Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 227 - 201: Total Collapse

Chapter 227: Chapter 201: Total Collapse

```

After resting in Yan Duo’s territory and considering the checkpoints near the transfer portals set by Kyoto Infinity, they took some effort to shake off any tails, making a detour before returning to the Nestor Industrial Park.

Now, six full days had passed since they began this submarine expedition.

Upon reaching an area with network signals, Xu Yang checked the news, and everything had changed. The Yan Duo incident triggered a startling chain reaction, turning the world upside down with too many events happening in the past six days.

To the rest of the world, the dimming of the sun’s rays six days ago showed no signs of returning to normal, and even though the meteorological forecast agency indicated that sunlight would soon return, the entire world still shuddered under endless night, with heating becoming a top priority and energy consumption soaring.

The prolonged darkness not only sparked heated discussions online but also thoroughly impacted the financial markets, with a huge economic crisis starting to erupt.

The seeds of an economic crisis had already been sown in the past few years with shrinking consumption and overproduction, and Yan Duo’s escape completely detonated this massive powder keg. The world became cold, not knowing when it would recover light and warmth, further influencing all changes in the economic situation.

Xu Yang organized the news, sorting out events that happened within the last 48 hours according to a timeline.

First was the complete collapse of Kyoto Infinity’s stock price, as investors lost trust and exited en masse. In the beginning of this year, Kyoto Infinity’s stock price was at 3400, plummeting to 2700 after the Shenkong Tower incident and falling to 2300 after their defeat in the Warmstone Sea battle. The price is currently at 350 and still dropping.

The original management had completely disbanded, now attempting to restructure, with "Sakura Witch" Kirino Reisei preparing to find the next president. The former president, Takahashi Nozomi, committed suicide by disembowelment live on the short video platform "Myriad Dreams Entertainment," with an audience of 90 million in the livestream, and the comments section was full of vitriol and curses. A medical drone presented Takahashi Nozomi’s death report on the scene, followed by a livestream of his funeral.

The disappearance of sunlight was equally far-reaching.

The great battle between Yan Duo and Dilnai led to Yan Duo excessively drawing sunlight, causing solar radiation to weaken, and an unusual severe cold swept across the world.

For six days, agriculture fell into a precarious situation. With the sun gone and cold winds howling, temperatures near the equator dropped to 15°C within a few hours, and subtropical regions experienced an early winter.

With the help of new technology, 23% of the world’s agriculture now operates completely independent of natural sunlight, while the remaining 77% of crops are dying at an alarming rate, compounded by a massive cold wave, dealing a heavy blow to global agriculture and significantly increasing the cost of food.

On the third day without sunlight, one after another agricultural enterprise announced that current crops were catastrophically affected and significantly raised food prices in response to expected yields. The tension in food supply escalated, and food prices rose. Feed, animal husbandry, cotton, textiles, and food processing industries were all impacted, with investors quickly abandoning the sinking food sector.

Subsequently, Peacock-Tristan Group in the White Elephant Continent was hit hard. This giant was a merger of two large companies, namely, the large agricultural food enterprise Peacock Company and the financial enterprise Tristan Company, which had joined forces to operate under the banner of a giant.

Even if sunlight were to return, Peacock Company would take a long time to recover from this loss. Tristan Company began to push for a separation from Peacock Company to prevent its downfall from harming its own interests.

The two companies ultimately announced their split five hours ago, ending the history of joint operations of the Peacock-Tristan Group and changing the situation in the White Elephant Continent.

In the past few hours, another more famous food company, Tortilla Top Hat, also collapsed, becoming the biggest victim. Global agricultural enterprises announced a reduction in exports of grain raw materials, jointly setting price schemes, and sharply raising the prices of grains and feed for self-protection. Consequently, Tortilla Top Hat’s stock price plummeted, and its barns and food processing plants shut down one after the other. Its own food supply could only meet a quarter of its production needs.

Tortilla Top Hat, a company recently added to the ranks of giants, was undergoing a series of ambitious expansion plans, borrowing heavily from Swiss Wealth Bank with the aim to open tortilla shops worldwide, is now forced to declare default—given the current economic situation, they could never repay the debt.

At the same time, for the purpose of strategic contraction, Tortilla Top Hat announced the closure of many overseas stores and the restructuring of its business strategy, abandoning droves of loyal store employees. They also ignited warfare in the Agave Continent, attempting a hostile takeover of nearby agricultural companies to increase food supplies.

In response to Tortilla Top Hat’s default, Swiss Wealth Bank adopted the toughest stance to collect debts, and after an efficient meeting, announced it would dispatch its overseas forces within the next week to forcibly seize Tortilla Top Hat stores as debt repayment, while at the same time launching corporate warfare against Tortilla Top Hat. Due to Tortilla Top Hat’s default, its credit also plummeted.

Thus, three giant enterprises were heavily damaged all at once, stirring the rapidly changing economic landscape. They were too big to crumble instantly but teetered on the edge of a cliff.

However, the first three days were the coldest and most detrimental to crops. The rate of sunlight recovery was fast, and by the time Xu Yang and his group returned to the industrial park, the sunlight had already warmed, shining anew. It is estimated that in about ten more hours, at least the sun should return to normal, but the economic chaos was unstoppable.

Capital never rests, and investors were scouring the globe for valuable investment targets, with Black Fire Innovation becoming the biggest beneficiary.

Even the dullest could see the major trend of economic decline, regions began to spiral out of control, every company was optimizing its structure, downsizing, or facing bankruptcy. Unemployment rates were doubling every day, and chaos escalated around the world. Munitions would undoubtedly become the best-selling products in the next few years, required by both corporatists and anti-corporatists alike.

And this was just what happened within the past 48 hours, not counting which companies would fall behind later or who would declare war on others.

"The world has exploded," Xu Yang summarized the current situation, "The current global system is no longer able to protect itself, and we are about to face the largest economic recession in history."

"What will happen then?" Farosa asked, lying on the seat of Innovation, with the Shuttle Machine an hour away from home, returning to the beloved Industrial Park.

