touchnovel Chapter 149: The Phenomenon
Chapter 149: The Phenomenon
The morning news broadcast inside a busy downtown café flickered to life, the audio cutting through the morning rush of espresso machines and clinking porcelain.
"...and checking our financial watch this morning, the national index continues to stabilize, heavily anchored by the aggressive recovery of the Meridian Group," the anchor announced, gesturing to a massive digital graphic of a soaring green stock line on the screen. "But the real story dominating the headlines for the fourth consecutive week remains the staggering rise of twenty-three-year-old Jake Rivers. Following the final consolidation report released by Golden Investments yesterday, the young tycoon’s personal holding company is now valued at an unprecedented one hundred and sixteen billion marks."
A middle-aged man in a tailored suit paused mid-sip, staring up at the television screen. He lowered his cup, shaking his head. "One hundred and sixteen billion. A month ago, I thought the papers were just running clickbait headlines. But it’s actually real."
Across the table, his colleague tapped his phone screen, scrolling through a verified financial journal. "It’s more than real. Look at the breakdown. The Meridian Group’s stock completely recovered its losses from that internal boardroom feud last month. Rivers’ sixteen-percent stake alone is back to its baseline value of sixty-four billion marks. Then you look at Aurelia Capitals—they finished absorbing Julian Sterling’s construction subsidiary and the Meridian construction unit. They’ve essentially built a monolithic construction empire in thirty days. Aurelia is valued at one hundred and ten billion now."
"And Rivers owns twenty percent of Aurelia through Golden Investments," the first man muttered, pulling out his calculator. "That’s another twenty-two billion right there. Plus the Apex Plaza tower he bought outright, and all his hospitality and tech subsidiaries... The kid is literally twenty-three. Didn’t he just walk across a graduation stage a month ago?"
"He did," the colleague said, a mix of awe and mild envy in his voice. "The youngest billionaire in the history of the country. People are calling him a generational anomaly. The financial sector hasn’t stopped talking about him for thirty straight days."
A few miles away, inside a university library lounge, a group of final-year students huddled around a laptop, ignoring their open textbooks.
"Look at this thread on Twitter," one of them whispered loudly, turning the screen so the others could see. "The hashtag #GoldKing has been trending globally for three weeks straight. Someone just started a dedicated fan page on Instagram called ’RiversWealthArchive’ and it already hit two million followers this morning."
"It’s insane," a girl in a varsity jacket said, leaning closer. "My older brother went to college with him. He said up until seven or eight months ago, Jake was just a regular guy from a normal middle-class family. He didn’t drive a supercar, he didn’t hang out in VIP lounges, nothing. Then, out of nowhere, he starts hitting the gold market with absolute, flawless precision. Every single trade he placed was a jackpot."
"I saw a TikTok breakdown about that," a third student chimed in, typing rapidly on his phone. "They mapped out his timeline. He meets Adrian Vale at some university gala, right? Then right after graduation, he links up with Marcus Sheele, Leon Hart, and Noah Chen. The five of them put up fifty million marks each to form Aurelia Capitals. While everyone else was looking at the tech sector, Jake used his holding company to systematically dismantle Sterling Infrastructure’s entire footprint. He literally re-engineered the whole real estate and construction landscape of the country in a matter of weeks."
"He’s an absolute idol," the guy with the laptop said, eyes wide as he scrolled through thousands of comments under a viral video of Jake leaving the Apex Plaza. "Look at the comments. ’Teach us the way, King.’ ’Bro found the infinite money glitch in real life.’ There are literally online communities dedicated just to analyzing his style, his watch, and trying to guess what commodity he’s going to buy next."
"It’s because he didn’t inherit a legacy empire from birth like the Vales or the Sheeles," the girl noted. "Sure, the papers found out his family had some hidden historical connection to the Meridian Group, but Jake carved out the capital himself on the trading floor. He’s twenty-three and he’s out-maneuvering sixty-year-old institutional directors who have been in the game for decades."
Meanwhile, the digital sphere was in a state of absolute frenzy. Across various popular message boards and finance subreddits, the speculation showed zero signs of slowing down.
u/AlphaTrader99: Can we talk about the absolute galaxy-brain move of Jake Rivers buying the Apex Plaza for 20 billion marks when it’s valued at 21 billion? He literally squeezed out a billion marks from the seller. Who does that?!
u/MarketMage_: It’s the Aurelia Capitals consolidation that blows my mind. Taking over Sterling’s construction subsidiary AND the Meridian unit for dirt cheap? That’s not just trading; that’s predatory architecture. The Vale, Sheele, Hart, and Chen families provided the institutional muscle, but multiple insiders are saying Rivers was the tactical brain behind the entire squeeze.
u/CryptoWhale_22: Forget the corporate stuff, look at the fan pages. There are literally people creating ’Gold King’ aesthetic compilations on YouTube. The guy doesn’t even do interviews! He hasn’t released a single statement to the press in a month, and it’s making his mystique ten times bigger.
*u/Finance_Fix: At 23, his net worth is 116 billion marks. That makes him the youngest self-made billionaire on the continent. Let that sink in. A month ago he was just a graduate. Today, if he withdraws his liquidity from any tier-one bank, the local currency would actively stutter.
