PC Is Profitable
The fall of crypto.
"Ah, what am I supposed to do… I diluted after listening to Mansu and I'm already down a thousand."
It was affecting the streaming ecosystem too.
Especially the BJs who had built their brands on crypto content.
Ugh, so annoying! I should've just listened to Oppa.
Heavy losses were inevitable.
Yoo-min, who had ridden crypto streams to fame, was no exception.
She had minimized the damage, of course.
Thanks to Oppa Chan-wook tipping her off the moment the first day's drop began.
The problem was everything after that.
The decline just kept going.
At this level… wouldn't it be worth getting back in?
"I'm not really blaming Mansu — he's probably struggling too…"
For Yoo-min, crypto wasn't just an investment.
It was content for her viewers.
The audience had wanted it. Her hardcore fans had egged her on to buy, and she hadn't been able to refuse.
Where the hell did AppleWind go?
Most of those hardcores were crypto investors themselves.
They had taken massive hits in this crash. A few had gone full radio silence.
Which meant her recent star balloon income had dipped — but.
"Out of nowhere? Thank you for ten thousand star balloons, Master MoneyPrinter, woof woof!"
But it wasn't a real problem.
The empty seats left by vanished hardcores were filled by new ones. The board had grown large enough for that to work.
Crypto investors who had made money on the reverse bet.
Got lucky, made a little cash, strutted around — and look at you now. Yoo-min is mine.
For every person betting on the rise, there was someone betting on the fall.
Once they made big money, they wanted to spend it. They wanted recognition. Lightning-rich overnight millionaires who believed they were different flocked to PaprikaTV.
Crypto culture had taken root on PaprikaTV.
The money they spent was having a positive effect on the stock price.
"It's actually real?"
"I told you! It was just a accumulation range — they were only shaking it up and down."
"Hye-ri was the one who said to buy, though."
"…"
And that was true in the real world as well.
The Hankuk University Stock Club was using the crypto craze as a reference for their investments.
Semiconductor companies. Luxury brands. And right now, they were making money off PaprikaTV.
Honestly, it's all thanks to Oppa Wook.
Only Hye-ri, the club president, knew that. A reliable ally had been feeding her advice. The club members themselves had done almost nothing.
But the confidence this episode had given them was real.
"PaprikaTV's fine, but what about the chemicals sector?"
"I'm just holding my position."
"Investing is about taking risks — sink or swim, you've got to try!"
"You take risks while managing your portfolio."
They had become more aggressive about stock investing. Livelier than before, and more serious. Membership had ballooned too. Students who had caught the investing bug after the crypto fiasco were pouring in — even from other departments.
The Stock Club was thriving harder than ever.
"We've fully liquidated Bitcoin, Ethereum, and every altcoin."
"Did we clear the projected average cost basis?"
"Yes! We effectively pulled the trigger first, so…"
Rachel's family office was no different.
They were the biggest beneficiaries of the recent crypto crash.
Well, of course. We said we'd time the news drop perfectly.
They were also the ones who had orchestrated it.
Building a bubble was an act that carried enormous risk. What if another force sold first? You'd be left holding the bag — an astronomical loss.
There was no such worry here. This first crypto bubble had been built by her family from start to finish.
"I did wonder if we'd liquidated a bit too fast."
"Hm! Is there a problem?"
"Thanks to attacking the Korean market simultaneously, as you directed, Director, we took more profit than projected."
Bad news spread in lockstep with her sell timing. Her family had the power to manufacture it and push it out. Her role had been accumulation and disposal. How fast, and how much profit — that had been the metric.
I've been yielding ground to you for a while. I think I'm entitled to this much information.
They had exceeded it.
Because while monitoring the movements of Korean A, a peculiar phenomenon had been discovered.
Kimchi Premium.
A kind of inflation. Korean market crypto prices diverged from the global benchmark.
"You can practically hand them a sell signal and they still charge in. How stupid Korean investors are…"
"Fabian."
"Yes, Director."
"I don't believe I called you here for personal commentary."
"M-my apologies!"
The phenomenon existed in other regional markets too. Price gaps formed according to national policy and exchange rates. In Korea, it was simply extreme. And with the country accounting for roughly twenty percent of total crypto trading volume, the scale was massive.
We did profit through the Korean market — but that isn't grounds to demean them.
It had helped them offload inventory. Not only the price differential, but the ability to finish the whole operation at lightning speed.
"Our team will be taking a break for a while. You rest too, Fabian. That's an order from your superior."
"I-is that really all right? I haven't fulfilled the full term of my contract yet."
"If you love the work that much, you're free to keep going."
