–Thud.

The money I borrowed came in bulk through a Caribbean tax haven. Before the day even passed.

It was split up when received, but even those pieces alone were enough to destroy a small country.

Fifteen billion dollars.

“...It feels surreal.”

Not an amount I’d ever touched in my past life.

Staring at my asset list with an endless stream of zeros, I fell into a strange mood.

‘This won’t last long either, though.’

Money is like water—if it stagnates, it inevitably rots. So you have to keep it flowing before it does.

“Wow... You must’ve been really nervous too, seeing how your hand is shaking, Young Miss?”

Seo Ji-yeon let out a gasp and asked. I gave a brief laugh and poked her with my index finger.

“Yeah, but you can’t tell anyone else, okay?”

Even with future knowledge, the present reality had already changed due to countless butterfly effects. That made it even more thrilling, but it was still nerve-wracking.

“But Young Miss, at this rate, won’t your wealth just explode later on? Like, not just 1 trillion, but 100 trillion dollars? The kind that not even combining ranks 2 through 100 on the Forbes list could beat.”

“Hmm, probably not.”

I lightly scratched my cheek. How should I explain this...

Sure, ‘Yoo Ha-yeon with 100 trillion dollars’ would be better than ‘Yoo Ha-yeon with 100 trillion won,’ but it’s realistically impossible.

“Even if you could avoid political backlash, a person simply can’t hold that much cash.”

The U.S. GDP is around $8 trillion right now. China isn’t even at $1 trillion.

“Ah... because of liquidity? But you can hold it as assets instead of cash, right?”

“Liquidity is part of it, but let’s think in terms of basic economic knowledge. Suppose the central bank issued only $100 million. Then how much money exists in the market?”

“$100 million.”

“Right, but that money needs to be distributed to people somehow, right? Since it can’t just be handed out, it gets loaned to other banks, and those banks loan it out again to people.”

That’s how ‘money is created.’

To make it easy to calculate, let’s say the total money in the market is $100 million, and a single person, A, holds it all.

If A lends all $100 million to B at 10% interest... then the total assets in the market become $210 million.

Because A now has $110 million in assets, and B has $100 million in cash.

Assets are the sum of capital and debt, so the more people there are, and the more transactions take place, the more money—assets—spread across the world increases exponentially.

Here’s the problem.

B has to repay the debt to A. But fundamentally, he can’t.

Debt comes with interest, and where does that interest come from? B can never come up with $110 million.

Because there’s only $100 million in cash in the market.

So the central bank has to inevitably print more money to let B pay off ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) the debt, and that is the fundamental cause of inflation.

After finishing that explanation, I flicked the sheet that said ‘$15 billion’ and continued.

“When I say I earn money, it means I’m assigning someone else the duty to repay that money someday. And that means, even if I do nothing, liquidity will naturally flow toward me.”

Once you hold a certain level of assets, the moment you start to recall those funds to grow your wealth, a financial crisis descends upon the market.

Because the actual cash that exists is only a tiny fraction of the circulating money supply.

In Korea right now, it’s about one-twentieth. If I were to control even one-tenth of the money supply... just by retrieving that money, liquidity would dry up, and countless people would be unable to repay their debts and go bankrupt.

That’s what credit-based currency means.

“Oh! Now that you mention it, I learned about that when studying money supply. That’s the money multiplier, right?”

“You remember that, huh?”

“Hehe, I studied hard to assist you, Young Miss. Though I didn’t think of applying it this time...”

It wasn’t Ji-yeon’s fault. In the 20th century, it wasn’t exactly a popular indicator. If economists had paid more attention to liquidity, the currency crisis might never have happened.

“Well, anyway, the point is that what you said is practically impossible from an economics standpoint.”

“Ugh... That’s kind of disappointing. I was expecting you to become the kind of person who could sway the world economy in just a few years.”

“Ahaha, that’s funny. Our Ji-yeon knows how to think cute thoughts too? A person should know how to be content with what they have.”

“It’s funny hearing that from the Young Miss, of all people... who’s the least content person I know...”

Ahem.

“I’m someone with the qualifications to not be content, so it’s fine.”

And... I’m planning to wait not just a few years, but a few decades.

