"Don't touch him."
Adrian stared at Richard in disbelief.
"Then he'll only grow stronger."
Richard gave a faint smile.
"Let him."
He walked toward the large window behind his office. From the forty-eighth floor, Jakarta looked like a sea of light. High-rises stood side by side, while the vehicles below moved like tiny lines that never stopped.
"A man like Arga can't be destroyed with money," Richard continued.
"He's still too young."
"That's exactly why."
Richard picked up a glass of water.
"He still believes the world operates on logic."
Adrian said nothing.
"He believes good companies will win. He believes financial statements can reveal the truth. He believes that if he's smart enough, he can find whoever killed his father."
Richard gave a quiet chuckle.
"Let him believe it."
"Why?"
"Because one day he'll realize that the world is never that simple."
Richard handed Adrian a tablet.
"Keep an eye on him."
"How close?"
"As close as possible."
"And if he finds Orion Pacific?"
Richard stopped.
For the first time, his expression changed.
"If he finds Orion Pacific..."
He turned around.
"...contact me before he finds out who really owns it."
Elsewhere, Arga had no idea that conversation had taken place.
At six in the morning, he was already at the offices of Mahendra Investment Partners.
The office was still empty.
Not all the lights were on yet.
But Arga was already seated in front of three monitors.
The first screen showed stock movements.
The second displayed company reports.
The third showed a long list Nadia had compiled.
The names of companies connected to Orion Pacific.
Arga rubbed his face.
"Find anything yet?"
Nadia's voice came from behind him.
Arga turned around.
Nadia stood there carrying two cups of coffee.
"Not yet."
She handed him one of the cups.
"How many hours has it been?"
"Since three."
Nadia looked at the screens.
"Did you sleep?"
"A little."
"How long?"
"Forty minutes."
Nadia sighed.
"Are you trying to become a trillionaire or a corpse?"
Arga laughed.
"If possible, neither."
Nadia sat down beside him.
"I found something."
Arga immediately turned serious.
"What?"
Nadia opened a file.
"Orion Pacific doesn't buy stock directly."
"I figured."
"They use intermediary companies."
"How many?"
"Forty-three."
Arga raised an eyebrow.
"Forty-three?"
"And that's just the ones I managed to trace."
Nadia enlarged the diagram.
"The strange part isn't the number."
"Then what is it?"
"They all follow the same pattern."
She pointed to several companies.
"These companies buy assets when the price is falling."
"Like ordinary investors."
"Exactly."
Nadia shifted the screen.
"But three to six months after they buy, those assets surge in value."
Arga studied the data.
"That means they know something before the market does."
"It's more than just knowing."
Nadia met his eyes.
"They may be creating the conditions that make the price fall."
The room fell silent.
Arga leaned back.
"Market manipulation."
"Yes."
"How long?"
"At least ten years."
Arga stared at the screen.
For ten years, someone might have made good companies look bad, bought their stock at bargain prices, and then taken control of those companies when their prices rose again.
This wasn't merely investing.
It was a system.
And that system might have been operating for years.
"Who taught them?" Arga asked.
Nadia didn't answer.
She opened another file.
Inside were old documents.
They were dated nearly twenty years earlier.
Arga read the company name.
Then his expression changed.
"Mahendra Capital."
Nadia nodded.
"That was your father's company."
Arga stared at the document for a long time.
"So my father was part of them?"
"I don't know."
Arga stood up.
"Or maybe..."
He drew a breath.
"...my father was trying to stop them."
Nadia looked at him.
"That makes more sense."
Arga stared at the photo of his father saved on his phone.
For the first time, he began to see the past differently.
All this time, he had thought of his father as a successful businessman who died in an accident.
But perhaps the truth was far more complicated.
Maybe his father had discovered something.
Maybe he had tried to fight back.
And maybe that's why he died.
Nine in the morning.
The stock market opened.
GNT stock, which had briefly fallen to its lowest point several days earlier, was climbing again.
Opening price:
Rp410.
Arga didn't sell.
Dimas entered the room, panic written across his face.
"Arga!"
"What?"
"Did you see the news?"
"Not yet."
Dimas handed him his phone.
"Richard announced a buyback of GNT stock."
Arga read the news.
His eyes narrowed.
"How much?"
"Twenty percent of the outstanding stock."
Nadia immediately came closer.
"He wants to take back control."
Arga nodded.
"Or..."
He smiled.
"...he's setting a trap for us."
Dimas frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Arga stood in front of the whiteboard.
"Richard knows someone bought GNT stock when the price fell."
"He knows it's you?"
"Maybe."
"Then what?"
"He's driving the price up."
Arga wrote:
**410 → 600 → 800**
"When the price rises, small investors will jump in."
Then he wrote:
**FOMO.**
"They see a stock that was previously wrecked suddenly climbing. They start buying."
Nadia understood.
"And once the price is high..."
"Richard sells."
Dimas fell silent.
"So he'll make money off small investors."
"Yes."
Arga erased the writing.
"But he made one mistake."
"What?"
"He assumed I'd play the same game."
Arga opened the trading system.
"I'm not selling."
Dimas nearly shouted.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"What if the price drops again?"
"I buy."
"What if it drops fifty percent?"
"I buy."
"What if it drops ninety percent?"
Arga looked at him.
"If the company's fundamentals remain intact, I'll buy more."
Nadia smiled.
"So you're fighting Richard with his own money."
Arga stared at the screen.
"No."
"Then what are you doing?"
"I'm making him think I'm stupid."
The next two days became an invisible battle.
Richard bought.
Arga bought.
Richard sold.
Arga absorbed the selling.
The price rose.
Then fell.
Then rose again.
No one knew who was behind those transactions.
The media began referring to a "mystery investor."
Several analysts started speculating.
