Novel Full Chapter 630: A Special Kind Of Dilemma
Chapter 630: A Special Kind Of Dilemma
While the world was talking about Liam’s birthday and different companies’ account were replying with happy birthday messages to the announcement, Liam was having a rather uninteresting day.
After he woke up that morning, he had done nothing. Lucy had made sure that he won’t be able to do anything at all throughout the day, except preparing for his birthday party which will be later in the evening. This was especially so, since she was the one handling everything.
Liam was currently chatting with his friends and they all were talking about how their parents would meet him for the first time tonight.
They also talked about what they would give Liam as gift and how difficult it is to think of what to give someone who already owns everything there is to own, and more.
Liam had replied to the message, saying that they shouldn’t overthink it and just give him anything, that he would appreciate it.
Whitlock was the one with the most dilemma, as he had no idea how to process the fact that he was invited to Liam’s birthday party. Also, he had no idea what to prepare for Liam, considering his status.
After the livestream, JP Morgan’s evaluation rose from $2.3T to $2.9T, and the volume of requests they were receiving increased dramatically, even with the review the company was under.
It went to show just how much influence Liam held. The other institutions and individuals didn’t care what the government say. The government didn’t hold as much leverage as Liam. If he decided to release the room-temperature quantum chips alone, the whole world will be overturned. What about if he decides to mass produced gold, silver, diamonds and other metals and precious stones with their molecular assembler, who can stop them?
There was also the issue of his family and how he used their connection to purchase a device that should originally cost $70 trillion, which represents roughly a fifth of everything the entire global financial system is worth. But he bought it for $5 billion.
Just the molecular assembler alone was an advantage and monopoly that no one else in the world holds, because even if the seller for the device is known and accessible, the world won’t be able to afford it even if every companies and country pool funds together, something which is already in impossible in theory alone.
Naturally, the rest of the world was curious about who Liam’s actual family is and just how powerful they are. What Liam revealed during the livestream already painted an image but they want something more.
And because of JP Morgan’s connection to Nova Technologies, they all assumed that the only way anyone can get a close up information on Liam was through the company.
But one of the main reason why JP Morgan’s valuation rose again was because in an uncertain world created by Nova Technologies’ disruptive behaviour and products, the financial institution was the safest thanks to their connection.
With all these benefits that the company has received, Whitlock really had idea on how he was going to thank Liam.
Yes, he had stuck his neck out for Nova Technologies and Liam during its first months, and it could be said that he’s reaping the benefits of his actions but he has gained so much that he’s starting to feel embarrassed.
The company’s valuation had rose from approximately $900 billion to its current valuation, all within the space of seven months, thanks to Liam.
Whitlock sat in his office, mulling about what to give Liam, but he wasn’t the only one as Daniel was in the same situation, just not as serious.
But the rest of Bellemere Family Office staff, their families and also those of the mansion staff were all lost on what to bring to their bosses birthday party. They were even confused on what to wear as they had never in any lifetime thought that they would actually truly be invited to such an event.
They had fantasized about it but reality and fantasy differ greatly. This was mostly so for the mansion staff. They had been from Liam from before the launch of Nova Technologies, though it took months before they found out that Liam was the owner.
As people close to him, they understood his character but the truth was that they had no idea the kind of people they will meet at the party, and they were worried about how they will carry themselves because they understood that their presence at the party is representing Liam.
They also understood that this is a party that everyone who is someone in the world would be scrambling to get an invitation into. Even the President and CEOs of the biggest companies, and organisations in the world, and heads of state of the world’s biggest economies would do almost anything to gain access into the party.
But they had received the invitation as easily as anything else. And it said a lot about how much Liam cared about them. The mansion staff felt this emotions more. For the Bellemere Family Office staff, they felt that it was surreal.
While those invited to the party, from Liam’s friends to Whitlock were dealing with different dilemma or another, media houses and the rest were dealing with their own.
After the announcement dropped, congratulations started flowing in but so did questions from media houses on whether a party would be held, and if they can have access to take pictures or small footage for the public.
They were also asking about the attendance list and if Nova Technologies intends to invite the world’s dignitaries to the occasion.
Naturally, they received no reply but it didn’t do anything reduce the questions. It even got to a point that some media houses did a breaking news segment on it.
It was understandable as it’s been almost a week since the livestream, meaning that everything Liam and Nova Technologies was doing, was now in the limelight.
The media houses weren’t the only one asking questions, as after the announcement dropped, as multiple offices of people in high positions started sending formal inquiries to Whitlock directly and the more desperate ones to Bellemere Family Office.
The inquiries came from even offices of Heads of State and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, all asking on when a birthday party would be held and if they can attend.
Whitlock smiled when he saw the messages but he didn’t bother to respond, because he was sure that they will ask him if he was invited and even if he tells them no, they won’t believe him.
Whitlock also understood that the reason why they all want to be invited was because being in that room meant something that no formal meeting, no diplomatic channel, and no institutional relationship could replicate.
It was not social. It was strategic dressed as social, which was a distinction Whitlock understood precisely because he had spent his career in rooms where the same thing happened at smaller scales.
Every head of state and Fortune 500 CEO sending those inquiries was operating in a world that had shifted fundamentally in eight months and was continuing to shift.
LucidNet Finance launched in ninety days and would show every government’s actual fiscal position to every citizen simultaneously.
The molecular assembler existed and matter was no longer a constraint that applied to Nova Technologies. Three scientific principles disclosed between a gold demonstration and a diamond demonstration were already redirecting research programs across nine countries.
The clinical trial was still running and its outcomes were trending in a direction that would make the current pharmaceutical treatment model obsolete.
Every person sending those inquiries understood, at some level of their thinking, that the world they had built their power inside was being rebuilt around them. And the only person who knew with any certainty what it would look like when the rebuilding was finished was turning nineteen today.
Being in that room wasn’t about the birthday. It was about proximity to the only person whose understanding of the next twelve months was not a projection or a model or an analyst’s estimate. It was certainty. And certainty, in a world that had stopped producing it, was worth more than anything any of those offices could offer through formal channels.
Whitlock had understood this from the beginning. It was why he had taken the meeting eight months ago when Nova Technologies was seven weeks old and an institutional risk nobody had properly assessed.
It was why he had cooperated with everything lawful during the government pressure and nothing beyond it. It was why he had responded to Lucy’s invitation within a minute.
He had made his bet early and he had held it and the invitation sitting on his desk was what holding it looked like.
The heads of state and the Fortune 500 CEOs would not be in that room tonight. He would. And the gap between those two groups was not a gap of wealth or institutional power or political influence. It was a gap of trust, extended by one person, in one direction, at a specific moment, and not extended to everyone who might have wanted it.
He closed his email and looked at the window. The gift problem remained but he will surely solve it before it’s time to leave for the party. It doesn’t matter even if he has to ask help from his staff.