217: Civilized Gambling Game

The air in the conference room seemed to have solidified into cement.

*Smack!*

A holographic financial report flashing with a blinding red light was slammed onto the metal conference table, the force so great that the tabletop projector jumped.

Su Li leaned her hands on the table, her chest heaving violently. A few strands of her usually meticulous bun had fallen loose, obscuring the bloodshot eyes behind her glasses.

"We're bankrupt."

Her voice was hoarse, devoid of any emotional fluctuation, as if she were reading a death notice. "To repair the vengeance's main cannon overload damage, to calibrate the bio-tank for that... that money-swallowing beast named Chimera, just now, our liquid capital chain completely snapped."

She looked up, her gaze sweeping across everyone at the conference table, finally fixing a death stare on Chen Feng, who sat at the head.

"Chen Feng, our current account balance isn't even enough to refuel a shuttle once. There are still three thousand mouths waiting to be fed at the base, and Blackwater's next wave of fleets could jump over our heads at any moment. This isn't alarmism; this is a stark, desperate situation."

Dead silence filled the conference room.

Reno shrank his neck, stuffing the cigar he had just wanted to pull out back into his pocket. Eve lowered her head, her fingers silently tapping her thigh under the table.

Only Chen Feng remained leaning against the back of his chair.

He toyed with a gold coin in his hand, the coin tumbling between his fingers with a monotonous 'clink, clink' sound. There wasn't a hint of panic on his face; he didn't even knit his brows.

"Su Li, your calculations are very precise."

Chen Feng suddenly reached out and lightly swiped across the red report in the air, erasing it.

"But your logic is still stuck in the 'small workshop' stage."

He stood up and walked to the massive holographic tactical board. With a light touch, the screen lit up, clearing the originally complex star map and leaving only a deep darkness.

Chen Feng raised his hand and wrote four powerful characters in the darkness.

[War Bonds]

"What?" Su Li was stunned, instinctively pushing up her glasses. "You want to borrow money? At a time like this? Who would lend money to a bunch of dead people about to be crushed by the Alliance?"

"Not borrow."

Chen Feng turned around, his pitch-black eyes reflecting a heart-palpitating fanaticism under the blue light of the holographic screen.

"Sell."

He spread his arms wide, as if embracing the entire void.

"We are going to turn this war into a product. We will turn the future of Hanhai Trade into the largest IPO (Initial Public Offering) in the universe."

"Crazy..." a logistics supervisor in the corner couldn't help but mutter in a low voice. "This is simply insane."

Chen Feng ignored those shocked looks; his voice echoed in the conference room, every word hitting like a heavy hammer.

"Traditional wars are fought with resources and attrition. Whoever has more money can last until the end. By that logic, facing the Omni-Dimensional Trade Alliance, we are doomed."

He waved his hand sharply, and the characters on the holographic screen exploded, turning into countless golden data streams.

"But what if we change the rules? What if we don't sell ore or technology, but instead sell the expectation that 'Hanhai can win'?"

"How many low-dimensional civilizations in the universe are oppressed by the Alliance? How many speculators want to challenge Augustus's hegemony but don't dare to act? Or even... how many gamblers want a piece of the pie in the chaos?"

Chen Feng walked up to Su Li, leaning his hands on the edge of the table and leaning forward until they could hear each other's breath.

"Su Li, what we are issuing isn't debt; it's an 'admission ticket to vengeance.' Once they buy our bonds, they are no longer bystanders but our shareholders. To make their bonds appreciate, they will want Hanhai to win even more than we do."

Su Li's pupils contracted slightly.

As a top-tier actuary, countless possibilities flashed through her mind in an instant. The financial model that had seemed like a dead end suddenly showed a crack due to the injection of this crazy variable.

"But this requires a platform," Eve suddenly spoke up.

She had stood up at some point, her silver eyes flowing with countless lines of code like a waterfall.

"The Alliance controls all formal financial channels; our bonds cannot be listed on the Interstellar Exchange. Unless..."

"Unless we build one ourselves," Chen Feng snapped his fingers.

"A decentralized bond trading platform." Eve's speaking speed suddenly increased as her hands rapidly constructed a model in the void. "Based on the Interstellar Exchange's underlying protocol, using blockchain technology to bypass the Alliance's regulatory nodes. Every bond is bound to a smart contract, anchored by spoils of war, territory, or even future taxation rights."

"Only three minutes."

Eve's fingers turned into afterimages. "I can build the architecture. It's completely feasible technically."

"I don't understand any of that 'IPO' stuff."

Reno slammed the table hard, the loud noise startling everyone. He stood up, his single eye bulging like a copper bell, his face flushed.

"Boss, I just want to ask one thing. With this thing, can I refit the vengeance with those deadly 'Heaven's Punishment' class main cannons?"

Chen Feng looked at the crude man, a curve forming at the corner of his mouth.

"As long as the money is in place, forget main cannons—I'll replace your entire fleet."

