My Nest Egg Got Robbed!

The live feed kept zooming in until it froze on the bottom of the huge, smooth pit, five meters deep, in the West District.

The high- and mid-grade Abyssal Core fragments that had littered the ground had vanished.

Not even a glowing bone had been left for the authorities.

The pit was spotless.

The senior Monster Hunting Bureau officer leading the team stared at the screen, unable to make a sound.

Even the barrage of comments that had been flooding the livestream fell into a brief, eerie silence.

Everyone was stunned by how practiced the looting had been.

At Xingfuli Apartment, the clatter of a keyboard in Room 703 was deafening.

Without hesitation, Su Xiaoxiao switched to her main account and posted in the most popular livestream.

"You mortals don't understand a thing!"

"After high-grade monsters shatter, the remaining Abyssal Core fragments keep radiating mutation energy!"

"Leave that high-grade debris where it is, and it could trigger a second wave of psychic contamination!"

"Lady Ziwei is sealing those dangerous remnants in her own storage space!"

"She'd rather risk being contaminated herself than let the seeds of disaster take root!"

Her blunt explanation scrolled across the public chat in huge, bold red text.

Netizens across the internet stared at it in collective silence for three seconds.

Then countless crying reaction images swallowed the livestream whole.

"So this is what it means to be a Magical Girl!"

"Even cleaning up the battlefield is an act of sacred sacrifice!"

"Long live Lady Ziwei! We'll follow the starlight to our deaths!"

The whole internet saw the light.

In that moment, the public's reverence for Ziwei soared to an untouchable peak.

Xingfuli Apartment.

A faint metallic click came from the front door's concealed lock.

Su Bai had dropped his transformation and was wearing his faded gray hoodie.

He nudged the door open with his shoulder and slipped into the entryway, sweat pouring down his face.

Maintaining the massive Golden Cemetery while hauling everything over such a long distance had drained every last bit of his strength.

He leaned against the doorframe and gasped for breath.

Then he glanced into the cramped, dim living room.

Su Xiaoxiao was still sitting cross-legged on the old sofa, her fingers flying over her laptop keyboard.

Her cheeks were flushed, and she was muttering replies to the comments under her breath.

Su Bai pressed his lips together, not daring to disturb her.

He crept along the wall into his bedroom and locked the wooden door behind him.

The bedroom light was off.

By the dim streetlight filtering through the window, Su Bai took out the Magic Tool that looked like Dora-C-Mon's little pocket.

He turned it upside down over his single bed and gave it a hard shake.

A crisp clatter rang through the quiet room.

Dozens of faintly glowing Abyssal Core crystals spilled out, covering more than half the bed.

At the center lay two exquisite Abyssal Cores, each the size of a fist.

One flashed with deep violet lightning; the other held a thick, shadowy dark blue glow.

They were genuine D-rank, ninth-tier Lord Cores.

Su Bai's eyes practically glowed green in the dark.

He kicked off his shoes.

Then he sprawled flat on his back across the priceless heap of crystals.

Eyes closed, he let out a contented sigh that practically smelled of money.

"Ah... what a beautiful smell."

"Life is finally worth living."

Kabi floated out of the coat rack's shadow, his purple-and-gold spirit body striking against the darkness.

"Master, don't start dreaming just yet."

The pudgy sprite flew above Su Bai and tapped his forehead with a stubby hand.

"You'd better check that anonymous overseas account."

"The system just notified me that another big payment came in."

Su Bai sprang upright amid the Abyssal Cores.

He pulled his spare phone from beneath his pillow, unlocked it with his fingerprint, and opened the encrypted black app.

The account balance had just refreshed.

New deposit: ten thousand Starcoins.

That worked out to roughly another seventy thousand Federal Coins in ready cash.

Su Bai opened the anonymous message attached to the deposit.

"Lady Ziwei, my heart surged when I saw you work a miracle in the West District."

"Please, you must accept this money. If you'll allow it, I would devote everything I have to supporting the organization."

"Please let me become your follower! I can handle all your mundane affairs. All I ask is to worship the boots stained with monster blood on your feet!"

Su Bai stared at the long message, equal parts groveling and creepy.

He rolled his eyes.

He closed the app and tossed the phone back onto the bed.

"Rich people these days really aren't right in the head."

He rolled his aching shoulders.

"Support me? What does he think the Star Organization is, a charity?"

"That's because your standards have gone up!"

Kabi did a somersault in midair, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"You used to be the kind of ordinary guy who'd deliver food all night in the pouring rain just to get a five-hundred-coin attendance bonus."

Su Bai couldn't be bothered to answer him.

He sat cross-legged among the glowing Abyssal Cores and dug a plastic calculator out of a drawer.

His fingers flew over the keys.

"The Deep-Space Giant Whale's marrow fluid and core should fetch at least four hundred thousand."

The keys beeped sharply.

"The Bone Colossus Owl's lightning core is flawless. Call it five hundred thousand."

"Add the tip that just came in, plus the scattered mid- and low-grade stuff I picked up over the past few days..."

Su Bai looked at the long number on the calculator's screen.

Even a conservative estimate put his total assets at around two million Federal Coins.

Two million.

Enough to buy a well-located apartment outright in this city and cover every expense at his future school.

Su Bai tossed the calculator aside.

He tried to pull down the corners of his mouth, but they kept rising.

"This feels amazing..."

His taut nerves finally relaxed, and a heavy wave of sleepiness washed over him.

Su Bai yawned.

He swept all the Abyssal Cores back into the storage Magic Tool and was about to close his eyes for a nap.

Bzz! Bzz!

His main phone on the nightstand suddenly began vibrating like mad.

A red alert lit up the small bedroom.

Su Bai snatched up the phone, irritation all over his face.

The moment he read the headline, his breath caught.

It was an emergency citywide alert from the Tianhai City Monster Hunting Bureau.

"Emergency! The third basement vault of Tianhai Savings Bank has been attacked by an extremist armed group!"

"The assailants possess heavy-firepower Magic Tools and have taken numerous employees and civilians hostage. The area has been sealed off!"

Tianhai Savings Bank.

That was where he'd just arranged anonymous safekeeping for a large sum and deposited part of the fortune he'd earned!

Just then, a message popped up in the Star Daily Squad group chat on his spare phone.

"Big Sis! The vault's being robbed!"

"I came by today to help my family hand over some materials, and now I'm trapped in the security checkpoint!"

The sender was Cherry—Lin Guoguo.

Kabi leaned over and glanced at the screen.

"Master, Cherry's trapped in there! She didn't bring her wand today, and she's got no combat experience!"

Su Bai's fingers clenched around the phone, his knuckles cracking.

His drowsiness and exhaustion vanished in an instant.

A violent aura he could no longer suppress radiated from him.

"The nerve of them!"

Su Bai shot to his feet, his voice cold enough to shed ice.

"They dare rob my vault?"