The year was 2007. Void was 21. Elisa, 17. His father, Robert, and his mother, Margaret, were both in their early 40s.
He sat quietly in his room, fingers tapping lightly on the desk. He let his gaze drift across the room.
The carpet was thin, worn near the door. Posters of old bands and a Halo 2 calendar still hung on the wall.
A battered wooden desk sat in the corner, piled with notebooks, CD-Rs, and snack wrappers that looked fossilized. Beside the desk sat his ancient, bulky monitor. The black tower case next to it, a relic from a slower, louder time.
He reached over and pressed the power button. The machine whirred to life, the monitor flickering as Windows XP slowly booted up. The startup chime echoed through the room, strangely comforting.
Void leaned forward and opened Notepad. He began to type,
[First Goal, Money.]
In a world ruled by capitalism, and getting crazier by the year, money wasn't just useful. It was essential.
Some people said money couldn't buy happiness. Void thought that was bullshit. Without money, your options shrank fast.
He typed another line, [2027]
'Twenty years… So much changed in that span.'
Technology had grown by leaps and bounds, faster than anyone could keep up. The middle class was decimated, barely surviving, while the rich only got richer.
Corporations held more power than governments, and Void often thought. "At this rate, by 2077 we might as well be living in a real cyberpunk world."
He cracked his knuckles and began jotting down every major investment opportunity he could remember.
[2008-Financial Crisis]
'The market tanked. Banks collapsed left and right.
Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers… gone in a flash.
The government scrambled, throwing billions into bailouts.
Everyone else? Left to drown.
But if you were smart, if you bought at the bottom?.
***
Apple was dirt cheap. Amazon too, even Google. If he had just dropped a few thousand back then and held…
He gritted his teeth. "Not missing it this time."
Void focused, his mind racing through numbers.
'Apple should be around $5.72 now. It'll climb to $5.96 before crashing to $2.57 in 2008. Google and Amazon follow the same pattern. If I short the market now using 10x margin… I could walk away with over 500% returns.'
The thought made his chest tighten with excitement. This is just 10x margin? What if he do 50x? Or even 100x? He could turn $1.000, into $100.000 with ease!
Disclaimer, Dear reader please don't try this at home. Margin trading is when you borrow money to trade more than you actually own, great for multiplying profits… and even better for multiplying losses.
It's basically gambling, unless you've got actual knowledge or cough… some insider information.
He moved the mouse and clicked the familiar blue 'e' logo.
The old browser window opened with a soft whir. He typed in the finance site.
"404 Error – Page Not Found."
Void blinked. "Huh?"
He refreshed the page. Still nothing. Then it hit him, he hadn't connected the internet.
He glanced at the corner of the screen. No Wi-Fi icon. No globe. Just that old red 'X' over the network cable symbol.
"…Right. This is 2007."
He crouched beside the desk, reaching behind the old tower. The dust was thick and dry, the kind that puffed into the air with one touch. He found the fraying Ethernet cable still taped to the wall and shoved it into the port with a satisfying click.
He stood back up and tapped the monitor. Still nothing.
He turned his attention to the router. an beat-up Linksys box sitting on the bookshelf, its power light dark. He flipped the switch on the power strip.
The router whined softly to life. Blinking orange. Then green. Then stable.
A few minute later, a tiny 'ding' from the taskbar.
Connected.
Void smirked. "God, I forgot how satisfying that sound was."
Then he hit refresh.
[Apple Inc. (AAPL) $5.72]
[Google Inc. (GOOG) $17.22 ]
[Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) $4.46]
His smirk turned into a grin, 'Right to the dot!' He quickly jotted down more opportunities.
[2009, Bitcoin release]
'I can mine this with my PC… or just buy it dirt cheap. Who would've thought this stupid coin would go from 10 cents to $200k by 2027? Crazy. '
[2010, Tesla IPO ]
[…]
[2016, Amazon stock boom]
[2020, COVID pandemic crash]
[2021, GameStop stocks]
'Then we have the AI boom, the chip wars, and so many others… '
Void leaned back, eyes gleaming.
'With this many chances… I'd have to be an idiot not to become a billionaire. '
Even the bitcoin boom alone can make him one, this is not counting if he gamble on sport as he already know what team will win.
His mind quickly drift off to all the things he wanted to give his family.
The closest one? Elisa's college.
Even now, it was already a point of stress. She was busy browsing majors, applying to community colleges, and filling out loan forms.
Void had always known what she really wanted, law. Her dream was Harvard.
"She's smart enough to get in," he muttered. "But who am I kidding? Without money or connections, it will be impossible to enter."
He start counting all the cost, "Okay… I've got until next summer to make at least fifty-five grand. That's one year of Harvard.
Tuition, housing, books, and a little left for emergencies. Not counting the money I need to make sure she got accepted."
His eyes narrowed as he scrolled through forums, digging for real numbers. When he finally found them, his jaw dropped.
"One million dollars…? That's what it takes to roll out the red carpet?"
It was a massive amount. And with only nine months to make it happen, it sounded impossible.
But Void wasn't joking. He meant it. He would find a way.
He closed his eyes, digging through his memory, every loophole, every opportunity he could exploit. There had to be something big enough to get him that kind of money, fast.
'I'll need capital. Shorting the market should work… but if I use too much margin, Mom and Dad are gonna start asking questions.'
He didn't want to hide the truth from his family, not really. But telling them he came from the future? Yeah, he'd be lucky if they didn't call a shrink.
'I could spread it across multiple stocks,' he thought, brows furrowing. 'The overall trend drops nearly 50%, but I don't know their exact movement.'
Void closed his eyes, his finger tapping against the desk as he try to recall everything he can. After some time suddenly his eyes snap open.
Void reopened the browser and clicked through other companies' stock charts, confirming each price. His frown deepened.
'How the hell… do I know all of these?'
Each guess he made turned out to be right. Exactly right. Stock prices, dates, numbers, like they were etched into his brain.
It wasn't normal, at that time he doesn't try to remember this number at all. At best he only see them at a glance, not something he memorize.
'Did… Hestia do this too?'