It was now the middle of summer, and natural disasters occurred on random dates. The torrential rain from Typhoon Olga in the Korean Peninsula failed to cool down the stock market. In the past, the Korean KOSDAQ[1] market went crazy as the dotcom boom in New York.

After the Russian financial war last year, I had placed ten billion dollars in Jeon-il Group. Things had changed for the better when the money was all thrown into the Korean KOSPI market and it indirectly bolstered the market by increasing the amount of capital held in Korean hands. There were major fluctuations in the market as the stock price exceeded a thousand points in a single day, so it was a significant change, especially in this era.

Daehyun Securities rushed to launch the ‘Buy Korea Fund,’ which exploited patriotism by appealing to citizens to purchase domestic stocks before foreigners swept them away at low prices. It was the first event that increased Korea’s interest in stocks and funds.

In addition, the ‘Cyber Korea 21’ initiative was announced by the government ahead of the original schedule. It was a monumental policy that enabled Korea to become an IT power and caused massive activity in the KOSDAQ. With the KOSPI increase, the KOSDAQ market was spinning out of control now. It proceeded as it had been in the past, but the origin of the boom had changed. Instead of being caused by the New York dotcom boom, Koreans did it all on their own.

***

I wanted to finish high school without any hiccups because I wanted my parents to see me graduate like an ordinary kid even though my growth was unusual. However, I realized that middle school was my limit. My Agility increased by one class on the day I reinforced the Clown’s Dagger. Then, I noticed that some Awakeneds had preempted the first rewards and I wasn’t the front-runner. At that moment, I had determined to stop wasting my time at school, but I still wanted my parents to believe their son had done something productive for his future rather than displaying “immaturity.” That was my filial duty.

“Hello father, how was your day?”

I felt uneasy late at night while waiting for my father to change into his pajamas.

“I have something to tell you,” I said.

He seemed to have a hunch that I was about to talk about the one million won he had entrusted to me. He sat on my bed and looked at the HTS screen on the monitor. Since he was too far from the screen to see the numbers clearly, his expression remained calm.

“Have you started stocks? I hope you didn’t go into the KOSDAQ…Let’s see.”

He moved in front of the computer, then we looked into the monitor together.

「Account name: Na Seon-Hu」

「Account value: 143,500,000 ￦」

「Evaluated Profit: + 142,500,000 ￦」

「Profit rate: + 14250 %」

The original one million won he had given me had now become 143.5million won. He quickly moved the mouse and the room filled with the sound of the clicks. He checked my transaction details over the past six months multiple times.

“...How did you manage school?” he finally asked.

“I reserved entire transactions,” I replied.

He was aware of Silver Bank as the firm had recently been accused of manipulating stock prices and initiating the current KOSDAQ boom. The transaction details spanned dozens of pages, and he fixed the screen on the ones that happened in April. This was when Silver Bank’s market price had fluctuated, and that made it possible for me to make a profit.

Click.

He then moved to May. Compared to the hundreds of transactions in April, there was only one transaction history, which was when it hit its highest point. Silver Bank had guaranteed a return of fifty-five hundred percent or fifty-five times if one simply purchased and waited. However, I used intermediary trades to increase my profit by a hundred forty-two times overall, which was nearly three times the original profit. Today, Silver Bank’s stock had plunged by nearly half from its highest point.

“...Why did you stop dealing?” Father asked in a confused voice.

“I’m calculating the timing since I need to continue to watch some companies,” I answered.

“Tell me,” he said.

There was a computer manufacturing company whose stock rose by a hundred forty-seven times in a year, a technology firm that would increase by a hundred fifty times in six months, and a communication company that would rise by seventeen times in twenty-five days…There were more stocks that I didn’t list.

The Dutch Tulip Mania incident was often referred to as the best example of an economic bubble in history, but there was no reliable data to really prove it. However, Bal-geum Tech had the largest documented increase during the dotcom bubble, and it actually happened in Korea. In the future, cryptocurrency would increase three hundred thousand times from a starting price of six cents, but its fluctuation wasn’t comparable to the current KODAQ boom when considering the short-term growth rate.

Everyone was crazy about stocks. Housewives spent the majority of their time sitting in front of their son’s computers, taxi drivers gathered around in securities firms more often than in rest areas, and college students skipped classes to look at stock windows at internet cafes. However, the public would have to face the consequences when the bubble burst just like how Silver Bank plunged fifty percent from its boom.

“I have something to show you,” I broached the subject.

I took over the seat and opened an email from the Jonathan Investment Finance Group.

「Subject: Welcome, Mr. Na

We are deeply impressed by your research, especially the detailed report on GoodCom and APE and the overall outlook for the NASDAQ market. Do you know that Will Conseb, the outstanding hedge fund manager, has been an analyst since he was a minor? Although you insist that you want to remain as an overseas analyst due to being an underage foreigner, our group would like to invite you to our headquarters.

We are pleased to announce that you’ve been selected as an analyst for our investment finance group. We are looking forward to hearing from you. Congratulations, Mr. Na!」

My father looked more shocked than the numbers that were in HTS as his eyes were filled with questions. I took out the research paper that the email had mentioned, and I was more nervous now than when I was standing alone in front of the boss monster. I was about to show him this along with an ivy league college acceptance letter after graduating from high school, but I did it even before finishing middle school.

“It has been a year since you created a stock account for me,” I said.

“...Yes. So, you wrote this?”

Father couldn’t take his eyes off the research paper written in English.

“I’ve been studying by myself since then,” I replied.

It would have sounded like a poor excuse, and my father began looking around the room. His face darkened when he pulled out a book from my shelf.

Sigh.

A deep sigh poured out between Father’s lips, and he questioned me while looking at the financial books in English.

“You learned English and read this in one year?”

“I was pretty good in English since it was one of my favorite subjects,” I answered.

I knew at that moment that I had become even stranger to him, so I couldn’t bear to look directly at him. I stared at the gray floor mat, and the tension suffocated me.

“Why do you look like you’re dying?”

Father’s voice came down at me.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“No, don’t be sorry. You…you’ve been like this since you were very young. We didn’t only give birth to you but also ate, slept and lived together all the time. We were already aware that you were special. Raise your head, son. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

When I looked up, he seemed to have organized his thoughts. While tears welled up in his eyes, he shook them off with a smile.

“I’m sad only because I couldn’t spend the important moments in your life with you. You should’ve told me earlier, son.”

He moved to the side of the bed and tapped the spot next to him. As I sat next to him, he looked down at the floor.

“I was too busy…that I couldn’t take care of you.”

“Don’t say that,” I said.

“We should celebrate instead of being sad, right? So, what do you want to do?” he asked.

“I want to finish middle school, then take high school GED after graduating,” I replied.

“That’s a good idea.”

Father didn’t hesitate for a second, then put his arm around my shoulder.

“You’re a grown-up, so don’t be so sensitive about your parents’ thoughts,” he said.

“...”

“Travel as much as you want and since you’re interested in finance, go to America. Do whatever you want from now on.”

I became speechless as the situation was so different from what I had seriously contemplated. Maybe I had been locked up in my world that I didn’t realize what my parents thought of me.

“This is all I can think of for you. Sorry, son. I need to support you more, but I can’t think of anything… Son…What do you want me to do?”

Tears fell on the dull floor and my father was sobbing.

1. Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotations is the stock market that is primarily for the technology business. ☜