240: Chapter 240 Long Aotian's Counterattack! He Used My Debt to Short the Entire Group

At 1 hour and 7 minutes after the Interactive Narrative Universe went online, Arrogant Dragon launched a surprise attack at the platform's Board of Directors.

At that time, Lin Chen was presenting the new universe's profit model to the other shareholders—through derivative businesses such as paid voting by "Fate Shareholders," customized plot tips, and character skin sales, annual revenue was expected to exceed one hundred quadrillion dimension points.

On the holographic projection in the meeting room, the data curves were soaring all the way.

Until Arrogant Dragon pressed the pause button.

"A very beautiful blueprint." He stood up, dressed in a sharp suit, his eyes sharp as swords. "But Chairman, have you forgotten something?"

Lin Chen raised an eyebrow: "Such as?"

"Such as this." Arrogant Dragon pulled up a financial statement and projected it in front of everyone. "The Group's true balance sheet as of yesterday."

The numbers displayed on the statement caused the meeting room to fall into instant silence.

[Total Group Assets: 98 quadrillion dimension points]

[Total Group Liabilities: 170 quadrillion dimension points]

[Net Assets: Negative 72 quadrillion dimension points]

"Insolvent?!" a shareholder cried out in shock. "How is this possible?! When we just acquired the platform, we clearly—"

"That was a bookkeeping game," Arrogant Dragon sneered. "Chairman Lin used the platform's equity as collateral to raise 3.1 sextillion in acquisition funds. But those funds were 'loans,' not 'investments.' According to the agreement, they need to be repaid with interest in three years—with interest calculated at a 20% annual compound rate."

He zoomed in on the terms: "Total amount due in three years: 5.6 sextillion. And all The Group's current assets combined aren't even enough to cover the pocket change."

Lin Chen looked at him calmly: "And so?"

"So The Group is actually bankrupt." Arrogant Dragon scanned the room. "It's just barely surviving by constantly issuing new debt to pay off old debt. And Chairman Lin has hidden all of this."

He brought up the evidence: seventeen hidden debt agreements signed by Lin Chen, real data showing The Group's cash flow bottoming out, and even vouchers of Lin Chen privately borrowing from loan shark companies.

"What's even more fatal—" Arrogant Dragon paused, "I have just, in my personal name, reported The Group to the Universal Financial Regulatory Bureau for 'financial fraud' and 'fraudulent financing.' The Regulatory Bureau's investigation team is already on its way."

As soon as he finished speaking.

The meeting room doors were pushed open.

Three investigators wearing golden uniforms with the "Universal Financial Supervision Bureau" badge embroidered on their chests walked in. The middle-aged man leading them had a cold expression: "Chairman Lin Chen, we have received a real-name report and are now conducting a financial investigation of the Epoch Management Group in accordance with the law. Please cooperate."

The entire room was in an uproar.

The shareholders' looks toward Lin Chen changed from admiration to suspicion and anger.

Lin Chen, however, smiled.

He clapped his hands.

"Brilliant." He looked at Arrogant Dragon. "When did you prepare all this?"

"From the day you gave me that security uniform," Arrogant Dragon said calmly. "I spent three months using Immortal Emperor-level deduction abilities to analyze all of The Group's financial flows, contract terms, and capital movements. Then I discovered—your business empire is built on infinite leverage."

"Once the capital chain breaks, it will collapse in an instant."

"And now," he checked the time, "there are 47 minutes left until a 300 billion short-term debt you need to repay today is due."

"Guess what will happen when the creditors find out you can't pay?"

As if to confirm his words—

Lin Chen's work badge suddenly blasted a piercing alarm:

[Urgent! Universe Bank has sent a default warning!]

[The 'Platform Equity' pledged by The Group has been frozen!]

[Forced liquidation procedure will start in three minutes!]

[If liquidated, The Group will lose control of the platform!]

Something even more terrifying followed.

The monitoring screens showed that the stock prices of all listed companies under The Group began a cliff-like plunge at the same second!

"I've shorted all your assets," Arrogant Dragon said indifferently. "Using the ten trillion in principal I quietly borrowed over the past three months, I've added a thousand-fold leverage. Now, for every 1% the stock price drops, I make a million times profit."

