Universe Infinite Canteen

"Hey, Brother Pigeon is here to buy fries again, what flavor would you like this time?" Ma Lu said to the White Dove perched in front of the door.

"No, I'm here to see you this time." The City Manager folded his wings and spoke seriously, "Manage your subordinates, it's about time."

"Hmm, which subordinate are you referring to?"

"That girl called Shen Yue, didn't you send her to scam the newcomers?"

"Oh, she's my teaching assistant," Ma Lu said, "specifically cooperating with me in teaching because preaching about scam prevention is never as convincing as firsthand experience."

"But you can't leave them with nothing; if they learn to prevent scams and still end up with nothing, what's the point?"

"Eh? They were scammed badly, huh," Ma Lu was taken aback, "it's only been the third day, strictly speaking, not even 50 hours have passed."

"After your class that day, those newcomers received scam messages. At the time, they even laughed at the sender for exposing her phone number so quickly and for being so clumsy."

"What did Shen Yue send?" Ma Lu asked curiously.

"Just an advertisement for financial investment, claiming she had insider information, promising a 10% cashback on the 20th of every month after investing now, for a total of 24 months.

"Then she made some calls, but the newcomers were on their guard and didn't fall for it; some even mocked her on the phone."

"Afterwards, she found a guy, got a new phone number, and called those newcomers again, this time pretending to be from the police's anti-scam division, saying they'd detected scam messages, so they called to remind them to be vigilant against scams and not to transfer money to strangers."

"Because they switched people and didn't involve monetary transactions, and considering they were unfamiliar with their surroundings, many people believed the other side was really the police."

"The next day, Shen Yue sent another message, this time without content but just a link. Although many people knew it was a scam message, they couldn't help but click on the link, which then redirected them to an overseas website."

"What, was there a trojan on that website?"

"No, but afterwards, Shen Yue had the guy send a message in the name of the police's anti-scam division, saying the website had trojans that could steal payment passwords, and asked those who clicked on it to contact them to check their account security."

"And when those fools made the call, Shen Yue began to entice them to transfer money to the police's secure account."

"Uh... A pretty stale scam tactic, but quite effective," Ma Lu commented after hearing, "especially for those who have just arrived on Earth and are not familiar with the environment here. So how much money did she end up scamming?"

"Not a single penny," the City Manager said. "That's the problem. After everything, she returned all the approximately sixty thousand yuan she scammed, making those newcomers truly believe she was the police.

"After that, she kept being involved with the newcomers under that identity, building their trust, until this morning, when she suddenly scammed 123,767 yuan.

"After these newcomers arrived on Earth, I gave each of them an initial fund of three thousand yuan; fifty people in total amount to one hundred and fifty thousand.

"Considering they had already spent some, most of the remaining money was scammed away.

"By the time they realized they were deceived, it was already too late, and just when they were anxious, you contacted them."

"I contacted them?" Ma Lu was surprised.

"Yes, although it wasn't your phone number, the newcomers all said the voice was unmistakably yours, and you were the only one who knew they had just been scammed."

"SoVITS voice cloning," Ma Lu snapped his fingers. "There are quite a few videos stored in the Classical Literature Society from previous activities I organized; Shen Yue must have found someone to train my voice model.

"That guy hangs out a lot but has a pretty wide network at school. But those newcomers are broke now, aren't they?"

"Right, so they paid in Star Currency."

"Huh?"

"Shen Yue called those people with your voice, telling them you would have Shen Yue return the money to them, but Shen Yue is very poor, previously in a lot of debt, and likely already spent a significant amount of the money she got. So the money from some of those people... probably can't be recovered.

"Then she had those people top up storage cards at the Universe Infinite Cafeteria, telling them whoever topped up the most would get their money back first."

"Thinking they were really talking to you, people started filling her up with Star Currency. It started with a few thousand, then someone topped up with a single breath of 100,000, and the rest became anxious too.

"Moreover, since Shen Yue didn't know what Star Currency was and was not satisfied with what she received, she kept pushing them to keep topping up."

"Hmm, how much did they end up topping up?"

"In the end, about one million two hundred thousand Star Currency."

"......"

Ma Lu inhaled sharply, "All that just to get back three thousand yuan?"

"The main issue was that everyone got a bit carried away. Also, many had already topped up seven or eight thousand Star Currency. Unwilling to give up halfway, they kept topping up, and the final amount became especially enormous. Some even considered handing over a High-Dimensional Artifact to Shen Yue."

"However, Shen Yue later on clearly started doubting those fools' identities."

"No wonder, her mind has always been sharp; otherwise, I wouldn't have entrusted the Classical Literature Society to her," Ma Lu said.

"Things have gotten somewhat out of hand, or I wouldn't have come to find you. Let the money go, just have her return all the Star Currency, it's useless to her anyway," the City Manager said.

However, Ma Lu did not respond but instead stroked his chin, looking thoughtful.

Having interacted for some time now, the City Manager immediately grew wary.

"What are you doing, planning to swallow that money? I advise you not to entertain such crooked thoughts. Although doing so wouldn't violate your country's laws, I'm keeping an eye on things in City B."

"Hey, you're overthinking it, you know me; I wouldn't be that kind of person," Ma Lu said.

"I'm just wondering if telling those guys the truth just like this might be too much of a blow to their self-esteem.

"After all, so many people got played by one person, not just once, but multiple times; it's kind of embarrassing."

"What do you mean?" The Pigeon asked, giving a sideways glance.

"How about I take a loss and pretend the last call was really made by me... that way, at least they can avoid being fooled once."

"You're still not admitting you want to pocket that one million two hundred thousand Star Currency?"

"How can that be considered pocketing? They topped up money in my restaurant; they can still come to eat later. The money hasn't disappeared; it's just lying somewhere else.

"When they come to dine at the Universe Infinite Cafeteria, they can still spend it," Ma Lu said.