Audit-Lord Vaelen stayed on his knees, his hands trembling as he stared up at Lin Mo.
“Lord Lin, please reconsider!” Vaelen pleaded, his voice cracking with desperate urgency. “Think of the underwriting kickbacks! Think of the cross-galaxy syndication fees! We could package the municipal debts of thirty-four sectors and sell them as prime securities! You could sit on the board beside Ancestor Tian Li! You would be untouchable!”
Behind Vaelen, the thirty junior credit analysts nodded frantically in their silk boxers, waving their hands like frightened schoolboys trying to avoid detention.
“He speaks the truth, Lord Lin!” Analyst Kael cried out, his voice shrill with terror. “The Usury Dao-Consortium controls the credit ratings of the entire Milky Way! With your capital and our institutional infrastructure, we could invent three hundred new derivative products! We could issue loans on future reincarnations! We could securitize spiritual karma itself!”
Lin Mo stood floating above the crystal mountain, his blue coat fluttering in the gentle solar wind. He looked down at the groveling bankers like a patient delivery rider dealing with a customer who refused to sign a simple receipt.
“You really believe twenty percent interest is impressive, don’t you?” Lin Mo asked, his voice calm and deadpan. “You spend centuries plotting, threatening, and sending warships to rob starving miners just to scrape together a ten or twenty percent margin. And you call that high finance.”
