Inside Cloudcliff Villa in the Cloudtop District.
Hiss—
Accompanied by the soft sound of dissipating cold air, the hatch of the holographic life-support pod slid open silently.
Wu Nihuang sat up from the nutrient solution, the translucent liquid sliding down her skin.
After lazily stretching her body, she planned to grab some dessert to eat.
But right at this moment, the terminal placed on the coffee table beside her suddenly vibrated at an inopportune time, emitting an urgent buzzing sound.
Seeing this, she glanced at the screen.
However, right after she saw the caller's name, her eyebrows immediately furrowed, and a barely noticeable trace of annoyance flashed through her eyes.
Picking up the terminal, Wu Nihuang tapped to answer.
"Good evening, Ms. Wu." As soon as the call connected, a teasing male voice immediately rang out. "I heard... your days recently haven't been too comfortable either? The core database of the District 3 branch was destroyed, and the vault was emptied completely... Tsk tsk, according to Apex Entertainment's usual 'spirit of entertainment', aren't you going to release this big news and hype it up? It's guaranteed to hit the headlines and explode in popularity."
Hearing this, Wu Nihuang didn't respond immediately. Instead, she first picked up the velvet bathrobe nearby and draped it over herself before speaking:
"Mr. Mishima, I'm not stupid enough to release this embarrassing scandal of our own company for others to laugh at." Then, she changed the subject, "As for you, aren't you currently busy preparing manpower to flatten that eyesore of a church? How come you still have the leisure to care about my 'domestic affairs' now?"
"Haha, look at what you're saying." Mishima's laughter came through the terminal, carrying a deliberate sense of relaxation. "As partners, it's only right to care about each other. Besides, the situation with that church..."
Speaking of this, his tone suddenly turned cold. "It's just a troublemaker who suddenly popped up and is suspected to be an S rank. Our Arasaka Heavy Industries lacks nothing but methods to deal with 'troublemakers'."
"Hmph." Wu Nihuang let out a short, cold laugh, her fingertips unconsciously tapping lightly against the life-support pod beside her. "S rank? On what basis do you conclude that that blue-haired girl is only an S rank? Don't forget, she's someone who came over from the Spiritual Tide."
"Military enterprises have the intelligence networks of military enterprises, Ms. Wu." Mishima's voice was full of confidence, even carrying a hint of arrogance. "There are only a dozen or so named individuals at the so-called 'country-destroying rank' from that world, and we know what most of them generally look like."
"But that blue-haired girl is not in our known intelligence. Moreover, with her arrogant way of doing things, it's highly unlikely she would hide her strength in that world over there. Therefore, S rank is her absolute limit."
"I see it otherwise." Wu Nihuang turned around, her back facing the light, the shadows covering the side of her face. Her voice also lowered. "If... I mean if, your meticulously planned 'extermination' operation fails, and you also lose all the elites you sent in there..."
Speaking of this, she paused, a cold curve hooking up the corner of her mouth.
"Then, we at Apex Entertainment wouldn't mind helping you properly 'promote' this 'spectacular' defeat. I guarantee it can become the 'hottest' news headline in the Hive District for the next month."
After Wu Nihuang finished saying these words, there was a moment of silence from the other end of the terminal, but soon Mishima's voice came through with a bit of disdain:
"Heh! What if we succeed? Then regarding the news of the 'otherworldly evil cult stronghold being eradicated by lightning strikes', shouldn't you also give me a few more percentage points of the revenue share?"
"It seems you are very confident."
"As long as you don't cause trouble in the middle."
"Heh." Wu Nihuang chuckled lightly. "I'm not the kind of person who plays despicable tricks in the dark."
"In that case... do we have a deal?"
"Deal."
Wu Nihuang spat out the word crisply and cleanly, then ended the call.
The screen went dark, reflecting her slightly tired face. Then, she opened the terminal's album and pulled up a high-resolution photo.
A photo of a coin engraved with a black, one-eyed cat head.
"Cifera..." she muttered the name in a low voice, her fingertips hovering over the image of the coin. "A feline demi-human who previously specialized in stealing from Countercurrent Alliance bases in the Pit Bottom District, possessing strength around the S rank... Now, she actually dares to extend her claws to me?"
