NOVEL NEXT Entry 36: You’re my Toy [01]
Besides the financial sector, the technology, energy and health sectors were extremely volatile too in the early 21st century. Alongside the global financial crisis of the late 2000s, changes in the price of a stock from the expected pattern- volatility factor- measured via standard deviation, would probably have been highest in such sectors as far as Samuel was concerned.
While Samuel was by no means an individual with a background in investing or trading, several reasons prompted him to look into trading the tech, health and energy sectors’ stocks too.
For one, he had been quite the avid nerd in his previous life, and whenever he wasn’t indulging in games, he would watch YouTube videos on ‘random’ things, or read around to find out what was going on in the world outside of the four walls of his bedroom. Random was not a term used loosely to describe his watch list, as he’d be up until 4 am watching people building a hut and swimming pool, or the top 10 scariest sea creatures into the night.
And so, events such as the major crypto boom and subsequent increasing market capitalisation, the US-China Trade War, and Brexit were among the few events he could recall as being cataclysms of the 2010s that he felt he could take advantage of some time in the future.
Secondly, he was well aware of the technological trends of the future- including how consumption of media changed- and how big technological monopolies would get, as well as the importance of pharmaceuticals and biotech through the next decade or two (for rather obvious reasons).
Finally, Samuel did not sit idly by and allow all his chances to slip right out of his hands. Having taken an early night after dinner with his mother, Samuel went upstairs and promptly subscribed to online newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Polaria’s very own weekly newspaper- ‘The Pole Star Standard’- focusing on current affairs, international business, politics and technology.
Interestingly, as Polaria was 10 hours behind London and 5 behind New York, it followed the Hawaii Standard Time (HST)- or better known as the Polaris Standard Time (POT). Polaria, which was quite similar to Poland in name, adopted the abbreviations PO and PLS- shorthand for Polaris, which was both the unofficial name for Polaria and the capital city.
This meant that the London Stock Exchange (LSE) began trading hours from 10 pm - 6.30 am, and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) had trading hours between 4.30 am - 11 am, Monday to Friday.
Based on this information, Samuel had two choices to pick between; sleep late, and trade on the LSE, or wake up early to trade on the NYSE. It was a decision he wasn’t too hard-pressed on though, as ultimately, he figured the sex system would help him manage his sleep in the future.
Sleep was a big part of sex: good sleep would lead to more energy and so more sex, and most late-night sex was followed by sleep anyway. So Samuel felt sure that the system would not shirk on providing Samuel with the ability to have high-quality sleep, allowing him to leave such a problem out of his calculations.
Having finished his dealings with the HKSE before deciding to nod off for the day, Samuel pondered over his upcoming plans for the weekend. Besides the research he’d do into certain stocks, he planned to further his constitutional values somehow. He’d need to think of different ways to create a mission via his own desires based on each constitution name, and then go from there.
And no matter how reluctant he was to do so, he had to create a gym membership and begin working out. He’d already put his second mission to the back of his mind for the past few days, but it was high time he put in some effort to making the ‘changes’ he wanted to implement in his life.
While putting creating a gym membership as one of the first things he’d do upon a successful CFD trade, Samuel’s mind eventually drifted off into unconsciousness.
— — —
The final school day for the week whizzed by, as Samuel’s inattentiveness in class was spotted by the equally as bored individuals at the front of the class, earning him several reprimands from the different teachers. He couldn’t help it however, as thoughts of how best to exploit the system to stock trade kept floating within his mind, drawing his attention away from the monotonous voices of the grossly underpaid public school employees.
He didn’t put the malicious snickering of the other students at the scoldings in his eyes. Reality would hit them harder than any measly plan he could cook up to abate the minuscule grievances, if any, in his heart anyway. And he couldn’t help but feel it was quite funny watching the same people who were terrified of being isolated by their fellow peers, laughing at the predicament of others. Humans were truly odd creatures.
Anyways, besides the teachers’ attitudes, it certainly didn’t help that most of the content that was taught in class was beyond what he had managed to revise. He couldn’t yet wrap his head around the complex advanced integration calculations when he had yet to go over the basic integration from the prior year.
And that had left Samuel, to yet again, have his thoughts drift off as he wondered how isekai reincarnators managed to remember ancient magic formations, or how fanfic MC’s could recall every detail of a story to the T.
‘But honestly, this reverse chain rule business is not for me. I’m sure I could understand this all if I actually knew how to do basic integration in the first place. Too much has happened this week so I couldn’t revise as I’d planned.’ Shaking his head, Samuel pondered over whether he should factor studying into his already hectic schedule of money, manipulations, and sex.
His earlier ideas of revising and doing well in his exams had been so that he would have some form of consolation to his mother for sopping out early and ruining, at least in her eyes, the hard work of raising him for 18 years. But now that he could purchase competencies and work for himself, earning school qualifications wasn’t of particular interest to him now.
While he had plans to drop out eventually, he didn’t consider such an idea until at least Christmas. He needed that much time to ensure the fuckers- Jun and Daniel- were dealt with, and to make sure his sister would be safe from any other turds while at the school.
