208: Chapter 208: Earning 120 Trillion in One Hour – I Made My Shareholders Smash Their Own Money Tree

The last second before the countdown hit Zeroing.

The number of people worldwide who chose "Yes" froze at 81.3%.

Over eighty percent of the population chose to trade 10% of their future emotional earnings for the right to "Remember Lin Chen."

The spread of the memory-collapsing virus came to an abrupt halt.

In the banquet hall, the eyes of the attendants, guests, and employees who had been dazed just moments ago refocused. They looked at Lin Chen, and memories flooded back like a tide—but this time, every memory was bound to an invisible contract.

"President Lin!" the Finance Director was the first to react, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. "What just... happened to me?"

"It's fine." Lin Chen waved his hand. "From now on, every one of you will remember who I am. The price is that 10% of the joy, pain, love, and hate in your future lives—all that emotional energy—will be automatically transferred to my account."

Everyone looked at each other, but no one dared to say no.

Because they could feel that the contract was already branded deep within their souls. Resist? They couldn't even summon the thought.

Zhang Hao whispered, "Boss, this means you have the 'emotional taxing rights' of 81% of the world's population. How much can we collect every year?"

"Enough to pay the interest." Lin Chen glanced at the debt figure on the shareholder panel—31 trillion, with daily interest exceeding 15 billion dimension points.

But just as he thought he had temporarily stabilized the situation—

[Emergency Alert! Emergency Alert!]

[Detected that the shareholder Group (holding a total of 31.7% shares) has officially declared war on you]

[The first wave of strikes has arrived]

Outside the Underworld Group headquarters, seventeen pitch-black rifts suddenly tore open in the sky.

Each rift corresponded to a world—all of them low-dimensional planes with deep trade ties to the Underworld Group.

The first world: the cultivation plane, "Qingyun Realm."

A real-time feed popped up: the largest Spirit Stone exchange in that realm suddenly collapsed, with all Spirit Stones turning to powder within a second. The wealth accumulated by cultivators over centuries evaporated, panic erupted, and sect infighting broke out. The Underworld Group's 300 billion investment in that realm was instantly Zeroing.

The second world: the technological plane, "Cybertron."

All Energy Cores overloaded and exploded, and artificial intelligences rebelled en masse. The stock price of "Universal Mining," controlled by the Underworld Group, plummeted 99.8%, and 700 billion in market value evaporated.

The third, the fourth, the fifth...

Seventeen worlds fell into economic collapse, social riots, and civilizational regression in the same second.

All of them were core business areas of the Underworld Group.

"Boss!" The digital image of The Group's Chief Risk Officer turned red with anxiety. "Our trans-planar asset portfolio is shrinking frantically! At this rate, our net assets will drop below the warning line within three hours!"

Even more fatal—

The Heavenly Court Stock Exchange suddenly popped up an emergency announcement:

[Due to force majeure encountered by our important partner, the Underworld Group, the rating of the "Heavenly Court Bonds" issued under its guarantee has been downgraded from AAA to C (Junk Grade)]

[All investors holding these bonds may sell them within today; otherwise, they will bear joint and several losses]

A selling wave was instantly ignited.

The immortals and gods of the Heavenly Court—those shareholders who were just clinking glasses with Lin Chen—were now selling Underworld bonds like crazy.

"Lin Chen! I'm sorry!" the God of Wealth apologized while selling. "I have a family to feed too, brother!"

"I understand." Lin Chen was expressionless. "Zhang Hao, activate the 'Black Swan Protocol'."

"Yes!"

Zhang Hao pulled up the counterattack plan prepared long ago—it was an emergency contingency plan Lin Chen had ordered to be written within his first hour of becoming a shareholder.

"Step one: Short the opponents' worlds."

On the shareholder panel, Lin Chen locked onto three of those seventeen collapsing worlds—according to internal intelligence, these three worlds were the core assets of the declaring shareholder Group.

"Purchase 'World Origin Short Options'," Lin Chen said. "Max out the leverage, 100 times."

[Transaction successful: -500 billion dimension points]

[You have obtained the right to short the decline in the origin value of the three realms: "Qingyun Realm," "Cybertron," and "Nether Realm"]

[If the value of the three realms continues to fall by 10%, you will profit 50 trillion dimension points]

"But we need to make them keep falling." Lin Chen sneered. "Issue a cross-dimensional announcement: The Underworld Group will impose 'Civilization Downgrade Sanctions' on the aforementioned three realms—cutting off all dimensional trade channels and offering a bounty for the capture of their world administrators."

The moment the announcement was issued, the already collapsing economies of the three realms plunged directly into the abyss.

Investors fled frantically, and the value of the world origins took a nosedive.

15%... 20%... 30%...

Lin Chen's short positions began to rake in massive profits.

"Step two: Reverse-harvest the Heavenly Court."

He opened the Heavenly Court bond trading interface and smiled as he looked at the panicking immortals and gods selling off.

