The scene shifts to Cipher, perched on the eaves of a house. Her shoes lay discarded beside her, and her small feet swung gently in the air.
Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she sighed, "Finally... finally finished, meow..."
It had been some time since she left the Hero Party. Using her Divine Speed, she had hastily crafted numerous Cat Head envelopes and raided the Castle's vault for a substantial sum of money. She carefully packed the cash into the envelopes, but just as she was about to distribute the funds, she encountered a problem.
The vast majority of Cloudsea City's residents were already wealthy. Would giving them money truly be robbing the rich to help the poor, or simply redistributing wealth among the wealthy?
Yet, traveling to nearby towns and villages to deliver the money seemed too time-consuming. Besides, the villagers likely needed food more than cash.
Then Cipher remembered the massive crowd of refugees outside Cloudsea City's gates. She changed her plan, deciding to distribute food instead of money.
She somehow acquired a large burlap sack, raided the city's grain store for a massive quantity of bread, and filled the sack to the brim before heading outside the city walls.
Leaving the city was effortless for Cipher. The towering walls posed no obstacle; with her Divine Speed, she could even sprint up vertical surfaces and escape in an instant.
On her way out, she spotted Aria and the others near the city gates, buffing themselves. Cipher merely glanced at them from afar before slipping out of the city.
Outside the walls, the same hellish scene persisted: a massive crowd of refugees huddled together, the air thick with the stench of sweat, excrement, and the sickly sweet odor of rotting corpses.
It felt like stepping into a public restroom that hadn't been cleaned in over a decade, sending shivers down Cipher's spine. Nevertheless, she steeled herself and approached the first group of refugees.
She retrieved several loaves of bread from her burlap sack and spread a sheet of paper adorned with a Cat Head design on the ground, placing the bread on top.
After completing these preparations, she waited quietly. The refugees were slow to react, only gradually noticing the sudden appearance of food before them. Their dull, lifeless eyes slowly brightened, and without hesitation, one man snatched up a loaf and devoured it ravenously.
The bread vanished in moments, but no one paid attention to the discarded paper beneath. The refugees' eyes held nothing but hunger.
A gentle breeze swept through, carrying away the paper adorned with the Cat Head drawing. In a flash of golden lightning, Cipher retrieved it.
It seemed her method of placing the bread on the paper wasn't working. Cipher frowned slightly. These people only knew that food appeared out of thin air, unaware of its source. This wouldn't exactly boost her fame.
After a moment's hesitation, she devised another plan. Cipher placed the bread near a second group of refugees. The instant they noticed it, she took a deep breath, leaned forward, her cheeks flushing crimson, and whispered softly in one refugee's ear, "Meow... meow~"
Startled, the refugee looked around wildly, but saw nothing. To him, it was as if a cat's meow had suddenly echoed in his ear, followed by the miraculous appearance of several loaves of bread.
"A... a miracle?!" the refugee exclaimed in shock.
Unlike the first group, who had devoured the bread greedily, this group prostrated themselves on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly. Only then did they gratefully pick up the 'divinely bestowed' food, tears streaming down their faces as they mumbled between bites, "Thank you for the grace of the Cat god!"
Though they didn't know what kind of god she was, any god who bestowed food upon them was the best kind of god!
Despite their meager knowledge of this deity's name or domain, the refugees' gratitude remained undiminished.
Cipher observed on her System Page that her Fame points flickered upward several times, confirming the effectiveness of her approach.
However, the meowing did make her feel rather embarrassed. Even though she now looked like a genuine catgirl, her inner self remained that of a burly man (probably)!
Still, to grind for points, such compromises were unavoidable. After bolstering her resolve, Cipher resumed distributing bread. Soon, a legend spread among the refugees gathered outside the city gates: wherever they heard a cat's meow, loaves of bread would materialize from thin air.
It was the Grace of a god!
One sack of bread was clearly insufficient, so Cipher returned to the city's grain store multiple times for more supplies.
The shopkeeper, happily counting his profits, grinned ear to ear. "This national crisis has been a goldmine! I've never made so much!"
Just as the shopkeeper arrived at his warehouse to check his remaining stock, he witnessed a massive pile of bread vanishing into thin air.
The shopkeeper: "!!!"
In the brief moment he stood stunned, another large chunk of bread disappeared before his eyes.
"Wait! What's happening?! How is this possible?!"
This was his property, worth piles of Gold Dragons! Watching it vanish into thin air nearly broke his heart. But no matter how loudly he shouted, it was futile. Seconds later, another huge stack of food disappeared.
"Noooo!!!"
The shopkeeper threw his arms wide and lunged forward, as if trying to physically embrace his bread and prevent his wealth from vanishing into thin air. But mid-leap, he suddenly found himself sitting in a chair, his hands and feet tightly bound to the legs.
The shopkeeper: "?!?!? "
After a moment of stunned silence, he panicked and screamed, "There's... there's a ghost! Aaaaaah—mph!!!"
He had barely begun to shout when he felt his right shoe and sock being pulled off. The sock was then stuffed into his mouth.
The shopkeeper's eyes rolled back in his head, whether from shock or the foul stench, and he promptly fainted.
As for Cipher, after emptying the first grain shop, her Fame had already reached five hundred. She could have stopped there, but even with her Fame maxed out, a large number of starving refugees remained outside the city walls.
After hesitating for a few seconds, she resolved to continue her mission. She located another grain shop and began restocking.
