Before the Fall: Rise of the Apocalypse King-Chapter 45: The Billion Dollar Window

The glow of Ivan’s laptop screen was the only light in his dorm room. It was 2:47 AM, and while the rest of the campus slept or partied, Ivan sat hunched forward, eyes scanning lines of data, news reports, and press releases. His hands moved with precision — open tab, scroll, cross-check, close tab, repeat.

He had searching all night.

Key terms like "mineral merger 2029," "crypto-metal fusion," "rare earth blockchain," filled his browsing history. All the information was vague. Companies came and went, startups collapsed, billion-dollar projects disappeared like smoke in the wind.

Then he came across a article with the same names as he vagely remembered from his past life — TitaniumCore-X and MolTech Industries. Two metal giants that, for a brief moment in time, had stirred the financial world with rumors of a new metal alloy.

But the merger never truly happened; it was a deliberate stunt to manipulate investors and pump crypto coins connected to the fake tech.

He leaned back in his chair and exhaled, heart pounding. This was it.

The same play. The same coin. The same illusion.

And he remembered clearly what came next: A ten-second window where the coin’s value shot up 40,000%. It was so quick that only those who knew could cash out in time. In his past life, Ivan had been a nobody — watching from the sidelines as rumors swirled and giants fed on the clueless.

Not this time.

He transferred every last doller of his savings. It wasn’t much — around $4,200 — but it was all he had. The coin’s value was still low. Dirt cheap. Just like last time.

But Ivan knew it wouldn’t be enough.

Not if he wanted to make real money. Not if he wanted to build a safe house before the world collapsed.

After gathering all the information and sorting it out, Ivan finally let his tired body rest and crashed for the night.

---

Next Day

When he woke up, his eyes were heavy, begging him to sleep a little longer. But his mind kept pushing him—reminding him there was no time to waste if he wanted to reach his goals.

He dragged himself to the bathroom, washed up quickly, grabbed whatever was left in the mess for breakfast since he was late, and went back to his room, skipping all his classes for the day."

He scrolled through his contacts and called Rajeev, an old friend from different department in college.

"Hey, bro, wats up!," Ivan began casually.

Well, look who’s calling me today. Did the sun rise from the wrong side or what!

that an uptight citizen like you is talking to someone like me?" Then Rajeev laughed,

"And you only call when you need something."

"Right again," Ivan smiled. "You remember your roommate’s friend... the one who deals stuff on campus?"

There was a pause on the other end.

"You mean Zaid? Why?"

"I need work. Quick money."

Rajeev didn’t laugh this time. "You serious? You’re the last guy I expected to say that."

"I’m not the same guy anymore."

After a moment of silence, Rajeev sent him a number and a warning: "Don’t fuck around. Zaid’s not someone you can mess with."

----------

Three days later, Ivan was selling pills to party kids, stress meds to scholars, and powders to the rich brats from law department.

He wore a hoodie, kept his head low, and said little. Zaid watched from the shadows like a hawk, testing his new runner.

Ivan didn’t care.

He moved like a machine.

No hesitation. No guilt.

He wasn’t doing this for pleasure or power. He was doing this for that ten-second window — the moment that would separate gods from mortals.

Within a week, he had earned nearly $15,000. He funneled everything into the same coin.

The buzz online had already begun — whisperings of a new alloy, of a merger between MolTech and TitaniumCore-X.

News sites picked it up. Fake insiders posted graphs. Paid influencers shouted promises of "the next gold."

The sheep were running.

Exactly like before.

But only he knew the truth — the merger was fake. It was a setup. And when the bubble exploded, the coin would crash forever.

But for a few seconds, it would rise like a rocket.

----

The next few days passed by in a flash. News of the merger was all over the place, trending everywhere, and the company’s share prices started rising fast.

Everything was happening just the way he roughly remembered.

And then, the big day finally came—the moment of truth was here."

The day that would decide everything had come—whether he would rise as a king, ruling the world like a god, or stay the same pathetic loser he used to be.

