Atlas Meridian Capital Headquarters.

There was a heavy sense of tension and anxiety on the faces of the people gathered in the conference room.

Just this morning, the Delphi Research Institute had released a memo that practically exposed their Argentina strategy.

“To think they’d even go after ‘Atlas’…”

‘Atlas.’

The giant from Greek mythology who holds up the world.

It was also the nickname their CEO, Alvarado, had earned on Wall Street.

As the name suggests, Atlas’s CEO was considered a titan who carried the axis of the macro market on his shoulders.

And now, someone was targeting such an Atlas?

“It could be a coincidence, right?”

“If that were the case, there wouldn’t already be two casualties…”

Ha Si-heon had already taken down two members of the Triangle Club.

First White Shark, then Ackman.

And now, he was putting a damper on the strategy of another club member, Atlas.

This was clearly a deliberate move.

“They say in the East there's a tradition called ‘dojo-breaking’…”

“That’s Japan.”

“You’re overreacting. And even if his moves overlap with ours, so what? No matter how good Ha Si-heon is, he’s not going to operate on a China-scale every time.”

“He might do even more. That guy follows Moore’s Law, after all.”

‘Moore’s Law.’

The theory that the performance of semiconductor integrated circuits doubles every two years, often used to describe exponential expansion.

Ha Si-heon’s movements fit that description perfectly.

When he attacked White Shark, he rallied the ‘Black People’; when he took on Ackman, he united retail investors across the country.

Most recently, he consolidated ‘global ants’ and even brought China to its knees.

“Didn’t it end there? Moore’s Law won’t keep working forever.”

“Well, if he scales it any further, the only thing left is world war…”

For a moment, heavy silence filled the conference room.

After all, they had gathered to discuss ‘Argentina.’

If Ha Si-heon was aiming for a ‘world war,’ there was no better target.

Right then,

Bang—

The door opened, and Atlas walked in.

“First, let’s assess the damage.”

Now that Ha Si-heon had completely exposed their strategy, the most urgent matter was to unwind the fund’s positions.

“What about the dual-listing arbitrage?”

“We’ve essentially deemed it neutralized and already closed it.”

Dual-listing arbitrage.

It’s a strategy to exploit price differences between two exchanges, but once that information becomes ‘public property,’ it loses all value.

Atlas gave a short nod.

“That’s fine. That was just dessert anyway.”

Macro funds, once they captured a certain flow, would stack multiple layers of investments on top.

Just like a full-course meal with various side dishes to complement the main dish.

The position that just got wiped out was dispensable.

“The important part is the main dish. What about the municipal bonds and EPC sector?”

If Argentina succeeded in raising capital, the first area to receive funding would be infrastructure.

They had been aggressively buying up local government project bonds and shares of construction companies in anticipation.

However,

“In fact, there’s no major damage. The market reaction has actually been positive. Expectations for liquidity inflows have grown…”

And that was the problem.

Ha Si-heon’s report was actually benefiting their main strategy.

But there was no way that was his true intention.

At the recent Idea Dinner, he had relentlessly targeted Atlas, and just days later, he released a memo on Argentina.

It was clearly a cunning trap.

The problem was that they couldn’t figure out how it worked at all.

“Is there a chance it could suddenly turn into a negative shock?”

“Well, even after running multiple models, we don’t see such a scenario.”

“Even if the retail investors get involved?”

Ha Si-heon was always followed by a fanatical group, almost to the point of madness.

And he never hesitated to use that madness as a weapon.

At the Idea Dinner, he had even blatantly threatened the quant group, saying he would unleash the retail investors if things didn’t go his way.

It was obvious he’d use the same tactic this time…

“It would be impossible. Argentine municipal bonds can only be traded through local brokers, and U.S. investors can’t buy them directly. If retail investors wanted in, the most they could do is buy ETFs, which wouldn’t have any real impact…”

“Yeah, probably not. Just like with China.”

The conference room turned ice cold in an instant.

When Ha Si-heon pulled his stunt against China, a similar conversation had taken place early on.

At that time, the staff confidently said that there was no way Ha Si-heon could topple the Chinese government by mobilizing mere retail investors.

