Can That Actually Work?
A sudden, unseasonal boom of qualification exams had swept through the North.
Every Northerner who had passed their fifteenth birthday, or any outsider who could prove they were engaged in continuous economic activity within the region, was burying their nose in study materials, desperate to qualify for participation in the stock market.
“I passed! I actually passed! Hahaha!”
“Damn it! One question off? That makes no sense!”
The area in front of the examination hall was a daily theater of triumph and tragedy.
Because the results were posted immediately—much like a driver’s license test—those who passed would sprint straight to the stock exchange with their certificates in hand, while the failures were left to check the next exam schedule, forced to watch from the sidelines as others ran off to grow their wealth.
“Tsk, tsk. You failed this?”
Just then, a man appeared in front of the exam hall, radiating an aura of all-encompassing provocation.
“I can’t believe there are so many people failing a test that even a kid who just learned their letters could pass with a week of study. My, my, what a tragedy. Where in the world…”
The eyes of the examinees, already in a foul mood from failing, began to spark with rage.
Even though the North had become quite civilized, the default mindset of its people remained: If your body is lazy, your head will suffer.
In other words, rather than ignoring a guy causing trouble in the square—thinking, “I’m not avoiding him because I’m afraid, but because he’s filthy,”—they preferred to solve the problem by injecting some long-lost manners into him with a solid fist and an even harder shin.
“Look at this guy?”
“Who does that bastard think he is?”
“Hey, what did you just say?”
“Sir, why don’t you come over here for a second?”
In an instant, dozens of people surrounded the provocateur.
Even trapped among people exuding such a menacing aura, the man didn’t stop his flapping mouth.
“This isn’t a test you should be failing like this. I heard there are people who fail this once, twice, even three times. No way! That’s just a rumor, right? How could you fail this three times?”
At those words, the faces of several people turned as red as ripe tomatoes.
“Ha, this bastard.”
One of them, thinking, “His mouth is so loose he’s just spitting out whatever comes to mind, I should just sew it shut,” reached out his hand. But at that very moment—
“The 200 Predicted Questions for the Stock Exchange Qualification Exam!”
The provocateur pulled a book from his coat and held it high with both hands.
“If you fail the exam even after studying this, I guarantee a 100 percent refund! The reason you keep failing isn’t because you aren’t trying, but because your efforts are misdirected. With these ‘200 Predicted Questions,’ passing is as easy as slurping down cold stew!”
“?”
The examinees, who had been on their way home with rejection notices crumpled in their pockets, blinked at the sudden shift in the man’s attitude.
“…Are you sure I’ll pass if I just have that?”
When one of them asked with a sliver of hope, the man replied:
“Oh, of course! Among the examinees who have bought this book so far, the pass rate is a whopping 90 percent!”
“Gasp!”
For reference, the average pass rate for the stock exchange qualification exam was about 50 percent.
It wasn’t that the questions were intentionally difficult, but the concepts were entirely foreign to people who had never encountered them before. Even though the Administrative Welfare Office and the local schools provided free lectures and reference materials, most of these people had never truly studied for an exam in their lives, making the low pass rate an inevitable result.
But a 90 percent pass rate?
“Sir! Give me one of those!”
A miracle unfolded where “this bastard” instantly became “Sir.”
“Now, now—everyone, get in line!”
The guards watching the scene debated whether they should intervene.
“What should we do?”
“…Leave him be for now. Selling books isn’t illegal. But let’s check later if that 90 percent pass rate claim is legit. If it’s false advertising, we’ll drag him off and hang him up for a couple of days.”
“Yes, sir!”
The North encouraged free trade.
Of course, scammers had to be prepared to ruin their lives.
“Huh?”
“Why?”
“That person over there in the robe, isn’t that Jamie? The one coming out of the exchange?”
“The build looks similar, but… nah. Why would the Adjutant, who should be working hard right now, be at the exchange?”
“True, that makes sense.”
“Anyway, let’s finish our patrol. People keep getting into fights everywhere as soon as the exams end. Tsk, tsk.”
“It’s because everyone’s in a bad mood, isn’t it? By the way, Senior, are you preparing for the exam?”
“I’m going to take it next time.”
“Oh man, no matter how much I look at it, I can’t make heads or tails of it… My wife already passed and is buying stocks left and right, and I feel like I’m losing my dignity as the head of the household.”
“Your wife already bought stocks?”
“Of course. She even bought two shares of the Northern Tobacco Corporation. Hehe.”
“Wait, what? You got those? I heard there’s almost no supply!”
“We were lucky. She said she had to pay a premium, but still, we’re getting paid by the Lord’s Castle, so we should at least own one share of the Lord’s merchant guild, right?”
“Of course! Of course! If we’re eating the Lord’s bread, we absolutely must have one share of his guild! I swear, as soon as I pass the exam, I’m buying one, even if I have to pay double—no, triple the price.”
“Me too, Senior!”
“Hahahaha!”
