Late at night, Xi Ling left, carrying the sleeping Elysia on her back. In the entire Orphanage, besides Ceria, no one else knew about it.
"Thank you for your constant care, Ceria. If I have the chance, I will come back to visit you."
"Be careful on your way. Also... are you really not going to say goodbye to The Children?"
"No, I'm afraid I won't be able to stop myself from staying."
"Alright, I wish you and Xiao Ai Li good luck."
After taking one last look at the Orphanage that had once sheltered her, Xi Ling disappeared into the night, step by step.
"It's I who should be thanking you, Xiao Ling."
...The sky was faintly turning white, and Elysia rubbed her eyes, still groggy with sleep, seemingly not fully awake yet.
"Xiao Ai Li, you're awake."
Xi Ling was tinkering with a 'computer' she had assembled from parts scavenged from a second-hand market, and she looked up at Elysia.
"Sister Xi Ling, what are you doing♪"
Elysia curiously leaned next to Xi Ling; the faint, milky scent on her made Xi Ling's cheeks flush slightly.
"Ahem, Xiao Ai Li, go wash up first. Breakfast is on the table, it should still be warm."
"Okay♪"
Elysia obediently walked into the bathroom. Xi Ling rubbed her cheeks, and after calming down, she browsed the computer for jobs that could earn money.
"Hmm? What's this..."
Seeing the bounty regarding the Flame-Chasers, Xi Ling raised an eyebrow.
"Break through the firewall for 100,000 Gold Coins? Quite a big claim. Let me see what's going on."
Back then, to report the school's excessive fees, she had used a simple computer she built herself and a signal repeater made from a soda can to hack into the school's official website, which was comparable to a national-level firewall. She copied all the data and retreated unscathed, earning her the title of 'School Public Enemy'. Although her current equipment wasn't great, 100,000 Gold Coins was worth a try.
"If it weren't for needing to make some money, I wouldn't want to be this tired."
To break into the school's official website, she had fought continuously for three days and three nights, all while dodging surprise inspections from teachers. After she finished, she almost died suddenly in her dorm room.
"With this kind of equipment... trying to paralyze the system with a flood of data is clearly unrealistic. Perhaps I can try other methods."
Relying on the hacking skills she had taught herself back then, Xi Ling searched for over an hour and finally found a vulnerability that could get her into the system.
"Wait, it seems a bit too fast. This vulnerability is almost like it was intentionally placed here..."
Xi Ling frowned and installed an escape system on her computer before infiltrating the system. If anything seemed wrong, she could quickly release a large amount of junk information to interfere with the anti-tracking system and then make her getaway.
"Phew... Alright, let me see what's going on."
Xi Ling carefully connected to the vulnerability, her fingertip resting on the power button, ready to disconnect at any moment. One second, two seconds, a minute passed, and there was still no reaction.
"Hmm? No reaction?"
Continuing to dig deeper, the unimpeded path made Xi Ling feel somewhat incredible.
"I... just got in like this?"
After browsing around and finding no traps, Xi Ling couldn't help but exclaim,
"These 100,000 Gold Coins are too easy to earn..."
After packaging the vulnerability and sending it to the person in charge of the Flame-Chasers, Xi Ling clenched her sweaty palms, waiting nervously.