The rain in Seoul didn't wash away the filth; it only made the neon lights of Gangnam blur into a chaotic smear of red and blue.
Kang-min stood on the edge of the Mapo Bridge, his breath hitching in the cold air. Behind him, the sirens of the Seoul Metropolitan Police grew louder. He wasn't running from them because he was a criminal; he was running because he was a scapegoat.
"Director Choi... you bastard," Kang-min whispered, clutching a damp USB drive—the only proof that the Shin-Hwa Group had engineered the market collapse themselves.
He had been their top analyst, the 'dirt spoon' who worked twenty-hour days to climb the corporate ladder. But in the end, they didn't see a genius. They saw a disposable shield.
SCREECH.
Black sedans swerved to a halt, blocking both ends of the bridge. Men in sharp suits—Choi's private security—stepped out alongside the police.
"Hand it over, Kang-min," a voice boomed. Director Choi walked forward, holding an umbrella, his face a mask of cold indifference. "You were a good tool. Don't ruin it by becoming a broken one."
"If I go down, the whole fund goes down with me!" Kang-min screamed, his voice cracking.
Choi smiled. "The market has a short memory. In a week, you'll be a headline. In a month, you'll be forgotten."
Kang-min looked at the dark, churning waters of the Han River. He knew the 'suicide' note was already written and sitting on his desk. If he was going to die, he wouldn't let them have the satisfaction of a trial.
He stepped back, the wind whipping his hair. As his feet left the pavement, the world seemed to slow down. He saw the digital billboards across the river, flashing stock prices.
Samsung: -1.2%
Shin-Hwa: +0.5%
Then, a searing pain exploded in his retinas. A sound like a high-frequency trading server hummed in his ears.
[Initialization... Failed.]
[Searching for Stable Anchor Point...]
[Transaction Found: Life for Time.]
[Returning to Initial Seed Date: June 12, 2016.]
Kang-min gasped, his lungs burning as if he'd swallowed the river. He sat bolt upright, his hands slapping against a hard, wooden surface.
It wasn't the bridge. It was a desk. A cheap, IKEA-knockoff desk covered in energy drink cans and crumpled ramen wrappers.
He looked at his hands. They were smooth, lacking the stress-scars from years of frantic typing. He looked at his phone—a shattered screen showing a date that made his heart stop.
June 12, 2016.
"I'm... back?"
He stumbled to the window. Outside, the familiar, slightly less-developed skyline of Seoul greeted him. He was in his old rooftop room in Gwanak-gu. He was twenty-four again. He was a nobody.
Suddenly, a golden flicker caught his eye.
He looked at a half-empty bottle of water on his desk. A translucent, digital box floated above it.
Item: Samda-soo Spring Water
Current Value: 900 Won
Future Dividend (24h): 0%
Note: "Quenches thirst. No market growth."
Kang-min rubbed his eyes, but the box stayed. He turned his head toward his computer monitor, which was showing a local news site.
Breaking News: 'Bio-Gen Tech' Clinical Trials Face Setback. Stock expected to plummet.
He looked at the ticker for Bio-Gen Tech. Usually, it was just numbers. Now, it was glowing a violent, toxic red.
Asset: Bio-Gen Tech (KOSDAQ: 084XXX)
Current Value: 12,500 Won
Future Dividend (48h): +420%
Note: "The 'failure' is a clerical error. Correction pending."
Kang-min's breath hitched. He knew this event. It was the "Bio-Gen Scandal" of 2016. Thousands of retail investors lost their life savings before the company "miraculously" recovered two days later.
In his first life, he had watched it happen from the sidelines. In this life, he saw the truth before the market did.
A new window popped up, dead center in his field of vision.
[System Level: 1]
[Title: The Oracle of the Bottom Line]
[Initial Capital: 1,200,000 Won]
[Would you like to execute your first trade?]
Kang-min felt a cold, sharp smile spread across his face. Director Choi was currently a rising star at a mid-sized firm, unaware that a ghost from the future had just arrived to haunt him.
"This time," Kang-min whispered, reaching for his keyboard. "I'm not the tool. I'm the hand that swings it."
[Purchase Order: Bio-Gen Tech - ALL IN.]