The fallout from the Kraken data leak, though partial, was seismic. Several high-profile CEOs resigned. A minor European prince went into exile. The stock of multiple multinational corporations tanked.
The name "Phoenix Holdings" became a legend in the underworld and a nightmare in boardrooms. No one knew who or what it was, only that it had single-handedly dismantled the most feared private army in the world.
Mo Chen watched it all from the shadows. She had won her war, but the landscape had changed. The consortium was still out there. And now, they knew exactly what she was capable of.
Her family was safe, but she could never go back to them. Her existence was a lightning rod for danger. The Phoenix had risen, but it could never land.
She used the chaos to her advantage. With Kraken's assets in freefall, she used her remaining personal wealth to quietly acquire their most valuable remaining physical holdings through more shell companies: a shipyard in Greece, a drone manufacturing plant in Taiwan, a satellite network on the verge of bankruptcy.
She was no longer just burning for power. She was building a new empire from the carcass of the old. An empire with one purpose: to be so powerful, so untouchable, that no one would ever threaten her or her family again.
The burning would continue. But now, it would be for construction. She would burn the old world to build a new one, with herself as its absolute, undisputed ruler.