For the IPC, today had been meant to become a day worthy of the history books.
And perhaps it still would.
But now, it would be remembered as the one day no one ever wanted to mention again.
Because on this day in history, the company became a complete and utter joke.
After spending who knew how many resources, after carrying out who knew how much publicity, the IPC had announced to the entire galaxy that they had welcomed a holy maiden of Preservation by the name of Kallen Kaslana.
Originally, according to her own words, she had come into this world bearing a mission tied to Preservation itself.
And the company had believed her.
Not only had they believed her, they had made the entire galaxy witness it in grand fashion.
Yet the result was absolute despair.
There had never been any holy maiden of Preservation.
There had only ever been a Witch of Nihility.
That witch had not only killed Oswaldo, the head of the Market Development Department—she had smashed the company's dignity to pieces before the eyes of the whole galaxy.
In front of all creation, she had tainted the sacred body of the Amber Lord with Nihility.
For the company—and for the countless believers of Preservation—this was utterly unacceptable.
At that moment, they wanted nothing more than to cut Kallen into ten thousand pieces.
But unfortunately, they also knew full well that none of them could beat her.
And even more shocking to the galaxy was this:
Qlipoth had not held her accountable.
At the very moment the witch stood on the brink of death, the Amber Lord had not struck her down. Instead, He had destroyed the livestream.
That was the result the company found hardest to accept.
Once Kallen had revealed her true nature, the company had absolutely had the means to cut off the broadcast.
But at that point, what would stopping the stream even have meant?
Would shutting it down somehow undo her betrayal?
Would the galaxy forget?
Would no one laugh at the company anymore?
Obviously not.
So the IPC had made a bold decision.
They would see the broadcast through to the bitter end.
Fine. If Kallen truly wanted to use Nihility to defile Preservation, then let her try.
Once the Amber Lord descended and passed divine judgment, once that brazen witch was punished, the company would clean things up with some public relations and mitigate the fallout.
They might even turn it into a spectacle that would teach the galaxy the majesty of Preservation.
But what the company least wanted to see had still come to pass.
That Witch of Nihility had actually done it.
She had truly stained Qlipoth's sacred body with Nihility.
And not only that—Qlipoth had even intended to let her go.
"You may leave."
Those were the words He had spoken with His own mouth.
The entire galaxy had heard them.
For a while, everyone was stunned.
No one had expected the Amber Lord to really let her walk away.
Could it be… as some folk rumor now claimed…
that Qlipoth truly had seen her as a rebellious daughter, and felt some measure of guilt toward her?
No matter what came after, the whole universe had already been shaken by this event.
And so, the title Kallen Kaslana, Witch of Nihility spread across the stars.
…
At the heart of Pier Point, inside the IPC's temporary command center—
silence.
A silence even heavier than the moment Kallen had declared in the livestream that she would defile Preservation.
Every executive in the room stared at the screen, now reduced to static.
No one spoke.
The broadcast signal had been cut off the instant Qlipoth destroyed the broadcasting starships.
But before that, they had all seen the entire thing with their own eyes.
Kallen Kaslana had withstood multiple direct attacks from Qlipoth.
She had survived blows from a star god.
Then she had left a wound on Him that could not be erased.
And at the end of it all, she had gotten away alive.
Though the signal was gone now, everyone knew the truth.
That so-called "Holy Maiden of Preservation" was still alive.
At the meeting—one attended only by those of P47 rank and above—it was Taravan, an Emanator of Preservation, who finally spoke first.
"So… what do you all think we should do now?"
No one answered.
Diamond stood in the corner, expression complicated.
He was thinking.
Oswaldo was dead. That was good.
But the fact that Kallen Kaslana had defiled Preservation on a live broadcast was also a fact.
If they mishandled this, the company's reputation would suffer catastrophic damage.
Though frankly, there was no point talking about damage control anymore.
After what had happened, the IPC's face had already been ground into dust.
Across the galaxy, doubt and condemnation were surging toward the company from every direction.
