178: Chapter 178 Shareholder Civil War, Resource Struggle

At 3 AM, the first wave of attacks arrived.

It wasn't a military strike, nor an assassination—it was a collapse at the level of economic rules.

When Lin Chen was jolted awake by the Golden Throne's emergency alarm, seventeen red pop-up windows had already exploded before his eyes:

[Warning: A rule anomaly has occurred in 'K-742 Underworld Plane', a world you hold shares in]

[Anomaly Type: Currency Depreciation Curse]

[Phenomenon Description: All 'Underworld Coins' issued by the Underworld Group are losing value at a rate of 3% per second]

[Current Depreciation Rate: Accumulated 47%]

[Estimated to reach zero in 2 minutes and 19 seconds]

[Warning: Associated world 'S-109 Grand Cultivation World' requests emergency assistance]

[Anomaly Type: Spirit Stone Spiritual Energy Leakage]

[Phenomenon Description: The spiritual energy within 'Spirit Stones', the base currency of this world, is evaporating]

[Evaporation Rate: 12% per hour]

[Without intervention, the cultivation system of this world will completely collapse in 7 days]

[Warning: Trade partner 'T-881 Mechanical Realm' has unilaterally terminated its contract]

[Reason: Received higher priority shareholder directive]

[Warning:...]

Seventeen windows, seventeen pieces of bad news.

"Boss Lin!" Zhang Hao's virtual image popped up, with the chaotic Underworld Group headquarters as his background. "Our branch offices in thirty-nine worlds are under simultaneous attack! The opponent has tampered with the underlying economic rules of those worlds—now our employees there can't even get paid, and the monetary system is collapsing!"

Su Qingyu's screen also connected. She stood in the data monitoring center, facing an economic flow map of the entire dimension sandbox—the densely packed green trade lines were now turning red and breaking at a terrifying speed.

"The attack source has been traced," her voice was icy. "It's the 'Golden Throne' Consortium, ranked 312th on the Board of Directors, with a 3.7% shareholding, specifically controlling the economic lifelines of seventeen financial worlds. They've teamed up with the 'Resource Oligarch Alliance', ranked 415th, to launch a 'Resource War' against us."

Lin Chen pulled up the war records from the shareholder backend.

[Resource War (Legal shareholder Confrontation Form)]

Rules: Both sides may only attack the opponent's shareholding worlds through economic means

Prohibited: Direct physical destruction, lifeform annihilation

Victory Condition: Force the opponent's world economy to collapse, lose its live streaming value, triggering the platform's mandatory recovery clause

Current Status: Golden Throne Consortium has declared war on you

"Playing a financial war?" Lin Chen smiled.

He clicked on the recently purchased [Causality Tracing Right], locking onto the core shareholding world of the "Golden Throne Consortium"—Dimension G-007 Gold Standard.

Data streams surged in.

The economic structure of that world was transparently displayed: a classical financial system entirely based on "absolute gold reserves," where all currency issuance must be 100% backed by physical gold. The world's core was an "Endless Gold Mountain" spanning a continent, guarded by financial dragons bred by that shareholder.

"Found the weakness," Lin Chen connected Mo Shan's communication—this recently liberated 473-year-old veteran actor was now the Underworld Group's "Cross-Plane Economic Warfare Consultant."

"Elder Mo, what does a gold standard world fear most?"

In the virtual screen, the white-haired but sharp-eyed Mo Shan grinned: "It fears gold suddenly no longer being gold. Boss, do you want to play 'Concept Collapse' or 'Physical Contamination'?"

"What about Concept Collapse?"

"I've played villains in financial worlds seventy-nine times," Mo Shan pulled up a memory data file. "The most successful time, I had the concept of 'gold' in that world redefined—I imported a hundred thousand tons of 'Fool's Gold' (iron sulfide), identical in appearance, from other worlds, then used large-scale Cognitive Alteration Spells to make the whole world believe that was the real gold."

"The result?"

"Real gold became fake, and the gold standard collapsed overnight," Mo Shan's smile was sinister. "The protagonist of that world was a financial genius who spent three hundred chapters rebuilding the credit system—but by the time he finished, I had already absconded with 80% of the world's physical wealth."

