Chapter 54

Royal Roader on My Own – Chapter 54: I Have My Own Method (2)

If I click again, it shows each Jewel of Luck on a list. I could even sort it by the luck index.

Luck index 11

Luck index 9

Luck index 9

……

Luck index 3

Luck index 2

There is a difference in the amount of fairy power in each of the five-colored jewels. The creation index for Jewels of Creation is on average around 60, but on the other hand, Jewels of Luck only average around 7.

I do not know the reason behind it because it was not explained anywhere.

Even the highest luck index I had was an 11, and the ones that the other miners touched first before handing it to me were all cut in half. I had quite a few of them with a luck index of 2.

In the game, this was applied as a ‘%’.

‘If the average person’s luck was 50%, using a Jewel of Luck with a luck index of 11 would raise it  by 11%, to make it 61%.

It was most often used while using a Jewel of Fortification to strengthen a weapon. Low level fortification had a high success rate, but higher level fortification had a large chance of failure without using a Jewel of Luck.

Would the ratio be the same in the real world?

If so, then my attempt at stocks should be guaranteed to succeed.

‘Let’s give it a try.’

I clicked the one with the highest luck index and dragged it outside the Jewel Box.

[Jewel of Luck: Luck index 11

Will you use the jewel?]

[YES/NO]

I clicked ‘yes.’ A new message appeared on my smartphone.

[Kang Hwi Ram-nim’s luck index is raising by 11 starting now. The duration is 4 hours.]

The duration was different than the Jewel of Creation as well. The Jewel of Creation only had a duration of 1 hour.

There was not much time left before the stock market opened.

I randomly selected twenty of the thirty from the list I was given. I completely ignored the details about the company, foreign influence, recent profits and loss, etc.

I’m sure it was all vetted by the AI program Jong Suk is so proud about.

To be specific, I was just blindly selecting using my luck.

I then confidently put in a purchase order. Jong Suk’s information estimated the first trade price, so I put it slightly lower than that amount.

The amount invested per company ranged between 500,000,000 won (USD $465,000) to 3,000,000,000 won (USD $2,790,000).

The important thing was that I invested all 13,000,000,000 won (USD $12,090,000) I currently had.

What if I end up throwing it all away?

Whatever. I can just go get more money from Royal Roader.

‘But I was certain that there was no chance of that happening. Although I might not be able to make a lot of money, I should not face a loss. Even if I do, the amount lost will not be that high.’

‘I’m done.’

I brushed my hands off and checked the time again.

It was exactly 8:59am. The stock market will be actively moving in 1 minute.

‘I’m nervous.’

I crossed my arms as I stared at my screen and waited.

The market soon opened. At the same time, the purchases went through and the stock moved quickly.

The beginning was terrible. As soon as the market opened, the composite stock price index went down to a low level.

The decline continued. If you were to constantly looking at it, there were some ups and downs, but if you looked at in 10 minute intervals, they were all headed down.

‘What about the stocks I invested in?’

It hadn’t even been 30 minutes since the market opened, but I was so curious I couldn’t stand it. I maneuvered the program to check the current stock price.

The first company was Hobang Products.

‘Oh, the order went through.’

And the price had gone up. It had even gone up by 5,500 won (USD $5.12). The purchase price was 63,290 won (USD $58.86), but the current value was 67,720 won (USD $62.98) per share.

It had gone up by about 7%.

‘Will it go up more?’

This could still be considered a coincidence. It shot up as soon as the market opened, and seemed to be fixing itself as time went on. The stock price continued to move up and down.

‘7% is already good. Sell.’

I placed the sell order right there. In order for it to sell quickly, I put the price at 50 won (USD $.05) less for 67,670 won (USD $62.93).

It sold instantly.

The total amount I invested in Hobang Products was 600,000,000 won (USD $558,000). I made close to 40,000,000 won (USD $37,200) in just about 30 minutes.

But this was not even 5% of the total amount I invested.

I checked the other stocks as well.

The results were surprising.

‘It went up again. This one went up, and that one as well.’

Of course the amount was all over the place. There were some that were at the upper limit, while others were only about 2% higher.

4 of the stocks were never purchased, and 3 was actually lower than the purchase price.

Thankfully, the decline wasn’t large. The majority of them were within 2%.

I continued to buy and sell however I felt like doing.

‘5% is good. Sell all.’

‘I have a good feeling about this one. Sell only 1,000,000,000 won (USD $930,000) worth.’

