At precisely 9:00 AM, the U.S. stock market opened—the world's largest and most sophisticated trading hub.
Every single day, legends of wealth were written here.
Every single day, millionaires were born.
As soon as the market opened, the index surged rapidly. Countless traders were glued to their screens, poised to buy or sell at the right moment.
For many Americans, whose wealth was tied up in the stock market, the ups and downs of stocks determined their fate.
Suddenly, a trader noticed a strange line of code flashing across his screen. He rubbed his eyes and stared at the monitor, but there was nothing there.
"Must be because I stayed up too late last night..." he muttered, shaking his head in confusion.
But the next moment, his eyes widened in shock.
The stock he had just been trading began a catastrophic freefall—
5% drop...
15%...
30%...
50%!!
It was as if an invisible hand had slashed the stock price in half.
The trading floor erupted in chaos.
"What the hell is going on?!"
"Why is this stock plummeting?!"
"Is this some kind of national crisis?!"
"The freefall isn't stopping!"
"My stock is down 60%!"
Desperate cries filled the air.
...
At NASDAQ Headquarters, Office of Chief Executive Klent
Klent's office door was thrown open, and a frantic staffer rushed in.
"Sir! We have a massive problem!" he shouted, his face pale with fear.
"All stocks are in freefall! We've never seen anything like this before—not even during the Great Depression!"
Klent's hands trembled as he reached for a bottle of heart medication, spilling pills into his palm.
"Our tech team is investigating, and they... they found something..." The staffer hesitated.
"What did they find?!" Klent demanded, his heart pounding.
"Sir... it's an attack. Our system has been hacked. The crash is being caused by external interference!"
BANG!
Klent, who had just stood up, collapsed back into his chair, stunned.
"You... What did you say?!" His voice was hoarse with disbelief.
NASDAQ's trading system was one of the most secure in the world, protected by layers of top-tier cybersecurity. The data was stored on isolated servers, and no hacker had ever breached it before.
But now... it had been compromised.
...
In NASDAQ Server Room
A team of elite cybersecurity experts was furiously typing away, their faces dark with frustration.
"What's happening?!" Klent burst in, his voice strained.
"Sir, we have no idea," one of the lead engineers admitted. He was typing at lightning speed, yet his expression was one of utter despair.
"We've never encountered an attack like this before. The intruder isn't using traditional hacking methods—it's pure binary, just 0s and 1s, directly manipulating machine code."
"This level of attack is beyond anything we've ever seen..."
SLAM!
Another engineer punched his keyboard in frustration. "Our systems are completely compromised! They're controlling our servers!"
Klent felt a sharp pain in his chest.
"Sir, the entire market has lost 50% of its value! Our phones are ringing off the hook!"
Another staffer rushed in, breathless. "The SEC is demanding your presence immediately!"
Klent clenched his fists. He had millions of dollars in the market—this catastrophe was draining his wealth in real time.
"Shut the market down! Emergency halt!"
"Notify the banks! Freeze all wire transfers!" Klent roared.
...
NASDAQ Trading Floor—Pure Chaos
People were screaming.
"MY MONEY!!!"
"WHY IS EVERYTHING CRASHING?!"
"My one million dollars... it's down to half!"
"I CAN'T SELL ANYTHING!"
"I'M GOING CRAZY!"
Some traders collapsed, fainting from sheer panic. The trading floor was descending into utter mayhem.
...
Five Minutes Later
"Sir... we've tried everything. We can't stop the crash."
A staffer's voice trembled with helplessness. "And now, massive short positions are being liquidated. Funds are flowing out, and the banks can't do a thing about it."
Klent's face turned ashen. "What... what did you just say?"
"Sir... we have lost control."
Klent opened his mouth to speak, but his vision blurred.
His body swayed.
And then—
He collapsed.
As he lost consciousness, the last thing he heard was—
"Sir, the anomalous funds... have vanished."
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