Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 195 - 172: The Wrong Transformation

Chapter 195: Chapter 172: The Wrong Transformation

The Dancing Girl eventually became a giant red balloon at the request of a customer, latex reflecting the intense light, like a bomb. It floated upwards but, due to exhausted magic power, it reverted to its original form mid-air. She fell heavily to the ground from a height of two meters, screaming pitifully, her piercing cry cutting through the air. She slowly curled up on the stage, her elbow bleeding.

"Oooh!"

"Haha—"

"Wow!" The audience applauded and cheered; to them, this was an unexpected pleasure that pushed the atmosphere to its peak.

Beautiful shills and masked waiters scurried back and forth, seizing the opportunity to sell drinks and other services, fulfilling the booming consumer desires of the patrons. In the dim, suggestive light of the bar, men and women’s figures intertwined, glasses clinked, and a mix of casual conversations, laughter, and the sound of taking photos filled the space. Sunrise Bar was an important attraction at Number 26 Highland, with many tourists stopping by to check in for remembrance.

The Witch gasped for air on the stage, her eyes closed, like a dead dog, her legs dragged away by other dancers, leaving behind a trace of blood where she had hit the ground earlier—a ghastly red stamp.

Asa Katsuragi turned off the recording function and continued to communicate with Farosa.

"In Aizu City, the Witch with the most unique abilities," she explained, "Does this meet your criteria?"

"A shape-shifter," Farosa responded coolly, "Hasn’t anyone else set their sights on her?"

"She was originally with Kyoto Infinity." Asa Katsuragi had heard rumors, "She got mixed up in something and was thrown here. However, the Sunrise Bar is also connected with Kyoto Infinity... Anyone who can open a bar has a not-so-simple background."

"Do you know anything else? Her name?"

Her original name was unknown, people called her ’Qianqian’."

Magic power is often misleading, Farosa thought to herself. The same form of display could be powered by different forces behind the scenes.

Qianqian’s abilty to shape-shift hadn’t been confirmed; some could completely transform into their targets and possess their full powers; some could take on the appearance of their targets but were unable to use their abilities; others could look like their target but would burst upon touch, mere illusions...

However, as long as it was more practical than those Witches with simpler power connotations, it was good enough. Farosa nodded slowly.

"I like her," Farosa said.

"Shall I kidnap her for you?" Asa Katsuragi asked.

"No need," Farosa said, "What I need is a loyalist who awakens on her own. You can stand down. Leave the rest to me."

"Understood." Asa Katsuragi shut off her phone, consumed a glass of beer, and then left Sunrise Bar. She knew Farosa had her own forces and could easily accomplish her goal. It was an undeniable fact that Farosa could profit from the situation. As for who would be sacrificed, Asa Katsuragi could not tell, nor did she have the power to intervene.

Farosa cut off the communication and sat in silence in her room, a guest bedroom shared with Xu Yang at Suzuki Springs.

She sat in front of a dressing mirror, wearing only a sheer black robe, her chestnut hair cascading in waves. The smart mirror had the Daylight Science and Technology Company logo on its bottom right corner. She reached to peel it off but left it alone.

"What are you doing?" Xu Yang walked into the room.

"’Qianqian,’" Farosa said, "I’ve come across a charming Witch."

"Focus on the goal."

"To recruit her to my ranks. But I don’t know her connection with Kyoto Infinity."

Xu Yang looked at the smart screen hanging on the wall of the room, cut out of indigo rock in one piece, the metal contrasting strongly with the stone, highlighting the texture of the electronic metal, which Farosa very much liked. Now under Xu Yang’s control, the screen connected to Xu Yang’s Digital Mind interface, allowing Farosa to see what Xu Yang saw in his mind.

"You like me," Farosa saw the confession on the screen and leaned back, flattered but pretending to be reserved, "That’s common knowledge. Bring me the information I don’t know about."

"Only the name ’Qianqian’?" Xu Yang searched through information, and to Farosa, several windows appeared on the screen at once, each refreshingly fast, a blur of numerous texts and information flashing by. Farosa, with her superior intellect and vision, could make out about 30% of the content, even as it scrolled like a waterfall, and knew Xu Yang was now pulling information from various public database websites.

"Kyoto Infinity, Sunrise Bar," Farosa said, "She is quite popular locally."

"There are a hundred new related entries on the short video website every day," Xu Yang switched to Farosa’s favorite online video platform, Myriad Dreams Entertainment, where Qianqian’s information first appeared seven months ago.

"At first, she was quite unskilled," Farosa watched early footage of Qianqian."

"Du Qianqian, born in the northern part of Xia District, her ability is ’some degree of shapeshifting,’" Xu Yang searched for Qianqian’s information in the files of Kyoto Infinity, "A Cub-Class Witch, 16 years old, trafficked from Kyushu High Pavilion to Kyoto Infinity in the witch trade, with a trade price of 200 million funds."