But the result?

China ultimately knelt before Ha Si-heon, and the resulting massive volatility forced Atlas to suffer tremendous losses on positions worth billions of dollars.

Atlas clenched his fist.

They could not repeat that mistake.

“Is there a chance we’ll have to liquidate positions again due to volatility this time?”

“Of course, we’ve thoroughly considered that possibility too… But as I said, retail investors can only touch ETFs. There’s practically no impact.”

“Do you think I’m asking because I don’t know that?”

With his heavy voice, everyone started racking their brains desperately for ideas.

“Given that he’s pushed this as a bullish narrative……could it be that Ha Si-heon made the same investments as us?”

“No. We checked with local brokers, and they firmly denied it.”

“Then what the hell is he planning…”

Ha Si-heon hadn’t front-run their information, nor had he spread bad news to damage them.

On the contrary, he had spread bullish news while not investing himself.

“Maybe this has nothing to do with us at all?”

“No, it’s definitely a trap.”

That much they were sure of.

The problem was, they had no idea when or how he would strike.

‘Is he just… provoking us?’

Even that crossed their minds.

When he had faced Ha Si-heon at the Idea Dinner, he had seemed like someone who got a kick out of provoking people just for fun.

But scratching at someone with a few words face-to-face and spending time and money to publish a report are entirely different matters.

If he did that for ‘no reason’… he’d simply be a madman.

And then—

Bzzz.

Atlas checked the caller on the screen and frowned.

It was none other than White Shark.

Reluctantly, he pressed the call button.

[Just saw the Argentina report! I wanted to learn from that ‘legendary insight’ of yours, so I gave you a call. What was it you said again? That you could see through a rookie’s trick like Ha Si-heon’s in two seconds? By now, you must be seeing thousands of traps he’s set up… but I’m too foolish to see even one. Why don’t you enlighten me?]

As expected.

White Shark had called to throw back the same mockery he once received.

However, even knowing that, Atlas had a reason for picking up the call.

White Shark was someone who had previously faced off against Ha Si-heon.

There might be a clue hidden in his words.

“Back then during Epicura, you said Ha Si-heon was ‘someone who breaks predetermined molds.’ Did you not notice at first?”

[Oh, what an honor that you’re curious about the thoughts of a fool like me. Something did feel off. It felt like everything was progressing a bit too smoothly, you know?]

“When did that start to change?”

[Haha. How would I know? I’m just an old relic who’s about to get kicked out of the club soon. By the way, wouldn’t your showdown be far more spectacular than mine? Mind if I broadcast it live? I happen to know someone in the media right now…]

Click.

Atlas unilaterally hung up and frowned deeply.

White Shark’s hint bothered him.

‘It felt like everything was progressing too smoothly…’

The suspiciously favorable turn of events that had come to Atlas now felt exactly like that.

It was definitely a trap.

The problem was that the true form of that trap was still hidden in the fog.

Normally, he wouldn’t fear a trap whose mechanism he couldn’t even discern.

However,

‘The size of this Argentina position… it’s just too big.’

It was the result of a somewhat aggressive investment aimed at making up for last year’s losses in China.

The information had seemed solid and profitable, so they bet boldly — yet of all times, Ha Si-heon was now targeting it.

‘This can’t go on.’

He couldn’t expose their largest position to that risk.

In the end, the most certain solution was to block that risk at the source.

“The best defense is a good offense.”

“Sir?”

“We have to make sure he doesn’t even have time to meddle with Argentina.”

In other words, they had to completely occupy his attention so he wouldn’t have the capacity to do anything else.

Fortunately, Atlas already knew where Ha Si-heon’s focus was…

“Ha Si-heon believes that Stark will jump into AI, leading to a kind of tech Cold War.”

“Well…”

“Hm…?”

The staff looked puzzled.

For something like that to happen, it would require an enormous catalyst; after all, AI in 2016 was still an emerging field.

It was still mostly theoretical.

There wasn’t even a market fierce enough to warrant such intense competition.

Atlas smirked.

