Chapter 6…

 High School… Again??

“Team Leader.”

“What is it?”

“What’s with this guy?”

“What, did a whale show up or something?”

Appbit.

It had started out as a humble cryptocurrency exchange in the early days of crypto, but it quickly climbed to the top tier of the industry.

Since the company had experience developing stock trading software, it launched with an exceptionally clean and intuitive user interface.

On top of that, it partnered with Bitnance, the number one exchange in North America, rapidly increasing its recognition.

Unlike most domestic exchanges, it listed a wide variety of altcoins.

Word spread quickly among coin traders who were always hungry for information, and users poured in.

Backed by solid financial resources, the company continuously expanded its servers and comfortably grew its market share.

Rumors spread as fast as the wind.

These days, its daily trading volume had easily surpassed one trillion won.

Thanks to aggressive financial backing, the app’s convenience was heavily advertised.

Designed to resemble the familiar layout of stock trading platforms, Appbit earned praise for its clean interface and user-friendly features.

One of the night shift trading operators called over the response team’s manager.

“He just transferred a huge amount of USDT to Bitnance.”

“How much?”

“About one billion won.”

“Tch. Traitor. He should trade on the Korean exchange where the kimchi premium exists. These days everyone’s running to overseas markets.”

“Korea doesn’t have crypto futures.”

“…True enough. Damn it.”

The manager clicked his tongue.

That was one thing he genuinely regretted.

Although he managed a team at the exchange, he wasn’t very old—typical in the IT industry.

Recently, people had been making fortunes overnight through cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin, which had been quiet for a while, was beginning to show signs of another revival.

Ironically, despite being a team manager at a crypto exchange, he had never dared invest seriously himself.

From everything he’d witnessed firsthand…

The crypto market was anything but normal.

It looked far too much like a giant scam.

That wasn’t an outsider’s opinion—it was the conclusion of someone who had watched it from the inside.

Some of the company’s original founders…

…were dangerous people.

If he ever got caught up in insider trading…

There would be no telling what might happen.

“…Who is he?”

This was a place where nobody cared about protecting customers’ privacy.

Trust was practically thrown into a landfill the moment someone registered an account.

Any crypto transfer exceeding one billion won automatically triggered an internal review.

Clack-clack-clack.

The employee rapidly typed on the keyboard.

“Name: Ha Tae-woong.”

“Never heard of him… How old is he?”

“Nineteen.”

“…What? Nineteen?!”

*

Tap. Tap.

He had stayed up all night.

Morning sunlight streamed through the window.

“This is insane…”

Youth really was amazing.

Even after pulling an all-nighter, he didn’t feel tired at all.

His mind was as sharp as if he’d downed several cans of Hot6 energy drink.

He’d been busy the entire night.

Sorting through the countless memories in his head…

Memories that would become the blueprint for his future.

The Korean stock market.

The U.S. stock market.

Exchange rates.

Oil prices soaring.

Gold surging.

Countless cryptocurrencies exploding in value.

There was no way he could sleep.

In fact, sleep wouldn’t come.

Even now…

He still couldn’t fully believe he’d returned to the past.

“…Grandma.”

He had been born with the bloodline of a wealthy conglomerate.

Yet somehow…

He had lived a life worse than someone born poor.

His grandmother had given him another chance.

It had to be the reward for all the good deeds she had accumulated throughout her life.

But simply receiving this opportunity wasn’t enough.

He had no intention of wasting it.

“…Ha-ryun.”

Just saying the name made his teeth grind.

The assault he suffered as a child in that blind alley…

Now that he thought about it…

There was a very good chance the attacker had been hired by Ha-ryun.

What kind of lunatic would smash a child over the head with a wooden club on the way to school?

Only now did all the puzzle pieces fit together.

His father’s accident.

His mother’s lonely grief afterward.

The people responsible for all of it…

Were almost certainly Ha-ryun.

They were monsters.

And there was no chance they’d become better people in this new future.

“This is war.”