"That’s not cheap," Farosa said, "why did they let her go just like that?"

"... There’s been an exposé on the deep anonymous network." Xu Yang found the related post, "It’s about Ono Takamasa, Marketing Director of Shangjing region of Kyoto Infinity. He was caught in a hotel, along with Qianqian."

"She must have been played out," Farosa said with ill intent.

"There’s a problem," Xu Yang said, "Ono Takamasa had a fight with Qianqian and seemed to be trying to kill her, but she escaped, and then the hotel’s security chased them out; finally, Kyoto Infinity reclaimed them."

"Other than Qianqian trying to bite off Ono’s... I can’t think of any other possibility," Farosa said.

"There’s a reply from someone in the know down here." Xu Yang scrolled through different pages of the deep anonymous network, "... I see, Ono Takamasa indeed wanted to ’play’ with Qianqian, but he requested Qianqian to transform into the likeness of the ’Sakura Witch’ Kirino Reisei."

"Looking at the public data, Kirino Reisei is always masked," Farosa said.

"However, after Qianqian transformed, she inadvertently revealed the full face of Kirino Reisei under the mask," Xu Yang said.

"Has she ever transformed into Suzukawa Kiyo?"

"No," Xu Yang looked through the data, "if that were possible, all hell would break loose by now, and the Suzukawa Army would flatten Aizu City."

"I have heard of this kind of magic power," Farosa reflected, "It can transform into the appearance of a target, provided that the witch has seen the target with her own eyes, not needing to see the target’s true face, just fulfilling two conditions: ’having seen the target in reality’ and ’knowing the target’s name’."

"Suzukawa Kiyo moves with a virtual image, and her real name might not even be that, so the transformation is impossible," Xu Yang reflected, "while Kirino Reisei has walked around the company a bit, and moreover, that’s indeed her real name."

"Kirino Reisei lost her composure when she found out about this intelligence and got unusually angry, but since Ono Takamasa is a descendant of Xisheng, he only had to drink a penalty of three cups." Farosa reviewed the subsequent information, "Qianqian then had to take an external assignment, waiting for Kirino Reisei’s anger to subside before being called back. Sunrise Bar also has connections with Kyoto Infinity, so it became a place for her to stay until the matter blew over, and then she would be reassigned to Kyoto Infinity."

"If you want to include Qianqian under your command, you need to be quick and secretive," Xu Yang said, "Kyoto Infinity definitely has people keeping an eye on her in the shadows."

"I will make sure she understands what she has to do," Farosa said, "But look, Qianqian’s experiences make me sick with the bloated relationships involved in corporate matters."

"It’s a process the company goes through," Xu Yang said, "starting with vigorous expansion, then a brilliantly prosperous rise, followed by a slowdown due to a lack of momentum, then one problem after another creeps up, leading to messy and corrupt stages, where everyone can see the flaws, and finally, it explodes after desperate self-saving attempts fail. The larger the enterprise, the slower this process."

"At the same time, the noise they make when they implode is that much more terrifying," Farosa said, "What we need to do is to bring down corporatism."

Xu Yang looked at the information reflected on the screen, which was the current state of his mind. He placed his hand on the wall of screens, accelerating the operation of Digital Mind, which also increased the workload on the smart terminals. The content on the screens started changing more rapidly, and in the end, it was like a maniacal display of interweaving lights, the temperature rapidly increasing.

He stopped working before the circuits overloaded.

"You can control those devices," Farosa said curiously, "How many? Can you handle the devices of a whole city?"

"I can surely do it, but I would need a terminal to store and process the information I collect," Xu Yang pointed to his head, "Digital Mind’s storage isn’t large enough. Although I can access those devices, the information I collect can only stay in each terminal and can’t be brought back."

"Then hook it up to a smart terminal."

"Not yet, there isn’t a terminal good enough yet to do that... I need a high-performance supercomputer to handle the overall computation," Xu Yang looked at the stuttering screen, "If I could get a state-of-the-art, most powerful quantum computer, with enough capacity and processing power to handle all the information in the world. Then I could attempt to reach every corner of the known network in this world, merging all the information intelligence of the present world and controlling every terminal, hijacking all satellites and transmission bases."

"In this era, information is a resource," Farosa thought for a moment, then said, "Oh—then you will control all information, which is like controlling all resources, leaving those corporations dumb and incapacitated, as if they couldn’t move a limb... What would you do after that?"

"Redistribute all resources," Xu Yang looked out the window, "to where they’re supposed to go."

"And the witches? They can change reality."

"Then I’ll leave that to you."

"Hmph..." Farosa sighed softly, "Let me gather my seven envoys first, I hope Qianqian will successfully become the fifth."