Some said foreign capital had entered the market.
Others said a major company was accumulating stock.
No one realized that a twenty-eight-year-old man was sitting in a small office with Rp120 billion in capital, fighting an investment group worth tens of trillions.
Day five.
GNT's price reached Rp620.
Arga checked his ownership report.
"How much?"
Raka answered from the computer.
"We now own 8.4 percent."
Dimas shot to his feet.
"Eight point four?"
Arga nodded.
"How much capital have we spent?"
"Sixty-seven billion."
Dimas laughed nervously.
"We've spent more than half our capital."
Arga remained calm.
"We're not finished."
Raka looked at him.
"Target?"
Arga answered without hesitation.
"Ten percent."
Nadia gave him a sharp look.
"Ten percent means we'll become one of the largest shareholders."
"Correct."
"And Richard will definitely react."
"That's what I'm waiting for."
That night, Arga received a call.
The number was unknown.
He answered.
"Arga Mahendra."
The voice on the other end was calm.
"You're advancing quickly."
Arga recognized the voice immediately.
Richard.
"I thought you'd call sooner."
Richard gave a quiet laugh.
"You know who I am."
"I do."
"And you know I'm buying GNT."
"I do."
"Why aren't you selling?"
Arga walked toward the window.
"Because I don't need your money."
Silence.
Richard spoke again.
"You're very much like your father."
Arga froze.
"Don't bring my father into this."
"Why not?"
"Because he's dead."
Richard laughed softly.
"That's precisely the problem."
Arga tightened his grip on the phone.
"What does that mean?"
"One day, you'll understand."
"Explain it now."
"It's not time yet."
The call ended.
Arga stood motionless.
Nadia, in the next room, watched him.
"Who was it?"
"Richard."
"What did he say?"
Arga didn't answer right away.
Then he said quietly,
"He said I look like my father."
Nadia fell silent.
"But there's something stranger."
"What?"
"He said my father left something behind."
"What?"
Arga looked at his laptop screen.
"I don't know."
The night grew later.
Everyone went home.
Arga was still in the office.
He reopened the flash drive his father had left behind.
There was one file he had never opened.
Its name was:
**FOR_ARGA_ONLY**
His hand stopped above the mouse.
He hesitated for several seconds.
Then he clicked.
The screen turned black.
A video appeared.
His father appeared again.
But this time, his expression was far more serious.
"Arga."
The man spoke slowly.
"If you've opened this file, it means you've already learned about GNT."
Arga leaned closer to the screen.
"I want you to listen to everything until the end."
His father drew a breath.
"Don't trust Richard Wijaya."
Arga froze.
"But don't consider him your primary enemy, either."
The video paused for several seconds.
Then his father continued.
"Richard is only the gatekeeper."
Arga frowned.
"Behind him is someone far more powerful."
A symbol appeared on the screen.
A black circle with the letter:
**K**
Arga stared at the symbol.
His father said:
"If you find this organization, don't fight them alone."
"Build your strength."
"Build your company."
"Build your wealth."
"Because only someone with enough economic power can fight them."
The video stopped.
Arga didn't move.
Then one final sentence appeared on the screen.
**"Become richer than they are."**
The screen went dark.
Arga stared at his own reflection.
For the first time, he understood the true objective.
He didn't just want revenge for his father's death.
He had to build enough power to confront people who couldn't even be touched by ordinary law.
And that meant one thing.
He had to become far richer.
Much faster.
The next morning, Arga gathered the entire team.
Dimas, Nadia, and Raka sat in the conference room.
Arga stood in front of them.
"I have a new target."
Dimas smiled.
"How much?"
Arga wrote a number on the board.
**Rp10 TRILLION.**
Everyone fell silent.
"We'll reach an asset valuation of ten trillion rupiah within three years."
Dimas nearly choked.
"Three years?"
"Yes."
"That's insane."
"It is."
Nadia stared at the number.
"How?"
Arga picked up a marker.
"First, we won't only play the stock market."
He wrote:
**STOCKS.**
Then:
**ACQUISITIONS.**
Then:
**TECHNOLOGY.**
Then:
**ENERGY.**
Finally:
**DATA.**
"We'll buy companies the market undervalues."
Nadia began to understand.
"Turnarounds."
"Correct."
"We'll buy troubled companies, fix their fundamentals, and increase their value."
Arga nodded.
"And we'll use the profits from one company to buy the next."
Dimas smiled.
"Compounding."
"Exactly."
Arga looked at them.
"We don't need a thousand victories."
He paused.
"We only need a few big wins."
Nadia smiled.
"And if we fail?"
Arga answered calmly.
"We learn."
"What if we fail again?"
"We get back up."
"What if we run out of money?"
Arga stared at the board.
"Then we start over."
The room fell silent.
Then Nadia stood.
"I'm in."
Dimas stood as well.
"Me too."
Raka sighed.
"If you've both gone crazy, I don't want to be the only sane person here."
Everyone laughed.
For the first time since founding the company, Arga felt that he wasn't alone.
But he didn't know that at that very moment, in another building, someone was looking at a photo of them.
A photo of Arga with Nadia and his team.
Under the photo were the words:
**TARGET: MAHENDRA INVESTMENT PARTNERS**
Then a message appeared.
**"Do we begin?"**
The answer came a few seconds later.
**"Not yet."**
**"Wait until he buys the next company."**
**"After that, destroy it from the inside."**
A name appeared beneath the message.
**K.**
Meanwhile, Arga stood in front of his office window.
He watched the morning sun.
He didn't yet know that the real war had just begun.
And when that war finally ended, his wealth would no longer be measured in billions.
Not tens of trillions.
Perhaps not even hundreds of trillions.
Because Arga Mahendra was walking toward something he had never imagined before:
**wealth powerful enough to shake the world market.**