Fifty-Thousand Electronics
"You ever heard of All Blue?"
"All Blue…?"
All Blue.
In the world of One Piece, it was said to be the legendary sea where every fish from the East Blue, West Blue, South Blue, and North Blue gathered in one place.
It exists in the real world, too.
It was a real concept. Where warm and cold currents collide, a golden fishing ground forms—waters rich enough to sustain every kind of fish imaginable.
"The legendary sea from One Piece…"
"No. Not that."
"Huh?"
"Your goddamn account, you idiot!"
This had nothing to do with that at all. Sora was taking the bait on a stupid fishing line, same as always.
"This is All Blue. Why the hell are you looking up One Piece for no reason?"
"Ugh!"
"Picking nothing but free-falling stocks—now that's a real talent."
"I didn't know it would turn out like this."
Sora puffed out her cheeks. In a single year her body had grown more womanly, yet everything she did was pure brat.
Her stock skills, too.
The moment a little hardship showed up, this was what she became. She'd been walking nothing but flower paths lately.
"It's not just mine that's dropping, you know."
"Mm."
"The whole KOSPI is All Blue. Looking for All Blue only in my account is something even Sanji wouldn't ask for."
"Fair enough."
She had a point. Lately the KOSPI had been nose-diving day after day. The so-called bear market had begun.
A market that had punched through 2,600 had plummeted below 2,500—and at a speed no one saw coming.
"I thought it'd bounce short-term around 2,500, so…"
"Why?"
"Huh?"
"I said why."
"What do you mean why? Corporate earnings have been solid lately. Dropping this suddenly is overreacting."
Sora had a point. The KOSPI hadn't broken its previous high for no reason.
Earnings were strong. Global markets were healthy. Next quarter looked even better.
"You just bought because everyone was yelling about Sixty-Thousand Electronics, didn't you?"
"I'm not that stupid, okay?!"
"Then what?"
"Looking at Ohseong's fair value, the low fifty-thousands felt way too cheap, so…"
"So in the end, you bought because the price looked cheap to you."
"?!"
And the media fanned that exact psychology. There was one thing KOSPI investors surprisingly never grasped.
People talk about pump-and-dump stocks, but the truth is the KOSPI itself is one giant operation.
You couldn't see it in a bull market. Surely the blue chips moved on rational logic, right? Not even close. Even a titan like Ohseong Electronics danced to the institutions' tune.
"And the reason it felt that way to you is because the press gaslit everyone with Fifty-Thousand Electronics this, Sixty-Thousand Electronics that."
"…"
"Am I wrong?"
"You're right."
"You got swept up in herd psychology."
Invest against the crowd! Anyone with even a little market experience had heard that line.
What's so hard about that? The point is, it has to be hard.
Think of it as a miniature Truman Show. When everyone around you says the same thing—when even the experts agree—surprisingly few people can just open their mouths and say no.
"Ugh, I knew it. The second you started making that smug 'I've figured out stocks' face, I had you pegged."
"…"
"How do you even fall for that? All your nutrients just went straight to your tits."
"And what about you, senior?! You're saying you knew?!"
That was exactly why you needed your own investment philosophy. Sora stuck out her lips now on top of the puffed cheeks.
I can't tell if she's trying to be sexy or just sulking.
Knowing her, she was purely sulking. Body and stocks alike—still endlessly clumsy.
"Obviously."
"How?"
"There were warning signs."
"Warning signs…?"
At best she'd evolved from Squirtle to Wartortle. As a Pokémon trainer, she still had a long way to go.
You need at least Blastoise before you start blasting Hydro Pump.
Stock analysis, checking the news—those mattered, of course. But that was bull-market logic.
"In a bear market, you watch what the foreigners are doing."
"Foreigners?"
"Think about it. If you were the main operator on a pump-and-dump stock, when would you crash the price?"
Sora furrowed her brow in deep thought, apparently drawing on the fat energy stored in her chest.
After dumping every last share of your own, then it's 'not my problem,' right?
Just like 09Lady freefalling with no floor in sight. From the operators' perspective, there was nothing to lose.
"Okay, but that's a manipulated stock, and…"
"And the KOSPI is different?"
"No way."
"Exactly that 'no way,' you idiot!"
The KOSPI worked the same. The scale was just obscenely larger. It moved on principles nearly identical to a pump-and-dump.