"No, ma'am!"
In finance, time was money. You could redeploy it elsewhere or cut interest with early repayment.
Results that had blown past projections. Because they had originated with Korean A, she had developed a slight fondness for Korea as well. That was why she had shut down Fabian's discriminatory remark.
Even she couldn't fully explain the feeling.
"Director, if I may…"
"Is there something left to say?"
"I was just wondering how you plan to spend your vacation, hehe. An acquaintance of mine runs a hotel on a beach with a gorgeous view in Florida…"
"I don't think I'll be spending it on cheap small talk."
Curiosity stirred.
Rachel decided to put her vacation to more meaningful use.
Hankuk University.
"Time's up. I'll give you exactly ten more seconds — finish up."
Second-semester finals were ending. The economics students were finally catching their breath.
"What did you put for number five?"
"I don't know."
"The exam's over! I'm just nervous."
"I'm more curious whether crypto went up or down."
Most of them wore rotten expressions. Unless you had done unusually well, that was inevitable. This final had been especially brutal — crypto had been raging among the students.
Tap, tap. Tap, tap.
The moment the exam ended, students hammered at their phones. The ones who had just gotten them back, the ones who had been hiding them — the goal was the same.
Crypto.
Checking whether the assets they held had risen or fallen.
"I'm completely screwed!"
"It's fine."
"You're okay though, Sora…"
"No. Everyone who was in crypto got wrecked this time."
"?"
"Agreed."
Crypto markets ran twenty-four hours. You never knew when a crash or a spike would hit.
Just holding it drains your energy dry.
Checking your phone became a habit. Kids like that were never going to take an exam properly.
Stocks, by contrast — getting underwater made you anxious, but at least it didn't destroy your daily life. The Stock Club kids all wore bright faces. At minimum, none of them looked bad.
"Now that you mention it… could I actually get a B-plus?"
"Absolutely possible."
"Yes!"
Hye-ri's expression brightened too. Suhyun barely showed emotion, so it was hard to tell with her.
Not falling into crypto was the right call.
After its catastrophic crash, crypto was slowly bouncing back. Some people were angling for a comeback. But one thing was certain.
It was not an attractive investment market. There was nothing to learn there.
"What are you doing over break?"
"Sora's probably doing stocks."
"Well… yeah, pretty much."
"You're back in stocks?"
"Yeah."
Sora was trading stocks again. Along with finals, her slump had ended.
A slump in a different sense, but still.
The stock market she returned to after so long was a cauldron of chaos. The board was unnervingly unstable. Fear from the crypto wipeout. A fresh issue in the form of the US-China trade dispute. And the bull market had already run for a very long time.
Equity volatility only kept climbing.
"There really hasn't been any good news lately."
"Sora, you should invest in PaprikaTV too!"
"PaprikaTV is a bit… for me."
"Why?"
Sora was a member of the Stock Club. She knew the other members were buying PaprikaTV.
If I buy it, that guy will probably tell me to start camming.
With some absurd excuse, no doubt. The kind of man who would do something like that and still come out ahead. But the fact that he had ability was also true.
What did her senior think of the current market?
"Whoa, look at that protest."
"What protest?"
"You know — MeToo and all that. It's been blowing up lately."
Society was in an uproar too. As they came out the main gate to head home, protesters had occupied the roadside.
I've seen it reported on the news.
It was a major issue in public discourse. Even political circles were said to be paying attention to the situation.
"MeToo changes the woooorld!"
"A victim's tears are evidennnce!!"
Sora honestly didn't get it. It was an eyesore, and the reasons for protesting didn't land either.
How are a victim's tears evidence? Separate from the severity of the crime, a trial has to follow legal procedure.
It didn't make sense. Setting aside whether their claims were right or wrong, the way they expressed them wasn't rational. It only bred resentment.
The ending of a protest that failed to win public support was already written.
"Who even does protests like that, and why?"
"Beats me."
"At this rate they'll just split into men versus women and start fighting."
"Agreed."
The people protesting didn't even seem particularly connected to MeToo. The more she looked, the less she understood.
This is genuinely chaotic.
The stock market wasn't normal. Society wasn't normal. She couldn't predict which way the market would go.
What would her senior do?
Honestly, she was a little curious. She herself couldn't find an answer no matter how hard she tried.
"Isn't that Oppa Wook over there?"
"No way."
"…"
Among the protesters, a familiar face.
Sora rubbed her eyes, half-convinced she was seeing things. Then she looked again.
Very unfortunately, regrettably — she had not been mistaken.
"A victim's tears are evidence."
He was up to another insane stunt.