‘I don’t think this will go up anymore. Sell.’

I was focused on stocks like that for a while.

It was very interesting. Every time I pressed the keyboard with my finger, money was coming and going, sometimes in small amounts of a hundred million won, and at the high amount, a couple billion won.

No, it didn’t even feel like that. It felt more like a game.

Yes, game. A game that just makes your heart go wild.

“It is so fun. Much more fun than Royal Roader.”

Somehow, it was already past noon. Now that I think about it, I was focused on stocks for 3 hours without even getting up once to get a drink of water.

But I didn’t feel tired or even hungry.

That shows how much fun I was having with stocks.

Well, it makes sense since I continued to make money. Whatever I bought went up in price, and whatever I sold fell in price. So how could I not have fun?

Of course the opposite happened sometimes but that was just a tiny portion. If you look at the percentage, it wasn’t even 20%. And the decline rate was low.

I took an apple out of the fridge and just ate it with the skin. Of course I washed it cleanly. [1]

It’s supposed to be pesticide-free apple, and I don’t really know why such an ugly looking fruit is so delicious.

“Oh, it went up again.”

BiteBite. SwallowSwallow.

I couldn’t even tell how much time was passing. I was focused on stocks like a maniac.

I finally came to my senses when my alarm went off.

Riiiing- riiiiiing-

I had set an alarm for 12:40pm earlier since the duration of the Jewel of Luck was 4 hours.

It was time for the effects to fall.

“It is already almost 1pm. I guess I’ll stop here for today.”

I sold all of the stocks I still had possession of.

How much would I have made?

I checked the amount in my bank account.

My jaw dropped at the same time.

‘Wow!’

[Balance: 14,040,136,740 won] (USD $12,994,652)

I made close to 1,000,000,000 won [2]. That was even after the tax and processing fee.

Approximately 8% profit. Just in one day.

I’m sure it helped that Jong Suk recommended good stocks, but the effect of the Jewel of Luck was huge. A luck index of only 11 was able to bring in this much profit.

Of course, I still couldn’t trust the data too much. It was just one day. I need to keep an eye out to see if this type of luck continues.

But I had a good feeling.

I’ll figure that out as I keep doing it anyways.

Of the 30 stocks, how many will rise and how many will fall?

Right now, 19 stocks rose in price while 11 fell.

But since the market has not closed yet, I need to pay attention a little longer. The composite stock price index keeps falling little by little, so the results might be different by the time the market closes.

Then I will be able to verify the abilities of the AI program that Jong Suk is so proud of.

Should I find a part time worker now?

How many people will have applied?

I opened my e-mail.

‘Wow! Why are there so many?’

I had over 200 new emails. Of course the majority of them were about wanting the part time job.

When will I be able to go through all of this?

I checked all of the subjects.

THen I found a subject line that caught my attention.

[Expert at Computer and Korean.]

It is just manual labor anyways. They just need to organize a ton of files and quickly and accurately search for the information I ask for.

Plus, it is not even 100% accurate. I will use it just as reference.

So as long as it is a decently smart and sharp part time worker, it should be enough. Generally speaking that is.

But I raised my expectations a bit more.

If you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right. If I get one good worker, the amount of work I will have to do will go down quite a bit.

Then I can work with them for a long time.

I got a good feeling from the subject of the e-mail. Should I say they have some sense? They were at least someone who knew what kind of subject would catch my attention.

I verified the content of the e-mail.

[Hello. My name is Kang Sung Ho and I am 20 years old this year.

My family is going through some issues right now so I have given up on college and am preparing to take the government workforce exam, but I was looking for small jobs to do to help my family out.

I am confident in anything related to computers. Korean [3], excel, PPT, photoshop, it doesn’t matter.

I am even confident at low level hacking.

It seems you want to organize and search through documents, and I am a master when it comes to that. If you give me a call, I will be able to show you my skills.

Phone number: 010-3*84-2*47]

I’m liking him even more. I also like the fact that I can be relaxed around him since he’s so young.

I like him.

I looked at a couple other e-mails, but there was no one who sent an email that left quite as much of an impression as Kang Sung Ho’s e-mail did.

Just looking at the e-mail, it wasn’t something to worry about for a long time. There is nothing better than meeting a person to figure out how they are.

I can meet with him and look for someone else if I think it won’t work.

I gave Kang Sung Ho a call.

“I am the person looking for a part time worker.”

