Things were calm at home, Kang who paid little attention to his son before, was now going out of his way to avoid seeing his son altogether. Was it anger, fear, or disgust for himself that led him to do this, he didn't know.

Jung-Hwa loved her mother. when she was informed of her death she cried uncontrollably, and her anger and resentment for Il-sung grew beyond control, but she couldn't do anything, she was fearful of him and after coming home from the hospital, avoided him.

This avoidance wasn't a bad thing for Il-sung, he could peacefully do what he wanted to, without getting irritated. Each day after coming home, Il-sung spent an hour strengthening the compound unity of his intelligence and the facts and knowledge from his memories and which he started to acquire each day.

Il-sung also spent time scouring the internet, reading all the books he could buy on graduate-level science and math, studying them at an absurd pace. Within the week he has been doing this, he gained a firm understanding and knowledge of math, physics, chemistry, and biology at a graduate level.

*This is great* Ilarion, through the human body of Il-sung acquired a thirst for knowledge and the subsequent sense of achievement and satisfaction he felt when he finished reading a new topic and gained knowledge.

*Now that I acquired the graduate-level fundamentals, I should start studying domain-specific books prescribed to graduate students*

*Let's see.... I will begin with the books and reference material prescribed for Mechanical and Electrical engineering*

Advanced material chemistry. Fluid mechanics. Thermodynamics. Solid mechanics. Advanced calculus and differential equations. Material properties. Machine dynamics. Manufacturing processes. Circuits and logic gates. Electrical components. Power systems. Network theory. Microprocessor design. Communication systems. Quantum mechanics. Machine design.

The wide range of expert topics, with countless pages and thousands of hours of video lectures, would require even the most intelligent students several years to learn and assimilate. With intelligence and mental capacity two orders of magnitude above a normal human's, it took Il-sung 2 weeks.

Each day, before he slept, Il-sung spent an hour creating and practicing the magic of various types in his simulated mental space. He could feel his magic getting stronger and his ability to manipulate it at an intricate level was increasing with each passing day.

Il-sung wanted to combine his magic with his newly acquired knowledge of engineering, but it required extreme control and power which he couldn't yet sustain. He knew that for his magic to achieve the power and control he had in his world, he would have to practice magic on a bigger scale and not just in a simulated space that's limited. Il-sung decided he would improve his magic to the level he had in his world, Farvin. He knew he had to get a bigger space where he could do things as he pleased in privacy without cause for concern.

*I'll have to leave the nest* Il-sung smiled.

~~
Now that Il-sung realized that he could learn advanced topics on his own, his previous thoughts of graduating high school, and attending a university, quickly disappeared.

*I'll just have to make money* 

Skipping his usual routine of attending school, Il-sung researched the various economics and business course
curriculum from the top universities of the world. He bought all the recommended books and references. From microeconomics to business law, Il-sung finished reading all of the material in 3 days.

*Before I start my own business I first need to have seed money.... now how should I earn it ?* Il-sung pondered, though he could steal or rob without getting caught, Il-sung wanted to avoid it. *The stock market it is then..* 

From the wealth of knowledge he acquired from books and case studies in the last 3 days, he understood that the stock market was a tool to transfer money from the impatient to the patient, but this strategy needed time to play out. il-sung was impatient, and though it would be a hassle to search and go through countless sites to find the relevant information and past market data, he decided to go this route, that day he went out brought a new laptop and 2 monitors, now he had to set up a trading account, he decided it was too much of a hassle to do by himself and decided he should call one of the assistants at his fathers company.

He found the contact of his father's assistant on his phone which was given to him long ago by his father, for when he needed something. He messaged the assistant.

"Can you please set up a trading account for me? I would like to trade."

Seeing the message from Il-sung, the assistant was surprised that the boss's son was contacting him out of the blue to set up a trading account. He knocked on the door of the company director.

"come in"

"Sir your son contacted me, wanting to set up a trading account, would you like me to set it up?"

Son Kang felt strange that his son who seldom contacted anyone in the office nor showed interest in such matters now wanted to have a trading account.