Initially, Cipher had felt a pang of guilt about stealing so much food. She considered taking some money from the King's Vault to compensate the shopkeepers, but she soon realized they were all obscenely wealthy, their fortunes nearly rivaling the royal treasury. This quickly put an end to her scruples.
By the time Cipher had emptied the third grain shop, she had distributed ample bread to every refugee outside the city. Yet, as she circled back through the city, she discovered at least ten more grain shops, each still overflowing with supplies.
In other words, Cloudsea City was fully capable of providing relief to the civilians outside its walls, but they simply chose not to. Expecting merchants profiting from the crisis to freely distribute grain was, frankly, impossible.
Adhering to her principle of fairness, Cipher had already emptied three grain stores. She then visited the remaining ten, making sure to "borrow" from each. What if every refugee outside the city had received their share of food? Then she'd do another round! And give everyone a little extra!
This wasn't just about satisfying immediate hunger; it was about ensuring they wouldn't have to worry about food for quite some time.
After completing this task, we return to the opening scene where Cipher sits barefoot on the rooftop, taking a break. Her cat ears droop slightly, and her tail lies still against the roof, no longer swaying. She's utterly exhausted.
Though the entire grain distribution operation might have taken only an hour by normal standards, for Cipher, it felt like she had been working tirelessly for countless hours.
It was like doing homework: imagine writing a hundred exam papers in a row. Cipher could finish them all in an instant using Divine Speed, which would seem incredibly impressive to others. But for Cipher herself, writing papers with Divine Speed was no different from doing them normally—the workload remained exactly the same!
Just because Cipher was efficient didn't mean she didn't get tired!
Cipher repeatedly fanned her cheek with her right hand. She was now grateful that her outfit was made of minimal, breathable fabric. However, she regretted not wearing socks with her metal shoes. She vividly remembered seeing wisps of hot air rising from her feet when she took them off earlier.
"But it was all worth it, meow!"
Only after saying this did she realize what she'd done. She shook her head violently. All that meowing earlier had made it a little too easy to slip into her cat-like mannerisms.
"No, I need to stop meowing immediately... ahem!" She slapped her cheeks with both hands. "Be normal! Be normal!"
Finally, she focused her gaze on the translucent System Page floating before her—visible only to her.
[The Flame-Chaser Identity System is at your service.]
[Current unlocked Identity: Cipher (Cifera)]
[Increase your Fame to unlock the next Identity draw. Current Fame: 11,200/10,000]
[Draw the next Identity now?]
Undoubtedly, Cipher's actions had caused the fame of the "Meow God" to explode among the refugees outside Cloudsea City. When these satisfied people eventually left, laden with food to return to their towns and villages, they would surely spread the word, likely sparking another wave of Fame.
But that was a matter for the future. For now, Cipher took a deep breath and silently muttered, "Draw! I hope I get a more powerful Identity this time..."
There were no dazzling effects of golden light raining from the heavens, nor the dramatic appearance of golden light streaming through a crack in a passing train. Instead, there was only a soft chime:
[Ding! Identity draw complete. 'Mydei (Mydeimos)' has been unlocked.]
Cipher stared blankly. After a moment of silence, she blurted out, "Uh... that's it?"
The System Page had updated to display:
[Flame-Chaser Identity System at your service.]
[Currently Unlocked Identities: Cipher (Cifera), Mydei (Mydeimos)]
[Increase Fame to unlock the next Identity draw. Current Fame: 1,200/50,000]
The page remained as minimalist as before. The previous 10,000 Fame points had been reset, leaving only 1,200. Cipher noticed a small dot beside "Mydei (Mydeimos)." When she focused her attention on it, a series of hints flooded her mind.
She stroked her smooth chin thoughtfully and nodded. "Hmm, so that's how it works?"
With a mental command, a man clad in partial armor materialized beside her, his bare chest and abdomen revealing a heavily muscled physique crisscrossed with intricate red markings. Without a doubt, it was Mydei.
The result of this "gacha pull" perfectly matched Cipher's expectations. She remembered thinking, right after transmigrating, that if she drew a male Chrysos Heir, she might be able to "revert" to being male.
Moreover, Mydei, the Demigod of Strife, ranked among the Chrysos Heirs with the highest direct combat prowess, making him ideal for her current needs.
However, Mydei now stood motionless, his arms at his sides, staring straight ahead. At first glance, he resembled a large-scale figure or a sophisticated android.
This was understandable, as Cipher hadn't yet divided her focus to control this new body. The identities granted by the System could coexist, all managed by her alone, but this raised a critical issue: insufficient mental stamina.
After all, she had been an ordinary person before. Even drawing a perfect circle with one hand and a square with the other was difficult enough. Simultaneously controlling two bodies? Needless to say, it was overwhelmingly challenging!
When not needed, she could retract her identities into the System, feeling like she was playing an RPG where all her Chrysos Heir Identities were characters on her account, ready to be switched at will. This meant she could transfer her consciousness entirely to Mydei, effectively putting Cipher's body away. Technically, she could.
But... should she really do that?
To be honest, Aria and the others were her only real friends in this world. She couldn't abandon them, assume Mydei's identity, and start a new life with new friends. What would be the point?
As for revealing her true identity to Aria and the others while posing as Mydei—telling them, "I'm actually Cipher"—that was even more absurd. The very thought of it was ridiculous.
Ultimately, she had long stopped caring about gender. Even after transmigrating to this otherworld, she had never considered starting a harem. From the beginning, she had been a staunch advocate for singlehood. She muttered to herself, "So... I guess I should stick with Cipher as my main identity after all."