183: Chapter 183 Ultimate Fundraising: Crowdfunding from the Audience

The moment the 72-hour permission freeze ended, seven flashing equity transfer agreements popped up in front of Lin Chen.

Under the threat of the Rule Virus, the seven veteran shareholders of the Order Defender Alliance chose a dignified exit.

Total value of the agreements: 7.3% of the platform's equity.

Combined with Lin Chen's original 0.87%, he now held an 8.17% stake.

His ranking on the Board of Directors skyrocketed from outside the top five thousand directly to 29th place.

"Congratulations, President Lin!" Zhang Hao looked at the backend data, his voice trembling with excitement. "We are now among the top thirty major shareholders!"

Su Qingyu frowned, however. "But the framework says we need to buy 51% of the platform's shares to gain control... We're still short by 42.83%."

"Based on current market value," Mo Shan pulled up the data, "the platform's total equity is valued at approximately 900 trillion dimension points. 42.83% would be... 385 trillion."

"How much do we have in our account right now?"

"13 billion in monthly fee revenue, plus what was left before, totaling 147 billion." Zhang Hao gave a bitter smile. "It's not even enough for a fraction of the change."

Lin Chen didn't speak.

He opened the livestream backend.

The number of paid subscribers had stabilized at 120 million and was still growing at a rate of several thousand per second. These viewers came from over three hundred advanced civilizations, including more than eight million individuals from Grade 9 civilizations.

He pulled up the data profiles of these viewers:

Average personal assets: 27 million dimension points.

Median disposable liquid funds: 8 million dimension points.

Proportion of those with severe or higher emotional dependency: 31%.

"If we crowdfund from these 120 million viewers," Lin Chen began to calculate, "and each person contributes an average of 1 million dimension points, that's 120 trillion."

"But why would they give us money?" Zhang Hao asked.

"Because of this." Lin Chen pulled up a newly drafted Crowdfunding Investment Return Plan.

The plan was divided into three tiers:

Tier 1: Cornerstone Investors (Investment amount ≥ 1 billion dimension points).

Reward: After gaining control of the platform, a 0.001% permanent dividend right + lifetime free access to Dimensional Reduction Experience services + a permanent 50% increase in emotional dosage.

Tier 2: Core Supporters (10 million - 1 billion).

Reward: Emotional Supply Priority proportional to the investment amount (priority fulfillment when emotional output is limited) + 50% off Dimensional Reduction Experience + exclusive customized storyline services.

Tier 3: Mass Investors (1 million - 10 million).

Reward: 200% return of the investment amount in dimension points (installments over ten years) + a 20% increase in emotional dosage.

"Will they invest?" Su Qingyu asked doubtfully. "These rewards seem..."

"To them, dimension points are just numbers." Lin Chen pointed at the viewer data. "But emotional dosage and the Dimensional Reduction Experience are necessities for their survival."

He turned on the livestream and spoke to the 120 million paid viewers:

"Everyone, I need money."

"385 trillion dimension points."

"I want to buy a 51% stake in the platform and become the absolute controlling shareholder."

"Once successful, I will do three things:"

"First, I will cancel mandatory livestreams for all worlds and change it to a voluntary system."

"Second, I will increase the emotional dosage supply by 300%."

"Third, I will open up the Dimensional Reduction Experience service and lower the price to one-tenth of what it is now."

"Now, you can invest."

"Or, continue being addicts harvested by the platform."

"The choice is yours."

Below the livestream feed, a real-time crowdfunding progress bar appeared.

Initial value: 0 / 385 trillion.

Three seconds later.

The progress bar began to jump.

10 million...

500 million...

3 billion...

12 billion...

The speed grew faster and faster.

In the bullet chat, viewers from advanced civilizations began to go wild:

"I'm investing 1 billion! Give me the Cornerstone tier!"

"I mortgaged three resource planets and scraped together 5 billion!"

"Our civilization pooled our funds and gathered 80 billion!"

"Invest quickly! Don't let others grab it all!"

The progress bar surged like crazy.

300 billion...

2 trillion...

15 trillion...

But just then, an emergency announcement from the platform's Supreme Council exploded across all livestream rooms:

[Warning: Illegal fundraising activity detected]

[Target: Lin Chen (Serial Number K-742)]

[Nature: Fraudulent financing utilizing viewer dependency]

[Action: Immediately freeze all related capital flows; accounts of involved viewers are temporarily banned]

The crowdfunding progress bar stopped instantly.

Backend data showed that the 17 trillion dimension points that had just flowed in were forcibly frozen by the platform's system.

"They've made their move." Su Qingyu's face turned pale.

Lin Chen, however, smiled.

"I was waiting for this exact moment."

He pulled up the voting rights authorizations given to him earlier by those three Grade 9 civilization addicts.

Then, he initiated an emergency motion to the platform council:

[Motion Content: Demand the disclosure of the full terms of the 'Platform Emotional Supply Monopoly Agreement']

[Motion Reason: Viewers have the right to know if the agreement signed between the platform and the Alliance of Advanced Civilizations contains terms that deliberately restrict emotional supply to inflate prices]

The motion was sent.

According to the Platform's Basic Law, such a motion involving viewer rights requires a platform-wide referendum within 72 hours.

All paid viewers have the right to vote.

"Are you doing this to stall for time?" Zhang Hao asked.

