The glow of Ivan’s laptop screen was the only light in his dorm room. It was 2:47 AM, and while the rest of the campus slept or partied, Ivan sat hunched forward, eyes scanning lines of data, news reports, and press releases. His hands moved with precision — open tab, scroll, cross-check, close tab, repeat.
He had searching all night.
Key terms like "mineral rger 2029," "crypto-tal fusion," "rare earth blockchain," filled his browsing history. All the information was vague. Companies ca and went, startups collapsed, billion-dollar projects disappeared like smoke in the wind.
Then he ca across a article with the sa nas as he vagely rembered from his past life — TitaniumCore-X and MolTech Industries. Two tal giants that, for a brief mont in ti, had stirred the financial world with rumors of a new tal alloy.
But the rger never truly happened; it was a deliberate stunt to manipulate investors and pump crypto coins connected to the fake tech.
He leaned back in his chair and exhaled, heart pounding. This was it.
The sa play. The sa coin. The sa illusion.
And he rembered clearly what ca next: A ten-second window where the coin’s value shot up 40,000%. It was so quick that only those who knew could cash out in ti. In his past life, Ivan had been a nobody — watching from the sidelines as rumors swirled and giants fed on the clueless.
Not this ti.
He transferred every last doller of his savings. It wasn’t much — around $4,200 — but it was all he had. The coin’s value was still low. Dirt cheap. Just like last ti.
But Ivan knew it wouldn’t be enough.
Not if he wanted to make real money. Not if he wanted to build a safe house before the world collapsed.
After gathering all the information and sorting it out, Ivan finally let his tired body rest and crashed for the night.
---
Next Day
When he woke up, his eyes were heavy, begging him to sleep a little longer. But his mind kept pushing him—reminding him there was no ti to waste if he wanted to reach his goals.
He dragged himself to the bathroom, washed up quickly, grabbed whatever was left in the ss for breakfast since he was late, and went back to his room, skipping all his classes for the day."
He scrolled through his contacts and called Rajeev, an old friend from different departnt in college.
"Hey, bro, wats up!," Ivan began casually.
Well, look who’s calling today. Did the sun rise from the wrong side or what!
that an uptight citizen like you is talking to soone like ?" Then Rajeev laughed,
"And you only call when you need sothing."
"Right again," Ivan smiled. "You rember your roommate’s friend... the one who deals stuff on campus?"
There was a pause on the other end.
"You an Zaid? Why?"
"I need work. Quick money."
Rajeev didn’t laugh this ti. "You serious? You’re the last guy I expected to say that."
"I’m not the sa guy anymore."
After a mont of silence, Rajeev sent him a number and a warning: "Don’t fuck around. Zaid’s not soone you can ss with."
----------
Three days later, Ivan was selling pills to party kids, stress ds to scholars, and powders to the rich brats from law departnt.
He wore a hoodie, kept his head low, and said little. Zaid watched from the shadows like a hawk, testing his new runner.
Ivan didn’t care.
He moved like a machine.
No hesitation. No guilt.
He wasn’t doing this for pleasure or power. He was doing this for that ten-second window — the mont that would separate gods from mortals.
Within a week, he had earned nearly $15,000. He funneled everything into the sa coin.
The buzz online had already begun — whisperings of a new alloy, of a rger between MolTech and TitaniumCore-X.
News sites picked it up. Fake insiders posted graphs. Paid influencers shouted promises of "the next gold."
The sheep were running.
Exactly like before.
But only he knew the truth — the rger was fake. It was a setup. And when the bubble exploded, the coin would crash forever.
But for a few seconds, it would rise like a rocket.
----
The next few days passed by in a flash. News of the rger was all over the place, trending everywhere, and the company’s share prices started rising fast.
Everything was happening just the way he roughly rembered.
And then, the big day finally ca—the mont of truth was here."
The day that would decide everything had co—whether he would rise as a king, ruling the world like a god, or stay the sa pathetic loser he used to be.
There was no middle path. Only glory or nothing."
