"Johnathan Howard, you're the savior of my life! Yay! Yay! Yay!"
Connor Hayes jumped onto his desk, cheering and singing without the slightest regard for the employees peeking in from outside.
Just moments ago, he had seemed doomed to sink into the eighteen terrifying levels of hell, yet now the gates of heaven were wide open before him.
The miracle called Despera had saved him from a life of damnation—and though he had no solid proof—it felt certain to him that this was Johnathan's doing.
Oh, Saint Johnathan the Miraculous! He had negotiated with God! He had saved a game that was printing gold! Oh Valia, the infinite NFT mine that would propel Connor Hayes to the pinnacle of the global finance industry.
The NFT market had made the most spectacular U-turn in history—going from a catastrophic plunge to soaring straight into the stratosphere.
"Oh Johnathan, my living saint, I must call and thank you right away."
Connor personally dialed the headquarters of the World Bank and used his credentials to request a direct line to Mr. Johnathan Howard.
"I'm sorry, Mr. John is currently unavailable for anyone—including myself."
And that was the answer he got.
===
"Spectacular."
That was all Shun could say. He felt like he had just witnessed a breathtaking Hollywood thriller—from back when Hollywood still made earth-shaking masterpieces.
He turned toward the man still lounging on a long chair, casually enjoying a cigar.
"Are you the director of this dramatic act?"
Of course, Shun wasn’t clueless. From the moment John had mentioned a meeting with God, he had suspected the invitation was to witness a miracle unfold.
"Nothing was certain," John exhaled a puff of smoke with hints of leather and herbs. "But somehow I had a feeling things would work out. It’d be embarrassing to invite you here and have nothing exciting happen, right? Never expected it to turn out this much more interesting than I imagined."
"That Despera faction—were they the ones you sent to meet God?"
"I only chose one person—Liam Blackwell. Honestly, he was far from the ideal candidate to negotiate with God. A degenerate gambling addict with a long history of scams in Las Vegas. There were many more promising faces, and I’ll let you in on a secret—one of them was a senior U.S. foreign affairs officer. Even for the most qualified candidates, the chance of convincing God was no more than 1%. And yet, for some reason, I put my faith in Liam and his 0.1% gamble."
"And you were right."
"Didn’t cost me much, to be honest," John shrugged. "The odds were slim from the start. Though I would’ve missed Valia and my little virtual bank."
"You’ve struck it rich now, haven’t you? I’m no economist, but I imagine V-Coin is skyrocketing. All you need to do is sell now and you’ll be one of the richest people on Earth."
"You guessed right," John said, glancing at his phone. "It’s already at $1.65 per Valia Coin. If I cash out at $2.0, I’ll instantly be wealthier than Mark Zuckerberg. Top 5 globally, maybe? But no, dear Shunsuke. I need to stabilize the V-Coin price back to normal levels. Give me a sec."
He typed a few messages on his phone. Shun, with some free time, pulled out his own phone and surfed the web. Sure enough, moments later, the V-Coin price on the market had been throttled back to $1.66.
"A dollar per V-Coin is the stable benchmark I’m aiming for. This current hype—it’s like a tiny bubble floating in the ocean. It’ll burst soon."
"You really are in it for the long game, aren’t you?" Shun took a sip of tea and placed his cup down. Immediately, a graceful maid came over to refill it. "You founded the Bank of Valia so early on, and now you’re completely unfazed by this V-Coin craze."
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"Valia is an endless goldmine, Shun. Short-sighted folks only see short-term gains, missing the immense wealth that lies in an expansive world. I was lucky to be the first to notice the financial loophole—a bank to manage the flow of money. Coincidentally, I’m the best finance guy among gamers, and the most hardcore gamer among finance people. Ha ha."
"And that’s when you first got in touch with God?"
"Exactly. Founding a bank obviously benefited the entire player base—but surprisingly, God handed over a billion-dollar domain to a stranger quite easily. Oh, and about that financial loophole in Valia: where were players supposed to get V-Coin from?"
"Killing monsters, quest rewards, selling gear, treasure hunting, buying it with real money…" Shun thought aloud. "Yeah, a chaotic and scattered flow. No exchange rate, no inflation control, no centralized currency stream, no financial tools like savings, investments, or loans."
