A month later, a new company was quietly incorporated in the Cayman Islands. It was called "Phoenix Holdings." Its business was vague: "Strategic Acquisitions and Risk Mitigation." Its sole owner and operator was Mo Chen.
Her first official act was to use her $100,000 to purchase a small, failing tech startup that specialized in advanced thermal imaging. It was a physical asset. And the first thing she did was have the company's old, inefficient servers physically crushed and recycled.
The Money Burning System hummed back to life.
[Daily Task: Burn $50,000 USD in physical assets. New baseline established.]
The quota was smaller now, manageable. Sustainable. This was no longer a frantic race for survival; it was the foundation of a new empire.
As the machinery pulverized the servers, she received a visitor. Her brother, Tian, stood at the entrance to the warehouse, watching her.
" So this is where you've been hiding," he said, his hands in his pockets.
" I'm not hiding," Mo Chen replied. "I'm working."
Tian nodded, looking around at the hangar with a businessman's appraising eye. "Phoenix Holdings. Ambitious name."
" It's fitting."
He walked over to her, his expression serious. "Mom and Dad… they're worried. They want you home."
" This is my home now," she said gently. "Tell them I'm safe. Tell them I'm happy."
" Are you?" Tian asked, his gaze knowing. "Happy?"
Mo Chen looked at the pile of scrap that was once a server, at the system interface glowing in her mind, at the future she was building with her own two hands and her own terrible power.
" I am exactly where I need to be," she said.
And for the first time since her rebirth, it was the truth.