Withdrawing her gaze, Cifera mentally reviewed her entire experience "attending" the Starry Charity Auction Press Conference. She concluded that her performance had been quite satisfactory, yielding greater gains than she had initially anticipated.
In terms of Abilities, besides initially acquiring the "Imposter" Ability by disguising herself as reporter Chen Luo on camera, she later successfully obtained one and a half new Abilities.
[Lies Become Reality:]
[Gadget Master (Trust Level: 10,000,000+)(Additional Bonus Obtained)]
[Disassembling cosmic rules with her left hand and assembling heaven-defying gadgets with her right.]
[Empowered by the "Trickery" Authority, you can conjure gadgets from thin air without needing materials.]
[Note: The potency of your gadgets is limited by your Trust Level. You cannot create gadgets that exceed your current ability threshold.]
Cifera had deliberately pursued this Ability.
In truth, when she initially performed her "disappearing act" on the press conference stage, the Coin of Whimsy was merely an ordinary trinket, not a 5D holographic projector.
At the time, Cifera had relied on her rapid shapeshifting to disguise herself as Cifer and slip past unnoticed.
Cifera chose this method of escape—leaving behind the Coin of Whimsy—to later deceive everyone during her impersonation of Nie Bing. By fabricating stage surveillance footage to make it appear the coin was merely a holographic projector, she aimed to gain the ability to create such gadgets.
Evidently, Cifera succeeded.
Thus, when she personally demonstrated the "projector" effect in the temporary war room, she wasn't tossing the original Coin of Whimsy from the stage. Instead, she secretly used her Ability to conjure a custom-made 5D holographic projector disguised as a Coin of Whimsy.
This incredibly realistic deception earned Cifera even more Trust for her "Gadget Master" Ability.
Later, when she unexpectedly discovered that the Production Team had found her, she briefly considered staging a dramatic exit—disappearing right before Nie Bing, Lin Zhiyuan, and the live stream audience.
However, her Trust Level was insufficient. Neither her "Magician" Ability nor her "Gadget Master" Ability could achieve such a feat.
Forced to compromise, Cifera resorted to her "Hacker" Ability, fabricating a video of the "dramatic disappearance" she had originally envisioned.
When Cifera chose this plan, she knew the Trust Level for her "Gadget Master" Ability would likely plummet.
She believed she couldn't fool the mysterious seventh member of the Expert Team for long. Once they saw through her ruse, many would lose faith in her earlier 5D holographic projector demonstration.
Although Nie Bing and Lin Zhiyuan had witnessed the true projection effects, they were both "unconscious" at the time, and the show's rules forbade them from revealing the truth.
Sure enough, shortly after Cifera left, she noticed the Trust Level for her "Gadget Master" Ability had dropped significantly.
What surprised her, however, was its sudden resurgence later.
At that moment, she couldn't help but smile. It had to be Lin Zhiyuan breaking the rules and spilling the beans.
The Production Team's notification that she'd received 100,000 points in compensation confirmed her suspicions. Even she hadn't anticipated that the Production Team itself would forget this rule.
This windfall earned her 100,000 points, but it was merely an unexpected bonus.
Cifera was never one to let herself be taken advantage of easily.
Since she was willing to let the "Gadget Master's" Trust decrease, she undoubtedly had a plan to regain the advantage elsewhere.
As soon as she left, Cifera immediately thought of "Divine Speed," the powerful ability with Cipher's distinctive style in the original story.
By tossing the Coin of Whimsy into the air, Cipher could achieve superhuman speed comparable to instantaneous teleportation—all while the coin remained airborne!
What an extraordinary ability!
If she could acquire it, she would take a giant leap toward Godhood.
With this in mind, Cifera acted swiftly, aiming to guide the audience into manifesting this power for her.
That's why she deliberately left the line "The cat who tosses the Coin of Whimsy cannot be caught by anyone~" in the fabricated footage after her image vanished.
Her intention was to create the impression that she would instantly disappear whenever the Coin of Whimsy was in flight.
She was convinced that as more people believed this claim, she would truly gain "Divine Speed."
And as it turned out, Cifera's intuition proved correct.
[Lies Become Reality (Under Development):]
[Divine Speed (Prototype)]
[No one can catch the cat that flips the Coin of Whimsy into the air.]
[Note: This ability is still under development and requires significantly more Trust than typical abilities to successfully obtain.]
[Current Trust: 1,000,000+]
[Estimated Trust Required: Over 1 billion for a chance to acquire]
This was why Cifera claimed to have obtained one and a half abilities, with the "half" being the Divine Speed (Prototype).
Although her current Trust stood at just over a million, and the System estimated she needed over a billion to succeed, Cifera believed that once the prototype had emerged, nothing could stop her!
A billion Trust seemed astronomical, but Cifera had no intention of limiting her reach to China alone.
With the global population now exceeding ten billion, gaining the trust of one-tenth of the world wasn't an impossible feat.
Cifera was utterly confident in her "performance." After all, what kind of God would she be without such conviction?
Tonight, stealing the Starry Light would be her first formal "performance" on the path to Godhood—a demonstration to the world of what the future Goddess of Deception would become.
-
As the Starry Charity Auction press conference concluded, reporters who had been holding back for so long rushed back to their newsrooms like a dam bursting. A flood of sensational headlines instantly swept across all media platforms, crashing onto the calm surface of the internet like massive boulders, creating a tsunami of online buzz:
["Stunning Reversal! 'Magical Cat' Cifera Unveiled at Starry Press Conference, Publicly Claims to Have Stolen the 'Starry Light'!"]
["Starry's Hidden Major Shareholder Liu Ruyan Speaks Out: From Cat Hater to Cat Fan—'Cifera Child Rescue Foundation' Established! Desperate Lives Find Hope Through Cifera!"]
["Starry Headquarters Security Chief Lei Gang Utterly Humiliated! 'Big Pecs' Becomes an Internet Meme! Starry Security System Faces Existential Scrutiny!"]
["Pursuit Team Suffers Another Defeat! Cat-Themed Nie Bing Mole Strikes Again! Veteran Criminal Investigator Liu Shanhe Falls! Cifera Stages Ultimate 'Vanishing Act'!"]
["'Coin of Whimsy' Ignites Tech World! 5D Holographic Projection? Real-World Magic? Experts Baffled by Underlying Principles!"]
[Who is "Little Ya"? Mysterious Viewer Cracks the Code Twice, Dethroning "Poison Milk Inspector" as the New "Prophecy Emperor"!]
On social media:
"Magical Cat Cifera? Goddess of Deception!"
"Tonight's Starry Defense Battle: Liu Shanhe vows Cifera won't return alive!"
"Minister Big Pecs Forced to Use the Women's Restroom!"
"High-Tech Flipping Coins!"
"Mysterious Cat Catcher Little Ya!"
These trending topics dominated the charts, sparking feverish discussions.
Though Cifera remained elusive, her live stream's viewership surged once again, with a constant barrage of gifts flooding her chat, leaving many online streamers envious.
Meanwhile, countless viewers who had missed the live broadcast flooded the Production Team's official website to rewatch the heart-stopping press conference and the magical curtain call.
Public opinion reached a fever pitch, with everyone eagerly awaiting nightfall and the "Starry Defense Battle," an event destined to be etched into the annals of Global Manhunt history.
Yet amidst this frenzy, a current of doubt began to stir, rapidly coalescing into an undeniable chorus of skepticism.