202: Chapter 202 The Capitalist Revolution Overturns the Civilized Farm

In the 11th minute of short-selling with ten times leverage, the universal financial market exploded.

Not a crash, but a reverse explosion.

On the trading interface before Lin Chen, the curve representing "Zeroing concept stocks" didn't plummet as expected; instead, it surged like a raging bull—skyrocketing by 300%, 500%, 1200%...

"What's going on?!" Zhang Hao stared at the data stream. "All analytical models showed that Zeroing was inevitable; these stocks should be hitting zero!"

Su Qingyu suddenly realized: "Someone is manipulating the market! And it's... a massive amount of capital going long!"

"How much?" Lin Chen asked.

"At least fifty trillion dimension points in buy orders are propping up the market." Zhang Hao's voice was dry. "Our short positions... are about to be liquidated."

Liquidation meant Lin Chen's remaining 3.5 trillion in principal would evaporate instantly. The protective shield would go out within three minutes, leaving 2.5 million civilizations directly exposed to the Zeroing Storm.

"Check the source of funds," Lin Chen said calmly.

Three seconds later, the result came out.

Source of funds: Epoch Administration Bureau · Public Stability Fund.

"It's the Council!" Su Qingyu's face turned pale. "They're intentionally driving up the market just to liquidate you! That way, your plan fails!"

Insidious.

But logical—the Council clearly didn't want an uncontrolled "pay-to-win principle" to succeed.

The countdown began: Lin Chen's account received a forced liquidation warning; 90 seconds left.

"Lin Chen, what do we do?" Zhang Hao said urgently. "If we close the positions now, we might have some scraps left, but it won't be enough to maintain the shield—"

"Don't close them," Lin Chen said.

He did something that made everyone's brain short-circuit.

He opened a private communication with the Dimensional Agent—the system antivirus program that was supposed to appear 24 hours later.

"Agent, emergency assistance needed."

The white humanoid instantly materialized: [The contract stipulates 24 hours—]

"Additional compensation," Lin Chen interrupted. "Help me with a favor. I'll give you twenty billion dimension points, plus the permanent position of 'Chief Consultant of Error Correction Algorithm' for the new epoch."

The flow of code within the Agent's body noticeably accelerated.

[What favor?]

"Use your system permissions to temporarily freeze all trading operations of the Epoch Administration Bureau's Public Stability Fund. Just for 30 seconds."

This was asking the Agent to hack the system's vault.

[Extremely high risk. If discovered, I will be forcibly formatted.]

"That's why it's a side job," Lin Chen smiled. "Thirty seconds, twenty billion. Are you in?"

The Agent was silent for five seconds—for it, this was equivalent to a human agonizing for five hours.

Countdown: 60 seconds.

[...Deal.]

The white humanoid instantly vanished.

Twenty seconds later, the universal financial market monitoring showed: tens of thousands of buy orders from the Epoch Administration Bureau's Public Stability Fund were frozen simultaneously.

As if an invisible hand had pressed the pause button.

"Now!" Lin Chen ordered. "Zhang Hao, flip all our short positions to long!"

"Huh?! But the market is still at its peak—"

"Execute!"

Capital flooded in like a deluge. Lin Chen used the positions about to be liquidated as collateral to borrow a staggering amount of capital, frantically buying those stocks that were being "paused" at their highs.

Countdown: 30 seconds.

The Agent's communication came through with static: [Can only hold for 10 more seconds... system protection is too strong...]

"Enough."

Countdown: 10 seconds.

The freeze on the Administration Bureau's fund was lifted.

But by then, the market had changed—Lin Chen's massive buy orders, combined with the original market-propping capital, formed a double thrust. Zeroing concept stocks continued to skyrocket: 2000%, 5000%, 10000%...

Countdown hit zero.

The forced liquidation program started—but this time, it wasn't Lin Chen's short positions being liquidated, but those of all other short sellers.

Because in the final ten seconds, Lin Chen had flipped to being a bull.

An avalanche-style short squeeze hit the market.

"Calculate the profit," Lin Chen said.

Zhang Hao's fingers trembled as he typed, then his eyes widened: "We... we made... eighteen trillion dimension points... plus the principal, the account balance is now twenty-one trillion five hundred billion..."

In one operation, he turned a loss into a profit, sextupling the capital.

