Shadow Inc.

Although the system of having night and daytime school lectures was meant for equality, it failed to do just that. Clearly, having to work in the daytime and sleep at night was to the liking of most humans in society, and therefore, those jobs and occupations were given to those of higher status. Therefore, the children who studied in the morning were considered the 'good kids' while those at the night time were not.

…

After a rather long meeting at the principal's office, where both Jack and Ava were given the age-old 'Your future is in your hands no,' and the 'the decisions you make now will shape your future,' speech, which took almost 2 hours before they were let go. A few more hours of school later, Jack, Ava, and Max left the school grounds together with Freya, and Max's sister.

After dropping the little 10-year-olds at their homes, the slightly older kids went to their favourite spot they always used to hang out together before the incident with Jack's parents, and with Ava.

The location was under a bridge near their homes, just about 20 minutes walking distance.

All three of them being so poor that they could not afford morning school, they naturally could not afford to sit at a café or restaurant to talk. Therefore, such a place was the only place they could find, which did not involve just sitting out on the open road, or a park bench.

"Alright guys. I am going to need to borrow some money. It is really important" Jack said.

Ava and Max looked at each other, before their expressions turned serious seeing how serious Jack was being.

"How much?" Ava asked, while Max just nodded along, not willing to say much.

"How much can you guys get?" Jack asked. He was hoping to get around 100 credits from the group in total. Naturally, 1000 credits were not enough to purchase the VR capsule he needed in order to play Tether. For that capsule, he would need at least 10,000 credits, just about ten times the amount he would get. Right? Nothing much.

…

In fact, this price was incredibly low. After 'they' released Tether, the price for a VR capsule rose to almost 2 million credits! The only reason he was even able to get his hands on one in his previous life was due to the company his father worked for. They were one of the many companies that designed VR capsules, and after his father died, decided to gift this to the child as a form of repayment for the years his father had given to the company. Well, they did produce second-rate capsules which could fail at any time, leaving irrevocable damage to the brain if anything went wrong, and sold them at a measly price of 20,000 credits even after the insane inflation of price after Tether was released.

Essentially, they only gave him one year's worth of his father's salary in the form of the VR capsule.

…

"I can get about 600 credits. But if you can wait for another month, I can get you another 50 credits." Said Max sternly.

"I'll take the 600. I cannot wait for another month. I need the money within the next two days. Thank you." Jack said as he turned to Ava, waiting for her to reply.

"How important is this to you?" She asked

'My family's life depends on this' is what Jack wanted to say, but then decided not to. If they got to know he used the money to buy a VR capsule, he would never hear the end of it. Instead, he thought for a moment before telling them,

"Important enough for me to get as much money as possible from you guys. I actually need an amount which is impossible for any of us to actually have. But with enough starting capital, I might be able to earn enough for my requirements. I don't have anyone else to ask from."

It was true. He really had no one to ask for money from. His parents were already in debt to the loan shark from the Frost Group, while he had no other friends who knew him yet. In fact, almost every single friend he had formed after Max and Ava, excluding those whom he had befriended while he was in the army, all betrayed him. Especially after he began to be hunted by the Frost Group.

Ava just stared directly at Jack, who seemed incredibly different from before. It felt like the little kid who had asked her out just a few years ago but got friend-zoned instead had matured overnight. There was this look in his eyes which made her unconsciously feel like agreeing with him.

"I will be able to get around five thousand credits if you really need that much." She said after finally coming to a decision.

Jack's body stiffened, while Max's mouth was left agape at the astronomical amount.

You could feed a family of 4 three meals a day for a week with just 300 credits, which could be further brought down to 200 credits if food is bought from the correct locations.

You could buy a 1 bedroom apartment for just 20,000 credits!

Ava had just pulled out 2 months' worth of salary that his father earned from his job.

"How?" Jack asked in confusion. Weren't all the night school students supposed to be from poor families?

"What? You think don't save money for a rainy day?" She questioned Jack before transferring the credits from her touchscreen phone, just like Jack's own, to his account. Before Jack could say anything, she picked up her things and ran off.

Truth be told, Jack still did not know where she lived, but now was not the time to think about that.

Max did the same, and ran off, only, his speed of running was so incredibly fast that even if Jack wanted to catch him, it would be impossible unless he had a vehicle of some sort.

