Chen
2224 Words
“So, is this the correct address?”
Pluto arrived in front of a small office building near wall street. The office isn’t suitable for the image of a successful trading firm but this is a few years back and Boromir might haven’t succeeded yet in the present time.
“Excuse me.”
Pluto opened the door with the sign ‘Boromir Trading Firm’. There is one small reception table but no one is sitting there. There’s another door inside with a small glass window and he can see two people arguing inside the room. One of them is Boromir, a middle-aged man with blonde hair that is unkempt and messy despite his attire in a suit. The other one is an Asian man who seemed to just have passed his teens. Both of them are in a heated argument as they didn’t even realize Pluto comes to the office.
He walked near the room and he could hear what they are saying.
“Chen, I already told you that what you’re doing is illogical. How can the program you create to predict the trend in the stock market? Not to mention you firmly believed that it cracked the binary trading open. A 100% guaranteed success, who are you kidding?”
“That’s why I tell you to see for yourself. You didn’t even bother to listen to me and let me demonstrate the program I developed. I guarantee you that the program has no error at all.”
“Do you still remember what happened last time? You also said the same thing yet the result was the opposite. I lost two million dollars in just one day. You should be grateful enough that I didn’t sue you to the court. If you need more money, just take this money and leave. Don’t ever bring up that nonsense of yours in front of me again.”
“Boromir, trust me one more time. This time it really is perfected. What happened last time was a mistake but I promise you won’t regret your decision this time.”
“Just take your leave for today Chen. I know that you are a genius programmer so I helped you to pay your debt, but everyone has their bad days and good days. Just come to me when you’re on good days and create another program that might be useful to me.”
Chen looked dejected and decided to leave the office. He was surprised when he saw Pluto standing outside the room but then he ignores him and leaves the building. Boromir cursed as he sat down on the chair: “That Chen must have gone crazy. Just because he is a little bit smart, he thinks that everything is going his way. Two million dollars already lost because of him and he still wants to make me lose more money. I shouldn’t have paid his debt in the first place. That will save me some money and I won’t lose my two million dollars.”
Boromir suddenly realized that Pluto is standing there outside of the door. He was going to greet him as he thought that he is a potential client that comes to his firm but when he saw that Pluto is still a teenager, the smile from his face immediately gone.
“What do you want boy?”
Pluto who is standing outside the room is now lost in thoughts. Is it really the same Boromir that is dubbed as the gambler of the wall street? Hearing his conversation with Chen just now, it seemed that Boromir indeed has a gambling side to him as he already lost two million dollars but his intuition tells him that Boromir isn’t the one he is looking for.
“Who is that Asian man just now?”
“David Chen, a computer prodigy or so they said. But in reality, I lost two million dollars because of him. You still haven’t answered my question, tell me why are you here?”
“David Chen… David Chen…”
Pluto calls out David Chen's name a couple of times until he suddenly knows why the name sounds familiar. David Chen, a computer prodigy that created many programs that is used by the military when the apocalypse happened. One of his biggest achievements is creating the control program for the shelter and predicting the second wave of the apocalypse. It can be said that he is the main brainpower on the apocalypse. It was such a nice coincidence to have met him here.
Chen was talking about a program in predicting the binary options trading. Pluto looked at Boromir and then think about David Chen. It seems now he got the answer. Boromir, the gambler of wall street. There is no way a person could make a lot of money just relying on their feeling on binary options trading. Even if that person was really lucky, he will make a mistake at least one or two times out of ten tries. But Boromir was well known for his 100 consecutive winning streak and there is no way he could do it just based on gut feeling.
Pluto immediately left Boromir’s office and leave him flabbergasted because he didn’t know what is going on. Pluto is now chasing after David Chen; he was lucky as he saw him just across the street.
“F*ck that Boromir. I know that I made some mistake last time but I swear that the correction I made to the program has made it foolproof. If only he wants to see the program and let me demonstrate. He will be a billionaire in no time.”
Pluto knows that he is lucky. If this is the same David Chen known as the genius programmer of the apocalypse, his plan of earning money is not only a dream.
“What do you want boy?”
Pluto was standing in front of David Chen for some time but he doesn’t say anything. Its annoyed David Chen who is already in a bad mood.
“Say, if I give you ten thousand dollars, can you make me a billionaire in one year?”
It was now David Chen turn to be stunned. Is this boy crazy? Becoming a billionaire isn’t a joke that could be casually spoken.
