*Tick-tock*
*Tick-tock*
*Tick-tock*
*Tick-tock*
*Tick-tock*
An annoying grandfather clock hung by the wall at the side of the principal's office. The door to the office was slightly open and it could be heard that the principal was in an argument with someone. Leonidas couldn't be bothered though.
He was currently waiting to get his verdict. According to the victim's parents, Leonidas had been overly violent and assaulted some innocent teenage boys. He certainly deserved to be hung by the stake.
"Come in", an exasperated voice came from inside the office. Leonidas didn't waste time as he stood up from his chair, which was located in the teacher's office hallway, and went into the principal's office.
As Leonidas entered the office he noticed how minimalistic it was. Unichrome white colored walls,a table and some chairs .A file cabinet, a computer, a laptop and some journals lay on the table.
On the chair sat a man with grey hair in his sixties. He had a pair of glasses on his face and even though it was early in the morning on a Thursday, he looked like he needed a vacation or a long weekend. This man was Mr Van Hausen and he was the principal of DSJ.
His attire was a formal grey suit with a red striped white tie. After Leonidas came in he changed his demeanor and assumed one of a Judge, Jury and Executioner.
Leonidas sat down on one of the chairs facing the principal, totally ignoring the pressure coming off of the old man.
"So what do you have to say for yourself, young man?"
A stern voice reverberated all over the tiny room. The principal looked determinedly at Leonidas to spot any sort of emotional or physical response but he was dissapointed to find out that this boy had no tell what so ever. Just a cold, indifferent look on his face.
"I was attacked by two boys, I defended myself. There's nothing else to it"
"Is that how you defend yourself?! By dislocation g someone's shoulder?"
"Idiots like those treat soft people as targets for repeated bullying. If I didn't do that, they would never stop trying to take me down. I needed to send a message, make them realise I can't be messed with. That was the perfect time to do it."
Mr Van Hausen couldn't help but be startled. Not only was this bold ruthless and demented but he was also cold and calculating. He could already see his work pile up in the future.
"Send a message? Well you know what? I need to send a message as well. I'm calling your mom. You're suspended for a week. This is your first warning. Violence will not be tolerated at our school."
Leonidas only nodded in response. 'Only a week... It might be enough time for me to set up my finances...' he thought to himself.
Thinking that Leonidas was unrepentant, the principal continued, "And from now on you'll be required to go to the school psychiatrist 3 times a week every week. You got it?"
Leonidas was annoyed. What's a psychiatrist going to help with anything. To him it's just a waste of time. He had went to so many in his first life after the murder of his parents.
After years of therapy, he was diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder and High Functioning Sociopathy at the age of 21 due to his hacker antics in the cyber world, and his unrestrained violence in the physical world.
This meant nothing to Leonidas though. These words were nothing more than labels that were useful for putting him in a box. Whether he stayed in the box or not was his choice at the end of the day.
While other people would choose to think of Leonidas as 'Broken', he chose to think of himself as 'Spicy'. Just a label anyway, right?
"Is that all?"
Mr Van Hausen felt a slap on his face as his face went red with anger, confusion and shame. When was the last time that a kid dared to speak to him like this?!
Before he could say anything the was a knock on his door and the secretary came in. With out wasting any time, the secretary immediately called out
"Principal, it's the mother."
The principal looked at Leonidas with a scalding cold look. "Go wait outside". Then He turned to the secretary, "Bring her in"
Leonidas hopped off his chair with a nonchalant air about him and went to meet his mother outside. When Ana saw Leonidas she immediately jumped at him feeling him up all over his body.
"Leo my boy, are you okay? They didn't hurt you did they?", she said with a doting gaze.
Leonidas' heart couldn't help but melt at this sight. Whenever Leo would get in trouble in his previous life, Ana would always be there to take his side and fight for him. She was one of the few people he didn't want to let down.
"No Mom, I'm fine. You should see the other guys hehe", Leonidas said with a genuine smile on his face.
To Leonidas, his words felt natural. But to Ana they were like a strike of lightning. This was the first time Leonidas willingly called her "Mom". A tear of happiness went down her face but she rubbed it off quickly and showed a resolute face to Leonidas.
"How dare some idiots touch my favorite boy. Let me deal with this quickly and then we'll go get some lunch. What do you say?"
In the past month not only had she felt sympathy for Leonidas, but she also really liked him. He was intelligent, curious, and wise for his age. A child like him deserved a normal childhood regardless of his past.
That coupled with her own in ability to have children which drove her towards adoption, she really liked Leonidas. To her she was already like her own son.
"Sure"
"Okay", Ana said with a beaming smile.
She stood up and took large domineering steps towards the principal's office. Leonidas, who was currently looking on, couldn't help but feel bad for Mr Van Hausen. His mother was ths best lawyer at her firm. Dominating a little principal was nothing too difficult for her.
A few minutes later she came out feeling refreshed with a smile on her face.
She held her hand out to Leonidas, "Let's go"
And just like that Leonidas left the school with Ana. They spent the day at the mall, where Ana bought Leonidas whatever he wanted. Leonidas felt a bit awkward being treated like a child but he let it happen.
"Hey Mom, I want to make a bank account. I want to learn how to handle money. "
Leonidas announced this while they were having a burger at McDonald's. Ana looked at him while a myriad of thoughts went by in her head.
"Aren't you too young for that?", she said. She could tell this was something he thought about and was determined to do but she still wanted to see if the was more to it.
"My parents left me a lot of money before they passed away. I want to grow it with my own hands and build something from it."
Leonidas' eyes never left Ana's while he was saying this. Ana could tell he was serious.