Just like that, Jack's bank account now suddenly had 5,640 credits.

…

After the United Human Council had been formed, the rights and responsibilities of every citizen were rewritten from the ground up. Of course, a majority of them were kept quite similar to before, but a few responsibilities were added; like the fact that every citizen must contribute to the war, and that if any alien activity is noticed, every citizen must immediately report it.

On the other hand, they even added a few rights, including the rights of minors.

Minors above the age of 12 could not have proper bank accounts, handle by the government of course, where monetary transactions could happen. More importantly, these minors could also possess assets and properties in their own name, without the permission of their guardians. Of course, they could not borrow money or take on any form of liabilities without the express permission of their legal guardians.

This was to prevent them from making stupid decisions of borrowing money to spend it on things like a lifetime supply of candy; though that could have been a great idea.

…

In an invisible hover-car, two men in black suits and black sunglasses were staring at a monitor in the car.

"She had transferred 5,000 credits to Jack. It appears he is in need of the money."

"Could it be to repay the Frost Group?"

"Possibly, but why all of a sudden?"

"Doesn't matter. We just need to make sure she is not taken advantage of by these two; Jack Grey and Max Vestap."

"Yeah. I'll leave the tracker on the credits. For now, we need to make sure she gets home safely."

"Agreed"

…

Jack took the money and returned home with slight shock. He had a feeling that things might actually work out! If he could get his hands on a V capsule just before Tether was released, and get into the game with the first batch of explorers, he might not only be able to take his revenge on the Frost Group as a whole, but also take care of his parents and sister, preventing anything from happening to them.

However, only after he had his dinner as the sun was rising did he think about something; how would he double the money he currently had in just 2 days? More importantly, he could not buy and put a gigantic VR capsule right in his current home. His parents would definitely come asking for an explanation of where the money came from.

To solve this issue, he needed a new home, or at least, he needed to rent a place.

Therefore, without thinking too much, Jack began surfing the network to search for an apartment he could rent for a few months. One that was in the area. Surprisingly, he found an enormous list of such places, and after filtering through them for the useless ones or the too expensive ones, he settled for an option between two apartments. One was just a few blocks away from him but cost 150 credits per month. While another was a lot further away, but cost only 100 credits per month.

Whatever the case, he would need to live there for long enough to be able to pay off his parent's loan, which was about 500,000 credits, all taken to purchase this home, with this very home as its security. That was the reason the loan shark took the home away as the first thing he did.

Until the currency exchange came up, which was about a month into the game, Jack would have to at the very least be able to rent the place for 5 to 6 months in order to cover the debt and get his parents out.

Unfortunately, Jack could not think of a method to earn enough money and fell asleep while thinking.

…

As soon as he fell asleep, he heard a faint clapping sound in the distance. Opening his eyes, he noticed he was in utter darkness. From a certain distance away, he saw a familiar figure, a figure which made him want to jump right at him and strangle him to death.

However, just as he wanted to move, he learned that he was unable to control his body.

The clapping sound grew louder as the man drew closer in slow motion, a sickening grin plastered on his face. It was the face of the enemy commander from the Frost Group; Charles.

"Haha, you finally realised it? This was all just a trap to give you hope, before destroying it completely." He said as his grin grew even wider as if a black hole made specifically to swallow up any hope Jack had for his second life being real.

All of a sudden, another figure suddenly emerged from beside him. This person made Jack so much more infuriated. This was the loan shark who had done unspeakable things to his mother before killing her, and his father. He was the very reason everything had happened in the first place, and had somehow survived until the time Jack died.

"Don't stress it. You cannot move, because this place is fully controlled by us. We are the Gods here. Hehe, we can kill you and then bring you back to life infinitely here, so sit back and enjoy."

"Oh, wait. Do her in first, then kill her in front of him. Hehe, what a show that would be." Charles Sid as he waved his hand and conjured Jack's mother.

"NOOO-"

All of a sudden, Jack opened his eyes and found him in his own bed, having soaked the same with a tonne of sweat, and realising that he was so dehydrated that he could barely even speak.

As it turned out, all of that was just a really bad dream. Or was it the reality, and what he was in currently was the dream?

