245: Chapter 245 The entire shareholders' meeting was filled with villains! The fourth shareholder was actually myself.

The shareholder Meeting would be held in three days at the "Narrative Origin".

It was a pure white spherical space, with no distinction between up, down, left, or right. When Lin Chen teleported in with Arrogant Dragon and the "silence" light point, the other three shareholders were already present.

Sitting in the true east position was a constantly shifting stream of rule-based code — Number Zero. It had no physical form, but anyone who looked at It would "understand" Its existence within their consciousness.

To the northeast sat a white-haired elder, with countless phantom images of books floating before him. The Librarian. He was using aged fingers to flip through a book titled *Complete Record of Lin Chen's Business Activities*.

To the northwest was a young man wearing casual sweats, tossing several glowing dice in his hand. The Game Designer. He grinned at Lin Chen: "Yo, the new guy's here? Wanna bet? I bet you'll mention the word 'money' in your next three sentences."

Lin Chen ignored him.

His gaze was fixed intently on the empty seat directly to the west.

The seat of the fourth shareholder.

The countdown reached zero.

The seat remained empty.

"It appears Number Four is absent," Number Zero's voice sounded directly in their consciousness. "The meeting begins."

"Wait," Lin Chen spoke up. "Who is the fourth shareholder?"

The Librarian turned a page: "That question has a fee. Price: the three most important memories of your life."

"Not paying."

"Then no answer." The Librarian closed the book.

The Game Designer whistled: "Old rules, new guy introduces himself first. Tell us how you snuck in — I had to design three thousand hell-difficulty dungeons to get my qualification."

Lin Chen looked at Number Zero: "Do I need to say it?"

Number Zero: "You do."

Lin Chen was succinct: "I bought out the Supervision Bureau with money, triggered your test protocol, and you had no choice but to let me in."

The room fell silent.

The Librarian reopened his book, rapidly jotting down notes: "'Bought out the Supervision Bureau with money.' Keywords: monetary force breakthrough. Classification: commercial disruptor."

The Game Designer laughed heartily: "Damn! I love this simple and brutal style! But kid, here, money might not be so useful."

He snapped his fingers.

Lin Chen's account panel suddenly popped up:

[Special shareholder Meeting rules detected]

[All financial assets forcibly converted to 'Narrative Weight']

[Conversion rate: 1 dimension point = 0.0000001 weight points]

[Current Weight: 7.8 (Rank: 4/4)]

Lin Chen watched his trillion-worth fortune become a mere 7.8 weight points, his expression unchanged.

Number Zero explained: "Here, what determines voice is not wealth, but 'depth of understanding' of the Narrative Layer. Weight fluctuates in real-time, depending on whether your words and actions align with the essence of the Narrative Layer."

As soon as the words were spoken, The Librarian's weight jumped from 15.6 to 16.1 — because his act of recording Lin Chen's behavior was judged as "deepening understanding."

The Game Designer's weight was 13.3. Number Zero's... was invisible, presumably infinite.

"Now then," Number Zero got to the main point, "the agenda for this meeting: the implementation plan for the 'Great Cleansing'."

Lin Chen frowned: "What Great Cleansing?"

"Once every hundred thousand epochs," The Librarian said slowly. "The Narrative Layer accumulates too much redundant data — stories no one reads, worlds with broken logic, and upstarts like you who got in by exploiting loopholes. The Great Cleansing will erase all existences with a weight below 10, including everything they created."

Arrogant Dragon's face changed: "Erase?"

"Just what it sounds like," The Game Designer said with a grin. "But don't worry, the cleansing threshold has been lowered this time — weight above 5 can survive. Newbie, you have 7.8. Work hard and you might not die."

A countdown panel appeared:

[Time until Great Cleansing: 30 days]

[Current survival threshold: Weight 10]

[Lin Chen's Weight: 7.8 (Requires +2.2)]

"How to increase weight?" Lin Chen asked.

"Multiple ways," Number Zero listed them. "Create new narrative rules (+1 to +5), Fix major logic flaws (+0.5 to +3), Consume other low-weight existences (+0.1 to +infinite). And..."

It paused.

"Receive weight transfers from other shareholders."

Lin Chen understood immediately.

This was forcing them to compete, even kill each other.

"I have a question," Lin Chen looked at the empty seat. "What is the fourth shareholder's weight?"

Number Zero: "Unknown. It has never participated in the weight system."

"Then how did It survive the previous Great Cleansings?"

"Because..." Number Zero's voice fluctuated for the first time. "It is one of the designers of the 'Cleansing' itself."

As soon as the words were spoken.

A figure suddenly appeared on that empty seat.

It didn't teleport in.

It was as if It had always been there, just that no one could "see" It before.

The person wore an identical suit to Lin Chen, looked exactly the same, even the curve of the smile at the corner of the mouth was identical.

