On World 21 (Gold-Vault Planet), inside the towering black-obsidian fortress of the Star-Belt Merchant Bank Headquarters, a porcelain teacup shattered against a solid gold pillar.
CRASH!
“Zero?!”
A short, round man wearing a robe stitched from golden silk threads jumped up from his jade throne. When he opened his mouth to roar, thirty-two solid Spirit-Gold teeth gleamed like a row of tiny yellow lanterns inside his gums.
He was Master Gold-Tooth, a sly Rank 7 Peak Nascent Soul formation master and the chief treasurer of the First Star-Lord, Crag-Devourer. For two hundred years, Master Gold-Tooth had squeezed the blood and sweat out of twelve billion people across Worlds 19, 20, 21, and 22 using his hollowed-out Shaved Stones.
Down on the marble floor below his throne, twelve terrified branch managers from Worlds 19, 20, and 21 were kneeling in a row, their foreheads pressed against the cold floor tiles.
“Speak clearly!” Master Gold-Tooth hissed, his gold teeth clicking together like iron tongs as he paced back and forth. “Yesterday, our thirty-six bank branches on Worlds 19 and 20 were supposed to collect eight million Shaved Stones in weekly loan interest and sell twelve million new Batch-11 Shaved Stones! How could our daily income across two whole planets drop to zero overnight?!”