Since he would not be getting his answers anytime soon, Jack got out of bed and walked up to his phone. It was still morning based on the amount of light hitting his curtains, but to know exactly how long he was asleep, Jack opened his hone and read the date and time.

[United Human Calendar Year 4702, 3rd of December | 13:26 hrs]

He had been sleeping for barely six hours, but because of the incident just now, he was no longer in the mood to sleep. Instead, he sat on his chair at the study table and entered the network using his phone. Since he could not sleep, might as well try and figure out how he would double his money before the end of the day. He only had this one single day left before Tether was released, and he needed enough money to be able to purchase the VR capsule before that.

After a minute, he 'accidentally' opened a social media application and began wasting away his time on that.

*Beep - Beep - Beep*

His phone alarm suddenly rang causing him to be so shocked that he dropped his phone onto the table. It was already 5 in the evening, and this was the first of his 27 alarms that rang every 5 or 10 minutes in a completely disorganised manner until he would finally wake up by 7 pm.

He had just wanted around 3 and a half hours on doing nothing but scrolling, liking, and scrolling some more.

'Shit!'

Jack realised the blunder he had made and immediately got back to surfing on the net. A few alarms later, he came across a piece of news that caught his attention. Among the various bits of news, Jack located one that might actually solve his problems.

[Council declared to lower military recruitment age to 15]

[Human race achieves victory on another star system… but at what cost?]

[10-year-old earns 200 million! Click here to find out more]

Of course, there were also the not-so-subtle advertisement scams, but what caught Jack's attention was the next piece of news.

[VR pioneer United VR's stock hits all-time low of 10 credits]

United VR, was the very first company to come out with VR headsets before the United Human Council was even formed. It had steadily grown over the years and was now capable of creating fully immersive VR capsules as well. Unfortunately, its market was limited to the hit-end customer. Unfortunately, such hit-end customers, who could afford its products, would rather watch the battles between the human army and the other races in real-time, rather than experience fully immersive VR, which they felt was a waste of time. Their target customers were naturally people from large conglomerates like the Frost Group, and naturally, there were a few who bought United VR products. But they were clearly not enough to keep the company running, and being a public limited company, the share prices slowly fell to the point where no one was even willing to buy them anymore.

The reason this was important news, was because United VR would, just before the release of Tether, undergo a complete shift in management, allowing for the previous generation to step down from their posts without tarnishing their reputation when the time came to completely change their target customers.

The new management immediately ordered nearly 30% of the companies remaining resources in producing the lowest-end safe VR capsules, while another 50% of resources would go to producing medium-end VR capsules. The rest would stay with the premium products which would allow them to try and retain the few paying customers they currently had.

This had caused the char price of the company to soar immediately to almost 15 credits in a single day, and by the end of the week, it had reached the peak of 200 credits per share, which was definitely an incredible value for a company on the verge of bankruptcy. Of course, 200 credits per share were the average among all the small and medium companies in the market while United had had their shares descending below 10 credits.

However, Jack did not immediately send all of his money into purchasing shares of United VR despite the nearly 5 times increase in value he would get by the end of the day.

The reason was simple. Based on what he could recall, the shares of United VR did an incredible nosedive just before the release of Tether. This was because it appeared that before 'there' release of Tether, the higher-ups of the council, and those with enough connections were informed about what was to come and immediately announced their new subsidiaries entering the VR capsule production market.

Such a large number of entries into the market all of a sudden caused the shares of all existing VR capsule companies to nosedive, with United Vr's shares reaching the insane all-time low of 1 credit, before blasting through the roof just before the next day, with its change in management, and their incredibly radical decisions.

This meant… if he chose the correct time to enter, and the perfect time to exit, he might actually become incredibly close to becoming a millionaire.

But before that, he needed to hide his existence to avoid unnecessary trouble as he had already experienced in his previous life.

Immediately, he decided to go to the website of an underground bank which was not illegal as such, but existed in a grey boundary between the legal and illegal. However, because almost every one of great power had an account here, and the bank prided itself in being un-hackable, untraceable, and in its utmost secrecy of its customers. Even until he died, this bank had not divulged his secrets to anyone, and was a place he had learned about while he was in the military.

[Shadow Inc.]