The Core Ledger had been a room of cabinets and files, but the Boardroom of the Void was a cathedral of absolute consequence.
As Han Jue and Han Ling stepped through the wreckage of the "Mirror Office," the world didn't just change; it stabilized. The frantic scrolling of the green and gold light slowed into a deep, rhythmic pulse of violet and obsidian. They were no longer in a place of paperwork. They were in the place where Policy was made.
The room was a vast, circular amphitheater of floating obsidian platforms. At the very center, suspended over a pit of swirling, prismatic nebula, sat a round table made of "Event Horizon" matter—material so dense that light itself could not escape it.
Four figures sat at that table. They did not look like Han Jue. They did not look like humans. They were the Executive Sovereigns, the beings who had managed the "Universal Debt" since the First Second.
[Target: The Four Executive Sovereigns] 1. The Sovereign of Scarcity (Operations) 2. The Sovereign of Risk (Legal) 3. The Sovereign of Interest (Finance) 4. The Sovereign of Default (Collections)
Han Jue stood at the edge of the amphitheater, the Auditor's Gavel pulsing in his hand like a living heart. The eight keys he had collected—Logic, Souls, Neutrality, Rust, Choice, Identity, Tears, and the Master Ledger—were orbiting him like a crown of defiant stars.
"You've reached the top floor, Auditor," the Sovereign of Risk spoke. He was a being of shifting, translucent glass, filled with billions of tiny, red lightning bolts—the physical manifestation of every 'What If' in the history of the multiverse. "But you're entering a zone of Maximum Liability. One step closer, and we will be forced to initiate a 'Total Write-Off' of the Solar System."
"You can't write off what you no longer own," Han Jue said, his voice carrying the weight of the eight keys. "I've checked the bylaws. Under the 'Great Reciprocity,' once an Auditor achieves a majority stake in the Keys of the Source, they have the right to call for a Shareholder's Meeting."
"We are the only shareholders who matter," the Sovereign of Interest hissed. She was a serpentine entity made of golden coins that shifted and slithered over one another, her eyes two diamonds that calculated the value of Han Jue's soul in real-time. "The humans are just the 'Working Capital.' And you... you're just a disgruntled employee."
The Audit of the Four Pillars
Han Jue didn't wait for a formal introduction. He slammed the Auditor's Gavel against the floating marble of the walkway.
"AUDIT: THE FOUR PILLARS OF EXPLOITATION!"
The amphitheater shook. The prismatic nebula in the center erupted, casting the "Ledger of the Board" onto the walls.
"Let's look at your performance reviews," Han Jue said, walking toward the round table.
He pointed his pen at the Sovereign of Scarcity. "You! You've been creating artificial shortages of mana in every sector to keep the 'Price of Life' high. You've let entire galaxies starve to ensure your 'Supply Chain' remained profitable. That's not Operations; that's Price Fixing."
The Sovereign of Scarcity—a hollow, skeletal figure draped in rags of empty space—let out a dry, rattling gasp. His rags began to tear.
[You have recovered the Ninth Key: The Key of Plenty.] [Current Key Progress: 9/12]
"And you," Han Jue turned to the Sovereign of Interest. "You've been compounding the debt of the 'Seed' worlds at a rate that exceeds the speed of light. You've made it mathematically impossible for any civilization to ever achieve solvency. That's not Finance; that's Usury."
The golden serpent shrieked, her diamond eyes shattering as the "Interest" she had collected suddenly turned into "Refunds."
[You have recovered the Tenth Key: The Key of Value.] [Current Key Progress: 10/12]
The Legal Counter-Strike
The Sovereign of Risk and the Sovereign of Default stood up in unison. The air in the boardroom turned into a pressurized wall of cold, grey fog.
"Enough!" the Sovereign of Risk roared, the red lightning in his glass body turning black. "You've dismantled the economic pillars, but you cannot touch the Law of the Void. The 'Default' is a fundamental law of physics! Energy must be returned to the Source!"
