"Forget it. Let's see how many credit points are in his terminal first."
Throwing the card into her system backpack, Cipher's eyes lit up slightly as she pulled out Neil's terminal.
Personal Account Balance: 117483
"One hundred seventeen thousand... that's not too much. Converted, it's only about one hundred ten stellar jade... so little."
Looking at the numbers displayed on the terminal, Cipher was a little disappointed. She had originally thought that as a Doctor, this person should have a lot of money.
"Forget it, even if it's only that much, it's almost enough for one pull. It'd be a waste not to take it."
With that, Cipher took out the quantum storage and siphoned all the money from it.
After siphoning it, she tossed both the quantum storage and the terminal into her system backpack.
"Sigh, my concept of money changes so quickly. Just two days ago, I thought one hundred thousand credit points was a huge sum, but now, the same one hundred thousand... I just feel it's nothing special."
Cipher sighed, then continued walking down a corridor wide enough for three or four people abreast, heading deeper into the base, muttering to herself:
"It's all this system's fault, constantly consuming tens or hundreds of thousands of credit points, making this cat subconsciously convert credit points into stellar jade."
After walking for a while, Cipher reached the end of the corridor, where another door blocked her way.
'These base doors are so numerous. Do I have to wait for someone again?'
Looking at the door in front of her, Cipher sighed. She felt that eventually, she would have to fabricate a lie about being able to pass through any door and wall, otherwise, it was simply too inconvenient.
But perhaps she was lucky, or perhaps there truly were many people entering and exiting the base recently. Just as Cipher finished that thought, with a 'click' sound, the door opened, and a researcher in a white lab coat walked out.
'The door opened!'
Seeing this, Cipher quickly darted past the door, casually swiping the terminal from the researcher who had just walked out.
Upon entering, there was a spacious hall. To the left of the hall was a large cabinet made of metal, divided into many small compartments, seemingly used for researchers' belongings. On the other side were several silver conveyor belts resembling airport security checkpoints and walk-through scanners.
However, these items appeared heavier and more complex than the technology Cipher had seen in her previous life, and there were also independent metal detector gates next to them.
Beside these instruments stood four staff members wearing dark gray uniforms with 'Security' badges pinned to their chests.
As for the wall in the center of the hall, a base layout map was hung there. Unlike other detailed maps Cipher had seen, this one only marked the locations of public areas and emergency exits.
'This cabinet should be where things are stored, right? I wonder what good stuff is inside?'
After swiping the tens of thousands of credit points from the researcher's terminal, Cipher looked at the cabinet, a look of eagerness on her face.
But upon seeing the security guards glancing around on the left, she temporarily dismissed the idea.
'I'll go check out the inside of the base first. If there's anything in there, I'll make some noise to attract them later.'
'As for the terminals of those few guards, I won't steal them for now, to prevent premature exposure.'
She, Cipher, was not someone who picked up sesame seeds and dropped watermelons. If she alarmed them, the entire base would be locked down. Not only would she be unable to continue stealing, but even leaving would cost credit points.
Walking up to the metal detector gate, Cipher curiously extended her hand and waved it, wanting to see if the device could detect her.
But clearly, a detector gate was, after all, a product of technology. Under the power of a demigod, it didn't serve its intended purpose at all. Even though Cipher had passed through it back and forth many times, the detector gate showed no reaction whatsoever.
'It seems this gate can't detect me. Perfect, I'll go inside and take a look.'
After thinking that, Cipher boldly walked through the detector gate and entered the base.
Meanwhile, beside the detector gate, four security personnel stared intently forward, their expressions vigilant and serious.
But they had no idea that the detector gate next to them had already let a little cat slip through...
'This seems to be... a place for experiments?'
Cipher walked and observed. The doors on both sides of the corridor were covered with terms she couldn't understand, except for the last three characters... which were, obviously, 'Laboratory'.
During this time, many researchers shuttled back and forth in the corridor. Cipher tried to pickpocket them, but besides a pile of Base 036 Level 3 Access Cards, all identical except for the names, there was nothing else.
'It seems they've all put their terminals and such in the cabinet. I should go see what else is in there first.'
Thinking this, Cipher stopped walking and pickpocketing, instead ignoring the researchers passing by her and speeding up.
Soon, after circling the corridor for a while, she stopped in front of another door. Above this door was written "Administrative Area," and below it was a warning in red text—
Entry restricted to Level 2 authorized administrators.
'Entry restricted to Level 2 authorized administrators? Can that Base Level 2 Access Card be used?'
Seeing this small text, Cipher immediately thought of the card she had casually swiped earlier.
After looking left and right to confirm no one was around, she took out the card and placed it on what looked like an access control device.
"Beep! Level 2 Access Card, Doctor Neil, access granted."
After a mechanical voice sounded, with a 'swish,' the door opened directly.
"I didn't expect that a random theft would lead to me stealing from a high-ranking administrator of this base. My luck must be really good; now I don't have to worry about not being able to get through doors."
A smile appeared on Cipher's lips, and then she entered the Administrative Area.
"Project Office, Director's Office, Accounting, and... Finance?!"
When she saw these two words, Cipher's eyes instantly lit up.
Finance is where all the public wealth of a company's base is managed. How much money must be in there?!
Suddenly, Cipher's eyes gleamed, and she instantly arrived at the door of the Finance Office.
She pressed her cat ears tightly against the door, and soon, she heard a person's voice.
"I've already said, our base's financial situation is not optimistic. Excluding fixed assets, the funds the headquarters allocated to our base this year only have less than five million credit points left. You're asking for two million credit points to cover your deficit? Don't even think about it!"
'Five... five million credit points?!'
Upon hearing this number, Cipher's mouth slightly opened, silently repeating the number. Her cat ears and tail instantly shot up in unison, and even her eyes had turned into the shape of gold coins.
At this moment, she had no other thoughts, only an intense desire for how to get her hands on those five million credit points.