This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 540.1: The Day Has Come
"Oh ho... looks like these chips really are becoming worthless."
In a small house beside Linghu Lake, Ample Time sat at the dining table reading a newspaper, catching a glimpse out of the corner of his eye at the screen of the trading device, where a vertical line shot straight up.
Even though he was surprised, the corner of his mouth curled into an amused smile.
At a time when almost every industry in Boulder Town was suffering from extreme cash shortages, the price of S coins had ironically hit a new high, a single S coin was trading for 9,881 chips.
Given the current trading volume, breaking the 10,000 mark was all but certain. People were buying in aggressively, and repeatedly.
Opposite him at the table, Dori stared blankly at the screen laid out in front of her. Her mouth hung open wide enough to fit a duck egg.
Ample Time had previously explained to her what that fluctuating line meant, and what the adjacent numbers represented.
Still, she couldn’t believe that those invisible, intangible numbers could be exchanged for real, tangible chips!
"By the antlers of the Great Stag God!"
Back when she worked at the newspaper, even with bonuses, she only made about 1,000 chips a month!
If any Boulder Town resident had bought 100 S coins at the start... Wouldn’t they never have to work again?
Her mouth, already wide open, quickly widened yet again.
"Looks like breaking 10,000 is a done deal." Ample Time hadn’t noticed the shift in Dori’s expression. He tapped the screen twice, pulling up the transaction history and account holdings from the backend, quickly spotting that many trades originated from the same big player.
Though he didn’t know who was behind the account, the sheer volume of trades, over 100,000,000 chips, left him no choice but to admit the guy was playing a hard game.
Of course, it had paid off. The S-coins in that account were now worth nearly 200 million chips!
Brother, you're absolutely crushing it.
But no need to rush.
Ample Time chuckled and tapped the Sell button, taking advantage of the price surge to recover some capital. He also wanted to curb the momentum a little, to cool down the brothers who were itching to push it past 10,000. It was the time to pull off a V-shaped pattern. He had to stall the momentum, stabilize the climb, give confidence to those still holding, and create a buying opportunity for those still hesitant.
Naturally, he wasn't just targeting one fat sheep. He had an entire systematic, structured harvesting strategy.
When selling pressure was low, he used account funds to gently pull the price upward. When pressure rose, he would force it down. Once the panic sellers dumped their S coins, he would buy them up again. As long as he kept watching, they would eventually buy back in. It was only a matter of time.
Some smart players might try to analyze the pattern, compare volume with price, and use mathematical models to read the market’s mood. But judging from the inner city nobles’ level of intellect, Ample Time doubted they could figure out something like exponential moving averages anytime soon. At most, they would come up with a couple of rhymes to amuse themselves.
Thinking about the implications, his smile only widened. "Too weak."
Those folks probably didn’t even know what a scythe looked like. They hadn’t realized they were the crops being harvested.
Noticing the cunning expression on Ample Time’s face, Dori finally snapped out of her daze.
She frowned. "... You're tricking them, aren't you?"
Ample Time grinned and teased, "My lovely little reporter finally caught on?"
"But..."
"You want to ask why they haven’t noticed, right?"
Seeing the confusion in her eyes, he smiled gently and replied with ease, "Spotting the problem isn’t even hard. Just do a simple multiplication. Multiply the number of S coins by the price, and you’ll notice something strange."
One S coin was nearly 10,000 chips. After all, as the market maker, he got to decide what it was worth.
Ignoring the self-replicating S coins, the initial million coins alone were now valued at 10 billion chips!
Ample Time didn’t know whether Boulder Town Bank even had that many chips. But that number was already three times the size of the New Alliance’s entire debt.
He admitted he was a bit of a scoundrel. Fooling fools wasn’t exactly moral, but those guys were truly stupid. They didn’t even bother to check what they were buying.
"... But how could they not notice? Why? I don’t get it." Dori mumbled in confusion.
"Analyzing why one specific person falls into a trap is much harder than pushing a whole crowd into one. Everyone falls in differently, for different reasons. I’m just the guy who digs the pit, I really can’t answer that for you," Ample Time said with a smile. Then an idea struck him, and he added, "Let’s write a column later, publish the story of S coins in the newspaper. That way, fewer people will fall into the trap."