"The Default is only a law if the 'Contract of Life' is valid," Han Ling spoke up, her Chancellor of the Abyss authority flaring. She stepped forward, her spectral ledgers opening to the very first page of the Universe. "And I've found the Nullifying Clause."
She pointed to a single, tiny line of text written in the blood of the First Auditor.
"If the Creditor seeks to Harvest the Soul before the Term of Maturity, the Debt shall be declared Null and Void, and the Creditor shall be liable for the Restoration of the Asset."
"Julian's 'Harvest of Memory' on Earth was a premature collection," Han Ling declared. "By trying to erase the Auditor, you broke the terms of your own contract. The 'Risk' is no longer ours. It's yours."
The Sovereign of Risk's glass body began to crack. The billions of red lightning bolts escaped, turning into a storm of Potential that rushed back into the universe.
[You have recovered the Eleventh Key: The Key of Honor.] [Current Key Progress: 11/12]
The Sovereign of Default
Only one figure remained at the table: the Sovereign of Default.
He was the largest of them all, a towering titan of black iron and white ash. He carried a scythe made of "Unpaid Time." He didn't look like a businessman; he looked like the inevitable end of all things.
"The others were merchants," the Sovereign of Default said, his voice a deep, tectonic rumble. "They cared about the profit. I only care about the Balance. If the Universe does not end, it cannot begin again. I am the one who ensures the cycle remains closed."
He raised his scythe, and the boardroom was plunged into a total eclipse.
"You have eleven keys, Han Jue," the Titan whispered. "But the Twelfth Key—the Key of the Source—is not an object you can find. It is a Sacrifice. To open the final door, the Auditor must become the Debt."
The scythe descended, moving with the weight of every death that had ever occurred.
The Ultimate Payout: The 12th Key
Han Jue didn't move. He didn't use the Gavel to block. He stood with his arms open, his charcoal suit fluttering in the wind of the descending scythe.
"Jue! No!" Han Ling screamed, reaching for him.
"It's okay, Ling-er," Han Jue said, his voice calm and steady. "I know the math."
The scythe struck Han Jue's chest. But it didn't cut through flesh. It cut through the Last Debt.
Every drop of "Spilled Blood" Han Jue had ever collected, every sorrow he had audited, and every memory of the "Trash-man" scavenger he used to be... he offered it all to the scythe.
"I am the Auditor," Han Jue whispered as his body began to dissolve into white light. "And I am declaring a Total Write-Off of Myself."
The Sovereign of Default froze. His iron body began to rust and crumble. The scythe shattered into a million pieces of "Lost Time."
By offering himself as the final payment, Han Jue had Insolvented the Concept of Death. If the Auditor is the Debt, and the Debt is paid, then the Auditor is the only thing that remains.
The light didn't vanish. It coalesced into the final, brilliant object: The Key of the Source.
[Condition Met: The Final Settlement.] [Current Key Progress: 12/12] [The Source is now UNLOCKED.]
The Throne of the CEO
The Boardroom of the Void vanished. The Sovereigns, the obsidian table, and the nebula were gone.
Han Jue and Han Ling stood in a room of absolute, blinding whiteness. There were no cabinets. There was no desk.
In the center of the room stood a single, wooden chair—the same kind of chair Han Jue had in his office in District 7. And sitting in that chair, looking at a small, digital tablet, was a little girl with violet eyes.
She looked exactly like Han Ling had when she was six years old, before the Rifts opened.
"Hello, Jue," the girl said, looking up with a smile that was ancient and innocent at the same time. "You're late for the performance review."
Han Jue stood with the twelve keys orbiting him like a sun. He looked at the girl—the "CEO" of the Universe.
"I'm not here for a review," Han Jue said, his voice echoing with the power of the Source. "I'm here to Close the Branch."
The girl's smile didn't fade. "And what happens to the employees when the branch closes, Auditor?"
"They get their Severance," Han Jue said, raising the Auditor's Gavel. "In the form of their lives back."