He pulled up the real-time profit of the shorting account:

[Current Floating Profit: 98 quadrillion dimension points]

[Has exceeded total Group assets]

Lin Chen looked at those numbers and suddenly asked, "Where did you get ten trillion in principal?"

"Borrowed it," Arrogant Dragon confessed. "Using my title as 'Immortal Emperor Reincarnated,' I took out high-interest loans from thirty-seven hidden old monsters. The interest is—if I fail, my soul belongs to them."

"So you've bet everything."

"Yes." A blood-red glint flashed in Arrogant Dragon's eyes. "Either you die, or I am enslaved for eternity."

The temperature in the meeting room dropped sharply.

Even the investigators were stunned—this had already exceeded the scope of financial violations and turned into a life-and-death gamble.

Lin Chen was silent for three seconds.

Then, he did something that no one expected—

He opened the backend of the Interactive Narrative Universe.

He pulled up the real-time voting interface for the "Fate Shareholders."

He entered a new proposal:

[Plot Branch Vote: Arrogant Dragon exposes The Group's debt crisis and attempts to bring down Lin Chen by shorting. How do you want the story to develop next?]

[Option A: Lin Chen turns the tables on the spot, striking back with an even flashier move (requires payment of 100 dimension points to vote)]

[Option B: Arrogant Dragon succeeds, Lin Chen goes bankrupt (requires payment of 100 dimension points to vote)]

[Option C: Both sides perish together, the story ends (Free)]

The proposal was instantly pushed to all 9.7 quadrillion readers.

The voting data began to jump crazily:

Option A: 72%

Option B: 18%

Option C: 10%

"What are you doing?" Arrogant Dragon frowned.

"Letting the readers decide the plot," Lin Chen smiled. "Since this is an Interactive Narrative Universe, major turning points should be voted on by the shareholders."

"But this is reality!"

"It's reality to us, but a story to the readers." Lin Chen looked at the rising percentage of Option A. "And right now, over 70% of the readers have paid money because they want to see me turn the tables."

He pulled up the voting capital pool—in just ten seconds, 790 quadrillion dimension points in voting fees had been raised!

"This money," Lin Chen clicked withdraw, "is mine now."

The funds arrived.

He immediately repaid that 300 billion short-term debt.

The bank withdrew its lawsuit, and the equity freeze was lifted.

Next, he used the remaining funds to start reverse-buying The Group's stock!

"It's useless." Arrogant Dragon shook his head. "My short position is a thousand times yours; you can't pull it back."

"I don't need to pull it back," Lin Chen said calmly. "I only need to keep the stock price from falling below a certain threshold."

He pulled up a hidden contract: "Three months ago, I signed a 'Stock Price Stabilization Insurance' with the universe's largest insurance company, 'Eternal Sanctuary.' The terms stipulate: if The Group's stock price drops by more than 50% within any three consecutive days, the insurance company must compensate me for my losses in full—the compensation amount is a hundred times the market value of my holdings."

Arrogant Dragon's face changed.

"And my holdings," Lin Chen zoomed in on the data, "are exactly 98 quadrillion. A hundred times that is 9.8 quintillion."

"How could an insurance company sign such a—"

"Because I paid an astronomical premium," Lin Chen interrupted. "Using The Group's profits for the next three years as collateral. Everyone thought I was crazy at the time, but now it seems..."

He looked at the stock price curve.

Driven by the readers' funds, the stock price drop was stuck exactly at 49.7%.

It was only 0.3% away from triggering the insurance payout.

"You calculated it all?" Arrogant Dragon's voice trembled.

"The essence of business is calculation." Lin Chen closed the interface. "You calculated my debt, and I calculated your short. Now, your position's losses have already exceeded your principal, haven't they?"

Arrogant Dragon's shorting account updated in real-time:

[Floating Loss: 11 trillion dimension points]

[Has touched the forced liquidation line]

[If margin is not added within ten minutes, the position will be automatically liquidated, losing all principal]

The ten trillion principal was entirely borrowed from loan sharks.

Liquidation meant he would be enslaved for eternity.

Arrogant Dragon stared fixedly at the screen, his fingers trembling.

But just then—

Another anomaly occurred!

All of The Group's monitoring screens suddenly turned black and white!

