Chapter 05
Making Money
Late at night, Xiling left with the sleeping Elysia on her back. In the entire orphanage, aside from Seria, no one else knew about their departure.
“Thank you for taking care of us all this time, Seria. If I ever get the chance, I’ll come back to visit you.”
“Travel safely. And… are you sure you don’t want to say goodbye to the children?”
“No. I’m afraid I won’t be able to bring myself to leave if I do.”
“I understand. Then I wish both you and little Elysia the best of luck.”
After taking one last look at the orphanage that had once given her shelter, Xiling disappeared into the darkness, one step at a time.
It’s me who should be thanking you, Xiaoling.
The sky had just begun to brighten when Elysia rubbed her sleepy eyes, still looking half-asleep.
“Big Sister Xiling… you’re already awake?”
Xiling looked up briefly from the “computer” she was assembling out of second-hand parts she had scavenged from the used market.
“What are you doing?”
Curious, Elysia walked over and leaned beside her. The faint, milky fragrance clinging to the little girl made Xiling’s cheeks flush slightly.
“Ahem… Little Elysia, go wash up first. Breakfast is on the table. It should still be warm.”
“Okay~”
The obedient little girl trotted into the bathroom.
Xiling rubbed her cheeks to calm herself before turning back to the computer, browsing for ways to earn money.
“Hm? What’s this…?”
Her eyebrows rose as she read a bounty posted by Fire Moth.
“100,000 gold coins to anyone who can breach our firewall?”
“They sure talk big. Let’s see what this is all about.”
Back in her previous life, when she wanted to expose her school’s illegal fees, she had hacked into the school’s website—which boasted a firewall supposedly comparable to a national-level security system—using nothing more than a crude homemade computer and a signal repeater built out of an aluminum can.
She copied every last piece of evidence and escaped without leaving a trace, earning herself the glorious title of the school’s “Public Enemy Number One.”
Her current equipment wasn’t exactly impressive either, but…
One hundred thousand gold coins were definitely worth a try.
“If it weren’t for the money, I wouldn’t put myself through something this exhausting.”
The last time she’d cracked the school’s website, she had fought nonstop for three days and three nights while avoiding surprise inspections from the teachers. By the time she finished, she’d nearly dropped dead in her dorm room from exhaustion.
“With hardware like this… overwhelming the system with a flood attack is obviously unrealistic. Maybe I should try another approach.”
Relying on the hacking skills she had painstakingly taught herself years ago, Xiling searched for over an hour before finally discovering a vulnerability that could grant access to the system.
“Wait… this was way too easy. This vulnerability almost looks like it was deliberately left here…”
She frowned.
Before attempting to exploit it, she installed an emergency escape program onto her computer.
If anything went wrong, it would immediately unleash a massive flood of junk data to interfere with any counter-tracing measures, giving her enough time to disconnect and escape.
“Whew… Alright. Let’s see what’s really going on.”
Xiling cautiously connected through the vulnerability, one finger resting on the power button, ready to cut the connection at a moment’s notice.
One second.
Two seconds.
A full minute passed.
Nothing happened.
“Hm? No response?”
She continued digging deeper.
The complete lack of resistance left her utterly bewildered.
“Wait… I got in… just like that?”
After exploring the system for a while and finding no traps whatsoever, Xiling couldn’t help but sigh in amazement.
“This hundred thousand gold coins is way too easy to earn…”
She packaged the vulnerability into a report and sent it to the person in charge of Fire Moth.
Clenching her sweat-soaked palms, Xiling waited nervously for a reply.
