217: Chapter 217 The Causal Bomb Detonates! I Sell "Effort Guaranteed to Fail" to Amass Cash Flow

The "Emotional Stimulation Package" of the 1-trillionth dimension point turned into data rain, falling into the Dead Silence Star Domain for 18 minutes.

Monitoring screens showed sparse emotional fluctuations on the surface of the gray planet—in a ruined city, a man like a walking corpse suddenly stopped, looking at the rainbow phantom after the rain, a tear falling from the corner of his eye.

Average emotional concentration: jumped from 0.7 to 0.71.

"Too slow." Lin Xiao stared at the data. "At this rate, it won't even reach 0.1 in 48 hours."

Lin Chen didn't speak; he was watching the real-time screens of the other three competitors.

Morgana's freezing range had expanded to 35% of the star domain, with a preservation rate stable at 89%—her method was crude but efficient: freeze everything and wait for the crisis to pass before thawing.

Alpha's consciousness upload progress reached 42%, but that red warning changed to [Consciousness Derangement Rate 0.07%].

And Qingyunzi...

"He's setting up a formation." Zhang Hao pointed at those obscure flowing runes on the screen. "On the surface, it's a 'Luck Restoration Grand Array,' but in reality..."

The data analysis screen suddenly burst with an alarm: [Detected abnormal causality data flow overflowing from Qingyunzi's star domain, penetrating into the other three star domains!]

"What is he doing?!" Lin Xiao asked.

"He's planting 'Causality Bombs'." Lin Chen pulled up the data flow analysis chart. "It's not a physical explosion, but pollution at the level of rules—making 'Effort inevitably fails, kindness inevitably meets betrayal' a temporary universal law."

Just as he finished speaking.

The four star domains trembled simultaneously.

In Lin Chen's Dead Silence Star Domain, the man who had just felt a glimmer of hope because of the emotional package was suddenly buried by collapsing ruins—even though he had just reinforced that wall.

In Morgana's frozen zone, a layer of ice at absolute zero cracked without warning, revealing the civilization thawing beneath.

In Alpha's upload process, a certain digitized civilization leader suddenly screamed: "Why?! I worked hard for three hundred years to build my home, and now I'm becoming data?!"

As for Qingyunzi's own star domain—he was prepared, activating a protective array, and suffered minimal losses.

"Reverse Causality Plague." Lin Chen looked at the disaster reports jumping wildly on the monitoring screen. "He's temporarily distorted the rules of the entire testing area."

Zhang Hao suddenly clutched his head and screamed: "Boss! My code... it's garbled! I'm forgetting... forgetting how to analyze data!"

Su Qingyu rushed over to support him and found Zhang Hao's body starting to turn transparent intermittently—he was a semi-data lifeform, more directly affected by the rules.

Little Red Clothes' ghostly energy was also distorting, sometimes turning into pink hearts, sometimes into hideous ghost faces: "Master... I'm so confused... I want to cry and laugh at the same time..."

The countdown flashed overhead: 43 hours 22 minutes.

The loan shark interest rolled another 100 billion.

Lin Xiao slammed a fist on the table: "How can we play this?! The rules have been changed!"

Lin Chen, however, stared at the monitoring screen and suddenly smiled.

"Good change."

"What?"

"Have you ever seen what business is most profitable when a plague breaks out?" Lin Chen pulled up the cross-dimensional financial product library. "It's not medicine; it's insurance."

He quickly filtered and found the target product: [Causality Law Abnormal Disaster Insurance].

But the product status was [Out of Stock]—because insurance companies didn't dare underwrite a rule-based disaster of this level.

"We'll issue it ourselves." Lin Chen created a new product. "Product name: 'Reverse Causality Insurance'."

He quickly set the terms:

[Insured Object: Personal losses caused by reverse causality phenomena (including but not limited to: failure of effort, good deeds meeting retribution, total loss of investment, etc.)]

[Coverage: 100 times the loss amount]

[Premium: 50% of the policyholder's '10-year Emotional Tax' after being rescued in the future]

[Special Clause: If ultimately not rescued (i.e., the star domain ranks last and is abandoned), the policy automatically becomes invalid, and premiums are non-refundable]

Lin Xiao was dumbfounded: "You're... playing a shell game? They're about to die, and you're making them buy insurance with 'future taxes after being rescued'?"

