New York.
The heart of Manhattan Island.
The morning sun rose over Wall Street as usual. Yet unlike before, the orderly bustle and calm were shattered by news no one had expected.
In a fast-food restaurant on a street corner.
Most of the diners here were office workers from nearby. Though it was an inconspicuous little place where the average meal cost no more than ten US Dollars, its convenience and good value drew both unknown nobodies and, on occasion, prominent figures from this street.
At a window-side table, two white-collar workers in suits, clearly employed nearby, had ordered ribs. As they ate breakfast, they spoke in astonishment and disbelief.
"Have you heard?"
"...Heard what?"
"Zeta Ceti! The Wall Street Journal's headline! That exoplanet colonization fund with registered capital of ten billion! God, how could you have missed news this explosive?"
What the hell was Zeta Ceti?
The man sitting opposite him clearly had no idea what was going on, but the moment he heard ten billion, he jolted in reflexive shock. His fork nearly slipped from his hand.
"Damn... Ten billion? Exoplanet colonization? What's going on?"
"It's Professor Lu, the man who came up with Hyperspace Theory and won last year's Nobel Prize in Physics! He registered a fund in Shanghai worth ten billion RMB, centered on 'colonizing the Tau Ceti System'! Its investment strategy focuses heavily on the aerospace industry chain, with the goal of achieving interstellar colonization within two hundred years and covering the initial operating costs of the colony once the plan succeeds..."
His mouth dry from talking, the white-collar worker smacked his lips and continued.
"I've never heard of an investment plan with such nerve... It sets the redemption date a full century in the future, and it's heavily invested in the riskiest aerospace industry