The next morning, Ethan began executing his plan.
For now, school still came first. Until 2 p.m., his time was locked away in classrooms, leaving only the latter half of the day for anything else. To make up for it, he had already started taking two leaves every week. There was simply too much paperwork to handle—registrations, follow‑ups, and preparations that couldn't be delayed.
Once he returned home, Ethan wasted no time.
His first step was simple.
Register.
Then, reassess.
With a thought, the familiar translucent screen appeared before his eyes.
" System Panel "
Host Name: Ethan Brown
Age: 11 years, 5 months
System: RO₂
Experience Points: 855,590
Total Cash Balance:$439,000
" Attributes "Strength: 91 Speed: 135 Endurance: 220 IQ: 148 Faith: 80 / 100 Aura Control: 12 / 100 " Additional Information "Height: 5'2.5" Fighting Style:Mad Dog FistPsyche: F!$ & ! ^13** (Hidden)
Ethan's gaze lingered on the numbers.
He had earned a total of $780,000 from selling gold and platinum. From that sum, $220,000 went into purchasing his office. Another $40,000 disappeared into a car, renovations, hiring staff, and other miscellaneous expenses.
What remained was reflected clearly on the panel.
$439,000.
A perfectly clean reserve.
Ethan nodded to himself.
The groundwork was done.
The system was stable.
The pieces were in place.
Now, all that was left was to let the future unfold—exactly as he remembered it.
Ethan knew that within a week, the share market would rise.
The company, Aegis, was on the brink of bankruptcy after the dot‑com crash. Its stock had been crushed and heavily shorted, but its fundamentals remained strong. Aegis built advanced website platforms and digital services, backed by powerful technology and solid core assets.
The market saw failure. Ethan saw opportunity.
From experience across many past reincarnations, he knew this pattern well. Firms like Aegis always returned stronger. Buying now—when fear was highest—was the right move. In a week, the stock would surge. Within a month, it would multiply seven or eight times.
Aegis wasn't collapsing.
It was about to rise.
Ethan immediately placed his first order, investing $300,000 in Aegis. He kept the rest of his capital aside for daily operations and diversification, knowing other opportunities would soon arise.
This was a direct investment, not a leveraged one. Ethan understood that leverage was suited only for short-term trades. Aegis was a volatile stock—its price swung sharply up and down—and such fluctuations often wiped out leveraged traders and short sellers.
A fivefold return was more than enough for now.
All that remained was to wait one week for Aegis to deliver, while Ethan prepared for the next opportunity.
Five times growth in a single week.
Even I know how absurd that sounds.
In the normal world, people celebrate a fixed deposit that gives six or seven percent in an entire year. They hand their money to investment bankers or fund managers and feel lucky if they get eight or ten percent annually. The truly rich—those with access to elite fund managers—might see eleven, maybe twelve percent a year, and that's considered extraordinary. Those managers don't even work for others anymore; they build their own firms.
And here I am, thinking calmly about a fivefold return in one week.
It's insane.
This isn't investing the way textbooks describe it. This is closer to playing with a cheat code, like being handed the authority of a god of wealth. I won't pretend otherwise. I'm not some market genius, not a prodigy who sees patterns others miss or runs complex models late into the night.
The truth is simpler.
I know the future.
And with that knowledge, all I do is act.
The markets can fluctuate, analysts can argue, experts can speculate—but I already know the outcome. That's the only real edge I have. And right now, it's more than enough.
Ethan checked his account again.
$139,000.
That was all that remained.
After a brief consideration, he made his decision.
$69,000 would be reserved for daily operations—expenses, payroll, and contingencies. The remaining $70,000 would go back into the market.
His thoughts shifted to another company.
An automobile firm.
One of the earliest manufacturers to invest seriously in electric vehicles.
Back in its infancy, the company had developed revolutionary EV patents and core designs—technology capable of shaping the future. Yet fate had not been kind. The firm eventually went public, only to be dragged down during the dot‑com crash. Despite being an automobile company, it fell alongside countless tech firms.
The company disbanded.
But its technology survived.
The patents and research remained in the founder's hands, and nearly a decade later, they were acquired by a major Kasparian corporation. Using that very technology, the conglomerate would go on to build a trillion‑dollar automobile empire.
Ethan knew this story well.
In one of his past lives, he had invested heavily in this very firm and used it to amass enormous wealth—enough to call himself a billionaire.
This time, however, caution restrained him.
Ethan's future knowledge was no longer absolute. His own actions were already altering the flow of history. Every investment caused secondary and tertiary ripples throughout the market. Because of that, his predictions differed with each reincarnation. Some never came true. Others deviated wildly.
Still, most of them moved in a positive direction.
Even if the return wasn't tenfold, a twofold gain was almost guaranteed.
Yet this firm carried risks that Aegis did not.
In one previous incarnation, the company failed to scale properly due to a single opposing force—a powerful old‑money investor. The man was deeply entrenched in petroleum and oil trading, importing vast quantities from the Middle East of Gaia and selling them to Kasparia for staggering commissions.
An EV revolution threatened his entire empire.
Even when this automobile firm went public years earlier, government discussions about an electric transition had already hurt his business. As a result, he aggressively shorted the company, suppressing its growth until it collapsed.
If Ethan wanted this firm to succeed now, one thing was essential.
He would have to drag the world's EV shift earlier by at least fifteen years.
Only then would history realign.
That possibility alone made this investment dangerous.
Which was why Ethan invested only a portion of his funds here. The rest had gone to Aegis—a company that had always delivered solid returns across every reincarnation, unchallenged and uncontested.
This time, however, things were different.
There was an enemy.
And risk—real risk—had finally entered the board.