171: The final 48 hours

"Inventory! I need more inventory! Now! Immediately!"

Old Knife's roar still echoed in the command center, carrying the hiss of electric currents and the fever of victory.

On the giant star map, the green light dots representing Hanhai Trade's sales network had spread from a solitary point on Ashen Earth Star into a sparse but tenacious nebula across several star systems.

"Boss, this is the summarized sales data from the twelve hours following the Ramos incident." A young analyst's voice trembled as he handed a report to Chen Feng. "Sales... have increased by one thousand two hundred percent!"

"What about the production lines?" Chen Feng's gaze didn't leave the star map.

Lao Mo's dark face gleamed with oil, a mix of sweat and the excitement of exhaustion. "Report, Boss! Three shifts, people rest but machines don't! Productivity has been pushed to the limit! The brothers' eyes are bloodshot, but not one is willing to log off!"

"Haha! That's how it should be!" A supervisor who had just rotated off the transport line slapped his thigh. "I just got back from 'Broken Bone' Starport. Those bastards who used to ignore us are now calling us 'Gods of Wealth'!"

"Me too! Those small mercenary group leaders are chasing me down to stuff money in my pockets just to get their goods half an hour early!"

The entire command center was immersed in a near-manic joy. With an impossible gamble, they had forcibly burned a hole of their own through Giant Star Mining's iron curtain.

This was the taste of victory—intense, burning hot, with the salty dampness of machine oil and sweat, choking people to tears.

At the peak of this clamor, a cool voice rang out. It wasn't loud, yet it instantly suppressed all the noise.

"So, is this what we've won?"

Su Li stood before the star map at some point.

She didn't look at anyone, only extending a slender finger to swipe across the massive screen.

With her movement, the green nebula representing victory was covered by a layer of shocking crimson.

A giant timer, rapidly counting down, appeared in the center of the screen.

"What does this mean?" someone asked blankly.

"Manager Su Li, what are you doing?"

Su Li finally turned around. She pushed up the rimless glasses on the bridge of her nose, the lenses reflecting the cold light of data. Her gaze bypassed everyone and fell straight on Chen Feng.

Her voice was as calm as if she were reading a weather report, yet filled with an unshakeable determination.

"Everyone, our sales volume is unprecedented."

"This means our losses are also unprecedented."

The hubbub of the room instantly froze.

"According to my latest calculations," Su Li's voice in the deathly silent command center was as clear as a death knell, "comprehensively considering production costs, the provision for the 'tenfold compensation for one defect' promise, skyrocketing logistics expenses, and... the thirty percent profit paid to Old Knife and his team."

She paused, as if giving everyone time to digest this cruel logic.

Then, she pointed to the crimson countdown.

"Our cash flow will officially hit zero in 48 hours, 7 minutes, and 13 seconds."

"What did you... say?" The smile on Lao Mo's face froze.

"Impossible! We've sold so much!"

"Manager Su Li, did you make a mistake?"

Facing everyone's doubts, Su Li showed no emotional fluctuations. She just looked at Chen Feng and added the most fatal blow, word by word.

"At that time, we will be unable to pay a single bill, including the salaries of everyone here and every brother on the production line."

She nodded slightly, her tone even carrying a hint of polite indifference, as if she were attending a ceremony that had nothing to do with her.

"Chen Feng, congratulations on winning the market."

"The price is that we will have the grandest, most magnificent bankruptcy ceremony in the universe."

"Bang."

It was as if something had shattered in everyone's minds.

The ecstasy of victory, at this moment, was completely frozen into a crystal-clear yet incredibly heavy ice sculpture of despair.

---

Meanwhile, in the top-floor office of the Giant Star Mining flagship, the Kepler, several star systems away.

Hoffman's smile vanished for the first time.

His deputy almost tremblingly presented a market share chart before him, showing that the blue area representing Giant Star Mining had its edges eroded by a full fifteen percent over the past week.

"A bunch of lunatics..." Hoffman paced back and forth on the expensive carpet, his fingers tapping unconsciously.

"Manager, we must immediately implement price countermeasures! Or, let Commander Xing Zhan's fleet..."

"Shut up!" Hoffman interrupted him, his eyes dark and sinister. "Do you think I can't see this is a final act of madness?"

He stopped walking, regaining his cat-and-mouse elegance and cruelty.

"They won't last long. Have the finance department build their cash flow model and use the most pessimistic parameters to extrapolate. I want to know the exact date of their death."

"Until then," a contemptuous curve returned to the corner of Hoffman's mouth, "don't act rashly. We should be patient spectators, watching how they burn themselves to ashes. Whatever you do, don't give them a push while they're on their suicidal trajectory."

---

Hanhai Trade Base, Eve's laboratory.

Eve knew nothing of the outside world.

In her world, there were only endless data streams and one failed simulation after another.

The air was thick with the slight acidity of fermenting nutrient solution and the burnt smell of overheated equipment.

She couldn't remember how long it had been since she last closed her eyes, mechanically injecting one high-concentration stimulant after another into her body.

That five percent decay rate was like a thorn, deeply embedded in her pride.

Just as she was about to be swallowed by exhaustion, an inconspicuous data stream flashed through the waterfall of error messages.

Her pupils contracted sharply.

It was it!

Like grabbing a lifeline, her hands moved frantically over the control panel, retrieving, magnifying, and analyzing.

A pattern, a faint resonance pattern she had sought for hundreds of hours, was finally captured by her.

"So that's how it is... not suppression, but guidance..."

She murmured to herself, her eyes erupting with an unprecedented light.

By using high-frequency sound waves of a specific frequency to 'pretreat' the biomass raw material, its molecular structure's resilience against 'Law Resonance Decay' could be greatly enhanced.

She had found the key.

The key that could turn ninety-five percent success into one hundred percent perfection.

She leaned back against the chair, exhausted, and revealed a long-absent smile.

She didn't yet know that the time left for her and this key was less than forty-eight hours.