"Hey Leo, nobody's forcing you to do this right? Nobody's promising you anything? You can't trust people easily."
"I know mom. That's why I was thinking of preparing for my future while I'm still young. I have a keen interest in technology and finance. I will put some of it in a savings account and use the rest to fund my studies in the future. Maybe even start a business. Create something."
Ana was shocked. She knew Leonidas was mature for his age, but this?! She was very impressed but at the same time she knew that if he started in this direction he wouldn't have much of a childhood.
As a guardian and a mother it would be her decision to make at the end of the day.
"Okay. But on one condition..."
Ana's face suddenly became serious so Leonidas knew it was now or never.
"..."
"You have to let me be your financial lawyer", Ana said with a playful smile on her face. Her blue eyes exuded gentleness as she looked at Leonidas.
Leonidas stood up with a smile on his face.
"Deal!"
"Deal."
And that was it. On the next day, Leonidas and Ana went to their local First National Bank branch and setup his bank account. Then Ana went to her office and setup the power of attorney contracts which enabled the transfer of funds from the state to Leonidas. The funds came through within 2 days.
Ana gave Leonidas permission to use one of her 3 spare rooms as a personal office. Whenever he had an expense, he would send the details to his 'financial lawyer' and as long as the lawyer gave him an okay, everything would be good.
The spare room next to Leonidas' bedroom on the on the second floor was fitted with 3 monitors, 1 cpu and hardware accelerators and some other miscellaneous computer hardware which Leonidas assembled by himself.
Ana, after seeing him work so hard, was beyond herself with pride and joy. It seemed like he was moving from his trauma even if little by little.
By the end of his one week suspension, everything was set up perfectly.
On a Friday in early April, Leonidas sat in his office. He was reading some documentation about Html, Css and Javascript. The full functionalities were vastly different than the versions he knew and used in the 2030s.
He had a plan. He was African, and although Africa was the least developed continent in the world back in 2012, it had enormous potential for growth.
Africa was the biggest supplier of raw minerals like gold and platinum. Africa was a large supplier of nuclear chemicals as well. This was good and all, but it was the main problem.
Africa kept on exporting raw materials because it had no infrastructure to use those materials. And as a consequence, Africa was sucked dry by the 2nd world and first world nations of the world.
Africa was left behind at the advent of the 4th industrial revolution in 2030,and the African people suffered for it. By the year 2060 the inequality between Africa and the rest of the world had reached a startling height.
Leonidas knew that Africa had potential. But unlocking that potential would take a lot of risk and a little bit of luck. And he also knew that he would definitely ruffle up some feathers along the way.
There were four key issues.
>> Infrastructure and Technology (software, hardware)
>> Money
>> Politics and Legislation
>> People
There's no growth because there's a lack of infrastructure. Infrastructure needs money and qualified people to build it. There's no money, and there's no qualified people.
There's no Money. But getting more money creates debt and inflation. More debt means that more money is needed to pay off those debts.
People don't have jobs. They don't have jobs because jobs require qualifications. Getting a qualification requires money. Getting Money requires having a job.
The main reason why it's like this was due to the trashy politics in the system. Corruption. Illegal tenders. Unnecessary spending. The continent was rotting from the inside.
Infinite loops of Impossibility make it difficult for anything to grow in Africa. Whether it was setup like that by the rest of the world... That was not important.
What's important was that Leonidas needed a system of rapid growth. He'd start small in South Africa. Then expand and take over the whole continent.
Whatever happened next, Leonidas would need Money. And lots of it.
"I guess it's about time I look at Bitcoin"
With a few clicks he landed on a page detailing the current price of Bitcoin. Leonidas almost spilled all the coffee he was drinking.
"pff... 5 dollars?! Haha. This is gonna be easier than I thought."
"the current exchange rate between the rand and the US dollar is R7.50 to $1... Pfft so cheap"
He ran the numbers. If he invested 75 million Rands he could get 2 million bitcoin.
Leonidas knew Bitcoin would go crazy within the next few years.
In 2017 it would be worth $20000
In 2021 it would be worth $69000
In 2035 it would be worth more than $110000
"Pfft whatever. Anyway, I'm here for a good time. Not a long time. I'll pull out all my bitcoin before 2018. That's an easy 4000x. No biggie."
"For now I'll set up an LLC. Let's call it... Plutus Financial. Plutus... The Greek God of wealth. I like it"
During the next week, with the help of his mother, he set up the LLC and transferred 80 million Rands to the LLC's accounts. Then he used 75 million to buy 2 million bitcoin.
But that wasn't the end. He was in the process of creating more companies.
One company, named "Zoom", would be an online marketplace and package delivery company like Amazon.
Another company, named "Alpha Labs", would be an AI and software research company.
Another company, named "Ithemba Technologies", would be a hardware infrastructure company capable of producing smart home appliances and robotics for factories, mines and facilities.
Another company named "Halo", would be responsible for creating wearables and smart devices.
It would take some time before things took off. But Leonidas had all the time in the world.
On a dark night in July, Sanele was casually walking out of a brothel in Joburg. His plan hadn't worked out and after his nephew was adopted he had no way of finding him. He had become an alcoholic after his family's death. He felt guilty. Not because he did it. But because he did it and failed. Truly a trash of a human being.
He walked into an alleyway on his way to his temporary residence. But out of the corner of his eye he saw the shadow of a child.
'Is that Leonidas?' he thought to himself.
'Haha that brat got away from me once, but I don't believe he can get away twice', he thought while badly withholding murderous intent.
After 4 whole months, Leonidas and his uncle Sanele had finally met in a dingy alleyway in the streets of Hillbrow.