‘Huh… She abandoned her former nerdy friendship group to help me out, no? Who was it again…? That pair of twins, right? Well, whatever. Putting herself in the limelight must’ve been the single biggest mistake of her life. But fuck it. I’ll make sure I leave my mark at this school so no one messes with her in the future then. If after that she still wants to remain ‘popular’, I just have to help her live as she pleases. That’s the least I could do for that loveable little sister of mine.’
Setting aside the fantastical ideas of chasing chaos at the school floating within his mind, Samuel went about devising his schedule for the following week, as he patiently awaited for the lunch break to arrive.
— — —
Around 25 minutes before the end of lunch, Mai Matsushita- a slightly tan 5’6 girl- could be seen walking down the corridor behind the large hall in the middle of the main building of the school. That specific corridor housed the music classrooms, the toilets for males, females, and staff members, and a derivative entrance that lead to several of the humanities’ offices, a few music rooms, and the school library.
It was quite the chaotic corridor given its multiple uses by way of entering and exiting the hall and all the other entrances, but also because it connected the far side of the main building to the corridor closer to the square outside. This usually meant many students would be seen walking through the corridor to easily get to their classrooms on the other side of the building.
Despite the scheduled chaos at the start and the end of the day, teachers would usher away students who were loitering about in the corridor at all other times. The toilets in the main building had been used for underage smoking and drugs in the past, so measures were put in place to make such activities that much harder for students. While they would sanction students if they found them doing unsocial activities outside of school, it would be a huge stain to the school’s reputation if the premises was allowed to turn into a cesspit for such behaviour.
It was also rumoured that the new chairman instated a few years ago had played a huge part in the policy changes which made this school more of an educational institution than it ever was before, but no one had ever seen him around.
On this specific afternoon, as more than half of the lunch period was already over, Mai suddenly felt the desire to visit the toilets. She’d excused herself from the group, who were sat in the canteen, on the grounds that she had some ‘lady business’ to attend to, before leaving for the toilets in the main building which were, weirdly enough, further than the ones in the science block that was right beside the canteen. She put the decision down to wanting a more private area to do what she needed.
As she was walking down the empty corridor with nigh a student in sight, she passed by the white double doors that lead to the library. As the girl had been feeling a one-track-mindedness to visit the toilet, however, she hadn’t spotted the doors swinging open in her peripheral vision.
“Eep!” Mai shrieked as she was suddenly pulled into the corridor, and a hand reached out to cover her mouth, causing her eyes to widen. She’d already had an unpleasant experience earlier this week with being kidnapped and wondered if she was about to be taken advantage of again. She couldn’t comprehend when her reputation could have descended to such a point that every Tom, Dick, and Harry felt they could have their way with her.
Kicking out at her captor, and making a ruckus in general, Mai tried to pry off the hand that was covering her mouth so she could scream for attention. The humanities’ offices were very close by, and a scream louder than her earlier half-hearted shriek would definitely catch someone’s attention.
“Relax, Mai. It’s just me.” But, when she picked up on the voice of the individual holding onto her, her body suddenly went limp, as a wave of relief washed over her being. She could somehow feel the smile of the person through his voice without even having seen him, and it annoyed her to no end. But the bastard holding onto her had already exploited her, so she didn’t care much if he did it again. Or, at least, that was what she convinced herself to believe.
“What a feisty girl you are.” Samuel snickered, as he began dragging the, now docile, wild cat into one of the music studios. Unlike the old art room, the music studios were soundproofed, and so getting it on in here would mean Samuel wouldn’t have to worry about eavesdroppers like the last time. The only issue was the close proximity to the offices and the library, but Samuel reasoned he could use a memory wipe potion on anyone if things ever went awry.
Despite having gone docile under his grip, Samuel could still feel a bit of resistance while tugging at her. Suddenly realising the cause, he quickly stuck on an anti-potion, which had her melting into his well-padded embrace once more, allowing Samuel to successfully bring her into the room with him before he closed the heavy door.
[Anti-Potion (Grade 2)]
[Effect: Remove grade 2 potion effects.]
[Available: 0]
[Cost: 10 SRP]
Today, Samuel wanted to switch things up a little with his approach. As he wanted to reinforce the idea that she was his to use at his whims and desires, he discretely stuck a grade 2 Mind Control onto the oblivious teen at the start of lunch and ordered her to go to the toilets in the main building, 25 minutes before lunch ended.
25 minutes before the end of lunch, Samuel made his way out of the male toilets and prepared to kidnap the unsuspecting girl for a second time. Having her go to the toilet was just a way to give her an out if anyone in her group asked her where she was going, saving her from awkwardly having to come up with a reason to leave.
‘Heh. And who said I can’t be magnanimous when I want to be?’
[Mind Control (Grade 2)]
[Description: Recipient will accept any 1 command of the administrator. The administrator can stipulate the effect of the command to commence at any time within 24 hours of administration. The potion’s effects will wear off over a period of time depending on the command.]
[Side effect: Administrator will feel the inclination to do as he commanded.]
[Available: 0]
[Cost: 25 SRP]
— — — — — —
