Running Dog – Seize Him! Seize Him!
The Running Dog was a game that made you run from beginning to end—right?
You ran forward, but this one ran forward, up, sideways, even flipping inside a spinning tube.
Every now and then the player's eyes locked and the screen whipped by at insane speed.
You raced at maximum velocity, upgraded with items, and tossed those bone-swinging boomerangs.
The protagonist was Running Dog, the secret agent of Dogpia.
He dashed and dashed to rescue the female dog he’d been kidnapped in exchange for saving Dogpia.
It looked like any ordinary runner game—until you saw the concept and the character.
According to Director Ki Dong-chan, Team Leader Yoon Jong-seok had been aiming for three hundred million won in investment.
To Jung Jinwoo, that was nothing but pocket change.
[Vice Chairman-nim, please use a neutral corporate name and invest three hundred million won in Running Dog.]
He had sent the proposal already prepared.
[Vice Chairman-nim, you shouldn’t even bother with something so petty.]
Investing three hundred million won in a small project wasn’t the same as worrying over it at all. After all, people who handled one trillion dollars or two trillion dollars were in a completely different league.
[It’s because I want to help someone turn their dream into reality. Please.]
The reply came instantly.
[If that is what Chairman-nim wishes… we understand.]
Ko Yoon-seok had been through plenty himself. He knew exactly what a small sum like three hundred million won could mean to someone who was starving versus someone who could throw it away without a second thought.
The moment the Running Dog investment was confirmed, Jinwoo felt a rare flicker of warmth.
[Beep.]
A text message arrived.
[Oppa! It’s super urgent! Meet me right now!]
It was from Oh Se-eun.
* * *
“So, I need to go in right now?”
“Yeah.”
“How much?”
“One trillion.”
“You’re insane!”
“The market’s already losing its mind. So should the investors.”
Recently the U.S. stock market had dropped for no reason twice in a row.
Oh Se-eun had spotted the opening and was about to pour a trillion into American stocks.
“I don’t have that kind of money!”
“You’ve already talked to Jin-ho oppa and Bin-sun noona… Don’t guys who are rich know a lot of people, right? This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. If you don’t tell your uncle, I’ll have to.”
“You’re starting a management consulting firm? Why suddenly want to be an investment firm?”
It was preposterous.
Management consulting was supposed to be advising companies, not investing.
And a twenty-three-year-old kid saying he needed a trillion?
Most kids that age only touched a few million at most, maybe tens of millions if they were lucky.
This wasn’t just big scale—this was madness.
“Just in case I set up an investment firm too! I’ve lined up friends in New York, London, and Amsterdam. To join their club I need one trillion. The rest… I’m short two hundred billion. Oppa, just lend me two hundred billion!”
Two million? Absurd. Even twenty million? Still ridiculous. Two hundred billion?
Of course, to Jinwoo it was nothing. For any other chaebol chairman it would have bankrupted him.
Jinwoo stared at Oh Se-eun.
They had known each other three years. He thought he knew her well.
The usual Oh Se-eun was stubborn and rigid—never asked anyone for help.
There was no way she would beg like this under normal circumstances.
“Are you scared you’ll lose money? I’m Oh Se-eun! My signature is enough collateral!”
“You’re asking me to lend you money while you guarantee it yourself?”
That made no sense.
“If I can’t repay, take me! Take me and do whatever you want with me!”
“What?”
“Until I’ve lived out my whole life at your side, serving you like a maid.”
Jinwoo narrowed his eyes at her words.
“You really want to be tied to me even if it means that?”
“No… this is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity… There’s no time. Look at this…”
She held up the tablet.
A quick glance showed complex tables filled with AI algorithms, automated trading, portfolio analysis, and neat graphs that made it look easy.
“Se-eun! Where am I supposed to get that kind of money? I just know rich people.”
That was the best excuse he had.
“Why are you being so extreme? Who else would put themselves up as collateral to borrow money?”
“That’s exactly why it’s solid.”
Sometimes Oh Se-eun was outrageously extreme, but she was still fundamentally sensible.
Jinwoo had watched her closely enough to know it.
“On TV they even write human surrender documents and borrow against their own bodies…”
“What?”
That was the illegal tactic crooked loan sharks used to bully desperate debtors.
“If you won’t, I’ll go to Jin-ho oppa and sell myself!”
Se-eun raised her eyebrows.
“Hey! Oh Se-eun!”
Jinwoo barked.
“Why? Jung Jinwoo!”
The word ‘bitch’ lingered in his mouth.
“You studied business management in America and now you’re like this? So reckless and so impractical!”
“What’s impractical? No risk, no reward, right? How do you succeed without taking risk?”
“Who… is going all-in on the exact reverse five-times leveraged short position?”
“That’s why it’s solid. Because it’s solid.”
“You’re out of your mind…”
The reason Se-eun was so adamant was simple.
Most major investment firms now ran on two AI programs.
Ninety-five percent used algorithms built on ChatGPT for stock trading.
The remaining five percent used a separate AI from AlphaJet to guard against errors.
The past two days had shown strange market behavior.
It had been on TV and in the news.
Without any apparent reason the index would swing five percent and recover in thirty minutes.
Today it swung six percent and recovered in an hour.
It hadn’t fully recovered from the previous swings.
Compared to before the warning signs, prices were now down to about ninety-eight percent.
According to Se-eun, the current phenomenon was the blind spot of AI algorithmic trading.
The world wasn’t stupid.