“Get lost boy. I don’t have time to play jokes with you.”
“What’s wrong? Aren’t you confident in the program you created?”
“You! You heard my conversation with Boromir earlier. You are that boy outside of his office.”
“So, don’t you have trust in your own program?”
Of course, David Chen believes in the program he created, it is just that he already make Boromir lost two million dollars last time and he couldn’t force him again to use his program. He was planning to borrow some money and test the program himself before persuading Boromir again but now someone comes to his front door.
“Tell me first, why do you want to be a billionaire?”
“Because I want to have enough money to buy everything I need.”
“Why me?”
“Because I believe in you.”
Pluto replied David Chen earnestly. He can tell that Pluto isn’t lying when he said he believed in him. Even Boromir get him out of his debt not because he trusted him, but because he wanted to gain profit from Chen. Pluto was the other way around. He wanted to gain profit from Chen because he trusted him.
“Such a crazy answer. But I like it. Follow me.”
After that Pluto followed David Chen to his apartment.
The apartment was just a small 4x6 and it was messy. The only highlights of the room were the corner beside the bed where his computer with six monitors filled with moving graphs.
“Don’t mind the mess. You can sit wherever you want.”
Chen sit down in front of the computer and Pluto sit on top of the bed since it was the only other place that isn’t covered with things.
“So, what’s your name? Mine is David Chen. You can call me David or Chen, up to you.”
“My name is Pluto. I overheard your conversation with Boromir and I am interested in the program you created.”
“Alright, just look at the screen and I will demonstrate it to you. This is the program that I create and it is using a special algorithm to read the movement of the market. It is reading data from the news and 112 different countries' real-time economic trade including forex, oil, and gold. You see the green line over here is the prediction while the red line is the actual movement of the stock in binary option.”
Pluto looks at the screen and he can see the green line is the prediction as the red line followed exactly behind the green line. So far, there is no error made.
“I have one question though. If the program is as perfect as you said, why didn’t you invest using your own money?”
“Because I have no money right now. Even though Boromir paid my debt, he is still expecting me to pay him back. I wanted to use the program to make money for him but he outright rejected my idea.”
“Isn’t it because you wasted his two million dollars?”
“To be honest, two million dollars is his own fault. The earlier version of my program wasn’t this perfect. He was winning ten times in a row before he lost in the eleventh. He was just too greedy.”
“So, the current version of your program can guarantee to win all the time?”
“Not 100% but maybe 99.99%. Let’s leave 0.01% for unforeseen circumstances.”
Pluto lost deep in his thoughts before he makes his decision.
“Alright, I will entrust you with $50,000. How long will it take to get a billion?”
“Give me one week if you want to ignore the 0.01% chance. One month if you want to play it safe. If it was Boromir, I would answer him in three years.”
“So why one week and one month for me?”
“Because I can tell you trusted me. Why do you need that much money anyway?”
“For the future of humanity. All the things I need to get can only be earned using a lot of money.”
“Strange enough I can tell that you are not lying.”
From the start, David Chen can see from Pluto’s eye that he is putting his trust in him. If not, he will be hesitating to give him $50,000.
“Why you’re not interested in making money? You make this program isn’t it to make money?”
David Chen however shook his head.
“As I tell you before, I created this program just to pay my favor back to Boromir. Since you are here and trusted me, I will have to pay Boromir back in another way.”
“Why not? Just give him his money back. The money he used to pay your debt, the two million he lost, and some extra interest. You can pay him back using the money you earned for me.”
“You’re letting me use your money?”
“Is that strange? You are the one who will earn me that money anyway. And one or two million won’t make a difference since the amount I need is a billion at the minimum.”
Hearing Pluto’s answer Chen can only laugh out loud.
“Haha, you’re a strange boy. You needed money but don’t mind if I use the money.”
“You’re also strange. You definitely need the money and able to earn the money but you didn’t want to.”
“Because earning money is not my purpose. I wanted to create a program that could help a lot of people.”
“That’s more reason for us to work together. I am earning money so I can help a lot of people.”
Chen and Pluto look at each other in the eye and laughed together. There is a strange magnetism in Pluto’s eye that makes Chen believe that Pluto won’t misuse the money that he will earn and they are actually striving for the same thing.
“So, do you want to work together with me?”
Pluto offered his hand and Chen gladly shook hands with him.
“For our future. No, for the future of the people.”
“For the future of the people.”
- Writer
