Tap-tap-tap-tap.
My fingers moved quickly over the laptop keyboard.
Ttirring ttirring ttirring.
The stocks I had bought were being sold off one after another.
“Perfect jackpot. Honey.”
I didn’t go to school.
No—officially, I had received an 8-week concussion diagnosis due to violence, giving me the freedom not to attend school.
I used a special room.
What’s the point of earning money?
Times like this were exactly when you were supposed to enjoy the power of money properly.
It was incomparably more comfortable than staying at home.
Since the weather was still hot, the special room with optimized temperature and humidity felt like a hotel suite.
My parents brought me all sorts of delicious things.
Even the girls treated their older brother with exaggerated pity.
My friends dropped by after school and emptied out my fridge.
Even my homeroom teacher came by and apologized.
To make up for my lacking studies, I bought problem books or used online lectures to advance quickly.
In the meantime, the Korean, English, and math that I hadn’t dared to touch were being conquered one by one.
My mental activation wasn’t a joke.
Since it was a concussion, I didn’t get prescribed any special medication.
The sign reading “Absolute Stability” hung on the hospital room door, so no one could just randomly walk in.
I even used my breaks to practice inner-energy cultivation here from time to time.
It was a space set up purely for me, without any distractions.
And inside that absolute stability, I engaged in absolutely stable gambling.
When the waters rush in, floating your boat is common sense.
“Money really does beget money.”
Phew.”
Today’s profit alone exceeded 700 million won.
The incomplete sequence play was still ongoing.
I closely monitored the operators to avoid triggering a butterfly effect.
For Kosdaq mid-small operator stocks, I went in with the proper amount.
That amount was around 500 million won.
With the remaining capital, I turned toward the KOSPI.
I shifted the battlefield.
Back in June, the KOSPI index had passed into the 1,400s, then plunged into the 1,200 range, and was now slowly recovering.
From here, it would rise straight toward the November 2007 peak of 1980.77.
It was a time when money was rushing into stocks.
Funds fleeing the real-estate speculation cooldown were pouring into the stock market.
Sseuseuseuk.
I entered pattern data into my personal notebook I had brought from home.
It was an overall upward trend.
It was the perfect season for operations.
It was a period when dozens of upper-limit hits happened every day.
It hadn’t been long since everything soared uncontrollably.
Even while busy, I aimed for at least one upper-limit hit a day and invested incomplete funds, then began retrieving them.
Knock knock.
“Who is it?”
“This is Attorney Jo Yun-tae.”
“Please come in.”
Drreureuk—lightly opening the door, an attorney in his early fifties entered and gave me a polite bow.
He had been appointed as my lawyer.
Hong Seong-hyun’s father had mobilized everything to try to get me detained.
Not only was Park Dong-seok’s disciplinary committee underway, but the school was also holding its own.
Through my friends, I heard rumors that they were considering forcing me to drop out or suspending me.
My father’s friend, the administrative office chief—who always boasted about how much sway he had—was causing a commotion.
He immediately contacted a major law firm well-known even in Seoul and requested representation.
One of the top three law firms in Korea, the Samu Law Firm.
There was nothing money couldn’t solve.
Coincidentally, a former senior prosecutor—who had served as chief prosecutor in the district where I lived—had retired recently, and he was assigned as my personal attorney.
A former Grade-1 civil servant.
“How is your condition?”
“Ah, Attorney. Please, stop using honorifics with a high schooler. Just call me Tae-san~. It’s too much. We don’t even know each other that well, so please.”
“Even so, there are internal rules for the law firm…”
“Then let’s not say anything too stiff.”
Acting cutesy wasn’t easy, but I was still young enough for it to work.
“Then… should I?”
“Tae-san-ah. Let me try it.”
“All right. I’ll call you Tae-san-gun then.”
“Attorney Jo, you’re so dignified~.”
“That’s why I got kicked out of the organization.”
Attorney Jo looked like the type who would be unyieldingly strict.
His sharp situational judgment and the faintly cutting manner of speech left a deep impression.
The gaze was sharp and deep.
‘Money is truly great.’
In the past, he was someone I would have never encountered.
I had barely ever seen an ordinary prosecutor even a few times before I died.
The people who were invited for special criminal law lectures at the university were prosecutors.
But now an attorney who used to be a Deputy Chief Prosecutor had spoken my case number.
This is why I have no choice but to love money.
“Still, it’s not like your heart will leave forever, right?”
“Aren’t you mistaken?”
“Hmph, Tae-san, do you know what that organization is?”
I know. And I know it very well.
Because in 2016 and 2017, due to that organization’s emergence, the entire Republic of Korea became incredibly chaotic.
The legendary prosecutor with the surname Yoon borrowed power and influence to turn the national atmosphere into complete disaster.
