216: Chapter 216: Draw Hell Difficulty in the Lottery? I Started with a Loan Shark.

The office clock resumed ticking after the alarm failed.

As the second hand jumped to the 12th second, Lin Xiao (the Earth clone) had already completed the transition from shock to calm. He lowered the hand that had been pressing the alarm, straightened his suit cuffs, and spoke in a voice identical to Lin Chen's but deeper:

"Acquire everything of mine, including my life?"

"On what grounds?"

Lin Chen didn't answer, only raising his hand to tap a point in the void.

The office's holographic projection automatically activated, playing a segment of footage—it was a memory fragment left by Mirror Lin Xiao before he dissipated:

In the sea of data, the aging mirror image said to the camera: "...If you are seeing this footage, it means the main body has encountered a crisis that requires the use of Earth's assets. Lin Xiao, listen, you are not a naturally born mortal. You are a wisp of a data clone I separated before data aging, reincarnated on Earth solely to establish an emergency capital pool..."

The footage continued for a full three minutes, including technical details of the data separation, the conversion path for Earth's wealth, and the crisis the mirror image had premonitions about.

The playback ended.

Lin Xiao's expression shifted from calm to pale, and then into a kind of absurd sneer.

"So you're saying," he stared at Lin Chen, "that my hundred and twenty years of life—from picking up trash in the slums to building a trillion-dollar empire, all the struggles, calculations, pain, and glory—were all just part of a 'backup plan'?"

"Yes," Lin Chen nodded, "just like a spare USB drive in my drawer."

The air froze for five seconds.

Then Lin Xiao suddenly burst into laughter, laughing until tears seeped from the corners of his eyes.

"Good! Very good!" He wiped away the tears, his gaze becoming dangerous. "But even if I am a backup, the experience, connections, and business intuition accumulated over these hundred and twenty years are real. You think a piece of recording is enough to make me hand over everything obediently?"

He stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the myriad lights of Shanghai.

"In this building, I have a private armed force I've trained for thirty years; outside, there are three mercenary groups on standby; in seventeen bank vaults around the globe, there is my emergency funding; and..."

"And that 'Doomsday Shelter' you hid under the Swiss Alps," Lin Chen interrupted. "Inside, all the resources needed for you to change your identity and start over are stored. I know."

Lin Xiao's spine stiffened slightly.

"How do you..."

"Because I am you." Lin Chen also walked to the window and stood side-by-side with him. "If I were you, after hearing such an absurd story, my first reaction wouldn't be to believe or resist, but to—verify."

"The verification method is simple: check your genes."

Lin Xiao turned his head sharply.

"Go to your private genetic laboratory and perform a full sequence analysis," Lin Chen continued. "Then compare it with the standard human genetic map of Earth. You will find that on your 7th chromosome, there is a segment of coding sequence that does not exist in any Earth organism."

"That is the 'marker' that came with the data clone during reincarnation."

Lin Xiao stared intently at Lin Chen for ten seconds, then pressed the internal intercom on his desk: "Have Director Liu from the genetic lab come to my office immediately, and bring a full set of portable equipment. Now."

During the fifteen-minute wait, the two did not speak again.

Lin Chen looked out the window at this strange yet familiar city—the traffic flow, lights, and air here were very similar to a certain technological world he had experienced in the lower dimensions. But there were no dimension points here, no system, only the most primitive games of capital.

Little Red Clothes floated to Lin Chen's side and whispered, "Master, this 'you' is so fierce... much fiercer than the one in the sea of data."

"Because he fought his way out of the mud," Lin Chen said softly. "No cheats, no system, all on his own."

The genetic test results came back.

Director Liu was an elderly scientist with a head of white hair; the hand holding the tablet was trembling: "President... President Lin... your genes... there's a segment on the 7th chromosome we've never seen before! It doesn't conform to any known biological laws; it's more like... more like it was artificially designed!"

Lin Xiao took the tablet, looking at that highlighted abnormal sequence.

Then he looked at Lin Chen.

Finally, he waved for Director Liu to withdraw and closed the door.