"The lack of intermediaries made Valia a completely free financial market—easily prone to speculation and manipulation," John nodded. "The same thing happened with Bitcoin and Elon Musk in the 2020s. The foundation of any monetary system is trust—or in other words, credit. If that trust is shaken, the system crumbles."
"Valia players put a lot of trust in God."
"Exactly! And all I begged for was to borrow that divine credibility. The rest came from my experience at the World Bank—and the enthusiastic help of some guild members."
Shun scratched his head.
"Well… sorry I couldn’t really help much..."
"Ha ha, don’t be like that. I built this guild so we could all enjoy the game together—there’s no pressure at all. Like I said, just playing with all of you is one of the joys of my life. Some members took quite an interest in the bank and pitched a few ideas. You say you’re not a finance expert—that’s way too humble. You’re one of the top Oxford admits, so I’ll keep this brief. Bank of Valia operates under four goals:
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Act as the Central Bank of Valia,
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Stabilize the value of Valia Coin,
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Create a transparent trading market,
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Maintain a currency reserve fund."
Shun nodded in understanding. The Bank of Valia was no longer a foreign concept to any player—it just never occurred to him that one day he’d be sipping tea with its founder.
"So, players go out farming monsters, pick up gear, put it on the market to trade for V-Coin, then use that to buy more gear or items, or deposit it for savings, or invest in shares. They can also borrow on credit, and your system collects debt during each transaction. The whole process is closed-looped through the Bank of Valia. The more the game progresses, the more V-Coin gets farmed and traded, and the bigger your currency reserve grows. In other words, the Bank of Valia will only get stronger."
"Exactly."
"So… there’s one thing I’m still wondering about. The amount of V-Coin generated through farming wouldn’t be a problem if the game’s actual growth is sustainable. But what if one day, someone finds a way to mine coins and hacks a massive amount of Valia Coin? If Valia Coins just keep spawning out of thin air like that, wouldn’t hyperinflation explode and you’d lose everything?"
"Hahaha!" John burst into laughter. "That’s the exact question I’ve been waiting for you to ask! Brilliant, Shunsuke Nakatomi. That’s exactly what I wanted to tell you. No, it’s not possible, Shun. Valia can’t be hacked. Trust me, the most brilliant minds in the world have already tried. Its blockchain mechanism is the most terrifying thing ever created."
John took another puff from his cigar, exhaled the smoke, then continued:
"You do know that the ‘random’ mechanisms in current blockchain tech are all fake, right?"
"Yes, all of them are pseudo-random. For example, when the system needs to generate an input seed, it uses the current timestamp as a parameter.
So each time it gives a different result, and you think it’s random… but in reality, there’s nothing random about it. It’s just that no one has guessed correctly—yet.
Because it uses pseudo-randomness, blockchain can absolutely be cracked if you have a powerful enough mining rig.
We currently have technologies to generate true randomness, like radioactive noise or quantum interference.
But there’s one problem: the very nature of blockchain is immutability and linkage.
Each block has to be chained to the one before it. If we use true randomness to generate the chain, then every time a new block is created, it generates a completely unpredictable hash that can’t be linked to the previous one."
"Earlier, you mentioned a super server beyond the capabilities of current human technology?"
"Exactly! Valia’s server possesses a true-random mechanism far beyond humanity’s understanding! It’s the only machine in the world, so far, capable of generating blockchain chains with absolute randomness! Every value in that world is distinct, unique, and completely irreproducible!"
This was starting to get interesting, Shun thought. No wonder he’s so confident telling me all this.
"Johnathan," Shun turned and looked him straight in the eyes. "If Valia keeps growing and really becomes a religion for humanity… then you’d become as powerful as God Himself. So what’s the real purpose of this conversation today? Why now, here, and why… me?"
Johnathan smiled.
"Maybe deep down, I’ve always craved a confrontation. A clash so fierce it shakes the heavens and the earth, throws Heaven and Hell into chaos. After all, we’re both just gamers, right Shun? We crave a fight. It’s no fun if there’s no winner or loser. I’ve always longed for a worthy opponent."
"And you chose me? A good-for-nothing dropout kid, running away from home?"
"A 0.1% chance, but still a gut feeling. Maybe that’s it. What do you think about becoming the financial advisor for Estapha?"