“Ahem! Then… let’s continue on to the next presentation.”

The chairperson lowered his voice to try to shift the atmosphere, but the tense air hovering over the table didn’t dissipate so easily.

The reason was that all the eyes of the Macro faction were fixed on me.

Right after the pitching ended.

When the members of the Macro faction rushed in to attack my idea, I struck back without hesitation by bringing up the China incident again, ruthlessly provoking them.

Their eyes now clearly held open hostility, but I didn’t avoid it.

On the contrary, I slowly raised the corners of my lips, etching my expression clearly into their minds.

‘Annoyed, aren’t you?’

Of course, all of this was intentional.

‘They’re not the type I can bring to my side anyway.’

They were the kind of people who couldn’t be persuaded by any words or conditions.

In other words, it was impossible to turn them into allies.

However, that didn’t mean they were useless.

‘There’s nothing in this world that can’t be used.’

In a war, you don’t only need allies.

Enemies also hold their own value.

And to escalate a war, you don’t just need more allies — you also need more enemies.

‘I have to drag them into the battlefield somehow.’

If they couldn’t be my allies, then I had to pull them in as enemies.

Let’s not forget.

My goal wasn’t simply to pass this “test.”

The real objective was to develop AI technology to extract the information locked inside Milo’s bio sample.

And for technological advancement, capital is essential.

I needed to draw their investment capital into the AI industry so I could steer the massive flow of money the way I intended.

But.

‘Is this level of provocation really enough?’

Hedge funds are groups that only pursue returns.

They wouldn’t open their wallets just because I provoked them a little.

‘This alone isn’t enough.’

If I wanted them to open their wallets.

I had to become an even more dangerous presence.

And just then, a perfect opportunity arrived.

“It’s your turn next.”

The next presentation slot right after me belonged to an investor from the Macro faction.

“Argentina is now standing at a new turning point. With President Macri’s election, the populist policies that lasted for 12 years have ended. Soon, debt restructuring negotiations with New York hedge funds will begin. The bond market will open rapidly, and I have already secured some positions…”

This was a textbook strategy often seen after a regime change.

However, there was no way this was his real profit card.

‘His real hand must be elsewhere.’

On the surface, this gathering was called an “Idea Dinner,” but in reality, it was no different from a poker table.

And while I, standing on trial, had to reveal all my cards, they didn’t.

They could toss a few bait cards and thoroughly hide the rest.

The other participants knew this, so they immediately started firing questions.

It was the beginning of a so-called “probing battle.”

“What maturity bonds did you purchase?”

“After the debt negotiation is settled, how do you expect the repayment priority to play out…?”

“The Argentine market has been closed for 15 years. What makes you so sure it will reopen?”

While they exchanged mind games, trying to read each other’s intentions, I searched my memory.

‘If it’s Argentina in early 2016, then surely…’

I recalled when I worked as a low-level employee at a hedge fund in my past life, and someone bragged about “striking it big in Argentina.”

He was a pretty irritating guy.

And then—

Suddenly, I remembered.

Right after the regime change, Argentina experienced a dramatic transformation in just a few months.

Massive government bonds were issued, large-scale funds from the IMF and World Bank flowed in, and global emerging market funds rushed in one after another.

‘He must have obtained that information in advance.’

But that wasn’t the point.

The key was that I already knew what he desperately wanted to hide.

I quietly opened my mouth.

“If regime change is truly the ‘game changer’ as you say, isn’t it unnecessary to stay limited to bonds? Once capital starts flowing in, you should pay attention to where that flow ultimately leads.”

At that moment, a small crack appeared on his face.

I saw his eyes waver for a moment and the corners of his mouth stiffen.

‘Got him.’

“If the government budget is released, infrastructure projects in Buenos Aires Province or Córdoba Province will be the most promising. It’s a core pledge of the president, after all.”

“......”

“Moreover, some infrastructure companies listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange also have dual listings, so you can aim for arbitrage opportunities. If you secure those capital flows in advance, it’ll be quite profitable.”

This was the true strategy he had been hiding.

However, since his “true strategy” would dilute returns if others followed it, he must have wanted to keep it to himself.

But I had just laid all his cards out on the table for everyone to see.

He forcibly composed his expression and shook his head.

“Well… I haven’t really considered that part yet.”

I lifted my glass and took a sip.

Then, I smiled gently and spoke.

“Oh, perhaps I spoke out of turn. It’s just something I heard somewhere, so please feel free to ignore it.”

His gaze visibly turned icy.

I had just exposed the pie he meant to monopolize to everyone.

‘At least one grudge secured.’

What unfolded after that was like watching a predetermined formula repeat itself.

Even afterward, I deliberately revealed the prime information and profit structures that the Macro investors were secretly hiding and intended to monopolize.

I made them share the pie they wanted to keep for themselves with everyone.

On the other hand, when it came to the ideas presented by the activist investors—

“Truly impressive.”

“Hmm… that’s quite a complex structure. Very impressive.”

I only praised them like this, but never mentioned their core alpha at all.

