Money Duplication Magic
"Ha, this fucking sucks."
Today, my mood was exceptionally shit.
It wasn't like anything particularly bad had happened.
No, if anything, nothing but good things had gone down.
Han Siul Biotech's stock had exploded upward, so I'd raked in a decent pile of cash already. And today was the day to start sweeping up even more money—definitely a good thing if there ever was one.
"...Today's hitting extra hard, but days like this have happened before."
Even people with zero interest in economics have heard of the Great Depression or the IMF crisis.
Overnight, mountains of debt piled up, jobs vanished.
And some of those folks probably had families they were supposed to provide for.
Imagine the despair of a mother who couldn't even feed her own kids, let alone fill her own stomach. And the head of the household watching that unfold—what must that have felt like?
"Cough, cough! Ahhh... this fucking hurts."
The ending was obvious as hell.
They ended it all because they felt like a burden on their families.
"Urk."
Dry heaves rose in my gut.
The short word "suicide" was always like a trauma trigger for me.
Not because my so-called parents killed themselves or anything—I never even met the bastards.
The reason I feared the word "suicide" was simple.
I was the kind of guy who turned other people's crises into my profit opportunities.
Don't overthink it. Even if it wasn't me, the bubble would've burst anyway. I just rode the wave and made bank.
These were massive-scale events.
No matter what I did, I couldn't stop them—crises so inevitable, baked into the social structure. How the hell was I supposed to fix that shit?
Plus, I'd donated almost all the money I made from them, so hardly anyone could call me out to my face.
But that was just words. Deep down, everyone would despise me anyway.
For profiting off crises where people were dying. No different from a bystander.
And the worse off the average Joes got, the higher my returns climbed.
So yeah, days like this happened sometimes.
I was dopamine-addicted as fuck, loved making money more than anyone.
But at the same time, guilt gnawed at me over it.
"What a fucking contradiction, huh."
Han Siul Biotech wasn't much different.
Their failure was scripted from the start.
So wasn't it better for me to blow it up before it snowballed into something irreversible?
If no one said shit, their stock would've climbed way higher than now, no doubt.
"...Should've just blown it up right away."
From the buyers' perspective, I'd minimized their losses, thanks to me.
But human hearts ain't that simple.
To folks who only see the surface, it's all "That asshole hadn't spilled the beans, we'd be fine!"
"Ah."
Was it the pain making negative thoughts dominate my brain?
I endured the throbbing agony—best described as a stabbing pain—and finally dragged myself to the computer.
Not my money, sure, but I couldn't just bail midway.
Ding-dong! Ding-dong!
The moment I was about to cough through it and post the anonymous report.
"...Unnie? Unnie!"
Seola's—Seria's little sister's—urgent voice came through the door.
I'd heard it a few times on calls before.
Wondering what the hell had her calling so frantically, I went to open the door—then my eyes hit the disaster zone that was my room five minutes from total chaos.
...No way in hell I can open this.
I couldn't show my sister living like a total shut-in.
I still had some shame, and...
My body's condition was pretty fucked right now—that was the big reason.
If Seola got worried and weird, it could screw with my entire fortune.
Not even my money, either.
I let go of the doorknob halfway turned and opened my mouth.
"What's up?"
"You're in there? Unnie, I won't say shit, just open the door first."
"...I'm super busy right now. Could you come back in like, two or three days?"
"Unnie, I really won't say anything."
The standoff was getting weird, and my nerves were fraying.
I didn't have time for this shit.
"...Cough. Sorry, Seola, can you give me just a bit? One day, tops."
"...Unnie? You sound sick."
"No, I'm fine... Cough, cough!"
"That doesn't sound fine at all..."
Seola hesitated a moment, then pulled out her phone and knocked again.
"Unnie, you sound seriously bad, so if you don't open up, I'm calling a locksmith?"
"Wha—what? Hold on!"
"Open up nice or else. I already heard about the loan using Grandpa's house docs as collateral. But I promise I won't bitch about it."
"...For real?"
"Yeah. You don't trust me?"
Seola pushed through the half-forced-open door, pinching her nose.
"What the hell is this smell..."
"...Circumstances."
"You looked rough earlier too. No wonder, living in this dump."
"Cough. Probably not related."
The room wasn't big, so it didn't take Seola long to clock the mess.
Ahem.
I'd been meaning to clean someday, but seeing it like this? Yeah, it's bad.
"How long since you last cleaned?"
"Uh, can't really remember..."
"Figures. I'll chew you out later, so brace yourself."
Seola scanned the room in brief horror, then spotted me and rushed over, ignoring the trash.
"Unnie? You're burning up! Why didn't you say anything till it got this bad..."
"...Cough. That's not the priority right now. Come look at this."
"What could be more important than your health! Should've opposed you moving out..."
"The Grandpa's house docs I mentioned? They're right here."
"...What?"
Seola's voice, already laced with anger, turned ice-cold.
Yeah, even I wouldn't trust myself right now.
Room's a trash heap, living like a bum...
"Unnie, are you in your right mind?"
"Seola. Come on, you know I'm not the type to fuck up over something like this."
"..."
"I know I haven't been reliable or shown any real skills till now... as your unnie."
Seola, still silent, finally spoke with effort.
"Sigh. So what're you trying to say?"
"Look, I haven't been reliable or proven shit so far... but close your eyes and trust me just this once."
"...You got a plan?"
"Of course."
"...You know if that money's lost, Grandpa's got nowhere to live?"
"Yeah."
Was it my imagination?
Seola's eyes seemed a little misty.
"...You must have it all figured out. I think I overreacted. Sorry."
Seola somehow looked like easy prey for a con, and with that thought, I clicked the post button on the report.
"Wha-wha-what... so, one, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand... how much is all this?"
"Tch. Less than I thought."
The position started with 200 million won loaned against the house docs was now on the verge of a leading 1.
Meaning 10 billion, of course.
"...Unnie, did you have some prophetic dream or what? No way. Am I dreaming?"
"Cough, cough. Hold on. One more shot left."