"Now," Lin Chen looked at Su Qingyu, "use this money to extend the maintenance time of the shield to 24 hours."

"Yes!"

The crisis was temporarily averted.

But just then, the Dimensional Agent reappeared, its form noticeably dimmer, with fine cracks appearing on its surface.

[Task complete... but I've been flagged by the system... I must self-format within 30 minutes... otherwise I'll be forcibly purged...]

It transmitted a data packet.

[This is the additional compensation... dirt on the platform... you'll understand once you see it...]

The white humanoid began to dissipate.

Lin Chen immediately opened the data packet.

Inside wasn't a file, but a first-person memory playback—

---

The footage began.

Time: Three hundred years ago. Location: Epoch Administration Bureau Core Database.

A young Inspector (looking about 70% similar to No. 117) was entering data. The screen in front of him displayed the title: [Myriad Dimensions Sandbox · End User License Agreement (88th Edition)].

He clicked on the hidden terms, and dense text appeared:

Clause 7.3: All "emotional data," "civilization memories," and "soul imprints" generated by the civilizations connected to the world belong permanently to the platform. The platform has the right to use, copy, sell, and reorganize this data in any form at any time, without notice or compensation.

Clause 12.8: When the "narrative quality" of a certain world declines, the platform has the right to initiate "Forced Plot Intervention," including but not limited to: creating disasters, triggering wars, tampering with fate, and erasing characters, to ensure stable content output.

Clause 19.1 (The most lethal): The platform reserves the "Final Harvest Rights." When the universe enters the Zeroing cycle, the platform will initiate the "Civilization Compression Program," compressing all world data into "Civilization Tinder Canned Goods" for sale or personal use in the new epoch. The original civilization consciousness will be permanently deleted.

The young Inspector's hands were trembling. At the end of the clauses, he quietly added a hidden note:

[If these terms are known by the lower-dimensional worlds, it will trigger a massive rebellion. Permanent encryption recommended.]

Then he clicked [Upload to Underlying Protocol Library].

The scene shifted.

Time: One hundred and fifty years ago. Location: A certain cultivation world being livestreamed.

The "protagonist" of that world, after going through countless hardships, finally defeated the ultimate villain and was about to ascend. Billions of viewers cheered in the comments, and tips rained down like water.

But backstage, an old man wearing a "Screenwriting Team Leader" badge said coldly: "Ascension? Too cliché. Arrange a plot for him where 'his Dao companion is possessed by an inner demon at the last moment, and he falls into the demonic path after killing his lover with his own hands.' The ratings will definitely explode."

"But Leader," a young screenwriter whispered, "this protagonist has encountered similar tragedies in ten consecutive worlds. His consciousness data is starting to show cracks..."

"Cracks are better," the Leader laughed. "A broken soul produces more intense emotions. Do it."

In the footage, the protagonist embraced his Dao companion, and a beam of ascension light descended from the sky—then the Dao companion's eyes suddenly turned black, and a sword pierced through his dantian.

The protagonist's breakdown and roar turned into a surging stream of emotional data, instantly extracted by the platform. The tip amount set a record.

The young screenwriter silently lowered his head.

The scene shifted again.

Time: Present. Location: Unknown dimension.

Six blurry figures sat around a round table—from their silhouettes, they were the six core members of the Administration Bureau's Supreme Council (the Starlight Humanoid was not among them).

A raspy voice said: "Lin Chen's plan is too dangerous. He's allowing civilizations to retain autonomy and even letting them know part of the truth. This will destroy the harvest model we've operated for three hundred years."

Another voice sneered: "But his 'pay-to-win principle' indeed improves the civilization preservation rate. We can use him to get through the Zeroing first, and after the new epoch is established... we'll just initiate the 'Final Harvest'."

"Will he fall for it?"

"Of course. We only need to give him the sweetener of being a 'Secondary shareholder.' Once he's built the new epoch, we'll use 'Major shareholder' permissions to forcibly acquire all his shares. Just like... what we did to those eighty-three 'Excellent Administrators' before."

Eighty-three files were projected onto the round table, each marked with [Formatted], [Equity Forcibly Reclaimed], [Consciousness Deleted].

One of the files was named—Mirror Lin Chen (Original Version).

