The moment Lin Chen stepped out of the luxury vehicle that had dropped him off at the skyline-tinted penthouse of the SkyEdge Exchange, the air around him shimmered—not from the view, but from the system notification that glowed faintly in his vision like a divine edict descending.
[System Notification: Strategic Talent Module Unlocked]
Congratulations, host. You have fulfilled the criteria:
Consistent high-level performance in volatile capital environments
Successful manipulation of real-time markets
You have been granted:🔹 Limited-Time Strategic Command Card🔹 Title: Financial Hunter (Passive)
Effect of Card: Grants "Extreme Situational Insight" into macro and micro-scale systems.Duration: 5 hours.
Lin Chen blinked once, slowly, letting the weight of it settle.
"Extreme insight?" he murmured. "System, define that."
[Host will perceive strategic information overlays:
Behavioral pattern mapping
Probabilistic asset movement forecasts
Networked causality clusters
Projected emotional response modeling in key actors]
In other words—he was about to see the entire market, and its participants, like pieces on a 4D chessboard.
"Let's begin."
The SkyEdge Exchange was a crucible of billion-dollar deals and unspoken wars. Tonight, it was even more volatile than usual. Several VC giants had converged to discuss a high-stakes maneuver: Project Helios—an AI startup boasting quantum data compression tech, recently valued at $1.2 billion.
But Lin Chen knew something others didn't.
Thanks to a buried data fragment the system had extracted two days ago from a corrupted financial ledger, Helios was, in truth, a castle built on sand. The core patent had been challenged in three jurisdictions. A crash was inevitable—only no one knew when.
Except him.
[Strategic Command Card: ACTIVATED]
Overlay initialized…
Players Identified:
Cao Group (Aggressive Bullish)
Daihua Ventures (Hesitant, watching leader)
White Pine Capital (Coordinating puppet actors)
Current Bubble Status: 82% unsustainable.Predicted Implosion: T-minus 8 hours.
The skyline around him blurred and transformed.
Now Lin Chen saw the world in nodes and currents—every trader a piece in a simulation, every dollar movement a butterfly wing flapping toward a storm. He felt the tremor in his chest, not of fear, but of clarity.
He would bet against Helios. And win.
1:22 AM — Market Initiation
In the members-only trading room upstairs, terminals buzzed. Investors in tailored suits laughed, toasted, and hovered over screens showing Helios's meteoric projections.
Lin Chen sat silently at his private desk. A single command from him activated his Gold Exchange Gateway.
[Gold Coins available: 4,250,000]
Purchase Boosts?
Market Prediction +20% (120,000 GC) ✅
Micro-latency Auto-Response (95,000 GC) ✅
Emotional Calibration Shield (50,000 GC) ✅
[Confirmed. Enhancements active.]
His first action was subtle. He planted false buy signals through a system-verified third-party shell, sending artificial volatility into Helios's secondary shares. The room responded like a pack of wolves.
"Is someone building a short ladder? Nah, impossible—Helios is moon-bound."
"Just dip buys, ride the curve!"
They were wrong.
2:10 AM — The Unseen Signal
Lin Chen's screen flashed red. A side node on the visualization flared—the Singapore Monetary Authority had quietly updated its public stance on AI valuation, introducing stricter oversight for unproven algorithmic models.
Nobody else had caught it. But Lin Chen had the Strategic Command Card.
"Now," he whispered.
He executed 300 micro-shorts through six veiled instruments. At the same time, he signaled a false whale order on a rival AI firm, drawing attention and destabilizing Helios's psychological hold.
Within thirty minutes, three hedge funds began re-evaluating. One dropped 5% of their position. The price dipped—just a little.
But in a bubble, that was all it took.
3:35 AM — Panic Phase
Helios's shares, once euphorically rising, began convulsing.
"Wait—why's Daihua pulling back?"
"Someone's initiating an arbitrage drain—what the hell?!"
Behind mirrored glasses, Lin Chen smiled faintly. In his vision, the entire room shimmered with fear-laced emotional data.
[Emotion Pulse: Rising uncertainty – 67%][Trigger Condition: Cascade Event Possible in 6 minutes]
His voice was low but firm.
"Dump 40% of remaining short positions. Leave 60% for the kill shot."
His assistant looked baffled. "Now? But if it rebounds—"
"It won't," Lin Chen said. "Helios is hollow."
As predicted, five minutes later, an anonymous leak hit the wire—Helios was under SEC review for dual-reporting irregularities.
5:02 AM — Profit
The bubble burst.
Hard.
Helios fell 43% in ten minutes. Lin Chen's earlier short positions reaped exponential returns, each doubling or tripling. Secondary investments collapsed into his buyback channels.
[Gold Coins Earned: +7,500,000][System Title Activated: Financial Hunter (Passive)]
[Passive Perks:
+30% Influence during negotiations
+15% Intimidation against hostile investors
Reputation: "Capital Executioner" spreading on financial forums]
By the time the market closed, Lin Chen had more than doubled his system coin count.
But that wasn't the most important thing.
Backroom Lobby — 5:50 AM
Word had spread.
Investors passed him with awe. Someone whispered, "Is that the Black Knight?" Another: "He called Helios's collapse... before the audits."
And then a final alert chimed, low and ominous.
[System Alert: Surveillance Activated]
Entity Identified: Erebus Observation Node
Trigger: Strategic Anomaly Detected in Host Behavior
❗You are now on Erebus's active surveillance list. Caution advised.
Lin Chen exhaled slowly. He looked up at the rising sun bleeding across the glass panels.
"The stronger I become," he said under his breath, "the closer the real predators get."
But he didn't flinch.
Because now, he was a Financial Hunter.
And the hunt had only just begun.