I'm Trying To Go Broke, So Why Do I Keep Getting Richer?!-Chapter 244: Death Announcement

Earth was under complete lockdown as a Board Meeting was taking place, involving one of the most precious companies of earth.

It was a meeting that had attracted the attention of many important figures. To provide security for the meeting, even the Hero Tower was mobilized, and no unauthorized person was allowed anywhere near the vicinity.

Many reporters were waiting outside the meeting venue. It had already been over an hour since all the Board Members entered the meeting venue, which was a new and more majestic building of Alpha Labs.

Within the last few months, while most attention was on Alpha Bank that had become the financial backbone of the Alpha Corporation, Alpha Labs had silently made a lot of progress.

Not only did they further enhance the tech advancements of earth, but they had also come up with many new innovations.

It was said that even without the support of Alpha Corporation, Alpha Labs could stand on its own as a major power on earth and beyond.

Even without relying on heroes, Alpha Corp had enough tech that it could allow ordinary humans to punch above their weight.

Moreover, Alpha Labs also had tens of thousands of employees working under it now, so it had a lot of manpower.

The reporters outside the venue were waiting for a long time, but they didn’t forget to sensationalize the matter, talking about the conflict. They even added a few extra details like prevalent rumours.

By the time Leo’s ship arrived near earth, he was also immersed in watching the news coverage. At times, their exaggeration even made him laugh.

If he wanted, he could directly message the so called board of directors and ask them for details. However, he didn’t even let them know that he had returned.

"I wonder how they are going to settle this. Are they really going to decide their hierarchy?"

Leo relaxed on the chair, putting his feet on the console before him while scrolling on his phone while news was playing in the background.

"Though this might be an opportunity, wouldn’t it? As it happens, a new month will start today. I’ve already let this company grow a lot, so it might be time to pull the bait."

At this point, the so-called profits had been stabilized. There were no mysterious profits coming anymore so he had a rough estimate about his company’s current revenue now.

The company’s revenue graph had already peaked, and now it was a flat line at that peak. That’s why many people were so desperate to expand to other sectors to increase that graph again.

With a value so high, and the uncertainties at the lowest, Leo thought that this was the perfect time.

The company that had been with him from the beginning... It might be time for the company to temporarily fall.

Of course, that was only financially and temporarily. He was still going to own the land, and his fleet. It wasn’t as if the company was going to be sold. Just that its perceived value had to fall, and he knew exactly how to do that.

Currently, the sentiments amongst the people were very unstable. Many people were uncertain about the company’s future, especially after Leo had disappeared.

The battle for power within the company was also contributing a lot, as it was a recipe for disaster. The suppliers were also torn between two sides, not knowing which to stand with.

There were also many neural parties like the Hero Tower and Glitzy.

Whatever stability was left within the company was because no one knew if Reo Vanderlen had actually died. There was still hope that he was alive, and that’s why the stability was maintained on the surface.

He couldn’t even imagine what kind of impact was going to happen if the news of Reo Vanderlen’s death was going to arrive. It was definitely going to toss the entire company into a mess.

The power struggle, the loss of both legitimate leaders, and no legal structure to pass down the authority within the company, it was all perfectly positioned.

Leo had intentionally made it that way after all. It was a bait prepared a long time ago, but he didn’t expect that he would have to execute it so early.

In any case, the company had already grown so big that without doing something extreme like this, it was almost impossible to even touch it.

He typed a message on his phone, and attached security footage along with it.

He sent the message with the video to the media sites on earth. As for the video that he attached, it was simply the footage from the villa where he was stabbed by the youngsters.

It was real footage that no one could deny. Moreover, since there were no coordinates, no one could actually go to that place to check it.

No amount of forensic analysis was going to prove it wrong. Of course, he conveniently ended the footage before the ring took effect, and brought him back to life.

Once he sent the footage to the media sites, it was as if the internet had suddenly exploded.

Within minutes, all media channels stopped covering the meeting. A breaking news flashed on the screen, and the anchors started talking about the footage that they had just received.

Just as Leo expected, many channels even brought Forensic Analysts to verify the footage live.

Within half an hour, almost everyone had confirmed that the CCTV footage was real! The person who was supposedly the current Leader of Alpha Corp, Reo Vanderlen had indeed died!

Immediately, the topic rose on trending, with almost everyone discussing it.

The silence inside the Alpha Labs boardroom was shattered by the simultaneous chiming of high-end communicators.

The directors, men and women who held the strings of global logistics, energy, and defense, froze. They had been in the middle of a heated debate.

"Is this... is this a joke?" The Manager of Alpha Bank said in shock.

He turned his tablet toward the center of the table.

On the massive holographic display in the middle of the room, the video began to loop. It was clear and undeniable.

They watched as the figure of Reo Vanderlen, the man who had essentially become earth’s sovereign, was stabbed. They watched the light leave his eyes. They watched him fall.

The majestic atmosphere of the new Alpha Labs building evaporated in an instant, becoming even more tense.

Outside, the shift was even more violent. The reporters, who seconds ago were speculating, were now screaming into microphones, their voices competing with the sudden roar of the crowd.

The moment the verification hit the news tickers, the digital world came to life.

The footage of Reo Vanderlen’s final moments became the most-watched video in human history within forty minutes.

On every screen, from the massive holographic billboards to the cracked smartphones in rural outposts, the news of the ’Architect of the New Age’ falling was played on a loop.

The reporters outside the Alpha Labs building, who had been gossiping about board seats just an hour ago, were now visibly shaken. Some were even crying on air, realizing the gravity of what this meant for the global economy.

Global News Network’s anchor’s voice trembled.

"We are confirming with three independent forensic firms... The footage is untampered. Reo Vanderlen, the man who had recently inherited the position of Alpha Corp’s CEO has met a violent end.]

The Financial Daily’s digital headline simply read, "The End of the Vanderlen Era?"

They began running emergency segments on how a private company of this scale, one that provides the backbone for Alpha Bank and the tech for the Hero Tower, could possibly survive without its visionary leader.

On platforms, the hashtag #ReoIsDead and #AlphaCollapse trended with billions of interactions.

[@TechProphet: You don’t understand. Alpha Labs isn’t just a company. We might be looking at a massive collapse]

[@HeroFanatic99: Look at the Hero Tower guards in the background of the news feed. They look terrified]

[@MarketWatcher: Alpha Corp is private, sure, but think about the thousands of suppliers. If the Leader is gone and the Board is fighting, who signs the checks? Who keeps the lights on?]

In the streets, the atmosphere shifted from curiosity to a suffocating dread. People gathered around public screens in silence.

Without the Vanderlens, the Alpha brand felt like a hollow shell. The rumors of the board members fighting for the throne, previously seen as corporate drama, were now viewed as scavengers picking at a corpse.

Aboard his ship, Leo watched the chaos with a faint, chilling smile.

He kept through a thread of people mourning him as if he were a god.

The perceived value of Alpha Corp was plummeting because faith, the only currency that truly mattered, had been liquidated.

After all, it was a company that had risen from nothing under a man called Leo Vanderlen. He had disappeared and his younger brother was also dead. An entirely leadership lineage was gone.

The stage was set. The bait was taken. The world was convinced the King was dead, and in their panic, they were about to tear the kingdom apart for him.