The Author's POV

C.B pharmaceuticals stock crash.

Matching the timing and potential payoff that I could make from exploiting this information, I decisively started making preparations.

First things first, opening my watch I checked my bank account.

Student: Ren Dover

Age: 16

Balance: 9.897 U

Withdraw Deposit

"Hmm...a little bit under 10,000 U"

Should be about enough, but...

Pondering for a little bit, I sighed and organized my thoughts.

A month after the academy had officially started, Thobias Church, head researcher of C.B pharmaceuticals was found dead in his high-security apartment complex.

All the news agencies and big guilds were shocked by the news and immediately reported it to the media and their respective guild members.

The news spread fast, reaching all major figures' ears in the span of minutes.

It was the first high-profile assassination that had occurred in decades, with many starting to fear for their lives as a result of this accident.

[Thobias Church, a forefront name in the potion-making industry is found dead in his home with one slit on the throat.]

[Forensic evidence indicated that he was assassinated by rank 37, Silent creeper, of the villain list.]

[This can be inferred from the clean slit on Mr. Church's throat, which is a signature assassination method adopted by rank 37, Silent creeper]

[Later when investigators were investigating the scene, another stunning revelation was discovered.]

[The recipe for the [Body enhancing potion] was found missing.]

This revelation shocked the pharmaceutical industry.

Potion recipes were an alchemist's biggest secret.

Each potion, such as the [Body enhancing potion] had various variations to them.

The variations occurred depending on the alchemist who was making the potion.

Some, being far more effective than the ones available on the market, while others performing far worse than the ones available on the market.

The better-performing ones would be sold to distinguished buyers, while the worse performing ones will be either discarded or illegally traded in the black market.

In the case of Thobias Church, because he was a highly acclaimed alchemist, his [Body enhancement potion] which only he knew the recipe of, was considered to be the best in the market.

As C.B pharmaceuticals head researcher, he had every right to decide who to sell and who not to sell the potion to.

In this case, his [Body enhancement potion] were each sold to the high-ranking guilds who needed it for when they needed to perform a raid.

With him gone, suddenly a gap in the [Body enhancement potion] market appeared.

The result of Thobias Church's death had a bigger impact than what people had predicted.

Especially on C.B pharmaceuticals the number one pharmaceutical company in the human domain.

two hours after Thobias Church's death was announced, C.B pharmaceuticals stock plummeted by 17%, falling from 123.71 U to 102.68 U

Later that evening, 5 hours after the first plummet, C.B stock further plummeted by a further 43% reaching 58.53 U.

Due to investors dumping the stock to try to mitigate their losses, the stock further fell until it stabilized at 21.65 U.

A staggering 82% stock decline.

The result of such decline almost caused C.B pharmaceuticals to file for bankruptcy. If not for the fact that they had a lot of liquid assets available to them due to the nature of their business, they would've most likely have crumbled.

In the wake of C.B historical downfall, W.V pharmaceuticals the second-best pharmaceutical company behind C.B finds its stock increasing dramatically.

For a solid week, it found its stock constantly increasing, rising from 58.93 U at the beginning of the week, to 111.45 U by the end of the week.

A dramatic 89.12% rise.

In short, I could use this incident which will happen in about three weeks' time to make it rich.

I will both short C.B, and buy W.V stock. Meaning that I will bet on both C.B stock falling, and bet on W.V stock increasing.

Thanks to the information I have, as a cheat, I should be able to make a good amount of cash.

Actually, with my limited funding of approximately 10 000 U, although I would be able to make quite a bit of money, it would still not be enough to pay for the things I needed.

In short, what I needed was a quick way to make some quick cash so that I could invest as much money as possible in this event.

The more money I get before the event happens, the better.

Pondering for a while, I came up with three options to solve my short-term money problem.

- a. Sign up for a mercenary job

- b. Get a job

- c. Go to a dungeon

The first two options were a no-go.

First, being a mercenary.

With my current strength and rank, I would at best be a miscellaneous mercenary.

To put it bluntly, a mercenary who took care of the tasks that most mercenaries wouldn't want to take. Like looking for a missing pet, or taking care of some small beasts that had infiltrated the city.

The income was quite poor, and the effort in proportion to the income paid was not worth it.

The second option, 'get a job' was also undesirable, as I was still a student and thus couldn't work full time.

Moreover, I was only looking for a short-term job which makes finding a job that pays a substantial amount impossible to find.

At least not with my current set of skills.

That leaves me with one last option.

Entering a dungeon.

A dungeon was essentially a pocket dimension that led to a small section of the demon world.

As the demons invaded the world, cracks appeared all over the world as a result of the instability created by the sudden influx of mana.

This resulted in mini pocket dimensions that led to the demon world being created.

Because of the instability of the crack, depending on the rank of the dungeon only those below a certain level can enter.

for example, a B rank dungeon can only be accessible for those who are B or lower rank. If an A rank were to enter the dungeon it would immediately break and injure the person who had entered.

The same went for the monsters that could be found inside.

Therefore, dungeons were excellent places to train.

Moreover, since the demon world was riddled with wars, artifacts from ancient wars could be found if someone was lucky enough.

However, the most attractive resource that could be found inside of a dungeon were not artifacts but monster cores.

A 'core' was a condensed source of energy, which revolutionized the world of today.

By implementing cores and replacing them as a source of energy, humanity was able to get rid of unclean energy.