As the evening approached, the television screens in a high-end sports bar downtown were still tuned to the late-edition financial wrap-up.
A group of corporate interns stood by the counter, watching the news anchor display a giant portrait of Jake Rivers next to the updated 116-billion-mark valuation graphic of Golden Investments.
"You think he’s going to stop here?" one intern asked, swirling the ice in his glass. "A month of non-stop growth. The Meridian Group is fully stabilized, Julian Sterling is completely out of the picture, and Aurelia Capitals is a titan. What else is there for him to buy?"
His friend laughed, shaking his head as he stared up at the screen. "Guys like Jake Rivers don’t just sit on a hundred billion marks and take a vacation. For the last thirty days, the entire country has been trying to figure out his next move. The banks are terrified of him, the public is obsessed with him, and every major conglomerate is checking their balance sheets to make sure they aren’t next on his radar."
He raised his glass toward the television screen with a grin. "The world hasn’t even adjusted to the fact that a twenty-three-year-old is running the market. Trust me, this month was just the prelude."
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The late afternoon sun beamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the top floor of Apex Plaza. Previously, Golden Investments had merely rented out the entire 45th floor as a temporary base of operations. But now that the multi-billion-mark skyscraper belonged entirely to the company, Jake had claimed the true penthouse level for his executive office, turning the building into the headquarters of his expanding empire.
Jake sat behind a massive, polished obsidian desk, leaning back in his leather chair. Sitting across from him were Alice Stone, his personal assistant, and the newly hired Head of Public Relations and Communications, Selena Dune.
Selena, a sharp woman in her late thirties wearing a tailored navy blazer, smoothed down a brief on her tablet before looking up at Jake.
"The metrics from the last thirty days are unprecedented, Mr. Rivers," Selena began, her voice crisp and professional. "Public perception of both you and Golden Investments is exceptionally high. The financial channels are still running daily segments on the Meridian stock recovery and the Aurelia Capitals consolidation. On social media, your engagement numbers are completely organic. Fan pages like ’RiversWealthArchive’ are pulling millions of followers, and the general public essentially views you as a self-made icon who out-maneuvered legacy institutions. The ’Gold King’ moniker has completely stuck."
Jake listened quietly, tapping a silver pen against the desk. "And what’s the consensus from the institutional side?"
"They’re cautious, but fascinated," Selena replied. "Because you haven’t released a single personal statement or corporate press release in a month, your mystique has grown tenfold. However, we are reaching a point where the lack of verified information is inviting extreme speculation from standard media outlets."
She paused, adjusting her posture. "Which brings me to my primary recommendation. I strongly suggest we organize a formal press conference, or at least a controlled, one-on-one television interview. Making a selective public appearance will allow the public to get to know a bit about you from yourself, rather than relying on financial columnists and internet theories. It puts us in control of the narrative."
Jake leaned forward, placing his elbows on the desk. He weighed the suggestion carefully. He didn’t care for fame, but Selena was right about controlling the narrative. A calculated move was better than letting the media dig blindly.
"An interview," Jake murmured. He considered it for a moment, then looked over at his assistant. "Alice, get in touch with Elias. Tell him to pull the contact information for that reporter from a month ago."
Alice blinked, looking up from her notepad in confusion. "A specific reporter? Which one? We’ve had dozens of high-profile journalists reaching out to our corporate line every day this week."
"He’s from the charity event last month," Jake explained, a slight, knowing smile appearing on his face. "When I arrived, the red carpet was packed with paparazzi and media veterans. None of them knew who I was. But he was the first and only one to recognize me out of the entire crowd. He did his homework before the event even started."
Alice’s expression softened into an understanding nod as she wrote down the instruction.
Selena Dune smiled, clearly satisfied with the direction. "A selective, exclusive interview with a reporter who already has a baseline connection is actually an excellent strategy, Mr. Rivers. It will feel far more authentic than a crowded press room. I will coordinate with Alice and handle the framework as soon as we have the contact."
"Get it done," Jake said. "But run the final list of questions by me before anything is scheduled."
"Of course," Selena said, standing up and closing her tablet. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Rivers."
Alice stood up as well, gathering her folders. "I’ll have Elias send over the contact within the hour."
"Thanks, Alice."
The two women offered polite nods and excused themselves, the heavy double doors clicking shut behind them and leaving Jake completely alone in the sprawling, quiet office.
Jake stood up from his desk and walked over to the glass perimeter wall, stepping right up to the edge to look down at the city. From this height, the bustling streets looked like tiny lines of light, and the surrounding skyscrapers of the financial district seemed much closer, almost at eye level.
He stared out at the sprawling horizon, his left eye giving a brief, faint tingle of warmth.
Over a month ago, he was just a recent college graduate holding a fresh degree and a hidden gift, stepping into a corporate world dominated by multi-generational titans. Now, he owned the very sky he was looking through, commanding a hundred-and-sixteen-billion-mark empire.
He let out a slow, quiet breath, a calm, unyielding focus settling deep into his chest as his reflection stared back at him in the glass. "I really have come so far in such a short time."
Jake smiled faintly to himself, turning his gaze back to the endless city below. He knew what the banks were thinking, and he knew what the public was expecting. But they had no idea what was coming next.
"But this is only the beginning."
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