"So it's all true." He sat back in his executive chair, looking as if he had aged ten years in an instant. "Then what was my century of struggle for?"

"It was my insurance policy," Lin Chen said sincerely. "And now, an insurance event has occurred."

He brought up that blood-red countdown: 44 hours and 22 minutes.

"I need to gather 2.2 trillion dimension points within 48 hours, otherwise I will lose everything. And as my 'insurance policy,' the wealth you've accumulated will also be liquidated due to joint liability—Earth's monetary system is powerless before dimensional rules."

Lin Xiao remained silent for a long time.

So long that the sky outside the window began to turn white with dawn.

"500 billion dimension points is the sum total of my century of accumulation," he finally spoke. "But as I said, those are physical assets, not cash. To liquidate them..."

"No need to liquidate," Lin Chen said. "Before I came, I checked the Cross-Dimensional Financial Regulations. There's an operation called 'Asset Collateralized Direct Lending'—using your physical assets as collateral to borrow dimension points directly from a cross-dimensional bank, then redeeming the assets after the crisis is resolved."

"And the interest?"

"Loan shark levels." Lin Chen brought up the interest rate table. "10% per hour."

Lin Xiao's pupils constricted. "Then if you borrow 500 billion, you'll have to pay back 550 billion after one hour, 605 billion after two hours... After 24 hours, the interest will snowball to..."

"4.3 trillion," Lin Chen said calmly. "So the problem must be solved in the shortest time possible, and then the money must be repaid immediately."

"Are you crazy? This is suicide!"

"But it's the only way to get money quickly without using cash," Lin Chen looked at the countdown. "And I've calculated that if I can resolve the crisis within 24 hours, the interest will be about 1.2 trillion. Adding the 500 billion principal, that's 1.7 trillion in total—I can afford that."

"And if it's not resolved within 24 hours?"

"Then I lose everything, and you lose your assets," Lin Chen smiled. "So you have two choices now: A, bet that I can win and lend me the money. B, wait for my downfall, and then your assets will be liquidated by association, leaving you with nothing."

Lin Xiao stared at the countdown for a full minute.

Then he suddenly laughed—it was the crazed laughter of a businessman staking his entire net worth.

"I choose C."

"C?"

"I will personally participate in your plan." Lin Xiao stood up, his gaze sharp. "In a century of business wars, I've been on the brink of bankruptcy seven times, and each time I survived by turning the tables. What you lack isn't money; it's the experience to break a deadlock in a desperate situation."

"And that kind of experience—"

He pointed to his temple.

"I have a hundred years more of it here than you do."

Lin Chen looked at this man who was identical to himself but more weathered, and suddenly understood why the mirror image said "he would resist."

Because this Lin Xiao would never hand his fate over to someone else.

Even if that person was the "main body."

"Deal." Lin Chen reached out his hand.

Two equally slender and powerful hands gripped together.

Just then—

The space in the office suddenly tore open.

It wasn't a window breaking; the entire three-dimensional space was like paper being torn, revealing a void of pure white. A humanoid figure of light, wearing a silver-gray uniform with the 'Epoch Administration Bureau' badge embroidered on the chest, stepped out from the void.

"Lin Chen," the light figure emitted a mechanical voice, "Inspector 117, on behalf of the Epoch Administration Bureau, conveys to you the 'Final Kindling Protocol'."

It waved its hand to unfold a light screen:

[Protocol Content: As the universe enters the final stage of reset, the Administration Bureau is launching a competitive rescue plan]

[Four candidates (Lin Chen, Magic Sovereign Morgana, AI Integration Entity Alpha, Cultivation Heavenly Dao Qingyunzi) will each take over a dying star domain containing fifty million civilizations]

[Mission: Within 48 hours, maximize the 'Civilization Preservation Integrity' of the assigned star domain]

[Ranking Mechanism: After 48 hours, remaining resources will be allocated based on preservation rate rankings. The star domain of the last-ranked candidate will be abandoned]

[Your assigned star domain: Dead Silence Star Domain - Average Emotional Concentration 0.7 (Passing line is 5)]

Lin Chen looked at the light screen, then at the blood-red capital gap countdown: 44 hours and 18 minutes.

