Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 150 - 150 132 Maid Cafe

150: Chapter 132 Maid Cafe 150: Chapter 132 Maid Cafe After concluding his investigation at Sun Biotech, Xu Yang casually surveyed the street conditions in Hui City District.

Conducting in-depth, on-site inspections was a prerequisite for undertaking regional control and societal innovation in the future.

The economic activities in Hui City District were much more prosperous than those in the other two districts, mainly due to the stable order.

At the intersections, there were “Inugamo”-type BATO-5 combat robots maintaining public security.

They were bipedal, deliberately crafted to resemble humanoids, like giants clad in metallic armor, with both arms equipped with 120 mm caliber short-barreled cannons, and on their backs, high-precision quadruple missile launchers that matched the laser guidance system in the eyes of the combat robots.

If only we also had combat robots to help.

Xu Yang thought to himself.

But with “Inugamo” robots costing nearly ten million each, it was impossible to purchase them in bulk.

They were a new generation of market-oriented combat solution from Iwasaki Heavy Industries, a subsidiary of Kyoto Infinity.

Originally a military enterprise in the industrial city of Akasumi, it quickly rose to prominence with the investment from Kyoto Infinity and acquired other small and medium-sized factories within its sphere of influence, becoming a renowned military industrial giant within the jurisdiction of Kyoto Infinity.

The intention behind this was to reduce Kyoto Infinity’s reliance on other giant corporations for armaments.

Should there be a need to import a large number of weapons and equipment, they would find themselves at a serious disadvantage during wartime.

Under a system of absolute corporatism and marketization, humans who were successful in the survival of the fittest would join corporate systems.

Those with the ability to produce output and a strong desire to consume became a high-quality population.

The inferior population would be pushed to the fringes, towards the Underground City and other impoverished states and territories.

Similar to the stratification of humans, corporations also endure market tests.

Kyoto Infinity intentionally allows some companies within its jurisdiction to engage in competition akin to raising gu (a Chinese legend of venomous creatures), selecting high-quality seed companies for mergers and acquisitions, taking over their accumulated technology and business teams, thereby filling in their own gaps.

This was also related to their own inherent shortcomings.

For a company like Kyoto Infinity, which dealt in anime and games, their military capabilities could only be described as tragic.

They stepped into the spotlight and controlled numerous prosperous cities within their jurisdiction with the support from the Xisheng Group, but still fell short compared to other conglomerates in terms of the industrial chain.

With the addition of Iwasaki Heavy Industries to fill the gaps in their industrial puzzle, Kyoto Infinity finally had the confidence to launch a counterattack against Black Fire Innovation.

If one wanted to end corporatism by force, one had to understand the armed strength of the corporations.

Xu Yang thought to himself.

Corporate wars mainly employed combat robots, Power Armor Soldiers, and assault teams wearing Nano Armor.

This was one aspect, equivalent to the army in old-style wars, and then there were the nuclear-powered space motherships.

The mothership was a massive weapon platform, floating in the sky, carrying a large number of fighters, drones, and floating cannons, capable of ascending to orbit and bombing corporate cities directly.

What’s more, they could transport Battle Witches for mobility.

Other conventional forces included superweapons, information technology, nuclear weapons, and Reality Manipulators.

In terms of nominal strength, Kyoto Infinity controlled three standard armed vessel combat groups, each equipped with one space mothership.

Black Fire Innovation had a staggering seven.

Of the three space motherships that Kyoto Infinity possessed, two were imported from Great Ocean Engineering, and one was produced by Iwasaki Heavy Industries.

Besides, there was actually another one that was being built in New Taixi State, yet to officially take off.

Black Fire Innovation, on the other hand, produced their own and could increase production capacity at any time.

It was possible for them to build another seven combat groups within a year of the war starting.

In terms of Witches, publicly known records showed that Kyoto Infinity had 250 Battle Witches and two Reality Manipulators.

Black Fire Innovation’s records had ceased updating three years ago, but by that time, they had already accumulated 2,000 Battle Witches and five Reality Manipulators, and now the numbers could only be higher.

If the two giant corporations were to go to war, hampered by all-around technological and military inferiority, Kyoto Infinity would inevitably be at a disadvantage.

That’s why they were not eagerly attacking, seeking revenge for the disaster in Anjiu City, but continuing communication with Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing and Kyushu High Pavilion, hoping to create a three-against-one situation.

Compared to giant corporations, what does our Nestor Corporation have?

Less than a hundred soldiers, fewer than ten Witches, average economic and scientific research strengths.

Currently, we are only muddling along within the corporate system, seeking opportunities for development, far from being able to compete on equal footing.

Not being corrupted by corporatism, Xu Yang had to praise his own willpower, let alone talk about bringing it down.

Farosa, on the other hand, could mobilize Divine Power for large-scale destruction, but she had to first gather seven Witches to form a suitable Council lineup as reserves.

Otherwise, once she exhausted her Power, the Reality Manipulators of other giant corporations would make their move to capture her.

The strength of other corporate Witches at most reached the level of “High-Ranking Witch.” Above that, “Dominator Witches,” numbered fewer than 20 individuals globally; they were key battle forces for each of the giant corporations.