```

"A world war will erupt," Xu Yang was certain, "and until the final victor survives, it will utterly reshape the world, harmonize interests, and unify the chaos."

"The bloodshed has begun." Farosa found it amusing, "Which corporate giant do you think will win?"

"Us," Xu Yang said.

"Hmm?" Farosa’s interest piqued.

"Apart from unifying the world, I fear there are no other means to change this," Xu Yang said, "The Corporate Alliance once achieved it, and they tried to root out the Mystics. We can also strive towards this goal anew."

"Then let’s do just that," Farosa agreed, "Go unify the world, end the chaos with absolute Power."

"Those Mystics..." Xu Yang pondered, "How do you think they should be dealt with? We’ve all seen what Mystics are capable of, cataclysmic destruction."

"The main issue," Farosa said, "is that what they covet is actually within me—it’s the power inheritance from the previous deity. If I keep hiding, they will lay low for a while. Correspondingly, wherever I emerge, they will track the scent and hunt me down. So as long as I keep a low profile, there’s no need to worry about them suddenly striking. They’ve stayed hidden for a thousand years; they have patience."

"Then let’s leave it at that for now..." Xu Yang suddenly discovered a deluge of messages from Kojima Kanako as soon as he entered an area with good signal, these communications swiftly highlighted for his immediate attention.

Xu Yang routed Kojima Kanako’s communications through the control console of the Innovation, and her image appeared on the screen, clad in black formal wear, having just left some meeting, now in her own hotel room.

"Hey! It was you, wasn’t it?" Kanako sounded anxious, "The Zenith incident and all."

"I can’t say," Xu Yang of course couldn’t admit it.

"Ah, what a nuisance."

"Nothing troublesome," Xu Yang reassured her, "You’ll understand in time."

"Anyway..." Kanako was still confused, "The world seems to be collapsing, Xisheng’s future plans keep changing—it’s frightening, so you should at least tell me."

"What I can tell you," Xu Yang said, "is that everything we do is also to your advantage as long as you don’t act recklessly, don’t issue thoughtless commands, and don’t breach confidentiality rules. Everything will turn out as you wish."

"I’ll try to cooperate," Kanako eventually chose to concur, since they had already established a common interest relationship.

"You mentioned changes at Xisheng," Xu Yang was curious, "The collapse of the largest business you support, Kyoto Infinity, must be a great hindrance for you. What measures do you plan to take to reorganize Kyoto Infinity?"

"Reorganize?" Kanako shook her head, "We’re watching it fall. Kyoto Infinity is already a subpar asset, not worth saving."

"Then who will you support next to manage the Northern Archipelago?" Xu Yang frowned.

"Black Fire Innovation."

"It’s not easy to control, is it?"

"The situation has changed now," Kanako sighed, "Everyone online is attacking us, attacking Xisheng, attacking everything; undercurrents swirl. More and more people are becoming jobless, you’ve been away recently, not seeing those people gathering in the streets. Our family suspects that soon people will unite to deal us a lethal blow, so we are changing our investment strategy. We will support Black Fire Innovation to win the entire war, to conquer the entire Archipelago Continent, and let Blackfire take over everything on our behalf."

"...What’s the benefit for Xisheng?"

"Sure there is," Kanako explained, "Black Fire Innovation is fundamentally a company, not some completely aberrant beast. Their managers, officers, and warriors all need money, need their daily bread."

"Many will die."

"Anyway," Kanako said, "since anime and games can no longer keep everyone obedient, might as well feed them bullets."