And not only that—soon after, when a new administration took office, they drove a man who used to be loved by the entire nation to his death.
It was like that.
The highest pinnacle of the Republic of Korea’s collective power structure, which dedicates itself to the supreme authority and wields an overwhelming, irresistible force.
The Prosecution.
A group with even harsher internal hierarchy than the military, dominated by strict senior–junior rank and factional culture.
“Me? I don’t know very well. But I do know this—if used incorrectly, they are very dangerous, like a sharp knife.”
“……!”
Attorney Jo seemed surprised by my words.
I wasn’t bragging.
“You haven’t crossed the line yet, right?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you.”
“If you’re thanking me, that means you should follow the meaning of ‘client.’ I’m no longer a prosecutor, I’m an attorney now.”
Even a giant like him—someone who ate and lived among prosecutors—could not bluff in front of me.
The word “attorney” carried a subtle sense of pride.
There was a time long ago, when I was preparing for the civil service exam, when I briefly dreamed of becoming a prosecutor.
I’m not an expert, but I know plenty about the Prosecution.
A Deputy Chief Prosecutor of a District Prosecutors’ Office is a high-ranking level-1 government official, and directly below the District Chief Prosecutor who oversees the entire district office.
If he becomes the District Chief Prosecutor, he could potentially become the Prosecutor General—the highest pinnacle within the prosecutorial organization.
That’s why Attorney Jo was necessary.
Hong Seong-hyun’s father, city council member Hong Jang-hyuk, wanted someone whose influence far exceeded the local power he controlled.
“Yes, thank you again.”
“But what exactly is your identity? For you to use this kind of special room and for our law firm to consider representing you, your family background must be extraordinary….”
“But when I looked into it, your family is poor and you’ve had no major incidents?”
“…….”
Attorney Jo closed his mouth at my direct hit.
He must have looked into me briefly.
The warm guidance phase was still ongoing.
“He’s a jackpot author. He wrote a work called <Cloud Warrior>, and it exploded, so he became rich. Look it up online. The reactions are incredible.”
“An author?”
Wow, pretending to be a sassy teen while talking like this is so hard.
I had to act bashful, even tack on hesitant little noises, and pretend to be droopy-eyed.
Living as a supposedly innocent teenager was harder than expected.
It wasn’t like the protagonists in regression novels who, upon returning to their teens, acted cute and charming and were adored by everyone.
“I’m the author called GoldRiver. Search me online. There was even an article yesterday.”
I had already sent the manuscript up to volume 6 to the publisher.
Whenever I was bored, I wrote another chunk, so the story was already complete up to volume 20, and from now on, I planned to submit one full volume per month.
A faint bit of greed stirred.
Since things had turned out this way, I felt a desire to complete the story all the way to 100 volumes.
As long as it’s fun, the wait will be forgiven.
“Incredible. An author who earns hundreds of millions at your age.”
Attorney Jo’s words didn’t contain any disbelief.
Of course, no former prosecutor would fully trust me right away.
But so what.
I really have become an author, and I’m earning very real money.
Now, using this current regression-life packaging for “my life story” was fitting.
“It can’t be done! Doctor Joo-chi said you must maintain absolute stability!”
The sharp voice of the ward nurse in charge was heard from outside the door.
“Well, that’s why Prosecutor Kang Gyeong-jun from the local district office came together. If you don’t let us proceed, you’ll be obstructing official duty.”
A commotion erupted outside.
‘He waited.’
I received the message notification.
The ever-so-handsome Detective Park Dong-seok informed me of the precise time he would visit for questioning in the interview room.
So I called Attorney Jo.
I activated the internet recording function on the phone placed on the bedside table.
I absolutely needed that evidence as well.
“It seems he’s coming.”
Attorney Jo went into the bathroom.
His broad back, that of a former Deputy Chief Prosecutor, looked strangely reassuring as he hid in the bathroom.
Alright, the board is set! Come on in!
Clack!
With a dull, heavy sound, the door opened.
Uninvited intruders, who had not received the owner’s permission, came into view.
“It can’t be allowed!”
Pushing aside the enraged nurse, three men entered.
Their footsteps were brazen, their attitude shameless.
“You cannot come in until the interrogation is finished.”
Park Dong-seok closed the door and warned the nurse.
A jjambbong set, all of them.
Detective Park Dong-seok, whose specialty was violent crimes, and a man who looked a bit older, wearing round glasses, dressed in a black suit, with the sharp, predatory air of a seasoned investigator—and a smirking middle-aged man beside him—formed this lovely set.
“What is all this?”
I asked with a shocked expression.
“You gangster brat, you’re done for today. Prosecutor Kang Gyeong-jun from the Criminal Department came personally to arrest you! Keke.”
Heh. Park Dong-seok, isn’t that just your own delusion?