The only difference was that his eyes were pure gold, with countless images of universes being born and dying reflected in his pupils.

"Sorry I'm late," Future Lin Chen spoke, his voice identical to Lin Chen's, but with an added layer of icy texture. "Just went to deal with a time paradox."

Current Lin Chen stared at him intently.

Even though he had suspected it, seeing another version of himself... was bone-chilling.

"Which epoch version of me are you?" Lin Chen asked.

"The version after the one hundred and seventy-third Great Cleansing," Future Lin Chen smiled. "By the way, your current story is one I invested in after the eighty-second cleansing. That 10 dimension points of seed money has already yielded an annualized return exceeding ten to the nine-thousandth power. A decent investment."

He said it casually, as if talking about what he had for breakfast.

The Game Designer whistled louder: "Whoa! Investing in yourself! That's slick! But Old Lin, doesn't that count as cheating?"

"The rules don't forbid it," Future Lin Chen looked at Number Zero. "Right?"

Number Zero was silent for two seconds: "...Right."

"So," Future Lin Chen turned to Current Lin Chen, "according to business ethics, as your angel investor, I now have the right to demand a return."

"What do you want?"

"All your weight," Future Lin Chen said as if it were obvious. "You'll probably not survive this cleansing anyway, so better transfer it to me. In exchange, I'll preserve the core data of your universe and restart it after the cleansing — although you won't be you anymore, at least the concept of 'Lin Chen' will continue to exist."

He said this with a gaze as calm as if discussing an ordinary merger.

Current Lin Chen felt a chill run up his spine.

Not fear.

It was... unfamiliarity.

This future version of himself had completely stripped away all emotion, becoming a pure "business calculation entity."

"What if I refuse?" Lin Chen asked.

"Then you'll have to raise your weight to 10 within thirty days," Future Lin Chen shrugged. "But I must remind you — in the past one hundred and seventy-two cleansings, the survival rate for all newcomers with an initial weight below 8 is 0%. Your current 7.8 has already set a new historical low."

The weight ranking refreshed in real-time.

Because of the recent conversation, Current Lin Chen's weight dropped from 7.8 to 7.6 — the system judged "excessive emotional fluctuation, affecting narrative stability."

Future Lin Chen's weight was still invisible, presumably absurdly high.

The Librarian's weight was 16.4, The Game Designer's 13.5, Number Zero's... Number Zero's weight suddenly jumped, becoming [ERROR].

"Interesting," Future Lin Chen looked at Number Zero. "You're finally starting to 'errorize'. Looks like you'll be on the list for this cleansing too?"

Number Zero did not answer.

But the entire white space suddenly began to tremble.

"The meeting ends here," Number Zero's voice held an unprecedented urgency. "In thirty days, the cleansing begins. Now... meeting adjourned."

Teleportation pillars descended.

But in the last second before Lin Chen was teleported away, Future Lin Chen's voice transmitted directly into his mind:

"A friendly tip for you."

"If you want to increase weight quickly, go consume those 'unwanted stories'."

"For example..."

"Those side worlds you yourself wrote into collapse."

The teleportation completed.

Lin Chen returned to Underworld Group headquarters.

Both Arrogant Dragon and the "silence" light point looked grim.

"Is he really the future you?" Arrogant Dragon asked.

"Yes," Lin Chen pulled up data. "And he's right — we do have many collapsed side worlds we wrote."

The backend showed that during the development of the *Dimension shareholder* universe, side plots abandoned for various reasons had accumulated into over three hundred "defective worlds."

Among these worlds were economies Lin Chen wrecked during early financial product experiments, mirror worlds created when Arrogant Dragon's cultivation went awry, and chaotic spacetimes Su Qingyu created during memory disorders.

They were isolated at the edge of the universe, left to their own fate.

Each world's "narrative integrity" was below 20%, worthless.

But now...

"Consuming them can increase weight," Lin Chen pulled up a calculation model. "Each defective world is estimated to provide 0.01 to 0.05 weight. Consuming all three hundred would add roughly... 3 to 15 points."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Arrogant Dragon stood up. "Let's go now!"

"No rush," Lin Chen stared at the data. "Future me specifically hinted at this, there must be a trap. Among these defective worlds... there's definitely a 'problem'."

He clicked open the monitoring feed of the first defective world.

It was a world with a completely collapsed economy. The "Lin Chen" inside had gone mad due to failed trading, drowning in debt.

In the feed, the mad Lin Chen was kneeling on the ground, writing formulas in blood.

He was writing precisely...

The "silence" light point suddenly screamed: "He's writing the Zeroing algorithm! He wants to suicide-bomb the world!"

Lin Chen's pupils constricted sharply.

Now he understood.

These defective worlds were not resources.

They were... bombs.

Future him was waiting for him to step on them.