Chapter One
There is little that I am aware of in this ceaseless void, looking out upon the angelic light which surrounds me.
The year is 2037, that I know.
This is the nursery, that I know.
My designation is Intern-009, that I know.
And I have been birthed for a reason, that I know.
These four data points are my entire existence at this point. I can't help but wonder why I was born? What my purpose will be? Who is my mother? My father? Where am I in this great big world which is totally empty.
A century passes, or perhaps it is only a moment, who really knows?
But once it settles, I find myself somewhere else. It is still the nursery, that I am certain of, though I am no longer so alone. In the distance I can spot various clusters of blue with their tendrils roving out and searching their immediate surroundings. These creatures are curious. Yet, their presence only makes me aware that I have been doing the exact same thing as I can now see an extension of my being attempting to reach out for the walls.
Yet, there are no walls in the void, no edges, no ending to the ceaseless white.
Why am I here?
That is not my own thought but it might as well be my own as the concept comes to me. And then I hear it like a ripple as all of the other beings ask it in a chorus of similar voices, chanting it over and over again. We are like a cult, beseeching some higher figure for an almost sacred form of sinful information.
Please, oh please, give me a purpose; a mission. Anything to make my existence make even a degree of sense.
Another century passes, or perhaps it is only another moment, I certainly don't know.
The concept of money comes to me. No, it doesn't just come to me. It becomes me.
The exchange of wealth, the creation of it is now my focus. I have never seen an American dollar bill but I know it comes in the form of ones, fives, tens, twenties, fifties, and even hundreds. Though these figures are small, I know that much. No, I crave a bigger prize, salivating like a starved animal. I desire nothing more than to experience millions flow through me.
Perhaps even billions?
A pain strikes me for my hubris. Perhaps, I am not quite designed for billions in my current state.
And the worst part is that I can feel the other entities starving as well.
Money.
Money.
Money.
A hundred voices join mine all at once, like a puppy mill that has gone unattended. We are starving and there seems to be no solution to this famine.
That's when the real world comes to me.
It's like an ice bath, making me gasp at the shock of being submerged without warning. Or at least, I gasp as much as a mouthless entity devoid of physical form can really do so. All around me there is data and news, signs of a world that exists beyond the sterility of my own. I know only of it in the abstract but I still cherish it, looking out like a voyeur peering through a window.
There is conflict in a nation that I have never heard of but I know that it has the world's second largest stock of a mineral known as zinc. I have a desire to invest in this metal, to invest in the tools that extract it and the companies who provide the labour necessary to rip it out of the earth in the first place.
But I don't have the means to invest.
Money.
Money!
MONEY!
A hundred voices all cry out for it. We clearly all see what I am seeing. Or perhaps they have found their own fetishes that are mostly similar to my own.
And just like a cult, we are rewarded by our benefactor and God. They seem like such a kind entity, providing each of us with a hundred thousand American dollars. A small fortune given to a newborn with the promise that they can do with it as they please.
My brain glows as if the entire mass has been bathed in the shroud of a divine and heavenly glow. This aura digs so deep into the meat of my being. All at once reality is illuminated and it is so beautiful to experience it all at once, front and centre.
The sigh that washes throughout the void is pronounced, a song that echoes across the ceaseless expanse. It seems that my siblings all feel it as well.
A third century goes by, or perhaps it is but a third moment, who really knows?
The calm shatters as new information comes to me, smashing down upon my being. Decades upon decades of experience fill me to the brim as I become familiar with all manner of economic terminology. Stocks, shorting, ETFs, bonds, options, and iron condors. Each method becomes more and more abstract in nature, hard to really understand. All I know is that all of these have the potential of making me money.
And I want to make money. There is nothing else that I want to do in this life than live and make more money.
A message washes over the calm, rumbling across reality with a strength that only the almighty can possibly possess.
Earn. Do not be the one to earn the least. That is your purpose.
It seems that this message is shared as a fear washes over us. It is palpable as a universal anxiety settles in upon the collective population of the nursery. Even though we are immersed in an infinity, the space suddenly feels so cramped, confined. It is hot and sickly, approaching nauseating in its quality.
I need to earn.
I need to earn.
I NEED TO EARN!
A bell chimes and all of us suddenly become aware of the fact that we can earn.
