Ethan recalled. Boss, do you recall Arise group. It was headed by two engineers who were. Throw not of their company. They were former Mini Soft employees.
Ethan's lips curved upward. He recalled.
Two name appeared in his mind.
Amit Kapoor.
10 years of experience. Talented. Undervalued.
Struggling.
"Perfect."
Stuart Clark
3 years of work ex
Another prodigy who was recently fired.
Both Amit and Stuart after losing job at mini soft where living together as roommates to save money. And we're planning to build some project. Who can guess these people will be pioneers of e-commerce and AI in future.
Ethan stood up called his secretary Elena. to bring these two people to him. He provided their phone numbers and asked Elena to book a two way ticket from New Haven Port to Frankstad and arrange them a stay
Ethan knew he need to
"Bring them in early…"
"Pay them well."
"Earn their loyalty."
Because Ethan knew something others didn't—
In the future…
Technology would dominate trading.
A combination of huge amount of silver can be summoned through system. Trading online. Especially the ETF trading will give him huge sales in near future.
When this happened, he can easily convert his points directly into money and then.
This wouldn't just be a company.
It would become—
An empire. A true behemoth of business world.
The following week, Amit and Stuart arrived at the new Neo Trading office for their interview.
It had been a long time since either of them had held steady employment, so both were visibly excited. The opportunity itself felt different—quiet, remote, and strangely well‑prepared for something so new.
The interview panel was modest but unusual.
Secretary Alina handled the formalities, while Matthew—an experienced manager from the Silver Trading Group—covered operational questions. Reynold, another senior figure, observed silently. As expected, Ethan joined remotely through the communications system, his face hidden as usual. He asked only a handful of questions, but every one of them was sharp and deliberate.
Ethan already believed they were the right people.
Still, this was his first time recruiting them. In his previous life, he had never taken this step—certainly not so early. This time, however, everything had changed. Dennis's spectacular collapse and Robber's explosive growth had shifted the timeline forward by years. Ethan was no longer reacting to events—he was shaping them.
The interview ended smoothly.
Amit and Stuart were offered appointment letters on the spot and asked to join the following week. They accepted without hesitation. What truly shocked them was the compensation package—structured like that of a multinational corporation, complete with high salary, benefits, and relocation support. Even more astonishing was the offer of company-provided housing.
They left the office dazed and thrilled.
Normally, at this stage of his life, Ethan would have been struggling—helping his parents find better work or trying to stabilize his father Robert and Martha's failing farm. Instead, he was building an enterprise years ahead of schedule.
When Amit and Stuart officially joined the firm the following week, they finally met Ethan in person.
They were stunned.
The "boss" looked no older than thirteen or fourteen, though his large build made his age difficult to guess. Still, the pay was excellent, the location inexpensive, and steady work was rare. They buried their curiosity and focused on the job.
That decision paid off almost immediately.
Ethan presented them with a comprehensive project plan for launching an e‑commerce platform dedicated to silver bullion trading. The document was shockingly detailed—covering website architecture, product listings, user ID systems, access controls, payment integration, customer support workflows, marketing strategies, and dozens of small but critical details most startups overlooked.
Alongside the plan was extensive technical documentation.
What surprised them even more was their work environment.
Each of them was given a high‑end workstation—hardware they had previously only seen in major MNC offices. The company also maintained a digital technical library stocked with the latest manuals and programming books, many of them prohibitively expensive. Ethan had arranged everything before they arrived, spending nearly $200,000 without hesitation.
Amit and Stuart realized something important that day:
This was not a normal startup.
With Ethan's guidance and the exhaustive preparation already done, development moved rapidly. Within two months, the first internal build of the website went live. After successful internal testing, they moved into beta.
Ethan spared no expense on marketing.
Through the XOR marketing network, news spread rapidly that Neo Trading was preparing to launch a silver bullion e‑commerce platform. The announcement rippled through investment circles, trading communities, and even reached ordinary citizens curious about online trading.
The beta platform allowed users to explore the system, though no real trades were executed yet.
Three months after development began, the beta site opened to the public.
The response was overwhelming.
Day one: 50,000 users End of week one: nearly 200,000 visitors End of month: close to 500,000 visits Registered users: over 100,000
For that era, it was unprecedented.
After three more weeks of refinements based on feedback, the final version went live.
The platform felt decades ahead of its time—fast, fluid, lightweight, and intuitive. It offered real‑time assistance, simple onboarding, and seamless navigation. Even Amit and Stuart were amazed. The technology itself wasn't impossible, but the understanding of user behavior was far beyond the norm.
It spread like wildfire.
Within a month of launch, silver bullion trading volume doubled.
Soon, one million dollars of silver was being traded monthly. By the following month, volume rose to 1.5 million, with one million executed through the website and the remainder via legacy local contacts.
Ethan then merged the traditional Silver Trading Group and the e‑commerce division into a single, unified operation. Most transactions moved fully online, though offline purchasing remained available. Direct call numbers, payment IDs, and a real‑time assistant feature were integrated into the website—allowing users to connect instantly with staff.
This model would become standard years later.
For now, it stunned the industry.
Within three months, monthly trading volume hit 2 million units. At six months, 3 million units per month became the norm, yielding a net profit of approximately $610,000 per month after expenses.
Roughly 20% of traded silver automatically flowed into secured physical reserves, backing Neo's silver ETF products. A nearby vault handled storage until Ethan negotiated directly with a government bank.
The bank—designed to attract large corporates that never came to this remote region—was more than willing. Neo Trading became its first major corporate client. A massive secure vault was leased on favorable terms, and all legal contracts were signed within days.
That night, Ethan opened his system interface.
A blue holographic panel shimmered into view:
Assets
Liquid Cash: $4.8 million
Office (2,000 sq. ft.): $300,000
XOR Shares (35%): ~$9 million
Other Assets (Neo Trading valuation, vehicles, misc.): ~$1.5 million
Total Net Worth:~$15.6 million
Ethan's fingers tapped lightly on the desk.
"So even without acquiring new shares," he murmured, "their value has risen this much already."
RO2's voice chimed in smoothly.
"Boss, the original XOR owners are extremely satisfied. You gave them complete technical freedom, and the company's valuation has grown beyond expectations. Ironically, even without majority ownership, they now possess more wealth than before."
RO2 chimed in
"A perfect win‑win situation."