“Hello. Thank you for giving me a call. Please speak freely, boss-nim.”

He has a nice voice as well.

It happened to be lunch time and I had not made any other plans. I might end up eating alone.

But it felt odd to speak casually without even having seen his face. In order to be treated well by someone, you need to treat them well as well.

“I will. Have you eaten lunch?”

– Not yet. I planned on eating soon, sir.

“If you have no plans, shall we grab lunch? Get a chance to meet face to face.”

– That will work for me. Where shall I go to meet you?

“I will go to you. Where is a good place to meet?”

“Thank you for the meal.”

Kang Sung Ho rubbed his stomach with his hand to show that he was full.

He is cuter the more I see him. I feel like I am looking at Jose from Royal Roader. His physique, sharp expression, and clear eyes.

He responds quickly too.

I was getting a different kind of greed as well.

Well, the first step is for him to quickly and accurately search through the documents.

“Then shall we talk about work?”

“Yes. What is it you need me to do?”

It is better to show him than tell him.

I put my laptop on the table and plugged in the USB.

Of course, it was a copy. I have 5 USB with backups at home. I also have it backed up on my computer.

“There are quite a lot of files, right?”

“Quite a bit. Wow, it is amazing that so many files even managed to fit into a single USB.”

“You need to find the information I want from all of these files. There are some duplicates, as well as ones with a different version, so there might be multiple with similar information.”

“I can see why you need a part time worker.”

That was what he was saying, but he had an expression of confidence. I thought he would freak out after seeing the extreme amount of files.

Maybe that was why, but I started to feel like I could rely on him even more.

“First, take the USB. And then first search for documents related to,  ‘Paksen Park,’ ‘Eruni,’ ‘Jewel Alchemy,’ and, ‘Monster’s Mine.’ How long will it take?”

I first wrote down all the keywords I could think of. It should be easier to search for all of them at once instead of one at a time.

“Hmm……”

Kang Sung Ho furrowed his brow a bit. He seemed to be calculating.

This is actually my first test. If Kang Sung Ho gives a 100 point answer, he will receive a corresponding reward.

But if he gives me a 10 point answer, he will only make that much money.

I really hope he finds a 100 point answer. Then I won’t have to go through the pain of finding another part time worker.

Did Kang Sung Ho read my mind? After thinking about it for a bit, he gave a refreshing answer.

“I will find it in the duration boss-nim asks for. If you say 10 days, I will find it in 10 days, if you say 1 day, I will find it for you in a day.”

I was shouting inside.

‘Close to 100 points!’

Well, honestly speaking, Kang Sung Ho’s statement was impossible with human abilities.

There were close to 30,000 files.

Even if you took 10 seconds per file, it would take over 76 hours. Even if you worked 10 hours a day without even stopping to take a breath, it would take you at least 8 days.

f

But can you even search a file in 10 seconds? If the computer is slow, it’ll take 5 seconds just to open a file. Plus another 5 seconds per keyword.

Since there are 4 keywords, it should be at least 30 seconds per file.

Even a computer master who works 24 hours a day will still take at least 15 days.

And it’s not like there is a special search function that’ll let you search all of the files at once.

I looked that much up on the internet.

But it wasn’t like there were no options. If there is no way to go straight through something, you just have to go around it.

Is the path Kang Sung Ho found the same as the one I am thinking about?

“There are so many files. You really think you can do it in a day?”

“I can do it. However, the more you lower the time, the more you will need to pay.”

“How? You have a good idea?”

Kang Sung Ho scratched his head.

“I will rope in my friends or hoobaes. [4] With the right amount of money, I have a good amount of people who will work with me. In that case, it shouldn’t be a problem to take care of it in a day.”

I subconsciously started to smile. It was the exact answer I was looking for.

‘Good. 100 points! No, 120 points!’

________________________________________

[1] Most Asian countries tend to peel fruits like apples. This is probably odd for the US based readers that he would say he ate it with the skin, so I thought I should make a comment.

[2] The total USD gained was approximately $962,684 in case you were interested.

[3] I’m going to make an educated guess that in Korea, Microsoft Word is called Microsoft Korean. Now it makes sense why he would ask for someone with a good knowledge of Korean when he’s in Korea…

[4] Hoobae is a term for those who are in a lower school grade than you. Sunbae is older, hoobae is younger. Sunbae is similar to the Japanese senpai.

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Translator : Miraclerifle

Proofreader : Borderline Masochist