When I suddenly found myself with 1.24 billion won, it felt like I had the whole world in my hands. But upon closer thought, it wasn't exactly enough to live a life of leisure forever.
If I got carried away with spending just because I suddenly had a lot of money, I'd be ruined in no time.
Haven't there been cases of people who won hundreds of billions in the lottery but ended up homeless in less than 10 years?
To avoid ending up like them, I needed to stay sharp and grounded.
…At least, that's what I told myself. But as soon as I started thinking about having such a large sum, I felt at ease. Do I really need to look for another tutoring gig, though?
**Ring!**
My phone buzzed. There weren't many people who'd call me.
"What's up?"
["If you've got nothing to do, come over. Let's play some games."]
Perfect timing. I'd been lounging around with nothing better to do.
I grabbed some clothes and got ready to leave.
"I'm heading to Tae-kyu's place!"
---
Tae-kyu's studio apartment was a fairly spacious unit with a separate living room, making it quite large for someone living alone. However, the place was a mess, cluttered with games, comic books, figurines, and all kinds of junk.
Aside from the sofa and the bed, it was hard to find a place to lie down.
When I entered, Tae-kyu was sitting on the sofa playing a game.
The results were supposed to be announced today, but so far, there was no news.
"Have you heard from Hyun-joo noona?"
Tae-kyu, his eyes still glued to the game screen, replied.
"Yeah. She said we'd probably get the results tomorrow."
"Really?"
If the meeting's dragging on, doesn't that mean something's not going well?
I couldn't shake the uneasy feeling.
Unlike me, though, Tae-kyu seemed unfazed.
"You're not worried?"
"What's there to worry about? We've got our Oracle Eye, don't we?"
"…"
Since when was it *our* Oracle Eye?
Tae-kyu handed me a game controller.
"Let's just play. We'll know tomorrow anyway."
It's not like worrying was going to change anything. Maybe it was better to stay relaxed, like him.
I grabbed the controller and sat down next to him.
---
We played games until dawn and collapsed into sleep.
Wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, I was suddenly shaken awake by Tae-kyu.
"Hey, wake up!"
"Just five more minutes…"
"Get up, seriously."
"What is it? Wake me later."
I waved him off, trying to go back to sleep, but then he said something that snapped me awake.
"OPEC results are out."
"What!?"
I jumped up, wide awake.
"What happened?"
Tae-kyu pointed at his computer.
"See for yourself."
I sat down at the desk and looked at the monitor. The business news section was flooded with articles about OPEC's production cut agreement.
- [Breaking] OPEC Reaches Dramatic Agreement on Production Cuts
- [Urgent] Non-OPEC Nations Join Oil Production Cuts
- OPEC Deal Hits Airlines Hard, Industry Faces Tough Times
- Gas Prices Set to Rise?
- OPEC's Decision Sparks Oil Price Surge
I clicked on one of the articles.
> [OPEC member nations have reached an agreement to cut oil production after lengthy discussions. At a meeting in Kuwait, OPEC decided to reduce daily production by 2.5 million barrels starting the 1st of next month.
> OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Al-Sabah issued a statement expressing confidence that member nations would adhere to the agreement.
> The market welcomed the unexpectedly strong measures immediately.
> WTI crude oil prices, which had been hovering around $60 per barrel, surged past $70 upon news of the agreement. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Index, which had been falling earlier in the session, rebounded by 150 points.]
Other articles all said more or less the same thing.
I couldn't hide my astonishment.
"This is… unbelievable…"
They actually reached an agreement to cut production!
I checked the WTI price—it had soared to $73. Within minutes of OPEC's announcement, it had surged over 20%.
"Open your account."
Tae-kyu logged into his trading account.
My knowledge had only extended to predicting the OPEC decision, not what would happen afterward.
"I'm selling everything right now."
I quickly sold off all our holdings.
"How much did we make?" Tae-kyu asked.
"630,000 dollars."
That's about 7 billion won.
We'd just made a fortune that most people couldn't even earn in a lifetime. It felt like some kind of money-printing game.
This is the nature of finance. When investments succeed, the returns scale with the amount of capital invested.
Let's see, my share is about 60 million won?
Our initial 1.24 billion won was now 1.3 billion won.
Tae-kyu said wistfully, "Man, I should've gone all-in with $10 million instead of just $3 million."
"People always think that after a successful trade."
"I should've gone all-in on options instead."
"…You don't even know what options are, do you?"
Still, if we'd actually done that, we'd have made hundreds of billions.
"This is huge!"
"What is?"
"You called it! Even though all the experts predicted failure, you knew the deal would go through as soon as you heard about it."
"Well, yeah…"
When you boil it down, there were only two possible outcomes: an agreement or no agreement.
So it wasn't impossible to guess right by sheer luck… but still.
"This is the third time now. Your foresight is legit."
"Whoa…"
Could I actually have some kind of superpower? Like the superheroes in comics and movies?
When you think of superpowers, you usually imagine flying, smashing buildings with your fists, or telekinetically moving objects.
Compared to that, foresight might seem like no big deal.
But on second thought, it's far from trivial.
If I wanted to fly, I could take a plane. To demolish buildings, I could use a bulldozer. Technology can replicate those abilities.
But foresight? That's something nothing can replicate—not even today's advanced computers and AI.
If I could predict election results, sports outcomes, or natural disasters like earthquakes and typhoons, wouldn't that be an extraordinary ability?
I calmed myself and tried to think rationally.
If this really was a superpower, when exactly did I develop it? There must be some kind of trigger, right?
Tae-kyu offered his theory.
"Like I said, you probably always had this latent ability, but it only awakened under extreme circumstances. That's what they call 'awakening.'"
"Then why didn't I see anything for a while after that?"
---
If I'd continued seeing visions, I'd have run straight to a casino after my military leave.
I'd have sat at a baccarat table, bet 1 million won on the first round, and doubled my stakes every time I won. In just 10 rounds, 1 million won would turn into 10.24 billion won.
And after another 10 rounds, it would surpass 1 trillion.
Just 20 flips of a card, and I'd be a trillionaire.
Of course, that's not realistic—casinos have betting limits.
Even so, there'd be countless ways to make easy money.
But after that, I didn't see anything. I just assumed it was my imagination and moved on.
"Then why did it start again now?"
Tae-kyu folded his arms, lost in thought, then murmured, "You saw something when I brought up VantCoin, and again when noona mentioned the OPEC meeting. Maybe your foresight is related to finance?"
"...Huh?"
The idea actually made some sense.
But then something didn't add up.
"What about the mortar explosion?"
"That was a life-or-death situation, so it might've been an exception… Wait, hold on. What happened after the explosion?"
"What do you mean?"
"That must've been a pretty big news story, right?"
"Well, yeah."
Tae-kyu searched "KM188 explosion," and old articles popped up.
Back then, public opinion about the military was already sour due to incidents of abuse and harassment. The explosion added fuel to the fire.
Opposition parties criticized the military, and a special investigation was launched.
The results were shocking. The new KM188 mortars had been defective from the start, and the procurement agency had covered it up.
The accident had been inevitable.
Three high-ranking officers resigned, and the investigation expanded to include widespread defense industry corruption.
Many involved were arrested.
And…
The stock prices of related companies—Eunseong Precision Chemicals, Korea Aerospace Industries, HwaAn Defense—plummeted across the board.
"So that was finance-related too, wasn't it?"
"…."
He wasn't wrong.
But by that logic, isn't everything in the world somehow connected to finance?