Chapter 4: Drug Index Numbers

Chapter 4: Drug Index Numbers
Han decided that he must first acquire a power even if it’s the most useless power in the universe, and the only obstacle in his way was the ten thousand GC fee. Like most people, the first place that Han thought of for making this sum was the Galactic trade. Selling Earth’s specialties on the dark net could fill the price difference.
So, Han started focusing on his big dream of making Galactic coins. He soon realized, however, that galactic trade was not as easy as he had first thought. Looking at the entire galaxy, Earth had one of the prettiest natural environment that is also optimal for living. However, in comparison to the other planets, its resources, products, and production capabilities are many tiers below the average level. Up until now, there is still a large deficit in trade with other, more powerful planets. Even the United Government is trying hard to export more goods in exchange for those valuable Galactic Coins. Currently, the only few industries that can generate revenue for the United Government were tourism, handicrafts and a few more. Besides, the Galactic Dark Net was where weapons, drugs, and other outlawed merchandise were traded. If someone started selling things like handicrafts, people will take one look and laugh their butts off.
After wasting around two days, Han was exhausted and fell onto the sofa. He turned on the TV and watched some news to give his brain a break. Spending a whole week on the dark net, he had missed a lot of current events on Earth, and the majority was relevant to the espers. Using the average ratio of one over one hundred thousand, the 15 billion population on Earth has around 150 thousand espers, and these people were the main force of protection for Earth. However, due to the lack of a higher governing power for these espers, they were also a main source of chaos on Earth.
It’s simple, let’s say that there was an esper with pyromancer capabilities that could blow up a concrete wall with just a casual wave of his hand. Do you think that he will just live humbly as a normal citizen and accept those insignificant monthly wages, or was it more likely for him to rob a bank and become a millionaire overnight? It’s obvious due to the super abilities people possess, espers usually don’t care about rules and laws. Knocking a pretty girl unconscious and bringing her home only to throw her out after a few days, or teaming up to rob banks were very common situations.
There are United Government troops stationed in the cities so the security is okay, but the suburban areas have become the heaven for these lawless criminals. The large number of criminals are enough for the United Government and the Superpower Control Centre to fret over.
It has been concluded that the only force that can go against espers are their own kind, so the United Government invests heavily to hire as many super powered individuals as they can to maintain order and peace. But, the worst thing is, some espers use police/soldier duties as cover, and they wear their uniforms during the day and takes them off at night to reappear as the core members of major gangs.
In conclusion, the Super Power Era is a chaotic era. Crime rate is high, and Earth is soon facing the possible fate of being demoted into a colony. The internal conflicts and the external threats are the causes of countless sleepless nights for the people of the United Government.
The News segment finished, and Han started watching the financial reports. Two incidents were being broadcasted, relating to the bankruptcy of all across the world. Due to the chaotic state of Earth, the Dow Jones Index dropped another 4%, the Deutsche DAX Index dropped 3%, and the Tokyo Industry Index dropped 6%.
“Index?!” Han soon thought of something.
Index is a commonly used financial tool, not only is there stock index, there are also resource index, inflation index, and all other kinds. Even the price of instant noodle is an important factor when calculating the United Government citizens’ basic food price index.
Han didn’t find anything similar to index numbers when he was browsing the Dark Net, and for someone that studies economics, the existence of index numbers are crucial for everyone. For instance, factories can lower production when index values drops, indicating a decrease in demand. For the citizens, an increase in product price index means that the food prices are going up and people should start storing food at home. If there is a weapon industry index, it can clearly display what type of firearm was currently the most popular, as well as the change in price and trade volume. This was all valuable information to weapon manufacturers. For example, if the sale volume of weapons spikes, this could be used by people to predict that a war between planets or an open fight between factions was going to take place.
Then, Han realized why Index numbers don’t exist on Dark Net: according to the rules, any forms of search engine or data extracting tools are not allowed to be used, but calculating the index requires extensive research of information on many prices, trading information and then compiling everything in the end. This just means, if someone wants to come up with a price index on dark net, they will have to visit over hundreds of websites every day, manually note down all prices and calculate everything by hand. In the dark net world, without the assistance of search engine and data extracting tools, if someone wants to publish index numbers then the stupidest method must be used, which is very time and energy consuming.
Han actually got very excited, “So what if it’s a stupid method? Every coin I make on the dark net counts!” According to the current conversion rate, 1 Galactic Coin converts to 1250 United Coin. So, even if Han goes outside to work, 1000 UC per month is already good enough. But, if he’s lucky and makes a couple GC on the GDC, Han would be considered a high-income individual by the United Government.
One of the four geniuses of Hong Kong, Cai Lan, once said, “Humans are strange, as soon as they become hard working they will succeed.”
Han doesn’t have a super power and doesn’t belong to a rich family background, so if he wants to succeed, he needs to work a lot harder than normal people. Although calculating Index numbers will be a lot of hard work every day, if it’s not because of the workload being so overwhelming that no one was willing to do it, how can an ordinary guy like Han meet this kind of money making opportunity?
“If others think it’s tough, and that they don’t want to do it, then I will!” Han immediately jumped up from the sofa and sprinted towards the computer, his fingers started quickly typing on the keyboard.
Even the dumbest method still requires some skills, first of all using a pen to write down the power and sales volume is impossible because it lacks efficiency. The best way was to use his voice. The current voice recognition software has reached almost 100% recognition. Han just had to read out the numbers and the software would record everything. Of course, that won’t be enough as Han also needed an automated data processing program which allowed the recorded data to be automatically filled into a table and calculated in the background. Han coded a computer program that automatically records data via voice, then calculate and analyzes the data. From his proficient coding process, it looks like his computer background is really good, probably inherited from his mother.
With only two days, Han completed a program dedicated for calculating indexes. How it works is really simple, first voice recognition, then automatic recording, then deleting errors, followed by compiling and calculating data. Ultimately performing model analysis.
Now that the program is in place, Han needs to consider what product he should produce index numbers for. First of all the product must be a popular category on dark net, have large daily sales volume, significant fluctuation in price, where countless buyers and purchasing agents pays close attention to fluctuation in price for that product. That way, Han’s index number can be a huge hit.
Staring outside of the window a long time, Han smiled, and typed down the following words, “Dark Net Drug Price Index”.