Chapter 98
Chapter 98
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Stock Purchases and Training
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I pat Cheda's belly and open the stock app. Then.
I liquidate all my remaining balance and buy up every share of Nemesis stock available.
Ding!
My account balance, which had briefly swelled, shrinks in an instant. It truly was a fleeting moment.
"Is this the right move...?"
A twinge of anxiety hits me, but at 2.1 million won per share, it's a bargain. After all, wasn't it me who once dropped about a billion won to snag 300 shares when they were at 3.4 million?
But thinking back on that just makes me resentful all over again.
"Ah! If I'd used that billion back then to buy now, I could've gotten way more! Argh, I was so reckless when that 1.5 billion suddenly rolled in!"
I could've grabbed nearly 500 shares instead of 300!
"No, calm down. When something drops from 15 million to 3.4 million, of course you buy."
I mutter like a drenched monk. My mood swings wildly from minute to minute. Better options flash by—scenarios where I could've made a fortune without slaving away.
"Ha."
I shake my head to clear the distractions.
"Ah, I wasn't always like this. I used to live just fine whether I had money or not. How did I end up like this?"
A sigh escapes me naturally, but there's no helping it. Hustling nonstop to make money, obsessing over it all day—it's only natural I'd change.
"Don't make assumptions. Just keep buying for a while."
Assumptions lead nowhere. It seems obvious in hindsight, but since I can't see the future, how could I know?
'No, even if I could see the future, it'd be the same.'
The tower master of the Fate Mage Tower, Archmage Lucky Strike—her infamous flop from investment failure is known worldwide.
Even she, with her precognition, slipped up in the stock market, that demonic arena!
The world-renowned billionaire reportedly poured 400 trillion into stocks and lost 300 trillion. No matter how great an archmage, she couldn't recover from losing nation-budget-level cash. Now she's slaving away churning out enchantments like a slave, unable to even do personal research, just to pay it back.
'Maybe she even opened that Dreamworld Gate I went through recently.'
With that thought, I reaffirm my resolve.
"Just buy Nemesis stock."
Nemesis stock is different from others. To me, it's not a means for profit or company ownership—it's a fragment of authority.
Simply holding it lets me interfere with Ardenia's system.
'With this, I now own 424 shares.'
While staying in Ardenia, I've tested what stocks can and can't do.
'First: Restoration.'
I can temporarily restore systems not implemented in Ardenia or those that are glitched. Like summoning a shop NPC that doesn't exist there, or using chat, mail, and other systems—this ability covers that.
'Second: Patching.'
I can insert, alter, or remove weapons from drop tables that didn't have them. For example, I could patch an orc's drop table—from low-grade iron ingot to lowest-grade, or remove it entirely.
'Third: Events.'
I can start events. Chuseok events, Lunar New Year, Valentine's, Christmas, and so on.
"But that's all."
These stock powers are incredible, yet I can't do anything beyond these three.
For instance, no making Sword Saint cast Fireball, no lightning from the sky, no diamond piles appearing from thin air, no reviving the dead, no tweaking pet AIs—even with stocks, impossible.
The power to summon nonexistent NPCs but not let them cast a single Fireball hints at the direction of this stock authority.
'It's like... inheriting an operator's privileges.'
That's not the only issue.
'Even the available ones aren't fully accessible.'
Restoration works reliably. Events too. Trying to implement Revenge features missing in Ardenia always gets a response, but fails due to insufficient shares.
Patching is the problem.
'Sometimes it works, sometimes not.'
Some items can be inserted into drop tables, others can't. Some can be removed, others resist. Some drop rates can be boosted by 2%, others only allow basic drops.
'I need more research.'
Pondering the power of stocks calms my chaotic mind a bit.
I take a deep breath.
"Yeah. It's stock I was gonna buy anyway. Worst case, I buy a bit less if things go south."
I close the stock app.
No point checking Ardenia for a while anyway, since I won't be logging in.
[Thank you for loving New World Corporation. Capsule login device S-33 is loading.]
Clunk! Whirr...
[Loading complete!]
[Guest account.]
[Running simulation software: Chakra Opening and Training.]
My consciousness sinks for a moment, and the surroundings shift to a simple building image.
Before I know it, a calm black-haired woman stands before me.
"A new student. Nice to meet you. I'm Kim Sohyang."
The owner of the War Constellation, the strongest Gigant Master, Lion Queen Kim Sohyang smiles at me.
I'm used to her, but of course, she doesn't recognize me. The place I trained with her was my one-room login device, where I blocked info uploads.
I look at her and say,
"Keep my physical and supernatural data private. Teach me spells for simultaneous cold element opening, and train with the cold element itself."
"You value privacy, huh? But to set training intensity, I need a body scan."
Fair point. Even with supernatural training programs, the login device's VR depth is only level 3—without a scan, it'd be completely detached from real capabilities.
"It's fine. From entry-level gates to advanced."
"No way, setting the range that wide? You're really all-in on security..."
She's baffled, but as a mere duplicate personality, Sohyang trains me per my request anyway.
After class comes practice.
Whoosh...
I step out of the hotel onto a beach with crashing waves and steady my breathing. I focus so deeply that the distant laughter fades from my awareness.
"Ardenia. Entry Gate. Open. Summon. Bone Longsword."
