12 Hours After

Chapter 16 - An Unexpected Opportunity

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

Sitting in front of the computer, after I turned on the computer with my toes and opened Explorer, I typed the email address which would receive 12 Hours After.

It didn’t take long. In my company life, if I was just a little late, I was blamed much, and so I had brilliant hands that were comparable to a professional gamer.

‘It was a lousy company life, but I still got what I got.’

Soon the email opened up before my eyes. I glanced at it first and checked the remaining subscription period. ‘Twenty-four days left.’

Then, I perused the categories again.

[Politics Economy Society Life/Culture World IT/Science Entertainment Sports]

Today there was nothing to see except Life/Culture with Lotto winning numbers on it. Even if I knew the Economy news twelve hours in advance, I could not play stocks today. The same went for IT/Science and Entertainment. I decided to play cards in Life/Culture. Just by checking the title, I would know if this was a Lotto article or not.

‘Now, let’s check the title. Tadah Tadah Tadah.’

I was riding the rhythm, and I clicked on Life/Culture. The title said: [You can do it, too. How to manage the timing of a cat’s fur.]

It was a bummer.

“Oops… Dammit…”

I could not help it. Hundreds or thousands of articles were posted every day, and the chance of picking out a single category and winning a lottery was a low fraction of that. It was a lot more likely than buying a Lotto and hoping to win, but it was a very low probability. I comforted myself.

‘Let’s just think of a free lottery scratch every weekend. It’s good if I get the winning numbers, or if not, I can’t help it.’

Now there were two opportunities left. But I did not have anything to choose from. I unconsciously shifted the cursor to Sports. Recently, searching the lottery sites, I found that there was a “Winner List” in which I could predict the correct scores, and a “Long List” in which I could select the outcomes of a match like win/draw/loss, in the Proto, so I could win a bet if I knew the final results.

For example, Winner List Proto for soccer was a game in which I could predict the final scores such as 1-0 or 3-2. Sometimes, when strange scores such as 5-3 or 6-2 were released, I could get a big hit of 500 or 900 times. If I bet with just one hundred dollars, I could make fifty or ninety thousand dollars. It was not a bad sum at this time, when my money was not big.

“Hmm…” I gathered my inner power for a moment, then left-clicked.

[Hongdu Stars founded a professional team for the Battle Survival game.]

It was a bummer, too. The article was about the creation of a pro-gamer team.

‘Ah, these days, e-sports are also included in the sports news… By the way, do the e-sports have any Proto? I seemed to see a match-fixing story before…’

I opened another window to look for the news. There was no such thing as a Proto in e-sports.

[Programmer Ma Sung-seung admitted match-fixing. The e-sports industry is in turmoil.]

There had been match-fixing, but it seemed to have been in a private Proto. Okay. I would pay the stock-trading tax, but I would not like to go to jail for breaking the law.

‘That’s enough.’

I finally moved my cursor to Economy. I thought this was the real thing.

‘Now my main field is stock… Even if I don’t have any information available for money-making today, let’s look at the information and think about how to use it to make money. In the future, I’ll receive this article every day.’

I clicked on Economy with that idea. The title of today’s Economy was Bitcoin.

[Another Bitcoin plunge. It’ll break $10,000.]

‘Ah, Bitcoin!’

In retrospect, Bitcoin was available for 24 hours, not only during the week but also on the weekends. I didn’t pay much attention to when Bitcoin went up or down. However, I should take this opportunity to find it out a little.

‘How can I buy it in my country? I heard that it’s hard to buy it these days because the sanctions are too heavy.’

I searched for more.

[The real-name financial system for virtual currency transactions, the creation of a new account is blocked.]

[The Ministry of Justice still considering to exclude and close the Bitcoin exchange market.]

[Overseas transactions are blocked. If the annual remittance exceeds $10,000, the National Tax Service will be notified of the transaction.]

Bitcoin, which was in full swing, was almost dead because of various government regulations. The market was steadily declining in Korea, and overseas as well. There was no rebound.

‘I’m going to let me know, but… I will not expect too much… There are so many regulations…’

It would have been nice if the time to receive an email had been a little earlier, but I decided to study more about Bitcoin just in case. Maybe there would be a good chance later. No, if I thought about it, it was not a matter of just Bitcoin. Although this 12 Hours After email was appreciated, there was definitely an unkind side.

‘Even if I can see three titles as I became a Silver Class Member, I do not know what news will pop up. So, I have to have a sense of earning money and a sense of action to keep up with the news, like a sprinter in position. Only then will I be able to run out like a bullet when the gunshot goes off.’

‘Well… I’ll have to study more about stocks, Bitcoin… Today… let’s go to the library and borrow some related books and read them.’

I thought that way, a big sound came out of my stomach.

I woke up in the morning, welcomed my family, and could not eat anything while reading the articles, like a student who always put off studying.

‘I have to eat well to study.’

With that thought, I got up from the computer’s seat and walked toward the kitchen. The kitchen was cleaner than ever. That was because my mom cleaned, wiped, and washed the dishes.

‘Even if it’s true… I feel sorry…’

By the way, a pot was sitting on the gas stove in a well-arranged kitchen with a bowl of rice and a plate.

‘What is this?’

I approached the pot and opened the lid. Inside, there was a beef leg bone soup with a savory smell.

‘When did she do this?’

I thought of my mom who had just been here. I sometimes fought with my mom in disagreement, but I knew there was no one in the world who would take care of me better than my mom.

——————–

A few days passed like that. More time went by. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday… I checked my email every morning at 8:55 a.m. But there was no such thing as a large number of money-making cases. If I looked at the news, there was only a string of unprofitable news.

[House prices rise or fall? Where are they going?]

[Interstellar, the Science Story is seen in the movies.]

[Lee Yeon-kyung, the volleyball player, is MOM of Women’s League in China.]

It was not as urgent as before, because there were already fifty-eight thousand dollars in my account. I had earned thirty-two thousand dollars, but I wanted to make more money as soon as possible. At least, when I earned some big money, I would have the power to retire and the justification to do so.

‘I hope something comes up soon. Come on… If I have a big hit, I will do whatever I have to do.’

I spent every day thinking about it. Fortunately, the wait was not long, just a week after the last incident of Yuhwan Securities. Friday, twenty days left for the subscription, another chance came.

———————-

“Ho-hum…”

I yawned and looked at the monitor. It was 8:45 a.m. I had never been late, or near late, these days. It became a habit for me to arrive early and get the email after I got my mind together.

‘It’s a little funny, because I come to work early so I can quit.’

I wiped away the tears in my eyes at the yawn with such a thought. Over time, the company began to get crowded with people coming to work. 8:55 a.m. The email came just around this time, with other procrastinating office workers. As soon as I received the email, I opened it up swiftly, used to this email program after ten days. I moved the mouse cursor to Economy.

‘Today… it’s time to come up.’

Click. However, again, there was an article on real estate that was useless right now.

[Real Estate of Sejong City is the top at the growth rate for this month.]

‘Haah… is there nothing today, too? This week… I’m empty-handed…’

I quickly moved my mouse cursor and clicked on the other two articles. It was because I thought that if the Economy news was not good, others would not be different, too.

“Eh?” I found an absolute opportunity in an article I clicked on without much thought.