CHAPTER THREE: COMPOUND INTEREST
Children learned obedience.
Kang Min-Jae learned timing.
By the age of six, he understood the value of waiting. The apartment was still small, the furniture still cheap, but there was less tension in the air. His father no longer counted coins twice. His mother slept more soundly. The gold profits had not made them rich—but they had made them confident.
Confidence was leverage.
Min-Jae entered elementary school without fanfare. No prodigy headlines. No teachers whispering about genius. He kept his grades high but not perfect. Top ten percent—never first. The kind of student people trusted but did not fear.
Social Visibility: Low
Risk Assessment: Optimal
The system approved.
SCHOOL IS A MARKET
The classroom was his first exchange.
Children traded snacks. Stickers. Favors. Friendship.
Min-Jae watched silently for weeks, mapping value flows. Who had rich parents. Who had none. Who was cruel. Who was desperate.
The rules were simple.
Scarcity created power.
Information created control.
He began small.
A pencil lent here. Homework help there. A whispered answer before a quiz. By the end of the semester, half the class owed him something they didn't remember borrowing.
Social Capital +2.1
Good.
THE FIRST SCAR
The bullying started in third grade.
A boy named Park Joon-Seok. Bigger. Louder. Son of a local shop owner with friends in the district office. The kind of child who learned early that consequences were optional.
Min-Jae didn't resist. Not openly.
Resistance drew attention.
Instead, he watched.
Joon-Seok stole lunch money. Pushed smaller kids. Laughed when teachers looked away. The pattern was consistent. Predictable.
Min-Jae waited until the day Joon-Seok broke a girl's glasses.
That night, Min-Jae went home and asked his mother a question.
"Mom… what happens when a shop cheats customers?"
She frowned. "They get reported."
"And if they cheat a lot?"
"They get shut down."
Min-Jae nodded and said nothing more.
The next week, his father heard something interesting from a coworker. Apparently, Park Joon-Seok's family store was under investigation. Tax issues. Fake receipts. Complaints filed anonymously.
Joon-Seok stopped coming to school a month later.
Causal Chain Completed.
Result: Target neutralized.
Min-Jae felt no triumph.
Only confirmation.
SYSTEM UPDATE
Skill Unlocked:
Influence Without Presence (C)
Power did not require confrontation.
It required direction.
THE SECOND INVESTMENT
Min-Jae was eight when he made his next move.
This time, he did not rely on suggestion.
He relied on structure.
He convinced his parents to open a small savings account in his name. Nothing unusual. Many parents did. But Min-Jae insisted—politely, persistently—that the interest mattered.
He showed his father charts he had drawn by hand. Simple lines going up.
"It grows by itself," he said.
His father laughed.
Min-Jae smiled.
The bank teller was amused. The deposit was modest.
But interest compounded.
And Min-Jae watched.
Capital Growth: Stable
Visibility Risk: Minimal
The system remained silent.
Silence meant approval.
A GOD'S WARNING
The god returned on a rainy night.
Min-Jae was nine, pretending to sleep while thunder shook the windows.
"You are accelerating," the god said.
"I am still invisible."
"Invisibility attracts predators."
"Let them come."
A pause.
"You are not wrong."
The presence withdrew—but left something behind.
New Metric Unlocked:
Predation Index
Min-Jae did not like that.
But risk was part of growth.
THE MARKET CRASH THAT WASN'T
By ten, Min-Jae had memorized the rhythm of fear.
He knew when adults whispered. When newspapers screamed. When optimism became hysteria.
He heard it again—quiet this time.
A rumor. A tremor.
The early signals of a regional market downturn.
Too small for headlines.
Perfect.
He encouraged his parents to pull funds from volatile accounts. Shift to stability. Bonds. Safe instruments.
When neighbors panicked later, his family did not.
Capital Preservation: Successful
Trust Level: Absolute
Trust was the most dangerous asset.
And the most powerful.
LOOKING FOR THE EXIT
Min-Jae stood on the school rooftop one afternoon, watching the city stretch endlessly below.
This place was too small.
Korea was only the beginning.
True insulation required distance. Foreign jurisdiction. Legal separation.
He needed an outsider.
Someone ambitious. Desperate. Intelligent enough to follow instructions but not question motives.
Next Objective Identified:
Establish foreign proxy (USA).
Min-Jae exhaled slowly.
Ten years old.
No money of his own.
No legal authority.
And yet—
The future had already begun to bend.
THE PROMISE
That night, Min-Jae opened a notebook and wrote his first rule.
Rule One: Never attach your name to the first fortune.
He closed the notebook carefully.
Someday, men would study his moves.
But not yet.
For now, he would remain a child.
And let the world underestimate him.
Objective Updated:
Prepare for accelerated growth phase (Age 12+).
Min-Jae lay back and stared at the ceiling.
Compound interest did not require speed.
Only time.
And time—
—was already his.