Experts from every field—professional investors, financial specialists, AI researchers—had analyzed what happened yesterday and today.
The conclusion was clear: no second Flash Crash was coming.
That was the 2010 event when AI-driven automated trading caused a ten percent drop in Nasdaq in ten minutes.
Se-eun and her team believed it could happen again, so they had pooled about ten billion dollars and were positioning for a five-times leveraged reverse short.
What did that mean?
They believed the price would dip briefly then snap back immediately, borrow against it, buy big, and pocket the swing.
Tomorrow the market might swing seven to ten percent again, and normal investors—without the AI—would panic and sell short.
The world’s top management and investment experts were about to overdo it with this “safe” bet.
Ten billion dollars at five times leverage could bring in one hundred to two hundred billion in expected profit.
If it worked exactly as planned, anyone would do it. To Jinwoo it looked like an extremely low-probability gamble.
For Se-eun to win, the AI had to drop nearly ten percent first.
That would trigger panic and push another ten percent down—total twenty to thirty percent in a single day.
Then it had to stop falling and start climbing immediately.
If it fell another twenty percent without recovering, they would lose the entire one hundred billion.
“Why risk something this dangerous?”
“That’s what business and investing are. Capitalism is like that.”
“You know investing and gambling are different.”
“Calling them different is just semantics.”
Is it safer to eat a little or bolder to eat a lot?
Ultimately, the difference between investing and gambling was that.
Both required taking a loss to make a profit.
“Tell me now! I’m busy… Are you lending two hundred billion or saying you can’t? You’re not going to lose anything… My value is at least two hundred billion… If you keep me by your side for the rest of your life you can use me however you want… Don’t guys like that? Huh? I’m willing… Huh? Willing…”
She leaned in, blinking.
“Hahaha! Look at your face turning red. Hahahaha…”
Se-eun giggled happily.
Her face was bright red, but Jinwoo stared at her seriously.
“Your value is two hundred billion? Hahaha…”
“Why is it too expensive? Don’t I deserve it?”
“You’re really pitiful… You don’t even know your own worth… You’re someone whose value can’t be measured in money. Don’t try to sell yourself so cheaply! It’s so disappointing…”
“….”
Se-eun stared at him with her mouth open.
“I’ll ask my rich friends if I can really get two hundred billion. You wait quietly at home…”
“If not, I’ll go to Jin-ho oppa…”
“It will work out. Go home quietly!”
Still blushing, Jinwoo raised his voice.
“And don’t pull this half-baked stunt again! Se-eun! You’re too precious to me… Don’t ever try to sell me out for a few coins again! If you do, I really won’t look at you next time! Got it?”
He stood up and turned away.
The most dashing pose he knew.
She’s watching, right? Hmph…
This was exactly it. A man should look his coolest at moments like this.
He actually looked cool, didn’t he?
“Two hundred billion isn’t pocket change… Selling at two hundred billion isn’t losing money, right?”
From behind, Se-eun let out a triumphant “Hmph!”
She had finally gotten the chance to show off her style, thinking she was watching him admire her.
* * *
“I’ve consulted the American analysis team as well. The credibility is decent. Multi-Agent Panic—that is, multiple AIs amplifying negative market signals. Surprisingly, the current market is dominated by a single AI algorithm, so this could definitely happen.”
“Then the conclusion is…”
“Stocks could swing again tomorrow. If this repeats for three days straight, people will panic. But as you know, no one knows what the stock market is doing. No one…”
Vice Chairman Ko Yoon-seok shook his head.
“That’s true.”
He could sense the general flow, but it wasn’t one hundred percent certain.
“If Se-eun phrased it that way… the part about the Chairman taking her if she can’t repay seems deliberately strategic.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“She seems to be deliberately trying to tie herself to the Chairman. From her perspective, failure would make her untouchable to you, so she has nothing to lose.”
“I thought the same, but this is a huge amount. Two hundred billion is still a very large sum even for Daewong Construction.”
“True.”
Ko Yoon-seok had already checked with his American branch and investment partners. Se-eun’s claim had been rated highly credible.
The unexplained market swings had continued for two days. Tomorrow was a strong chance for a third.
If it happened again, the drop would be deeper than before and normal investors would panic more easily.
It was very plausible, but easy to hesitate.
Serious discussions were happening everywhere—TV, online stock cafes—about the inexplicable drops.
“Oh! Right! Why don’t you ask Director Oh Gong-tae for an analysis?”
“Really? They have supercomputers and AI, but it’s not stock-specific.”
Even with good hardware and AI, the use cases were different, weren’t they?
“Still, it would be very helpful. It would give objective insight. Ask them to analyze yesterday and today’s U.S. indicators—whether they’re normal or abnormal, whether there’s a pattern—and check the odds of the same thing happening tomorrow. It would be useful.”
“Hmm, good idea. Then have Vice Chairman Ko pass the request and collect the results.”
“Of course.”
Two hundred billion won wasn’t a big deal to Jung Jinwoo.
“Anyway, lend the money, right? Hahaha…”
Vice Chairman Ko smiled mischievously.
Jinwoo knew exactly what that smile meant.
“Why? You want me to get a twenty-three-year-old wife?”
“Krukruku…”
If things went wrong, he might end up with a twenty-three-year-old wife.
He had said he’d follow her forever.
But why was his heart suddenly racing?
He was getting flustered.
---
Running Dog Mode Activated
The game screen flashed before his eyes, racing at full speed, items flashing, heart pounding.