Not only were cores much more efficient than any other sources of energy, but they also didn't produce any greenhouse gases.

This shocking discovery sent the world into a frenzy, as not only did they not produce pollution, but later it was shown that just a single G-rank core could power a whole city for 10 minutes.

We are talking about a city with a population of millions inside!

The amount of energy a single core contained was staggering.

Cores aside, the bodies of the demons and monsters inside of the dungeon could also be sold for a substantial price, which meant that dungeons were essentially gold mines for those who were looking to make some quick cash.

Using monster corpses, humanity's study on biology improved by leaps and bounds.

Incurable diseases became something of the past, and slowly biology divided into a new branch called 'alchemy', where they specialized in the creation of potions.

Dungeons certainly presented people with many opportunities to change their life, but that comes along with a great price. Death.

The mortality rate of dungeons was extremely high, as no one could predict what could happen once you entered inside.

Therefore, the central government put a strict restriction on dungeons and only allowed those who had a registered license to enter.

But of course, that didn't impede some unscrupulous dealers to take advantage of the government restricting dungeons to create an illegal dungeon business.

Which was exactly where I was planning to go.

If you're wondering why I was not using my knowledge to find a dungeon that has not been discovered yet, it's because it actually doesn't exist.

Well, at least not for any dungeon below D-rank.

In my novel, Kevin only entered dungeons in the later half of his first year. And his stats were around C to D+ rank which meant that D-rank dungeons weren't that useful for him.

Me on the other hand, who was only G+ could only enter at best an F ranked dungeon.

Checking out my stats, I was more or less pleased with my week's progress.

===Status===

Name : Ren Dover

Rank : G +

Strength : F -

Agility : F -

Stamina : F -

Intelligence : G +

Mana capacity : G +

Luck : E

Charm : G

--> Profession : [Swordsmanship lvl.1]

Although it may not seem like much, suddenly raising half of my stats to F- was a considerable achievement.

Raising stats could be considered the most gruesome task possible.

There were only three methods to raise your stats

1. Consume potions

2. Train diligently

3. Consume some natural treasure (e.g. fruit that had the seed of limit inside)...

In short, for someone like me who could only train diligently, raising my stats without external help could be considered a huge accomplishment.

Looking more confident than ever, I made a rough note of tomorrow's plan and headed to the swimming pool.

"It's time to train"

Heading towards the training center, I packed my swimming suit and left my dorm.

As I was heading towards the swimming pool, I started to think about the main storyline.

The novel essentially began with Kevin preparing himself to enroll in the lock.

Kevin's rise to fame was essentially your typical banal protagonist story, where his parents died in the past and he goes on this long harsh journey to avenge them.

Through a series of events, he was granted a cheat item and through that he became peerless.

...I was starting to get a better understanding of why my readers started hating my novel.

Apart from the main concepts, such as the general layout of the world, and the key ideas behind how the demons and villains operate. You could say everything else was rather cliche, as almost all other novels out there share a similar plotline to my story.

The story so far goes like this...

One day as Kevin was exploring an undisclosed dungeon, he was suddenly met with an accident and almost dies.

Trapped in the dungeon for weeks, with his body full of injuries, he barely stays alive by rationing the remaining food he brought with him before entering the dungeon.

Just as he was about to die, a miraculous encounter that changed his life appeared.

He was granted a 'system'

A more advanced interface than the current status window that everyone had available.

A status window, which every human in the world had, be it young or old, was a sort of game interface that showed a user's stats. It first appeared as soon as the demons invaded the world, and the source of origin was still unknown to this day, but what was known about the status window was that it allowed the user to see their own stats as well as that of artifacts.

The system, on the other hand, was a more advanced version of a status window.

Not only did it grant the user the ability to check their status, but it also granted quests and tasks which upon completion will award the user with status points and other fantastic rewards.

With this system, Kevin found himself shedding of his old timid self and truly started rising like a phoenix.

A year after he was granted the system he enrolls into the lock and proceeds to stun the examiners with his overwhelming talent and charisma, leading him into becoming the top student of the year officially starting the academy arc.

The academy arc starts with Kevin getting to know the other protagonists, Jin, Melissa, Amanda, and Emma, slowly building a rival-friend relationship.

Then the first minor event of the academy arc, the VR segments starts, and it was where Kevin managed to successfully complete two hidden tasks, once again shocking everyone including his teachers.

After the VR segment, the first major event of the academy arc officially begins.

During his elective, Kevin gets in conflict with a senior student, which starts a long series of conflicts with the senior years.

You could already imagine how the conflict began.

"You first year don't get cocky because your year performed better than our year in the VR test. We can still wipe the floor with scrubs like you"

Seriously, how bad of a writer was I?

It was only after experiencing my story from a first-person perspective that I began to realize how bad of a writer I was.

Not only did I overuse generic cliche-like scenarios, but even future events become easily predictable.

Well, in short, this event gets so blown out of proportion that it soon becomes a full-blown conflict between juniors and seniors where even if you weren't a part of the conflict you would somehow be dragged into it.

What's sad about this event was that I would most probably be dragged into it too.

Therefore I already needed to come up with countermeasures to this event, so that I didn't expose myself.

The life of a mob was truly hard...

Author's note :

Dumping : Selling of large amounts of stock at market price at the time of selling

Liquid : It's a measure taken by businesses to determine a firm's ability to turn assets into cash (Meet short-term obligations).