My Apocalypse System Awakened Five Years Early

Klaus sat on the sofa and checked the stocks that he had purchased a few days ago.

Having future knowledge about which industry would rise exponentially wasn’t enough to turn it into wealth.

To do so, there had to be buyers of the said stocks, so he had to be careful about which to buy.

The system and his own knowledge were the reasons why he had been able to achieve such results before, and he was going to do that once again.

He checked all of the offers he received based on the current market value of the stocks, and after about an hour, he finished selling a large portion of them.

With a wide, greedy grin, he looked at the number displayed on the screen of his phone.

*Balance: 734,985$*

It was an amount he would not have even imagined seeing while working as a finance consultant, and now he had it in his very own account.

"Ah, the joy of being financially free is even better than a level up," he mumbled in a delighted tone and stood up from the sofa.

He took a bath, prepared breakfast for himself, and silently ate it before asking the system as he made his way to Carl’s studio on his bike, ’Are you still restricted from talking about the seven calamities?’

[Yes, I am still restricted from mentioning their location.]

’How boring. When would that restriction be removed?’

[Once Host reaches level 30, I would no longer have any restrictions related to that matter.]

’Level 30, huh? I only need to level up 10 more times to reach that,’ he remarked inwardly.

At the same time, his bike entered the Golden Street.

[Seeing how you are busy with this useless stuff, I reckon it would take you over a month to achieve that.]

The bike halted before the studio, and he responded, ’Once I have a continuous flow of money, I would be able to exert power on the world without having to become a target of some horrifying experiment.’

[Why would you become a target of an experiment?]

Klaus took a deep breath. For a moment, he had forgotten that to the system there were already multiple people like him roaming the world.

’Forget it.’

He stepped inside the studio and climbed the stairs to the second floor where Carl was.

As usual, Carl was absorbed in the computer, and empty bags of potato chips were littered on the ground.

Klaus furrowed his brows and remarked inwardly while staring at the back of Carl’s head, ’All that genius, but he still can’t keep the place clean. At this rate, this place would become a pig pen.’

Carl took off his headphones and turned toward Klaus with narrowed eyes. "What did you just say?"

Klaus furrowed his brows and walked to the chair placed beside him.

"Nothing? I haven’t even spoken a word."

"Do you think I am stupid?" Carl muttered with an annoyed expression and lowered his gaze to the wrappers filling the ground. "You said I am turning this place into a pig pen."

Klaus tilted his head in confusion, and all he could say was: "What?"

"Are you trying to get on my nerves, unc?" Carl frowned.

Klaus clenched his fist at the unprompted remark and said with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "I am not so miserable that I would try to get on the nerves of a kid."

"I am seventeen. Stop calling me a kid, old man," Carl muttered as he reverted his attention to the computer.

"Alright, kid," Klaus said with a wide smile.

A vein throbbed at Carl’s forehead, but he was too busy to care about his childish words.

"Why don’t you make yourself somewhat useful instead of sitting there like a statue?"

Klaus let out a chuckle and said, "Who are you calling useless? This whole plan is only happening because of me. You may be smart with the tech, but that’s not enough to rise above the world’s power structure."

A complicated look appeared on Carl’s face, and he mumbled dejectedly while his fingers danced on the keyboard like a maestro, "I already know that..."

’I wonder what his deal is. Do you know anything about his past, system?’

[Negative. It is nearly impossible for me to have personal information that has never been recorded in any way.]

’Nothing at all?’

[I do have some information about that. Carl Snitzer is an orphan, and no one knows where he appeared from.]

Klaus raised his brow in surprise. ’What do you mean by the latter?’

[Carl Snitzer appeared in this world similarly to Leo Maker.]

’I see... no wonder he was able to make the persona of Leo Maker come into existence that easily. He had done it before.’

’The only way to find out who he really is is to ask him then.’

He walked over to Carl and said, while staring at the computer screen, "Are you writing the articles?"

Carl looked at him from the corner of his eye and muttered, "Someone has to do the work, no?"

At the moment, Carl was writing articles about the hypothetical projects that those companies had received a large investment in.

The goal was to have more attention on those companies so the people scheming this would have more than one target to look after.

"How many have you written already?"

"Seven."

"Fast as ever, huh? How many people have checked them?" Klaus rubbed his chin with a thoughtful expression.

Carl’s fingers slowed down, and he mumbled, "A few? I think."

Klaus leaned on the screen and said, "Show me the articles."

"Do you even know anything about article writing?" Carl asked as he opened the first article.

"Let me check first," Klaus mumbled as he skimmed through the articles.

Carl shut his lips.

After a couple of seconds, Klaus looked at Carl and said, "It reads more like a report."

"Is there any difference?"

"There is. Articles create curiosity while reports answer it."

He placed a finger on the screen.

"You have titled it ’Expected rise from heavy investment in Satung Corporation’s future projects’; change it to something like ’Is 2025 Satung Corporation’s year?’"

"Then give them a number large enough to attract attention, but not so absurd that people dismiss the article immediately, something like ’1000% market value rise expected in near future!’"

"Yeah, that would do it."

Carl stared at him with a surprised look and asked, "How do you know all that?"

Klaus crossed his arms across his chest and muttered with a reminiscing smile, "I used to do articles during my university days."

"Oh?" A curious glint appeared in Carl’s eyes, and he asked, "What kind?"

Klaus’s smile faltered slightly. "Articles on a person. It was to make her popular so she could pursue her dream of becoming an idol."

Carl’s eyes widened. "You... you know an idol?"

Seeing Carl acting so different than usual, Klaus couldn’t help but tease him.

With a haughty look on his face, he said, "I obviously do. Why? I can get you any idol’s autograph if you be—"

Before Klaus even finished his words, Carl was already on the ground, begging.

"...do you have no shame?"

"Shame wouldn’t get me the autograph, would it?"

Klaus shook his head and opened his lips to ask him whose autograph he wanted, but stopped as an idea appeared in his head.

Wait a minute... I can finally make him do things for me.

Until now, Carl had denied all of his requests, only doing what Martin was aware of.

"Heh," he smirked, looked at Carl’s computer, and said, "Create a list of powerful individuals of the Golden City who are in trouble. If it proves to be useful, I will get you the autograph."

Carl shot to his feet, gave him a thumbs-up, and muttered with a grin, "Deal!"