Lin Chen nodded: "Then let's do that. How many resources do we need?"

"First, a Cognitive Alteration Device, requiring a large-scale ritual that can cover the entire world—we can outsource this to the newly joined 'Supernatural World Expert Team,' they specialize in large-scale rule contamination."

"Secondly, we need massive quantities of substitutes," Mo Shan pulled up a material list. "Fool's Gold isn't shocking enough, I suggest using Anti-Matter Coated Gold—it looks the same, but it annihilates and explodes upon contact with regular matter."

"When gold starts exploding in people's hands," Su Qingyu interjected, "panic will instantly destroy the entire financial system."

"Exactly," Mo Shan nodded. "Final step: when they collapse, we buy up physical assets at a low price. By the time they rebuild, we'll already have controlling interest."

Lin Chen looked at Zhang Hao: "We need anti-matter coating technology—which world has it?"

"Tech-side world D-441, specializing in anti-matter weapons," Zhang Hao checked. "But that world is controlled by the Resource Oligarch Alliance, and technology export is strictly blocked."

"Then we'll seize it," Lin Chen opened the shareholder mall and searched for [Cross-Dimension Technology Theft Service].

The result popped up: [This service has been monopolized by the 'Resource Oligarch Alliance' and is temporarily unavailable]

The opponent had blocked all paths.

"Boss Lin..." Sweat beaded on Zhang Hao's forehead. "The opponent is a veteran shareholder, they anticipated our operational patterns. All conventional counterattack routes are blocked."

Three seconds of silence passed.

Lin Chen suddenly smiled.

"Since conventional paths are blocked," he pulled up the database of the eight thousand-plus newly joined villain actors, "then we'll use unconventional ones."

He entered the filtering conditions:

Specialty: Technology theft

Successful operations: 50+

Proficient world type: Tech-side

Search results: 137 people

Further refinement:

Previously stole 'anti-matter related technology': 11 people

Lin Chen opened the files of these eleven people and sent out mass communication requests.

Eleven virtual images appeared—there were mechanically modified humans, data ghosts, quantum lifeforms, all "professionals" skilled in infiltrating tech worlds.

"Mission objective: The complete set of anti-matter coating technical data from world D-441," Lin Chen said. "Time limit: 1 hour. Remuneration: 100 million dimension points per person, plus a 1% share of the target world's future output."

The eleven experts exchanged glances.

"1 hour is too tight," a data ghost-shaped expert said. "That world's firewall is a Level 7 civilization standard; normal infiltration would take three days—"

"So we'll infiltrate abnormally," another female expert, completely mechanically modified, interrupted. "I've used a 'Time-Difference Loophole': tech world defense systems all have maintenance windows, usually between 4:00 AM and 4:03 AM world standard time. If we can just within these three minutes—"

"No," the third quantum lifeform shook its head. "The opponent definitely knows about this loophole and will send extra defenses during the window."

"Then we'll make them have to turn off their defenses," Lin Chen suddenly said.

He pulled up the list of other worlds held by the Golden Throne Consortium and found one marked [Fragile: Ecology]—Dimension E-099 Garden.

It was a live-streaming world marketed for its "ultimate beauty," earning huge dimension points annually from tourism. However, the world's ecosystem was extremely fragile, maintained entirely by a priceless "Environmental Stabilization System."

"Elder Mo," Lin Chen asked, "What would happen if we made this Garden World's Environmental Stabilization System 'accidentally malfunction' for three minutes?"

Mo Shan checked the data: "Within three minutes, 78% of the world's rare plants would die, and its landscape value would plummet by 70%. The Golden Throne would lose at least five hundred billion dimension points in annual revenue—they'd go crazy mobilizing all resources for emergency repairs."

"And repairs would require engineers and technical support from world D-441," Su Qingyu's eyes lit up, "including firewall maintenance personnel."

"Exactly," Lin Chen smiled. "When they divert manpower to fight the fire, D-441's defenses will have a vacuum period."

The plan took shape.

"Zhang Hao, you take the Supernatural Expert Team to prepare the cognitive alteration ritual."

"Su Qingyu, coordinate the destruction operation in the Garden World—remember, just malfunction, not permanent destruction; we want to lure the tiger out of its mountain."