"No." Lin Chen clicked on another interface. "I'm forcing them to expose their bottom line."

Sure enough, the Council panicked.

They didn't dare let that agreement be made public—because it did indeed contain blatant monopoly terms such as [The platform is obligated to control the total supply of emotion to maintain price stability].

Once made public, the viewers would realize they had been subjected to artificial scarcity for all these years.

Their emotions would explode.

Five minutes later, an emergency communication from the Council arrived.

It was the same nine phantoms, but this time their light was fluctuating violently.

"Withdraw the motion," the central phantom said in a low voice. "We can unfreeze the funds."

"Not enough." Lin Chen shook his head. "I want three things."

"Speak."

"First, legalize the crowdfunding; the platform must not interfere for any reason."

"Second, lift all restrictions and surveillance on my world."

"Third—" Lin Chen paused. "I want to know who the platform's true 'master' is."

After some hesitation, the Council agreed to the first two conditions.

But for the third, they fell silent.

"The platform belongs to all shareholders—" one phantom tried to brush him off.

"Don't lie to me." Lin Chen pulled up some hidden data. "I checked the backend. On paper, 51% of the platform's equity is scattered among thousands of shareholders, but in reality—the voting rights of these shareholders are all held on behalf by an organization called the 'Epoch Administration Bureau'."

The light of the Council phantoms froze simultaneously.

"Epoch Administration Bureau..." the central phantom said slowly. "How did you find that name?"

"The viewers told me." Lin Chen pointed to the backend. "Some viewers from Grade 9 civilizations have a high enough civilization level to know some inside information."

He displayed a record of private messages.

It was a warning sent by an elder from a certain Grade 9 civilization:

"Lin Chen, don't touch the Epoch Administration Bureau."

"The platform is just their little toy."

"What they truly manage... is the epochal cycle of the entire universe."

"Now," Lin Chen looked at the Council, "tell me the truth."

"Otherwise, I'll turn the crowdfunding into a 'Rebellion Fund' and take 120 million addict viewers with me to fight you to the death."

Silence lasted for a full minute.

Then, the central phantom sighed.

The light dissipated, revealing an aged, human-like elderly man.

"51% of the platform's equity is indeed held on behalf by the Epoch Administration Bureau," the old man said. "But they never interfere with specific operations; they only require the platform to complete one task."

"What task?"

"At the end of each cosmic epoch, to screen for sufficiently excellent 'Civilization Seeds'." The old man pulled up a top-secret document. "All the livestreamed worlds on the platform are essentially civilization simulators. We are observing which worlds and which individuals have the potential to... rebuild a new epoch after the universe resets to zero."

Lin Chen's pupils constricted.

"So the viewers' emotional dependency..."

"...is a side effect," the old man said with a bitter smile. "Advanced civilizations lose their emotional capacity during the process of ascending dimensions, and observing the struggles of lower-dimensional lifeforms is the only way for them to regain the 'feeling of being alive.' The Administration Bureau tolerates this model because it keeps the advanced civilizations stable and allows them to continue working for the Bureau."

"Working?"

"Monitoring, recording, screening," the old man said. "Our platform is the talent recruitment department for the Epoch Administration Bureau."

A sense of horror crept up everyone's spines.

They thought they were rebelling against exploitation.

But in reality, they had been participating in a... cross-epoch administrator selection contest.

"Do you understand now?" The old man looked at Lin Chen. "What you want to buy is not just the platform, but a subordinate organization of the Epoch Administration Bureau. And the Bureau... will not allow a subordinate organization to be controlled by an individual."

"That's not necessarily true." Lin Chen suddenly laughed.

He opened the crowdfunding backend and modified the plan.

He changed the goal of "buying 51% of the platform's equity" to:

"Financing the acquisition of the equity held by the Epoch Administration Bureau on behalf of this platform."

The progress bar restarted.

And this time, Lin Chen added a note:

[Investing in this plan is deemed an application to join the 'New Epoch Administrator Candidate List']

[The Epoch Administration Bureau may not refuse the application of a qualified candidate]

This note was a loophole he had found in the terms of that top-secret document.

The Epoch Administration Bureau did indeed monopolize the platform's equity.

But they also had to follow the rules they themselves had established: any individual who could reach the 'Civilization Leader' rating within the platform was eligible to enter the administrator candidate list.

And Lin Chen's current rating was already SSS-grade.

The bullet chat exploded again:

"We can even become administrators?!"

"I'm in! I'm investing everything I own!"

"What is the Epoch Administration Bureau? Whatever, as long as it increases the emotional dosage!"

The crowdfunding progress bar began to surge at an even more terrifying speed.

50 trillion...

120 trillion...

250 trillion...

The old men of the Council watched this out-of-control scene, their mouths agape, yet they could say nothing.

Because what Lin Chen had found was indeed a loophole in the rules.

To select talent, the Epoch Administration Bureau had established this "candidate eligibility" clause.

But they hadn't expected someone to use this rule to perform a reverse-financing acquisition of their equity.

"Alright." Lin Chen watched the progress bar break 300 trillion and turned to his team.

"Get ready."

"We are going to talk to the Epoch Administration Bureau..."

"...about the equity transfer."

Outside the window, in the depths of the dimensional void.

A coordinate that had never been marked began to flash.

It was the contact signal of the Epoch Administration Bureau.

They had finally been alerted.