"Ding—Dong—"

  "Ding—Dong—"

  The silence of the early morning was shattered by the incessant notification sounds from John's phone. These weren't ordinary text messages; they were a specific kind of spiritually encrypted alert, designed to induce heart palpitations in the recipient.

  John picked up his phone. A red unread message popped up on the screen. The sender: 【New Babylon Dead-Scholarship Fund】.

  "Dear Customer John Doe:

  Friendly reminder: Your 24th installment of the 'Soul Potential Loan' (formerly Student Aid) is now 3 days overdue.

  Current Principal Owed: 20,000 Credits.

  Current Late Fees & Interest: 5,800 Credits (Calculated via Alchemical Compound Interest Algorithm).

  Given your expulsion from the Academy, your 'Future Value Assessment' has been reset to zero. According to the Soul Contract Act, we are initiating the 'Mandatory Recovery Protocol.' Your credit rating has dropped to F- (Untouchable).

  Next Steps: We will commission a third-party asset management firm (read: violent debt collectors) to conduct a home visit. Please prepare your corneas, kidneys, or equivalent soul fragments in advance.

  Have a pleasant life."

  John’s hand trembled, and his phone almost fell into his soup.

  "Twenty-five thousand, eight hundred?!" John’s voice shook. "I only borrowed ten grand for tuition! It’s only been six months!"

  This was New Babylon’s most vicious trap—the "Potential Loan."

  It masqueraded as financial aid to help poor students achieve their necromancer dreams, but in reality, it was an indentured servitude contract. The interest rate wasn't fixed; it floated based on the student's "Potential Value." Once you flunked out and your potential hit zero, the rate would instantly skyrocket to loan shark levels, driving people to a dead end.

  "Damn vampires..." John collapsed weakly into his chair.

  He had just spent 5,000 Merit Points saving Grace. He was penniless. Let alone twenty-five grand, he couldn't even cough up the 5,800 in interest.

  "Boss, this looks like a... critical vulnerability?"

  On the desktop, the palm-sized holographic Grace popped her head out. She was sitting cross-legged on a virtual circuit board, holding a cup of equally virtual data-boba tea.

  She looked at the red text on John’s phone, a flash of professional disdain crossing her blue eyes.

  "The underlying logic of this compound interest algorithm is flawed. They are using an infinite loop of dead code to artificially inflate the interest. This is illegal in mathematics... although, I guess in terms of the law, they call the shots."

  "Now is not the time to discuss math," John said, covering his face. "The problem is, if I don't pay up, someone is coming tonight to harvest my corneas."

  "Then... hack it?" Grace asked tentatively, tapping twice on her virtual keyboard. "As long as there's a network cable, I can crawl through it and delete their ledger."

  "No!"

  Suddenly, Singularity’s stern voice erupted from the iPad’s speakers.

  Singularity’s video window forced its way open, taking up half of Grace’s screen space. He was wearing anti-static gloves and holding a screwdriver, seemingly in the middle of repairing some precision instrument.

  "Kid, don't be rash. Who do you think you are? The God of the Internet?"

  Singularity adjusted his sunglasses, his tone serious.

  "Your current carrier is this 'Yin-Yang iPad.' Your ability boundaries are locked by the hardware performance of this tablet. Although I modified this thing with Underworld black tech and it has more computing power than market models, that collection agency—'Black Gold Asset Management'—has a military-grade firewall."

  "If you rush in blindly, it’s like a naked thief breaking into a police station. Before you can delete the ledger, their 'Counter-Measure Hounds' will trace your signature back here and swallow you, an 'illegal data packet,' whole."

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Grace shrank back, muttering unhappily, "But... I looked at their code. It sucks. It's just a mountain of spaghetti code piled up..."

  "A mountain of shit is still a mountain!" Singularity said, exasperated. "And most importantly, this tablet connects to the Underworld's intranet. If you get caught, the Underworld's IP will be exposed. If the Heavenly Court Bank finds out about my off-the-books loans... we'll both be thrown into the Abyss to plug the sea eye!"

  John understood.

  Grace was strong, but right now she was a "Cloud Refugee" relying on this tablet as a bunker. She could bully civilian networks (like the electric bill system before), but facing a financial giant backed by top-tier hackers and mages, a frontal assault was suicide.

  "Then what do we do?" John felt desperate. "Wait for them to dismantle me?"

  "Tsk, young people. You need to open your minds." Singularity pointed his screwdriver at Grace. "Just because you can't attack from the front doesn't mean you can't take a detour."

  "The collection agency's firewall is tough, but the 'public utilities' that provide their basic services... are full of holes."

  Singularity revealed a smirk characteristic of a shady merchant.

  "For example, their electricity system? Water system? Or... that auto-dialer server specifically used to spam harassment texts?"

  Grace’s eyes instantly lit up.

  "You mean... a Side-Channel Attack?"

