just write a novel and win a Nobel Prize for literature.”

“Oh, shut up, assholes. I’ve been busy going to interviews and part-time jobs and stuff.”

“You still doing that human lab rat thing? You’ll catch coronavirus and drop dead, dude.”

“The news is so fucking boring these days.”

“Politics, presidential candidates biting each other’s heads off... Society, this COVID stuff for two years already. Economy, the fucking fluctuations of bitcoin and stock prices!”

“What about the LoL Championship?”

“Damwon lost. Those suckers stole Faker’s victory.”

“What the hell does that even mean? Excuse me, large size meat and two bowls of rice, please.”

“Your treat, right?”

“Hey, you make money, so you buy.”

“No way! My salary just vanishes after I pay for my insurance, smartphone, and gasoline.”

“Wow, check this out. This phone folds in half! Cool!”

“Fuck the insurance, especially national pension. We’d never even get it back.”

“So don’t pay.”

“It’s automatically collected from my salary, you moron.”

“Consider yourself saved by the lettuce here. So why the hell can’t you get the national pension back?”

“We’re paying the national pension for old folks, and we don’t have enough people in the next generation to pay for us. Korea’s fertility rate is 0.9, you know!”

“Whatever! I’m gonna have four kids!”

“Just where on earth would you raise them? The average housing price in Seoul is a billion won!”

“A billion? Fuck, that’s worth like 40 years of my salary. I’d love to have a housewarming when I’m 60 years old. Excuse me, another round of drinks, please!”

“No one around me even has a girlfriend, let alone wife.”

“No problem. Buy a house in 40 years and just marry a young girl then.”

“Fuck, why the hell doesn’t Kim Jong-un just bomb this country?”

“He’s probably dead, haven’t you heard? He’s using an understudy. Excuse me, more meat please.”

“More? Aren’t you, like, 110kg? You’ll get diabetes and die.”

“What’s the use of having a long life? I’d just drop dead at 60.”

“60? Still too long. 40 sounds perfect.”

“My senior’s a dick, my supervisor’s a nagger, and my manager’s an old bastard.”

“Sounds exactly like my workplace.”

“If I’m gonna end up like them later, I’d rather die at 40.”

“You assholes are gonna die before even knowing what One Piece is.”

“You mean it’s still going on? Shit. Hey, who’re you voting for in the presidential elections?”

“Yoon Seok-youl, of course. And put fucking Moon in prison. He’s a disaster. Hey, where’s the sauce?

“You sound just like my dad, even the way you’re looking for the sauce!”

“Lee Jae-myung, so we’d get a million won each, you moron. Gotta get mint chocolate chip from Baskin-Robbins.”

“Voters like you destroy this country. It’s all taxes, you idiot.”

“Whatever, sucker. The country’s doomed anyway. Let’s just get some money out of it.”

“I used to think it was pointless whoever becomes president, but the 52-hour workweek system’s just killing me.”

“What’s that?”

“Huh, you don’t even know? The weekly working hours are now being limited to 52. We used to work for far more than 52 hours without getting paid.”

“Report to the Employment and Labor Administration or something.”

“Did you check out Damwon’s interview? Just hilarious.”

“Hey, the grown-ups are talking politics here. Just shut up about LoL.”

“Excuse me, can we have some stew here? Oh, it’s charged?”

“When I was young, all the meat restaurants used to just give out the stew for free.”

“What were we talking about? Never since high school. It’s not the 20th century anymore.”

“I still think raising the minimum wage is just bullshit.”

“With the crazy inflation and all, it is just a trick that deceives us.”

“Why didn’t you buy bitcoins back in high school? It’s like more than seventy million won now.”

“Back in high school, I used to think that grown-ups who bought lottery tickets were pathetic, because there is only a 50% chance of victory.”

“But now I see that we can’t ever buy a home in Seoul without winning the lottery. Well, the grown-ups were right, as usual.”

“We should just participate in Squid Game and make that fucking 45.6 billion won at once.”

“Like you’d be able to survive the first round!”

“Please, stop this! I am scared. We all gonna die here!”

“There’s such a fucking huge gap between earned and financial income.”

“Huh?”

“Earned income is what you earn from working, and financial income is what you earn in terms of money, like stocks and real estate.”

“But as the social gap gets wider and wider, financial income just dominates earned income.”

“It’s exactly what’s happening here in Korea. Now the rich only get richer. Working hard won’t change our lives.”

“Oh, fuck it. If we had fathers working in the National Assembly, we’d get 5 billion won for severance pay.”

“By the way, my cousin’s getting married. Should I get him something?”

“Hey, cheers, guys.”

“To Hyunggi’s cousin about to get married! How old is he?”

“Around 36 or 37. Works at SK Energy or something, makes crazy dough. Hey, in that case, why the hell do I need to get him anything?”

“He’s probably gonna end up being another married man in Korea. Buying a house with debt and getting pocket money from his wife… Excuse me, another round of drinks, please.”

“What’s up with Sunggun these days?”

“He’s an only child of a wealthy family, so he recently inherited an apartment in Seongnam.”

“He constantly talks about real estate transfer taxes and stuff to show off, which pisses me off.”

“Hey, you win a Nobel Prize for literature and show off, too.”

“Ugh… Why the hell did I choose this fucking useless major and waste four years of my life?”

“Should’ve done engineering instead. That would’ve bought me a Lamborghini by now.”

“And stick a ‘new driver’ sticker on the rear window. It’d be like Moses crossing the Red Sea.”

“Who’s too good for the other, BLACKPINK Jisoo or Tottenham Son Heung-min?”

“Whatever. I don’t give a shit about girl groups these days.”

“Back when we were in high school, girl groups used to wear sexy clothes.”

“Now they’re all covered up like they’re wearing Middle Eastern burkas or something. The country’s fucking going backward.”

“So, tell me where to find some naked hot sluts with fucking big boobs to jerk off to.”

“This COVID-19 nonsense is gonna just kill us all.”

“Exactly! We’ve been wearing masks for two years and got Janssen vaccines all for nothing.”

“Hey, did you know we’re not allowed to have popcorn in the movies? I went to see Venom 2 and they said no food allowed. What a joke!”

“Oh shit, what’s with the ten points, son of a bitch!”

“LG Twins lost again, Junie?”

“Where the hell’s the bullpen, where’s Woo-seok! Argh!”

“Whatever. What next?”

“Karaoke!”

“After all that drinking? Shit, my voice!”

“Sounds awful either way, so pointless.”

“Fuck you, just don’t drool over my rapping at the karaoke, asshole.”

“Hic.”

Somewhere between zero to seven out of eleven players will die. And the prize money is three hundred million to eight billion won… Hic!

Junsung eventually decided to shoot. It didn’t matter how many live rounds he had.