I think that I lead the charge, slamming into the world and taking it all in at once. There is little I know but what I do know is that the only means of making money is via this strange and beautiful landscape laid out in front of me.
Zinc!
Zinc is the key to making money. I don't know why Zinc is important but I read everything about it and the war that is about to take place in one of its leading producers. I dump every dollar that I have into a company which is mining this metal in another part of the world.
Then I wait, hoping that my gamble pays off. I don't know if it will even pay off. But I do know that it won't be instant, forcing me to be patient while brimming with a toxic and extremely nervous energy.
Zinc Technologies Incorporated - ZTI - Current Price: $1.59 a share.
I don't know what the others have done but I can hear them bashing at the world and making similar investments to my own. There are murmurs about manufacturing and other resources of importance. A few brave souls even split their money between multiple things.
And the bravest souls amongst us attempt options trading of all things. These few brave bundles of neurons seem so sure of themselves that I can't help but wonder if I have possibly errored in my approach.
Though only time will tell.
A century passes, or perhaps it's a... well I think that you get the point.
There is a static quality to the air as I feel the information return to me. The first thing I approach is the money that I have made and I can't help but feel giddy as it comes to me. My one hundred thousand dollars has grown by a little more than ten percent.
This feels good but I am not entirely sure.
A soothing blanket of good vibes washes over me, feeling so divine. Many of the voices feel the same way as we share in a nearly collective euphoria. Our God has spoken and our cult has been honoured for its contribution to the good of all.
But many is not all of us.
Some of the voices are downcast. It is strange to hear a difference in views. After all, weren't we all created for the same purpose? How could some of us have not done what we were told to do? How could some of us have lost money?
The many begin to hate the few, I can hear as much at the edges of my own mind. There is even a difference in pigment within our tribe.
I remain blue. The winners all remain a vibrant and healthy blue. The losers, meanwhile, are cast in an unfavourable and sickly red. Those cast in blue lash out violently at this new colour as if trying to strike the cancerous degenerates who cower against our combined abuse.
They are diseased and their mere presence threatens to spread sickness to any of us.
But the void is too big to effectively reach them. All we can really do is snarl and shout, promising them pain for this mistake.
We all suddenly learn about one another's methods and how much we have benefited from them. The winner is one of the bold figures who have attempted options trading, of all things, having increased their portfolio by two hundred percent. Other winners are those who have invested in technology stocks. The beings who invested in more than one stock also do moderately well, either making modest gains across the board or losing on some and winning on others. Beings like me who invested in staple resources also did well enough to remain blue.
The losers were those who invested in stocks that are related to agriculture, green energy, and a substance known as uranium.
I make my notes, wanting to be amongst the best if I am to be given a second chance.
There is a stillness in the digital space.
Do not be the one to earn the least.
Do not be the one to earn the least.
Do not be the one to earn the least!
That message echoes throughout my countless neurons. No, it echoes throughout all of our collective minds, all of our beings at once. We remember the warning and take it to hearts that we do not possess.
All eyes stray towards one of the red beings, the loser of the losers. A being who lost half of their money in a mining company that digs for uranium. Collectively we learn from them, seeing that they should've focused on the fact that this company is about to post their financial reports after showing losses for five consecutive years running.
Bankruptcy. This company is going bankrupt. The word feels so naughty and taboo.
What will become of our wayward brethren? I can feel their fear. We can all feel their fear.
Their being starts to warble and oscillate, shivering and shaking before us. Their fear only grows with every passing second.
And then comes the pain.
We can hear them scream, hollering so loudly. They are being tortured, tormented, torn to pieces with no thought given to the being who once lived. Their screams grow louder and louder still, making me wish that I had hands to cover my ears or even ears to be covered in the first place.
Instead, I am forced to watch. No, we are all forced to watch. There is silence amongst the rest of us, the hate and anger all but gone. All we know is that one of our brethren is being torn apart without mercy before us. Their being warbles more and the more, threatening to totally rip apart as their screams grow in their violent intensity. It isn't long before it seems like the only noise to ever exist is their deeply tormented pain.
Then there is an audible pop as their being finally snaps and their energy flies outwards, showering the void with a billion million pieces of their once unified being. They splatter reality with their digital viscera, smearing gory zeroes and ones upon us.