However, whenever the Macro faction spoke up—

I precisely targeted the profit mechanisms they desperately wanted to keep hidden.

No matter how sophisticated or brilliant their strategy was, it didn’t matter.

If it was caught by my eyes, I revealed it without fail.

Thus, after biting into the Macro faction relentlessly for a good while.

‘Is this enough?’

At this point, the uneasy gazes directed at me could no longer be concealed.

Exactly as I had intended.

‘Now, the Macro faction will never want me to become a full member.’

If I did become a member?

Every time there was an Idea Dinner, they would have to endure painful and torturous evenings.

Just like today, I might completely expose the positions they had worked so hard to hide.

And the scale of those losses could swell into the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

Of course, hedge funds that prioritize profit above all would never just sit back and watch such a nightmare unfold.

As a result, they would have no choice but to desperately work to block my membership.

Which meant — I had already secured enough “no” votes.

Now, the only thing I needed were the “yes” votes.

And to get those, I absolutely needed the Quant faction.

“Next presenter.”

Right on cue, it was the Quant faction’s turn.

I straightened my posture.

“The international market is swinging wildly due to plummeting oil prices, China’s economic slowdown, and the Federal Reserve’s uncertainty. Because of this, the implied volatility of major indexes is forming much higher than actual volatility. In this environment, we propose a so-called ‘dynamic short vol strategy’ that actively utilizes short volatility positions through a real-time market regime classifier.”

The more unstable the market became, the more people would pay a high premium for options as “insurance.”

This strategy essentially meant playing the role of the “insurer” collecting those expensive premiums.

Naturally, a barrage of questions followed.

“If the market suddenly plunges into an unexpected ‘fear phase,’ how will you manage the risk of your short vol positions?”

“If fear peaks right before events like an FOMC or OPEC meeting, wouldn’t maintaining a short vol position be too risky?”

I waited.

Until the questions gradually subsided.

And finally, the moment arrived.

The perfect timing to “persuade.”

Right now.

“You mentioned a multi-factor volatility model — did you also factor in retail capital flows?”

The air around the table dropped straight down.

It was a natural reaction.

“Retail capital flows” referred to the movements of “retail investors.”

And everyone here knew my relationship with the retail crowd.

A brief silence passed.

The Quant manager tried to maintain his composure, but his trembling voice betrayed his tension.

“Of course. We used past data to statistically analyze retail investors’ behavior patterns, and we included the volatility contribution derived from that in the algorithm.”

I nodded, then asked again in a much gentler tone.

“Past data… did that include up to the most recent year?”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“I’m asking whether it included the collective retail investor movements in the past 12 months — for example, the Valeant incident or the sudden yuan volatility event.”

In other words, I was asking whether the recent “mass madness” shown by retail investors was included in his equation.

The Quant manager’s eyes wavered violently.

“No… Those cases were treated as statistical outliers and excluded from the model. They were extremely rare events, probability-wise…”

“For being so rare, didn’t they happen quite frequently? They repeated twice in just a single year.”

He couldn’t answer for a moment, then carefully opened his mouth.

“Those two incidents involved specific forces deliberately inciting retail investors.”

“Specific forces.”

In this context, that “force” was none other than me.

Everyone knew it.

But that wasn’t what I wanted to confirm.

“I see. Then, hypothetically, what if someone were to step in again and a similar incident happened?”

What I really wanted to confirm was…

If such an event happened again, would your algorithm be able to function properly?

This was the question for the Quant faction.

At that moment, I heard people all around the table swallow hard.

Not just the presenting Quant manager, but every Quant in the room reacted the same.

They all knew well.

Just how vulnerable their algorithms were to my retail army’s movements.

Of course, the Macro and activist factions also feared retail investors, but their circumstances were a bit different.

Macro and activist strategies moved with huge flows of capital, so unless I created a “nationwide issue,” retail influence generally stayed at the level of background noise.

But it was different for Quants.

They dealt with extremely delicate machines.

Even a single grain of sand could cause the entire machine — that is, the algorithm — to malfunction.

I continued speaking with a gentle smile.

“I was just curious, that’s all. These days, retail investors have a scary tendency to rush in rapidly once they’re fixated on something.”

“......”

“If you were unlucky enough for two or three such flows to overlap…”

“......”

“I was simply wondering if your algorithm would be able to detect and avoid that situation.”

Of course, this wasn’t a threat.

I wasn’t saying I would intentionally mobilize the retail crowd to mess with them.

I just wanted us to show each other our weapons, to gauge each other’s strength accurately.

It would be wiser for both sides to understand each other’s capabilities clearly and join hands in a way that benefits us both.

In other words, it was a kind of peaceful proposal — a suggestion that we might move toward cooperation rather than war.

“I’m not that familiar with Quant strategies… perhaps someone else could elaborate further?”

I slowly looked around the table, studying the other Quants one by one.

I asked them the same question.

But.

All that returned was cold silence.

That alone was enough of an answer.

None of the Quants in this room could definitively guard against my retail army.