Gaoyang lit a cigarette and explained to Lin Xian,

"If Argentina really does beat France in a penalty shootout... then we can't bet on Argentina to win the lottery! We should bet on a draw!"

"Why?" Lin Xian's eyes were clear and innocent.

"It's like this..."

Gaoyang gestured wildly,

"A soccer match is divided into three parts: regular time, overtime, and a penalty shootout."

"If a winner is decided in regular time, then the match ends directly."

"If the regular match is a draw, meaning the scores are the same, then they go into overtime to continue deciding the winner."

"And if overtime is still a draw! They go into a penalty shootout, taking turns kicking penalty shots until a winner is decided!"

"[And the standard for determining win, loss, or draw in a soccer lottery only looks at the results of the regular time of the match!]"

Hearing this, Lin Xian understood:

"I get it, since they've gone all the way to a penalty shootout, then the earlier part must have been all draws, so of course you have to bet on a draw in the lottery."

Gaoyang gave Lin Xian a thumbs up:

"You learn so fast! You're a natural at playing the soccer lottery! Come on, let's buy some together! The odds for a draw are really high!"

"Buy some, bro! If we lose, it's on me, okay? I've already made 70,000 or 80,000 from you before, this time if we win, it's yours, if we lose, it's on me!"

Gaoyang dragged Lin Xian into the store.

In the end, after Gaoyang's persistent persuasion, Lin Xian bought 30,000 yuan worth of soccer lottery tickets, betting on a draw between Argentina and France.

Lin Xian didn't like gambling in the first place and didn't want to buy so much. But Gaoyang got carried away, forced the issue, grabbed Lin Xian's phone, and directly used facial recognition to pay.

Gaoyang went all-in with 60,000 yuan, and Lin Xian was forced to swipe 30,000 yuan.

The odds for a draw were 3.7.

That is to say... if Argentina and France really did draw in regular time, then Gaoyang could redeem 220,000 yuan, and Lin Xian could redeem 110,000 yuan.

...

3 AM.

The match started again amidst Lin Xian's yawns.

The Argentina team played fiercely.

They scored a penalty kick not long after the start, and then scored another goal later.

With 80 minutes of the match played, Argentina was leading 2-0!

Gaoyang was sweating anxiously:

"What's going on, Lin Xian, this isn't what we agreed on! Unless the French team has divine intervention, how could they possibly kick back two goals in a dozen minutes!"

However!

As soon as Gaoyang finished speaking!

The French team's main player, Mbappe, directly scored a goal!

Before Gaoyang's howls could even escape the window, Mbappe scored another goal!

Two goals in a matter of seconds! Even a soccer power fantasy wouldn't dare write it like this!

"Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh!!!!!"

Gaoyang once again transformed into a human mop, writhing on the floor like a maggot, muttering as if summoning some great evil god, unable to speak human language!

In the end...

The Argentina team won the match in a penalty shootout.

Messi held up the long-awaited World Cup trophy.

Gaoyang also raised the lottery ticket worth 220,000 yuan high, and pounced on Lin Xian—

"Godfather!"

"Get out!"

...

After a struggle.

Gaoyang finally calmed down and began to analyze:

"Looking at it now... your dream seems to be a little abnormal! If it was just a simple prediction that Argentina would win, that wouldn't be anything."

"But, you accurately predicted a draw in the regular stage, a draw in overtime, all the way to the penalty shootout before a winner would be decided..."

"Let me think about this."

Gaoyang pondered there, and Lin Xian also thought with his chin in his hand.

Currently.

[If roughly judged, it can basically be confirmed that his dream is the real future world 600 years later.]

But he always felt like he was lacking decisive evidence.

Just relying on predicting the result of a soccer match and concluding that the dream is the real future world is actually logically unsound.

When buying lottery tickets just now, many of the laughing and joking soccer fans in the lottery shop said that they had made a fortune gambling on soccer this year and had already won several matches in a row.

One uncle had even won seven in a row and was preparing to pay for a Haval in full.

The soccer lottery only has three results: win, loss, or draw.

Even if you were purely guessing, there's a chance you could guess correctly several matches in a row; this isn't ironclad evidence to conclude that the dream is the real future world.

"Actually, Lin Xian, I still can't believe that your dream is real."

In the end, Gaoyang raised his head and said with a serious face:

"Even if you accurately predict three soccer matches in a row, there are just too many unreasonable phenomena in your dream; to be honest, it's hard for me to imagine that it's a real world."

"I remember you said that time in your dream never moves forward? It's always fixed on the same day?"

Lin Xian nodded:

"Every time I dream, it's an identical cycle... the person who died yesterday is still standing in the same place today; the friends who played well with me yesterday have forgotten everything today; the leaves always fall in the same place, never off by even a little... it's like I'm watching a repeat movie every day."

"Actually, there are still many inexplicable things about this dream, such as the level of technological development in the dream, which is almost no different from the current year of 2022; how should this be explained? Do you believe that life 600 years from now will be the same as it is now?"

Gaoyang also had a massive headache at this time, scratching his head and cheeks.

"Stop! Stop!"

Gaoyang signaled Lin Xian to be quiet.

Then he ran into Lin Xian's bedroom, took out white paper and a black pen:

"Too chaotic, too chaotic... How about this, let's sort out our thoughts! And then we can judge what's going on with your dream!"

"How do we sort it out?" Lin Xian asked, reaching out his hand.

Gaoyang handed Lin Xian a piece of paper and a pen, signaling him to sit down:

"Like you said, dreams are different from reality; dreams don't need to be reasonable or orderly, but the real world is different! The real world must be reasonable, orderly, and truly verifiable."

"So, now let's both summarize the [unreasonable things in your dream]! Let's list them one by one!"

"If these unreasonable things really can't stand scrutiny, are self-contradictory, and logically inconsistent... then we can absolutely say that your dream is just a dream! Everything is a coincidence!"

Lin Xian took the pen and nodded; it was indeed a good method; this could also be considered a kind of reverse reasoning.

"Alright, we'll each write our own, and then we'll summarize them and discuss them."

Lin Xian lowered his head and wrote the title on the white paper—

[Unreasonable Phenomena in the Dream]

...

After writing the title, Lin Xian wrote as if inspired by the gods.

He had long felt that there were too many bugs in the dream, but before he thought that since it was a dream, unreasonableness was actually very reasonable.

But now that his train of thought had changed, and he was going to connect the dream world with the real world...

Those unreasonable things seemed even more unreasonable!