176: The Devil's Whispers

In the command center, the brief joy of victory was completely dissipated by the suffocating feeling brought about by that blood-colored blockade net.

Everyone looked at Su Li, waiting for her next command.

But Su Li just stood there silently, not saying a word.

Meanwhile, in Chen Feng's office.

He had locked himself inside, isolating himself from all the noise and anxiety of the outside world. On the star map before him, a similarly tightening red net was emitting an ominous glow.

But he wasn't looking at that net.

His fingertips lightly brushed across the light screen, pulling up a piece of intelligence purchased at a high price from the Interstellar Exchange, marked as [Forbidden Knowledge]—"A Compendium of Internal Scandals of High-Dimensional Business Families within the Omni-Dimensional Trade Alliance."

He skipped over the melodramatic stories of affairs, betrayals, and murders, and directly searched for a name.

Reinhard von Lopez.

On the screen, the image of a young man with blonde hair and blue eyes emerged, his smile playful, his eyes filled with an ambition and vitality entirely different from Augustus'.

[New Generation director, Order Reformist.]

[Maintains fundamental disagreements with Chairman Augustus van Cole on 'Physical Value Theory,' believing the Alliance's economic system has become stagnant.]

[Ambitious, has repeatedly challenged Augustus' authority within the Alliance, attempting to incorporate 'Conceptual Value' into the Alliance system and lead it himself.]

A playful smile, identical to Reinhardt's, curled at the corner of Chen Feng's mouth.

Without the slightest hesitation, he sent a message to Reinhardt's public contact email through an ultra-high encryption anonymous channel provided by the Interstellar Exchange, which was theoretically impossible to track.

To send this information of less than 1KB, another hefty "channel fee" was deducted from the company's already depleted account.

The content of the message was simple to the extreme.

One image, one sentence.

The image was a detailed comparison of the performance and cost between Hanhai energy blocks and similar products from Giant Star Mining; that terrifying gap in cost-effectiveness was enough to drive any merchant mad.

The sentence was only one line.

"Augustus' 'Physical Value Theory' is being corroded."

After sending it, Chen Feng closed all the light screens, stood up, and walked out of the office.

"Chen Feng!"

"Boss!"

Su Li and Reno immediately approached him, their eyes filled with questions and anxiety.

"We're completely blockaded, every path is blocked!" Reno's voice sounded like a furious lion. "Give me a fleet, Boss, and I'll go smash that 'Iron Hook's' ships to smithereens!"

"It's useless," Su Li's voice was frighteningly calm. "Our funds won't last two days. Even if you smash them, a new 'Iron Hook' will appear. Chen Feng, what exactly are you waiting for? Where is your backup plan? If you don't use it now, we're really going to die!"

Chen Feng's gaze passed over them, looking at the fearful and uneasy young faces in the command center, as he spoke calmly.

"I'm inviting a friend from afar to watch a play."

"Watch a play?" Su Li could hardly believe her ears. "We're about to go bankrupt, and you're inviting someone to watch a play?!"

"Sometimes, the best way to break a deadlock is to make the audience feel the play is interesting enough to be worth buying a more expensive ticket."

Chen Feng didn't explain further. His mystery and composure caused the unease in Su Li's heart—born from her inability to calculate or control the situation—to grow wildly like vines.

For the first time, she felt that Chen Feng was dragging the company, and everyone else, into a massive vortex of unknown risks that she completely failed to understand.

In the distant headquarters of the Omni-Dimensional Trade Alliance, in a luxurious office overlooking a nebula.

The young Reinhardt von Lopez looked at the email from an unknown source, raised an eyebrow, and then let out a light laugh.

He enlarged the performance comparison chart to cover the entire wall and whispered to the empty room: "See, I was right. The old world will always be the first to be corroded by moss from the gutters. Interesting."

A shadow silently coalesced behind him, transforming into a capable-looking woman in a black uniform.

"Do you need to reply, sir?" Her voice, like her figure, was devoid of any superfluous emotion. "Or... should I eliminate this signal source?"

"No, Pigeon," Reinhardt shook his head, his eyes shining with the light of a hunter who had discovered interesting prey. "An interesting toy, worth observing. Reply to him."

"Reply with what?"

"An interesting drama, but the audience needs to see the protagonist's grit, not just cheap costumes."

"...Yes."

Almost at the same time Reinhardt gave the order, an urgent alarm sounded in Hoffman's office at Giant Star Mining.

An encrypted warning from Alliance headquarters appeared before him: "Warning: Detected unknown high-encryption information flow associated with Hanhai Trade. Please strengthen monitoring immediately."

Hoffman frowned, a flicker of doubt and vigilance crossing his mind. But he immediately dismissed it as Hanhai Trade putting on a bold front, a bluff from someone at their wit's end.

"Strengthen the interception and interference of all external communications from Hanhai Trade!" he ordered. "I want to see what other tricks this drowning rat can play."

Hanhai Trade Base, Chen Feng's office.

He received the reply from Reinhardt.

Chen Feng looked at the words "grit" and "costumes," mulling them over in a low voice. He instantly understood the other party's meaning.

Reinhardt wasn't interested in him using commercial means to turn Giant Star Mining upside down. In his eyes, those were just "cheap costumes."

What he wanted to see was a direct, physical impact on the Alliance's existing order.

He needed a "Letter of Credence."

A blood-stained Letter of Credence.

Just as Chen Feng was pondering how to deliver this heavy Letter of Credence, a new communication request abruptly popped up.

It had jumped through dozens of spatial nodes, and its encryption level was so high that even the Interstellar Exchange's system marked it as "Extremely Dangerous."

Chen Feng answered it.

A processed, cold synthetic voice spoke.

"Good evening, Mr. Chen Feng. I am Mr. Reinhardt's 'Messenger'."

"Speak," Chen Feng's voice was equally brief.

"The Master is very interested in your performance, but he needs a more sincere opening."

"Get to the point."

"Three days from now, at 17:00 standard cosmic time. At the abandoned space station 'Ring of Rust,' coordinates have been sent. A transport fleet will pass through there, belonging to the private assets of Alliance Chairman Augustus van Cole."

The Messenger's voice paused, as if giving Chen Feng time to digest the information.

"The Master's request is simple."

"Destroy it independently."

"Do that, and we can sit down and talk about the future."

"Fail," the Messenger's voice carried a hint of mockery, "and this communication never happened."