After his wife's death, he avoided his son completely and it's been a while since he talked with him, even before her death.

He feared that his son would bring up the ill-treatment that he was facing from his stepmother, though Kang knew that his wife was being harsh on his son, he didn't want to think about it, ignorance was bliss after all.

But now that his wife is no more, he wanted to apologize to his son and mend their relationship, because even though the police warned him that his son might be the one who caused his wife's death, he didn't give any credence to it, after all, he was present there when it happened, though it was sad, his son had nothing to do with it, he didn't even move an inch when she suddenly collapsed.

But fearing that his son wouldn't want to talk to him, he continued avoiding him. Hearing that he reached out to his assistant, Kang couldn't help but feel that his son was now willing to talk. He felt a faint hope.

"I'll let you know"

The assistant nodded and left the room.

Kang hesitantly picked up his phone, becoming increasingly nervous, and he called his son. He tried to remember when he last called his son, but he couldn't *it's been a while*

Il-sung knew that his father would call him, and he expected it the moment he messaged his assistant, he could perceive that his father wanted to mend their broken relationship but was afraid to take the step.

"Hello Dad, it's been a while. how are you holding up"

hearing his son's words, reminded him of how close they were before the death of Il-sung's mother, Dae, his late wife. A wave of remorse swept his heart.

"I... I'm ok son, how are you"

"I'm fine dad"

"Listen... I'm sorry for everything son, I knew what was happening but ignored it. I'm ashamed of myself. I'm very sorry"

"..........."

"Il-sung..... are you there? please say something"

"I forgive you, dad, let's put it all behind us. Listen, I've become interested in business and market principles, and started self-studying, if you don't mind, I would like a market trading account set up for me "

"This is the first time you've shown interest in it, but I'm really glad. Don't worry about setting up a new account, you can use one of my accounts I'll have it set up remotely on your PC. It has somewhere north of 150 million won, I'll have some more money deposited in it"

"150 million is more than what I wanted, it's enough. Thanks, Dad."

"Whatever you need, call me directly, I'll have it set up for you, and don't worry about the money, since you're learning don't feel defeated even if you lose money, play the long game and you will come out on top."

"Thanks for the advice Dad, I'll be sure to ask you if I don't understand something from these topics I'm studying"

The call ended.

Kang was elated, not only did he talk to his son, who said he forgave him, but he also learned that his son was now interested in business and market principles. Kang felt this was his chance to interact and talk to his son more, by way of advising his son about business and investments, he felt the door to improve the relationship with his son opened.

Il-sung knew exactly what to say to his father. Even though he wanted to chastise him or even inflict pain for his indifference and ignorance towards his son, he also felt sorry. *After all, I did kill his wife* As he thought about it, Il-sung felt bad *I went a bit too far, the anger and resentment in the memories of this body led me to not think twice* but this wasn't his world and it's not like he was a killer on a murder spree *but....whatever, it doesn't matter* he decided to no longer think about it.

~~

By the evening of the same day, technicians from his father's company have arrived and finished setting up the laptop, monitors, and trading account as he requested.

Il-sung started the tedious process of going through 100 pages of search engine results, to download and vet the reliability of the data he was collecting, it took him over 4 hours to gather all the data that he wanted to analyze.

Il-sung started going through the data at 11 PM, pinning critical information on one side of the screen, graphs, and numbers on the other side.

News articles, financial statements of companies, trade metrics and data of countries, interest rates of central banks, past current and future GDP projections, past obsolete trade recommendations from business sites, and a lot of other seemingly unimportant were spread across the two external monitors he bought.

The scene resembled something of a setup a wall street trader with millions of dollars on the line would have. Where it differed significantly was in the speed at which the articles were scrolled, closed and new tabs and documents were opened, he moved the mouse so quickly and meticulously that it would put the top pro gamer of Korea to shame.

Extreme Fatigue set in Il-sung's eyes as they were constantly catching up with the speed at which he read and scrolled the data for the past 7 hours.

