I had been staring at the monitor for two days, and my eyes couldn’t stand the fatigue anymore. The monitors’ backlight and the text on the printed data documents were doing a merry-go-round in my brain. It was primarily because I had not slept at all since I arrived in Seoul, so I naturally yawned when I stretched my arms. I looked at the monitor again.

“I should prepare this as quickly as possible…” I muttered.

The two markets had the biggest up-phase from the moment the dotcom bubble burst to 2008. Although there would be a slight difference in timing and duration, the major trend would remain unchanged. Prices of real estate and oil would rise beyond reason. It took me time to draft the investment proposal because I had to mention 9.11 terrorism and the Iraq war to explain the process of the oil market’s massive growth. But, how could I write that down now. It was only January of 2000, but the U.S. CIA[1] only realized the imminent threat of terrorist organizations around August 2001?

9.11 in 2001 had changed America even more than the Day of Advent. In the beginning, only a little over a hundred low-class monsters appeared, so the world thought it was manageable. It was indeed shocking, but the public had been brainwashed by the media’s staged alien attacks. Also, there was no high-tech giant spaceship swallowing the White House or destroying it with its radar. Therefore, the fact that an extraterrestrial civilization actually existed and was aggressive toward us wasn’t that intimidating to humanity. In addition, the greatest threat was not the monster but the gate itself. People just wanted to know how such a rip in time and space could happen and how to prevent them.

I was still curious why the monsters carried out such a petty attack. Probably to keep us off guard? Was that it? If the Seven Demon Kings showed up on the first day, they could have devastated everything as there was nothing we could do to stop them at that time.

Anyway, the terrorist organization ruined the world differently as they took the global and U.S. economies down with a single attack. The IMF crisis was the turning point for South Korea, but the 9.11 terror attack was the U.S.’s. I couldn’t write about such factors in my investment proposal even if they were kept as firm secrets. I couldn’t even hint about it as a hypothesis because the U.S. would kill us all in an instant if they found it out.

Clickety-clack.

I deleted the part I just typed.

 「1. The World Trade Center bombing incident in 1993, USS Cole bombing.

 2. Increased foreign attention to the Balkans due to the outbreak of the Kosovo War.

 3. Growing anti-American sentiment towards the Arabs.

 4. Current North American aviation security vulnerability.

An aircraft-based terrorist operation is expected considering the factors above. More details… 」

Delete, delete, delete…

***

I still needed a perfect proposal that could be trusted by Gillian in London, Jessica in the Isle of Man, and Kim Cheong-Soo in New York. They planned specific strategies based on my proposal and would lead elite corps. This long-term proposal would cover and guide their activities until the beginning of the subprime crisis, and how much profit I would earn depended upon how much they believed in my overall strategy.

A simple order like ‘Buy real estate and oil as they are going to rise, and keep in mind that the bubble would burst soon’ would let their talents go to waste. Their genius needed a stage to stand on, a logical basis of reasoning and deduction to accept my long-term predictions so that they could maximize my profits. I had to include every product that was available in the markets. In addition, I also had to describe the transaction types, such as spot, futures, option, FX margin trading, stocks, raw material, real estate, and so on…I decided to use an analysis of the American presidential election in November as a plausible explanation for my forecasts.

The forty-third U.S. president was currently the Governor of Texas and was from an oil conglomerate family. His dad, a former president, had skyrocketed the oil market through the Gulf War, and he did so as well with the Iraq invasion.

Yes, this would work.

I typed the subheadings first.

「1. Expected Results for Super Tuesday[2] in February」

「2. The 2000 Presidential Election and the Probable Winner」

「3. Possible Ramifications and Shifts in Foreign Policies after the Inauguration of the New President」

「4. The Impact of Iraq’s Oil Reserves and Market」

「5. Conclusion」

***

The Republican Party had nominated their presidential candidate on Super Tuesday. Since the Governor of Texas had emphasized his morality and connection with Texans, his early campaign tactics were focused on heightening the support in his home state. There were traces of his campaign volunteers visiting even those secluded houses surrounded by wheatfields. A man passed by the wall where the promotional leaflets were hung.

Squeak-

The floor squeaked on each step like the sound from the wooden door in the dungeon. The man’s eyes widened immediately and he soon felt ashamed after realizing that he had overreacted. This didn’t suit a Man Who Overcomes Adversity who had overcome lots of hardships.

Later that night, he climbed onto the second floor window like a cat and searched for people living in the house. The room was left unattended like a warehouse piled up with junk, then he found one person in another room. However, he quietly passed by the young boy despite his original plan. It wasn’t because he was young but because the sight of the boy suffering from cold reminded the man of his own tormented past.

Then, the man moved according to plan. There were three people in total: the boy and his parents. The parents obviously became the victims of the man’s violence.

The sun rose. The man didn’t ask the parents for anything and only remained in the master bedroom since it was the warmest spot in the house. Meanwhile, the boy came down to see his parents in the morning and began shivering when saw the bruises all over their faces.

Then, the man said while looking at the boy, “Take your clothes off.”

The boy burst into tears at the man’s creepy voice, but his father interrupted with a groan.

“...Do as you are told. Stop crying.”

The boy took a while to undress, and the atmosphere was foreboding as the boy’s father stared at him with an annoyed gaze and the man watched them with a relaxed posture. The boy took off his shirt and pants. When he was about to take off his underwear covering his groin, the man ordered, “That’s enough. Come here.”

The boy’s dad forced the frightened boy again, and the boy started peeing on the floor. However, the smell of his urine was buried in his parents’ blood. The boy approached the man, but nothing happened as the boy’s parents expected. The intruder stared at the boy and didn’t lay a finger on him. The man didn’t break into the house with the intention of assaulting the boy. He had been looking for a hiding place before crossing the state border as he had been chased by civilians. It was annoying because killing them didn’t even give him a point or a box. Then, he saw a boy on the street with haunted eyes who looked like his young self.

As the man expected, the boy’s body was covered in scars and bruises where he was scorched by a burning anvil, stabbed by forks, and hit by a waist belt. This reminded the man of when he had been that age even though he didn’t want to recall the memories.

He had been able to think clearly and keep memories since he was a baby, which seared the memories of his father’s beatings in his brain. However, the man hated his mother more as she had just stood by and looked at her son like he was the devil himself.

The man knew a baby wasn’t born alone and was the result of a mother overcoming great adversity. Therefore, the betrayal he felt was indescribable and vivid nowadays.

“This is interesting,” he said.

His father who abused him, his mother who considered him a demon, and his cursed self were all in front of him. The man licked his lips with genuine pleasure, and when he slowly got up, the boy’s parents started begging.

“You son of a bitch….We’re doing what you say! Do whatever you want, so!”

“P…please…Please don’t kill us! Please!”

They were desperate.

“You tell me. Do you want me to save them?”

The man asked the boy, but the boy was too scared to answer. The man nodded slowly as if he knew what the boy wanted. He spoke only a short sentence to a boy in a soothing tone.

“I killed them.”

So far, his only regret was that he had killed them immediately when the quest had appeared instead of enduring the assault until the end and reluctantly killing them. Nonetheless, that had been the second jackpot as it was the second challenger box. The man grinned at the boy, but he didn’t seem happy. The old wound pierced him, and the man wondered when it would stop suffocating him.

1. Central Intelligence Agency ☜

2. The U.S. presidential primary election ☜