Not only had every bit of the resources they poured into this event been wasted, the market had instantly lost a massive chunk of its value.
Even the credit system the company had spent so long and so much building had begun to crack under the pressure of a single sentence from Kallen:
"My mission is to use Nihility to taint Preservation."
Even a giant like the IPC found that loss difficult to swallow.
At the same time, however—
the root cause of everything, Kallen herself, was still alive.
And alive after surviving Qlipoth's attacks, no less.
That was right.
After Taravan and Diamond, the company's two known Emanators of Preservation, finally reached the subspace, they had found no trace of Kallen's corpse.
Which meant Qlipoth had truly let her go.
And for the IPC, that was yet another terrible piece of news.
At last, one of the directors of the board—Zaitian, P48 rank—broke the silence.
"So," he said, glancing around the room, "have you all decided yet how much we're going to put on that Witch of Nihility's head?"
The room fell silent again for a moment.
It was a good question.
But if circumstances allowed, the company would rather not issue a bounty at all.
The reason was simple:
the IPC was, at heart, the kind of organization that bullied the weak and feared the strong.
Certainly, Kallen Kaslana—that so-called witch—had taken the dignity of Preservation and rubbed it into the dirt.
But if you truly expected the company to go hunt her down…
then they would need to smash their heads against a wall to do it.
After all, Kallen's time on stage had been brief, but her battle record was absurd.
First, there had been Penacony.
As for Sunday—the one who had almost completed his ascension—even the current IPC had no confidence in taking him down.
And then came today.
Not only had she survived repeated direct attacks from a star god, she had even managed to infect the star god with Nihility.
With a record like that, unless one of the two legendary P49s—Louis Fleming or Dongfang Qixing—personally stepped in, the entire company put together still would not be enough to handle her.
Even so, they had no choice.
If the company did not even dare issue a bounty after something like this, then they would truly be finished.
"One hundred trillion credits."
In the end, Taravan made the proposal.
It was the highest bounty in the company's history.
To the present-day IPC, one hundred trillion credits was an astronomical financial commitment.
If mishandled, the circulation of such a figure could further destabilize the entire credit system.
After all, even the most expensive member of the Stellaron Hunters only carried a bounty slightly over ten billion credits, and the entire group together barely totaled three hundred-something billion.
And now one Kallen alone was worth the equivalent of three thousand squads of Stellaron Hunters.
Yet despite the sheer absurdity of the number, no one in the room objected.
Not because anyone thought the figure reasonable—
but because everyone knew the bounty would never be claimed.
The number was only there to represent the company's attitude.
Because nowhere in the galaxy was there likely a bounty hunter who could actually bring Kallen in.
What, someone could kill Kallen?
If they were that strong, they could just walk straight into the IPC and take whatever money they wanted themselves.
And it certainly wasn't as if Kallen could claim the bounty on herself.
"Then the second item on the agenda," Taravan said, his gaze sweeping across the room. "The vacant board seat."
The atmosphere in the room shifted subtly.
Originally, the final board seat had always been contested between Oswaldo and Diamond.
Given the company's current structure, only those two had ever truly been qualified to compete for it.
Now that Oswaldo was dead, however, the outcome was obvious.
"I nominate Diamond."
The first to speak was Madame Scar-Eye, P48 rank and a member of the board herself.
Her voice wasn't loud, but every person in the room heard it clearly.
Diamond looked up at her.
He had not expected her to be the first to openly show him support.
It seemed his victory here was secure.
By that logic, he really might be the only one in the company who could still force out a smile in the midst of this disaster.
"I second."
"I second as well."
Two more voices followed.
And just like that, Diamond's appointment to the board passed without objection.
Then came the final matter of the day.
Zaitian looked around the room, letting his gaze rest on each attendee in turn.
"With Oswaldo dead, the Market Development Department cannot remain leaderless. We must choose a new department head as soon as possible. Does anyone have a candidate?"
The room fell silent again.
The Market Development Department was the blade the company used against the outside world.
Its reputation may have been terrible, but no one could deny its importance.
