Liam stood up from his seat and left.
He couldn't stay calm with so many people watching him.
His steps led him to a rather quiet café.
He had ten dollars in his pocket—spending it to sit there wasn't a problem.
After ordering a cup of coffee, he went up to the rooftop, which was quieter, and sat in a corner.
The next round hadn't started yet, but the current round was about to end, and the price still seemed to be rising.
When the new round began, Liam looked at the price five minutes into the future.
(Price to Beat: 77,658.02)
(Price Now: 77,658.02 > 77,940.99)
(Up: 50 Cen / Down: 50 Cen)
As expected, Bitcoin would rise even further.
However, the current price was relatively stable.
One minute passed, yet it remained the same.
Liam waited for the Bitcoin price to drop so the Up price would become cheaper. However, even as it entered the third minute, it was still around the same level.
He shook his head before finally going all-in on Up at 50 cents per share.
It didn't matter. It would turn 499 into nearly 1000 dollars.
After he bought in, the Bitcoin price instead started to fall.
(Price to Beat: 77,658.02)
(Price Now: 77,638.02)
(Up: 37 Cen / Down: 63 Cen)
With that drop, many began buying Down.
Naturally, interest in Up decreased.
But then—
(Price to Beat: 77,658.02)
(Price Now: 77,738.02)
(Up: 65 Cen / Down: 35 Cen)
(Price Now: 77,838.02)
(Up: 90 Cen / Down: 10 Cen)
A ridiculous surge occurred in Bitcoin's price.
Something like this might not be the doing of Polycrypto's house, but rather the forces in the futures market pushing back against those who had opened short positions—or simply a massive buying trend in the spot market.
Liam let out a faint, cold chuckle.
This was a chance to cash out, and many did so because the Up price reaching 90 cents had already given over 80% profit.
But Liam was too lazy to press the cash-out button.
When the five minutes ended—
(Price to Beat: 77,658.02)
(Price Now: 77,940.99)
(Up: 100 Cen / Down: 0 Cen)
It was exactly as the System had predicted.
Liam took a deep breath when he saw the amount of dollars in his account.
This was gambling—only gambling could multiply money this quickly.
But this was a gamble he was guaranteed to win.
The more capital he had, the greater the profit he could generate.
How much money could he make if this continued?
Of course, if his capital became too large, Polycrypto would no longer be reliable.
After all, the volume here was only around 10,000 to 20,000 dollars per round. Other coins had even lower volume.
Even 499 dollars was already considered quite large.
If it was too much, he might end up pushing the price per share of Up or Down himself.
He might even be forced to buy at 99 cents per share.
If that happened, his profit would be at most only 1%.
500 dollars—that was probably the limit where he could still buy without affecting the share price.
A new round.
(Price to Beat: 77,940.99)
(Price Now: 77,800.99 > 77,999.99)
(Up: 20 Cen / Down: 80 Cen)
Bitcoin had already dropped.
That was inevitable after such a sharp rise, and no one knew whether it would rise again or crash further.
But the System predicted it would rise again.
Buy Up — 500 dollars.
Liam acted quickly, worried the price would rise before he could enter.
But instead, it dropped even further.
Liam shook his head.
The 500 dollars dropped to 200 dollars.
The price even stabilized there, prompting bots to start buying Down to take small profits, convinced that Bitcoin would not rise again—let alone surpass the Price to Beat.
But as it approached the final 30 seconds—
(Price to Beat: 77,940.99)
(Price Now: 78,101.99)
"Ridiculous," Liam muttered.
The price had even exceeded the System's prediction.
Of course, it would drop again since the System showed the final price.
Even the bots were being crushed by this kind of movement.
And in the end, the price fell sharply again, though it was still far above the Price to Beat.
(Price to Beat: 77,940.99)
(Price Now: 77,999.99)
(Cash: 2988!)
Liam trembled with excitement.
His account was suddenly flooded with more than a hundred viewers.
Three wins.
100 dollars had turned into 2988.
Other traders would definitely be confused.
At this point, Liam grew curious about other forms of trading.
He opened an exchange—the futures market.
It had far more options, over 500 coins.
Liam observed whether any would rise or fall drastically within the next five minutes.
Large coins rarely did, but smaller coins could move more than 10%.
10% with 50x leverage—that was 500%.
And Liam was not disappointed.
A small meme coin, Doghot, would drop 8% in the next five minutes, and it had a maximum leverage of 50.
Liam transferred his funds to the exchange. Both platforms belonged to the same company, so the transfer was completed in a fraction of a second.
Doghot.
(Price Now: 0.05000 > 0.048000)
Liam quickly opened a short position, entering 1500 dollars at once.
He didn't put in all his funds, worried about liquidation if the price rose temporarily.
But with over 1400 dollars left as reserve, liquidation was unlikely unless the price surged excessively.
He didn't think that would happen.
And after he entered, the coin's price began to drop.
A 1% drop already gave him 50% profit.
1500 dollars became 2250.
In the futures market, it was easier to use large capital because the volume was relatively high, even for small coins.
2% meant 100%—3000 dollars.
It would drop another 2%, and Liam continued to wait. He didn't forget to set an automatic take profit at 0.04800.
Five minutes felt long. Liam sipped his coffee repeatedly.
But when the time approached five minutes, he saw his position appear on the chart.
0.04800 / 20,000 dollars (6000 dollars)
Out of the 20,000 dollars, 6000 belonged to him.
The buying volume was quite high, likely because people believed it would drop further, as meme coins often did.
After dropping 4%, it usually dropped even more.
However, Liam, who could see the future price, knew that five minutes later, it would rise by 2%.
Without knowing the future, no one could fight against price movements controlled by the market makers.
Fortunately, all 20,000 dollars were fully matched, so Liam secured the full 6000 dollars.
7480 dollars—this was now his balance.
His coffee was already finished because he had been drinking too much.
However, when it came to money, there was no limit to satisfaction.
Knowing the price would rise 2%, Liam casually entered another 2000 dollars.
And the price began to rise, albeit slowly.
Five minutes later, the 2000 dollars became 4000.
(Cash: 9475)
"But what is wrong with this world? How can something like a System actually exist?"
Liam was puzzled.
A System—something that only existed in novels.
So why had it appeared to him?