There was no middle path. Only glory or nothing."

-------

He stayed up all night, watching the numbers tick. There was existment in the air — the kind of excitement before a storm hits. His dorm room smelled of sweat, coffee, and burning anxiety.

In the morning, Duro thought about asking if he wanted to come to class.

But when he saw him deeply focused on his laptop, he stayed quiet.

He just said, "Take care,"

and quietly stepped out, closing the door softly behind him.

After closing the door,he walked couple of steps and turned his neck towards the door.

Duro figured maybe he just needed some time alone to sort things out.

Everyone has their own way of dealing with stuff, he thought,

so he didn’t push it.

Then he simply turned around and headed toward his lecture room,

hands in his pockets, letting the silence fill the hallway.

---------

Then it came — 10:02 AM.

The coin price surged.

10x.

100x.

400x.

It was happening.

He didn’t blink. Didn’t smile. Didn’t cheer.

He clicked SELL ALL exactly at 10:02:08.

Then it stopped.

10:02:12 — the coin began to crash, a digital landslide of red numbers and panic.

Because in 10:01:30,In the morning, both companies released public statements, denying all the rumours about their merger.

It was as if they wanted to keep something hidden—or maybe buy more time.

But it didn’t matter to Ivan, the deed has already been done.😁

He refreshed his account.

His jaw tightened. His hands trembled.

$1.96 billion before tax.

After the deductions and fees — $1.52 billion remained.

He didn’t move for ten full seconds. His heart thumped like war drums in his chest.

Then he screamed.

YyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyAaaaaaaaaaaa!

A long, animalistic roar that echoed off the dorm walls. He jumped, danced like a madman, laughed like a demon, and sang terrible old Bollywood songs at the top of his lungs.

He was no longer a boy scraping pennies together for noodles and rent.

He was a billionaire.

---

That night, he rented out a private lounge in the city and called every friend he knew.

There was no explanation. No cover story. Just drinks, music, girls, and money.

They all assumed it came from drug work. No one asked. No one cared.

They partied like it was the end of the world.

Maybe, in a way, it was.

---

The next morning, Ivan woke with a splitting headache. The kind of pain that made his teeth feel too big for his skull. His dorm room was a mess of clothes, wrappers, and the faint smell of vomit.

He grabbed his detox bottle and took a long, bitter gulp.

He sat down at his study table and held his head, which had been buzzing nonstop.

It felt like a drum beating inside his skull.

Meanwhile, his phone kept lighting up.

Ding...

Ding...

Ding...

For a while, he just let it ring, eyes closed, trying to breathe through the noise.

After a few minutes, when the buzzing in his head started to calm down,

he finally picked up his phone and checked the notifications.

Most of it was junk — random spam, silly memes, birthday reminders he didn’t care about.

But one headline caught his eye.

"Four Unknown Billionaires Emerge Overnight in Sudden Crypto Boom"

His heart skipped.

He tapped the article. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

No names. No faces. Just a speculative piece about how an obscure crypto coin shot to insane highs before plummeting. Four massive sell-offs in that exact ten-second window. Four anonymous wallets. Four instant billionaires.

Ivan stared at the screen, lips curling slowly into a grin.

So he wasn’t the only one.

The others... the chosen ones.

"They’re here," he whispered.

His face turned cold. Voice sharper than frost.

"No matter who they are... no matter what they want..."

He stared at his reflection in the laptop screen.

"If they come for me, I’ll kill them. No mercy."

He stood there in his dark dorm room, bare feet on the cold floor, surrounded by empty bottles and scattered bills.

The world thought it still had time.

But Ivan knew — the countdown had begun.

And this time, he wasn’t watching from the shadows.

He would become the storm.

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Author’s note:-

Thanks for reading this far! If you’re enjoying Ivan’s dark journey from humiliation to power, let me know in the comments. Your feedback means a lot and helps me grow this story even stronger. Don’t forget to leave a review and share your thoughts—who knows, your words might shape the next twist!

See you in the next Chapter!

—Author

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