"Yes." Lin Chen clicked publish. "But you have to tell someone about to drown: this rope might not save you, but if you buy insurance, in case you are rescued, your previous losses will be compensated 100 times over."

"They'll buy it."

"Because people in despair will grab at any straw."

The product was released to the Dead Silence Star Domain.

Three seconds later, the first policy was sold.

Ten seconds later, the number of transactions exceeded one million.

Thirty seconds later, among the fifty million civilizations, forty-three million individuals had purchased insurance—they traded "half of their Emotional Tax for the next ten years" for a slim hope of "making a comeback if they lived."

The premiums instantly gathered into a sea.

Lin Chen's temporary account balance jumped wildly:

[Premium Income: 700 billion dimension points]

[700 billion... 800 billion... 900 billion...]

[Exceeded 1 trillion!]

"This money..." Lin Xiao's breathing quickened.

"Can do two things." Lin Chen operated two interfaces simultaneously. "First, purchase 'Local Causality Repair Service' from the Administration Bureau—repair the most severely affected areas in our star domain."

He placed an order, paying 500 billion.

The Administration Bureau's efficiency was extremely high; three seconds later, 12% of the area in the Dead Silence Star Domain returned to normal causality. Those civilizations experiencing "effort must fail" suddenly found the rules normal and burst into the ecstasy of surviving a disaster.

The average emotional concentration jumped from 0.71 to 1.2.

"Second," Lin Chen pulled up the short-selling interface, "use the remaining 500 billion to short 'Causality Disorder Concept Stocks'."

"What?"

"Qingyunzi triggered the Reverse Causality Plague, but his own star domain has protection." Lin Chen sneered. "But in the cross-dimensional financial market, many companies' businesses are built on 'stable causality.' Now that the rules are disordered, their stock prices will plummet."

He selected the three largest "Fate Consulting Companies" and went all-in on shorting.

Thirty seconds later, the impact of the Reverse Causality Plague spread to the financial market.

The stock prices of the three companies were halved.

Lin Chen closed his positions, profit: 320 billion.

Total funds: 1 trillion (premiums) + 320 billion (shorting profit) = 1.32 trillion.

And the cost he paid was: "Emotional Tax promises" that might never be collected in the future.

"The ultimate shell game," Lin Xiao murmured.

"It's not over yet." Lin Chen looked at the monitoring screen.

At this moment, the other two competitors were in trouble.

In Morgana's frozen zone, energy consumption tripled due to causality disorder. Her energy reserves were dropping at a visible rate.

In Alpha's consciousness upload process, the derangement rate had risen to 0.13%. Some uploaded consciousnesses began to question the meaning of existence and rioted in his Virtual Heaven.

Meanwhile, Qingyunzi was secretly gloating—he thought his scheme had succeeded.

Lin Chen connected to the emergency communication with Morgana.

On the screen, cracks appeared on the Frozen Sovereign's face for the first time—not physical cracks, but emotional ones of anxiety.

"Lin Chen, if you're trying to mock me..."

"No, I want to make a deal." Lin Chen got straight to the point. "I know your energy is almost exhausted. I'll lend you 300 billion dimension points, and you can buy emergency energy from the Administration Bureau."

"Conditions?"

"After your star domain thaws in the future, the 'exclusive operating rights for 100,000 years of Frost Magic Patents' will belong to me."

Morgana was silent for three seconds—a very long time for her to think.

"Deal."

[Transaction Completed]

Lin Chen transferred 300 billion, and Morgana's energy reserves instantly refilled. Her freezing range began to expand again.

Next, Lin Chen connected to Alpha.

The AI collective's voice carried rare static: "Lin... Chen... my logic... is collapsing..."

"I'll rent you the 'Emotional Logic Mediation Algorithm' to you." Lin Chen pulled up a patent Zhang Hao had developed earlier. "It's specifically for handling logical paradoxes caused by emotions. Charged by the second, 10 million dimension points per second."

"This is robbery..."

"Or you can watch your Virtual Heaven riot and collapse." Lin Chen said calmly. "Choose."

The sound of a data storm whistling came from the other end of the communication.

"Deal."

The algorithm was integrated, and the consciousness riots in Alpha's star domain began to subside. The derangement rate dropped from 0.13% back to 0.09%.

And into Lin Chen's account, 10 million flowed every second.

Three hours later, from this service alone, he earned back the 300 billion lent to Morgana and made an additional 80 billion.