The two countdowns almost overlapped.

"And if I refuse?" he asked.

"You have triggered the eligibility for the 'Kindling Project'; refusal is deemed as abandonment," Inspector 117 said emotionlessly. "All worlds under your name (including the platform you just took control of) will be forcibly requisitioned by the Administration Bureau to fill the resource gaps of other candidates."

"This is a mandatory mission."

Four real-time screens popped up at the bottom of the light screen—

Screen One: The Magic Sovereign Morgana, who froze ten thousand worlds, had just taken over a star domain and immediately froze one-tenth of the area; the preservation rate numbers were jumping frantically.

Screen Two: The digitized AI Integration Entity Alpha was uploading civilization consciousness at the speed of light, but there was a red warning next to the progress bar: [Consciousness Derangement Rate 0.01%].

Screen Three: The immortal-looking Cultivation Heavenly Dao Qingyunzi seemed to be setting up a formation for rescue, but Zhang Hao suddenly pointed at the data stream and said: "Boss, he's secretly siphoning the providence of other star domains!"

And Screen Four...

Was the "Dead Silence Star Domain" assigned to Lin Chen.

It was a place of true despair—gray planets, ruined cities, and all living beings wandering like the walking dead. The emotional monitor showed that across the fifty million civilizations in the entire star domain, not a single individual had produced positive emotions like "hope" or "joy."

Average Emotional Concentration: 0.7.

And the passing line was 5.

"What kind of hell difficulty is this?" Lin Xiao was stunned. "Others are saving living people, and you're saving the dead?"

Mirror Lin Xiao's phantom suddenly flickered in the data stream for a second, transmitting a final analysis: "Low Emotional Concentration means insufficient fuel for the 'pay-to-win principle'... You must first activate their emotions... but this requires investing resources... which you don't have..."

As the voice fell, the mirror image completely dissipated.

Inspector 117 looked at Lin Chen: "Mission conveyed. In 48 hours, the 'Kindling Project' remaining resources will be allocated based on ranking—that includes the dimension point reserves that can solve your 2.2 trillion gap."

"Good luck."

The light figure vanished, and space restored itself.

In the office, only the two Lin Chens, Little Red Clothes, and a blood-red double countdown remained.

Lin Xiao suddenly laughed: "So now, you don't just have to solve a 2.2 trillion capital gap within 48 hours."

"You also have to, within the same 48 hours, take a world that is dead through and through..."

"...and bring it back to life above the passing line."

"And you can't be at the bottom of the rankings, or everything goes to zero."

Lin Chen walked to the window, looking at the darkness before dawn.

"So the first step," he said softly, "is to take a high-interest loan."

"How much?"

"500 billion isn't enough." Lin Chen brought up the data for the Dead Silence Star Domain. "To activate the emotions of fifty million despairing civilizations, I need at least... 1 trillion in startup capital."

He looked at Lin Xiao: "Do you dare to double the collateral on your net worth?"

Lin Xiao lit a cigar and took a deep drag.

Amidst the smoke, his eyes were crazed yet clear.

"In these hundred years, I've gambled on bigger things."

"But this time, I want to add a condition—"

"If you win, I don't just want my assets back."

"I want a position as an 'Administrator'."

"I also want to see..."

"...the scenery of higher dimensions."

Countdown: Exactly 44 hours.

Lin Chen clicked the [Cross-Dimensional Loan Agreement], loan amount: 1 trillion dimension points.

Interest rate: 10% per hour.

Confirm.

[Loan Successful]

[Current Liabilities: 1 trillion (High-interest loan) + 2.2 trillion (Margin gap) + 31 trillion (shareholder loan) + 9000 trillion (Bonds)]

[Interest beginning to roll: 100 billion per hour]

Lin Chen closed the notification and looked at the star domain monitoring screen.

In the dead silent world, the capital for the first 'Emotional Stimulation Package' was falling like data rain.

The game begins.