172: The final bet

As Su Li's voice faded, time seemed to freeze.

In the command center, the ecstasy that had been boiling like lava just a second ago instantly cooled and hardened, turning into dead-silent obsidian.

An absurd sense of suffocation permeated the air.

The smiles on everyone's faces hadn't even fully faded before they froze there, like wearing clumsy masks of sorrow.

Their gazes, as if pulled by invisible threads, slowly moved away from the crimson countdown and finally all focused on the man who had remained incredibly calm from beginning to end.

Admiration turned into shock.

Trust turned into doubt.

Hope turned into fear.

"Boss..." a young coordinator's lips trembled, his face pale, "Is what Director Su Li said... true?"

Chen Feng did not answer.

"Bullshit!"

A roar broke the dead silence.

Reno stood up abruptly, his burly frame like an iron tower, shielding Chen Feng from the crowd. He didn't look at Chen Feng, but instead glared at Su Li with a gaze that was almost burning.

"The battle isn't over yet, and you're already here shaking morale! The Boss has his own arrangements; since when is it your place to announce failure?!"

"I only believe in data, not miracles." Su Li pushed her glasses up coldly, meeting Reno's gaze without backing down. "My duty is to report facts, Supervisor Reno. And the fact is, we are about to die."

"You!" Reno's fists clenched until they cracked, and the smell of gunpowder between them became this intense for the first time.

"Boss! Boss! This is bad!"

Just then, a young employee responsible for logistics scheduling came stumbling in, his voice carrying an undeniable sob.

"Just... just received news from the 'Mustang' Chamber of Commerce. Our third batch of goods sent to the Sirius Alpha Starport... 'accidentally' lost contact while passing through the asteroid belt!"

He collapsed to his knees with a thud, completely breaking down.

"This is the third time this week! Our goods can't get out! It's all over!"

This cry, like the heaviest iron fist, completely shattered the last shred of luck in the command center.

It's over.

In everyone's hearts, only these words remained.

Chen Feng remained silent throughout.

He slowly stepped forward, bypassed Reno who was standing in front of him, and walked to the collapsed coordinator.

He didn't speak, but simply leaned down and gently patted the young man's shoulder.

Then, in a voice that was terrifyingly calm, he issued the first command to everyone present.

"Notify the 'Mustang' Chamber of Commerce that all losses will be charged to the company's account."

Everyone was stunned, including Su Li.

"Compensate them double for their freight losses," Chen Feng added.

"Boss, we have no money left!" someone shouted subconsciously.

Chen Feng stood up straight, his gaze sweeping over every desperate, dazed, and terrified face in the command center.

"Yes, we are almost out of money."

His voice wasn't loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears.

"Hoffman wants us dead. But he only wants us to die quietly and decently in a corner because of a broken capital chain, becoming an insignificant joke in his book of achievements."

"I refuse."

The corners of Chen Feng's mouth curled into a cold and arrogant arc.

"I want him to watch us."

"I want him to watch us, in a way he will never understand, turn this funeral he personally prepared for us into our coronation ceremony!"

Before his voice finished, he raised his wrist, opened his personal terminal, and under everyone's gaze, directly accessed the company's financial system.

An independent personal asset account, encrypted with the highest level of authority, was pulled up by him.

The next second, he pressed 'Transfer All'.

A string of numbers so massive it left everyone present dumbfounded, like a golden stream of light, instantly injected into Hanhai Trade's nearly dry capital pool.

The crimson countdown on the screen jumped back a significant distance.

But everyone understood that this was just a drop in the bucket, merely delaying the death sentence by a few days.

"This is my everything." Chen Feng closed the terminal, his voice still calm.

"Now, it belongs to the company too."

The meeting adjourned in an atmosphere mixed with shock, bewilderment, and deeper despair.

Su Li sat alone in her cold office.

She looked at the newly injected funds on the financial statement, which still carried Chen Feng's warmth; there was no sense of relief in her eyes, but rather a heavier sense of powerlessness.

"Madman..."

She whispered, not knowing if she was cursing Chen Feng or herself.

She pulled up the bankruptcy liquidation plan she had prepared long ago and began to modify it line by line. Her movements were as professional and calm as ever, precisely placing Chen Feng's personal assets at the top of the liquidation list.

Only, even she didn't notice that when her fingertips touched the screen, there was an extremely slight tremor.

In Chen Feng's office.

He stood alone before the massive viewport, looking out at the eternal gray sky of Ashen Earth Star.

He pulled up an interface that only he could see—the Interstellar Exchange.

Among the complex transaction records, he fished out a small transaction from months ago.

The purchased item was a piece of intelligence titled 'Compilation of Internal Scandals of High-Dimensional Business Families (3rd Edition)'.

He took a deep breath and began editing a new message.

The message was very short, just one sentence.

"Don't you find Augustus's 'Order' boring?"

He glanced at the recipient's name to confirm it was correct.

[Omni-Dimensional Trade Alliance - New Director - Reinhardt von Lopez]

Then, he pressed the send button.