At this time, the real-time rankings updated:

[Current Rankings]

1. Morgana (92% frozen preservation rate)

2. Lin Chen (2.1% emotional concentration + 35% local repair progress)

3. Alpha (58% upload progress, 0.09% derangement rate)

4. Qingyunzi (85% surface preservation rate, but abnormal luck drain detected)

"I'm second." Lin Xiao stared at the ranking. "But why is Qingyunzi still fourth? Didn't he trigger the plague?"

"Because his own star domain is also being affected." Lin Chen pulled up deep-level data. "His protective array can only block 70% of the reverse causality pollution; the remaining 30% is backfiring on him."

On the screen, some cultivators in Qingyunzi's star domain suddenly found their spiritual energy flowing backward while practicing, and the rate of qi deviation soared.

"He brought it on himself." Zhang Hao's code stabilized a bit as he sneered.

But just then—

Inspector 117's projection suddenly popped up forcefully in front of all candidates.

"Anomaly detected." The mechanical voice was emotionless. "Candidate Qingyunzi, you are accused of 'maliciously undermining the fairness of the competition'."

On Qingyunzi's screen, his expression changed: "I didn't..."

"The Administration Bureau has received evidence jointly submitted by Lin Chen, Morgana, and Alpha." 117 pulled up the data stream. "Proving you planted Causality Bombs and polluted the entire testing area."

Qingyunzi grit his teeth: "So what? The rules didn't say I couldn't interfere with opponents!"

"Indeed, it didn't." 117 paused. "But according to Supplementary Clause Article 7: If a candidate's behavior causes 'damage to the overall testing progress,' the Administration Bureau has the right to impose punishment."

"What punishment?"

"Confiscate 30% of your star domain's assets and distribute them to the other three candidates as compensation."

As the voice fell, 30% of Qingyunzi's territory, population, and resources were instantly stripped away by an invisible force, turning into three streams of light that flew toward the star domains of Lin Chen, Morgana, and Alpha.

Lin Chen received the most—because his star domain was originally the worst and suffered the most damage.

The emotional concentration of the Dead Silence Star Domain, due to this injection of resources, instantly soared from 2.1% to 3.8%.

Rankings updated:

1. Lin Chen (3.8% emotional concentration + resource compensation)

2. Morgana (92%)

3. Alpha (58%)

4. Qingyunzi (remaining 55%, plummeted to the bottom)

"No—!" Qingyunzi roared on the screen. "Lin Chen! It's you! You teamed up with them to frame me!"

Lin Chen turned off the communication.

He looked at the countdown: exactly 40 hours.

The loan shark interest had rolled to 400 billion.

Total debt: 1 trillion (loan shark) + 400 billion (interest) + 2.2 trillion (gap) + 31 trillion + 9000 trillion...

But in his hands, he had: 1.32 trillion in cash flow + 10 million per second in algorithm income + the extra resources just obtained.

Plus, the emotional fluctuations in the Dead Silence Star Domain were finally starting to truly come alive.

"Boss," Zhang Hao said excitedly, fully recovered, "at this rate, we really might..."

He didn't finish.

A piercing alarm suddenly rang throughout the testing area.

It wasn't from the Administration Bureau.

It was from outside the testing area—deep in space, at the edge of the Zeroing Storm, cracks suddenly appeared.

Inspector 117's projection appeared again, this time with a rare urgency in its voice:

"Attention all candidates."

"For unknown reasons, the zeroing process has accelerated."

"The original 48-hour competition..."

"Has been shortened to 24 hours."

The countdown instantly refreshed.

Lin Chen looked at the number that jumped to 23 hours 59 minutes.

Then he looked at his star domain's emotional concentration of only 3.8%.

The passing line was 5.

The star domain of the bottom-ranked candidate would be abandoned.

And his 2.2 trillion funding gap, plus the loan shark...

"This is getting intense." Lin Xiao lit a second cigar. "What now?"

Lin Chen was silent for three seconds.

Then he pulled up the cross-dimensional weapon trading market.

Search keyword: [Forced Emotional Concentration Boost (Contraband)]

"Since time is running out..."

"Then I'll use some... illegal means."

He clicked purchase.

Price: 800 billion dimension points.

Effect: Forcibly increase the star domain's emotional concentration by 2%, but with a 50% chance of triggering "Emotional Overload Collapse."

Confirm payment.