Immediately after Carlos shook hands with Jose Matsuda, the woman in the business suit from earlier returned to the room with several paper contracts in hand; they appeared to be a bundle of non-disclosure agreements and a list of expectations and restrictions on what Carlos can or cannot say (or do).

Carlos felt insulted while scrutinizing the documents; but if agreeing to Matsuda’s terms meant that Golden Nomad would be resurrected, and he’d be running the show with the backing of the Government and Central Bank; then declining because of one or two clauses would be utterly stupid.

Upon noticing Carlos’ sour expression before preparing to sign the contracts, Matsuda said “I know some of these conditions are pedantic and tight-fisted, but we’re not a charity, and you are getting much more than most would in return.”

“Because you need me.”

“(Chuckles sardonically) Anyway, as you may have noticed in the contract, you and I will be communicating regularly, but at a low profile! I want to stress that no one must know you and I are in contact, let alone the details of what we talk about!”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Carlos nonchalantly replied.

“Your sarcasm aside; it’s imperative that we maintain the public perception that Golden Nomad, once operating again, is completely independent; and that you, Carlos Hirano, were solely responsible for its recovery; and you received no help from the Central Bank, Government or myself whatsoever! And Nomad’s future activities, specifically the generation of new FCs, are a product of your own intellect and ambition. I mean, it would make for a good story don’t you think?”

“Sounds too good to be true. Keep going.”

“When our Dollar collapses—which it will at this rate; people are going to want to convert their wealth into an alternative currency. When people trade in their cash for FCs, we want them to feel like they’re ‘sticking it to the man’ instead of feeling like sheep being controlled by us.”

“So I’m your controlled opposition who’s also the white knight who’ll save everyone.”

“Yes! Like I said, it makes for a good story. You’ll be like Tony Stark from those Iron Man comics.”

With all that said, Carlos signed the contracts before Matsuda countersigned them.

The woman in the business suit escorted Carlos out of the building and he was driven back to his home office by a uniformed police officer.

Despite having a backlog of work to complete for what few clients he had, Carlos crashed on his sofa and fell asleep.

The following morning, Carlos woke up on his couch.

‘That wasn’t a nightmare, was it? That one where I was stuck in an underground office with the biggest douchebag on Earth; who wanted me to rebuild Golden Nomad because of some stupid sea urchins—Whatever dude!! I’m just gonna treat today like every other day.’ Carlos thought before getting off the couch and fixing himself a cup of instant coffee with extra sugar.

He opened his laptop and checked his emails. He received an automated email from PayPal which caught his eye. “HOLY SHHH-UUUGARRR IN MY COFFEE!!” Carlos gasped upon reading it.

Eighty-five million dollars had been deposited into his account by a nameless donor!

Carlos then checked his bank account, and lo and behold, the amount paid to him by that mystery donor was now sitting in his account; ready for him to spend.

He then navigated back to his email inbox to find a message from an address he’d never seen before, which read:

‘Yo, we’ve sent you some money so you can start that work we talked about yesterday. You’re welcome by the way. But don’t start blowing the money on Champaign and hookers yet, that’s your seed capital for rebuilding that thing of yours we wrecked six years ago. By the way, get a damn shave and haircut; we’ve got people we need you to meet and places to be. Also, keep your phone on and check your emails often. We’ll send you instructions. K THX BAI – Regards, you know who!’

“Well, this email isn’t from Luis; that’s for sure. Gosh-darn-it! I guess I can’t back out now, huh?” Carlos lamented.

The following day, after Carlos sent Marco the app he commissioned him to create, and after returning from a late-morning haircut appointment; he received a cardboard box sent to him in the afternoon by registered mail.

He opened the box to find several of Raul’s old notebooks and journals, which Carlos surmised must have been commandeered from his home by the government following his death.

Carlos flipped through the books to find familiar notes and ‘chicken scratches’ he and Raul made while designing the prototypical Freedom COiNs. There were also some more recent scribbles and highlighted text on some of the pages.

‘They must have tried reverse-engineering and replicating the FCs, but couldn’t understand these notes enough to be successful. Hence why I’m here.’ he figured.

Reading some of the notes made Carlos nostalgic, and he occasionally laughed while remembering the times some of those notes were written. Carlos however also felt relieved. Since he now had Raul’s notes, his old partner was now with him in spirit; and he wouldn’t need to start over from scratch by himself.

The following week, Carlos was invited to a meeting at a hotel room in an upmarket district in Taido; which was chaired and convened by a stern-looking woman in plain clothes who he’d never seen before.

At this meeting, Carlos met the team he’d be working with in rebuilding and re-launching the Golden Nomad app; plus the FC-generating feature within it.

Carlos also met the new team member who would serve as his right-hand man and second-in-charge; Tomas Kamiya, who was a former CIO (Chief Innovation Officer) at Taido Capital Bank. Together, with Tomas and his new team, Carlos brainstormed a roadmap for rebuilding and rolling out Golden Nomad 2.0.

Over the following month, a new business was registered, and some new office space and hardware was procured under Carlos’ name, and all the necessary phone and banking accounts were set up.

During the next three months after; the Golden Nomad app was rebuilt from the ground up. The process was much easier and quicker compared to the first time Carlos built and launched the original; given that he now had the experience and support of a much larger and more organized team.

In his under-the-table discussions with Chairman Matsuda; Carlos was instructed to only launch Golden Nomad 2.0 after the Freedom COiN-farming feature was completed, tested and fully operational.

Within the next four months, the first new Freedom COiN was generated on the app during a beta test. Golden Nomad 2.0, with its trademark FC-farming feature, was ready to be launched at Chairman Matsuda’s instruction.

When a surprise announcement was made about the launch of Nomad 2.0, it made news headlines that blew all other news out the water!

The Nomad office was receiving calls and emails from journalists and media companies from left, right and centre until the evening of Carlos’ first public appearance on national TV, where he confirmed that the app had been rebuilt and would be re-launched next season.

Carlos had become a celebrity overnight, being known as ‘The eCommerce Lord who lost his Kingdom but Rebuilt an Empire.’

There were however some who were less than happy about the news; namely the speculator-investors who’d been hording FCs expecting their lack of supply to be permanent. Now that Golden Nomad would be returning, so will Freedom COiN farming!

Unfortunately for Carlos, there was no time to celebrate and he found himself busier than he’d ever been in his whole life; answering phone calls from journalists, venture capitalists, and oil princes from the Middle East wanting to price their commodities in FCs as soon as the app is operational.

Within the second week of Golden Nomad 2.0’s official launch, well over ten million users (which was almost half the population of Sakashima) had set up an account and began farming and making transactions in Freedom COiNs.