265: Chapter 265 The Storm Detonates Ahead of Schedule! I Use My Opponent's Starfield as a Countermeasure

When the alarm for the early outbreak of the Zeroing Storm sounded, the countdown panel had just jumped to [00:00:01].

Lin Chen stared at that number. Before he could react, he felt the entire Narrative Layer tremble.

It wasn't a physical vibration, but a sense of collapse at the conceptual level—as if the floor beneath his feet, the table in front of him, and even his own body had suddenly become "unreal." It was like the terrifying clarity of realizing you are dreaming while in a dream.

The monitoring screens began to distort.

The tree of heavenly dao in the Dead Silence Star Domain was shaking violently, every leaf on its canopy screaming—not with sound, but with information screams piercing directly into consciousness.

"Conceptual overload... the Zeroing Storm is devouring fundamental laws..." Future Lin Chen's data form began to flicker, his voice intermittent, "Detected... the Narrative Layer timeline is... fracturing..."

Before the words could fully land.

The first wave of impact arrived.

It wasn't a material impact, but the disappearance of color.

The colors of all objects in the meeting room, as if wiped away by an eraser, began to fade into black and white from the edges. The mahogany table turned into gray wood, the green plants turned into gray plants, and even the blue uniform on Zhang Hao turned dark gray.

Next was the disappearance of sound.

The hum of the air conditioner, the buzzing of instruments, the sound of starship engines outside the window—all were drained away, as if someone had pressed the mute button. Arrogant Dragon opened his mouth to say something, but not a single syllable came out.

Finally, temperature disappeared.

The concepts of heat and cold were erased. The room temperature settled at an imperceptible "no-temperature" state, neither cold nor hot, but more hair-raising than extreme cold or scorching heat—because the body had lost the ability to perceive temperature.

Within three seconds, the meeting room had turned into a black-and-white silent film scene.

But Lin Chen could still think.

Because inside his brain, that damn Wealth System had upgraded at this critical moment.

A blood-red warning popped up on the system interface:

[Detected collapse of Narrative Layer fundamental laws]

[Wealth System activating Ultimate Protocol: Concept Anchoring]

[Anchoring Target: All business-related concepts (currency, transactions, contracts, value...)]

[Anchoring Cost: Consumes 1 trillion dimension points per second]

[Current Balance: 47 trillion dimension points]

[Estimated Anchoring Time: 47 seconds]

The countdown began: [47]

Lin Chen understood immediately.

The system was using his money to forcibly prevent the concept of "Business" from being devoured by the Zeroing Storm.

Every second, one trillion was evaporating from his account.

But this also gave him 47 seconds of thinking time.

He pulled up the monitoring data that was still barely functioning—though the images were black and white, the numbers were still ticking.

Real-time data updates for the four star domains of the Kindling Project:

[Morgana · Icebound Star Domain]

Civilization Integrity: 91% → 89% → 87%...

Rate of decline: 2 percentage points per second

[Alpha · Data Star Domain]

Civilization Integrity: 86% → 83% → 80%...

Rate of decline: 3 percentage points per second

[Lin Chen · Dead Silence Star Domain]

Civilization Integrity: 47% → 47% → 47%...

Rate of decline: 0

[Lin Chen · Spiritual Energy Star Domain]

Civilization Integrity: 62% → 62% → 62%...

Rate of decline: 0

Lin Chen's two star domains remained unmoved.

"What's going on?" he asked the system.

The system popped up an analysis report:

[Detected that the tree of heavenly dao's root system has penetrated deep into the star domain's underlying laws, forming a 'Conceptual Protection Layer']

[The Zeroing Storm prioritizes devouring unprotected areas]

[Conclusion: Your star domains have found a blessing in disguise]

The tree of heavenly dao.

That seed which was originally meant to erase the concept of business had now become a protective umbrella.

Meanwhile, Morgana's and Alpha's star domains, lacking this "contaminating protective layer," were being frantically devoured by the storm.

Countdown: [32]

The account balance had 32 trillion left.

Lin Chen immediately did two things.

First, he used his 10% equity authority in the Icebound Star Domain to forcibly interface with Morgana's star domain management system.

The moment he connected, he saw a horrific sight—

In the center of the Icebound Star Domain, that ice-blue seed of the heavenly dao (magic version) was reverse-extracting energy from the star domain to protect itself. It like a parasite, it had sucked dry one-third of the glaciers, causing hundreds of millions of frozen creatures to die instantly.

The sharp drop in Morgana's Civilization Integrity was largely caused by the seed.

Second, Lin Chen contacted Alpha.

The communication barely connected; Alpha's data form in the image was already shattered and ragged, like an old television with a bad signal.

"Lin... Chen..." Alpha's voice was full of static, "Cooperate... save me..."

"How do I save you?" Lin Chen asked.

