Chapter 38: Down
All the receptionists froze when they heard that, blinking in disbelief.
"Sir, are you joking?" the receptionist asked.
In response, Liam walked to the ATM right in front of the gym.
He withdrew $10,000, then brought the stack of cash back to the lobby and placed it on the reception desk.
"I think your manager won’t refuse. Tell him when he comes back..."
After saying that, Liam returned inside the gym without any intention of working out.
The hot bath made him curious, so he entered the men’s section.
Inside, there was a pool—not very large, but constantly emitting steam.
Liam dipped his hand into it and found it quite comfortable.
He then took off his clothes, leaving only his shorts, before jumping into the pool.
Fiuh!
He exhaled, feeling extremely comfortable—so much that he even felt sleepy.
He thought that if he had a woman in his arms, it would be even more comfortable.
Fortunately, he brought his Bluetooth headset, so he played some music and let his mind drift.
Without realizing it, he actually fell asleep.
After an unknown amount of time, he woke up to noise.
"Damn it, they miscounted. I clearly reached 400 reps."
"Yeah, that manager cheated. He refused to show the CCTV."
Liam was startled, seeing two bald, muscular middle-aged men.
They looked very angry.
After them, more large men came in, covered in sweat, shaking their heads repeatedly.
Liam drew their attention. One of the bald men said,
"Boy, get out. The big guys are coming."
Splash!
He suddenly jumped into the pool, creating a large wave that submerged Liam’s head.
That cleared Liam’s still half-asleep mind.
(Physique Power: 0,6502022)
When he saw the system data, his eyes trembled.
0.65... it had risen that high?
That meant he could lift around 600 KG.
Was there anyone on Earth stronger than him now?
Splash! Splash!
As more large men jumped in, Liam’s head was submerged repeatedly.
He quickly got out of the pool and put his clothes back on.
When he returned to the gym area, he finally realized why his strength had increased so much.
The gym was almost full—so crowded that breathing felt uncomfortable due to lack of air.
The smell of sweat spread everywhere, making Liam feel a bit dizzy.
He hurried toward the exit.
It was already afternoon, but there were more receptionists in the lobby.
"Manager, that’s him..."
One of them pointed at Liam.
The manager, also a bald middle-aged man with a large, muscular build and dark skin, quickly approached him.
"Sir, are you the one who requested that contest? Where have you been?" he asked.
He spoke respectfully, even though Liam looked young, since Liam had casually taken out $15,000.
Still, he was confused why this young man wanted such a contest.
Was it true what the receptionists said—that he liked watching big muscular men?
"I didn’t go anywhere..." Liam didn’t stop walking as he spoke.
His pace even increased, leaving the manager behind, though the man still chased after him outside.
The manager hesitated whether to ask more questions.
In the end, he failed to ask anything because Liam got into his car quickly and drove off.
On the road, he drove calmly and first checked MindChain.
His expression turned blank when he saw the current price—a chart consisting of a long green line.
0.050 — $50 million market cap.
It had risen this high. The volume in just the past few hours had reached $75 million, something extremely rare.
This had created many new wealthy people.
If early holders hadn’t sold, the market cap might have already reached hundreds of millions.
But in the end, this was still a new coin. No one was completely sure it wasn’t a scam.
Liquidity in the pool was only around $5 million, half in cash and half in MindChain coins.
This high buying volume was exactly the opportunity for people to sell.
Liam, who held 51% of the supply, obviously couldn’t sell everything at once.
The $25 million figure was nothing more than an illusion unless he sold gradually without crashing the price.
But he smiled when he saw the balance in his second wallet.
$5 million.
So much fee money had come in.
People could receive 10% of their asset value if it were distributed.
If Liam ran away with this amount, it might even attract investigation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Of course, now it was much harder to double money of this scale—it was almost impossible unless Bitcoin somehow moved 10% in a single day, which was very rare.
Opening Bitcoin, Liam saw the price was at its hourly low and would rise about 0.50%.
After thinking for a moment, he stopped the car and placed a $5 million long position with 10× leverage.
A 5% profit with that capital was already good enough.
This time, he didn’t dare use a market order.
He chose a limit order, since that much money could cause significant slippage, especially with only a 0.50% move.
Fortunately, his wallet supported limit orders for both long and short positions.
He effectively replaced market makers.
His position began getting filled by people opening shorts and others closing positions.
5 × 10 = 50.
Although it seemed huge, it wasn’t enough to be fully consumed as long as the price held for a few minutes.
Once it was filled, Liam placed his phone on the dashboard and continued driving.
He would earn about $250,000 profit, then distribute $125,000. That was roughly a 0.30% dividend at the current market cap.
He drove calmly, and when he arrived in front of his house, he checked MindChain again since the dividend should have already been distributed near the end of the hour.
"Eh..."
He froze in shock.
(MindChain: $40 million market cap!)
Down 20%... how was that possible?
He saw a long red line from the drop, and there were indeed many sell orders.
And the decline didn’t stop.
It kept falling minute by minute.
25%.
30%.
40%.
The main cause seemed to be the halt in buying volume, followed by selling that almost reached 10% of the supply.
What made people stop buying?
