Bitcoin Hunter

"You're issuing a coin?"

Jisu stared at Jihan's face, startled.

A flicker of embarrassment crossed Jihan's expression. He laughed it off a moment later, waving both hands.

"It's not as grand as it sounds. You know Korea legally banned ICOs, right?"

"Honestly, I had no idea. I'm still pretty clueless about that side of things."

"Yeah, figures. Most people wouldn't know, to be fair. Anyway, crypto's been exploding lately — Bitcoin included. But in Korea, creating and issuing a new cryptocurrency from scratch, an ICO, is still illegal. Too many people screaming pyramid scheme, Ponzi fraud, all that."

"That's fair."

Jisu invested his own stats, sure — but he still couldn't quite wrap his head around people who actually tried to make a living this way.

"Turns out the Korean government wasn't completely uninterested, though. They've been running support programs here and there, and a proposal I submitted under the table got selected. They said our side had the most promising vision."

"Wow, really? That's actually incredible, isn't it?"

Jihan gave an awkward little laugh.

"I wouldn't go that far. Anyone could've come up with the idea. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

"Oh, come on. You pulled it off because you're that good. So what happens now?"

"Well. Here's the thing."

Jihan refilled his own glass with soju, then poured one for Jisu ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as well.

A single clink of glasses, and then he went on.

"This administration's been taking a lot of heat, you know. Korean Hunters, no matter how hard they fly, can't measure up to the Chinese or the Japanese — forget the Americans. People saying that even if we keep training Hunters, it's a lost cause. That kind of talk."

"Wait, they were saying that?"

Jisu had never paid much attention to global affairs, so this was news to him. Watching Jisu — who, flush with earnings, had simply assumed everything was going great — Jihan laughed and ribbed him.

"Hey, you're a Hunter now. How do you not know this? Though I guess that's pretty on-brand for you."

"I just don't care about that stuff. Anyway, so?"

Jihan thought for a moment, then picked the explanation back up.

"As long as Gates keep opening all over the planet, the Hunter profession isn't going anywhere. If anything, having powerful Hunters is a direct boost to national defense. So I figured the government would want to make some kind of global impact on the Hunter industry. I put that thinking into a proposal, sent it over — and it just got picked."

He said it like he was talking about somebody else, but it was genuinely impressive. A startup, selected to spearhead a national government project?

It sounded almost too good to be true. But Jisu knew better. Jihan wasn't the type to lie just to show off.

"Wow. That's really something. Would it be okay if I asked for details? You don't have to tell me."

"Well, it's a little embarrassing — we've only talked it through. Nothing's actually gotten off the ground yet... but I don't see why I couldn't tell you."

With that, Jihan drained his glass again. He knocked it back, set it on the table, and a faint smile played across his face.

The look in Jihan's eyes as he said it was exactly what Jisu had always admired. Even with his slight build, it was the gaze of someone who could overturn the logic of this entire market at any moment — the look of a man about to do something enormous.

The small giant was laying out his vision, right there in front of Jisu.

After parting ways with Jihan, Jisu returned to his daily routine — along with a standing offer to call anytime something came up.

Honestly, Jisu just wanted things to work out for him, no matter what. He owed Jihan more than he could count.

And now it was time to focus on coins again.

Jisu began following the paid reading room's calls in earnest.

Jisu let out a dry laugh at the cult-like devotion, but he didn't comment on it.

Wildcat's messages kept coming. What followed was a completely different animal from anything Jisu had seen in the free room.

Wait. He just tells you like that?

The free room's calls had always been maddeningly ambiguous. Every now and then Wildcat would push a coin with real conviction, but overall the language stayed vague, and he almost never nailed the exact buy and sell points.

Compared to that, this was almost absurdly simple. Buy at this price. Sell at that price.

Of course, Jisu would have to wait and see whether the calls actually landed. But if they really played out the way Wildcat said...?

For now, Jisu quietly followed Wildcat's calls, looking to rebuild the Strength and Agility he'd let drop. He found the SJS Coin Wildcat had named on the market and checked the chart.

It drifted sideways between 31 and 30 won for a while — then tagged the 29 won Wildcat had called.

Jisu went in a shade lower, dumping every point of Strength and Agility at around 28.7 won.

Wildcat had said to settle the trade within the day, so Jisu kept watching the price even after he bought.

A few hours passed.

And astonishingly, it was unfolding exactly as advertised.

It actually went up?

Jisu yanked his Strength and Agility back out as fast as he could.

A gain of nearly 35%. That kind of profit, in a single day — in a matter of hours.

And the even more stunning part: it failed to break 39 won, rolled over, and eventually settled at 26. Wildcat had been calling entries and exits within a hair of the cheapest possible buy and the most expensive possible sell.

As if to prove there had been a reason he'd advised against holding overnight, the next day it tagged 20 won and kept drawing a lower low.

Whoa... what is this?

Granted, Jisu's Strength and Agility were sitting near rock bottom, so the numbers themselves didn't explode. But with calls this precise, it felt like he could recover everything he'd lost in no time.

From that day on, Wildcat's pinpoint calls kept coming.

Amazingly, the market moved in roughly 98% agreement with everything he said. Stable gains in the 10 to 20 percent range, day after day, week after week.

And it wasn't just buy-and-sell calls. All kinds of coin intel kept rolling in from every direction.

It's going up nicely!

A few days of following Wildcat's calls, and he'd managed to restore Strength and Agility to fairly high numbers. It wasn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠overwhelming power — but he wouldn't be absurdly weak the way he had been before.

Just like the chat said, Jisu was stunned.

He was investing his own abilities. Those people were investing actual money, right?

But even as his stats climbed, he didn't feel good about it. Stamina and Mental Strength were the problem.

Should I have gone all-in this time? No — it could've crashed...

Even after joining the paid room, Jisu was still being cautious. And honestly, that was the right call. The tips could keep landing perfectly right up until the moment he went all-in and it tanked — and then he'd be finished.

Holding Stamina and Mental Strength steady was, by any reasonable measure, the correct way to invest.

And so, for now, he had successfully raised his abilities.