I smiled faintly and swallowed the rest of my thoughts.

Forbes doesn’t count dictators and monarchs when calculating global wealth rankings. There are many reasons, but I think it’s because their wealth is unfairly massive.

Also, they can move entire organizations privately rather than acting as individuals..., meaning they can do things that are economically impossible for individuals.

–Click.

“Young Miss, don’t make that sly face and enjoy yourself a little today. You’ve done everything you needed to in Thailand, haven’t you?”

Seo Ji-yeon smiled brightly and reached out her hand to me.

“Mm, should I?”

Yeah.

For now, I should relax a bit.

***

Right after Thailand collapsed, Southeast Asia fell one by one like dominoes.

[Malaysia abandons fixed exchange rate... Exchange rate drops nearly 30% on first day of floating currency]

[The tide turns, Southeast Asian countries surrender to U.S. hedge funds]

[Thailand applies for IMF bailout! Expected to request standby loans in the hundreds of billions of dollars...]

And the only entity that could resolve the liquidity crisis... unfortunately, was the IMF, which was ignorant of Asian affairs and had no interest in understanding them.

–Rustle.

Despite the wild party the night before, working the next day was my fate.

As usual, I composed myself with coffee and the morning paper.

“Japan was trying to do something this time..., but it got scrapped in the end.”

I’m not sure if that was how it went in the original timeline. The Asian Monetary Fund was just a fleeting idea that didn’t materialize, as far as I know, but this time the discussions had progressed quite far.

“Hmm... You didn’t sabotage it on purpose, did you?”

From the bed, Seo Ji-yeon lazily tilted her head.

“Who knows. I didn’t touch it. The Asian Monetary Fund was something Japan was trying to lead anyway, so I probably could’ve interfered if I wanted.”

If I truly believed it was better to create the Asian Monetary Fund, I could’ve made it happen somehow... but I didn’t feel obligated to do that.

And I had enough on my own plate.

“About $30 billion is already tied up elsewhere, and more will be locked down soon..., but I can still mobilize about $100 billion if I want. Just thinking about how I’ll split that up already gives me a headache.”

–Hup.

“Let me congratulate you in advance on becoming the richest person in the world.”

Seo Ji-yeon stretched her limbs and got up from the bed, changing her underwear with a slight smile.

“Phew, maybe if the dotcom bubble bursts, but not yet. The fund’s money isn’t all mine, after all.”

The current number one in the world, Bill Gates—his fortune has already surpassed $40 billion. The man who’s making $500 million a week... isn’t he the one truly eating well for free?

I’m here analyzing global economies and adjusting my strategies based on interest rate hikes to grow my assets. There’s a reason I go so far as to take risks borrowing more just to tie up money in dotcom companies.

It’s far easier and more comfortable to siphon money off idiots in the dotcom sector than to claw it out of national treasuries by wrestling with heads of state in the currency market.

That’s why Asia struggles to gather dollars even when they try so hard.

“Geez, you're being too modest. Compared to your self-esteem, you're being way too humble, Young Miss.”

“As they say, the riper the grain, the lower it bows. And once I earn enough, I’ll reduce my leverage ratio back to the original. No, I’ll have to cut it even more.”

–Clack.

Placing the finished coffee on the desk, I opened the curtain and looked down at the view of Wall Street.

“Yeah, no matter how many times I see it, this place is always so full of energy. I love it.”

Exhilarating.

There’s nothing more thrilling than fighting wolves baring their teeth to devour me and stealing the spoils.

“Ahh! Y-Young Miss! Don’t do that in your underwear! Not that it’ll happen, but what if someone sees...”

“I don’t mind?”

“Well I mind!”

Watching Ji-yeon hastily cover herself with the blanket, I shook my head. Why be so ashamed of your own body?

Well, I guess even if Ji-yeon is relatively pretty, she’s no Yoo Ha-yeon, so it can’t be helped.

“...S-So, where are you going?”

Seo Ji-yeon widened her eyes as she saw me taking a suit out of the closet.

“Ah, right. You don’t know yet, Ji-yeon. I’m going to see Grandfather.”

I heard he probably won’t live to see the 21st century...

Even if it meant taking a risk, I wanted him to see it before then. The things I’ve achieved.