The Will family's emergency meeting ended without any real conclusions.
Because from the very beginning, they had been thinking in the wrong direction.
They assumed the Victor had discovered some hidden risk in the Will family's business and cut ties in advance to avoid being dragged down. But in reality, Golden Crown Commerce's operations were perfectly normal—no internal collapse, no sudden capital chain issues.
Just as the meeting was about to adjourn, with everyone feeling frustrated and directionless, the secretary hurried into the room.
She lowered her voice and quickly reported something to Daniel Will
In an instant, both men's expressions changed.
James suddenly stood up and slammed his palm onto the table."That bastard Ethan—he's got some nerve!"
Daniel frowned deeply."Courage isn't the key issue," he said slowly. "If they're selling at prices thirty percent lower than ours, then after accounting for logistics, channels, and operating costs, they'd be losing money on every sale. Where is he getting that kind of confidence?"
James's expression darkened."Could it be… the Victor pulled out because they knew this was coming?"
Daniel shook his head."That shouldn't be the case. Ethan's been fighting us for years and has always been suppressed. There's no reason the Victor would suddenly take him seriously."
Around the table, Ryan Will and the other family members looked confused.
James didn't bother hiding anything and directly announced the latest intelligence.
"NextEdge Retail has launched a full-scale assault on Golden Crown Commerce."
"Price wars. Brand poaching. Coordinated media attacks."
The room fell briefly silent.
Then—relaxed expressions.
Shock flickered across their faces, but no one truly panicked. Deep down, they didn't take Ethan seriously.
A price war?It always came down to endurance.
Slashing prices by thirty percent was the equivalent of killing eight hundred enemies while losing a thousand of your own. Golden Crown might see temporary declines, but NextEdge Retail would bleed faster and collapse first.
Brand poaching?
Lowering commission rates for luxury brands would destroy margins. At best, NextEdge would be running at zero profit—more likely, at a loss.
As for public opinion?
Did Ethan really think his influence in financial media could compete with the Will family's decades-long network?
To them, this was nothing more than a noisy capital game.
If they hadn't already been in the middle of a family meeting, it wouldn't even have been worth gathering senior management.
So the Will family quickly discussed a standard counter-strategy, recycled from past playbooks—and adjourned.
Then reality hit.
And it hit hard.
Not long after, they realized something was very wrong.
The price war intensity was far beyond expectations.
NextEdge Retail seemed to have bottomless cash reserves, subsidizing consumers with almost reckless abandon. Discounts stacked on discounts. Luxury goods selling at prices that made even insiders dizzy.
The brand poaching was even worse.
One luxury brand after another announced partial withdrawals. Entire flagship stores shut down overnight. According to insider leaks, the commission rates NextEdge offered were so low they bordered on absurd.
And the media?
Financial headlines turned overwhelmingly negative.
Debt pressure. Outdated models. Declining efficiency. Structural risks.
Golden Crown's voice was drowned out completely—as if an invisible hand were guiding the narrative.
Of course, Golden Crown Commerce wasn't flawless. No luxury retail giant ever was. High-end operations magnified every inefficiency.
Under the combined assault of price, brands, and public opinion, the damage became visible.
Revenue dropped.
5%.
10%.
15%.
20%.
The threshold set in the conditional agreement was crossed almost effortlessly.
The acquisition clause activated.
In that moment, NextEdge Retail officially became Jason Carter's company.
And yet—
The assault didn't slow down in the slightest.
Out of the initial two-billion-dollar subsidy fund, less than a quarter had been used.
The Will family finally realized the terrifying truth:
This wasn't a reckless gamble.
This was a precision strike.
And the real storm—hadn't even arrived yet.
Golden Crown Commerce's crisis quickly began to spread—like a disease.
Once a few luxury brands started wavering, their sales dropped.When sales dropped, more brands began to waver.
Less confidence led to less traffic.Less traffic led to more withdrawals.
This was the classic negative feedback loop—the cycle of adversity.
The Will family panicked. Truly panicked.
Only now did they realize that this situation was far more dangerous than they had initially believed.
They rolled out aggressive countermeasures—deep discounts, promotional subsidies, emergency marketing campaigns—but all of it was swallowed instantly by the overwhelming flood of capital coming from the other side.
On paper, the Will family's total assets exceeded ten billion dollars.
In reality, their debt ratio was dangerously high, and their cash flow was stretched to the limit.
They simply couldn't afford to fight a prolonged money-burning war.
And at this critical moment—
Jason Carter's second phase of attack officially began.
Phase Two: Financial Guillotine
The first move: coordinated short-selling.
Jason had already used this method once before. Now, his execution was even cleaner.
He quietly worked with multiple hedge funds to release a detailed research report questioning Golden Crown Commerce's inflated valuation, highlighting its short-term debt pressure and fragile cash flow.
The report was sharp, professional, and lethal—eerily similar to the classic short-selling cases that had once wiped out major corporations overnight.
The market reacted immediately.
Confidence cracked.
The second move: splitting the shareholders.
Behind the scenes, Jason's people contacted Golden Crown Commerce's second-largest shareholder.
No threats.No coercion.
Just promises of future cooperation—and a clear reminder of risk.
At the next board meeting, that shareholder abruptly proposed selling off assets to recover cash and reduce exposure.
The board erupted.
Trust fractured.
Jason had used this tactic before—and now, he wielded it like a scalpel.
Short-selling attacked from the outside.Internal division tore them apart from within.
Together, the effect was devastating.
The Final Push: Cutting the Lifeline
And Jason still wasn't finished.
He personally appeared at the private VIP floor of a major bank's headquarters—the very bank that held Golden Crown Commerce's largest credit lines.
Inside the room sat the bank president, senior risk officers, and department heads.
Jason spoke calmly, almost casually.
He analyzed Golden Crown's situation in detail, then concluded with a simple statement:
"Under my attack, Golden Crown Commerce will not survive."
He then added, almost as an aside:
"You might want to reconsider your credit exposure. Otherwise, this could become another large-scale debt crisis."
The room fell silent.
Jason even referenced a past U.S. real-estate collapse—how banks that reacted too slowly ended up bleeding for years.
No one dared interrupt him.
His track record, capital, and identity carried far too much weight.
Still, the executives hesitated.
The Will family had deep roots.Choosing sides too early was dangerous.
What if Golden Crown survived?
Then Jason smiled faintly and added:
"Oh—by the way. I'm planning to place ten billion dollars in deposits with your bank."
Silence.
"…How much?" one manager whispered.
Jason took out his phone and casually showed a transaction snapshot.
$15,000,000,000.
Just a portion.
The room exploded internally.
These weren't paper assets.This was liquid capital.
For bankers, deposits were performance.One million was celebrated.Ten million meant VIP treatment.One hundred million meant executive-level attention.
But ten billion?
That was the kind of number that could redefine careers.
A manager stared blankly for several seconds before another nudged him urgently.
He snapped back to reality.
"You're absolutely right, Mr. Carter," he said immediately."Golden Crown Commerce's business model does have serious structural issues. It poses long-term risk."
"We should tighten their credit lines as soon as possible."
The bank president didn't hesitate for even a second.
Any hesitation would have been disrespectful—to the ten billion dollars.
As for the Will family?
They had only one mistake.
They had chosen to offend someone who could casually move ten billion in cash.
From the bank's perspective, the choice was obvious.
If they continued supporting Golden Crown Commerce, the bank itself would be dragged into the abyss.
And so—
Golden Crown's final lifeline was quietly severed.
The guillotine had fallen.
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