[Stelle arrived at the Parlor Car's viewing carriage. Himeko was leaning against the window, holding a steaming cup of coffee in her hands, gazing thoughtfully at the starry sky.]
[After returning from the Xianzhou, Stelle realized that whether it was Jarilo-VI or the Xianzhou Alliance, the Interastral Peace Corporation's presence could be felt to a greater or lesser extent. And for this corporation that spanned thousands of star systems, she discovered she actually knew very little about it.]
[She approached Himeko, wanting to learn some information about the Interastral Peace Corporation. Himeko, for her part, answered without reservation.]
["The Corporation, huh… Nowadays, almost all commercial activity in the galaxy is indeed built upon the Corporation's Credit Point system. Moreover, they are constantly expanding and have never stopped, always trying to pull more stellar civilizations into their territory."]
[Himeko slowly set down her coffee cup and explained with a smile: "If we compare interstellar trade to a sports competition, then the Corporation is simultaneously the top athlete, the various sporting events themselves, the competition venue, and the rules of the game."]
["Doesn't that mean the Corporation practically rules the universe with an iron fist?" Stelle asked with a slight frown.]
["Well, yes, but they aren't interested in such a low-level ambition as 'ruling the universe with an iron fist.'" Himeko's gaze drifted toward the deeper layers of the cosmos. "Their corporate spirit has remained unchanged for tens of thousands of years—that is… to dedicate everything to the Amber Lord—Qlipoth."]
["Oh, right. If you're interested in the Corporation, they've recently released a new recruitment advertisement. If you want to learn more about the company, feel free to take a look."]
[With that, Himeko handed her the display screen she had been holding.]
——
Teyvat.
"It's really hard to imagine that the people in the Corporation are actually followers of the Preservation Aeon…"
Inside the Opéra Épiclèse, after listening to Himeko's explanation on the light screen, Navia couldn't help but think of Skott… Having nurtured such an aggressive person, she had never had a good impression of the Corporation from the very beginning.
Now, her impression of the Corporation was simple and straightforward—first, a vast empire of Credit Points; second, a ruthless expansion machine.
The Corporation's reach had not only touched and changed the Yaoqing Xianzhou, but even a frozen place like Jarilo-VI still had the Corporation's advertising robots lingering around. If one day advertisements from the Interastral Peace Corporation rained down from the sky over the Teyvat continent, she wouldn't be surprised at all.
No—to be precise, what surprised her was that the Teyvat continent had somehow remained undiscovered by the Corporation's influence for thousands of years and had not yet been incorporated into the Credit Point system, still using Mora for transactions…
"Dedicating everything to the Amber Lord… In other words, the Corporation doesn't care about possessing wealth and power themselves. What matters to them is whether that wealth and power can be used by the Amber Lord."
Clorinde nodded thoughtfully, resting her finger against her chin: "To achieve this goal, people in the Corporation can act without any scruples."
"So what exactly is being preserved here? The wallets of the leadership?" Furina furrowed her brows slightly and spread her hands in confusion.
"…It's not quite like that."
Clorinde tapped her chin with her fingertip. "The Corporation spans countless star systems and has innumerable employees. Not every employee is someone who pursues and believes in Preservation. Most of them are ordinary people who can only follow the money. Only the topmost tier of managers within the Corporation are the true devotees of the Preservation Aeon, right?"
——
[In the darkness, the screen quickly displayed the emblem of the Interastral Peace Corporation—the minimalist image of the Preservation Aeon resembling an unyielding wall, steadfastly shielding every candidate from wind and rain. The black-and-white symbol soon transformed into a man in a suit pointing directly at the screen.]
["Hey, you. Yes, you."]
["We're waiting for you, Raw Ore (Candidate) brimming with limitless potential—"]
["Under the Corporation's Ore Appraisal System, every bit of your talent and potential will become the foundation of cosmic peace."]
[Countless blue grids slowly unfolded in the void, forming an abstract set of icon data. But as the table rotated, the image collapsed into a spinning satellite orbit. An astronaut stood inside a space station, fingers seemingly stirring the stars themselves.]
["Perhaps you possess extraordinary courage, passion, and an adventurous spirit. Then the Market Development Department opens its arms to you!"]
[The astronaut's palm swept across a streak of light… like a meteor, yet its tail was not burning debris but composed of countless flickering data points—light trails connecting distant stellar nodes, like a self-woven spider web carving brilliant paths through the darkness.]
[Directly ahead of the rushing light floated an enormous holographic display screen, its surface continuously streaming real-time updates of capital flows, resource allocations, and debt indices.]
[In front of the screen, a man methodically operated everything.]
["Under the leadership of the legendary Nameless Oswald Schneider, thousands upon thousands of new worlds will be incorporated into the territory of the credit system."]
["If you possess steady thinking, value rules and logic, then the Strategic Investment Department will be the perfect stage for you to shine."]
——
Gintama.
"Ohhh! It feels like both departments would suit me perfectly!" Shinpachi pushed up the glasses on his nose, the lenses reflecting silver-white light. "With my business acumen, I could definitely develop all the way to the edge of the stars…"
Gintoki, lying on the sofa and picking his nose, heard the commotion and lazily glanced over with his dead-fish eyes: "Shinpachi, you can't even figure out Sadaharu's dog food budget. Better not go work for free for someone else."
"Exactly! Last time Shinpachi set up a stall at the festival selling vinegar kelp, he lost all the capital and even ended up owing money, so we couldn't even pay Oba-chan's rent!"
"Hah? We usually can't pay the rent anyway, right?" Shinpachi's face turned red. "And that was completely an accident! Anyway, as long as I grasp the users' precise needs, I can definitely make money—"
"Precise needs? You even filled out the Shonen Jump serialization poll questionnaire wrong!" Gintoki suddenly slammed the table and sat up from the sofa. "Last time you insisted on voting 'Gintama' as 'hot-blooded battle anime,' and the editorial department called me asking if I'd lost my mind!"
"Besides, a company like that is probably spending every day figuring out 'how to sell 5-Credit space junk for 500,000 Credits,' right? Either they're scamming people, or they're on their way to scam people." Gintoki suddenly became serious and looked at him: "Listen, Shinpachi. A company like this could probably even trick March 7th into being their billboard girl. If you went, they'd probably even take your glasses as collateral."
"Stay here. At least you won't get squeezed dry by a black-hearted corporation."
——
["Commodity business as vast as the starry sky, moving within the Corporation's largest department. Measured in light-years, weaving a magnificent trade network."]
["Do you know about hyperlane transmission and synesthesia beacons? Technologies once considered pure fantasy have long become products rolling off the Corporation's assembly lines."]