--- Mobius's Laboratory ---
Inside the lab, Blanca waved the form in her hand, excitedly speaking to Mobius:
"Doctor, the research budget for this quarter has been approved! We can finally eat something good!"
Seeing the string of zeros following the amount on the budget approval form, Mobius's mood was exceptionally good. In fact, her mood had been quite good for the past two months.
The bureaucratic system that used to make things difficult for her at every turn had, for some reason, become incredibly respectful and responsive recently.
Approval processes that used to be incredibly tedious were now passing basically on the same day. It was as if the organizational structure had been completely replaced.
"Not bad. Since the budget is down, let's go out for a nice meal tonight."
As Mobius said this, she saw Blanca's face light up with joy.
This made Mobius feel a twinge of guilt. After all, dragging her assistant along to slurp instant noodles for two months... that lifestyle was indeed a bit shabby.
Sigh, let's treat her to a good meal tonight as compensation.
Mobius sighed inwardly, then immediately turned her attention to a more important issue.
"Since the research budget is approved, I can go to the Chrysalis organization and post a commission to dox that hateful cliffhanger dog."
Thinking of the mental exhaustion caused by her curiosity over this period, Mobius had quite a few complaints.
Seeing the resentment on the Doctor's face, Blanca knew that once she made up her mind, it was basically impossible to pull her back. As her assistant, all she could do was figure out how to complete it as best as possible.
So she asked, "So Doctor, how much of a bounty are we posting?"
Depending on the type of mission, the Chrysalis organization had a minimum price for accepting orders.
Based on that, for every additional portion of funds added, Chrysalis promised to mobilize more resources.
The speed of completion would be faster, and the quality higher.
Generally speaking, missions like finding people, finding dogs, or catching mistresses were much cheaper than killing people.
Hearing this, Mobius glanced at the research budget allocated for this quarter, a confident smile playing on her lips. She directly swiped 100 million credits from it.
"This should be enough."
Seeing the amount she swiped, Blanca turned pale with fright.
"Doctor, it's not necessary! We don't need that much!" She tried to persuade her earnestly. "The price for finding someone is generally between tens of thousands to a hundred thousand. Even for someone with a special background, it wouldn't reach a million."
"Then, Blanca, do you think this guy is an ordinary person?"
"..."
Facing the stunned Blanca, Mobius said, "Someone capable of producing knowledge of that level can absolutely not be an ordinary person."
"But Doctor, whether they can find the person is Chrysalis's problem to worry about. We don't need to save money for them, right?"
In response, Mobius pressed her hand on Blanca's shoulder, a captivating smile appearing on her lips.
"I don't care about money. I just want to get what I want from his hands as quickly as possible. The faster, the better."
Blanca was speechless.
"Doctor, you didn't say that when we had no money before..."
Soon, with the transfer of Mobius's commission fee, a mission with a 100 million credit bounty appeared in the Chrysalis organization's system.
...
Inside a hospital in the Far East.
Sakura stood in front of a hospital room, looking at the door handle. She raised her hand several times, only to lower it again.
Today, she was dressed in a proper office lady outfit. Her silky pink long hair was meticulously styled, and she even wore light makeup.
She looked just like an urban beauty who had just returned from work at a company.
But whenever she wore this outfit, Sakura felt like she didn't dare to face her sister.
Because she knew that her identity as a so-called corporate executive in front of her sister was nothing but a disguise.
Her true identity was a shady assassin whose hands were stained with unknown amounts of blood.
No matter how she comforted herself, Sakura knew she had been lying to her sister who looked up to her.
Whenever she heard her sister bragging to others about how successful her big sister was, she felt a stinging pain in her heart.
Especially when she met her sister's admiring gaze, her heart felt like it was being strangled, unable to beat.
Sakura felt bitter inside. If she had a choice, how could she have walked down this path?
Her sister was seriously ill, and the daily treatment costs were astronomical.
To keep her sister alive, she needed money—lots and lots of money.
But as two sisters with no one to rely on, the only way for Sakura to make money was through the martial arts she had learned since childhood.
Therefore, she became an emotionless killer.
Kill people, take the money, and use it to pay for her sister's treatment.
She had walked this path all the way here.
By now, she no longer struggled with right or wrong.
Her sole purpose in living was to hope her sister could live happily. That was all.
As for everything else, she, as the older sister, would bear the burden.
Perhaps one day in the future, she would die on a mission. But until then, her sister could live well.
That was what Sakura believed.
But unfortunately, sometimes fate's downhill slope catches you completely off guard.
Standing in front of the ward, Sakura took out her communicator and looked at the nearly empty balance in her bank account.
Although she didn't know how many times she had checked it, Sakura still felt her vision go dark, as if the sky was falling.
Until last month, she had been one of the top solo agents in the Chrysalis organization, with a performance far exceeding her peers.
Killing people, finding cats, catching mistresses—she completed them all with a 100% success rate, never failing once.
But last month, after taking the order to kidnap Eden, she suffered a shameful defeat. Her rating dropped by a level, and her cut of the commission was drastically reduced.
And as misfortunes never come singly, the Honkai weapon she rented from the organization was lost at the battle site. Consequently, she now owed a debt to the organization.
By now, her savings had been wiped out, and she even owed the organization money.
The reason she was pacing in front of her sister's ward, afraid to push the door open, was because she didn't know how to tell her sister.
—She no longer had the money to pay for next month's treatment.
Sakura closed her eyes in pain. Despair surged from all directions. She had nowhere left to run.
"If there really is a so-called god in this world, please show me a way out..."
Just as Sakura thought this, perhaps some unseen force really did respond to her plea.
Ding!
The communicator in her hand vibrated.
[The 'Kill-me' platform reminds you: Assassin 'Ace of Spades', you have a new mission waiting to be accepted.]