Passing through the final alloy door separating L19 and L20, the scene before Pardofelis suddenly opened up.
L20 was completely different from the chaos below. There was no dense forest of servers here, nor was there a smoke-filled battlefield. Instead, it was replaced by an open office area and a cold metallic luster.
At the end of the office area, an alloy door so massive it was suffocating occupied the entire wall, exuding a heavy sense of oppression under the cool-toned lighting.
"Tsk, the place where they hide the money really has a different vibe." Pardofelis narrowed her cat-like eyes, scanning the empty office area. "Where is everyone? Did they all run down to join the fun? Or are they hiding?"
After searching around and finding that there was indeed no one, she didn't dwell on it too much. Instead, she walked straight toward the giant alloy door.
Similarly, this metal door couldn't stop her at all.
Passing through the giant door, the interior scene came into view.
This was a massive space resembling the core of a bank vault, with rows of large safes embedded in the walls lined up neatly.
However, apart from the safes, Pardofelis also saw dozens of financial staff in high-end uniforms staring at her with terrified eyes.
At this moment, a woman wearing a senior supervisor badge was the first to react. She pointed at Pardofelis in fear, her voice trembling slightly from fright.
"You... how did you break in?! Guards..."
"Shh~" But before she could finish, Pardofelis placed an index finger over her lips, softly interrupting the supervisor. "During working hours, please don't interrupt my restocking process at your company."
With that, she snapped her fingers and said:
"All the safes here will open automatically, and everything inside will fly right in front of me!"
[Credits -50,000]
Buzz—Click!
The moment the lie was spoken, the sound of machinery operating began to ring out gradually.
The heavy safe doors popped open in unison. Glittering gold bars, shimmering encrypted chip boxes, and tightly sealed valuable notes were all drawn by an invisible magnetic force, merging into a dazzling "stream of wealth" that flew accurately toward Pardofelis.
Subsequently, she opened her system inventory and stored all these items inside one by one.
"No—! Stop her! Quickly, stop her!"
Seeing this, the female supervisor's eyes widened so much they nearly tore, her screams almost piercing everyone's eardrums.
Those were the foundation of her status!
However, the financial staff who usually acted submissively toward her were now standing motionless as if they had taken root in the ground.
They exchanged terrified glances, and not a single one of them was willing to listen to the female supervisor.
After all, who would want to use their flesh and blood to stop a fiend who could blow up the database, ignore the lockdown force field, and force her way in here?
"A bunch of trash!" The female supervisor trembled with anger, pointing at her subordinates and cursing loudly. "Are you all blind?! The security cameras are recording everything! Watching the company's property being looted is a severe dereliction of duty! Just wait to be fired! Just wait to be saddled with debts you can never repay!!"
"Fired?!"
At this moment, a voice suppressing intense anger suddenly exploded.
A tall, thin, middle-aged male financial worker suddenly took off his data glasses and smashed them fiercely onto the floor!
The exhaustion accumulated from long hours of overtime and the immense sense of humiliation at this moment turned his eyes red. Pointing right at the female supervisor's nose, he roared:
"You bloodsucker! Besides threatening us with being fired and debt, what else can you do?! The debt I owed the company has long been paid off with my life through overtime! Now you want to fire me? Heh! I'd love nothing more! With my work experience, just going to any of the other three companies to be a low-level accountant is better than being your dog here!"
Then, he turned around abruptly and yelled at his other colleagues:
"Look closely, everyone! She's so anxious because every single cent lost falls under her supervisory responsibility! We hold joint liability at most! She's the one who's going to be in deep trouble! Don't be her scapegoats!"
Instantly, one stone stirred up a thousand waves!
"Yeah! He's right! I've been wanting to quit for a long time!"
"Every time there's a mistake, we take the blame, but all the credit goes to her!"
"Who's afraid of her now that our debts are paid off?!"
"If you want to fight, do it yourself!"
The long-suppressed anger was detonated instantly. The financial staff were fired up, venting their accumulated resentment at the normally high-and-mighty supervisor.
The accusations and curses directed at the female supervisor merged into an uproar, even leaving Pardofelis, the "chief culprit," hanging to the side, creating an extremely absurd scene.
