Have You Ever Traded Stocks?!

Tianhe City, Jinniu District, Colossus Tower.

Jinniu District was Tianhe City's commercial heart.

A towering skyscraper stood in the center of Jinniu District, one of the city's landmarks.

Its importance went without saying.

Inside Moon Studio on the 72nd floor, Tang Wenjie had stayed up all night. He hadn't even gone home, instead keeping a close eye on online developments with his core team.

It was eight o'clock in the morning, Taiping Prefecture time, one hour before the Taiping Prefecture stock market opened.

Once trading began, Tang Wenjie's gamble would face the market's first verdict.

Comments from netizens might lie, but the market and the money wouldn't. Countless funds and institutions were watching closely.

Richard's eyes were bloodshot, and he nervously gnawed at his thumbnail.

"Boss, will the market really favor us?"

Tang Wenjie's reason for daring to make such a gamble was simple: he believed in the uniqueness of the magical girl Hell.

She was the first magical girl to openly defy the Ministry of Magic's prohibitions and make a big announcement of her debut on the internet and social media.

After a night for the news to spread, the magical girl who had openly challenged the Ministry of Magic had become a market symbol.

In other words, Tang Wenjie was testing people's attitudes toward magical girls and the Ministry of Magic: did they want things to stay as they were, or did they want some change?

8:30 a.m.: The Ministry of Magic released a statement on its official social media account, strongly condemning the killing committed by Moon Studio's newly signed magical girl and ordering the studio to blacklist her immediately.

At the same time, the Ministry of Magic said they would never recognize her official status and would launch a witch investigation into her.

"Hit back at them," Tang Wenjie said at once.

Richard nodded and sent the message he had prepared.

8:35 a.m.: Moon Studio released a statement saying that its newly signed magical girl had broken no laws and that the Ministry of Magic had no authority to interfere in its internal business decisions.

At the same time, Moon Studio would file a formal complaint with the United Government, accusing the Ministry of Magic of abusing its official power and maliciously smearing and spreading rumors about our company's magical girl, in open violation of the principles of the capitalist free market.

Finally, Moon Studio would continue to advance the magical girl's official debut and subsequent IPO, with plans for a first round of angel financing at the end of the month. Thank you all for your attention.

8:40 a.m.: In the comment sections under both statements, the first magical girl world war officially began. People from all sides spilled their blood as they fought battles north and south.

8:50 a.m.: Ministry of Magic: [Selected comments mode enabled.]

When Tang Wenjie saw that, he was so angry he laughed.

Just then, someone knocked on Tang Wenjie's office door.

"Director Tang, the boss is on the 99th floor. He'd like to see you."

Everyone present held their breath. The person on the 99th floor was the one truly at the helm of the Colossus Group.

"I'll be right there."

Tang Wenjie hurriedly straightened his tie, nodded, and headed for the elevator, taking a deep breath.

Ding!

The elevator reached the top floor of Colossus Tower.

After Tang Wenjie passed a security check, a secretary led him into a vast office.

Behind the desk, a middle-aged man stood with his back to him by the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out over Tianhe City.

Hearing the door open, the man turned around, revealing a refined, genial face with eyes as sharp as a hawk's.

He offered Tang Wenjie his hand and smiled faintly. "It's good to see you again, Tang."

He was the founder and chairman of the Colossus Group, Moro von Hermann. Most people called him Mr. Moro.

"The honor is mine, Mr. Moro." Tang Wenjie shook his hand, unable to help feeling a little nervous.

Moro patted him on the shoulder and gestured for him to sit on the sofa. "It's been a long time since we last met. The last time was at your promotion party."

"Yes."

Moro then sat down on the sofa opposite him.

The secretary poured them each a low-alcohol drink.

"Time is limited, and I have another meeting shortly, so let's get straight to the point," Moro said with a smile.

"Tang, how confident are you that this gamble will pay off?"

He didn't ask Tang Wenjie why he had signed Hell, nor did he ask what had prompted him to do it, because Moro could see those things at a glance.

He cared about only one thing: whether Titan Capital could win this gamble, and whether the market could accept an unconventional magical girl like Hell.

Tang Wenjie didn't hesitate.

"One hundred percent! Mr. Moro, my lifetime of work experience tells me the market has grown tired of magical girls who play by the rules."

"The company's magical girl business failed to meet its performance targets for three consecutive years under the previous department head. That alone proves the point."

"To turn market sentiment around, we need a drastic remedy."