  "Bingo!" Singularity snapped his fingers. "Girl, although I'm into metaphysics, the principle of 'borrowing force to strike force' is the same as Tai Chi. Don't touch the hard bone; cut off their food, block their net, make it so they... can't work."

  "Got it!" Grace jumped up excitedly, tossing her virtual boba tea aside.

  She turned to John, eager to try: "Boss! Is that collection agency's server node located right next to the District 13 Power Hub?"

  John thought for a moment. "I think so... They use the cheap industrial power from that side to save money."

  "Then it's easy."

  Grace’s hands began to type furiously on the virtual keyboard, moving so fast they were a blur.

  "Since they use usury to squeeze us, I'll let them taste... 'Resource Monopoly.'"

  Three minutes later.

  New Babylon, District 13, Public Power Control Center.

  This was the energy heart of the entire slum, monopolized and managed by the Necromancy Guild's subsidiary power company. Massive transformers hummed with noise, and countless thick cables extended like veins in all directions.

  Among these cables, there was one particularly thick, brand-new line that went straight to the "Black Gold Asset Management" branch building nearby.

  That was the high-voltage line dedicated to running the debt collection servers.

  Inside the control center's backend system, a blue, pixel-art bunny quietly burrowed into a folder labeled [Billing Management].

  "This is your ledger?" Grace sneered at the dense usage data.

  "Permission unlocked... Administrator login (Is this what you call encryption? The password is literally 123456?)... Modifying rate parameters."

  She didn't cut the power. Cutting the power would be detected immediately and activate the backup generators.

  She did something far nastier.

  She relabeled the line leading to the collection agency as "District 13 Public Streetlight Circuit."

  Then, she "bridged" the meters of several thousand households in the entire slum onto the collection agency's account.

  "Confirm modification."

  The moment she pressed the Enter key.

  Snap!

  The entire District 13, a slum that was usually dim or under rolling blackouts because people couldn't afford electricity, suddenly—

  Lit up.

  Countless streetlights that had been broken for years turned on simultaneously, illuminating the filthy streets like it was daytime. Lightbulbs in every home flared to life; electric heaters people were too afraid to turn on, old TVs—everything kicked into gear at once.

  Meanwhile, in the server room of "Black Gold Assets."

  The electricity meters, which had been running smoothly, suddenly began to spin like crazy.

  "Beep-beep-beep—!"

  Red warning lights flashed.

  【WARNING! Abnormal Energy Consumption Spike!】

  【Current Billing Rate: 1,000 Credits/Second... 2,000 Credits/Second...】

  【Account Balance Insufficient... Overdrafting Credit Limit...】

  The manager of the collection agency looked at the billing curve skyrocketing in a straight line on the screen, his face turning green.

  "What is happening?! Are we mining crypto?! Why is the electric bill so high?!"

  Back in the distant rental apartment.

  Grace looked at the results displayed on the tablet, twitching her rabbit ears triumphantly.

  "Done. Their liquid assets are now entirely being used to pay the electric bill. And because the system flagged this as 'Public Infrastructure Usage,' they can't even cut the power, or they'll be fined by City Hall."

  "Also..." Grace blinked. "I casually locked their auto-dialer server. I set it into a dead logic loop. Right now, it's sending debt collection texts to itself."

  John looked out the window at the long-lost, warm lights of thousands of homes, then looked at his phone—the red debt collection text finally stopped flashing.

  "That works?" John was dumbfounded.

  "This is called 'Robbing the Rich to Feed the Poor.'" Singularity nodded with satisfaction on the screen. "Girl, your intuition is good. This 'Grafting Flowers onto a Tree' move has the style of my younger days."

  "That's because Master taught me well!" Grace climbed the social ladder immediately, calling him Master.

  "Enough flattery." Singularity said, though the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up. "However, this can only buy time. They will soon realize something is wrong and will even trace the IP source."

  Singularity’s expression suddenly turned dark.

  "Especially... the person behind that company. Black Gold Assets is just a shell. Their real boss is a master at playing with 'Desire.'"

  "Since conventional means have failed, their next step... they will likely use those 'dirty things.'"

  "Dirty things?" John’s heart tightened.

  "Yeah." Singularity pointed to John’s head. "The kind that can drill straight into your dreams and make you sign a deed to sell your soul in your sleep... Electronic Succubi."

  "Get ready, apprentice. The next battle won't be won by hacking skills. It’s going to be a test of... Willpower."

  The screen went dark.

  John looked out at the bright streets and heard the surprised cheers of his neighbors.

  Although it was only temporary, and the crisis was still approaching.

  But tonight, there was no darkness in District 13.

  "Good job, Grace." John patted the head of the little rabbit on the screen.

  Grace’s face turned red (shifting to pink pixels), and she whispered: "God (Nature) gave the electricity, they gave the bill. I just... fixed the Bug."

  [Message from Singularity]

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  ?? [Enter the VIP Suite]

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