I just asked GPT, "If I went back to 2012, should I buy Bitcoin?" and it turned into a novel lol

‌I was just talking about old Bitcoin prices, but then the conversation evolved into:
"What if it's not time travel, but just overwriting my past self with memories of the future?"
So, we wrote a novel together.
At first, it was just a typical "regression" story about wealth management, but it gradually starts going in a strange direction lol.
I'll post just the first episode for now.

1. The Observer

“Could you buy Bitcoin in Korea back in 2012?”

There was no real reason why I asked that.
It was lunchtime, I didn't want to work, and I had just seen an article about Bitcoin rising again.
If I had put ten million won in back then, how much would it be worth now?
It was the kind of thought anyone would have had at least once.

The answer on the screen was kind.
It was possible in 2012 as well.
Exchanges were inconvenient, but there was peer-to-peer trading and mining, and Bitcoin was only a few dollars at the time.

I tapped on my calculator.
“Then what if I had borrowed about ten million won and bought it then?”

The numbers appeared.
I let out a laugh.
“Man. If only I could really go back.”

Until that moment, I didn't know.
That someone was watching that conversation.

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I thought was strange was the ceiling.
Yellowed, discolored wallpaper.
Traces of tiny gnats stuck to the edge of the fluorescent light.
I stared at it blankly for a while.
It was familiar.
It was so familiar that it was actually strange.

I sat up.
My back didn't hurt.
That was strange, too.

I picked up the mobile phone lying next to the bed.
The screen wouldn't turn on.
I habitually pressed my thumb against it, then stopped.
There was a button.
A physical button.

I stared at it for a moment before pressing it.
A date appeared on the screen.
**Saturday, March 17, 2012.**

I smirked.
“It's a dream.”

I lay back down.
I had had dreams like this a few times before.
Dreams of going back into the military.
Dreams of taking an exam in a high school classroom.
Dreams of waking up in a house I used to live in.
Most of the time, something strange would appear after a little while.
Like clock numbers being upside down, or opening a door to find a completely different place.

So, I waited.
For the dream to break.
But nothing broke.

A car passed by outside the window.
A child cried somewhere, and I heard the sound of a vacuum cleaner from upstairs.
I could even hear the refrigerator motor kicking in.
Everything was excessively normal.

I picked up the phone again.
A Samsung logo.
A small LCD screen.
It was the phone I had used for a while before switching.

I opened the contact list.
There were names of people.
People I hadn't contacted in over ten years.
Someone who is now married with two children.
Someone who quit the company.
Someone who is dead.

My finger stopped.
The dead person.
I stared at that name for a while.
I almost pressed the call button, but stopped.
My heart suddenly raced.
Did my heart beat like this in dreams?

I went into the bathroom.
In the mirror stood my thirty-two-year-old self.
I had a bit more hair.
There were no wrinkles around my eyes.
I touched my face.
The man in the mirror touched his face, too.

“I've gone crazy.”

A voice came out.
It was a younger voice than I expected.

I turned on the computer.
I heard the boot-up sound.
On one side of the desktop, there were files I had forgotten long ago.

I opened Explorer.
I went to a news site.
I checked the date.
March 17, 2012.
Another site.
March 17, 2012.
Naver.
March 17, 2012.

I placed my hand over the search bar.
I thought about what I should search for.
Future.
2026.
Bitcoin.
Corona.

I typed a few characters and then deleted them all.
Of course, nothing would come up.
Instead, I sat still for a long time, tracing through my memories.

What was I doing during this period?
Company.
Boss.
Salary.
Home.
Friends.
Bank balance.

Surprisingly, I remembered.
I had memories of 2012.
And I also had memories of 2026.
The two were overlapping.
I remembered what I ate last night, and I also remembered the conversation I had with an AI during lunch fourteen years later.

Bitcoin.
2012.
Ten million won.

I leaned back in my chair.
“No way.”

A laugh escaped me.
At first, just a little.
Then it grew.
I laughed alone in my room for a long time.
It was so ridiculous that the first thing that came to mind in this situation was Bitcoin.

I had traveled back in time.
Fourteen years had vanished.
The world I knew hadn't even arrived yet.
And yet, my first thought was about a loan.

I logged into internet banking.
I checked the balance.
It was nothing special.
It was almost exactly as I remembered.

I looked for the credit loan menu.
My mouse cursor stopped.
Ten million won.

It was what I had said yesterday.
'What if I had borrowed about ten million won and bought it then?'

At that moment, the laughter stopped.
It was strange.
It was too accurate.
Why 2012, of all years?
Why right after I said those words?

And above all.
Did I really come back?

That was the first question I thought about seriously.
If I had moved from 2026 to 2012, where did the "me" of 2012 go?

This body was definitely my thirty-two-year-old body.
I even remembered the location of my scars.
I knew what was inside my desk drawer.
I remembered what this body did yesterday.

If so, I didn't steal this body.
The "me" of 2012 was still there.
Fourteen years of memories were simply layered on top of it.

I stared at the monitor.
The situation that had been funny just a moment ago suddenly became chilling.

“I didn't come here,” I said softly.
No one answered.

“The memories came here.”

The room was silent.

That day, I didn't buy Bitcoin.
I didn't take out a loan either.
Instead, I bought a notebook.
I chose the most ordinary college notebook from a stationery store near my house.
I wrote the date on the first page.
**March 17, 2012.**

Below that, I began to write things I remembered with certainty.
I intentionally excluded major events.
The President.
Wars.
Major disasters.
Those were problems for later.

First, I had to check if I was crazy.
Things I could verify within a few days.
Sports results.
Celebrity news.
Things that would happen at work.
What a friend would say.
Next week's stock prices.
Very trivial things that wouldn't change the outcome even if I influenced them.

I wrote down twelve things.
And I closed the notebook.

The first one was two days later.
During a meeting, the department manager spills coffee.
It was a trivial memory.
I didn't even know why I remembered it.
But I did.

Monday, around 10:20 AM.
The meeting room.
The manager bumps into a paper cup while flipping through documents.

I went to work early on Monday morning.
The meeting began.
It was 10:00.
10:10.
10:15.

Had I remembered incorrectly?
I began to feel relieved.
Was it a dream after all?
Or was it a memory I had manufactured?

10:21.
The manager flipped through the documents.
His elbow bumped the paper cup.
Coffee spilled all over the table.

“Ah, damn it.”

People stood up.
They looked for tissues.
Someone laughed.
I didn't move.
The sentence I had written in my notebook flashed through my mind.

**The department manager spills coffee during a meeting.**

The second thing that day was correct.
The third on Wednesday.
The fourth on Friday.

A week later, eleven out of the twelve were correct.
The one that was wrong was an event I had intervened in.
Knowing a friend would call, I called them first.
So, that friend's call never came.

Next to the last item in my notebook, I wrote a line.
**The future is not fixed.**

After thinking for a long time, I wrote one more line below it.
**It changes if I touch it.**

And a little later, I added a final sentence.
**Then, how far am I allowed to touch it?**

I didn't know then.
How many times I would end up rewriting the world to answer that question.
And that, in the end,
I would stop trying to fix the world.

End of Episode 1!
If there is a good response, I will post the continuation.