Thinking of this, she sighed deeply and raised her hand to rub her somewhat throbbing temples forcefully, muttering to herself in a low voice:
"Troublesome."
...
"As expected of you! Retreating completely unscathed after making a huge scene at their branch company, your strength is even greater than we anticipated!"
Inside the safe house, Li Yan's projection looked with a smile at Pardofelis sitting to the side.
"Enough chitchat." Pardofelis ignored Li Yan's compliments. She reached out her hand and tossed a gunny sack full of gold bars, storage cards, data strips, notes, and various other things onto the floor. "See how many credits these things are worth?"
Hearing these words, Li Yan adjusted his glasses and looked at the pile of things on the floor.
But because he was a holographic projection, Li Yan couldn't touch the bag. He could only stand to the side and look at the things exposed inside.
"It's obvious that your harvest is very substantial, Your Excellency Pardo." After observing for a while, he shook his head somewhat helplessly. "But because I'm just a projection right now, I can't evaluate them for the time being. However, I will soon send someone..."
But before he could finish speaking, his voice was interrupted by Pardofelis.
"How troublesome. Go wait for me at the old place."
After saying that, before Li Yan could even reply, she directly turned off the holographic projection.
Immediately after, a purple portal appeared in front of her.
————Portal Dividing Line————
Inside the conference room of Base 34 of the Countercurrent Alliance in the Pit Bottom District.
"Bang—"
With a loud sound, the door to the conference room was pushed open, and Pardofelis walked right in carrying a gunny sack of things.
"Your Excellency Pardo, your speed is truly incredibly fast,"
Li Yan exclaimed as he saw Pardo arrive.
Just half a minute ago, he was still communicating remotely with Pardofelis in District 3 of the Hive District, yet half a minute later, she was already here.
"Cut the crap. Here, just these things. Tell me how much money they're worth."
Seeing this, Li Yan also stopped talking nonsense. After putting on gloves, he started rummaging through the gunny sack.
"Standard issue gold bricks, extremely high purity... Encrypted data strips, looking at the packaging level, they should be core financial or customer data backups... Bearer bonds and notes, the denominations aren't small..." He softly and quickly analyzed while taking inventory.
After sorting things out for a while, Li Yan raised his head with a smile and said to Pardofelis:
"The estimated value of all the things here added together is about forty-something million credits, and this isn't even counting some of the data strips that are hard to price."
"If Your Excellency leaves it all to us to handle, fifty million credits. I wonder if you can accept this?"
"Fifty million?!" Pardofelis's ears instantly stood straight up, a light gleamed in her light blue pupils, and her tail unconsciously began swaying happily. "The liquid funds of one of your bases were only five million, I didn't expect it to multiply by ten times this time?! It seems that robbing... ahem, doing 'resource recycling' from large corporations really is lucrative!"
"After all, we are just a resistance organization." Li Yan sighed. "Even with the AMA's funding, we still can't compare to this kind of large corporation."
"Not to mention, Apex Entertainment is already the second richest among the Four Major Corporations."
"The second?" Pardofelis's curiosity was immediately piqued, and she asked with some curiosity, "Then who is the first? Genesis Tech?"
"Yes."
Hearing this, Pardofelis immediately rubbed her hands together in excitement.
"That's great! The target for the next 'restocking' operation will be Genesis Tech!"
And it just so happens that they don't get along with Hyacine anyway!
"That... I'm afraid it won't be very cost-effective, Your Excellency Pardo." Li Yan hurriedly shook his head, pouring cold water on the idea. "Although Genesis Tech is the wealthiest, their money is all spent on researching medical equipment and technology. So if you go directly to 'restock', it will be full of expensive instruments that can't be sold for a good price. You won't actually be able to get much cash."
"Tsk, is that so..."
After hearing Li Yan's words, Pardofelis curled her lips somewhat dejectedly, having no choice but to temporarily dispel the idea of stealing from Genesis Tech.
"Then when do you plan to give me my fifty million?"
"We need some time to prepare the fifty million. Your Excellency Pardo can probably just come here to pick it up around this time tomorrow."
"Alright, then hurry up and prepare it. I'm leaving first."
Seeing that matters were mostly settled, Pardofelis stood up cleanly and crisply, then turned around and left the place.