He calmly organized his plans.

“For now… it’s all-in on crypto.”

Crypto futures.

Something only overseas exchanges offered.

He pictured Bitcoin and countless other coins swinging wildly together on the charts.

Just because he’d lived through the future didn’t mean he remembered everything.

He wasn’t even particularly smart.

But there was one thing he knew with absolute certainty.

LUNA would collapse.

That much was guaranteed.

“That’s more than enough.”

Compared to that…

Those meme coins that multiplied hundreds or even thousands of times were just pocket change.

Only a limited number of coins supported leveraged trading.

“…Whew.”

Excited beyond words, he imagined the future until the sun came up.

His first trade…

Would be a short position.

Simple.

Clean.

“I’ll find out soon enough.”

Even now, it still didn’t feel real.

He forced his racing heart to calm down.

Whoooosh—

Cold wind slipped through the cracks in the window.

The rooftop room had been hastily built from prefabricated panels.

It was terrible at keeping out heat or cold.

“First thing’s first… I’m moving.”

The moment he returned to the past…

His days of living in this shabby rooftop rental were over.

He had money now.

There was no reason to keep sleeping wrapped in an old, worn-out blanket.

And he certainly wasn’t going to keep investing like some timid loser.

“Crash… crash… Please collapse!”

He already knew the result.

Even so…

He sincerely prayed for it.

Back then, he’d only watched this enormous wave from the sidelines.

Of course…

Whenever someone made money…

Someone else had to lose.

A ruthless zero-sum game.

As long as he wasn’t the one losing…

That was all that mattered.

“Crypto… futures.”

Just imagining the profits made his blood boil.

“Leverage… that’s where the real money is.”

Right now, he needed to grow his capital as quickly as possible.

There had to be a reason he’d been sent back.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

At this point in history, government regulations were still relatively loose.

Taxes weren’t much of an issue yet either.

“Mom will have to wait a little longer.”

In his previous life…

He hadn’t been a good son.

First…

He had to multiply the money his grandmother left him.

The opportunity to repay his mother would come soon enough.

Blowing all his capital on filial piety now would be foolish.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

His smartphone alarm rang.

An old, familiar routine from the past.

Without thinking…

His gaze drifted toward the wall.

Then—

“…!!”

A school uniform hung there in plain sight.

His mind instantly snapped awake.

“N-No way!!

Does that mean…

I have to go through high school all over again?!”

He’d been dreaming of becoming an orca dominating the Pacific Ocean.

Reality…

He was nothing more than a blue mackerel.

“…Haah.”

A deep sigh rose from the pit of his stomach.

*

Step.

Step.

His footsteps felt heavy.

Not because staying up all night had exhausted him.

Whatever bonus Grandma had given him…

Even after an all-nighter, both his body and mind felt refreshed.

The school was about twenty minutes away on foot from his rooftop room.

After getting used to wearing business clothes…

Putting on a school uniform again felt strangely unfamiliar.

Yet exciting.

Cheonghwa Arts High School.

A prestigious private academy established with funding from the Cheonghwa Group, a conglomerate ranked around fortieth among Korea’s largest corporations.

Its annual tuition officially exceeded 30 million won.

More expensive than many private universities.

Naturally, the campus environment was nearly perfect.

Although the school had existed for only forty years…

Its alumni occupied influential positions throughout Korea’s upper class.

Well…

Most of them had been born with silver spoons in their mouths anyway.

Business.

Law.

Politics.

Medicine.

Arts.

Sports.

There wasn’t a single elite field untouched by Cheonghwa graduates.

The connections built through the same private kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and high school were incredibly powerful.

“I must’ve completely lost my mind back then.”

His reckless decision in middle school suddenly came back to him.

One day…

He had visited Gangnam.

That was the first time he’d seen Cheonghwa students.

The moment he saw them…

He knew they were different.

Their uniforms weren’t mass-produced brand-name products.

Every single one wore a custom-tailored uniform fitted perfectly to their body.