"Your tree of heavenly dao... can it spread the protection layer?"

Lin Chen looked at the data for the Dead Silence Star Domain—the roots of the tree of heavenly dao were indeed slowly expanding, but the speed was too slow to cover other star domains in time.

"No," he said truthfully, "but I have another way."

He pulled up the financial backend and created a new product:

[Zeroing Storm Loss Hedge Insurance]

The insurance terms were simple: after purchasing this insurance, if the insured star domain's Civilization Integrity drop exceeds a certain threshold during the storm, the insurance company (namely, the Underworld Group) will pay out cash according to the drop ratio. The payout funds come from—the premiums paid by all policyholders.

Simply put, it was to have all star domains insure each other, forming a capital pool.

Lin Chen was the first to buy the maximum amount of insurance for his two star domains, premium: ten trillion dimension points.

Then, he sent the insurance sales link to all star domain managers across the Narrative Layer who were still struggling.

In a life-or-death moment, what did money matter?

Within thirty seconds, sales exceeded three hundred trillion.

The capital pool was formed.

Countdown: [15]

The balance had 15 trillion left.

Lin Chen used this money to perform a crazy operation—

He shorted the "Civilization Integrity Futures" of Morgana's and Alpha's star domains.

When the Kindling Project was underway earlier, the Cosmic Exchange had launched futures products for the Civilization Integrity of each star domain for investors to bet on rankings. Now that the Zeroing Storm was hitting, the prices of these futures were plummeting.

Lin Chen entered at the lowest point, shorting frantically.

Because he knew that Morgana's and Alpha's star domains would definitely continue to drop.

And all the money earned from shorting, he poured into the capital pool to pay for insurance claims.

A cycle was formed: Star domain drops → earn money from shorting → use earned money to pay insurance → insurance allows star domain managers to maintain stability → star domain continues to drop but at a slower rate → continue earning money from shorting...

He was using market mechanisms to forcibly delay the collapse.

Countdown: [5]

The final five seconds.

Lin Chen's account balance hit zero.

System prompt: [Concept Anchoring has ended]

Instantly, color, sound, and temperature all returned.

But something even more terrifying arrived.

In the monitoring screens, at the center of the Zeroing Storm, a face condensed.

A colossal, expressionless human face composed of countless gray-white characters.

The face opened its eyes.

The eyes were two rotating black vortices.

A voice boomed from the vortices directly into the consciousness of all living beings:

"Detected... abnormal resistance..."

"Detected... business concept... still operational..."

"Initiating... targeted erasure..."

The face opened its mouth.

Inside the mouth was not a tongue, but a giant pen.

The tip of the pen was aimed precisely at the Underworld Group headquarters where Lin Chen was located.

"It's going to... directly rewrite reality!" Future Lin Chen screamed.

The pen tip descended.

But one second before it touched the headquarters building—

Another pen reached out from the side and blocked it.

That pen was smaller, more delicate, with a line of small characters engraved on the barrel: "Author's Exclusive."

Holding this pen was a slender hand.

The owner of the hand slowly emerged from the void.

It was Golden Glazed.

The young girl's eyes were now clear and sharp, her entire body radiating a faint golden light. She looked at the giant face and said calmly:

"According to Article 88 of the Narrative Layer Creation Protection Law, any entity possessing 'Protagonist Traits' and a 'Complete Storyline' enjoys the right not to be forcibly deleted or modified."

She held up a document—it was the work outline and all published chapters of dimension shareholder.

"Lin Chen and his universe have completed a total of 2 million words of plot development across the first eight parts, complying with the 'Protagonist Protection Regulations'."

"You have no right to erase them directly."

The giant face fell silent.

The pen tip hung suspended in mid-air.

Golden Glazed turned her head to look at Lin Chen and said quickly, "I can only block it for thirty seconds. The Zeroing Storm is the Narrative Layer's self-cleaning program. As the 'Successor of Author Permissions,' I can briefly interfere, but I cannot stop it. You must, within these thirty seconds..."

She hadn't finished.

The giant face suddenly cracked open.

It wasn't a collapse, but a split into three slightly smaller faces.

The first face continued to stare at Lin Chen.

The second face turned toward Morgana's star domain.

The third face, however, looked toward...

The real world.

Golden Glazed's expression changed drastically: "Not good! It has discovered the Author!"

The monitoring screen switched.

In the real world, inside Author Lin Chen's apartment.

The young man sitting in front of the computer typing suddenly froze.

On his computer screen, the document was automatically inputting:

[Lin Chen looked at the splitting giant face and suddenly felt a surge of palpitations—]

[(Author's Note: Wait, why can't I control my keyboard?!) ]

[(System Prompt: External interference detected, locking Author's location...)]

[(Warning: Your real-world coordinates have been exposed)]

Countdown: [30 seconds]

Starting now.