Milo Ryker was eighteen and already in deep shit. The kind of shit that makes your mom cry and the internet throw a party.
Courtroom packed like a rock concert. Flashbulbs popping. Cameras zooming in like they were filming the last episode of The Wire. Milo sat there, crisp suit, eyes sharp but tired. Like he knew he was both the star and the sucker in this game.
The judge leaned in, voice like gravel.
"How do you plead?"
Milo shrugged, smirk half-formed on his lips."Guilty... of being too clever."
The room erupted in disbelief, whispers, clicks of cameras. Milo could almost hear the headlines forming: The Stock Market Ghost, Kid Billionaire or Criminal Genius? The media was already carving him up for tomorrow's dinner.
Flashback: Eastbridge Detention. Two years of cold concrete walls and endless boredom. Milo's cellmate was a crypto junkie named Big Kev — muscle with a screen addiction, who somehow believed blockchain was the answer to everything. Milo taught Kev how to code; Kev taught Milo how to lift a bench press without crying.
Word spread fast — Milo wasn't just a hacker. He was the jailbreak guru, the underground legend teaching code between prison yard brawls.
When the judge dropped the sentence—two years—Milo cracked a grin sharp enough to slice steel."Just enough time to plan my comeback."
Cut to two years later.
Milo steps out, not the kid who walked in. The debts were real, but he had cash — fresh from a major entertainment company who paid big to buy his story. Enough to wipe the slate clean, and then some. Taxes? Milo had learned to play that game better than most.
Now he was diving into the stock market.
Officially? "Legit trades, verified and monitored."Reality? Insider tips whispered over burner phones, hacked data feeds flowing like black market liquor, risks so calculated they made suicide look like a gamble.
At a grimy rooftop party, glass in hand, Milo looked out over the city's cracked skyline — lights flickering like a dying machine. He toasted quietly to the night."Money's money. And this empire? It's just getting started."
Online, @GrimeLine was a ghost. A shadow stalking chatrooms and trading boards. Milo's digital self — more real to some than the man himself.