Hunting

Hunting.

A stock stream.

Should I buy? Should I not? What do I do…

This was Sora's main content. She only played League when the market was closed.

On the broadcast screen, the chart of the stock currently being traded filled the frame. News ran alongside it — every scrap of issue and catalyst tied to the name.

That was how you traded stocks. You looked at the chart, you looked at the catalyst, and you tried to call the price.

Paper stocks are hot right now.

Seo-eun was watching Sora's stream — studying real trades as they happened.

So this graphene material is a big deal, huh.

But it wasn't all upside. Every so often a restless, frustrated feeling crept in.

Graphene?

They called it the dream material. It could carry a hundred times more current than copper, transmit a hundred times faster than silicon. Two hundred times stronger than steel. Bend it, fold it — the physical properties held.

The raw material for foldable phones. The kind of thing that turned folding a smartphone in half — or rolling it up like a scroll — from pure fantasy into something that might actually ship.

Isn't this an absolute jackpot?

If a phone like that existed, she'd buy one on the spot. Anyone who sat through lectures would understand. You always wanted a bigger screen.

Hmm… it's not even developed yet, and the stock's already run too hard. I should look for related names that haven't moved as much.

She herself used an Apple phone and an Apple laptop. Hauling both around every day was a chore.

This is innovation itself.

One smartphone. That was all you'd need to carry. Unfold it when you needed to, and it became a laptop on the spot. The value looked enormous. From where she sat, the stock still felt like it had room to run.

Sora unnie looked like she was deliberating. No — more like she had zero intention of buying the leader at all.

She bought a related name that had run less hard. That stock had risen too, of course — just not as violently.

Patriot Paper. The company that had just printed a catalyst. The price was climbing at a terrifying clip.

If I'd put money in just now, that would've been a free 20% money printer.

Over the past few months of watching streams, Seo-eun had learned what stocks actually were. She'd even run paper trades. Contrary to what she'd expected, it hadn't been that hard.

"You need decisive judgment that doesn't hesitate, I think."

The reason she'd started streaming stocks herself: once she began trading for real, a particular hunger took hold.

I'm pretty sure I can do this well.

She wanted to show other people. She wanted recognition. That she was good at stocks. That she was someone with a special talent.

Same setup as yesterday. The only difference was direction. The stock was plunging hard.

It ripped yesterday.

It had hit the limit — nearly the maximum +30%. A snapback was only natural.

Nothing about the company's value had changed. No new news had dropped.

A buy opportunity. Her judgment hit dead center, and the profits started printing for everyone to see.

See?

Seo-eun had heard it before. You buy when everyone else is drowning in fear. In real money it wasn't easy. But it didn't look impossible either.

"It's a stock with guaranteed growth, so I think ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you just buy every dip."

She knew the company. Nothing had happened that justified a lower price. With that kind of information — if you'd done the research — a short-term pullback wouldn't shake you.

You treat it as a buying opportunity instead.

Of course Seo-eun knew stocks didn't only go up.

Sometimes they ran too far, too fast. That was when you took profits.

"It felt like it had risen too fast, so I sold."

On a chart it was even simpler. Buy low, sell high.

Why does everyone say this is hard?

For nearly a month, Seo-eun had traded a range of names. She'd failed sometimes, but mostly she'd won.

A green account was the proof. She clearly had a gift for stocks.

"If I'd just had a bigger seed, I would've made so much more."

Even the viewers said so. There were people in chat who'd been trading for years.

Well, they do say doing it longer doesn't automatically mean doing it better.

There were people who'd made hundreds of billions in their twenties. Not that weird senior of hers — the classic example was Japan's BNF. There was no law saying she couldn't become that.

She swallowed hard.

No — she was starting to feel certain she would. She'd only just begun.

Once my skill grows and the seed gets bigger…

She could make even more money. Her stream's popularity might skyrocket too. Just like Sora unnie. Maybe the dream wasn't that far off after all.

"Mooning? Why that one?"

Seo-eun was falling into stocks.

Money was something you earned first and asked questions later.

The ones who actually understood are definitely less than one in ten.

Stocks. No matter how simply you explained them, it wasn't something you grasped overnight. He'd broken it down from a complete civilian's eye level. Even then, most of them probably still had no idea what he was talking about.

"Take care, sunbae!!"

"Yeah."

Humans obeyed authority. And if they didn't understand something, they assumed that meant they were the embarrassing ones.

The reason that little "quote" kept circulating: situations just like this kept producing it.

I only need to raise the handful who actually get it.

Didn't matter to him. He had zero intention of dragging every last kid along for the ride. Watch the ritual, eat the rice cake. Though if the chance presented itself, he wouldn't mind taking a swing.

A fresh little sprout, in other words. Every year the university supplied excellent new liquidity.

That's why you bother being a senior.

The one consolation of attending this garbage university. He'd tried to harvest a little, and they were feisty. The prettiest ones were always the most trouble. Word was they didn't seem particularly fond of him.

To make matters worse, the pretty girls were faithfully observing the iron law that pretty girls only hung out with other pretty girls.

Nothing comes easy, I swear.

Look at the tennis club — they had a beautiful culture of juniors treating seniors to good food. The stock club needed to build its own history and tradition. And the starting point? He didn't even need to prepare anything. A very entertaining little event was already underway.

She was floating on a cloud of overconfidence. A university freshman, with no idea how terrifying the market ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could be, was out there trading.

I've heard this story somewhere before.

It was also the reason he'd been able to bag Hye-ri so easily. He'd expected it to go the same way.

It was going to take a little time. He could already guess exactly what was unfolding — too easily, in fact.

K-stocks really are something else.

A free-lunch market. An annual tradition that rolled around once a year, like clockwork.