Farosa had the ability to promote the strength of Witches, raising them to the Dominator or even Supreme Rank.

But she was very selective, needing to first evaluate the potential and value of the Witches before rewarding them.

Once her Witch Division secured a large number of exceptionally powerful Witches, integrating them with the New Witch Council, in addition to her own Powers obtained from the gods, as well as the population and technological forces consolidated by Xu Yang, then talking about winning a fight against corporations would be possible.

To analyze the “Golden Branch” intelligence, Xu Yang casually picked an exquisitely decorated maid cafe.

After taking a seat, several adorable maids dressed in black and white maid outfits, with garters tied around their thighs and cat ears on their heads, served him attentively.

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“What would you like to order, meow?” the pretty and delicate maid spoke in a soft voice that conjured images of cotton candy and clouds.

Under her black and white maid uniform were black stockings and high heels, and she wore a white frilled headband, perfectly embodying the image portrayed in anime.

“We have coffee, cake, and milk tea, and we also offer special combo services,” said another maid, her attire was disheveled, revealing the shape of her southern hemisphere and half-exposed cherries, her appearance shy.

Xu Yang turned to look at A40, expecting it to say something like “Find me the strongest warrior in this place!” that would be jarringly out of place, but to his surprise, it began calmly browsing the menu.

“A rare respite on the Martial Arts Path,” A40 closed the menu, “It seems there isn’t anything suitable for me.”

“Then I’ll take this and that…

and half a liter of ethanol fuel if you have it,” Xu Yang selected casually.

In the coffee industry, the trend now was for standardized industrial products to maintain popularity.

With the world economy on a downtrend, due to a general downgrade in consumption and a lack of consumer momentum, the market for handcrafted coffee had become increasingly narrow, with most turned into mere gimmicks aimed at extracting profits through changing names and seizing profit.

But Xu Yang still liked to visit coffee shops for the relaxing atmosphere they provided.

Leaning back, Xu Yang closed his eyes and established an encrypted wireless connection with A40 and Lila, since spoken conversations could easily be eavesdropped, data transmission could prevent information leaks to the greatest extent.

“These are video archives, about the ‘Golden Branch’ theft, including footage from the corridors and the containment rooms,” Xu Yang uploaded all the video data from his storage device.

Finding clues in this data would be instrumental in pinpointing the thief’s location.

They each activated their respective processors to parse the intelligence — Xu Yang took 5 seconds, Lila took 430 seconds, and A40 took 15 minutes to speed-read through the 3-hour video, scanning each frame and not missing any blind spots.

In the past, there were jokes about quantum wave speed reading, suggesting that people could easily browse and remember large amounts of information in a short time, a feat that was deemed impossible.

But their current situation was close to that, as all three of them had their minds digitally enhanced to varying degrees, resulting in exceptional analytical abilities and memory.

“These are the key images I’ve collected,” Xu Yang extracted the suspicious parts.

The first segment was at the entrance to the laboratory, where the camera captured a greatly transparent figure, with only a hazy outline visible.

It moved towards the room and disappeared from the frame in 5 seconds.

Compared with temperature sensor data, there were no abnormal readings at the corresponding position.

“It’s advanced invisible armor, of a technology grade KM70 or above,” pointed out Lila, “It effectively concealed the temperature, motion, and vibration sensors from detection, rendering the wearer nearly invisible.

This is cutting-edge technology, accessible only by major corporations or larger entities.

Ordinary mercenaries, thieves, and gangs would struggle to obtain such sophisticated equipment.”

A perfect score of 150, and KM70 is not even halfway to that mark, but globally there are only a few products that could reach above 100 points.

KM70 represents high-end technology that is far beyond the reach of ordinary enterprises.

Invisible armor uses a field that bends light to achieve invisibility, coupled with anti-scanning and thermal detection resistance components, making it an excellent equipment for infiltration.

“No, that’s not right.

If someone is wearing invisible armor, why would they still be recorded?” A40 was puzzled, “I too want to wear invisible armor, to be unseen yet deadly.

If it’s still possible to spot flaws when wearing it, wouldn’t that be consumer fraud!”

“The wearer is a Witch,” Lila uploaded the traces of magic power she had detected to the interactive panel.

In her illustration, the figure looked like a translucent fog, “These are traces that only a Reality Manipulator would leave.

Thus, there are two possibilities: one is that the perpetrator is unfamiliar with the armor’s features, causing errors in its settings; the second is that they were overly confident, thinking they could directly steal the Golden Branch by manipulating reality, and therefore did not fully utilize the capabilities of the invisible armor.”

“Even so,” Xu Yang fell into thought, “among all the footage, this blurred figure only appeared for a mere 5 seconds.

The clues are still too sparse.”

He then uploaded another segment regarding the theft of the ‘Golden Branch’.

In the results recorded by the camera, it seemed as though keyframes were extracted.

In an instant, the glass was shattered by a force unseen, first vaporized, then it morphed into a puddle of water, and then the Golden Branch vanished into thin air, as if snatched from the void, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Was the intruder’s magic power to convert glass into water?

That seemed too simplistic a thought; perhaps the perpetrator possessed even more terrifying magic power.

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