Whoever controlled that department controlled the company's outward expansion.
And yet not a single person spoke up for one of their own subordinates.
The reason was simple.
The company had long had strict regulations.
Transfers were allowed, certainly.
But no one could simply parachute directly into the highest seat of another department.
If that were allowed, the company's internal order would have collapsed long ago.
And that was precisely the problem with the Market Development Department now.
Oswaldo had never been the sort to delegate power to subordinates.
To put it bluntly, ninety percent of the department's actual authority had been held by him alone.
As for the remaining ten percent?
That had merely been for show—power lent out to keep up appearances with other departments, power he could retract at any time.
Which meant that in the Market Development Department as it stood today, there was not even anyone at P46 rank with enough standing to take over cleanly. In fact, there were barely even any P45s left.
In other words, the department had become a vacuum of power.
No one could directly inherit it.
This left the room full of executives in an awkward bind.
In the end, after another stretch of silence, Taravan was once again the first to speak.
"What do you all think about that Director Wenliang from Market Development?"
…
On a certain planet somewhere in the galaxy, far from Pier Point—
Cecilia, Emanator of Abundance, was currently treating Kallen's injuries.
"…Whew. That feels a lot better now," Kallen said, letting out a deep breath.
At this point, she had honestly forgotten how she'd managed to make it out of that subspace alive.
Her consciousness had been hazy. Her legs had been weak. Every muscle in her body had been trembling.
Though Qlipoth's repeated attacks had not killed her, they had almost wrung every last bit of strength out of her.
At the time, she hadn't just been incapable of fighting—she had needed Judah just to remain standing.
Fortunately, Kallen had anticipated all of this.
Not only had she forced the IPC to clear out all of Pier Point, she had also arranged for another one of her identities—Cecilia—to stay nearby and be ready to recover her afterward.
By the look of things, this operation had truly ended in perfect success.
The identity known as Kallen Kaslana, bearer of the Path of Preservation, had finally completed her role.
Remaining Storyforge Points: 1,022,909
More than a million points.
She was rich beyond reason now.
Which meant it was time to start laying the groundwork for the next act.
The thought alone made Kallen's excitement surge.
She loved this pace of growth.
Back when she had first been at her lowest point—when she was only just raising Kiana, her starter account—her capital had been meager. She'd had to move carefully, always afraid that a single mistake would kill the account before it could mature.
But now?
Now she was absurdly wealthy.
What did you do after finishing one account?
Obviously, you just went and bought another max-level one.
With that thought in mind, Kallen opened the system shop and started browsing.
Knowledge-aligned Theresa?
She had wanted to play that identity for a long time, but she had been saving it for Amphoreus—for the day she'd use it to body-slam some ancient warrior there.
Hunt-aligned Fu Hua?
That one was tempting.
After all, she had already laid so much groundwork across the Xianzhou Alliance. Pulling out Fu Hua now would fit beautifully.
But just as Kallen was thinking that, her eyes landed on another figure beside Fu Hua.
A second identity.
One that was bound to Fu Hua.
One that, because of Fu Hua's developing storyline, had already been automatically initialized by the system.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
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TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter250)
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I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
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Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
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The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 248
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
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The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 125
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 145
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 120
I Can Copy Unique Skills 115
Summoning an Evil God, but the 75
Supernatural Multiverse 110
My Harem Is Indescribable 100
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 105
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 67
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
Still playing traditional Honk 80
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 85
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 78
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 80
Checking In in Demon Slayer 85
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 100
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 85
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 80
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 90
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 75
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 80
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The Gacha Merchant Who Started 80
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 80
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 57
The Uma Musume Who Became 55
I'm Definitely Not the King of 60
After Maxing Out Every Class 45
Naruto: I'm Konoha's Local Men 35
Honkai: World Modulation Mode 34
I, the Elden Sword Saint 27
Dio Brando Is Challenging FGO 24
No One Knows Pokémon Better 18
I, Sakazuki, Won't Go Down Tha 20
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