Chapter 204: Super Melee

"Holy crap, this is unbelievable!"
At the routine morning meeting of Fang Huan Investment's top-tier trading department, everyone was buzzing with discussion about the heated election for America.
Across the ocean, North America was holding its election.
On one side was the conservative candidate.
On the other side was Ciri, the chosen one of the elite, a veteran politician from the Democratic Party.
These two were diametrically opposed, like ice cream and garlic—completely incompatible, inherently clashing.
Right now, all the polls and media coverage seemed to be conspiring, overwhelmingly pointing in Ciri's favor.
Her lead was simply too much; she was far ahead, leaving Nader Tang completely out of the picture.
"Need I say more? This woman's been bombarded with scandals these past two years—'Russiagate,' 'email scandal,' one after another.
But her opponent is even more bizarre!"
"Indeed, that conservative, he said if elected, he'd build a 'Mexican Great Wall' on the border;
He also said he'd drag back every single American company that's fled overseas;
Even more ruthless, he threatened to make those lackeys pay for their own military presence, so they wouldn't try to take advantage of Uncle Sam anymore.
This guy plans to stick his hands into every corner of the military and industry, turning everything upside down."
At this moment, Li Huilin came over with a stack of documents:
"Chairman Su, the materials you requested are here.
This is a compilation from the research department, about the series of chain reactions and market projections that might occur after Nadertang's election."
"Okay, thank you for your hard work." Su Hao took the documents.
The United States, as the world's only superpower, seeing a new president take office is akin to a small-scale update to an online game.
The new president's economic policies will directly determine the direction of the global economy for the next few years.
"Chairman Su, to be honest, if a conservative comes to power, that would be..." a subordinate said worriedly.
"The only saving grace is that his chances of being elected are extremely slim...
But Chairman Su, you actually asked us to prepare this data, could it be that..."
Su Hao didn't answer, only revealing a profound smile.
When he saw the election news before, his intuition clearly told him that the elected person would be a conservative!
Therefore, he immediately instructed the research department to write a financial market projection based on a conservative's rise to power.
The subordinates in the office saw Su Hao's smile and immediately understood, letting out a collective sigh.
Judging from Chairman Su's expression, a conservative's rise to power is almost certain!
"If the conservatives are elected, Mexico will be the first to suffer."
The report included a clear investment recommendation:
"Especially their currency, the peso; its value will plummet. This is because the conservatives' core campaign promise is building the Great Wall."
"But strangely, the peso's price has been rising recently?"
"Yes, I guess people there also think the conservatives have no chance of winning. This optimistic expectation has temporarily pushed up the peso's value."
However, Su Hao's intuition, like an invisible hand, precisely pulled him from the vast sea of ​​data to an unexpected corner.
That omen didn't originate from the peso.
Instead, it followed the vine of the peso, extending all the way to a seemingly unrelated place.
"Rupee?"
The Indian currency, the rupee.
Even more bizarrely, the color that appeared on it was one he had never seen before.
Not gold, representing soaring prices; not blue, representing opportunity; not red, representing risk.
But a bottomless, pure black, seemingly capable of swallowing all light.
'What does this mean?'
The black veins didn't stop there.
Like a living venomous snake, it meandered through dozens of pages of data, finally stopping at its destination.
Black, blue, red, gold.
Four completely different colors, like a tangled mess, frantically intertwined, collided, and merged together, forming a chaotic vortex!
And at the center of the vortex was a name, mentioned only briefly in this thick report, utterly insignificant.
"Ttcoin?"
***
Ttcoin.
This thing is said to have been created in 2009 by a mysterious figure named "Satoshi Nakamoto," and is touted as humanity's first cryptocurrency.
It's incredibly mysterious; it's colorless and formless, just a string of data that you can see but can't touch.
And what's truly amazing is that it's not controlled by any central institution, bank, or government.
It operates entirely on its own within a global computer network using a technology called "blockchain."
In short, this technology is a massive ledger broadcast across the entire network, then broken into countless copies and distributed across computers worldwide.
Every transaction you make, and how much, is recorded by computers all over the world. Tampering with it? Hacking it? Not a chance!
At that moment, an analyst from the research department stood in front of the PowerPoint projector, passionately explaining to his colleagues in the top-tier trading department:
"In short, Bitcoin is a completely new currency in the digital world.
It doesn't rely on anyone's endorsement, but only on cold mathematical algorithms and a globally interconnected computer network.
It's a kind of... money without a physical form."
The audience exchanged bewildered glances, their expressions as varied as if they were collectively watching a science documentary.
"Holy crap, that's it? How can this thing sell for $400 each? Can a pile of air really have value?"
"You bet," someone said, "it's assigning value to something intangible. This sounds like something out of a childhood game of 'house'..."
"Hey, you're totally out of the loop!" A slightly more "knowledgeable" guy waved his hand, offering a forced explanation,
"It's the same principle as gold. Gold, at its core, isn't it just a shiny, broken rock?
Can you eat it or drink it? Its value is only due to centuries of belief and acceptance!"
That argument has a grain of truth to it.
Bitcoin is being touted by its followers as "digital gold":
Instant global transfers, impossible to counterfeit, a fixed total supply of 21 million, and no inflation.
"Come on, isn't this just the kind of rhetoric used to scam newbies online?"
One trader's face clearly said, "I don't believe it."
"It looks like a massive scam to me. What kind of sucker would spend $400 on this stuff?"
"Exactly! And I've heard there are more and more altcoins and worthless cryptocurrencies mimicking Bitcoin these days, springing up like mushrooms after rain.
What's even more outrageous is that people are actually throwing real money into them! This world is absolutely insane!"
At this moment, one Bitcoin is worth $400.
To be honest, even Su Hao himself felt this price was a bit surreal.
From any normal person's perspective, this whole thing seems bizarre.
'But...why is my intuition reacting to this?'