Simmering Spite in Sector Four

A deal is struck in the dark: Yeva Corant will manage the condemned cafeteria on Penal Station Ouros-9 in exchange for her life. Stripped of her family’s legacy by corrupt elites and bound to a parasitic System that drains her vitality if she doesn't cook, Yeva must serve to survive. In the Astrarch Ascendancy, humanity consumes flavorless nutrient gels, having entirely forgotten the joy of eating. But Ouros-9 borders the Pale Rift, a dimensional tear bleeding world-ending spectral anomalies. When the terrifying cosmic entity known as High-Wraith Zaelath breaches the station to slaughter the living, Yeva calmly serves him a bowl of perfectly braised pork belly. The result? The feared ghost king bursts into tears and stubbornly refuses to return to the void. Soon, millions of bloodthirsty spirits form an orderly queue outside her kitchen, refusing to reincarnate until they get a taste. As arrogant imperial officers are forced to grovel and wash dishes just to survive the haunted zone, Yeva coldly manipulates her spectral customers to dismantle the empire. But what happens when she discovers that feeding these specific ghosts is the literal key to hacking the empire's mainframe, making her survival quest and her revenge the exact same endgame?