*Finally...* Il-sung got up from his desk and stretched his body. Though his mind was still good to go, physical fatigue set in. *I'll have a relaxing bath*

~~

Il-sung drifted to sleep in the bathtub, he was wakened up by Eun knocking on his door. "Master, lunch is ready, please come down".  He got out of the bath and put on a comfy t-shirt and casual jeans and headed downstairs, when he was at school he ate whatever caught his fancy at the school cafeteria, but since he skipped school he had a great lunch prepared for him.

Neither Eun nor any of the servants talked about the incident after that day, they just didn't know what happened, even though it happened in front of their eyes. But they were glad that their young master who was always kind and respectful to them didn't have to endure the abuse any longer.

Eun wanted to ask something but decided not to as she could see that Il-sung was in a hurry. After eating the delicious lunch at a swift pace, he thanked Eun and the other servants and left for his room.

For the past 3 weeks, Il-sung was speedrunning everything from engineering to market principles, and after completing an analysis of historical market data for the past however many hours, it was now time to play the game.

Il-sung opened several local news websites from various countries and pinned them on one of the monitors. On the second monitor, he had the trading application open, which was showing current stock prices and market data of various companies on the Korean, New York, and Shanghai stock exchanges.

On the laptop screen, he was navigating through several local forums of various countries to get an idea of things, information was posted on these forums much before they were reported on any of the news websites.

Il-sung was thinking and making mental calculations at lightning speed, assigning probabilities, importance scores, and legitimacy scores to the news, and various information released by the companies since yesterday, comparing and contrasting them with news and data from past quarters and the market response to those events. In 10 minutes, he arrived at various companies he could bet on, that had a high chance of great returns over the next several months. But Il-sung wanted something that could produce results as fast as possible, to test if his calculations and estimations were correct. *perhaps I should short sell...*

He narrowed it down to a financial company in the USA that focuses on financial products for large-scale farming operations across the US midwest, the stock was making rounds for great returns, last week the company also released its financial statements for the quarter, which looked very promising. The money tied into the operation was very large. Several private banks and big-name investment companies held a stake in the company.

*This is it*

Since it was a popular company and also as his father's company conducted significant business with their stockbroker, he had the opportunity for a significant short sell, he short-sold the company, and he had two weeks before he needed to return the same number of shares he sold, which were borrowed from the broker.

Even seasoned veterans of the stock market are recommending buying the stock, but Il-sung bet against the company.

Based upon the predicted news that Brazil will be lowering their interest rates by two points, Il-sung calculated with a high probability that this would lead to a slightly decreased international demand for US soybeans, usually, just a change in the interest rates wouldn't affect global demand for it, but the continued rise in the share price of the company meant it was due for a short term correction.

The reduced interest rates in Brazil. The decreased reports of extreme weather and frost across Asia means China's imports would be lower than expected due to the increase in their yields compared to the previous season

In addition to a better-than-expected climate, India has in the last year increased soybean plantations but with the weather being unfriendly, it didn't lead to an increase in supply last season, this may however change this season.

The most important factors were however something else entirely.

The sales of fertilizers, farming equipment, and machinery.

The financial performance of small financial institutions that are prevalent throughout Asia and Brazil, which service the agricultural industry.

The employment metrics of the main soybean-growing municipalities.

The price of soybean and its products in the local markets of the respective country.

Comparing these with past data, as harvest time was due in the coming weeks, a decent increase in global yield could be predicted. Further, the USA was highly reliant on soybean exports, which accounted for a fairly large chunk of their total agricultural exports.

This meant there is a high chance supply would outstrip demand as compared to last season, ultimately this would lead to decreased profits and delayed payments of loans, as Industrial soybean farming is extremely capital intensive, and the effect of soybean exports will be disproportionately large on the company.

All of these factors were sufficient to trigger a short-term correction in share price which has seen extended growth for several weeks.

Il-sung calculated that there is an 85% chance a correction would be triggered within the 14 days he had for returning the stocks.

As the account already had several large equity holdings, he could use it for margin along with the 150 million won the account has in cash. Without the need for selling the other holdings in the account, he shorted shares worth 1.50 billion won, setting a stop loss of 5 percent, effectively risking 75 million won.