"Elder Mo, you command these eleven experts; once the defensive vacuum appears, immediately infiltrate world D-441."

"And I—" Lin Chen looked at the war status panel in the shareholder backend, "will go chat with the Golden Throne and hold them off."

He connected to the cross-shareholder communication.

The ruler of the Golden Throne—a higher-dimensional lifeform composed entirely of flowing gold—appeared on the screen.

"shareholder Lin, disturbing me so late, are you here to beg for mercy?" The golden lifeform's voice carried a metallic echo.

"No, I just wanted to ask you," Lin Chen leaned back on the Golden Throne, "I heard your 'Eternal Golden Maple' in the Garden World bloomed particularly well this year?"

The golden lifeform suddenly froze.

"How do you know about the Eternal Golden Maple—"

Before he could finish, a piercing alarm sounded behind him.

The emergency distress signal from the Garden World exploded directly into his consciousness.

"Apologies, I have something to attend to on my end," Lin Chen politely hung up the communication.

The countdown began.

00:03:00

Zhang Hao reported: "Cognitive alteration ritual prepared, ready to activate at any moment."

00:02:17

Su Qingyu reported: "Logic bomb implanted in the Garden World's Environmental Stabilization System, countdown synchronized."

00:01:42

Mo Shan reported: "Infiltration expert team in position, awaiting orders outside world D-441."

00:00:59

The Golden Throne Consortium's backend monitoring showed: 67% of D-441 world's defense engineers were being urgently transferred to the Garden World.

00:00:03

Lin Chen ordered: "Act."

Three things happened simultaneously:

The sky of the Garden World turned a sickly grey-green, and the Eternal Golden Maple began to wither.

The cognitive alteration ritual in the G-007 Gold Standard World activated, and the "concept" of all gold began to distort.

World D-441's defense system, when the maintenance window arrived, exhibited an artificial vacuum.

The eleven experts infiltrated like ghosts.

00:12:47

Mo Shan reported: "Technical data acquired, evacuating—wait! It's a trap!"

On the screen, countless red alarms suddenly lit up in world D-441. A colossal mechanical voice echoed:

[Illegal intrusion detected]

[Activating final defense protocol: World Lockdown]

[All dimensional channels closed]

[Anti-Matter Self-Destruct Device activated—countdown 60 seconds]

Lin Chen's pupils constricted.

The opponent had anticipated their anticipation—that defensive vacuum was bait.

"Elder Mo, can you escape?"

"All channels are locked!" an expert screamed. "We're being compressed into a singularity—ah!"

Signals from three experts disappeared.

The remaining eight were frantically trying to break through.

Countdown: 40 seconds

Lin Chen looked at the struggling signals and suddenly pulled up the [Rule Micro-adjustment] permission in the shareholder backend.

He selected world D-441, found [Strong Nuclear Force Strength] in the physical constants.

Adjustable range: ±3%.

He directly pulled it to +3%.

Inside the world, the binding force of all atomic nuclei instantly increased by 3%.

The result was—the critical conditions required for anti-matter annihilation were raised by 7.2%.

The Anti-Matter Self-Destruct Device, which was about to detonate, suddenly had its energy reading stuck at 99.3%.

"A gap has appeared!" Mo Shan roared. "Charge!"

Eight experts scrambled out.

As the countdown reached zero, they just barely passed through the dimensional rift and tumbled back into Underworld Headquarters.

In their hands, they tightly clutched the complete set of anti-matter coating technical data.

Lin Chen turned off the monitoring and looked at his world's collapsing currency system—the depreciation rate had already reached 89%.

"Now," he said to the technical team, "use this data to mass-produce Anti-Matter Coated Gold for me."

"Then, airdrop it into the G-007 Gold Standard World."

"I want the citizens of the Golden Throne—"

"to learn what true financial risk is, amidst the fireworks of exploding wealth."

Outside the window, the first batch of coated gold had already begun production.

And communication requests from the Golden Throne were popping up frantically.

Lin Chen didn't answer.

He simply typed a line of text on the war status panel and sent it to the opponent:

"Round one over."

"Your gold, it's time to explode."

Click send.

Then, he heard the sound of billions of fortunes exploding simultaneously, echoing from a distant dimension.