"I'm telling you, this is non-negotiable. If you have problems with the fallout, take it up with headquarters. I can't help you here, nor do I have the authority to do so."
"Losing two A+ rank combatants at once... Forget me, even the Base Director wouldn't be able to lift a finger to help."
With that, the financier hung up the phone and tossed it aside.
"Sigh, a classic case of grasping at straws." After a weary sigh, the man sank into a nearby sofa, feeling mentally drained.
But shortly after sitting down, he sensed something was off.
"What? Why is the door open?"
Seeing the door to his office inexplicably ajar by a crack, the financier grew wary. He moved slowly from the sofa back to the chair at his large terminal desk, slipping his hand beneath the tabletop. He remained motionless, quietly observing his surroundings.
Aside from that door opening for no reason, nothing else had happened, but he didn't believe for a second it was an accident. He picked up his terminal and dialed a number.
The call connected on the first ring.
"Finance Minister Wang?"
"Something might be wrong here," the financier said, his tone grim. "I just found my door cracked open under unknown circumstances. Check your side..."
"We're already checking."
Before he could finish, the person on the other end cut him off.
"It's not just you. The Director's office, the Accounting office, and the Project room were all found with their doors slightly open. According to surveillance, those four doors were opened almost simultaneously."
"Furthermore, multiple researchers just reported their Level 3 Authorization Cards missing. One or two could be blamed on idiots losing them, but we're up to ten now, all gone at the same time. I strongly suspect an ability user with invisibility has infiltrated the facility."
The financier frowned. "If they're an invisibility user, how did they get in here? This area requires more than a Level 3 card."
"They're using Doctor Lin's Level 2 card. The Doctor left the base recently; it must have been stolen then. The system just alerted me that his card was used to open the Data Center. I've initiated emergency lockdown. If all goes well, we'll trap this rat in the Data Center sector."
"Good. Catch that intruder immediately! To let a little invisible mouse slip into a base this size... I don't know what you're even paying the Security Department for."
The financier hung up. He patted his pockets, letting out a sigh of relief when he found his own card still there. He set the terminal down and leaned back.
"Ten Level 3 cards and one Level 2... how fast can this intruder steal? Did those people really feel nothing when their cards were lifted?"
He couldn't fathom it. Even if the enemy was invisible, shouldn't they notice being pickpocketed?
"Whatever. After this, the Security Department will surely come begging for more funds to upgrade their measures. I'd better calculate how much budget to allocate them."
As he spoke, he began operating the large terminal. But the moment he opened the account containing all the base's liquid assets, he froze as if struck by a paralysis spell.
The account that should have shown over five million credits now displayed a single, piercingly bright number.
"0"
"Is... Is the system glitched?"
Disbelieving, he rubbed his eyes and tremblingly closed all pages on the terminal. After slamming F5 several times, he logged back in.
Still 0.
Then, the financier let out a sharp, ear-piercing scream.
★ ★ ★
Winding back the clock a few minutes and returning to Cipher's perspective.
In the center of the Administrative Zone hall, a spinning coin turned at an agonizingly slow pace in mid-air. Cipher stood at the door of the Finance Office, staring at the Quantum Storage in her hand. Her gaze was identical to someone looking at a literal money tree.
'As expected of a system item! Five million! It was that easy!'
She had originally worried when she saw the account logged into a large terminal. After all, large terminals aren't usually set up for credit transfers; that's what personal terminals are for.
To her surprise, when she plugged the Quantum Storage into the large terminal just to test it... it actually worked!
At that moment, Cipher realized the true power of the Quantum Storage. As long as an account is logged in—regardless of the device—it can suck it dry!
This was broken!
Did this mean if she could log into someone's account via her personal terminal, she could siphon every credit they had without needing a transaction password or leaving a trace?
The value of that purple pull from her starting ten-roll was still rising!
There was also a pleasant surprise: the financier had mentioned "less than five million," yet she had sucked up 5,230,000 credits. That was a bit more than he had let on.
But what did she care? She wished he had hidden even more. She could only call it a gift from the heavens.
Once she regained her composure, Cipher turned her eyes toward the other three doors in the Administrative Zone. She tossed the Quantum Storage in her hand, a smirk widening on her face.
(A long, boring process of withdrawing money is omitted here...)
Back in the main hall, Cipher looked at the seven million credits stored in the device (over a million of which was her own starting cash), and her breathing grew shallow.
Seven million credits... that was over seven thousand Stellar Jades! This was a massive haul!
Converted, that was over forty pulls. Combined with the thirty she had done before, she was nearing a pity drop!
'No, Cipher, stay calm. You can pull anytime; no need to do it now. There are still things to do.'
After chanting that to herself for a while, she regained her cool.
'Phew... I worked so hard on missions and requests and barely got twenty pulls. Now, I just rob a base and get nearly forty. It really is faster to go back to Cipher's old profession.'
After lamenting her previous struggles to save up, she snatched the spinning coin from the air and left the Administrative Zone to explore further.
Running down another corridor, she soon found a door that also required a Level 2 card: "Data Center."
'Data Center? Is that where they keep experimental data?'
She guessed at the sign, then shook her head to clear her doubts.
'Whatever, I have the card. I'll just open it and see.'
She swiped Doctor Lin's card. As before, the door slid open. Inside was a hall similar to the Administrative Zone, though it only had three doors: "Server Room," "Data Storage," and "Mainframe Room."
Just as Cipher prepared to check out the Data Storage room, disaster struck.
Red alarm lights flared to life accompanied by a piercing siren. With a heavy shink, the massive door leading back to the rest of the base slammed shut.