12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

I hit my finger at the table and looked at the monitor.

[F&M Media +30%]

The F&M Media that I bought was going straight to the upper limit price as it was on the news 12 Days After. It would be a scene where ordinary people would applaud and cheer, but for me, it was a daily routine, so I sat in silence. I only thought of it to the point.

'Well, this has restored all the losses I had at Nature's Gift.'

I turned to Nature's Gift. Since the story of the death had occurred, Nature's Gift had hit -30% on Monday, -30% on Tuesday, and yesterday, Wednesday, it was over-exploited and rebounded by +5%. But it was fighting again today at -3%.

At this moment it went down to -6%, and then -3%; it was completely up and down. At the ant level, it was a stock that could never be predicted. But it was obvious that someone was smiling at this: the architect of this scammed stock.

'Master T? I'm not sure, but... maybe.'

Tak Joon-gi was not the only one scamming in our country. However, there would be few people who could afford to plot against a company worth eight hundred million dollars. Only Director Tak Joon-gi or someone of that rank would be able to do it. Suddenly, I searched for 'Go-young Food'.

[Intestinal hemorrhagic colon bacillus was detected in the Go-young Food product delivered to the school.]

[Angry parents went to Go-young Food to protest.]

[Lee Kang-san, president of Go-young Food, left a suicide note and hung himself.]

[Procedure to abolish the listing of Go-young Food.]

There was a lot of bad news. When I looked it up, there was a Go-young Food chart still showing. It went public in 2010 and was delisted in 2016. In 2013, its market capital reached $200,000,000.

'I don't know much, but their family assets are at least thirty million dollars, and if they have more money, could be as high as a hundred million. The real estate they have now is definitely not shabby...'

Before the delisting, the company was moving in and out of the $100,000,000 range before the news broke.

'I can't believe they delisted the company of the market capital at a hundred million. Their gains must have been substantial.'

I came back and saw Nature's Gift, and all of a sudden the stock price which played at the minus range suddenly surged to +10%. I looked at it and thought, 'Should I sell it now? If this is the case, the losses can be fixed at about half price.'

I took the mouse cursor to the sell button and held it back. This rebound seemed to say, 'Is it painful? Sell it now. I'll make up for some losses.'

It looked as if it was beckoning. I was probably the one who had gotten bit the worst. I had bought $13,000,000 on the news of the earnings surprise.

'The more I think about it, the angrier I get.' I didn't know who these guys were, but I was angry at the thought of them taking my money.

'I'll see you tomorrow, you bastards...'

I put the cursor back.

'There will be a definite good news tomorrow, news from the Food and Drug Administration. This is news from a state agency, which there is public confidence in, so there must be a rebound. It means that I can sell it at a better price than now. If I get to average down on good timing, I may come out with a profit.'

'Yes, let's wait until tomorrow, no matter what the price is today...'

I turned off HTS, thinking about it.

-------------------------

Friday. I slowly read the news at 8:55 and sold F&M Media gently at the start of the market, 9:00 a.m. The stock price started at +16% on the news that the martial arts novels serialized on this site will be adapted to games and dramatized in China, but I began to sell the stocks without being more greedy. I had bought more shares than initially scheduled with the idea of making up for the losses I had had at Nature's Gift.

'I'm sorry. I'll only eat this much.'

+20%, about to hit the ceiling today, the stock price fell on my selling spree. Some ants fell out in astonishment at my selling position. Seeing it, I stopped the sale and waited for a while. The rest of the residuals would be sold in the afternoon, or next Monday. After this sale, I moved back to Nature's Gift. Nature's Gift was playing in the -1% today. I watched it carefully.

'The result will come out at two o'clock in the afternoon. The forces who have scammed the stock will one hundred percent already know the result by connections to the Food and Drug Administration, and then there will be a rebound. At that time, I will get to average down.'

I was thinking about it. But around eleven o'clock., the stock price suddenly began to fall by eight percent.

'What is it?' I searched for Nature's Gift.

[A second victim was found after eating the product of Nature's Gift]

[Breaking News: The report of the second side effects of the product of Nature's Gift.]

"What?" I shouted, surprised. I clicked on the article.

[A forty-year-old woman, Shin, suddenly has a faint fever with dizziness.]

[She is known to have taken Power Red V recently.]

[It is known that she was hospitalized after her examination.]

The second victim, but it was not really big news.

'No, no symptoms are written, but she was hospitalized?'

But it certainly was news that was going to make investment sentiment worse. The news was from Catch News, a medium-sized Internet news company.

'… if they are given money, they'll write a story for it... even if it's not the line of the Daewon Daily News.'

And this second victim, Shin, identified only by her surname, could be easily hospitalized by manipulation, since the first victim was dead. I looked at the stock window, -12%. No matter how much it was, Nature Gift was still a company with a market capital of four hundred million.