Pop!
The bone longsword appears. I grab it and hurl it skyward.
Whoosh!
Then, in that moment, I form hand seals.
Pop pop pop!
As I finish the seals, the bone longsword falls before me. I snatch the hilt and open my chakra.
Cold Energy. Advanced Gate. Single Strike. Entry Gate. Open.
Ice Severing Strike.
The spell activates, and cold energy envelops my body. Like the element in [Ardenia], this pure cold-attribute power sharply reduces the burden of simultaneous openings.
Ice Severing Strike's effect: adds cold damage to the next attack once.
And on top of that.
Fleeting Art Form 1.
One Sword Momentum.
Slash!
The oncoming wave, and the sea beyond, is cleaved in one strike. The sword ki stretches tens of meters, splitting the sea in two and exposing the seabed.
And then.
Crack!
The parted sea freezes solid in place.
"...Whew."
I deep-breathe through the exhaustion wrapping my body.
Single Strike is the newly opened element. I deliberately chose not swordplay or technique—just the act of a single strike—because it fits my all-out-in-one-blow fighting style perfectly.
Its extreme limitation made it easy to awaken.
'But its limits are clear too.'
A massive waste for a chakra practitioner, but irrelevant to me. My occupied cities handle the resource load the element demands.
Crunch! Crack!
I slowly walk between the ice walls.
Ice chunks shatter underfoot.
"Hmm... this much, huh."
I touch the ice wall. A meter thick, it shows no melt in the resort's heat. It looks like it'd hold for days untouched.
"Not bad..."
My One Sword Momentum is an ultimate that pours everything into one blow—poor cost-performance. Ice Severing Strike adds prep time on top.
'But this suits me.'
Forming Ice Severing Strike's seals takes about 7 seconds.
I'm not yet skilled enough to skip or simplify them.
7 seconds.
Fatal in combat, but no issue for me. I can do it in another world via login/logout.
'Still, wish it synergized better with sword arts.'
One Sword Momentum is a finisher, but rooted in conventional swordsmanship. It's not a true all-in-one-strike technique.
I aim my sword at the sea, pondering.
'I need something more extreme. Not just pre-delay, but post-delay too—a true no-escape one-hit kill.'
In exchange, the power must overwhelm all those flaws.
'It must exist.'
If I were from another civilization or planet, finding such a martial art would be tough, but 34th Earth shares nearly all info.
A quick MyTube search should turn it up.
"Again."
I toss the bone longsword skyward.
And open my chakra.
* * *
Boom!
Nemesis Soft's CEO, Bae Sarang grits her teeth.
"What the hell! Why is the stock tanking like this!?"
At first, she blamed clashes between new and old users. Then, latecomers as bad news. Those factors were real.
But plummeting from over 15 million to 2.1 million? Not normal.
"Who's attacking us?"
Attack.
She could only see it that way. Despite using her savings and loans to defend the falling stock, it kept dropping relentlessly.
'How can such insane sell volume happen? We succeeded in breakthrough tech no one else could, even patented it—how!?'
But frantic investigations yielded nothing. Just that big players dumped shares en masse, sweeping small fries into the panic sell-off.
Pop!
Space splits, and a man appears before her.
"...Uncle Kidam?"
"Long time no see, miss."
The elderly man, appearing without notice, bows politely. The secretary general of Ilseong Group, dominating the world economy, has arrived.
"No way—did Dad do this?"
"What do you mean?"
"My company's stock!"
Kidam shakes his head at Sarang's outburst.
"Would he? The chairman neither helps nor hinders your ventures."
She takes a deep breath, calming herself at his steady response.
"Then, what is it?"
"Precognition. Quite some time ago... all divinations erased Nemesis Soft."
Sarang's face hardens. She knows what that means.
Erased from all precognition.
For an individual, transcendent seers or higher powers would think:
-Ah, this guy's reached transcendence.
Ascend to godhood, escape fate's framework—you become unforeseeable. A superior being might glimpse it, but even slightly off, it's just prediction, not true foresight.
But for a nation, or a company like this? Different story.
They'd think:
-Ah, this is doomed to fall.
Obvious. An abstract entity like a nation or group can't transcend fate wholesale, right?
Sure, delisting might just show a future of delisting in visions, but they'd sense something gravely amiss.
"...I don't believe in precog crap. Ever hear of Archmage Lucky Strike?"
Famous tale: the Fate Mage Tower master ruined by bad investments.
Precog is powerful, but not absolute. Transcendents can disrupt fate anytime.
But Kidam shakes his head.
"Over ten transcendents all saw the same. Including a 10th-class Noblesse."
"Ha, a 10th-class Noblesse? Elder dragon level. Paying attention to my little company. What an honor."
Sarang growls, but Kidam presses on unflinchingly.
"It's not widely spread—just whispers among transcendents and their close VVIPs."
"..."
"Prepare for the worst, miss."
Pop!
Kidam vanishes as if never there.
Crack. Craaack. Cracking...
The desk withstands her fist no longer. Even laced with top-tier protective spells, it splinters under her rage.
"This... this is what? We're almost there. Why?!"
Her ever-confident face twists in ruin. Tears fall.
"What the hell!"
But regardless of her questions.
Time flows on.