“What matters isn’t feasibility. What matters is that he believes it, and that alone is enough. If that scenario collapses, he’ll scramble to fix it no matter what.”

Ha Si-heon’s envisioned AI war was a scenario where two hegemonic powers would recklessly compete in technology.

“Wrecking that? Not so hard, is it?”

***

“Hmmm…”

I stared at the chessboard in front of me, lost in thought.

It was a J. Grahl’s chess set I had recently bought to use as a “strategy visualization tool.”

The silver and gold medieval-style pieces were so finely crafted that they looked like knights charging across an actual battlefield.

Today, only the key pieces were on the board, but none had moved yet.

Naturally — the war hadn’t begun.

‘When will the first move come…’

The tactics were already perfectly laid out in my head — a “domino strategy” that would unfold in five phases.

The problem was, once the first block fell, I could topple the rest one after another… but that first block hadn’t budged at all.

That first block was Stark.

“Without proper preparation, I can’t jump into war,” he kept insisting firmly.

But as someone with limited time left, I couldn’t just sit around waiting.

‘I have a card for moments like this.’

The most primitive way to provoke a fight.

That was “sowing discord.”

“It should be about time for them to take the bait…”

Just as I was fidgeting with a rook,

Ding!

A breaking news alert popped up on my desktop monitor.

It was from Bloomberg News.

Atlas Fund invests in AI basket stocks including Gooble

Finally, they had moved.

At that moment, the office door suddenly burst open, and Dobby came running in, panting.

“Sean! You need to see this email!”

Dobby held out a tablet.

It was an email sent to the company account.

The sender was Atlas Capital; the subject line…

Internal Memo: AI Pre-Investment Strategy Report

“An internal memo?”

“Exactly!”

Typically, an internal memo was a document shared only with staff or major institutional clients.

In other words, it was supposed to be a “just for you” kind of email.

But now, it had arrived at Pareto too.

‘It can’t be a mistake… is this psychological warfare?’

Whatever their intention, from my perspective, it was just convenient to get information without doing any extra digging.

I skimmed the contents quickly.

What stood out in particular…

“Due to high computational costs, vast data requirements, and fierce talent acquisition competition, the capital-intensive structure is deepening, limiting the survival chances of small companies.”

Investment strategy:

*Buy big tech-centered AI basket

Short ARKK ETF and BOTZ ETF

In short, “If you want to invest in AI, invest in big tech.”

In other words, invest in Gooble.

‘As expected from a macro fund.’

Macro funds always aimed to move the entire board, and this time was no different.

A Cold War only forms when two evenly matched powers compete.

But they were now trying to funnel capital toward Gooble.

Gooble was already bigger than Stark; if it absorbed even more capital, it wouldn’t be a competition anymore — it would be overwhelming.

And that wasn’t all.

They were also openly discouraging investment in Stark.

Of course, they didn’t say it outright, but the business-language wrapping made the message crystal clear.

“Some startups tend to justify their valuation more on the founder’s narrative, ideals, philosophy, and cult-like popularity than on actual performance.”

This might be a good example of the market’s romanticism, but “good storytelling” does not guarantee feasibility.

Translation: You’re a CEO, not a novelist.

“Furthermore, frequent pre-announcements via the founder’s social media are observed. While ‘decentralization of information’ may contribute to transparency, it also exposes management strategy to the risk of 140-character freefall.”

Translation: Stop tweeting so much.

“Megalomaniac narratives like planetary migration and human progress do indeed increase ethical appeal. However, unless they are reflected in the profit and loss statement, they remain a part of the emotional valuation framework.”

Translation: Saving the world is great, but first save your own company from its sea of red ink.

‘…This isn’t bad at all.’

When I met him at the Idea Dinner, I thought Atlas was a pretty dry, boring person.

‘Atlas…’

Surprisingly, he turned out to have quite a literary sense.

‘Why save this for later?’

Thanks to this, my work just got easier.

I forwarded the email directly to Stark.

Then, exactly five minutes later,

Bzzz!

The phone rang.

On the other end, Stark’s voice erupted in a mix of excitement and rage.

[What the hell is this!]

Now it begins.

Round 1, fight.