Final Moments

The price of Nexon continued to stay around the $9 range. While it did drop to $8.80 at times, it would immediately jump back up. Chris patiently waited and knew that his money was about to grow ten-fold.

Finally his news came. On the news was Madeline's father shaking hands with a Korean man. The title was short, but shocking to the trading community.

"BioTech signs security deal with Nexon!"

Before any of the bears could sell and take their profit, the shares quickly went back to $20.

"Shit! I'm going to be in debt if I don't get out soon!" The investor who shorted $40,000 worth of shares exclaimed as he started to cover. Similarly, everyone else who shorted Nexon quickly decided to cover and Nexon's stock price quickly rose to $50 once more. After a couple hours passed, the stock broke past the $60 mark.

As for the people who followed Chris in buying Nexon, they were celebrating.

"This is why you follow the rich men. They know what's going to happen! There's a reason why people follow Warren Buffet when he buys stocks!" An investor who made a couple hundred thousand dollars said as he sold his Nexon shares.

In the headquarters at Nexon, everyone was once again celebrating.

"We're not getting fired!" An employee said happily as he put his arm around his friend's shoulder. "You hear that Jun! We're not getting fired!"

"I know!" Jun said. "Thank god BioTech decided to work with us though. I wonder why he suddenly wanted to help us when we were going down?"

"Who cares. Perhaps his child loves our game so much that he wants to support it when it's down,"

"No way. He probably just saw it as a good business opportunity. He most likely knew that with his company's influence, he could bring back Maplestory's popularity,"

Back at Chris' home, Chris quickly sold all his Nexon stocks. He looked at his trading account which had a couple hundred million dollars.

'Even in Galleons, this is tens of millions. I'll have to pay a lot of taxes, but I'll still have a lot remaining,' Chris thought as he started to think about what to do with the money.

'I don't think my parents will do much with all this money. I'll invest most of all this in Dow Jones. No need to keep it rotting in the bank. At today's price, they won't be making much losses even during the financial crisis since the price was only around a couple hundred dollars apart. By 2020, the money should double and my parents might even become a billionaire by 2050. Unfortunately, this is the most I can do for them,' Chris thought as he spent 99% of his money putting in a market order for Dow Jones. As for the remainder, he withdrew it to his online bank account.

'Alright I guess I'll have to give my parents some gifts before leaving,' Chris thought. When he went downstairs to eat dinner, he told them the news.

"Dad, you know how you said I should do what I wanted with the money I made?" Chris asked while his father was happily eating fried tofu.

"Yeah what about it? Did you already spend it on something?" Chris' father asked fearing for the worst.

"Yeah I recently invested in the stock market and I made quite some money. Now I have around $300,000," Chris said.

"You did what?!" Chris' father asked loudly as he dropped his chopsticks. Chris' mother also stopped eating and put down her chopsticks.

"Honey that's not a good joke. How much did you have? $25,000? You're telling me that in less than 2 months, you increased your money by ten fold?" Chris' mother asked.

"Yeah I got really lucky. The market just happened to be on my side and I sold as fast as I could. So tomorrow, I want to go buy a car for all 3 of us. How does that sound? There should be a lot of unused spaces in the garage anyways. We could always pay the manager for those. They will only be $100-$200 extra per month anyways. I know that Dad always wanted a BMW and Mom always wanted a Mercedes Benz so let's get that tomorrow! I'll settle for a Toyota Camry," Chris said as he continued to eat more side dishes.

"Alright son, even if this were true, you have to save that money. Who knows when you'll need that huge sum of money. Even if I am paying for your college, you might need it for when you start a business or something along those lines. You'll regret it when you come up with a really good idea and you don't have the money to make you ideas become reality," Chris' father said.

"It's alright Dad. It's something I've always wanted to do. As for money, even if I buy all of us a car, I should still have a little more than half left. I'll put that money in the bank and get the interest off of it. Since I'm going to Harvard, I can always find work after I graduate. I don't plan on becoming an entrepreneur any time soon," Chris said calmly.

Both parents thought about it for a bit and accepted the gift.

"Honey, I suppose our son has grown. He went from a little boy who cried about not being able to get some Skittles to buying us a car. Time flies a little too fast doesn't it?" Chris' mother asked happily.

"Yes I suppose so, but he still has a lot of growing to do," Chris' father said trying to hide his excitement.

The next day, Chris and his parents took a taxi to the BMW, Toyota, and Mercedes Benz dealerships to purchase their new cars. Even though both Chris' parents were against it the night before, they were ecstatic about purchasing the new cars. Chris' mother chose the M-Class while his father chose the Z4. Chris took the cheapest Camry and the three were pretty happy with their choices. When the cars were inside their garage, Chris' parents were even happier.

'Alright let's do this,' Chris thought as he started looking for houses. Houses were definitely on the cheaper side and Chris found the perfect home in a rich neighborhood not too far from where they currently lived. Furthermore, his father's current job was closer at the house he was looking at. The price of the house was $600,000 and was 3500 sq ft.

'Perfect,' Chris thought. He contacted the realtor for the house and hearing that Chris was willing to pay for everything at once, the realtor was excited and said that he was willing to give a tour the next day.

