195: Iron Will

Every second that ticked by on the countdown felt like a heavy hammer striking Su Li's temple.

"Evacuate... yes, evacuate immediately!" Su Li's fingers flew across the holographic keyboard, leaving only afterimages, her voice sharp and distorted by extreme fear. "Asset transfer takes three hours, no, there's no time! Abandon fixed assets, only take liquid funds and encrypted keys! Hurry!"

"Are you crazy?" Reno grabbed Su Li's wrist, his remaining eye bloodshot with a web of veins, the reek of alcohol mixed with rage spraying on Su Li's face. "We're going to run? Run with our tails between our legs like dogs? That's the base A Yong died for!"

"Do we stay and die then?!" Su Li forcefully shook off Reno, her nails leaving two bloody scratches on the back of his hand, and shrieked hysterically, "Can't you see the data? That's the slaughterer! That's the regular army! What do we fight them with? Your broken pistol, or those mining machines in the warehouse that haven't even been assembled yet? Xing Zhan wants our lives, not our money!"

"Then we'll trade lives with him!" Reno roared, reaching for the sidearm at his waist. "Even if I die, I'll take a tooth out of him!"

"Enough! Don't block the way!"

"Get out of the way! That's my shuttle!"

Outside the command center, the guests who had been fawning earlier were now like roaches in a disturbed nest, shoving and trampling each other to get to the escape routes. Cries and curses filtered through the half-open blast door, like an absurd farce.

"We're finished..." Lao Mo slumped to the ground behind the technical console, his wrench clattering as it fell, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. "Everyone's going to die..."

The entire command center was filled with a nauseating sense of despair, as if all the air had been sucked out.

"Bang!"

A deafening gunshot.

The emergency light tube on the ceiling shattered, sparks flying. The screaming stopped abruptly, and everyone froze, looking in terror at the command console.

Chen Feng held the sidearm he had pulled from Reno's waist, the muzzle still emitting a wisp of smoke. His face was eerily calm, his eyes colder than the deep space outside.

"Had enough?" Chen Feng's voice was not loud, but in the dead silence, it was as clear as if he were whispering in everyone's ear.

He slowly walked down the high platform, his leather shoes crunching on the shattered glass on the floor, making an ear-grating sound. He stopped in front of Su Li, the gun barrel lowered, but his gaze was fixed on her eyes.

"Evacuate? Su Li, you studied finance, tell me, where can you escape to with the entire star system locked down?" Chen Feng pointed to the black blockade net on the screen. "Escape Ashen Earth Star? The perimeter is full of Xing Zhan's automated turrets. Escape into deep space? Without supplies, are you going to starve to death, or wait for oxygen to run out and suffocate? Or be captured by those space pirates who see us as fat sheep, and sold into slavery in the black market?"

Su Li's lips trembled, her face ashen, her body shaking like a sieve: "But... but staying here is also death..."

"At least if you stay, you still have a gun in your hand." Chen Feng turned around and looked at Reno. "And you, want to fight to the death? Rushing out to die, is that fighting to the death? That's a coward's escape!"

Reno gritted his teeth, his fists clenching audibly, but he couldn't refute.

"Eve." Chen Feng suddenly called her name.

In the corner, Eve, who had been huddled in her chair, trembled violently and looked up, her eyes like a startled fawn.

"Tell me, if I want this pile of scrap metal to survive one more second in space, is there a way?" Chen Feng stared at her, not a hint of wavering in his eyes.

"I..." Eve swallowed, her fingers unconsciously clutching the hem of her clothes, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz. "Conventional... conventional methods definitely won't work. The energy levels of the two sides are three orders of magnitude apart, the shield will shatter on impact..."

"Unconventional methods?" Chen Feng stepped closer. "Don't worry about safety protocols, don't worry about equipment lifespan. I just need them to hold up."

Eve's eyes flickered, an instinctive tremor and excitement of a technician touching a forbidden field. She trembled as she reached out, calling up a set of red data models on the console.

