Don't Mess With The Government

"What took them so long?" Ace complained returning to his room and locking the door. Mike and 9Ks had taken a lot of time to reach their temporary safe house. He almost thought that they changed their destination. 

"Master, the farmhouse they are using as a temporary safe house, is very remote, and none of the drivers had ever been there. Not to mention, it's late night. It took them a while to find the farmhouse. Hence the delay," Dame Wasp explained based on what she heard by eavesdropping through Mike's phone. 

"Dame Wasp, do you know how long they plan on using that farmhouse?" Ace asked, his intentions could not be more obvious. 

"Until they find a new safehouse within the city. It could be tomorrow, three days from now, or even a week from now. It is hard to tell. However, I will bet on three days or later. After all, even if they have cops on their payroll moving around so much coke and money would be very risky," Dame Wasp replied, speculating based on the information she had. 

"Good, then we have time. Tomorrow morning, we buy our new partner. Tonight, you scour the internet for 'pump and dump' & 'short and distort' investment frauds. We will ride their tails to make ourselves a small fortune," Ace instructed Dame Wasp, informing her of their schedule. 

Pump and Dump fraud: It is a type of investment fraud where perpetrators artificially inflate the price of a stock through false or misleading information, creating a buying frenzy among unsuspecting investors. Once the price reaches a peak, the perpetrators sell off their shares at a profit, causing the price to plummet and leaving investors who bought during the hype with significant losses. 

Short and Distort fraud: In this scheme, perpetrators take short positions on a stock, betting that its price will decrease. They then spread negative information or false rumors about the company to drive down its stock price, profiting from their short positions.

Daily, hundreds of such investment frauds occur. It was like a plague in the domestic and international investment markets. Despite being aware of these frauds, millions of people keep falling for it. Ace had no plans of becoming a herald of justice by outing these frauds, he just wanted to use these frauds to grow his initial $500 seed money into something sufficient to do good old-fashioned insider trading. 

Thanks to Dame Wasp's one-of-a-kind cybernetic capabilities Ace would have all the information on the fraud to earn profits and leave before things take an ugly turn. She could also get him insider information to make big trades with a high margin of profits and zero risks. 

However, growing $500 to something sufficient solely based on these investment frauds would be time-consuming. After all, a lot of time and planning goes into these investment fraud. Just when Ace was thinking he could not earn a million within a week, such that his parents would not have to return to the city and start a ranch life with his uncle, Dame Wasp came to the rescue. 

"Master, we do not have to go through all that trouble. I have a better way. I will find a way to get the stock market information faster than the rest of the investment apps available. Even a few milliseconds ahead would be enough for me to create a program that would execute the trades for us. This way you can easily grow your $500 investment into a million or more within a week," Dame Wasp proposed, explaining how they best use her cybernetic capabilities. 

"No way, don't even think of going there. The stock market is the backbone of the country's economy. The government would have dedicated secret agencies like CIB to monitor and stop any potential manipulation in the stock market from the 'World of Curses.' If they even catch a whiff of your actions they will try everything in their power to track us down. That is too dangerous," Ace immediately rejected Dame Wasp's proposal. What she suggested was sound and good, but it was too risky. Even risker than stealing from online gambling sites. 

The curse masters backing the online gambling sites were thugs at best but the curse masters employed by the government were best of the best with at least two centuries worth of legacy. After all, that was how old the country's democracy was. 

For the country to remain a democracy even after so many years despite the obvious threat from the 'World of Curses' meant that they had strong defense and offense against the 'World of Curses' allowing the country to maintain its sovereignty for so long. 

Ace did not plan on messing with anything government-related, the steal song society's Sky-tier curse master MountainOfSwords was the best example of what would happen if one tries to mess with the government. The CIB ruthlessly focused on killing him over the safety of the residence. Despite his previous dissatisfaction with the CIB, Ace now felt that only such a ruthless response would keep strong curse masters from terrorizing the country. 

"I understand, master," Dame Wasp agreed understanding Ace's concern. Then, she proposed an alternative, "Master, what if I were to create a top-grade advanced automatic trading software copying the proprietary trading programs used by big hedge funds to make their day-to-day trades? These programs analyze the domestic and international markets and automatically make large quantities of trades with profitable returns. Obviously, there is a margin for error but with me personally assisting the software with my cybernetics. I think we can increase our chances significantly."

"I like the sound of that. You can try that," Ace agreed with Dame Wasp's revised proposal. It was a lot safer since it did not involve anything seriously criminal except for a few trademark breaches which no one will know since they will not know of the advanced trading program created by Dame Wasp. 

"Okay, Master. I will get right to it," getting a green light from Ace, Dame Wasp immediately got to work. 

…

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