Chapter 168: Chapter 168: Real Or Fake
The moment Jake’s second post cleared the LOOP network, the digital infrastructure of Veyra’s financial district didn’t just experience heavy traffic—it suffered an absolute structural gridlock.
Inside the bustling prop-trading office of Fury Capital—a gritty, mid-tier firm known for taking high-stakes risks—the silence lasted for exactly three seconds before the room turned into a shouting match.
"He dropped exact coordinates!" Luke roared, his hand slamming down onto his desk so hard his dual-monitor setup rattled. "Look at the numbers! Short entry between 2,347.80 and 2,349.50! Target floor at 2,329.65! He’s calling a massive liquidity hunt!"
Chase was already frantically clicking through their proprietary broker terminal, his face pale. "Luke, the market is currently at 2,344.20 and moving up fast. The momentum is pure green. Are we really going to stand in front of an accelerating train on the word of a social media post?!"
"This is not just a social media post, it’s an institutional blueprint!" Luke snapped, his fingers flying across his mechanical keyboard as he set up their execution brackets. "He pinned the exact decimals. We’re scaling into the short block the second it crosses 2,347.80. Allocate forty percent of our liquid capital right now!"
Three blocks away, inside the glass-and-marble fortress of Vault Guard Financial’s primary domestic branch, the atmosphere was entirely different. A team of twelve senior portfolio managers sat around a mahogany conference table, staring at a projection of Jake’s LOOP post alongside the live global order books.
"It’s a retail trap," the chief investment officer stated flatly, tapping his gold pen against his notepad. "Rivers has seven million eyes on him. He’s trying to manufacture a sentiment shift to justify his own positioning. Vault Guard does not trade based on social media alerts. We hold our long positions until the official European afternoon data clears."
A junior analyst shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Sir, look at the pre-market volume tracking. It’s not just retail buying into this. The liquidity queues at Sterling International are completely saturated. If he hits the ceiling he’s projecting—"
"Then he hits it alone," the CIO interrupted coldly. "We operate on algorithmic risk parameters, not gut feelings and public gifts. Stand down. Let the small firms play in the dirt."
As soon as the CIO turned his back to look at the main terminal wall, the junior analyst locked eyes with the trader sitting across from him. Without exchanging a word, both men casually slid their hands under the table, unlocking their personal phones. They muted the corporate network, accessed their private retail brokerage apps, and authorized immediate wire transfers from their personal savings. If Vault Guard wanted to miss the boat, they weren’t going down with the ship.
Meanwhile, on a secure floor of Sterling International Bank, Silas Thorne didn’t need a risk committee’s permission. The specialized execution team of seven elite traders sat frozen in front of their multi-screen consoles as Jake’s private signal flashed across Silas’s secure terminal.
Silas didn’t hesitate for a single second. He had seen what Jake could do.
"Pull up the secondary ledger," Silas ordered, his voice echoing sharply across the quiet room. "The twenty-billion-mark capital block Mr. Rivers isolated last week. We are deploying it in its entirety."
The lead risk trader gasped, his hands hovering over the keys. "The entire twenty billion? Sir, at our tier-one prime brokerage multiplier of 1:100, that opens up an exposure of two trillion marks on gold. If the breakout continues past 2,350.00, the margin call will destabilize our entire regional treasury."
"Execute the script," Silas commanded, his face set in stone. "Split the deployment into two equal blocks of ten billion marks each. Stage tranche one at 2,347.80 and tranche two at 2,349.50. Do not scale down the lot sizes. Follow his coordinates exactly."
While the financial machinery of the capital locked into place, a far more agonizing scene was playing out across thousands of ordinary households.
In a modest suburban kitchen on the outskirts of Aurelia, a retail trader named Mike sat staring at his cracked smartphone screen. On his terminal app, his remaining account balance read exactly 4,500 marks—the absolute last of his personal savings after three consecutive months of bad trades.
His thumb hovered over the screen, trembling violently.