"There... there's a theoretical solution." Eve took a deep breath, speaking rapidly as if to embolden herself. "Second-generation energy blocks... if all safety valves are removed at the output end, and 'Bio-Etching' buffer layers are used for overclocking and overloading, a high-density energy field can be formed in a short time. If... if we don't use this energy field for attack, but instead collapse it in reverse onto the shield generator..."

"What will happen?" Reno asked urgently.

"It will form an unstable phase shift." Eve bit her lip until blood oozed. "Theoretically, it can cause high-dimensional weapon attacks to refract the instant they hit the shield. But the cost is... the engine and shield generator will completely melt down, or even self-destruct, within ten minutes."

"Ten minutes." Chen Feng repeated, a cruel curve forming on his lips. "That's enough."

He turned around and walked back to the command console, casually opening a monitoring screen.

On the screen was a huge projection of Ashen Earth Star's slums. The people who had just had their slave collars removed were gathered in the square, looking at the sky in terror. They weren't rioting, weren't running, just clinging desperately to the supplies Chen Feng had distributed to them, their eyes full of helplessness and... a glimmer of hope that hadn't quite died out.

"Look at them." Chen Feng pointed at the screen, his voice hoarse. "We gave them names, we gave them food, we gave them hope to live like humans. Now, if we run, we'll be personally pushing them into hell."

Su Li followed his finger and saw a woman holding a child, her eyes strikingly similar to her mother's before she died. Su Li's heart suddenly constricted, and the thought of escaping was, at this moment, drowned out by a deeper sorrow and anger.

"No... we can't do this." Su Li murmured, then suddenly looked up, her eyes hardening. "We still have money. The Divine Court's advance payment is still there!"

"Spend it all." Chen Feng ordered coldly. "Su Li, I want you to post all liquid funds in the account as 'Interstellar Bounty Missions' within ten minutes. The goal is only one: destroy Giant Star Mining ships. Even if they just crash one drone, I'll give 100,000 credit points! I want all the desperadoes in the entire star system to smell blood and come running!"

"Understood!" Su Li wiped the cold sweat from her face and threw herself back to the control panel. This time, her fingers no longer trembled. "I'll also broadcast Xing Zhan's massacre of civilians and buy out all advertising slots on bottom-tier channels! I want him to become the universe's villain before he even fires a shot!"

"Lao Mo, Eve!" Chen Feng looked at the technical team. "Take your people to the tarmac. Even if you have to use duct tape, put weapons and overloaded shields on everything that can fly! Tell those captains, whoever dares to cherish their life, I'll shoot them now!"

"Yes!" Lao Mo picked up the wrench from the ground, a turbid, death-defying glint in his eyes, and rushed out, pulling Eve with him.

"Reno." Chen Feng finally looked at his security chief, throwing the pistol back to him. "Organize your men. Tell them, after this battle, whoever survives, every one of them will be a shareholder of Hanhai Trade. Those who die, their names will be carved at the very top of the monument."

Reno caught the gun, its cold touch instantly chilling his boiling blood into killing intent. He didn't salute, just nodded heavily: "Don't worry, boss. As long as I have a breath left, Xing Zhan won't take a single step through that gate."

Inside the command center, the atmosphere of despair was replaced by a crazy, dying fighting spirit. Everyone was like a string stretched to its limit, ready to snap at any moment.

Chen Feng walked to the communication console, looking at the still-ticking red countdown: 23 hours and 40 minutes.

He took a deep breath, as if to clear the stale air from his lungs, then pressed an unencrypted public broadcast channel.

This channel connected to all ships around Ashen Earth Star, and also to the silent slaughterer above.

"This is Hanhai Trade, I am Chen Feng."

Chen Feng's voice was calm, even with a hint of laziness, piercing through the electromagnetic interference and echoing in the cold vacuum of space.

"Xing Zhan, I heard your judgment. Now, you listen to my reply."

He paused, a hint of ferocity flashing in his eyes.

"Hanhai Trade refuses to surrender."

"Want to devour us? Fine. Sharpen your teeth, and be careful... you might shatter your stomach."

The communication cut off.

Chen Feng looked out at the dark starry sky, his palms drenched in cold sweat, but his heart was pounding more violently than ever before.

It was the frantic beat of a gambler going all-in with their last chip.