(Author's Note: Look I'm a college student. I don't know anything on how buying a house works. While I know that there has to be a lot of inspections and stuff like that, for the sake of time, I won't do that.)

When Chris went to the house, he thought it was perfect. There was enough space in the garage to fit 4 cars and overall it was extremely spacious with 3 bedroom, 3 bathrooms, a backyard, a pool, and etc.

"Alright I'll purchase this house. I'll pay for everything in one payment," Chris said.

"Alright!" The realtor said excitedly as she thought about the huge commission she was about to make. The two signed the contract and Chris happily left. Seeing that Chris left in a Toyota confused the realtor, but since Chris already signed the contract, she didn't care.

When Chris arrived home, he went immediately to his parents.

"Chris where did you go today?" His mother asked.

"No where really. Just hung outside for a bit. You know since I got a new car, I wanted to go for a ride," Chris said.

"Looks like we had the same idea!" Chris' father said after he chuckled.

"Oh yeah Mom Dad, I have a surprise for you tomorrow. Madeline told me about this really good restaurant and I wanted to take you there. It's a bit expensive, but she said that it was one of the best restaurant she's been to," Chris said.

"Alright I suppose we'll have to let our son treat us tomorrow as well," Chris' mother said with a smile.

...

After Chris and his parents ate at an expensive Italian restaurant Chris found on the Internet, instead of driving his parents home, he was on his way to the new house he bought.

"Mom Dad, when I earn enough money, I want to buy you a house from this neighborhood!" Chris declared as he entered the neighborhood he bought the house in.

"This is a very expensive neighborhood. You'll have to work really hard then," His mother said jokingly.

However, her smiling face turned into one of shock extremely quickly as Chris drove to the newly bought house and took out the garage key the realtor gave him. He opened the garage door surprising his parents.

"Is that Madeline's new home? Why did Mr. Porter give you a key?" His mother asked.

"They didn't buy a new house" Chris said as he carefully parked his car. "I bought this house for you guys! It's also closer to your work Dad!"

"Chris are you crazy?!" His father asked. "Did you already sign the contract?! What-?! How-?! Do these people not do checks? You just turned 18! That alone should be a red flag for realtors!"

"Oh my goodness. This house must cost a couple hundred thousand dollars. Son, I know you made a lot of money, but you can't get cocky like that! To you, a complete amateur, the stock market is a better form of gambling!" His mother said. "Ryan, is there any way we can void the contract as his parents?!"

"I think we can since, but I'll have to look into it," Chris' father said in a panic.

"Mom! Dad! You're being too dramatic. Let me tell you the truth. When I told you I made $300,000, that was a lie. Add a couple of zeros and that's how much money I have," Chris said.

"This kid wants to get a beating. He created all this trouble by buying a house and now he wants to give us a ridiculous lie?!" Chris' father said angrily.

"I'm not lying to you!" Chris said. "I'll show you at home,"

"Oh you better show me," Chris' father said angrily. "I want to see how far your lie can go and don't blame me when the bamboo stick comes out!"

The three left the new house and when Chris arrived home, he opened up his computer and show his father his bank account and his stock market portfolio.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7" Chris' father counted the number of zeroes repeatedly. He suddenly started to laugh.

"Babe, I think I'm hallucinating. Can you count the zeroes?" Chris' father asked.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7," Chris' mother counted slowly. Her jaws dropped with every count and she sat down on the bed.

"Son are you sure that this is all your money?" Chris' mother asked.

"Yeah, I invested in a stock that I knew would do well and then all sorts of things happened and then I ended up making a lot of money. I decided to invest most of it in the Dow Jones and leave a portion of it so that we can live comfortably. So I know you love your work Dad, but when you feel that your body can't keep up with it, you can always retire and know that you have financial security. The money in my bank account should last us a long time and when we don't have money, we can always sell our shares in the Dow Jones. I'm sure that within 20-30 years, we can become billionaires," Chris said confidently.

"We don't need that much money," Chris' mother said. She still couldn't believe the number on the screen.

"We can never have too much money. Besides we never know when we're going to be in trouble so having a lot of money is good," Chris said. "So umm... now that we bought our house and I proved have the money, we should start packing so we can start preparing for the move,"

"Yeah," Both parents said listlessly.

"Alright!"

After his parents left his room, Chris heard Prometheus clearing his throat.

'Alright you've passed the test. Do you want to leave?' Prometheus asked.

'How much longer do I have?' Chris asked.

'1 more day. Any longer than that is a no-go,' Prometheus said.

'Alright. I'll spend some time with everyone before going,' Chris said with a smile.

The next day, Chris hung out at Madeline's place and when he arrived home, he had a long talk with his parents. At 11:59, Chris got ready to leave.

'I feel like Cinderella right now,' Chris thought as he chuckled.

'Alright Chris. You've passed your test and will be brought back to the waiting room,' Prometheus said.

"Alright," Chris said as he wiped a couple of tears.

'Well I suppose it was nice seeing my parents, Madeline, and Mr. Porter for the last time. I guess I was able to get over those regrets,' Chris thought as his surroundings started to change.