Making it disappear completely? Impossible.
That was where the law had to step in.
The draft of their Financial Law was nearly done. It was half copied from real-world legislation and the rest was adapted to wasteland conditions.
Forum discussions had been raging for days. Professor Yang even cursed him out, saying he wasn’t acting human, scamming a fortune and patching the hole.
Ample Time couldn’t help but snap at him. "Why the rush? It’s not like you even wear a helmet."
Besides, the law only protected businesses and residents within the New Alliance. It didn’t prohibit these dogs from going out and causing trouble elsewhere.
Of course, if he pulled that shit in Ideal City, they would be thrown out on the spot.
The northern Bugra Free State was a typical capital-dominated force, a special case of laying eggs in another’s nest.
Scamming those guys was tough. Doing business with them without getting conned was already a miracle. Most of the scammers who infiltrated the New Alliance came from there.
Deep social issues like that couldn’t be solved by drones patrolling the skies. Expecting AI to handle everything was irresponsibly naive. Only players embedded in the daily lives of NPCs could truly discover them.
He had to give credit where it was due. Beta 0.5 came out at just the right time!
"Oh?" Dori’s long lashes curled into a crescent moon, and a smile slowly appeared on her face. Beneath the table, her toes curled around his knees and she giggled, "What’s this? Our great scam artist is going to share your tricks with everyone else?"
Ample Time couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly.
Just because this little fellow is off work today... She’s exceptionally naughty!
To ensure she wasn’t getting ahead of herself, Ample Time also decided to mess with her. He placed the newspaper in his hand down and he cleared his throat.
"Oh? You wish to expose me? We’ll see if our little investigator here can work hard enough..."
"You don’t want everyone to be scammed by a bad guy like me, right?"
Seeing the cheeky smile on his face, Dori’s face flushed red and she snorted lightly once. "I... I should hand you over to the guards! In that case... You’ll tell them all you know like a good boy!"
After she spoke, she slammed her palms on the table before leaping off her chair. She ran over to the fireplace and started throwing more wood into the fire before he could see the look on her face.
The days were getting colder and the frosty winds were howling outside the window. The clattering of glass when the strong winds blew against it could be heard clearly.
However, the New Alliance was no new settlement. They survived a harsh winter before and they were well prepared. They had their preparations made, and they even granted non essential workers holidays. Those who had to work were even given extra allowance.
Things like their healthcare sector couldn’t stop working just because it was getting cold. Schools could be shifted to sheltered buildings as well, and factories wouldn’t need to stop work. The insides of those factories were basically free heating anyway. However, the New Alliance wasn’t heartless either. For several factories that weren’t producing heat through their industrial activities, there would be random checks. If their heating wasn’t sufficient for their workers to stay safe, the New Alliance would force them to stop work.
The newspaper office installed some heating in their buildings, but as there weren’t too much work to do and they needed to give extra allowances to those who worked, the editor-in-chief simply gave a bunch of them a holiday.
Speaking of which, the New Alliance had already prepared for the winter and stocked up on a lot of resources. They were able to ensure the stability of their prices of necessity even in the winter.
Before this, the administrator had even come personally to their newspaper office to deliver a speech over the radio, telling everyone not to worry.
Everyone believed him without the slightest doubt, and they were full of confidence in that man.
The administrator had always meant what he said. He never lied to them anyway. When they were facing difficulties, he would share it with his people. When there were solutions, he would bring it up immediately, telling everyone what to do. He never spoke in words they couldn’t understand. If they didn’t believe him, who were they supposed to believe instead? The clown next door named House?
The New Alliance wasn’t far from Boulder Town, so tuning in to his program wasn’t difficult.
Dori, of course, also had complete confidence in him.
After all, even the bad guy in her own family admitted that the administrator was one of the rare good men out there, not to mention how open-minded he was toward progressive voices.
She never doubted that the New Alliance would have a brighter future, that after snow blanketed the land for thousands of miles, a vibrant world full of life would emerge once more.
It was just a heavy snowfall. Not a single resident of the New Alliance would take it seriously!
...