-------
He stayed up all night, watching the numbers tick. There was existnt in the air — the kind of excitent before a storm hits. His dorm room slled of sweat, coffee, and burning anxiety.
In the morning, Duro thought about asking if he wanted to co to class.
But when he saw him deeply focused on his laptop, he stayed quiet.
He just said, "Take care,"
and quietly stepped out, closing the door softly behind him.
After closing the door,he walked couple of steps and turned his neck towards the door.
Duro figured maybe he just needed so ti alone to sort things out.
Everyone has their own way of dealing with stuff, he thought,
so he didn’t push it.
Then he simply turned around and headed toward his lecture room,
hands in his pockets, letting the silence fill the hallway.
---------
Then it ca — 10:02 AM.
The coin price surged.
10x.
100x.
400x.
It was happening.
He didn’t blink. Didn’t smile. Didn’t cheer.
He clicked SELL ALL exactly at 10:02:08.
Then it stopped.
10:02:12 — the coin began to crash, a digital landslide of red numbers and panic.
Because in 10:01:30,In the morning, both companies released public statents, denying all the rumours about their rger.
It was as if they wanted to keep sothing hidden—or maybe buy more ti.
But it didn’t matter to Ivan, the deed has already been done.😁
He refreshed his account.
His jaw tightened. His hands trembled.
$1.96 billion before tax.
After the deductions and fees — $1.52 billion remained.
He didn’t move for ten full seconds. His heart thumped like war drums in his chest.
Then he scread.
YyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyAaaaaaaaaaaa!
A long, animalistic roar that echoed off the dorm walls. He jumped, danced like a madman, laughed like a demon, and sang terrible old Bollywood songs at the top of his lungs.
He was no longer a boy scraping pennies together for noodles and rent.
He was a billionaire.
---
That night, he rented out a private lounge in the city and called every friend he knew.
There was no explanation. No cover story. Just drinks, music, girls, and money.
They all assud it ca from drug work. No one asked. No one cared.
They partied like it was the end of the world.
Maybe, in a way, it was.
---
The next morning, Ivan woke with a splitting headache. The kind of pain that made his teeth feel too big for his skull. His dorm room was a ss of clothes, wrappers, and the faint sll of vomit.
He grabbed his detox bottle and took a long, bitter gulp.
He sat down at his study table and held his head, which had been buzzing nonstop.
It felt like a drum beating inside his skull.
anwhile, his phone kept lighting up.
Ding...
Ding...
Ding...
For a while, he just let it ring, eyes closed, trying to breathe through the noise.
After a few minutes, when the buzzing in his head started to calm down,
he finally picked up his phone and checked the notifications.
Most of it was junk — random spam, silly s, birthday reminders he didn’t care about.
But one headline caught his eye.
"Four Unknown Billionaires Erge Overnight in Sudden Crypto Boom"
His heart skipped.
He tapped the article.
No nas. No faces. Just a speculative piece about how an obscure crypto coin shot to insane highs before plumting. Four massive sell-offs in that exact ten-second window. Four anonymous wallets. Four instant billionaires.
Ivan stared at the screen, lips curling slowly into a grin.
So he wasn’t the only one.
The others... the chosen ones.
"They’re here," he whispered.
His face turned cold. Voice sharper than frost.
"No matter who they are... no matter what they want..."
He stared at his reflection in the laptop screen.
"If they co for , I’ll kill them. No rcy."
He stood there in his dark dorm room, bare feet on the cold floor, surrounded by empty bottles and scattered bills.
The world thought it still had ti.
But Ivan knew — the countdown had begun.
And this ti, he wasn’t watching from the shadows.
He would beco the storm.
=========
Author’s note:-
Thanks for reading this far! If you’re enjoying Ivan’s dark journey from humiliation to power, let know in the comnts. Your feedback ans a lot and helps grow this story even stronger. Don’t forget to leave a review and share your thoughts—who knows, your words might shape the next twist!
See you in the next Chapter!
—Author
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