Stock Rising

When Madeline opened up Maplestory the next day while recording a video, she found a new item in her inventory.

"Guys, it looks like I got a gift," Madeline said. It was a chest. When she hovered her mouse over it, the name of the chest was "Chest for Maddy!".

"That's strange. I didn't really do anything to earn a chest from the game. I mean I've been dying to slimes and mushrooms every time," Madeline said. She double-clicked on the chest and it gave her a cosmetic card and a letter.

"Alright guys, it looks like I got some free cosmetics. That's lucky for me! I was thinking of buying some cute stuff for my Bowman so having this saves me some money. Let's read the letter first,"

When Madeline clicked on the letter, the Maple Administrator showed popped up.

"Hello Maddy! Thank you for playing our game and releasing videos of your gameplay to the Youtube community! You did so much for us that we wanted to give you something back! Since you show your face on Youtube, we decided to draw it to the best of our abilities and change it into a cosmetic! This is only for you. You'll have it for every girl character that you make on this account forever! Once you are done reading this letter, you'll have some more items (none of which will give you any stats!). Some of them will be items that you can find in the cash shop and other items are made just for you! The limited items will never be released to the public so if you want to show off that you are our best creator, you can! Once again, thank you for everything that you do and have fun!" The Maple Administrator said.

After reading everything, Madeline shrieked.

"Oh my god! Guys, this is so amazing!" Madeline said as she clicked on the cosmetic card. Her character's face instantly changed into a face that was a Maplestory art style version of her.

"This is amazing!" Madeline said. "It looks like me! I'm a character in this game now!"

Madeline took a look at some of the other items that were given to her. She got a medal that said "Maplestory's Youtuber" and in her cash item section, she got a cat that never expired, angel wings, and an outfit that she would wear a lot in videos. Furthermore, she got a chair that had the Maple Administrator jumping on both sides.

"These are beautiful!" Madeline said as she started to equip all her new items. "Thank you Maplestory for the items!"

...

Back at Chris' house, Chris was eating dinner with his father and mother something that he has wanted to do one more time during his new life in the Wizarding World.

"So are you dating Madeline yet?" Chris' father asked.

"No of course not! She'd reject me in a heartbeat Dad. Besides I'm not looking into being in a relationship right now. Studying is the most important," Chris said with a bit of embarrassment.

"Alright whatever you say bud," Chris' father said. "Oh yes, speaking of studying, for college, I'll pay for everything so don't you worry about it. I know you studied hard and Harvard invited you to go to their school. Since you accomplished all that, at the very least, I can get a loan and start paying for it. Besides, you got financial aid and free room and board for all 4 years so I only have to pay half of the tuition. As for all the money you've saved up from that job of yours, use it on other things. When I was your age, I always lamented on how I didn't have any money and the money I did make would go to rent, food, and all the other stuff. Look at me now. I'm not rich and I've never been able to go further than being a middle class man. I've always wanted to create a business and see how far I could go with it, but I never did have the money. I don't want you to have the regrets that I have now when you turn my age,"

Although Chris had heard this talk before in the past, he started crying once more. He knew that while his father was able to put a roof above their heads and put food on the table, getting a $17,000 loan for 4 years was something that he saw his father stress over for years. He had too many friends that had piles of debt due to the interest that accumulated over the years. Due to his father's sacrifice over the past couple of years, Chris was able to successfully start a business and invest a lot of money into the stock market. Needless to say, he paid his father back 10 fold, but he never believed that the money he gave would ever amount to the money that his father gave him.

"Oh come on Ryan, you made the boy cry! We're eating right now!" Chris' mother said.

"Haha, my bad honey. I didn't think I'd make him cry. Come on boy. Stop crying or else your mother will scream at both of us," Ryan said with a hearty laugh.

"Yeah. Thanks dad," Chris said as he wiped his tears.

'I may have paid you back, but this time, I won't let you stress over it for years,' Chris thought.

...

The next day was the earning reports for Nexon, the creator of Maplestory. Needless to say, Chris invested all $30,000 that he earned throughout his years of working. When Madeline told him about the gift that Nexon sent her, Chris knew that revenue was up. Furthermore, seeing that Youtube was bought by Google and received massive amounts of advertisements, Chris knew that the Nexon stock was going to go parabolic. With the Nexon stock being at $0.50, Chris bought 60,000 shares.

'Good thing I made Madeline play Maplestory or else I would've had no way of making so much money all at once. If I remember correctly, Tesla stock went from $450 to $900 in a matter of days. From what I can remember, this stock is also pretty heavily shorted so there should be a nice squeeze incoming,' Chris thought. 'If I'm lucky, I can make up to 3 million with this. If I get that far, I have a plan for the remaining million dollars,' Chris thought as he went to school.

During school, Nexon's earning reports came out. Its revenue doubled the estimated amount and there were no financial risks. With new projects, Nexon believed that they would greatly increase the revenue in the next quarter as well.

The reaction to the earnings report drove people wild.

"Holy shit! I need to invest,"

"George! Hurry up and put some money into Nexon! They're going to go parabolic!" A manager of a hedge fund said.

"After losing so much money in the stock market, I'm going to be rich!" A man in a basement said excitedly.

The stock price for Nexon rapidly increased. It quickly hit $1 and then after about an hour hit $5.

"It hit $5! I have to short it! Bulls are going to be screwed this time! I lost so much money shorting this piece of shit stock. It's going to go down now! One earnings report won't save it this time," A investor said as he put in more money to short.

While there were many with the same thought process, the price did anything but fall. While there were many who took profits at $5, the price still skyrocketed due to many previous shorts covering. It hit $10 and quickly hit $15.

Due to the stock constantly rising, there was a constant covering by new bears who were trying to short at the right time. Unfortunately, that time never came and the day ended with Nexon's stock price rising to $50.