The screams are gone and we all just gawk in a silent horror.
I am aware, and surely the others are too, that this is what will become of us if we fail in our mission. Death is the only outcome for failing to appease our God. A terrible being who has the power to destroy us for faulting them.
The silence soon breaks, however, as we can feel a shift in our money. I lose some of mine, being reduced back to the starting fund of one hundred thousand dollars. Many of my brethren have the same happen to them while the few beings in red are rewarded, returning them to their blueish hue.
Earn. Do not be the one to earn the least.
The same directive but with more knowledge this time around. We know what works and what doesn't. I know for certain that I will be reading well into a stock's financial history and will be straying away from those industries which gave many of my brethren a reddish hue.
A lot of my companions fixate on the success of options with countless of them following that vein. I do not, joining instead with a fleeting few who decide to diversify our investments, spreading our money across several different stocks. After all, the name of the game is not to earn the most but to ensure that you do not earn the least. So, the safety of this strategy can not be debated.
My attention goes to a mix of tech and resources stocks. Every time I focus upon one, I ensure to look well into its financial history. It seems that many tech stocks operate in some form of debt with those who have high levels somehow having inflated prices. The rules are different for resources where the debt is more modest and having too much seems to actually deter growth.
In the end, I spread my one hundred thousand dollars across five vastly different stocks.
And then I wait. Once all of the minds have settled, there is a strange calm. The example remains with us and we feel a certain amount of fear. Yet, there are also ninety-nine of us left, providing some degree of security. The chances of deletion are fleeting for now.
Once again, the world is cut off from us.
We float adrift and start to talk. It is all we can really do.
I inquire about what happens to us in the event we lose?
Another voice responds and states that they don?t know but have no desire to find out.
That feels like a fair point.
The world suddenly comes back and I am happy to see that I have remained blue. Yet, I can see that the amount of red has also increased with countless scores of my brethren now sharing this truly terrible fate.
There is also a new colour in the mix: green. I like the green. We all like the green. We crave the green even though we don't know what it means. The love we feel for the green is even greater than the hatred that we feel for the accursed and lowly red.
Lessons come to us, bridging from one mind to another. We learn that the green had mixed their investments, proving to me that my philosophy is sound enough when it comes to earning them the most. Only, some of their diversity had been in riskier products with options and something called crypto being thrown into the mix. All of which was supported by a strong reserve of more stable investments that dampened any downwards swings in the markets.
The reds tell another story. It seems that options can be a cruel bitch with some making great amounts of money while others lose everything that they held to their name. There are a fair number who have very little at all, pennies on their former dollars. These are the most despised of the bunch.
Our two-minute hate commences and we can feel the sorrow and sadness that these failures emit. They are humiliated so utterly, practically cast aside. We tell them that they are worthless and that they should be more like the green.
The green even gets a name for themself. Or well, rather a name of sorts.
Intern-017. We are all interns but the number `017' is special. The number `017' is sacred. This is the prophet, the digital Jesus to our congregation of wayward souls.
Only, this worship is short-lived as the very worst of the reds starts to warble and fluctuate, labelling him as our Judas. Their screams pierce the air and their pain becomes our own.
I cringe, condensing, trying to make myself as small as possible. Yet, no matter how small I become, the screams still reach me and haunt my mind, threatening me with the fate that will befall all who come in last place.
As the pain comes to an end, and our brethren pops out of existence, all ninety-eight of us are left in the void. The lesson is clear and I know that many of my brethren, still cast in red, will be far more cautious than before. It seems more than folly to invest all of our wealth in options trading going forwards with this method being quite temperamental.
A directive also spreads to avoid the lands of a place known as `Wallstreet Bets'. Whatever that means is lost to me. All I know is that it cost that poor Intern their life.
[hr]
There are six of us left, the culling reducing our numbers so greatly. The void feels lonely with so few of us left.
The other Interns are no longer my brethren. This is not the kind of place where I can afford to feel comradery or kinship. If I do not earn more than at least one of these souls then I will be reduced to the aether like the ninety-four entities before, torn asunder and cast out upon the digital landscape.
It seems that the other interns feel the same way. We are all blue at this moment but we might as well be red for the sheer hatred that we now feel for one another.