Should we call it a manipulated market instead of a manipulated stock?
There was something called investor-type trading trends—data showing how much individuals, foreigners, and institutions each bought and sold.
"Look. Lately the foreigners have done nothing but sell, right?"
"It says they bought futures, though…"
"Right. They prop up the price with futures while dumping the actual shares."
Some days it looked like they were buying. But by market close, they'd sold it all back. Even that was just bait to lure in the retail investors.
Once they've sold off every share and stacked up the short positions—then, all at once.
They dump the futures they'd been holding. Billions in sell orders hit the market out of nowhere.
"Shit."
"You don't know the Korean market one-two day? Seriously?"
"Of course I don't! Most people don't!"
It crashes. A straight vertical drop. One of the classic bear-market patterns you see all the time on the Korean exchange.
Honestly, just keeping up with the news is enough to brace for it somewhat.
The market is full of bad news. Yet the KOSPI looks weirdly solid. Nine times out of ten, someone's running an operation—selling the shares while stacking short positions.
"I get what you're saying, senior, but I still think we'll get a short-term bounce."
"Oh yeah?"
"Are you going to keep making that teasing face?"
"Yep!"
In a bull market, it was hard to notice. Even when bad news dropped, people ignored it.
No—they don't even look.
That was human psychology. Until the fire was already on your foot, you never realized it was urgent.
"I'll take that bet. By next week or so, the fear-mongering articles will start pouring out."
"I'm on the side that goes up."
Sora dug in her heels. Some of it was spite toward him, sure—but she had her own analysis too.
You only learn for real by getting knocked around.
Nobody becomes an investor walking nothing but flower paths.
In a bull market, investment fever spreads.
"Ah, I'm going insane…"
"What's wrong, Deputy?"
"I bought stocks. The second I did, the whole thing went to hell."
Because all around you, people were talking about how much money they'd made in the market. Even people who'd never planned to buy anything.
It kept climbing and climbing, and the moment I buy—goddammit…
Park Chang-yeol had bought Ohseong Electronics not long ago. A coworker's windfall had made his stomach twist with envy. And the moment he bought? Wouldn't you know it—the price started dropping like a lie from that very day.
"How deep are you underwater?"
"About seven percent."
"In actual money?"
"Three million won. There goes my whole paycheck~."
It had once broken sixty thousand with real swagger. Back then, it truly felt like the road to One-Hundred-Thousand Electronics.
Should've sold. Shame.
That was why he was venting to his subordinate. But he wasn't genuinely worried.
"You okay?"
"Of course. Someday it'll punch through one hundred thousand and fatten up my wallet."
"Ah… right."
The expert on TV had said so. Hitting One-Hundred-Thousand Electronics was just a matter of time.
Even the Green Window news said earnings keep coming in strong.
In other words, given enough time, it would go up. Work hard, sweat at the office, and someday you'd look up and there it would be.
Yeah, still not the right time to buy.
Park Chang-yeol's subordinate, Oh Jae-won, was interested in stocks too. Easy money, after all. But actually doing it scared him—because prices could drop.
So he decided to study first. These days the times were good.
Just listen to the YouTubers.
Huge subscriber counts. Supposedly a guy who'd made tens of billions in stocks.
"When should you buy Ohseong Electronics? The price has dropped a lot lately, right? Feels like just yesterday it hit Sixty-Thousand Electronics."
More than anything, he explained things simply—simple enough even a complete beginner like Jae-won could follow.
Ah, pre-reflection? So there was a correction back in December. The drop now is just because the market's weak.
Jae-won nodded along to the video. He didn't fully get it, but on a gut level it made sense.
"All the bad news is already out there, right? When you get an oversold crash like this, buying in always looks like an opportunity in hindsight."
Buy the fear! He'd heard that one before. At the current price, there was definitely merit.
Even the old-timer bosses are all underwater, right? I'd be buying cheaper than those guys.
At the very least, he wouldn't take a loss. Looking at the comments, plenty of people were thinking the same thing.
The more he watched, the more his resolve hardened. Ohseong Electronics hadn't dropped because something was wrong with the company.
This might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
One-Hundred-Thousand Electronics. The phrase his deputy and his manager both muttered five times a day could actually become real. Buy now and double your principal. Dividends on top of that—rock solid.
Opportunity. The YouTuber's words. Desire sprouting in the heart. Not many people could resist.