Meanwhile, Pardofelis leisurely stuffed the last few gold bars into her system inventory while relishing this good show of an "employee uprising" with great interest, her cat tail swaying happily back and forth.
"Y-you bunch of traitors! Ungrateful wretches!" The female supervisor's face turned livid from being verbally attacked. She trembled all over, her finger pointing at the crowd shaking incessantly. The immense fear and the anger of being betrayed made her completely lose her reason.
"Fine! Fine! Just you wait!!" Her face contorted, a hint of madness flashing in her eyes. "I'll go! I'll go myself! When the company settles the accounts, none of you will get away!"
After saying that, she shrieked and, like a wild beast protecting its food, recklessly lunged toward Pardofelis, who was still "restocking."
Pardofelis, who had originally been enjoying the drama of the employee uprising, was taken aback by this sudden attack.
"Hm?" She looked somewhat speechlessly at the woman pouncing in front of her, then gently raised her hand and swiped casually as if shooing away a fly—
Slap!
Amidst the crisp and loud sound of a slap, the female supervisor flew backward ten times faster than she came. Her head precisely crashed into the cold alloy wall, making a muffled thud.
Following that, her entire body slowly slid down from the wall to the floor, falling completely silent.
"Hiss... she really dared? Is she that brave?" Pardofelis shook her hand with a bit of disdain, looking at the unconscious supervisor on the ground and curling her lips. "These days, being a leader also requires knowing one's own limitations."
After dealing with this little interlude, Pardofelis continued her grand undertaking of "sweeping up goods."
She strolled through the spacious vault area, her fingertips grazing the cold metal cabinet doors. Wherever she passed, any encrypted storage devices that looked valuable or expensive items left behind were swiftly thrown into her system inventory.
After making a round and confirming that all the visibly valuable things had been scavenged clean, she stood in the center of the vault. Looking at those completely empty safes, suddenly, a novel idea entered her mind.
What would happen if she lied and said that all the credits in this entire building she hadn't yet been able to collect would appear in her quantum storage?
Since she was here to "restock," she might as well restock thoroughly!
She acted immediately!
Thinking of this, she cleared her throat and then spoke slowly:
"I can instantly transfer all the credit assets existing in digital or physical form within this entire Apex Entertainment branch building that I haven't yet collected, regardless of which encrypted account or corner crevice they are hidden in, completely into my quantum storage!"
[Credits -4,580,633]
"Pfft—cough cough cough!" Seeing the deduction number pop up before her eyes, Pardofelis nearly choked on her own saliva, staring at the line of text with somewhat incredulous eyes. "Four million five hundred and eighty thousand?! Are you robbing me, system?!"
This amount far exceeded her expectations. Even last time when it allowed her to temporarily gain Xiadie's aura of death, it only deducted one million credits, but this time it deducted four million five hundred and eighty thousand all at once!
However, before she had time to feel the sting of the loss, a new prompt followed closely:
[Credits +4,535,280]
"Eh?"
Pardofelis blinked, completely failing to understand what had just happened.
But soon, looking at the massive incoming figure and then at the over four million that had been deducted, her brain spun rapidly for a few cycles before she pounded her fist into her palm, saying in sudden realization:
"Oh—! I get it! It's a processing fee, right? A 101% processing fee of the original value? Fine... you're ruthless!"
Although she was "fleeced" by the system for over fifty thousand, the thought that the massive funds on the books of the entire branch company had just been instantly zeroed out by her made this little "processing fee" seem not entirely unacceptable.
"Tsk, I'll just treat it as paying a clearance disposal fee."
She shrugged, generously choosing not to fuss over it anymore.
Afterward, Pardofelis turned to face the financial staff, flashed them a brilliant smile, and waved goodbye.
"Alright, everyone, thank you for your company's tremendous support! I've already helped empty and recycle your company's credit inventory! No need to thank me~ Bye-bye!"
Before her voice faded, her figure flickered and instantly vanished without a trace.
Ding-a-ling—
At this moment, a coin engraved with a black one-eyed cat head appeared out of thin air exactly where she had disappeared.
This coin dropped onto the floor, letting out a crisp and melodious clinking sound, drawing a perfect conclusion to this "restocking" operation from the demigod of trickery.