novelraw Chapter 624: Stocks.
Chapter 624: Stocks.
About half a century ago, all stock markets around the world faced imminent collapse, and not the kind humans had prepared for. In their search for faster and higher profits, those who made stock trading their job started delegating work to AIs, paying no heed to the dangers of handing the world's financial systems to a bunch of bots.
Things were looking good at first. The AIs were good at their tasks, and the profits saw a steady rise. If things had stayed that way, everything would have been perfect. The problem was that the only ones who thought that were those at the top.
Most people knew that stock markets don't truly reflect real economic conditions. As the AIs continued to use increasingly risky strategies to generate more wealth for their owners, conditions in the real world got worse and worse, and eventually, the damage seeped into the world of graphs and numbers, causing lines to plummet so fast they almost pierced the screens they were displayed on.
The feedback loop continued to make things worse. The stock market would suffer, causing damage to the real world, and the real world would suffer, causing damage to the stock market.
The plug had to be pulled on all the AIs, and from that point onward, stricter rules on the use of artificial intelligence for trading and other purposes were added in the hopes of preventing another catastrophe.
AIs were still used in the year 2099, but the previous collapse made it all the more difficult to trust them, and with international institutions placing restrictions to prevent the same disaster from occurring again, the bots could no longer farm stocks for wealth with the same efficiency.
[Skill issue.]
Volcan believed all human-created AIs to be inferior to himself. Nothing came close to the sophistication of his programming and the core he operated from within. He could Dive through human-created networks, gather data, and process it at a speed even the most powerful supercomputers couldn't even hope to approach. He could analyze markets and come up with strategies much faster than any human-created AI, but most importantly, he could find workarounds to all the restrictions placed on them. He couldn't achieve the same efficiency as AIs in the wild era, as some rules and regulations couldn't be bypassed without resulting in legal trouble, but he was still able to achieve a lot more than what his competition was capable of.
~[ ]~
Dante woke up in his office, and for the second time, he realized that he had fallen asleep while sitting in a chair. Despite spending hours in that position, he didn't feel the slightest discomfort. The urge to yawn still struck him, though, and before he knew it, he was stretching his body.
'Look at you, sleeping like a baby.'
The good mood he was in didn't last long, and his own thoughts were to blame. As he searched his mind for what needed to be done, a voice interrupted his efforts.
[Good morning, Dante.]
'Someone is in a good mood.'
The spring in Volcan's tone was hard to miss. Dante had long since stopped concerning himself with the emotions his resident AI showed. From the very start, his voice was strangely human, even if it was that of a very polite old butler.
[I have something to report.]
'Did something happen?'
Getting up from his chair, Dante walked over to the corner where a lone coffee machine was left. Taking out a pack of instant coffee from his storage, he went about brewing a fresh cup for himself.
[As we had discussed the previous night, I began trading stocks using the funds from Sound of Wind, the game I developed and released a couple of months ago.]
'Looks like you had some success.'
Dante began to feel some relief; the fears he previously had were receding. Then he heard the results from his resident AI, and his bionic heart almost came to a stop.
[I was able to generate 975289340 Radmir Credits.]
Dante was reaching for the cup in the coffee machine, and in that moment, he was glad he had yet to take a sip.
'Nine hundred… million?'
[Nine hundred seventy five million two hundred eighty nine thousand and three hundred forty.] Volcan said. [With a starting budget of 52611500, I was able to achieve a growth rate of 1753.76%!]
All of a sudden, Dante felt lightheaded, causing him to lose balance.
[Dante?]
'I'm… I'm fine…'
The counter he leaned on creaked a little, warning him to stand before it broke. Taking a deep breath, Dante reminded himself that they were talking about Radmir Credits, not Gold.
'Where did you… Where did you get the 52 million?'
[Have I not mentioned that already? It is the revenue generated from the sales of Sound of Wind, the game I developed.]
'The game you developed?' Dante thought for a moment. 'That game?'
He remembered something about the game receiving a very bad score from Finn, the only person to play test it. Dante decided to publish it anyway, but just like many other things, he completely forgot about it. Though he mentioned working on a second game from time to time, Volcan never said anything about it being ready for release.
Opening a browser, Dante did a quick search on the game Sound of Wind. The ratings were among the first things that appeared, and though it wasn't a smashing success, the reception seemed positive enough for it not to be a complete trainwreck.
'Five… five million copies?'
Finn described Sound of Wind as a soulless cash grab made by a massive company, meaning it met the quality standards of big-budget games. For such a game, selling five million copies would barely recoup the costs of development, making it a big failure. However, since Volcan made his game internally without hiring anyone or buying any equipment, they had zero expenses, meaning the 52 million was pure revenue. Then there were the profits from the stock market.
'Damn…'
Contrary to Dante's expectations, his resident AI went to the casino rich and came back richer than ever.
Dante wondered if this was what it felt like to see the numbers grow. People say you need money to make money, but taking 52 million and turning it into nearly a billion in a single night was nothing short of magic.
'Damn…'
He was starting to feel like an idiot for wasting all that time taking merc gigs and stealing from gangs. If he had done this from the start, gathering the funds for his cyberfication would have been a walk in the park.
Of course, there were reasons that stopped him back then—reasons he no longer has. It was time to grow his wealth to a point where he wouldn't have to worry about money ever again.
'Just look at you. In the end, you are no different from them.'
Like iced water spilled on his head, Dante's very thoughts brought him back down, evaporating every bit of glee he felt.
'No…' He sat down, covering his face with both hands. 'Money is good. Money is options. If I have money…'
[Dante? Is something the matter?]
Volcan's concerned voice pulled him out of the dark depths he was sinking into, and he took a deep breath as if he were truly drowning. Taking a moment to think some more, he organized the points he had considered before into a plan.
'Getting too rich too quick will draw too much attention.' He thought aloud. 'For now, take what you earned and keep growing it, but make sure your progression is stretched over the next three months. As much as I would like to be one of the top 20 wealthiest people in the world by tomorrow, let's not rush it that much.'
[Understood.]
It annoyed Dante that just when he got to a point where he no longer had to worry about the authorities and those in power, his main problem became the idiots who had the influence but weren't in on the secrets that would stop them from messing with him.
Volcan was basically running a private equity fund made of a bunch of shell companies owned by other shells. The whole thing was just theater meant to draw anyone looking into it to the fact that a gang runs the whole operation, just illegal money being laundered through legitimate means. Nothing special or supernatural.
Hopefully, that would be more than enough to stop the idiots from messing with him.
'Don't go with winning deals only, though. You need to lose some money from time to time. Make it seem like you were lucky and hit it big.'
[Understood.] Volcan replied.
'One more thing…' Dante paused. 'I need you to collect the stocks of specific companies. You may attempt to buy them out once you gather the necessary funds.'
[You want to keep the stock of those companies?] Volcan said. [I thought the best way to earn money from stocks is to sell them when their value increases?]
'We need the companies themselves.' Dante replied.
Dante had one specific company he wanted stocks from, but unfortunately, it wasn't publicly traded. His next best choice was to invest in the subsidiaries they owned and warm his way into their circles. Just the thought alone filled him with disgust, but he had to force himself to go through with it.