"The magical girl Hell is the drastic remedy I'm bringing to the market. Whether it works or not, I'm willing to accept the outcome."

After listening to Tang Wenjie's confident words, Moro raised his glass, the ice cubes clinking softly inside.

"Very good. I like your confidence."

With that, he drained his glass.

The secretary understood at once and brought up the Taiping Prefecture stock market on the big screen. Only ten minutes remained before trading opened.

Time ticked by, second by second...

Tang Wenjie reached for his glass, his wrist trembling slightly without his realizing it.

Three minutes.

One minute.

The market opened!

Almost the instant trading began, the share price of the independently listed Colossus Media plunged straight down from its previously flat line, like a scythe reaping lives.

Tens of billions began flowing out as institutions and retail investors who were pessimistic about the market led a wave of selling.

-1.92%, -3.44%, -4.86%...

For a time, the comment sections across major securities platforms were filled with cries of dismay.

Tang Wenjie's pupils contracted slightly, but he didn't give up. Instead, he took a swig of his drink and tugged gently at his tie.

Moro wasn't in a hurry either. He simply watched the candlestick chart fall in silence, because the real major shareholders hadn't made a move yet.

As long as they didn't sell, it meant the big capital behind the market was actually optimistic about Colossus Media's move.

Just as the decline was about to break past 5%,

Enormous sums of money poured into Colossus Media one after another, carving out the head of a dragon surging upstream on the candlestick chart in just over ten seconds.

What made them unusual was that these buyers' funds were all held through third-party companies. Their origins were unknown, and the sums were enormous.

It took less than three minutes for Colossus Media's share price to go from a decline of nearly 5% to a gain of 5% against the market.

Countless speculators and traders lost everything in those three short minutes.

On the dark web social media platform known as Madhouse,

Joker Man posted a screenshot of a one-billion-dollar purchase. His holding was none other than Colossus Media.

His caption read, "Bunch of hicks, have you ever traded fucking stocks? If you haven't, get the hell out! You don't deserve to follow me."

The comments came quickly.

"Fucking idiot Joker Man, photoshopping again, huh?"

"You're barking over a measly billion? Take a look at the five billion dollars your daddy just bought. Enough to buy your life?"

"I bought a little too, thirty million. Consider it support for my new wife. A cute gray-haired beauty with a cold face is just my fetish."

That was right. The unknown funds pouring into Colossus Media in massive quantities came from the supervillains who had enjoyed watching the drama unfold the day before.

Their money came from illicit sources and couldn't be deposited in legitimate banks, while Taiping Prefecture happened to have very relaxed securities markets.

So these supervillains had grown accustomed to using third-party intermediaries to move all the money they had robbed, stolen, or swiped into securities and cryptocurrency.

And between Titan Capital and the Ministry of Magic, they were clearly more optimistic about Titan Capital.

They all thought that since Titan Capital dared to take aim at the Ministry of Magic, it had to have some inside information.

After all, the stock market was always about confidence.

When everyone believed a stock would rise, it really would rise.

And so the criminals bought in as soon as the market opened, paying no attention to that little downward trend.

After all, no one knew better than they did how powerful the Colossus Company was. To criminals, the name Peacemaker was more terrifying than a nuclear bomb.

Some people who hadn't bought in, or who had been hesitating, also followed suit after Joker Man and a host of other top criminal influencers posted their screenshots.

This was the most absurd sight in the Taiping Prefecture stock market.

Supervillains and superhero companies, who should have been at each other's throats, stood firmly together in the financial markets.

For decades, Taiping Prefecture's securities regulators had known full well about this dirty money, yet had shown no intention of investigating or controlling it.

Because this was exactly the result they wanted.

The near-total absence of regulation caused vast amounts of gray money from all over the world to flow into the Taiping Prefecture stock market.

Ordinary people traded stocks, superhumans traded stocks, and even criminals traded stocks.

That was what had forged the legend of the Taiping Continent Composite Index reaching 100,000 points.

Much like those criminals, but buying in even greater amounts, were the witches who rarely showed themselves.

The obsessive witches didn't care about right or wrong. As long as someone dared to pick a fight with the Ministry of Magic, they dared to join in.

Almost every witch put her entire portfolio into the stock, eager to stake everything she owned on it in support of the gray-haired girl who had just signed with the Colossus Company.

Even if they lost it all, they wouldn't care. They would find a way to withdraw a little from banks around the world themselves.