"Let's do it!"

Reno roared, ripping off the ID tag around his neck and slapping it on the table. "This is all the savings I've scraped together in my life. It's not much, but I'm buying it all! Count me in for a share!"

That blind and fervent trust was like a spark, instantly igniting the oppressive atmosphere in the conference room.

"Wait."

Su Li took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. "This is still a bubble. Without physical backing, this is a Ponzi scheme. We need a convincing 'totem' to prove we have the capital to win."

Chen Feng didn't speak; instead, he turned sideways and pointed to a corner of the conference room.

There sat a figure completely out of place with the surroundings.

Chimera.

This youth, once called a "monster," was huddled in the shadows. In his hand, he held a plastic toy soldier with a broken leg that he had picked up from the ruins.

His semi-mechanized palm was clumsily trying to reattach the toy soldier's broken leg using a tiny metal wire.

The movements were very slow and stiff.

But he didn't give up.

Once, twice, three times.

Finally, with a light "click," the soldier's leg was reattached. Although it was a bit crooked, it stood up again.

The youth looked up at the toy soldier in his hand, and a very faint, very slight smile appeared on his pale face.

It was a pure, newborn joy.

As the people in the conference room watched this scene, their original fear of this "humanoid weapon" quietly dissolved at this moment.

"This is our capital."

Chen Feng's voice became low and soft. "Restoration and rebirth. We are the trash discarded by the old world, the soldiers with broken legs. But precisely because we have nothing, we have nothing to fear."

"Chimera is not a monster; he is a microcosm of every one of us."

Su Li looked at the youth, then at Chen Feng.

She was silent for a long time, then slowly reached out and took back the report that had been slammed on the table.

"If you're a madman, then I'm probably the fool who'll be buried with you."

Su Li pushed up her glasses, the light behind the lenses becoming sharp as a blade. She pulled a red electronic pen from her pocket and drew a heavy "X" on the report.

"I'll take the role of 'Lead Underwriter'."

She looked up, revealing a smile that was identical to Chen Feng's, tinged with a hint of madness.

"If we're going to play, let's play big. I'll send this prospectus to every black market node, letting all the speculators in the universe know that this unicorn, Hanhai, is going public."

At that very moment.

In Chen Feng's mind, that cold mechanical voice suddenly exploded.

[Warning: Detected that the host is attempting to conceptualize and securitize the outcome of a war.]

[Triggered Hidden Quest Chain: Civilization Gamble (Part 1)]

[Quest Description: You are attempting to hijack the greed of the entire universe. This is a massive gamble where fate is the house and the stakes are the survival of civilizations.]

[Quest Objective: Within 24 hours, raise 100 million interstellar credit points for the initial round of war funding.]

[Success Reward: Unlock "Conceptual Armament" exchange permissions.]

[Failure Penalty: Obliteration.]

Chen Feng's pupils contracted slightly, then returned to normal.

"Obliteration?"

In this damn world, being alive is itself a stroke of luck.

"Very well."

Chen Feng looked around at everyone and gave the final orders. "Eve, get the trading platform online. Su Li, prepare the roadshow materials. Reno, get your fleet moving; we need a decent 'exhibition match' to drive up the stock price."

Everyone took their orders and left, their footsteps hurried and determined.

Only Chen Feng remained in the conference room.

He walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out at the vast and cold starry sky.

The platform is ready, the product is ready, and the team is ready.

But one last thing is missing.

Any IPO needs a heavyweight "cornerstone investor" to lead the investment. Only then will the retail investors and bystanders swarm in like sharks smelling blood.

In this universe, who is the wealthiest? Who is the most rational? Who is the boldest in investing in the "future"?

There is only one answer.

Chen Feng turned and walked into the secret room behind the conference room.

The heavy alloy door slowly closed, isolating all outside noise.

From an inner pocket, he took out a black chip sealed in a vacuum tube. It was a trump card he had never shown anyone, and the only backdoor he knew from his memories of his previous life that could directly contact that behemoth.

Chen Feng inserted the chip into the communication terminal.

No holographic projection, no complex handshake protocols.

Only a simple, constantly blinking cursor.

Chen Feng took a deep breath and typed a line of code on the keyboard.

It wasn't a request, but a logic problem.

A logic problem that only an existence of absolute rationality could solve and could not refuse.

[If: Entropy increase is an inevitability of the universe.]

[Then: What is the value of a variable that finds life through death?]

Send.

Chen Feng gripped the communicator, cold sweat seeping from his palms. He was gambling. Gambling that the Mechanical Divine Court, which had long since discarded emotion and was left only with absolute logic, would be interested in this "variable."

This was a number that no one had ever dared to dial proactively.

Waiting.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

The cursor on the screen suddenly stopped blinking.

Immediately after, an electronic synthesized voice without any emotional color sounded directly in the depths of his mind.

"Variable confirmed."

"This is Sequence Zero. Chen Feng, say your offer."