CHAPTER FIVE: ACCELERATION
The acceptance letter arrived on a Wednesday.
Min-Jae opened it without ceremony.
No shaking hands. No widened eyes. No breath held.
Just confirmation.
ELITE HIGH SCHOOL
The school was unofficially ranked among the top three in the country.
Officially, it didn't publish rankings at all.
Its graduates became judges, prosecutors, ministers, conglomerate heirs. The hallways smelled faintly of ambition and expensive detergent.
Min-Jae blended in.
Not because he belonged—but because he understood.
Environment Difficulty Increased.
Peer Intelligence Average: High
Risk Exposure: Elevated
Good.
NEW RULES
Here, talent was assumed.
What mattered was positioning.
Students compared private academies, parents' influence, overseas internships they weren't supposed to have yet. Teachers spoke in implications, not instructions.
Min-Jae listened.
Every name was cataloged.
Every family traced.
Notable Individuals Identified: 17
Potential Threats: 3
Potential Assets: 6
One name stood out.
Lee Seung-Hwan.
THE FIRST PREDATOR
Seung-Hwan was quiet in the way dangerous people were quiet.
He didn't brag. Didn't posture. Didn't fail.
His father sat on the board of a second-tier conglomerate. His mother was a former prosecutor. His eyes were always calculating.
And—most importantly—
He watched Min-Jae.
Threat Level: Growing
Min-Jae had expected this.
What he hadn't expected was why.
MARKET DEVIATION
That night, Min-Jae checked the system.
The market data flickered.
Warning: Timeline Divergence Detected
Cause: Unknown Participant Action
Min-Jae froze.
The futures he remembered—an early tech bubble, a predictable crash—were off by weeks.
Small deviations.
But fatal ones.
"Explain," Min-Jae demanded.
"Another has touched the river," the god said calmly.
Silence.
Then—
"Not through me."
A SECOND PLAYER
Min-Jae's fingers tightened.
Regression was supposed to make him unique.
That was the entire contract.
"Who?"
"I did not say another contractor," the god replied.
"Only another who knows."
That was worse.
DAMAGE CONTROL
Min-Jae acted immediately.
He pulled capital back. Slowed growth. Redirected trades through Daniel and a second shell account.
Losses were minimal.
But the message was clear.
The future was no longer guaranteed.
Certainty Index: Reduced
Risk Appetite: Adjusted
He smiled.
Uncertainty made the game interesting.
SCHOOL POLITICS
The shift in strategy did not go unnoticed.
Seung-Hwan approached him during lunch.
"You invest," he said casually.
It wasn't a question.
Min-Jae met his gaze.
"I study."
Seung-Hwan laughed softly.
"So do I."
They stared at each other—two boys pretending to be students.
Both lying.
THE NEAR-EXPOSURE
Three weeks later, it happened.
A compliance email.
Daniel panicked.
"Someone asked about the account."
Min-Jae closed his eyes for half a second.
Too fast.
Too early.
"Do nothing," he typed.
"Forward everything to me."
He spent the night rewriting transaction histories, fragmenting ownership, burying signals under legal noise.
By morning—
Exposure Risk: Neutralized
Trace Probability: <1%
He had survived.
Barely.
THE GOD INTERVENES
That night, the god appeared uninvited.
"You are no longer alone."
Min-Jae didn't bow.
"I don't need to be."
The god studied him.
"Then why are you afraid?"
Min-Jae answered honestly.
"Because if someone else remembers the future…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
He didn't have to.
"Then you must move faster," the god said.
System Update Unlocked.
New Function: Predictive Compression
Cost: Emotional Suppression Increased
Min-Jae accepted without hesitation.
A DECISION
He stood on the school rooftop the next day, wind cutting across the city.
Elite school. First predator. Timeline instability. Unknown rival.
Perfect.
He made a vow—not to the god, not to the system.
To himself.
"I won't just buy the future," he whispered.
"I'll own the market that decides it."
Phase Two Initiated.
Target: High-Speed Capital Expansion
Constraint: Remain Untouchable
Below him, Seoul moved like a living organism.
Above him, something watched with interest.
And somewhere—someone else smiled, sensing the shift.