"This box wasn't nearly as heavy as he made it sound."
After placing the crate inside the cluttered storage room, Cipher brushed the dust from her hands with a casual shrug. She turned to leave, only to find two figures standing in the hallway, staring at her with blank expressions.
"What's wrong? Are there more stuff that needs moving?" she asked, tilting her head in confusion.
The two snapped out of their daze simultaneously, shaking their heads in sync.
"No, no! That's all, Sister Cipher. Your room is pretty much ready. You'll be sleeping here tonight."
As she spoke, Luo Lin took Cipher's hand and led her toward her designated quarters.
The room was quite modest—just a bed and a desk—but considering they were living inside a literal pile of rubble, Cipher felt it was practically a luxury suite.
"Oh right, I almost forgot to ask," she said suddenly. "How did you manage to build a house like this in a parking garage buried under ruins?"
Cipher suddenly remembered what she had been wondering from the start. She meant to ask Luo Lin and Xiong Lei about the logistics of their base earlier, but the conversation had somehow drifted elsewhere.
"Oh, that!" Luo Lin brightened instantly and held up her wristband. "It's because my spatial bracelet has a ton of storage space!"
She continued, "When Big Bear and I were looking for a base, we realized that any building on the surface near the crater would be way too conspicuous. So, we found this place—an abandoned underground parking lot!"
Luo Lin spread her arms and twirled around excitedly.
"It was originally huge and empty, but it was filled with structural debris. I figured since I have the spatial bracelet and Big Bear has the strength, I'd have him clear a path while I hauled the junk away using the bracelet."
"As for the house itself—we built it aboveground first, but we made sure it wasn't attached to the foundation. We wanted to test whether the bracelet could hold something that big."
"And it worked?" Cipher asked, already piecing it together.
She looked at the bracelet on Luo Lin's wrist with a gaze that had shifted from curiosity to genuine shock.
'To fit an entire house inside... just how massive was the volume of that thing?'
She had to admit she had underestimated it. She originally thought a spatial tool would be impressive if it held a few cubic meters, but this was on an entirely different level.
"Exactly! We successfully packed the house right in!"
Luo Lin was beaming, clearly fond of the memory.
"After that, all we had to do was use the bracelet to 'drop' the house here and stabilize the foundation. No one would ever suspect a fully intact house is hidden under all this scrap!"
"It's true... I certainly didn't expect it," Cipher agreed, nodding.
Her gaze drifted upward to the electric lamp glowing softly on the ceiling. "But where does the power come from? I doubt there's a functional power grid under these ruins."
"The power comes from that box you were just carrying, Sister Cipher!"
Luo Lin stepped out of the room and headed toward the crate Cipher had just moved.
"The box?"
Cipher followed her, confused. Luo Lin reached the crate and flipped the lid open. Inside, Cipher saw several objects that resembled oversized industrial batteries.
"Ta-da! These are what I spent a fortune on—Energy Compression Cells!"
"Just one of these can power this whole place for over a month!"
Luo Lin closed the lid and walked back to the living room wall. She grabbed a metal handle and pulled, revealing a recessed compartment. Inside was a compression cell identical to the ones in the box.
'So they're like the storage batteries from my previous life?' Cipher thought. Except those were for emergencies, while these are meant for sustained use.
'Wait... if these are electromagnetic devices, what would happen if I threw an EMP grenade...? No, no, no. This is their home. Why would I even think that?'
Cipher vigorously shook her head to clear out the dangerous thought. She turned back to Luo Lin with a warm smile. "I see. Thanks for the explanation, Little Lin."
"Hehe, don't mention it!" Luo Lin scratched her head, looking a bit bashful at the praise.
"Oh, right! Sister Cipher, I need to give this back to you."
Luo Lin fiddled with her bracelet for a moment before pulling out a small bag.
Cipher's body went rigid.
She nearly dashed away on instinct. She hadn't expected Luo Lin to bring those things back out. Hadn't she already said they could have them?
"Um... you really don't have to give those back. You guys eat them. I have... plenty more where those came from."
Despite the suddenness, her earlier self-reflection had paid off. Cipher regained her composure quickly, though her voice remained slightly strained.
"But—"
"Captain, it's getting late. Why don't we call it a day? We can talk about everything else tomorrow morning."
Xiong Lei, noticing Cipher's lingering apprehension toward the object in Luo Lin's hand, stepped in to cut the conversation short.
"Yawn... Big Bear is right. It's been a long day. I'm feeling pretty tired myself; I think I'll head to bed." Cipher chimed in immediately, letting out a fake yawn to look the part.
"Okay then... I'll head to my room. Sister Cipher, get some rest. Goodnight!"
Luo Lin wasn't slow; she realized Cipher didn't want to dwell on the subject. After bidding her goodnight, she took Lin Wei's hand and they disappeared into one of the other rooms.
"Goodnight."
Cipher echoed the sentiment to Luo Lin and Xiong Lei before retreating into her own new room.
Once the door was shut, Cipher couldn't wait to collapse onto the bed. Feeling the softness of the blankets, she squinted her eyes in bliss and let out a long, satisfied stretch.
She rolled over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling light, murmuring to herself.
"Whisked away to another world because I got too excited... turning into my favorite character... making all these new friends... What a fantastical experience."
A small smile played on her lips.
"To be honest, it feels pretty good! It's not like there was much left for me to miss in my old life anyway..."
"Though... there is still a bit of lingering attachment, I suppose. After all... I did spend over twenty years in that world..."
"..."
"Gah! No! What am I doing, overthinking things again!"
Cipher squeezed her eyes shut and gave her head a few firm pats.
"I'm already here, so stop dwelling on the past! Besides, I'm Cifera now—the Demigod of Deceit. Who knows how long my lifespan is? Twenty-odd years from a past life is nothing in the long run! Sleep time!"
With a burst of energy, she bounced off the bed.
With a soft click, the light went out, darkness settling over the room as she drifted toward dreams.