~~

Through the following week as yields were recorded at a record high in China and India. Mexico reduced its imports as part of a plan to improve its food security, the government announced subsidies for soybean plantations. With decreased interest rates, Brazil was now competing with US exports by reducing prices, which led to a global decrease in the price.

It took around 5 days for all of this to be reflected in the share price. By the 14th day, at the peak of overcorrection, Il-sung squared off his position.

Subtracting all the fees, he made 550 million won.

~~

when Il-sung shorted such a large amount of shares, Kang was notified. He understood that his son was essentially risking the 75 million won and was using the holdings in the account for leverage.

*though I was the one who said it's ok to lose money, I didn't expect him to leverage the account holdings and short sell*

"When the loss exceeds more than 75 million won square of the position immediately, use the money in the company account since liquidation will take time and the losses will pile up."

Kang wrote off the 75 million won, which he was sure Il-sung would lose, as the price for his son to learn a lesson about risk management.

As he instructed his assistant to not let the loss exceed 75 million won, he forgot about it.

~~

Kang's assistant came in hurriedly.

"Sir, I instructed the brokerage to square off if losses exceeded 75 million as you instructed and I thought nothing of it till now"

"The brokerage just called, saying that we now had 700 million won in cash and if we would invest it elsewhere"

"What?" Kang was surprised.

"Your son bet big and he won sir. His bet paid off, the short sell position worked out"

"Wow. I don't know if it's a happy mistake or if he did it anticipating this would happen, but it's great." Kang was smiling.

A sense of pride and happiness adorned Son Kang's face for the rest of the day.

~~

Arriving home, Kang immediately headed to his son's room. He stood in anticipation as he knocked on the door *I need to know*

Il-sung opened the door and as he expected, his father was standing at his door, wanting to know why he short-sold.

Il-sung motioned his father to come in. Over the past 14 days, since he started speaking to his son again, Kang made sure to call and check up on his son every day, they also started having lunch together since then, as Il-sung said he wanted to take a break from school for a little while.

"Is it about the short sell?"

"Yes, tell me why you did it?" Kang said with anticipation

Over the next several minutes as Il-sung explained his thought process for arriving at the decision, Son Kang's face remained in a state of surprise.

The number of factors Il-sung considered for his decision surprised him.

But Son Kang was stunned as Il-sung started explaining the mathematical probability and weightage he gave to each factor and the final formula for concluding that there was an 85% chance the share price would decline within 14 days. Il-sung further explained that by factoring and weighing market sentiment, estimating correction, and the sharp share price increase in the weeks before his trade, he calculated that even if the 15% chance for the share to buck the trend comes to pass, there was no chance at all that he would lose more than 75 million won.

The explanation made his head spin. "Wow, just wow. when and how did you learn to do all this".

Il-sung grinned "Self-study... It took me about a week to learn all this."

"Were you always this intelligent" Kang blurted without thinking. "I'm sorry for asking you such a question, please forget I said that"

"That's ok Dad, I'm not offended... I don't know... I just feel something awakened in me that's all" Il-sung grinned cheekily.

"Would you like me to get the money transferred to your bank account? did you have something big to purchase, if so you could have asked me"

"That's alright Dad, I have some more trade ideas I could make money with. Are you ok with me using the account holdings for leverage?"

"Yes, seeing as you indeed planned for a stop loss, I'm ok with it. It's the money your mother set aside when you were born, intending for it to be your college and allowance fund. It's yours. To be clear I'm not saying it's ok to blow it all, it's important to weigh risks and hedge your bets, so be careful"

"Oh... I see"

"I'll have the account and holdings transferred to your name tomorrow, my suggestion would be to invest in something long-term, even if one is extremely intelligent repeating such success is impossible. All right, I'll leave you to it, Goodnight then"

*I was thinking if I should even give the high school graduation exam, let alone enter a college*

The fact that Il-sung's mother gifted him a big chunk of money, so he could go to college without worrying about money, made him feel bad.

*I'll do something even better..... I'll start my own company*

~~

END OF CHAPTER 3