"They actually know I'm coming to the District 5 branch? What exactly is going on?"
Listening to the conversation between Lin Mingyu and the receptionist, Cipher felt that something was very wrong.
What did he mean by "didn't the higher-ups say Cifera was coming to District 5"? She had only just arrived; how could they have known in advance?
Could it be... there is a mole within the Countercurrent Alliance?
This was Cipher's first reaction, but soon, she remembered that map filled with errors and omissions.
Could it be that Apex Entertainment discovered the Countercurrent Alliance investigating the building structure and deduced this?
"Forget it. I can achieve this even without intelligence from the Countercurrent Alliance anyway. Their info is just the icing on the cake for me."
Cipher shook her head, tossing the thoughts out of her mind. She intended to keep following Lin Mingyu to see how things developed.
But suddenly, an abrupt system notification interrupted her actions.
[Ding~ detected that the host has killed or subdued all members of the AMA base in District 3 of the Hive District and allowed a new force to appear in the eyes of the major corporations' executives, causing a significant impact on the power structure of District 3. Stellar Jade +1600]
"Wait? What was that?"
Cipher was somewhat confused. She opened the system panel and began checking the entry records for Stellar Jade.
Ever since Damian and the others wiped out the AMA base in District 3, the Stellar Jade provided by them had decreased significantly, though a few stray points from subordinates killing enemies would still pop up every few dozen minutes or every hour or two.
This notification had appeared immediately following one such kill record.
"So, that was the last person from the District 3 AMA organization?"
Cipher pointed at that final kill notification.
However, the system ignored her.
"Tsk." Although she was prepared to be ignored, Cipher still let out a disdainful click of her tongue.
She really couldn't understand this system's conversational logic—sometimes it responded, and sometimes it didn't.
"Forget it, I'll go ask myself."
After saying that, Cipher's perspective shifted, arriving at the viewpoint of Cerydra.
At this moment, Cerydra was already looking down, sending a message to Damian.
Imperator: Damian, have you finished cleaning up the remnants of the AMA organization?
Not long after the message was sent, Damian sent back an exclamation mark.
Damian: !
Damian: As expected of Lord Imperator! We only just finished hunting down the last few members of the AMA, and you already knew about it?!
Looking at the three dead bodies not far from him and the message sent by Cerydra, Damian was full of disbelief.
He hadn't even had time to erase those three names on his terminal before the message from Imperator arrived.
One could only say, as expected of Lord Imperator! So amazing!!!
As for whether Cerydra was monitoring them, he didn't care.
As long as he didn't plan to betray Imperator, why should he care? He had a clear conscience!
Besides, this was actually a good thing for them; if they encountered danger, Lord Imperator, who was observing them from the shadows, could lend them a hand.
"It seems the system notification was indeed true," Cerydra murmured to herself.
She then continued to ask the system, "You said these sixteen hundred Stellar Jade are because I wiped out the District 3 AMA and changed the regional power structure. Then why didn't such a prompt appear after I controlled Hyacine to wipe out a Genesis Tech branch?"
[Because it did not thoroughly change the structure of that area.]
"I wiped out the company that held a medical monopoly there, yet it didn't change?"
Hearing the system's prompt, Cerydra was very perplexed.
[That was only one of the tools of the Four Major Corporations. The Sop Government has already been infiltrated, and it is only a matter of time before Chaos Capital is controlled by the Four Major Corporations. At that time, you merely delayed the speed of that takeover.]
[Whereas this time, you not only destroyed the AMA base in District 3 but also replaced the AMA's status in District 3.]
[To the Four Major Corporations, the organization you established currently belongs to a new "AMA."]
[Therefore, they do not intend to allow the "old" AMA back into District 3 to break the structure further, nor are they willing to let your organization out to disrupt the structures of other districts.]
[Thus, you are specially rewarded with sixteen hundred Stellar Jade.]
"I see."
This time, Cerydra finally understood why the system suddenly rewarded her with so much Stellar Jade.
Ultimately, it was because she had established a new organization within a district, causing the original balance to be broken.
When she was Cipher, Firefly, or Hyacine, although she caused a lot of impact, none of them managed to shift the power structure of an entire region.
"Since that's the case, why didn't you..."
Cerydra was about to complain about why the system didn't say anything, but she seemed to think of something and let out a sigh.
"Forget it, you'll definitely say it's because I didn't ask anyway."
[The host's guess is quite accurate.]
"Forget it, I won't argue with you."
Seeing this, Cerydra didn't bother to debate with the system anymore.
"Since I've gained a ten-pull for nothing, help me use this ten-pull now."
[Very well, pull in progress.]
"This should be the fortieth pull. I wonder what this purple item will be."
Cerydra murmured to herself while looking at the subtitles.
She had stopped thinking about when she might get an early gold; after all, Stellar Jade wasn't hard to earn.
Compared to a gold, she was now more curious about what kind of tricks the system would pull with these purple items.
At that moment, the system's gacha pull came to a stop.
The subtitles began to glow with eight flashes of blue light, followed by a flash of purple.
"Hmm... purple after eight blues? It seems there are two purples this time."
Looking at the purple glow, a hint of surprise appeared on Cerydra's face.
Because the system's pulls were different from those in Honkai: Star Rail; the system followed a categorized order.
So when a purple light appeared, it meant everything following it was either purple or gold.
But in the next moment, Cerydra widened her eyes in disbelief.
Because after the purple, a dazzling gold light enveloped her.
"Holy crap! I got an early gold at forty pulls?!"