The youngest guard, listening to his colleagues’ conversation, thought to himself:
‘That’s exactly why you both keep failing… because of the agreed-upon price range system, you can’t just pay double or triple whatever you want… Oh man.’
The youngest was already a savvy investor who had passed the exam and was trading stocks.
Meanwhile, the man in the robe, whose build had the guards feeling suspicious, sighed deeply as soon as he left the stock exchange and headed toward a back alley.
In the alley behind the exchange, there was a shelter for smokers, filled with investors sharing information or sorting out their thoughts.
Ssssss.
The man in the robe pulled a small piece of charcoal from the brazier in the smoking area with tongs, lit his cigar, and inhaled the smoke.
“Hoo-.”
The cigar, made with a blend of mint leaves, was one of the most popular products released by the Northern Tobacco Corporation, and a couple of other people in the smoking area were smoking the same thing.
‘Should I have just bought stock in the tobacco company too?’
The man smoking against the wall was Jamie.
“Hoo-.”
Today was his day off.
Adjutants didn’t have fixed weekends, so they took leave whenever work felt a bit lighter. Since the stock exchange opened, Jamie had spent every day off there.
At first, it was to feel proud by seeing with his own eyes how this investment institution created by the Administrative Officer was revitalizing the Northern economy.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say his life changed after that official, who recognized him, made the suggestion.
Here is a quiz.
Are people with higher education better at investing?
As everyone knows, the answer is: “Not necessarily.”
Sure, the more educated you are, the more related knowledge you might have. Given that Jamie had passed the qualification exam with a perfect score just by helping Kalisa with her meetings—without even studying—one might think there was a correlation.
However, real-world investing isn’t just about knowledge.
You need the eye to recognize the value of a company, the knowledge to interpret public data, the grit not to be swayed by short-term adjustments, the boldness to bet when the time is right, the foresight to predict the future, and the decisiveness to trust your own judgment.
Don’t you need all of these to be considered a decent investor?
Jamie possessed the knowledge to interpret data, the foresight to predict the future, and the eye to recognize corporate value. But sadly, despite his hulking frame, he lacked the boldness, decisiveness, and grit, leading him to repeat failure after failure in his stock trades.
“Hoo-.”
It was as if someone was watching him; the moment he bought, the price dropped, and the moment he sold, it soared.
Jamie, whose smoking habit only increased in the face of this cruel reality, sighed.
‘It’s so strange. I buy exactly what Kalisa buys, so why is my return rate the only one in the negative?’
She didn’t seem to visit the exchange often, but from what he’d overheard, Kalisa’s returns were astronomical.
When Kalisa said that while the three fellow adjutants were sharing a drink, Jamie almost dropped his glass.
‘The profit is that high?’
We buy the same things, so why?
Why am I in the negative?
He remembered Kalisa clicking her tongue, but the problem was that Jamie, his eyes already blinded by her profit margins, hadn’t let a single word of that nagging sink in.
“Hoo-.”
“Hey, why have you been sighing like that for a while now?”
He was so confused himself—was he smoking to calm down or sighing because of his negative returns?—that he couldn’t tell the difference. A stranger with an unfamiliar face standing next to him had quietly struck up a conversation.
“You’re in the red, aren’t you?”
“That I am…”
It wasn’t exactly something to be ashamed of. He didn’t know for sure, but he bet most of the people puffing away in this smoking area had returns similar to his.
You could tell a person’s return rate just by looking at their facial expression.
“What did you buy to end up like that? It’s harder to find a blue number on the exchange board than a red one.”
“The Goddess of Fortune keeps avoiding me, so what can I do?”
If Kalisa had heard that, she would have said, “If you’re going to blame luck, wouldn’t it be more profitable to take a shovel and go look for ore veins in the mountains?”
The man who had spoken to him laughed, “Hahahaha,” and lowered his voice.
“The stocks listed on the exchange have already risen as much as they’re going to, so it’s not easy for individual investors like us to time the market.”
“Ah, you’re right! Timing! Actually, the stocks I buy are the same ones my colleague buys. But my colleague is doing great, and only I keep ending up in the negative. I’ve felt that it was because of the timing, too.”
“Because when you buy a stock is just as important as what you buy.”
“That’s true, yes, yes.”
Jamie felt that he and this man were surprisingly on the same page.
“Oh man, that timing. Even if I stare at the exchange board, I just can’t seem to get it right.”
As Jamie lamented, the stranger’s voice dropped even lower, becoming more secretive.
“Actually, there is one way to be absolutely sure about the timing.”
“…A way to be absolutely sure about the timing? Come on, where would such a thing exist? If everyone knew that, everyone would be rich.”
Jamie scoffed at the man’s words.
He might be bad at investing, but he wasn’t a fool, so he didn’t fall for such talk easily.
However—
“Why not invest in the merchant guild itself, right before they go public?”
“……?”
“You wouldn’t be buying stocks, you’d be investing in the company itself.”
The man’s tongue burrowed into Jamie’s heart like a secretive snake.