Then, a line of blood-red words appeared:

[Narrative Layer Intervention Initiated]

[Detected that the plot direction has deviated from the preset outline]

[Forced Correction Program Activated]

[Correction Target: Ensure Arrogant Dragon wins]

The space in the meeting room began to distort.

The investigators, shareholders, and even those data charts gradually disappeared as if being erased by an eraser.

Only Lin Chen and Arrogant Dragon remained, standing in a pure white void.

"This is..." Arrogant Dragon was dazed.

"The platform's 'Outline Maintenance Program'." Lin Chen's expression darkened. "It seems that even if I control the platform, some underlying rules still cannot be modified."

In the white space, a giant hourglass appeared.

The hourglass began to count down: [5 minutes]

"Before the countdown ends," a mechanical voice sounded, "if Arrogant Dragon has not achieved a decisive victory, this program will directly delete the character Lin Chen, and Arrogant Dragon will take over the position of protagonist."

Arrogant Dragon was stunned.

"So... all of this was arranged?"

"Yes." Lin Chen nodded. "From the moment you were resurrected, it was a setup by the platform to 'correct the plot.' All your actions were within the program's calculations."

"Then my previous hatred, my efforts, even the bet I made with my soul..."

"Were all part of the script."

Arrogant Dragon stood there frozen.

He thought he was an avenger, but he was just a puppet on strings.

"Now," the mechanical voice urged, "please make your choice. Kill Lin Chen and become the new protagonist. Or—"

"Or I help you rewrite the outline," Lin Chen suddenly spoke.

He pulled up his authority panel as the platform's controlling shareholder and entered a line of brute-force cracking code.

"What are you doing?" the mechanical voice warned. "Tampering with the core program is prohibited!"

"I'm not tampering," Lin Chen smiled. "I'm initiating a shareholder proposal."

He quickly created a new proposal:

[Resolution Regarding the Modification of the Outline for the Work 'dimension shareholder']

[Proposal Content: Change the single-protagonist linear narrative to a long-term plot of commercial confrontation between dual protagonists]

[Expected Effect: The competition between Lin Chen and Arrogant Dragon will increase the long-term revenue of the work]

[All shareholders, please vote]

The proposal was sent to all readers.

The votes instantly surpassed a trillion.

Approval rate: 94%.

"According to the platform's articles of association," Lin Chen looked into the void, "when a controlling shareholder initiates a proposal and obtains support from over 90% of users, any setting, including the outline, can be forcibly modified."

"Now, I propose—"

"Make Arrogant Dragon the second protagonist."

"From now on, this story becomes a clash of two titans."

"And the final ending will be decided by real-time reader voting."

The white space vibrated violently.

The mechanical voice issued a piercing alarm: "Violation! Serious violation!"

"Let it be a violation then." Lin Chen clicked confirm. "Right now, I am the boss."

The modification took effect.

The white space shattered.

Everyone returned to the meeting room.

The hourglass disappeared.

Arrogant Dragon looked at his hands and felt some kind of restraint vanish—it was the shackle of fate that "a supporting character must lose to the protagonist," which no longer existed.

"Now," Lin Chen looked at him, "you are a true opponent."

"No longer a manipulated pawn."

"But someone who can compete with me on equal terms..."

"A partner and a nemesis."

Arrogant Dragon was silent for a long time.

Finally, he reached out his hand.

"Then let's start over."

"This time, I will use my true strength—"

"To defeat you."

The moment their hands shook, the entire platform's database updated.

On the synopsis page of 'dimension shareholder', the protagonist column changed from "Lin Chen" to "Lin Chen / Arrogant Dragon."

And at this historic moment—

The residual data stream of Inspector 117 suddenly flashed an urgent message on all screens:

[Warning: Detected that the 'Original Body' of the Zeroing Source has awakened]

[It is devouring other story universes]

[Estimated to arrive in this universe in 72 hours]

[Feature Identification: A collective of abandoned stories that no one reads]

[Suggestion: Flee immediately]

At the end of the message, a dynamic image was attached:

Countless dim story universes were being devoured by a behemoth composed of pale text.

On the behemoth's torso, some familiar book titles could be faintly seen:

'immortal emperor returns', 'star overlord', 'Doomsday City Lord'...

All were works that were once popular but had been forgotten by readers.

After being forgotten, they turned into monsters.

Now, they were coming to devour stories that were still being read.

To devour—

Them.