122: The Burning Future

Ashen Earth Star, Hanhai Trade's data vault.

The faint blue cold light illuminated Su Li's pale face.

When the 'Prepare' command transformed into a crimson character leaping before her eyes, she instead calmed down with unprecedented composure.

Without the slightest hesitation.

"Highest authority authorization, Su Li."

Her voice echoed through the empty vault, crisp and firm.

On the holographic screen before her, the Interstellar Exchange interface switched instantly. A blood-red window flashing with warnings popped up—[High-Leverage Collateralized Loan].

"Warning: The loan you are applying for involves 'Civilization Foundation' class assets as collateral. Any default will trigger the 'Coordinate Exposure' clause. Please proceed with caution!"

"Warning: Your credit rating is insufficient to fully exempt risk. Default penalties will be raised to the highest level!"

Su Li ignored those warnings that sounded like wailing cries.

Her fingertips tapped lightly on the holographic keyboard in the collateral field.

Every character she typed felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

[30% Ownership of Grade-A undead crystal Output from Ashen Earth Star for the Next Ten Years]

This line of text was not just cold data.

It was the coordinates of her home, the future of everyone, and everything Chen Feng and she had built from the ruins.

It was the heaviest click of her life.

"Confirm," she whispered, pressing the final Enter key... "One hundred and thirty million, going twice!"

Inside Hecate's private auction house, the auctioneer's voice already carried the ecstasy of facilitating an astronomical transaction.

Just as he was about to call out for the third time—

"Alarm! Alarm!"

Inside the Omni-Dimensional Trade Alliance's mobile monitoring vehicle, a piercing scream suddenly tore through the tense silence!

A main monitoring screen in front of J was completely covered by a red storm representing abnormal data flows!

A financial flow analyst's voice cracked from sheer shock.

"Commander! An... an impossible signal has appeared!"

"Speak!" J's gaze instantly became incredibly sharp.

"A cluster of over three hundred dormant accounts... was activated simultaneously within 0.01 seconds! The amount of funds... the funds..." The analyst swallowed hard as he looked at the string of numbers still frantically jumping on the screen and said with difficulty, "It's immeasurable! It... it has crashed our monitoring thresholds!"

Inside the data vault.

The loan was credited in seconds.

A string of numbers long enough to cause vertigo appeared in Hanhai Trade's secret transit account.

Su Li didn't even spare a glance at the number.

"Initiate the 'Avalanche' protocol."

She immediately executed the second step of the plan.

The massive flow of funds, like the debris from a supernova explosion, was instantly shattered into trillions of tiny pieces of 'dust'.

This dust began a frantic, chaotic, faster-than-light transmission through hundreds of temporary shell accounts registered in different star sectors that appeared completely unrelated.

They triggered an unprecedented Avalanche in the data universe, aimed at using the most massive chaos to mask that single source.

"Trace it! Trace the source for me!"

J roared inside the monitoring vehicle.

His team and Su Li's 'Avalanche' protocol engaged in a race-against-time information war in the invisible virtual space.

"The target funds are flowing toward a shell company in the 'Cradle Star Sector'!"

"No! It jumped! Now it's in a smuggler's account in the 'Sea of Oblivion'!"

"Damn it! It jumped again! It's a ghost transfer nested thirteen layers deep!"

The tracking cursor jumped frantically between one shell account after another, failing every single time.

Ultimately, all tracking paths hit an invisible wall, pointing toward the same deep, massive, and impenetrable black hole.

"Commander..." The analyst's voice carried a hint of defeat. "The end of all clues points to the core encrypted server of the [Interstellar Exchange]. We... we can't get in."

J's fist slammed heavily onto the control console.

For the first time, he felt as if he were wrestling with an entire ocean.

"...Third time! Sold—"

The auctioneer's gavel was raised high, about to fall.

"Wait!"

A voice rang out.

Every gaze in the room snapped to the source of the voice.

The four-armed clan artisan Agent who J had been watching—the one who had previously given up on bidding—had raised his number plate again at some point.

His voice wasn't loud, yet it spread clearly through the deathly silent hall.

The new price he quoted directly doubled the Zealot's bid.

"Two hundred and sixty million."

The room fell into a dead silence.

The Zealot's face twisted into a terrifying shape due to extreme rage and disbelief.

In the monitoring vehicle, Shadow Chaser-J watched the target light point light up again on the screen. The anger on his face slowly faded, replaced by a cold, sharp smile.

He tapped the control console lightly.

"Finding the source isn't important anymore," he said to the analyst beside him. "What matters is, where did this money eventually flow to?"

The analyst reported immediately, his voice trembling with excitement: "Our target Agent's account! Commander, all the scattered fund flows eventually converged into his personal account! We've locked onto him!"

"Very good."

J stood up and straightened his collar as if he were about to attend an elegant dinner party.

"He is the one we're looking for. A mystery man hiding very deep, with... unfathomable financial power."

His voice reached the ears of dozens of Agents distributed inside and outside the auction house via an encrypted channel, cold and beyond question.

"Notify all field units. The hunt... begins."