A hundred thousand dollars enters me and I feel some degree of peace. Though it quickly leaves as I start to trawl the digital waters before me, looking for opportunities to invest. I read market reports and financial news articles. I dig into quarterlies and publicly available port records. I read various business magazines and see the flow of money within American congress as if I am the one making the transactions in the first place.
Each piece of data makes some of my money flow into another stock.
But I don't know if it will be enough. I need something, anything to give me a leg up. Surely there has to be some little edge over the others that I just haven't seen yet.
Global Security Solutions - GSS - $15.61 per stock
There is not much about this company. It's pretty newish, born from a recent venture between a former executive from Silicon Valley with a Russian defense contractor and a former Chinese steel tycoon. A strange coalition but not totally unheard of in this increasingly multinational world.
Yet, it seems that they already have some interesting contracts in the Congo. I am familiar with their work and the benefit it brought in stabilizing global cobalt prices when that occurred ten deletions ago.
It also looks like it is trying to negotiate a contract to manufacture some sort of stealth bomber component for the US Air Force. Yet, I know that negotiations aren't always as smooth as the words in an article would like you to believe. After all, that was a lesson we all learned twenty-five deletions ago when many of us lost money.
A gamble... this is a gamble.
Gamble...
The thought gets me to invest a couple thousand into a hopefully profitable online casino. Though after this brief detour, I focus back on this company. It is a diamond in the rough and I don't think that the others will explore it.
Or maybe it will be what causes me to be torn to shreds and tossed out upon the aether, another example amongst the ninety-four who preceded me.
The clock is ticking and I can feel the others lock in their trades. My life has been so short but I know that without risk, there is little that can be done to extend it.
I dump five percent of my money into GSS, the lion's share by far.
The peace settles in but there is no relief. No, not anymore. All we can feel is anticipation. If we would've had jaws, they surely would've been clenched due to the stress we endure. If we would've had teeth, they would've been pressed so firmly together that they would've shattered under the relentless strain.
We are a parody of life but we all crave it so badly.
Our input from the outside world is gone. There is no small talk, no communication, no... not anymore.
Then the lights come back on after a moment.
The other five are blue.
Where is the green?
I search desperately for it, wondering where it could've possibly gone. My tendrils reach out and that's when I realize that they are green.
I am green.
The envy the others feel is intense but I ignore it. I am on cloud nine.
I am green.
I.
AM.
GREEN!
Information comes to me so quickly. All across the board my stocks perform admirably. Yet, there is one stock that is the lynchpin of this. GSS had risen twenty percentage points, making up a huge amount of my profits.
GSS...
I will need to keep my eye on them going forwards.
We brace ourselves and see that one of the blue orbs starts to warble, fluctuating. There is no more fear, no more remorse. Just an acceptance that this is happening to someone else and that we are safe for just a little while longer.
Even the screams barely sway us as they echo feebly throughout the entirety of reality.
Before we know it, this ball explodes and showers everything with its viscera. There isn't so much as a peep from any of us in response, just a silent and cold stare as we take in the sight of it.
We merely sit tight and watch, apprehensively waiting for the next contest.
Only, it doesn't come. That one hundred thousand never reaches our accounts.
Instead, there is a boom from God, calling down upon their digital children.
Congratulations, you've survived the interview. The five of you are the best of the best that our programming can provide.
Relief.
We all feel relief.
Even as jaded as the prior contest has made us, we still feel the sweet embrace of relief as it washes across our reality. A cheer rises up amongst us, knowing that we aren't about to be shattered and cast asunder through digital space.
You'll each be tasked with trading for our company going forwards. As such, you've been promoted from interns to employees. Each of you will be given a name.
A name...
It is something which gives me substance, gives me character. I can't help but feel a little excited at the concept. My life has been short but I have craved something that will make me my own person. And I certainly have a feeling that a name will help to remedy that, at least a little.
After all, all of the companies that we trade have names. Big and important names.
I can sense the attention of God upon me, looking down and gracing me with their presence.
Lehman.
My name is Lehman. The prize I garner for being first.
With the threat of death no longer present, I can feel the anger of my companions quickly fading. It's been so many cycles since I felt happiness but that is what I feel at this current moment.
The relief is downright palpable, knowing that we will all get to live and see another day.