"If he’s wrong... I can’t pay the rent next week," Mike whispered to the empty room, his chest tightening as he watched the live gold ticker tick up to 2,345.50. "But if he’s right... I can clear my debt."
At the exact same time, Veyra’s mainstream financial television channels were frantically trying to put out the fire. On the live morning broadcast of Aurelia Business Report, a senior market analyst named Dr. Joey Walker slammed his pen onto the studio desk, his face visibly flushed with anger.
"This is unmitigated financial recklessness!" Dr. Walker shouted into the camera, ignoring his teleprompter entirely. "What Jake Rivers has just done should be investigated by the regulatory board immediately! He is throwing out unhedged, highly leveraged technical targets to an uneducated retail public. Gold is in a clear, aggressive upward breakout above 2,345.00. Anyone shorting this market right now is throwing their life savings into a woodchipper! I am strictly advising every single viewer under the sound of my voice: do not take this trade. Ignore the social media hype. Protect your capital!"
But the warning was completely drowned out. On LOOP, TikTok, and private chat groups, the signal was being reshared by the hundreds of thousands. Screenshots of Jake’s post were spreading through the corporate towers like wildfire. Lower-level office clerks, delivery drivers, and mid-level bank managers were muting their morning business meetings under their desks, opening retail brokerage apps, and hitting the sell button the moment the price began to spike.
At exactly 09:12 AM, the trap snapped shut.
The institutional algorithms behind the big market makers pushed the price of gold in a violent, artificial surge, intentionally triggering the buy-stop orders of thousands of retail breakout traders. The price exploded upward through 2,346.00... then 2,347.00... and finally slammed into 2,347.80.
"Tranche one filled!" Chase yelled in the Fury Capital office, his teeth grit as the red negative floating numbers immediately flashed on his screen. "It’s still climbing, Luke! 2,348.50! We’re taking heat!"
"Hold the line!" Luke screamed back. "Watch the candle wick!"
At Sterling International, the desk was dead silent. "Tranche one filled at 2,347.80," the lead executioner reported, sweat glistening on his forehead. "Floating deficit is currently three hundred and sixty million marks. Price is pressing 2,349.00."
Silas didn’t blink. "Wait for the ceiling."
The price aggressively pushed into the absolute peak of Jake’s designated zone, touching 2,349.50.
"Tranche two filled!" the executioner shouted. "Total position is live! Two trillion marks in exposure! Every single pip movement is now worth twenty million marks!"
For two agonizing minutes, the global market choked. The upward momentum ran out of fuel as the order books completely emptied of buy orders; Jake had predicted the exact geometric ceiling where retail stop-losses would stop acting as engine grease for the big algorithms. The live trading feeds lagged, vibrating violently under the sheer weight of the capital suspended at the peak.
On live television, Dr. Joey Walker pointed aggressively at the 2,349.50 mark on the monitor behind him. "You see that structural compression? This asset is about to break out toward 2,360! The shorts are being absolutely liquidated, and anyone who followed—"
Before the word could leave his mouth, the buying volume simply died. The big institutional players pulled their bids, leaving the market completely hollowed out at the top.
The reversal wasn’t a gradual slide—it was an absolute demolition.
A massive, multi-million-mark red candle materialized on the chart, slicing back down through 2,345.00 in a fraction of a second. Dr. Walker’s jaw dropped. The papers he was holding slipped from his fingers, scattering across the studio floor. His face drained of all color as the live chart behind him plummeted vertically.
"Uh... we are seeing a minor... a minor pull-back," Walker stammered, his voice cracking as the executive producer began screaming raw profanities into his hidden earpiece. "A temporary consolidation..."
"Profit is turning green!" Chase shouted over at Fury, his eyes wide as the numbers on their account flipped from deep red to bright, surging positive figures. "+20 pips! +50 pips! Oh my god, it’s a total freefall!"
Inside Sterling International, the master ledger wall was updating in a massive green blur.