The note read: [This administrator attempted to resist after discovering the truth; formatted. His backup consciousness (Lin Xiao) was deployed to a lower-dimensional world for monitoring.]

Memory playback ended.

---

The data packet self-destructed.

Lin Chen stood there, silent for a long time.

"So that's how it is..." Su Qingyu's voice trembled. "All worlds, including the ones we once lived in, are just their... content farms."

"Even Mirror Lin Chen was a victim." Zhang Hao's face was pale. "Then we... are we also..."

"Yes," Lin Chen said calmly. "We are also crops in the farm. It's just that I, as a crop, have grown too fast and am about to jump over the fence."

He pulled up the account with the twenty-one trillion five hundred billion he had just earned.

Then, he opened an interface hidden deep in the background—[shareholder Election Application Portal].

"You're going to run for shareholder?" Su Qingyu was stunned. "But the Council just tried to kill you!"

"That's exactly why I must run," Lin Chen said. "The dirt the Agent gave me mentioned key information: the platform's true control lies with the 'Board of Directors.' And the Board members are all Major shareholders with over 5% stake. The Council is just an executive body."

He clicked apply.

A system prompt popped up:

[shareholder Election Qualification Audit]

[Condition 1: Hold platform equity ≥ 0.5% (Not met)]

[Condition 2: Cumulative profit created for the platform ≥ 10 trillion dimension points (Met: Current profit amount 28.9 trillion)]

[Condition 3: Defeat any current season's Official shareholder in a 'Popularity Duel']

"How do I obtain equity?" Lin Chen asked.

[Methods: 1. Purchase from existing shareholders; 2. Participate in platform issuance subscriptions; 3. Rewards for completing special tasks]

Lin Chen directly contacted Morgana, Alpha, and Qingyunzi.

Mass message: "Selling equity? Will buy at three times the market price. Cash payment, instant arrival."

Ten seconds later, Morgana replied: "I have 0.3%, package price nine trillion."

Alpha: "0.25%, 7.5 trillion. But must include permanent autonomy for the Digital Life Zone."

Qingyunzi was the greediest: "0.4%, but I want twelve trillion, plus all the Earth Vein Spirit Jade in your hands."

It added up to 0.95%, just over the 0.5% threshold. Total price: 28.5 trillion.

Almost his entire net worth.

"Buy," Lin Chen said without hesitation.

Three equity transfer agreements were signed instantly. Lin Chen's account balance plummeted to four hundred billion, but on the shareholder panel, his shareholding percentage became 0.95%.

[Condition 1 Met]

[Please select the 'Current Season Official shareholder' you wish to challenge]

A list popped up with hundreds of names. Ranked first was—Long Aotian Immortal Emperor (0.8% stake).

"An old acquaintance," Lin Chen smiled.

He remembered that in the test world of the sixth volume, Arrogant Dragon had been his opponent and was later recruited by him. But that was a simulation. The real Arrogant Dragon was clearly an Official shareholder of the platform, making a fortune off the "Immortal Emperor's Counterattack" script.

"Him," Lin Chen clicked select.

[Challenge Confirmed]

Duel Format: Cross-dimensional Livestream Popularity Battle

Duration: 24 hours

Winner: Obtains 50% of the loser's equity and is promoted to Official shareholder

Loser: Equity halved, demoted to Secondary shareholder

[Duel will begin in 30 minutes]

[Please prepare]

Countdown started.

Lin Chen closed the interface and looked out the window.

The Zeroing Storm was still approaching.

The Dimensional Agent had self-formatted.

The Council was secretly planning the harvest.

And now, he was going to use his remaining four hundred billion and 0.95% equity to challenge a veteran shareholder who had operated for hundreds of years.

"Zhang Hao," he said, "connect me to the livestream signals of all civilizations in the universe."

"What are you going to do?"

"Expose the truth," Lin Chen's eyes were cold. "I want every civilization to know who has been exploiting them and who has been harvesting them."

"But that will cause chaos—"

"Chaos brings opportunity." Lin Chen opened the speech draft interface. "Besides, don't you think those viewers... will want to see such exciting 'Platform Inside Scandal Exposure' plotlines?"

He smiled.

"This Popularity Duel—"

"I'm not just going to win."

"I'm going to rip the platform's fig leaf right off."

Countdown: 25 minutes.

A revolution against the platform was about to be livestreamed.