Ethan didn't answer Victor Liang immediately.
The call had ended minutes ago, but the silence in his apartment still felt heavy.
Outside, the city was waking up.
Cars moved slowly through the morning traffic. People rushed to work with coffee cups in their hands.
Normal life.
But Ethan's life had stopped being normal the moment the future phone appeared.
He looked back at his laptop screen.
Helios Technologies — $2.51
His account balance refreshed.
$101,283
Six figures.
The number made his chest tighten.
One week.
That was all it had taken.
One week to turn a lucky prediction into real money.
But now Victor Liang had called him personally.
That meant something important.
He was no longer invisible.
Ethan closed the trading platform and leaned back in his chair.
If powerful investors were already paying attention, continuing to trade the same way would be dangerous.
Every trade left a trail.
Every transaction could be traced.
Sooner or later someone would start asking questions.
And Ethan didn't have good answers.
He glanced at the mysterious phone lying on the desk.
Still silent.
Future Ethan hadn't sent anything since the warning.
Money attracts attention.
That part had already come true.
Which meant Ethan needed to think differently.
Not like a student.
Like an investor.
Or better yet…
Like someone building something bigger.
He opened a blank document and started typing.
Step One: Stay Invisible.
If his trades kept attracting attention, he needed a way to hide them.
Not illegal.
Just… less obvious.
Multiple brokerage accounts.
Different trading platforms.
Smaller positions spread across different assets.
No single trade big enough to raise alarms.
Ethan nodded slowly.
"Diversification isn't just about money," he muttered.
"It's about hiding."
He continued typing.
Step Two: Separate Yourself from the Money.
Right now everything was in his personal trading account.
That was risky.
Very risky.
If his profits kept growing, the numbers would eventually attract regulators, analysts, and journalists.
But if the money belonged to a company instead…
A private investment company.
Then the trades wouldn't look strange.
They would look professional.
Ethan opened another browser tab.
How to register a private investment company.
The process looked surprisingly simple.
A small corporation.
A legal structure.
A separate business bank account.
From the outside, it would look like a normal investment firm.
But Ethan knew the truth.
It would be something else entirely.
A vehicle.
A shield.
A way to move money without revealing the person behind it.
He typed another line into his document.
Name: Pending.
He stared at the empty space.
Then a thought appeared.
A word from one of the future phone messages.
Aurora Capital.
The mysterious firm accumulating Helios shares.
The one controlled by Alexander Vale.
Ethan smirked.
"No," he said quietly.
"Let's not copy them."
He thought for another moment.
Then he typed two words.
Horizon Ventures.
The name felt right.
Because Ethan's advantage didn't come from the present.
It came from the future horizon.
His phone buzzed.
Ethan looked down.
A new message from the future phone.
The screen lit up.
Future Ethan:
Good.
Ethan raised an eyebrow.
"You're watching me again?"
Another message appeared.
You're starting to think like me.
Ethan leaned back in his chair.
"That's not comforting."
More text appeared.
The next stage requires structure.
Ethan glanced at the document he had just written.
Step one.
Step two.
Building a company.
Future Ethan already knew what he was planning.
Which meant something strange.
The timeline wasn't completely broken yet.
The future still remembered parts of what happened.
Another message appeared.
Helios was just the beginning.
Ethan's heart beat faster.
More text followed.
To build real power, you need more than trades.
The next line appeared slowly.
You need an empire.
Ethan stared at the words.
Empire.
That sounded insane.
He was still a college student living in a small apartment.
Yet the idea didn't feel impossible anymore.
Not with the future phone.
Not with the money he already had.
Another message appeared.
Start small.
Stay invisible.
And never forget the most important rule.
Ethan leaned forward.
"What rule?"
The final message appeared.
Information is the real currency.
The screen went dark again.
Ethan sat quietly for a moment.
The room felt different now.
Less like a student apartment.
More like the headquarters of something beginning.
He reopened his laptop.
Helios was still climbing.
$2.58
His account balance updated again.
$103,991
Ethan closed the trading window.
For the first time since discovering the future phone…
He didn't feel obsessed with the numbers.
Because something more important had just clicked.
Trading was just the first step.
Real wealth came from building systems.
Companies.
Networks.
Power.
And if the future phone continued giving him knowledge before the world discovered it…
He wouldn't just become rich.
He could build something far bigger.
A hidden empire.
Across the city…
Victor Liang sat inside his office, staring at a report on his desk.
The analyst across from him looked nervous.
"We still can't figure out how the student predicted Helios."
Victor tapped the report slowly.
"Prediction is irrelevant."
The analyst blinked.
"Then what matters?"
Victor's eyes narrowed slightly.
"What matters…"
"…is what he does next."
Because people who made one lucky trade were common.
But people who kept winning…
Were dangerous.
Victor looked out the window toward the skyline.
Somewhere in that city…
Ethan Carter was planning his next move.
And Victor Liang intended to find out what it was.