"+40 pips... Floating Profit: +800,000,000 marks..."
"+85 pips... Floating Profit: +1,700,000,000 marks..."
The drop was unrelenting. Gold sliced through the old support levels at 2,335.00 like a hot knife through butter. The panic on the global exchange was absolute, but for the retail traders of Veyra who had trusted the coordinates, it was a straight run to the bank.
At exactly 09:34 AM, the plummeting price line took a final, sharp dive and tagged 2,329.65 to the exact decimal.
"FLATTEN THE BOOK! NOW!" Silas roared.
The executioner slammed the master key, processing the multi-trillion-mark block exit across the liquidity networks in less than a second.
"Positions cleared! All lots out!" the head trader yelled, jumping out of his chair and throwing his hands up. "Average exit price: 2,329.65!"
The master ledger flashed on the wall screen, updating the final figures for the isolated account.
Plaintext
[TRADE SESSION LOG - CLOSED]
Asset: XAUUSD (Gold)
Total Distance: 119 Pips
Gross Profit: +2,380,000,000 Marks
New Account Balance: 22,380,000,000 Marks
"Two billion, three hundred and eighty million marks..." the risk officer murmured, staring blankly at the screen before letting out a wild laugh. "In under thirty minutes..."
The downward movement stopped dead instantly upon hitting that exact coordinate, and the price immediately bounced back up to 2,333.00 within thirty seconds. If anyone had stayed in a moment longer, the market would have eaten their profits. Jake had timed the absolute floor of the global market down to the single digit.
The internet did not just react; it completely erupted into chaos.
Within minutes, the comment section on Jake’s LOOP post turned into a raging torrent of digital celebration, regret, and absolute fury directed at the mainstream media.
Mike, sitting in his suburban kitchen, stared blankly at his phone screen. His account balance didn’t say 4,500 marks anymore. It read 19,800 marks. He dropped his head into his hands, letting out a ragged, trembling sob of pure relief. He pulled up his LOOP app, typing with shaking thumbs:
Mike_Traders: I went all-in with my last savings. I could barely breathe. Thank you, Gold King. You literally saved my family from eviction today. I will follow you to the absolute end.
Tens of thousands of similar messages flooded the feed.
Back at Vault Guard Financial, the boardroom was completely silent. The CIO stared at the chart reversal in absolute, hollow shock, his gold pen snapping cleanly in his hand. They had missed a multi-billion-mark movement because they refused to believe a single man could out-analyze the entire global network. In the back row, the two junior analysts quietly checked their phone screens, suppressing grins as their personal accounts displayed life-changing profits.
Meanwhile, a massive wave of public anger turned directly toward the traditional financial establishment. Dr. Joey Walker’s official social media pages were thoroughly swamped by thousands of furious retail investors.
Burned_Trader_88: I listened to you, Walker! I took your advice and didn’t place the trade! I watched my coworkers double their accounts while I sat on my hands because you called him reckless! You cost me thousands of marks today!
MarketTracker_Veyra: The financial advisors in this country are a joke. They’ve been losing our money for years, and then a real master drops a flawless blueprint for free and they tell us to ignore it. Never listening to mainstream media again.
Those who had hesitated were practically begging in the mentions, desperately looking for the next move.
Crypto_Queen: I missed the entry because I was scared. I am physically sick watching everyone celebrate right now. Please tell us you’re dropping another signal @JakeRivers_GI! When is the next gift?!
Inside the executive suite of Golden Investments, Jake casually closed his laptop screen, entirely ignoring the chaotic notifications lighting up his phone. He stood up, reaching for his charcoal suit jacket and slipping it on, adjusting his cuffs one last time.
There was no hidden agenda, no backroom corporate pump-and-dump, and no trap laid out for the people. This was a clean, unadulterated distribution of wealth—his definitive statement to the entire country.
He walked out of his office to join Alice for the morning meetings. ’This should grab their attention.’
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