That wasn’t all.

Somehow…

Every one of them was handsome or beautiful.

Even passing by…

They radiated elegance.

That’s when inspiration struck.

His grades were good enough to get in.

His middle school average?

199.9 out of 200.

Then reality hit when he submitted his application.

Tuition.

His family’s finances simply couldn’t handle it.

Cheonghwa wasn’t a school where anyone with good grades could enroll.

It was a luxury private academy.

For someone whose life was worse than an ordinary commoner’s…

It was an impossibly high wall.

But heaven had been kind.

There had been one way.

At the time…

His family lived in a government-subsidized apartment in northern Seoul.

His parents had tried to stop him.

They feared he’d feel out of place.

But he insisted.

He wanted to attend no matter what.

Eventually…

They gave in.

“Still here, huh…

You arrogant hunk of rock.”

Before he knew it, he had reached the school gate.

A massive Independence Gate-style entrance built from enormous granite slabs.

Cheonghwa (淸化).

Beneath the school’s name was its motto, engraved in large gold letters.

“The light first shines upon the highest mountain.”

“…What a damn arrogant motto.”

Looking at it again…

It was unbelievably conceited.

The successful get the sunlight first.

That philosophy perfectly reflected the Cheonghwa Group itself.

Through close political connections…

It had won countless government construction contracts.

That steady stream of work allowed it to expand into golf resorts, leisure businesses…

And eventually even acquire the nationwide broadcasting network CBC.

Cheonghwa was inseparable from both politics and big business.

The school itself reflected that.

It existed to educate the children of the upper class…

The future leaders of society.

Screeeech.

Luxury sedans still filled the lane in front of the main gate.

Students stepped out one after another.

There wasn’t a single compact or mid-sized domestic car in sight.

Every vehicle was a top-of-the-line luxury sedan.

The students naturally walked through the gate.

Graceful.

Elegant.

The problem was…

“Huh?

Why is everyone so… colorful?”

Something was wrong.

He couldn’t understand what he was seeing.

This wasn’t a one-time illusion.

Even on the way to school…

Everyone he passed had been surrounded by strange colors.

He’d assumed he was imagining things.

Red.

Orange.

Yellow.

Green.

Blue.

Purple.

Even colors beyond those.

The phenomenon had started this very morning.

Every person seemed wrapped in a different-colored aura.

He shook his head several times.

“Good morning.”

“Morning.”

Cheonghwa’s school rules were famously strict.

Almost every student followed the dress code perfectly.

Profanity and vulgar language were prohibited.

As a result, students naturally stopped using the kind of foul language common in high school.

Even wealthy heirs behaved respectfully within the Cheonghwa Foundation, which even owned a television network.

That included the students greeting the disciplinary teacher standing at the gate.

Following the group ahead of him…

He entered the school.

“Good morning!”

“Good morning to you too, Tae-woong.”

Unlike in the past…

He greeted her energetically.

The teacher on gate duty was someone he knew well.

His Korean literature teacher.

Han Yu-ra.

Their eyes met.

She had always looked after him because he consistently ranked near the top of his class despite never attending private academies or hiring tutors.

At this time…

She was in her early thirties.

A cute-looking woman with round glasses.

A talented teacher who had debuted as a poet while attending Seoguk University.

She was also the faculty advisor for the reading club—

The only club that had ever accepted him.

Around her spread a warm, comforting sky-blue aura.

As naturally as if yesterday had never ended…

He exchanged greetings with her and continued toward the school building.

Then—

“Who’s that senior?”

“Who?”

“The tall, handsome one next to us.”

“Don’t bother.”

“Why?”

Two first-year girls whispered to each other.

The girl beside her quietly placed a finger over her lips.

“He’s a special admissions student.”

“Oh… one of those…”

One sentence.

That was all it took.

The curious gazes disappeared instantly.

That’s right.

He was…

One of the very few students attending this luxurious elite private high school under the Social Consideration Admission Program—a special admissions category reserved for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.