The Citadel of Commerce did not die with a whimper. It died with the sound of trillions of credit accounts being deleted simultaneously—a digital scream that resonated through the golden halls of the Dyson Swarm.
As the "Universal Mana" currency plummeted toward absolute zero, the artificial singularity at the Citadel's heart—the Great Mint—began to suffer from a lack of "faith." In the Galactic Exchange, belief was the fuel for physics. When the investors stopped believing in the value of the market, the gravity wells holding the habitats together simply gave up.
"The structural integrity is down to 12%!" Garrick yelled over the roar of collapsing nebula-glass. He was dragging a half-melted obsidian Debt Enforcer off his boot, his mechanical hand sparking with blue electricity. "If we don't get to the Sovereign Venture in the next three minutes, we're going to be part of the most expensive debris field in history!"
Han Jue stood in the center of the chaos, his charcoal suit remarkably unrumpled despite the tectonic shifts of the floor beneath him. He was staring at the holographic globe. Earth was no longer red. It was a shimmering, ghostly white—a "Delisted Asset."
Vax, the Underwriter, lay on the floor, his starlight body flickering like a dying candle. "You... you've destroyed everything," he rasped, his voice a distorted static. "The liquidity... the trade routes... the peace of the sectors... it's all gone."
"Peace bought with the blood of 'Seed' worlds isn't peace, Vax," Han Jue said, tucking his pen into his breast pocket. "It's a debt trap. I just provided the bankruptcy filing the galaxy was too afraid to write."
Suddenly, the screaming noise of the marketplace vanished. It wasn't replaced by silence, but by a heavy, pressurized cold that seemed to freeze the very air in the lungs.
The giant holographic display didn't flicker. It turned a deep, abyssal black. A single line of text appeared, written in a script that felt like it was carved into the back of Han Jue's skull.
[UNSCHEDULED AUDIT INITIATED] [CREDITOR: THE VOID EMPERORS] [DEBTOR: THE GALACTIC EXCHANGE] [STATUS: DEFAULT DETECTED. REPOSSESSION COMMENCING.]
"Oh no," Elena Sol whispered, her face turning a deathly pale. She clutched her disruptor pistol, but her hand was shaking. "The Underwriter mentioned them... the ones the Exchange borrowed from. They're not coming for the money, Jue. They're coming for the mass."
The Repossession
From the black hole at the center of the Citadel, something began to emerge. It wasn't a ship. It was a shadow—a physical manifestation of non-existence that began to wrap around the golden habitats. Where the shadow touched, the gold didn't break; it simply ceased to be.
The Void Emperors didn't collect in currency. They collected in Entropy.
"Move! Now!" Han Jue commanded.
The trio sprinted through the crumbling Grand Exchange. The floating platforms were falling like autumn leaves, throwing brokers of a thousand species into the void below. Han Jue didn't look back at Vax. The Underwriter was already being consumed by the black text of his own failed ledgers.
As they reached the executive docking ring, the gravity inverted.
"Garrick, the stabilizer!" Elena cried out as she began to drift toward the ceiling, which was currently being eaten by a localized rift.
Garrick slammed a magnetic tether into the floor, grabbing Elena by the waist. Han Jue, however, didn't need a tether. He activated the Master Ledger Fragment within his suit.
[Skill: Auditor's Gravity] [Effect: Define 'Down' as the most stable asset in the vicinity.]
Han Jue's boots hit the floor with a metallic clack. He reached out, grabbing Garrick and Elena, his voice calm despite the station literally dissolving around them. "Focus on the ship. The Venture is registered as an independent asset. The Void shouldn't be able to claim it as part of the Exchange's liquidation—yet."
They reached Docking Bay 1 just as the golden gates began to liquefy into dark energy. The Sovereign Venture sat there, its engines already humming with a frantic, violet light. Han Ling was at the airlock, her face tight with concentration.
"The docking clamps are fused!" Ling-er shouted. "I can't release them from the inside! The station's OS is locked in a 'Death Loop'!"
"I've got it!" Garrick roared, charging forward. He didn't use a terminal. He raised his massive tech-wrench, fueled by the last of his internal mana-reserves. "Iron Protocol: Forced Disconnect!"
He slammed the wrench into the primary docking pylon. The recoil threw him back, but the clamps shattered.
"Everyone inside! Now!" Han Jue yelled.
The Escape from Zero
The Sovereign Venture lurched away from the Citadel just as the Dyson Swarm reached its critical mass of collapse. In the rearview monitors, they watched as the golden center of galactic civilization was pulled into the central singularity.