"In my personal name, issue 'Lin Chen Special Bonds'," he said. "Annual interest rate: 50%."

"Collateral: The expected profits from my recent shorting."

Zhang Hao gasped. "50%?! This interest is ridiculously high; it will attract everyone..."

"That's exactly why I want them to buy." Lin Chen clicked the issuance button. "Total bond issuance: 10 trillion dimension points."

It was crazy.

Absolutely insane.

But even crazier—when these ridiculously high-interest bonds hit the market, those immortals and gods who had just sold off Underworld bonds actually scrambled to buy them!

"50% interest! Even if Lin Chen falls, the money he made from shorting is enough to pay the interest!"

"Buy! Go all in!"

"I'm betting my entire fortune!"

Greed overwhelmed reason.

Ten trillion in bonds sold out in three seconds.

Ten trillion in cash flow instantly flooded into Lin Chen's account.

"Boss, the money's here!" Zhang Hao's voice trembled. "Now we..."

"Step three." Lin Chen looked at the seventeen collapsing worlds. "Initiate the 'Ruins Acquisition Plan'."

Using the newly arrived funds, he began frantically acquiring the core assets of those collapsing worlds at rock-bottom prices:

The spirit vein mines of the Qingyun Realm—original price 300 billion, current price 3 billion.

The starport clusters of Cybertron—original price 700 billion, current price 7 billion.

The authority of reincarnation in the Nether Realm—original price 5 trillion, current price 50 billion...

Buy! Buy! Buy!

By the time the declaring shareholder Group realized what was happening, the assets worth hundreds of trillions they had personally destroyed were being snapped up by Lin Chen at one-thousandth of the price.

"He's scavenging our corpses!" an old-guard shareholder roared on the internal channel. "Quick! Stop the world collapses! Stabilize the economies!"

But it was too late.

Once panic is ignited, it isn't so easily stopped.

Moreover, Lin Chen continued to release negative news:

"Latest intelligence: The Heavenly Dao of the Qingyun Realm is about to collapse..."

"The Cybertron rebels have taken control of the core energy..."

"The reincarnation system of the Nether Realm has suffered irreversible pollution..."

Every piece of news caused the value of those worlds to drop another notch.

Meanwhile, the profits from Lin Chen's short positions had snowballed to 80 trillion.

"Step four," Lin Chen finally bared his fangs, "counterattack."

He locked onto the shareholder with the smallest stake and the weakest strength in the declaring group—codename "Black Star."

"Have you found the coordinates for Black Star's core world?"

"Found it!" Little Red Clothes emerged from the data stream. "It's a high-magic world called the 'Dark Erosion Plane,' where Black Star has been posing as a dark god and ruling for seventy thousand years."

"Very good." Lin Chen pulled up the dimensional weapon shop. "Purchase 'Rule-Level Economic Strike Pack: Hyperinflation'."

[Item: Hyperinflation Strike Pack]

[Effect: The target world's currency system collapses instantly, with prices rising 1000% per second]

[Duration: 72 hours]

[Price: 8 trillion dimension points]

"Buy it."

[Strike deployed]

The Dark Erosion Plane.

Black Star was smugly looking at the report of Lin Chen's shrinking assets when suddenly—

The believers in his divine kingdom began to scream.

"One gold coin! One gold coin can only buy a single piece of bread now!"

"No! Now it takes ten gold coins!"

"One hundred! One thousand!"

Prices were skyrocketing.

The wealth accumulated by the believers vanished into nothingness, and their faith collapsed. Black Star's foundation of divine power began to shake.

"Lin Chen—!" His angry roar echoed across dimensions.

Lin Chen connected the communication and smiled. "shareholder Black Star, it seems your world's currency is a bit unstable? Do you want me to lend you some money for the emergency? As for the interest... let's just double the rate you demanded when you were selling off my bonds just now."

"You're looking for death!"

"Oh, right," Lin Chen said as if he just remembered, "I just shorted your 'Dark Erosion Plane Origin Options.' Now, for every 1% your world's value drops, I make 1 trillion. Guess how much this wave of inflation will make it drop?"

Black Star's face turned ashen.

He cut off the communication.

But it was already too late.

The economy of the Dark Erosion Plane completely collapsed, and the world origin value plummeted by 40%.

Lin Chen's short position made a single-trade profit of 40 trillion.

Adding the previous profits, the total reached 120 trillion.

And at this point, only one hour had passed since the first wave of strikes began.

On the shareholder Group's internal channel, there was a dead silence.

After a long time, an Aged One's voice said:

"The first round... we lost."

"And we lost miserably."

"But this is only the beginning."

"Issue the order: Activate the 'World-Extinguishing Weaponry,' target—all of Lin Chen's asset worlds."

"We want him to know..."

"That some wars cannot be won with money alone."

Lin Chen smiled when he received the alert.

He looked at Zhang Hao. "They've finally figured it out."

"But unfortunately," he pulled up the 120 trillion in funds he had just earned, "what I like most is..."

"Using money to crush all defiance."