The seventieth year.
Compute supply for every realm was fully funded, the interest was paid, and there was still a divine power surplus.
On the Far Shore of Causality, the Creditor opened his eyes.
He had always been certain that Pangu's world would be his sooner or later. When he lent Pangu divine power back then, he was betting on two things: that the world would get built, and that sooner or later there would be a period Pangu couldn't pay.
The world couldn't be destroyed. Its residents still had to be alive, still able to produce divine power.
What he was waiting for was the sum Pangu set aside for interest falling short, not for the whole world to stop producing anything.
"They...actually turned it around?"
He wasn't angry.
He just didn't like it when the people who borrowed from him held their heads up.
His fingers ran across the contract in front of him.
"No matter. I laid the groundwork long ago."
——
"This world is starting to be able to repay the principal."
"Whatever can be repaid stops being mine."
——
He sent an order to the person planted in Pangu's world:
"Activate now. Let's see how long this so-called 'surplus' lasts."
Since being planted, that person had never been activated. As long as Pangu kept sinking, it wasn't worth risking this line.
These days, ordinary expenditures all had to carry a stated purpose and approval. The spy's handling permissions only let him sort internal accounts. He couldn't add a purchase out of nowhere, and he certainly couldn't delete the reserves.
But he didn't need to delete them.
He only had to make the reserves impossible to move on interest day.
Every transfer would be compliant. To reverse them, someone would first have to prove they weren't. That would take time.
It didn't matter that the divine power was still inside this world. One day late was late.
Now Pangu was starting to climb.
He believed everything was under control.
What he didn't know was——
The trap had been set long ago.