'If they put someone in the hospital and move forty-eight million dollars…'

There was nothing they could not do. I could tell by looking at the Go-young Food case that those who scammed a stock were people who could easily kill a person for money. -16%, -18%, I thought as I watched the stock price continue to fall.

'Isn't this the last ant-fooling thing they want to do before it turns upside down at two o'clock?'

I recalled the proposal that Lee Won-jae had made to me: 'If you spend about twenty million, you'll have six million in profit.'

The time might be right now to receive the item. Thinking about it, I ventured into buying. Stock prices went down -20%, -24%, with almost panic selling, but I was calm and modest. I bought in small quantities, but when I was trying to get the shares, there was another one who came in and took it. The stock price began to rebound without falling further on my and his buying. -22%, -20%...

'This... this guy?'

I tried to buy up the shares with a handful, 'Buy two million dollars worth.' When I ventured on betting big, the selling stopped for a while. But at the same time, at -18%, someone took nearly a million dollars worth.

'That's him!' It was heavy pulling, and I was starting to buy competitively with a buyer who I didn't know. -16%, -14%, -12%.

'It's very... very clear it's an operation.'

There was no need to watch any more. I kept buying stocks and the stock price continued to rise after our two big hands made large purchases. It went up to -6%, -2%. In the end, the stock price had risen back to the level of just before the news of the second victim came out.

I stopped buying here for a while, to manage the risk I might not know about. Looking at the clock, it was 11:30 a.m. I watched the stock price move, breathing for a moment. The stock price was taking a short break near the no-change range. I waited for a moment with a buy-order at -5%.

'It's going to be two o'clock soon… The stock price will rebound...'

I watched it quietly. The stock that had just been violently shaken was idle for more than half an hour. I picked up my cell phone and went to the stock bulletin board without taking my eyes off the stock window.

- What the hell is this? It went down and went up.-

- I got fucked by a single blow today. It's a totally scammed stock.-

- It just dropped off as soon as the news came out, and the main driver of the forces is driving badly. Hey, main driver, let's eat together.-

'Usually, the number of comments on the stock bulletin board is the same as the index of stock price spikes. So is the intensity of the comments.'

- I've been a shareholder for three years and I can't stand this any longer. I'll report it to the FSS.-

'Some say that, but frankly, it is very unlikely that an operational force will be captured. In the first place, there has to be a victim, and there is a media outlet reporting it. It is difficult for the FSS to prove how the stock price was manipulated.'

I suddenly remembered what Lee Ah-young had said: He's a newsmaker. The picture she had showed, with a dry figure, long and raised hair, piercing eyes with lateral lines, and pale skin.

'He was like some kind of lizard man...'

I watched the stock window as I thought about it. Today's lunch was pizza. When I traded stocks, even a rich man like me couldn't eat properly.

'What the hell is money?'

But it was hard to do anything else right now with tens of million dollars at stake.

'I'm going to have the best dinner tonight when this is over.'

I watched the stock price with that promise to myself. It was around 2 p.m., the appointed time. At 1:54 p.m., the stock price suddenly began to soar, +8%, +12%. +16%. There was no news yet, but the stock price would go up first.

'I feel sorry for the Korean ants.'

Most ants probably wouldn't even know if the FDA announced it today. Even the fast-informed ants would not know about the ministry's announcement. They could not know the result, unless there was some personal acquaintance with the FDA. The stock price hesitated for a while, at about +22%. Then at 2:00 p.m., when the news broke, the +30% upper limit price rolled up. I watched it with my arms crossed.

'I bought a little over ten million dollars this morning, didn't I?'

As I had roughly calculated, it was in the range of profit-making. I had succeeded in averaging down. Now I had to think about when I would get out of here. If I thought simply, it had to go a little higher than it was now. As it hit the lower limit price twice, and there was a rumor once... the product image was already gone and consumers wouldn't buy it.

The public only remembered the story of the day when an incident happened, and not the story of the days afterwards. If later on, they say it's not fair, Nature's Gift was already imprinted on most of the public as 'a health food that a person ate and died.'

'Then, even if suspicions are cleared completely, they cannot sell it.' Thinking about it, I began to sell moderately here. This was a spider's web that someone had laid out anyway. If I was caught, I should be satisfied with my safe return.

But since the biggest fish survived, the guys who ran the operation must have been pretty fucked up. As the press and the KFDA had been working together, they must have done a lot of work designing this.

I had lost nearly ten million dollars early today, but I had made a slight profit now. Therefore, those who ran the operation missed out on ten million, right before their eyes. I sighed in relief, and they sighed in regret. But even though I got out safely, I didn't feel good.

'These guys… I don't know exactly who they are, but if I have a chance, I want to make them cry. If I have a chance…'