[Beep! Beep! Beep! Maximum Alert! The thief Cifera has infiltrated the premises! Repeat, Cifera has infiltrated! Lock down all sectors. Ensure the safety of your personal belongings. All personnel maintain high vigilance! Report any anomalies immediately! Repeat, all personnel maintain high vigilance!]
A piercing siren blared from the speakers above the base. Walking down the corridor, Cipher let a mischievous smirk play on her lips.
She had already shifted back from her Pardo appearance to her original form.
"Looks like they finally reacted. But what good will that do?"
As she spoke, she nimbly swiped the terminal from a combatant who was rushing past her.
"For now, let us perform a routine check on this base's Finance Department."
After picking a few more terminals, she found she had only gathered a little over ten thousand Credits. Cipher felt this was far too meager.
With that in mind, she studied the map hanging in the main hall. Once she confirmed the orientation, she headed toward her target.
Crossing the corridors, she soon arrived before the heavy gates leading to the Administrative Sector. Naturally, just like the previous base, this required a Level 2 Clearance Card.
Under these circumstances, a stolen card likely wouldn't work anymore. In that case... should she test the ability granted to her by the Splitting Silver Coin?
"Big Sis? What is the move? Should I just open a portal to drop us inside?"
Seeing Cipher standing still before the alloy gates, Bartholos assumed she was stumped by the physical barrier and chimed in with a suggestion.
Hearing his voice, Cipher snapped out of her contemplation.
"No need." She shook her head. "I have a way to go straight in. I was simply thinking about something just now."
Divine Trickery power began to surge. Because of the silver coin, she could feel a new ability dwelling within her: Phasing.
Once she activated Phasing, Cipher felt a surge of wonder as she examined her body. She felt as though she had lost all weight, even though the sensation of her feet touching the ground remained.
"Let us see how this new ability performs." Cipher reached out to touch the alloy gate.
Without meeting any resistance, her hand sank directly into the metal as if she were clipping through a game model.
Delight bubbled up inside her. She took a few steps forward, her entire body submerging into the alloy. A moment later, she successfully passed through the gate and stood in the hall of the Administrative Sector.
"This new ability is quite handy. Now I do not have to spend a hundred thousand Credits to gain wall-passing powers every time I come to a base for restocking!"
Cipher thought happily as she felt the lingering effects of the skill.
"Big Sis Cipher, you are incredible! To walk through such a thick gate so casually! Is there anywhere in this world we cannot go?!"
At this moment, Bartholos, still hanging from her right leg, provided some well-timed flattery.
"Of course. After all, if I could not even handle a little trick like walking through walls in a place filled with alloy security gates, how could I call myself a professional at restocking?"
Cipher crossed her arms, looking quite proud.
However, she quickly regained her composure. Her eyes locked onto a room labeled Finance Office.
"The Finance Office... I wonder how much money this base actually has?"
At that thought, she remembered the previous five million Credits and unconsciously licked her lips. She activated Phasing once more and slipped through the office door.
Upon entering, she saw several combatants standing inside. They were gripping their rifles with visible tension, aiming toward the door, yet their eyes were strangely glued to the floor.
"What are they looking at?"
Confused by their behavior, Cipher looked down at her own feet.
Directly beneath her was a patch of floor intentionally splashed with water.
"Oh, so they are using this method to figure out if I have arrived?"
Cipher immediately understood the tactic. Since she was in a state of Invisibility, the simplest way to track an invisible intruder was to spread water. If a footprint mysteriously appeared in the puddles, it meant the intruder was present.
This trick was indeed a hard counter for ordinary stealth-type ability users. But was Cipher an ordinary user?
She was a Demi-God of Trickery! How could her tracks be detected by such primitive methods?
"They expect to find my trail with something this crude? They underestimate this cat far too much."
Cipher thought with disdain, arms crossed. She was currently standing right on the wet patch, yet the water remained undisturbed, as if no one were there at all.
Shifting her gaze away from the soldiers, Cipher looked toward the accountant.
The accountant was staring at the door with a pale face, swallowing nervously.
"Am I really that scary? I have not even killed anyone."
Cipher didn't quite understand his terror. What she didn't know was that because of the total theft of funds at Base 036, the accountant there had been saddled with a massive debt. The thought that such debt would pass to one's family even after death was far more terrifying than a quick end.
Activating Chrono Surge, she inserted her quantum storage into the main terminal. In a short while, over two million Credits were secured.
"Only two million? This base is a bit poor."
Cipher was disappointed. She had expected this place to have at least five million Credits like the last one, but this was significantly less.
"Wait." She suddenly realized something. "Could it be that this place did have five million, but because they paid my clone three million for the bounty, only two million remains?!"
The more she thought about it, the more logical it seemed. Otherwise, why would the funding gap between bases be so large!
"Fine. Since that is the case, it is not a total loss. I just earned a little less than expected."
Cipher sighed and turned to leave the Finance Office to rob other sections of the base.
After performing her routine of swiping terminals and tossing three EMP Grenades into the data center to throw the entire base into chaos, Cipher happened to run into Lin Zhiyuan again on her way back to the main hall.
Seeing Lin Zhiyuan looking completely overwhelmed by the havoc she had just caused, a wicked smile crossed Cipher's face. An amusing idea struck her.
In the next instant, she shifted her appearance back to Pardo and slipped behind Lin Zhiyuan, deactivating her invisibility.
Leaning close to his ear, she whispered softly:
"Dr. Lin, I have finished my restocking. Would you like to see if there is anything you need? I can give you a twenty percent discount, nya~!"