No sooner did the market open, the graph arrow immediately started shooting up.
It was obvious that there were some bots involved as within a matter of seconds, the price of one share of the company shot straight to $9 from the previous $3.
It was a whopping 300% increase and the arrow continued rising until it finally slowed down and started going down for a bit.
There were active traders at play here who bought and sold almost immediately, thereby causing such fluctuations.
But Alex wasn't in a hurry. He knew that the stock price of this company would rise further until it was at a whopping $21 by the end of the day.
This startup had experienced this exponential growth just on the first day after the news had been announced. There was no other time when their stock went as high as this.
The reason for it was their constant failures regarding futuristic technology. People were losing faith in them and their market cap was plummeting day by day.
Alex knew that he had to sell everything by today itself and was focusing on the rising and falling price.
By noon, the price went as low as $6 but after lunch time it started going back up quickly.
Alex hadn't moved an inch from his chair since 9 am as it was a big matter for him.
By 2 pm, the stock saw an exponential rise again and it had reached the $20 mark.
Without wasting any time, Alex immediately sold all the 20,000 shares that he bought for $30,000 and made a whopping $400,000 in seconds!
Due to the sudden selling of so many shares, the graph didn't rise further and instead went down.
Alex heaved a sigh of relief and slumped back in his chair with his eyes closed.
As he did that, he felt a familiar warm and soft feeling on his forehead.
"Good work, now come eat." Melissa's gentle voice rang in his ears.
"Five minutes." Alex really wanted to relax after being under so much stress.
Melissa smiled and squishing his face, said, "this position isn't very relaxing. Come with me."
She took him to bed and had him lie down on it while keeping his head on her lap.
Melissa caressed Alex's hair and looked at him lovingly as he took deep breaths and relaxed.
Sitting on the chair for such a long period of time and now being put into a really comfortable spot, it didn't take much time for Alex's eyes to become droopy.
Melissa's gentle gestures made him further sleepy and in no time, Alex dozed off.
Melissa smiled noticing this and was happy to see her husband relax.
Her gaze then fell on the laptop screen and she let out a soft chuckle. 'Darling was so tired that he forgot to apply for withdrawal.'
Indeed, after Alex sold all the shares and had the money in his account, he hadn't hit the withdrawal option and had dozed off instead.
Although it didn't matter when one tried to take out the money, Melissa knew he needed it sooner.
Being a good wife, she did the necessary things and let her husband sleep peacefully for a while.
An hour and a half later, at 3:30 pm, Alex woke up to find himself in his wife's warm embrace.
He wasn't embarrassed, rather, impressed by her. She stayed in the same position for such a long time without moving even an inch!
Day by day, Alex was realizing he had made a good decision of not shunning Melissa away and accepting her with all his heart. He had done nothing for her as of now, yet she was here, giving out all her love and care to him.
"Good morning." Melissa said with a smile, even though it was afternoon.
Alex didn't greet her back but got up and gave her a kiss instead. "Morning."
Melissa liked this change and was happy. She knew her efforts weren't in vain.
Alex got up and had a look at his laptop that was still running.
The stock price he had been previously looking at hadn't touched $20 again and was fluctuating in the $12-16 range.
Alex was happy he made the right move but he also realized that the stock wouldn't touch the previous $21 because he involved himself in this.
In any case, he made a big profit and was content with it.
Alex took his phone from the study and was about to head downstairs to have lunch with Melissa when he saw there were many notifications in there.
Checking them, most of them were bank statements and the major thing that came out from it was that he had $314,297 credited into his account after all the deductions.
Alex didn't know if he had hit withdrawal or not before sleeping and he couldn't seem to remember, but in any case, he had a good amount of money now and was happy.
He went downstairs with Melissa and had a scrumptious meal with her.
The two then watched Melissa's favorite tv series for a few hours and Alex went to his bedroom to get back on the grind.
Pushing the bed and study table aside, he made space and sat in the middle of the room in a meditative position.
The first thing Alex did was bring up the status once he was settled down.
+
[Name: Alexander Gray]
[Titles: Newbie Stock Trader]
[Level of Existence: Human]
[Evolution: Unevolved]
[Gene value: 50,000
Active Genes: 5,000:
Protein-Coding Genes: 23,501]
+
Surprise took over Alex as he saw the status.
His gene values had changed!
Looking closely at it, he could see the number of protein-coding genes had gone up. Although it was a small number, it was still better than nothing!
Alex could make out the reason for this change. He had been sitting in one place and giving all his focus to the stock price.
His body was under stress and with time, the stress only increased, with it peaking when he was about to sell.
There was no increment to his number of genes but having one extra protein-coding gene in all cells of his body meant one step closer to evolution.
With such an increment, he was starting to understand what the system meant by putting his body under stress.
The manuals he had seen in the shop of the system were talking about progressive overloading, a term which was commonly used by gym rats.
There was also an option for gym equipment and Alex was sure that the manual contained gym workout plans.
Knowing what he needed to do, Alex went ahead and bought the $100 home gym equipment and had it placed in the garage.
There was a squat rack, a bench, many heavy plates, a few barbells, and some dumbbells.
Looking at them, Alex was happy that it had almost everything he needed.
This equipment he bought for $100 was an absolute steal. If he went and bought it from the offline markets, it would cost him at least a good $2,000. Even if it was used, it would still be over $500.
Once the setup was complete, Alex changed his clothes and did a light push workout.
He was all sweaty and went to take a shower.
Finishing it, he had dinner with Melissa and going back to the bedroom, pulled her into his embrace and slept soundly.