It didn't explode. It imploded into a single, infinitesimal point of black light.
[Warning: Entropy Wave Detected] [Navigation System: Offline] [Calculating Jump...]
"We can't jump!" Selas cried from the pilot's seat. "The space-time coordinates are being warped by the Repossession. If we try to enter warp now, we'll be smeared across three dimensions!"
Han Jue walked to the center of the bridge. The ledger on the pedestal was glowing with a fierce, white heat. He didn't look at the monitors; he looked at the data-stream.
"The Void Emperors aren't just taking the station," Han Jue said. "They're erasing the trade routes. They're closing the accounts of this entire sector. If we want to get home, we have to pay the Exit Tax."
"We don't have any money!" Garrick yelled, leaning over a smoking console. "You crashed the market, remember?"
"We don't pay in Mana," Han Jue said. He looked at Elena and his sister. "We pay in Information. Selas, give me the ship's sensor logs of the crash. All of it. The panic, the collapse, the exact moment the currency hit zero."
"Why?" Selas asked, her fingers flying across the touchscreens.
"Because the Void Emperors feed on entropy," Han Jue explained. "The death of a market is the highest form of entropy in the universe. It's a 'Data-Delicacy' for them. We're going to trade the 'Story of the Crash' for our safe passage."
He placed his hand on the Ledger.
[INITIATING SETTLEMENT] [OFFERING: THE COMPLETE RECORD OF THE GALACTIC EXCHANGE COLLAPSE] [VALUE: UNPRECEDENTED]
For a second, the ship stopped vibrating. The cold, pressurized presence returned, filling the bridge. A single, giant eye—made of swirling galaxies and ancient math—appeared outside the viewport. It didn't look at the ship; it looked at the Ledger.
"THE OFFER... IS ACCEPTED."
A tunnel of pure, white light opened in the darkness.
"Punch it, Selas!" Han Jue commanded.
The New World Order
The Sovereign Venture dropped out of warp in the shadow of the Moon.
The Earth was still there—blue, fragile, and beautiful. But something had changed. The neon-gold light of the Selene Syndicate spires had vanished. The moon was now a dark, silver sentinel once again.
"Check the comms," Elena said, her voice shaking with exhaustion. "Did it work? Is the IPO over?"
Han Ling tapped her tablet. A smile, slow and triumphant, spread across her face. "The Galactic News Network is dark. The Exchange's signals are gone. But look at the local channels."
She projected the Earth's data-stream onto the main screen.
[GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT] The 'Galactic Exchange' has filed for Chapter 7 Liquidation. All planetary 'Seed' contracts are hereby null and void. Earth is officially an 'Independent Sovereign Entity'.
The bridge erupted in a weary cheer. Garrick slumped into his chair, Selas leaned her head against the console, and Elena let out a breath she seemed to have been holding since they left the Pacific.
But Han Jue didn't cheer. He stood at the viewport, looking at the stars. Through his Audit Vision, he could see that the sky was different. The "Trade Routes" were gone. The distant flickers of other civilizations were blinking out as they, too, retreated into isolation to survive the Great Crash.
"We're alone," Selas said, joining him at the window. "The galaxy just went dark."
"It's not dark," Han Jue said, his eyes reflecting the distant, cold stars. "It's just De-Centralized. The era of the big banks is over. Now, every planet has to manage its own books."
He looked at the Ledger. The white pages were now filled with the names of the "Void Emperors."
"We saved Earth from the harvest," Han Jue whispered. "But the Void Emperors are still out there, Selas. And they've just learned that there's a new Auditor in the sector."
Suddenly, his Ledger pulsed. A new notification appeared, one that made even Han Jue's blood run cold.
[NEW ASSIGNMENT: THE UNIVERSAL RECEIVERSHIP] [TASK: COLLECT THE REMAINING ASSETS OF THE FALLEN EXCHANGE] [REWARD: THE KEY TO THE SOURCE] [PENALTY FOR REFUSAL: TOTAL ERASURE]
Han Jue looked at his team—his friends, his sister, his fellow survivors. They thought the war was over. But he knew the truth.
The Sovereign of the Ledger hadn't just saved a planet. He had accidentally applied for a job as the Bailiff of the Universe.
"Garrick," Han Jue said, his voice regaining its sharp, witty edge. "Don't get too comfortable in that chair."
"Why?" Garrick groaned. "What now?"
"We've got a lot of invoices to send out," Han Jue said, a dark smile touching his lips. "And the galaxy is a very big neighborhood."